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I am not so sure about Microsoft's Portable Media Centers Devices
This fall Microsoft and pals are going to start selling portable devices called Microsoft Portable Media Centers. These look like the bastard children of a Nintendo Gameboy Advance and an an Apple iPod and are supposed to be the ultimate in portable digital media consumption but I have my reservations. What they sort of are is a think Gameboy shaped device with a portable hard drive around 40 Gigs, a rechargeable battery and a color display around four inches or so. They run a custom version of a Windows Mobile OS and a built in media player based on Windows Media Player 9. The problem is that they are going to cost between $400 to $800 US and are not going to have the battery life or small form factor of the iPod. While it is an interesting concept and if I were to receive one as a gift I would be delighted but I have a hard time seeing these device appealing to the masses like the iPod, notebook computers, and MP3 players.
guess the big attraction is to those who already have a Windows XP Media Center PC so they can transfer recorded TV shows to the Portable Media Center at watch recorded TV show on the thing. The 40 gig hard drive will let the user store 175 hours of recorded TV or recorded video on the thing. That is around 175 episodes of Star Trek or is a hell of a lot of Pr0n. Or you can store 600 hours of audio or 100,000 photos. Still that is a hell of a lot of Pr0n.
Microsoft may not want to talk about it but one of the only main selling points of the Microsoft Portable Media Centers devices is the ability to take a hell of a lot of digital Pr0n with you and enjoy it discreetly on a little 4 inch screen. I mean they are probably going to be trying to sell these things to single nerd boys in their 20s and 30s and I dare you to show me a single nerd boys in their 20s and 30s who does not have a hell of a lot of Pr0n stored up. You can think about these as the MS Pr0n Pilot Pro 2004. I mean the Apple iPod is cool but you can not watch Debbie Does Dallas on it.
Like all the other Microsoft digital media products this thing is going to have Digital Restriction Management or DRM built into it from day one. When you transfer a TV show from the Win XP Media Center PC to the device the DRM features in the system will erase it on the PC where the show was recorded so if your hard drive crashes or if the device is stolen or lost you are shit out of luck. Also if you want to watch it on the TV you will have to transfer it back to the Media Center PC.
The other major flaw from the Microsoft Portable Media Center is that there is no official way to transfer a DVD movie to the device with out using grey market tools. It would be pretty cool if you could rip a DVD movie directly to the device and enjoy your DVDs in a similar manner that a music fan can enjoy their music in an MP3 player but I bet that even Microsoft could not convince the MPAA jackboots that letting DVD owners enjoy the movies that they purchased on a portable Microsoft Portable Media Center device was not piracy. They could have set it up so you had to actually have the DVD you wanted to watch and it could be encrypted so that the ripped movie could only be watched on that particular Portable Media Center device but the MPAA has their head firmly up their asses and I doubt that even Bill Gates with his "Big Brother friendly" DRM devices could even convince them to dislodge their heads from their rectums. It would be a real attractive product if it included even the most basic and rights restricted DVD ripping capacities. I am surprised that there is also no text reading capabilities on it. You can't read saved HTML pages, PDFs or e-books on it.
The battery life is an unknown factor since there are none on the market yet and I bet that they CPU, hard drive and back lit color screen would suck the juice out of a battery like a teenager downing a 7-11 Big Gulp on a hot summer day.
Also this is not a notebook PC or a PDA. You can not check your email on it, surf the web, play games, run normal software, edit photos, or do anything that you would normally want to do with a notebook PC. You can't really create any media on the unit nor can you record music on it directly and the use of a PC is essential. Since the rather high price point I would be more likely to save up a bit more and buy a thin notebook PC for $900 instead of spending $700 on a Microsoft Portable Media Center device.
These sound like a R&D project that is being launched a bit before their time and before the price point can get low enough to justify the hardware cost. I think they will sell a whole bunch to early adopter nerds but I doubt that these will kill notebook PCs, or normal MP3 players like the iPod. But then again one thing that I have learned is never underestimate the large amounts of money that American consumers will spend on sedative devices and addictive TV technology. But at least TV watchers are not dorks like adults who play videogames.
Jake at March 21, 2004 
Nerd
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Comments
Portable video players will find an audience, but it ain't me...
For music, I'd rather have a small device like an iPod. For movies, nothing beats my iBook. It plays DVDs directly, has a large, bright screen, and with two batteries, I can get a good four hours of playback on an airplane.
I've used my GBA as a movie player, and while it's fun, and not entirely uncomfortable, it's just not something I'd want to watch a two hour movie on.
Posted by: jason at March 22, 2004 7:05 AM
--------are supposed to be the ultimate in portable digital media consumption but I have my reservations--------
"reservations"? a person would have to have an intelligence level approaching Mold to think that someone is going to pay $700 for one of these things when they can buy a $200 portable DVD player.... and have a better and bigger screen...
oh and did i mention that you can't even play DVD's on one of these $700 jobs?
you've got to wonder what MSFT researchers are thinking???...
heck for $700 to $1200 you can get a whole laptop and have much more capabilities than a Portable media player, including everything a Portable media player can do.... but much much better....
jon.
Posted by: jon at March 22, 2004 8:43 AM
Looking at it objectively though, the price is so high because it's not just a "Mobile video player". The device will also act as an mp3 player and pseudo PDA. Multifunction devices are so expensive since buying each piece individually would cost a pretty penny anyway.
I'm not *defending* this product by any means, I think it's an atrocious idea from Micro$oft. They're simply trying to steal the sunshine from Archos and other companies who have similar (if not better) products in production.
I'm not about to plunk down 700$+ to have mobile Jenna Jameson, let alone mobile movies of any sort ;) That's what my home system is for anyway.
Posted by: Sean at March 22, 2004 9:14 AM
I think Apple is preping one of these as well:
Posted by: Anthony at March 22, 2004 2:13 PM
Yeah I have read about the Video iPod rumors but that is right up there with the iBook Tablet PC and the Apple iPDA
Posted by: Jake at March 22, 2004 2:19 PM
LOL. How about the "MS Hairy Palm Pilot"?
Posted by: Mycatsnameis at March 22, 2004 2:23 PM
Agreed on the iPod rumor mill. Why is M$ such a horrible hardware company? Their 5 button optical mouse explorer is nice, and some of their keyboards and such, but every other piece of hardware they make is horrendous. Xbox form factor case in point, but what happened to ultimate TV, webTV, all their home networking crap is overpriced. They really do not leverage their brand well into hardware. Plus those new watches look huge and lame.
Posted by: Anthony at March 22, 2004 3:13 PM
You know I love my Microsoft Keyboard and I love my MS Sidewinder Pro gamepad but I do agree that they are no Apple and their hardware designs are hit or miss. However for the MS Pr0n Pilot Pro 2004 will be designed and marketed by other hardware makers. There will not be a MS made device.
Posted by: Jake at March 22, 2004 3:16 PM
I'm reminded of the Sega Game Gear, which was supposed to be much more advanced than the original Gameboy, but lost out on the market because it was so much less practical. Its large size & appetite for batteries made it impractical to carry and expensive to own.
Sounds like MS's portable media device, doesn't it?
Posted by: Leland Jordon at March 23, 2004 12:57 AM
I think you might be on track with the Gamegear reference. The Gamegear was a Sega Master System redesigned into a large portable. In fact there was an unofficial cart adapter so you could play Master System carts on the Gamegear.
This might be an example of one technology platform shoved on another.
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