courtesy of D.Inkie: home MP3 centers
Senior Editor
Beat: Digital music
e-mail eliot Eliot Van Buskirk
I have a few predictions about what we will see this year in the digital audio arena. First, while most MP3 players have been portables, I think we're about to see an explosion of home-based MP3 players. Gathering momentum for about a year now, devices such as the HP Digital Entertainment Center DE100C have convinced me that we're finally on the edge of the convergence revolution. I'm expecting a proliferation of devices with a mix of the following attributes: hard drive, Ethernet, stereo, HPNA, portable-device connectivity, CD burner, onscreen TV display, embedded Linux, upgradable firmware/software, remote control, high-speed modem, and (hopefully) integration with the fledgling online music and entertainment subscription services. As I've said before, music will lead a number of trends, from home networking to convergence--and I think this is the year everyone will finally see what I was talking about.
The other device that has me in a tizzy is the Archos Jukebox MultiMedia, which takes this idea of a hard drive as the core of an entertainment machine and tricks it out beyond belief. This portable jack-of-all-trades features the following: a 10GB hard drive, an MP3 player, an MP3 recorder, a video player (on the embedded LCD or a TV), a video recorder (with a 4X zoom), and connectivity by FireWire and USB 1.0 and 2.0. This could be the device that both early adapters and people who have been shy about portable electronics go gaga for, and I expect to see many others like it at CES.
AI
