Open Pandora As An Mp3 Player?

[Nation.A.List]

Now, do we fly, drive, or walk?

Fly = Filthy Rich
Drive = American
Walk = British

 

[Prometheus]

Imagine listening to MP3s on a Nintendo DS.

Funnily enough, I use my DS Lite for exactly that when travelling (I do love the Nintendo MP3 Player cartridge add-on). If the controls for such a setup with the Pandora are at least as convenient as that, I'll be very happy.

 

[gp2.eXe]

confirmed: pandora can fly

Also confirmed: Pandora's warranty covers attack from angry bears.

 

[Eversmile]

As an MP3 player, compared to an iPod, it's crap. It's larger, heavier, significantly more costly. No, if you're looking for an MP3 player, there are excellent ones to be had for less than $100.

Not ones that can play every codec on the face of the planet. Linux + mplayer = you can play more formats than any player on the market. The codecs becomes nigh completely irrelevant, which is a luxury not available on other player platforms. Sure, it is much higher cost, and larger, but it'll play anything. I'd say its a decent tradeoff.

Asking if the Pandora is good for MP3 is like asking if a helicopter can take you to the grocery store; technically yes, but if that's all you're doing it's a bit unwieldy.

To translate my argument to your analogy: Sometimes the between you and the grocery store is a mountain (format), large rapids (processing power), and angry bears (patents preventing the codecs from reaching your platform). You can get beyond all of that (by transcoding) and going through work for each grocery visit (for each track), or you can take your helicopter and turn a few heads in the process.


Wow, that analogy got better and more correct with every word! I don't know why people are being so negative, of course it'll play MP3/every other audio format just fine. Shoulder buttons for skipping track, and the volume wheel for obvious reasons. I love the fact they settled on a hardware/analog based volume control. I never liked digital volume controls.

 

[transmition]

Ok, thanks for all the replies! My main concerns are:
1) Storage (but I guess that is taken care of)
2) Battery life (which appears to be good)
3) Navigation, both while open and while closed. If it is easy to switch songs and get around, then the pandora meets my portable music needs. I don't really care if it fills my pocket. Functionality > prettiness.

 

[openthebox]

... Now, do we fly, drive, or walk?

We fly because we want to impress that cute cashier. :lol:

Navigation, both while open and while closed. If it is easy to switch songs and get around, then the pandora meets my portable music needs. I don't really care if it fills my pocket. Functionality > prettiness.

3) While opened, with a touch screen, D-Pad, and keyboard, navigation should be easy.
While closed, you are really left with 2 shoulder buttons for Next/Prev song and Fast forward/reverse on a song. And maybe holding down both buttons for pause?

 

[tristan.clark]

... Now, do we fly, drive, or walk?

We fly because we want to impress that cute cashier. :lol:

Navigation, both while open and while closed. If it is easy to switch songs and get around, then the pandora meets my portable music needs. I don't really care if it fills my pocket. Functionality > prettiness.

3"] While opened, with a touch screen, D-Pad, and keyboard, navigation should be easy.
While closed, you are really left with 2 shoulder buttons for Next/Prev song and Fast forward/reverse on a song. And maybe holding down both buttons for pause?[/quote]Might be able to sort out some kind of remote via bluetooth.

 

[lingenfr]

I had not even thought about a bluetooth remote, that would be great. I was hoping for a USB remote that might somehow resemble the remote for the iAudio X5. That worked great with putting the player in my backpack and the remote clipped to the strap (strap for a cellphone). A bluetooth remote would be even better. I tore apart my uncomfortable bluetooth headphones and added a jack so that I could use the bluetooth receiver with my comfortable phones. Unfortunately, I broke the charging connector, so I replaced it with a Jabra BT3030. What a great device. If the protocols could be implemented (maybe they will work out of the box) to leverage the player buttons in it, that would be great. Not as good as the X5 remote which has a small display that scrolls the tags and other information, but the BT3030 is definitely a great device. Chinese knockoffs are available very cheap on eBay.

 

[WizardStan]

If you're using a bluetooth remote, that pretty much guarantees the CPU needs to be at least partially active to handle the requests, I think. In that case, you're not going to get close to the estimated 100 hour MP3 playback. With the LCD off, and the CPU running at minimum, you'd still get a huge boost, it just wouldn't be as limitless.

 

[God Ginrai]

... Now, do we fly, drive, or walk?

We fly because we want to impress that cute cashier. :lol:

Navigation, both while open and while closed. If it is easy to switch songs and get around, then the pandora meets my portable music needs. I don't really care if it fills my pocket. Functionality > prettiness.

3"] While opened, with a touch screen, D-Pad, and keyboard, navigation should be easy.
While closed, you are really left with 2 shoulder buttons for Next/Prev song and Fast forward/reverse on a song. And maybe holding down both buttons for pause?[/quote]Or if you mod your Pandora to get the 2 extra shoulder buttons, then you have 4 buttons to work with.

-God Ginrai

 

[verm71]

Using the shoulder buttons for MP3 playback control might be handy, but unless there's a "kill switch" or a hold button, these buttons will get pressed by accident when your Pandora's in your pocket or something.

And I thought closing the lid to the Pandora would put it to sleep/standby/hibernate?

 

[WizardStan]

And I thought closing the lid to the Pandora would put it to sleep/standby/hibernate?
It can. We've been told it's software programmable what will happen when the lid is closed. "Ultra-conservative-MP3-Player-Mode" seems like another viable option.

 

[Gautama]

and it's not like you're breaking out your 400 dollar custom fitted embyotic canal phones to listen to some music on the subway.

Speak for yourself, I use custom IEMs on the subway and while mowing the lawn all the time.

 

[God Ginrai]

and it's not like you're breaking out your 400 dollar custom fitted embyotic canal phones to listen to some music on the subway.

Speak for yourself, I use custom IEMs on the subway and while mowing the lawn all the time.

Have fun getting mugged.

-God Ginrai

 

[Tom`]

and it's not like you're breaking out your 400 dollar custom fitted embyotic canal phones to listen to some music on the subway.

Speak for yourself, I use custom IEMs on the subway and while mowing the lawn all the time.

Have fun getting mugged.

-God Ginrai

Custom IEMs would be pretty much totally worthless to a mugger, I would think.