Samsung's U5 DoReMi rekindles hatred of DRM

You know, you'd think that branding executives would actually stop and have a think about things before just putting it out there, but no. As we've seen in separate instances before, Samsung's U5 DoReMi unnecessarily highlights itself in the worst possible way, capitalizing the three letters -- in order, no less -- that remind us why digital downloads still aren't as accessible and easily manageable as they should be. If you can get past all that, the USB stick music player boasts 2/4/8GB of internal capacity, a tiny OLED display, FM radio / recording and up to 18 hours of battery life. Look Sammy, we know the U3 and U4 basically went unnoticed, but is this really the light in which to paint the U5?

[Via AnythingButiPod]

[shanoboy Posted Feb 12th 2009 9:51AM]

They'll pay the price when no one buys there products. Vote against DRM with your wallets people! RISE UP!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2009 10:50AM]

This player has nothing to do with supporting DRM - Its name is DoReMi which engadget has turned into a poorly conceived title in an attempt to be funny. Read the story next time.

[shanoboy Posted Feb 12th 2009 10:58AM]

@T: Damn, I feel stupid.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2009 9:58AM]

Amazon, Emusic, iTunes and (large chunks of) Zune Markplace all offer DRM free music. Can you guys find something else to whine about?

[Wwhat Posted Feb 12th 2009 11:29AM]

That's the point, people should make clear that they are happy without DRM and this is not the time to try to rekindle the damn crap, and there is a real risk they'll try if people aren't vocal about it.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2009 10:36AM]

You fanboys can be so painfully dense.

Aside from the fact his play has more features than its rival the shuffle if its anything like the Samsung player I owned 2 years ago (which was built like a tank unlike its rival which scratched if you looked at it the wrong way) then it will probably support drag n drop for music transfer on mac/pc and work with your choice of music software. Not being tethered to itunes is a big advantage on its own in my opinion - and I own a Mac.

[fourthletter Posted Feb 12th 2009 10:56AM]

Yes iEye Samsung make crap and Apple make quality products, Do you watch advertising all day ?

My present Samsung u900 is great quality mostly brushed aluminium and i have not had a porblem with it, the sound quality beats my old iPod nano which i sold since the phone does a better job.

Funny how my Macbook cracked along the edge of the casing, for a warranty repair I had to drive it 7 miles then wait a week and drive back to collect (my last HP was collected from my door and returned 3 days later) I was told they had replaced the top casing as the old one was too thin which they called a "design flaw"
Sadly it's out of warranty now and the crack is back, wonder why Apple use metal now ?
You might claim you are not iEye but you are an iDiot, keep watching those ads I'm sure your turtle neck is arriving any day.

[Wwhat Posted Feb 12th 2009 11:27AM]

If it's for DRM it won't do drag and drop, DRM comes hand in hand with propriety software.

Also yeah you can buy a $10 player but the soundchip will be worse than a quality product, and the headphoneamp will be poor.
As for OLED, it's damn hard to read those tiny LCD's they use on cheap players, especially in poor lighting conditions and on-the-go, an OLED even if it's monochrome-ish and just for text is much more enjoyable.

[R Posted Feb 12th 2009 11:58AM]

What's up with the sensationalist title and summary? Samsung MP3 players are drag and drop. No proprietary icrap software needed to load music.