Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Audio, iPod Family, Hacks, Open Source
Neuros Player: iPod Friend or Foe?
Wired magazine posted an article today touting the Neuros Player as an open source personal video player that may rival the iPod. Many of us wish for DRM-free devices with great interfaces and simple interaction, but can an open source project really promise such reveries? Those of us actively repurposing iPods to run Linux, improve battery life, and un-cripple functionalities may be interested in such a platform. I'm not sure Joe Normal iPod owner wants or cares about complete open functionality. Check out the Neuros wiki for more information on their open source hardware and software manifesto. If nothing else, devices like the Neuros 442 may inspire me to lay down a few more Nano hacks so Apple will open up an iPod API I can tinker with.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bob Aman said 12:37PM on 11-02-2005
I owned one of the older Neuros audio devices. It broke 2 weeks in -- apparently a known issue no less, and even when it was still working, the build quality was really quite poor. Yes, it supported all the audio standards I wanted (I wanted Ogg support even though 100% of my music is encoded with LAME), yes it was open-source, but no, I would never buy anything from them ever again. No matter how open they are.
I'm sticking to my iPod that plays my music perfectly, looks nice while doing it, and more importantly, is still functioning a year later.
Of course this is a different device, but... same people, so I have no faith.
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