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Non-Tech : Iomega Thread without Iomega
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To: Rocky Reid who wrote (7722)2/25/1999 9:04:00 AM
From: Cogito  Read Replies (1) of 10072
 
All -

Just to give some perspective on the new Memory Stick from Sony.

Currently, the Memory Stick is available in either a 4 or 8 MB size, but Sony plans to have a 16MB module available by April, and a 32MB module this summer. The 4MB module costs around 20 bucks. 8MB goes for about $30.

Some people have said that Clik!'s 40MB is inadequate for useful storage of music. Sony wants you to pay to download music that you will be able to listen to only if it still resides on the same Memory Stick you first downloaded to. Hmmm.

But don't worry, because you can use the ATRAC3 compression to reduce the size of the music files. ATRAC3 is basically the same compression used in the Sony MiniDisc system. (Rocky has said that it sounds terrible, but I think the latest versions of ATRAC are fine.) Sony MiniDisc capacity is about 74 minutes of music on a 128MB disc. So how many minutes of music will I get on my $30 8MB Memory Stick?

OK. I'm not being fair. Sony doesn't expect anyone to use the current Memory Sticks for music. Here's a quotation from their initial Memory Stick press release: "Sony plans to release Memory Sticks with larger capacities in the future. These models can be used for record/playback of multimedia data such as music. Therefore, the company said it would install copy-protection functions in them."

You have to figure that even the 32MB Memory Stick would be too small to be useful for ATRAC files. It would hold less than 20 minutes of music. So the Memory Stick models for music aren't even on the horizon as real products.

- Allen
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