Memorex unleashes three new no-frills DAPs

We can always trust Memorex to liven up the party, and here they come now with three new music players that pin down the low-end of the market fairly well. The players are headed by the MMP8565, which features 1-2GB of flash memory, a monochrome LCD, and busts out the MP3, WAV, WMA and WMA-DRM tunes. It's a fairly small unit, at 0.6-inches thick, and manages a respectable 12 hours of battery life. Rounding out the trio are the MMP8550 and MMP3774 players. The simple-as-it-gets disc shaped 8550 has a mere 256MB of storage and not much else. The gum stick shaped 3774 has a bit of a "me too" form factor, but spices up things a bit with a SD card slot to augment the 512MB of included storage. It also has an FM tuner. There's no word on prices or availability for these things, but they're supposed to show up at Target.

[K Saleh @ May 20th 2006 1:33PM]

I wish that disc shaped one would be mega cheap.
Then I'd be able to buy a couple and pass them around as gifts :P

[Rueben @ May 20th 2006 1:39PM]

I was at Target yesterday and I can confirm seeing these in the wild. The one that really caught my attention was the 8550. Very cool form factor if you're looking for a simple, small storage device MP3.

[kibets @ May 20th 2006 1:52PM]

That round one is sweet... looks like a yo-yo! Comes in some interesting colors too. I gotta stop over a Walgreens and have a look!

Here is the link to the round one - too cool
http://www.memcorpinc.com/html/product_detail.php?PID=181&FID=4&SID=1&opento=1003#

[bob @ May 20th 2006 1:52PM]

yeah, but who wants to be locked into WMA-DRM, only works on 1 operating system and shity players.

[kibets @ May 20th 2006 1:54PM]

"yeah, but who wants to be locked into WMA-DRM", I'd rather have wma than iTunes!

[sarah @ May 20th 2006 2:34PM]

those are nice and simple. i just wish DAPs would pass that "below 1gb" line

[zip22 @ May 20th 2006 2:36PM]

"I'd rather have wma than iTunes!"
whys that?

[bob @ May 20th 2006 2:43PM]

sorry i was trolling a bit with that comment - but with a reason, to put in perspective the comments you all put to itunes, at least it works on multiple operating systems

[Christoph Stangl @ May 20th 2006 2:47PM]

The left one resembles a crippled Samsung D600. Anyone noticed?

[AndrewNeo @ May 20th 2006 2:56PM]

@7. iTunes requires an iPod. WMA-DRM requires just about any MP3 player that plays WMA files that isn't an iPod. My cheapo RCA Lyra RD1080 plays them, my more-expensive iPAQ rx3115 plays them. (Coincedentally, the iPAQ has Windows Media Player on it..)

[Marc Mayor @ May 20th 2006 2:56PM]

Price ? Anyone... ? Anyone... ?

[phreaki @ May 20th 2006 2:57PM]

Sure would be nice if it supported FM recording. Maybe they didn't want that Gorilla shaking their tree.

[Jonson @ May 20th 2006 3:01PM]

The interface reminds me of Rio's..

[RedBull Runner @ May 20th 2006 4:47PM]

Fanboys to your Battlestations.

"yeah, but who wants to be locked into WMA-DRM, only works on 1 operating system and shity players."

"yeah, but who wants to be locked into WMA-DRM", I'd rather have wma than iTunes!"

-.- cant we have a nice, civil conversation? FOR ONCE!?!

[furtim @ May 20th 2006 8:43PM]

For that matter... "busts out the MP3, WAV, WMA and WMA-DRM tunes". WMA-DRM is one of four formats I see listed there. Who's locked into what now?

[martin @ May 20th 2006 9:15PM]

Anyone else think that round one is incredibly cute?

[DS @ May 20th 2006 11:24PM]

These guys have a *LONG* way to go before they are anywhere near Apple design wise. Nice try, but like every other POS I think Ill pass....

-DS

[0bliv!on @ May 20th 2006 11:34PM]

UHh... design is subjective, jeez, at least be subtle in ur fanboy-ness...

n yeh the round one does look v v cool... very umm... minimalist =P tho it'd be cool if it came wif a larger capacity...

[Andrew @ May 21st 2006 2:40AM]

wow I'm locked into Windows Media Player with this thing cause it DEFINATLY DOESNT SUPPORT MP3 files. oh wait. it does. hmm. must mean I can put *ANY* MP3 on there. wow all of a sudden I am not locked into WMA-DRM anymore wow :)

But I must agree, my HP iPaq with a 4GB SD and 8GB CF card makes a MUCH better MP3 player. hell, good for videos too. and, you know, organizing. and games too. Uh-Oh look out for PSP fanboys to come in. I said games. haha sorry but I love watching trolls here.
and guess what, I have pPod. it has the crApple interface on my nice touchscreen PDA. not that I wanted that but its nice when people say their iPods are better, I just open that and have fun with them. then I play all my videos. hahaha.... thats what you get for the ...$350 that it cost.

[Smoke Tetsu @ May 21st 2006 3:16PM]

I have an el cheapo MP3 player I got at wal-greens and it works fine with my Mac. I just change an option on the player so it mounts as a drive and I drag and drop songs from iTunes to it. If these players are anything like that nobody is locked into anything they don't want to.

[Alex @ May 21st 2006 7:09PM]

@Andrew:

Yes, touchscreens are nice when watching videos. /me loves fingerprints :P

[Aaron @ May 21st 2006 7:18PM]

You know DS, I saw a post you made on another page about how someone else wasn't anywhere near Apple as far as design goes. Do you do this every chance you get?

You missed the point there and you're missing the point here. These aren't supposed to be iPods, they're supposed to be low-end, reasonably priced MP3 players. Apple doesn't do reasonably priced, so someone else has to.

Apple fans are, for the most part, shallow and only care about how shiny their toy is, I know that. But still, if that's all you're going to say, then just don't say it.

[Matt @ Nov 10th 2006 5:07PM]

Does anyone have the Installation program for this player? I found one and I'd love to use it! Email me if you do..thanks!

[Donna @ Dec 28th 2006 10:36AM]

Matt if you have windows media 10 or 11 player you don't need any software just connect it thru your USB port and it will automatically recognize it, from there just load what you want into a playlist for mediaplayer and click on download to cd or device the option will be in the devices section on the media player.