[Dorian Gray]

I've noticed that many MP3 player/DAP manufacturers have started to abandon the USB mass storage device class (MSC/UMS) in favour of something called Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). This seems to work closely with Windows Media Player, though the benefits of that over USB mass storage aren't clear to me (it might have something to do with DRM). Devices that support MTP don't seem to be advertised as Mac-compatible. Is this because they're genuinely not compatible or because the manufacturers can't be arsed to provide tech support for Mac users?

Obviously DAPs that support UMS/MSC work fine with Macs, although you have the trouble of fooling around with the file system manually rather than via iTunes. This trend is therefore a bit worrying, because although Apple's iPod range is pretty sweet, it doesn't cover all bases. In fact, I'm mulling over what to get to replace my iPod shuffle and I'd be a lot happier if non-iPods were on the list of potential replacements.

[chucker]

MTP is a proprietary extension to PTP, the picture transfer protocol. The Mac app XNJB uses libmtp allows access to such devices. I'm not sure how up-to-date it is, though.

[Unch]

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray Obviously DAPs that support UMS/MSC work fine with Macs, although you have the trouble of fooling around with the file system manually rather than via iTunes. This trend is therefore a bit worrying, because although Apple's iPod range is pretty sweet, it doesn't cover all bases. In fact, I'm mulling over what to get to replace my iPod shuffle and I'd be a lot happier if non-iPods were on the list of potential replacements.

I went through pretty much the same thing a couple of months ago. I really needed to replace my 1st-Gen 1GB Shuffle with something with better capacity and more battery life. I spent ages researching all the various players out there within my price bracket, but frankly I couldn't find anything that met my needs better than the iPod nano. One of the biggest issues was indeed Mac compatibility. Many of them had such bad software (from what I could gather) that I would have avoided them even if I was running Windows.

Really, the whole exercise did nothing more than highlight how bad the portable players on the market are. Back in the day, there were plenty of very high quality Cassette Walkmans, Discmans and Mini-Disc players alongside the budget stuff. I had an absolutely kick-arse Panasonic cassette player at one point. Absolutely beautiful bit of kit. Manufacturers just don't seem to be putting the effort in anymore. I was really disappointed with Sony's offerings in particular. No wonder Apple have cleaned up.

I hope you have more luck with your search than I did.

[Dorian Gray]

Thanks for the pointer to XNJB, chucker.

Unch, I'm discovering the same thing. The quality of the iPod's competition is in a dreadful state. Nothing comes close to the wow-factor and sex appeal of the iPods, but neither is there anything really compelling from a technical point of view, which surprises me. Everyone seems to be making sub-standard copies of the iPod, pricing them cheap and hoping they sell a few. These players tend to have proprietary software or this new annoyance of MTP, built-in flash memory (usually not enough), non-replaceable lithium-ion batteries, video out the wazoo, etc. You'd think that someone would recognise that the iPod has that market sewed up. Do something different if you want to attract people who aren't happy with the iPod!

Today I went to a big store in France that stocks loads of portable players. The first thing I saw behind the wall of iPods was the Sansa Clip. It's cheap and it looks it: drab design and the build quality is incredibly poor. This thing creaks if you look at it. Users report a battery life far lower than advertised and premature fading problems with the bargain-basement OLED screen. The Clip uses MTP.

The Sony NWZ-S639F briefly caught my eye, but it's priced up there with the nano and isn't a patch on it in terms of design and feel (though clearly better than the Sansa). The user interface is a disaster: far worse than the Clip and light-years from an iPod. The hardware has no distinguishing features except perhaps battery life, which as usual for Sony products, is about double the competition. The NWZ-S639F uses MTP. It's amazing how far Sony have fallen since the height of the Walkman and MiniDisc.

There was also a heap of uninspired Philips players, many bland Samsungs modelled on mobile phones, some horrid silver plastic Archos devices straight from 1999, something with a lopsided keyboard called the Creative ZEN Mosaic, plus many from brands I'd never heard of (these were truly awful even at a cursory glance, by the way, with mushy buttons, cryptic interfaces, crap displays, etc.).

In summary, there was nothing within hailing distance of the iPod nano, though most products seem to be aimed at would-be nano-buyers. There was nothing available to even pretend to compete with the iPod classic or iPod touch, because hard drives are going out of style and nobody but Apple can do software. There was nothing as small or as pretty as the iPod shuffle. Not a single player in the whole shop delivered the feel of quality you get when you slide the switch on the nano or hold any current iPod in your fingers.

It's a wasteland out there.

[julesstoop]

It seems they (the manufacturers of competing products) were once more lured in to some scheme by Microsoft which turns out not to work, again.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray It's a wasteland out there.

So what you're saying is... the iPod really is the current best of breed, because they've lulled everyone else into following them. Again.

Part of me loves that, part of me hates that.