Rio Audio, Creative Labs Slim Down Music Players
Ever since it was introduced in October 2001, Apple's iPod digital music player has been the unquestioned leader in its field. Its slick physical design, clean user interface, and great capacity and sound have won nearly universal raves from critics. And the public has agreed, buying over a million iPods.
Other companies have tried to follow suit, but failed. Their entries were lower priced, and some had higher capacity. But they were too bulky and had complicated user interfaces.
Now, two of the dominant players in portable digital music players, Rio Audio and Creative Labs, are back with a new round of potential iPod killers that are slimmer and easier to use than their predecessors. I've been testing two of the new models, to see how they compare with the latest iPods.
All of these music players are powered by hard-disk drives, so they can hold hundreds or thousands of songs. They are in a separate category from the very smallest digital music players, powered by "flash" memory chips, that can typically hold fewer than 100 songs.
One of the iPod's secrets was that it was the first device to use a radical new technology that crammed a lot of storage capacity into a very slim drive. Other players were much larger because they relied on bulkier disk drives.
But there is a new kind of hard disk on the market that's even smaller than the drives used in the iPod. Made by a small Colorado company called Cornice, these drives have much lower capacity than the iPod drives, but they are tiny.
Rio and Creative are rolling out small new players based on the Cornice drive. Both are also introducing somewhat larger players with higher-capacity hard disks. I've been testing two of these new products: the Rio Nitrus, which uses the new Cornice drive, and the Creative Nomad Zen NX, which uses a more traditional hard disk.
The Rio Nitrus, due out early next month, is a black, shiny, curvy little thing that weighs only two ounces, versus 5.6 ounces for the iPod. It's about as wide and as thick as an iPod , but is roughly 25% shorter -- three inches compared with the iPod's 4.1 inches. The Nitrus also beats the iPod on battery life, with a claimed 16 hours compared with just eight for the Apple player.
The Nitrus is the first hard-disk-based music player I've tested that's smaller and lighter than the iPod , plus it has a clean, music-oriented interface. Like the iPod , it shows key information about each song -- title, artist, album, time -- in crisp, clear text. And the menus are easy to navigate. Previous iPod wannabes were hobbled by ridiculous techie interfaces that stressed file folders and computer-type navigation.
The Nitrus comes with easy to use, simple software for transferring music from a Windows PC via a fast USB 2.0 connection. Unlike the iPod , it only works on Windows, not the Mac.
Unfortunately, the Nitrus simply wouldn't work with my brand-new Dell Dimension 8300 computer. Rio says there's a hardware incompatibility it's working to fix. The Nitrus worked fine with a 2002-vintage HP Pavilion.
But the Nitrus has two much bigger drawbacks that I think make it inferior to the iPod. The little Cornice hard disk inside the Nitrus has a capacity of just 1.5 gigabytes, compared with 10 gigabytes for the lowest-priced iPod. That means the low-end iPod has six times the capacity of the Nitrus in only a slightly larger package. The Nitrus holds around 400 typical songs, while the low-end iPod holds over 2,500.
And despite its much smaller capacity, the Nitrus is expensive. It will sell for $299, the same price as the 10-gigabyte iPod.
There's much less to say about the Creative Nomad Zen NX. It has iPod-like song capacity, but it uses a bulkier hard disk so it's much bigger than an iPod , even though Creative is touting it as "slimmed down and super cool-looking."
The Zen NX is a sliver and white rectangular box that looks more like an old Walkman tape player than a sleek digital device. It weighs nearly eight ounces and is larger in every dimension than an iPod. You'd have trouble fitting it in a pocket or small purse. Like the Nitrus, it works only with Windows, not Macs.
The new Zen has three notable features. First, like Rio, Creative has cleaned up a formerly bad interface and attempted to emulate the iPod. On the new Zen, music information is stressed, not things like files and folders and technical data. The overall navigation is much better, but still not as easy as on the iPod or the new Rio.
Second, the new Zen has a removable battery -- a terrific convenience. Extra batteries cost about $50 apiece. Creative claims a 14-hour battery life.
The Zen NX's key advantage is price. The 20-gigabyte model costs $249, less than Apple charges for an iPod with half the capacity. The 30 gigabyte model costs $299, or $200 less than Apple charges for a 30 gigabyte iPod. If you're willing to put up with a big, bulky box, the Zen NX is a bargain.
Largely due to a great design, the iPod still comes out on top, in my view. But its rivals are finally showing some promise.
