Odds are, you take your
iPod or
Zune for granted. You probably don't think about the crazy technological advancements we've made, but take a ten-year look back at the world's first MP3 player -- the MPMan F10 -- and you'll get a sense of just how far we've come. Manufactured by Korea's Saehan Information Systems, the device was launched in March of 1998 at CeBIT, and went on sale in the Summer through Eiger Labs for $250. The player featured 32MB of flash memory (which could be upgraded to 64MB via mail-in scheme), connected to PCs via parallel port, and had a miniscule LCD for playback info -- but it laid the groundwork for the tech we have today. Following the MPMan's release,
Rio unleashed its PMP300, which received a warmer reception and all-but eclipsed the F10's status as "first" amongst players, likely due to the company's well-known (and groundbreaking) legal battle against the
RIAA. Still, first is first, so help keep the MPMan's rich history alive, and celebrate its ten-year anniversary this month with campfire songs and story-telling. Check out the archived read link of the original Eiger Labs site for a wild and wacky trip through time.
[Via
Register Hardware]
posted March 11th 2008 10:12AM
my first mp3 player was from D-link. it played songs burned onto cds, barely. i immmediately returned it!
the next mp3 cd player was from iRiver. 15mm thin, it was the slickest and most expensive at $180. but it was worth every penny!!
My first MP3 player was the 32MB (Yellow) I-Jam. It was a bit misleading as it came with two 16MB SD cards. You could fit 4 songs each (or 5 Beatles songs)! Don't forget the parallel port 'Jam Station' to get those songs on the cards. Oh and if the bit rate was not 128, it would be like speeding up and slowing down a turntable. Reactions from friends--"What's an MP3?"
Oh...sweet, sweet early MP3 player action! :)
I had the earliest Rio PMP300 player that I purchased from a buddy of mine. The piggy-backed parallel cable was slow-as-molasses, but it worked! Besides, with only 32megs on board, you weren't ever transferring for too long.
I don't remember what happened to that player, but I eventually upgraded to the PMP500 w/ USB support and a backlit display. That thing was AWESOME! I also loved the drag n' drop via explorer method of loading it up. After that sucker got stolen, I moved on to the Rio Nitrus for awhile. A good player that had some "issues". Then an iPod, and then another iPod (didn't pay for either of them, thank you very much) and finally my Zune 30 that I have now.
No jokes. I'm quite fond of it.
Lol.. my first mp3 player was a cdmp3.. Lenox to be exact. I think this was the first mp3cd player, although it was first released under a different name in asia, it came under the lenox lable when it came available in the US (via mail order of course).
I actually still have it, heres a picture, http://i26.tinypic.com/9isdc4.jpg
When the rio300 did hit $40 I picked one up, but I wasn't terribly impressed by it, its sound quality was a step backward from the lenox. I then picked up the iriver 150 (anoying dancy thingy ftw) and then irivers 250 which was the best damn cdmp3 player in the world. Infact it still is. I had a great display, powerful amplifier, good battery life, and a sweet backlit LCD in-line remote controller. I was sad the day it broke and it was implossible to replace by then, Iriver had moved compleatly to their lcd-less slimline of players.
Now I am happy with my (still functional but controls are becoming flaky) zen vision:m, and I plan to pickup the Zune80 when this one does run aground.
I still got mine... 32mb =). It still works and got 8 tracks on it =). Cable is lost though so cant change songs =P.
Wow, interesting how they copied so many typical things from Sony including the fonts, their colors, button styles and colors.
I remember getting the Diamond Rio MP3 Player when I was 12 years old. I think it was the first commercially successful MP3 player ever sold in the US. I was a big nerd then so I was the only person who even knew what an MP3 was, which made it particularly difficult in convincing my mother to buy it for me...
I bought this 10 years ago. I remember the 32meg flash drive could almost hold an album's worth of MP3s. It was nice and small. Even though I knew it needed more HD space, it was a nice departure from carrying a portable CD player.
I had two of these!! Ah brings back memories. Parallel transfers FTL.
I've still got mine, and the cable, although can't find the software anymore, 32mb with the 32mb SmartMedia Card.
Sad to admit, I still had my PMP300 until it was retired in favor of a Zune last year when the pass through port that the cable connected to died.
I can still remember the day I bought my first Phillips Expanium (101) in 1999. That thing was the bomb. 650/700 mb of MP3's on a cd.
Cost me around 300 euro's (roughly $200.000 these days ;-)).
I've still got mine of those.
Though the batteries are shot
holy crap i had one of those! i didn't even know it was the first.
I still have that player and it work great lol.
What about the Creative Zen? Creative invented the iPod interface and had mp3 player out in 2000, 1 year before the iPod. Creative had a video player out before the iPod video. Creative had the world's first 32GB flash player, betting Apple. +The Creative ZEN is better then iPod. Give Creative the attention it deserves.
I've got one of those somewhere. That parallel port dock was a pain in the butt, and the batteries it uses are almost impossible to find in the US.
But forget Eiger Labs... Nordic Entertainment, whom I worked for at the time, was the first to import the MPMan, in March 1998
http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-retail-stores-not/4628640-1.html
"At the end of March, Nordic Entertainment Worldwide (www.nordicdms.com) offered the MPMan, a portable MP3 player, smaller than personal cassette or CD players."
wow i was ripped off by apple!!!!!!!
i payed $299 for my 8gb Ipod touch. you areee soo suedddd apple!!!!!!!1111111
j/k
oh my god, i remember my Rio diamond mp3 player. it was 32 meg and costed me $150 dollars. FUCKK What a rip!!!!!
I remember back in 1996, the first time I downloaded an album of MP2 files (a Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite, overnight, over dial-up, for the record) and fantasized about a crazy day in the future when I would be able to play these strange MP2 files in my car and on my home stereo without having to plug in my computer... Little did I know. At the time it took a $2000 device just to burn them to regular CD's (which were only $5-7 bucks).
"i remember when i was much younger looking through the argos catalogue at the mini disk players (they were all the rage back in the day - what an awesome thing they were too!), and there were these 'mp3 players' on one page which i thought were rubbish and a pointless thing as at the time they had about 128mb memory and could only store a handful of songs
i didnt imagine they would make this kind of impact :)"
I was exactly the same. Now, I wouldn't be without my iPod for the world.
My fisrt MP3 player was the Compaq PA-1 iPaq. I got it as a birthday gift from my then gf, who is now my wife. She was so sweet to get me the smallest player on the market. I still have it, but it doesn't have drivers for xp. It was $299-$50 rebate. It was a great little player. Too bad it used MMCs, which had small memory capacity. if it had used SDs, it would still serve some purpose.
The next player was the Creative MuVo w/4GB microdrive. I promptly ripped it out, sold it on ebay, and replaced with a 1gb CF card.
Hi Stef and Em! :D