jqlaw.... very cool! Here is the article.
Ready or not, a smaller disc format
By Christopher Muther, Globe Correspondent, 8/4/2002
In a market already choked with CDs, Minidiscs, and enough gee-whiz MP3 players to completely fill the pages of the Sharper Image catalog, is anyone really looking for a new format to hold and play their music?
Product Review
Whether you're looking or not, here comes the next generation of digital music: a format called DataPlay. Review.
Whether you're looking or not, here comes the next generation of digital music: a format called DataPlay. Think of DataPlay as a mini Minidisc. Discs slightly larger than a quarter and encased in plastic hold up to 11 hours of digital music. The tiny discs can also store and play digital music files such as WMA, AAC, and QDX.
By the end of the summer, you will be able to purchase albums from artists such as Britney Spears, Lenny Kravitz, and Pink on DataPlay discs for roughly the same price as a CD. To entice consumers, record labels are promising that the DataPlay albums, which can hold up to 500 megabytes of information, will be loaded up with extras such as bonus tracks. An early version of Kravitz's "Greatest Hits" album on DataPlay includes his album "5" as a bonus.
Two companies are introducing DataPlay players this month: iRiver and Now Evolution are selling their models for about $350. Toshiba and Samsung also have plans to manufacture players. I tested iRiver's iDP-100, a gadget that resembles a wall thermostat sandwiched in a square of Lucite. Slightly bulkier than the latest generation of MP3 players, the iDP-100 connects to your computer through the USB port and both burns and plays discs.
I burned a blank DataPlay disc with everything from Beck to Beethoven, a simple process that involved clicking MP3 files on my computer's hard drive. The sound quality is impressive, virtually identical to a prerecorded compact disc. And try as I may, I couldn't get the device to skip.
So what are the benefits of DataPlay over MP3s, CDs, and Minidiscs? The discs are smaller and can hold far more information than Minidiscs or audio CDs. And unlike with MP3 players, songs can be easily shared without a computer. The novelty of burning 11-hour mix discs that fit in a change purse should be enough to get true tech geeks salivating for DataPlay. Naturally, it's best to wait and see if the format takes root. Although Minidiscs promised great things, the format has yet to permeate the mainstream here in the United States.
Strong copyright protection of prerecorded DataPlay discs (there's no ripping tracks to your computer) may hinder early adoption of the format. But with record labels and hardware manufacturers quickly signing on and a striking technology to back up early hype, DataPlay looks — and sounds — promising.
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