新产品挑战iPod
自2001年10月推出以来，苹果(Apple)的iPod数码音乐播放器于在同类产品中的先锋地位一直是无可辩驳的。它那平滑的外形设计，明净的用户界面，巨大的容量和出色的音质，为它赢得了全球批评家近乎一致的如潮好评。同时，该产品也得到了公众的认可，销量已超过100万台。
其他公司试图效法该产品，但未能成功。它们的产品定价低，其中有些容量也更大，但容量过大反而使用户界面复杂化了。
目前，两家处于优势地位的便携式数码音乐播放器制造商Rio Audio和Creative Labs以崭新的面貌杀了回来。两家公司拿出的iPod潜在杀手产品比其上一代产品更为小巧，使用也更方便。我一直在对新产品中的两款进行测试，以观察它们与最新款的iPod有什么不同。
所有这些音乐播放器使用的都是硬盘驱动器，因而能够储存数百以至数千首歌曲，与使用闪存晶片的最小型数码音乐播放器不属于同一类型。使用闪存晶片通常只能储存不到100首歌曲。
iPod的秘密武器之一，它首次使用了一种全新的技术，将许多存储容量填入非常小的驱动器内。其他播放器体积要大得多，因为它们是基于大得多的硬盘驱动器。
然而，市场上有一种新型硬盘比iPod使用的驱动器还要小巧，是由科罗拉多州一家名为Cornice的小公司制造的。尽管这些驱动器容量比iPod低得多，但体积很小。
Rio和Creative即将推出基于Cornice驱动器的小型播放器，同时还将推出一些体积较大而硬盘容量也较大的播放器。我一直在对其中两种新产品进行测试：配有Cornice驱动器的Rio Nitrus，和使用传统硬盘驱动器的Creative Nomad Zen NX。
即将于下月初面市的Rio Nitrus机身黑色闪亮，线条流畅，重量仅两盎司，而iPod则重5.6盎司。该产品与iPod宽度和厚度相当，但高度要短25％左右，高3英寸，而iPod高4.1英寸。Nitrus在电池寿命上也占了上风，据称电池能使用16小时，而iPod电池只能使用8小时。
在我所测试过基于硬盘的播放器中，Nitrus是第一款比iPod小且轻的产品，此外它还有个以显示音乐信息为主导的明净界面。与iPod一样，它将关于歌曲的重要信息以清晰明快的文本形式显示，这些内容包括曲名，专辑，唱片和时间。另外，它的菜单也便于操作。以往的iPod界面因文件夹形式的菜单和电脑式的操作系统，让发烧友们备受困扰。
Nitrus带有简单易操作的软件，可通过快速的USB 2.0接口将音乐从装有视窗(Windows)操作系统的个人电脑中转换过来。不同于iPod，它只能在视窗操作系统中使用，而在Mac机上则不能。
不幸的是，Nitrus与我崭新的戴尔(Dell) Dimension 8300电脑连接后也无法运行。Rio公司表示，这是硬件不兼容造成的，公司正在努力改进。Nitrus在2002年款的惠普(HP)Pavilion上运行良好。
但Nitrus两个更为显著的缺陷让我感到它不如iPod。Nitrus中的Cornice微型硬盘容量仅有1.5G，而价格最低的iPod也有10G。这就是说，低端的iPod体积只比Nitrus略大一点，而容量却是Nitrus的六倍。Nitrus能储存大约400首歌曲，而低端的iPod则能储存2,500多首。
Nitrus不仅容量小得多，而且价格昂贵。它售价299美元，与10G的iPod价格相同。
关于Creative Nomad Zen NX就没有那么多好说的了。该产品的歌曲容量与iPod类似，但使用的硬盘体积更大，因此比iPod大得多，尽管Creative自称该产品'外形更小巧，也更酷。'
Zen NX是个银白色的长方体，看起来更像老式的随身听磁带播放器，而不像时尚的数码装置。该产品重近8盎司，长宽高都大于iPod。要把它装在兜里或小皮包里，恐怕有些困难。像Nitrus一样，它也只能与视窗而不能与Mac机兼容。
新款的Zen具有三个显著特徵。首先，像Rio一样，Creative对以往糟糕的界面进行了调整，试图仿效iPod。在新款的Zen上注重音乐信息，而不是以文件或技术数据的形式显示。总体的操作有了很大改进，但使用起来仍不如iPod和新款的Rio方便。
其次，新款的Zen配有可拆卸的电池，这在使用中带来了极大便利。额外购买电池每块约50美元。Creative称电池使用寿命为14小时。
Zen NX的关键优势在于价格。20G的Zen售价249美元，低于容量仅有它一半的iPod。30G的型号售价299美元，比30G的iPod低200美元。如果你愿意带上一个大盒子，Zen NX是廉价的选择。
iPod销量仍名列榜首，在我看来这很大程度上得益于它精巧的设计，但其竞争对手的表现终于也让人感到了一些希望。
