I spotted this in a magazine today and went to their web site here. It's called NEO 35, with the 35 standing for 3.5" drive. It play mp3 files of a 3.5" HDD of any size in the car, has a 20x4 character LCD display and as far as I can tell only has a single stereo pair of RCA outputs and a 3.5mm headphone type socket. Just don't drive over to many potholes!!!

Also there is this at thinkgeek.com. Again a HDD mp3 player but this one is indoor only...

Interesting to see HDD mp3 taking off outside of PC's...


ChrisTall
That really is my name!

Thats been around for ages. I had a long chat with the Neo guys at IASCA, and got a good look at their product (which I saw briefly at CES earlier in the year).

I guess my summary would be that they're approaching the market from a different angle to us.

Rob

Did you get your hands on the NEO 25 portable one ? If so what did you think ?

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Rod, UK Mk2 18gig Red S/No.341

Ermm... yes, I did get my hands on one... in fairness I guess I didnt use it for long enough to be able to express an opinion.

Rob

Shame, just about to spend hard earned money and find out for myself. I like the ability to upgrade firmware and storage - does that sound like good atributes for an MP3 player :-)

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Rod, UK Mk2 18gig Red S/No.341

If you want a hard disk based portable right now then its probably a reasonable bet - certainly the Nomad has had some pretty bad reviews. I'm not sure if its better than the PJB100 though.

I'm sure there will be much cuter hard drive portables from other manufacturers in the future, but I would find it hard to get excited by any of the current offerings.

Rob

I have an old laptop drive doing nothing and 279usd would not hurt too much. PJB is 800usd ( although though they were going to do a new model ) for 5gig, Nomad is 500usd for 6gig. I still use my iGo but even with 1gig microdrives, 2gig is still a limitation when away on long trips.

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Rod, UK Mk2 18gig Red S/No.341

From what I have seen, the PJB100 has a much better battery life with it's lithium Ion battery. Also, people have found ways of upgrading it's hard drive with another laptop drive. Right now, the PJB100 would be my choice for a portable player. But of course if empe^H^H^H^H S3 releases a hard drive portable player, I'm sure I'd like it more :-)

[q]But of course if empe^H^H^H^H S3 releases a hard drive portable player, I'm sure I'd like it more :-)[/q]

If? When, more likely.




Lars

I have the NEO35 (I also happen to own neo35.com and neo-35.com) and I also have a Empeg MarkII. The Neo is a piece of crap. It does a decent job for the money, but it accepts way too much interference from the engine in my car. I eventually opened my wallet and got the Empeg. The difference between the quality of the units is day and night. IMHO - Don't waste your time and money and "settle" for the Neo.

PS- the Neo's firmware is upgradable. there has been one revision since I bought it and it upgraded without issue and very easily.

-Rob

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