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Bob Russell · 04-17-2005, 08:45 PM

Here you are, the quintescential nerd with a PDA that can do everything, and an MP3 collection to listen to wherever you please, and you didn't even have to spend the big bucks for an iPod. But anyone can play mp3 music on the run these days and you don't even have to be a techie to do it. So how are you going to distinguish yourself as an early adopter?

How about jumping on a product that doesn't exist yet (to the best of my knowledge), but is surely coming.... a database of music with a Palm or PPC application for mobile access. You may have to wait a while, but I'm sure it's coming, and when it does, you can be the envy of the general public once again, just like you were when you did "iPod" before anyone understood it!

Sure, there are currently products out there that let you store information about your collections, even on your PDA. There's even one that lets you scan CD barcodes to enter the information. But what a about a program that's actually useful?

Here's what I see in my glimpse of the future for MP3 databases:

It will contain album art, album and song titles, lyrics and even information about the artist such as discographies. And of course it will have an easy way to purchase those other albums also -- gotta get revenue in this modern day world, right?!
You will not have to type almost anything in. You can download the information automaticlly from online databases, just like when you do CD ripping right now, except more info will be included, and eventually almost no album will be missing.
Optionally, you can input the artist, album, song title info from existing mp3 directories on your desktop, either from the tags or the directory and file names.
A scanner can be used to scan the CD insert with the lyrics if not available online
Each MP3 player will be able to access this database (probably limited to your home collection of MP3s, or even just the MP3s on your device, unless you can access the database via wi-fi). That means you can look at all the info about the songs while you are listening to them, including the lyrics so you can sing along! Eventually, maybe there will even be music videos attached, or background images.
Windows media player-like graphics that "dance" to the music. I kind of liked the older stuff like the dancing disco sheep, but I suppose the modern stuff is okay also. I like the light shows that move on the screen to music, and one of these days PDAs will plug into TVs (like the Dell VGA PPC can do now) and we can watch it on hi-def movie screens at home.

Nothing here is past our capabilities right now. I'm not sure why it's not here yet. But surely it will be. I may not be able to sing that well, but I'd sure love to have my PPC show me graphics and/or lyrics for the music I'm listening to, whether I'm listening to it on my PPC or on my home stereo!

This description didn't even take a lot of creativity. How about showing me up, and describing something really neat that is even better than this? Surely someone out there has even more imagination than me!

04-17-2005, 08:45 PM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Future Glimpse: MP3 Database on PDAs Here you are, the quintescential nerd with a PDA that can do everything, and an MP3 collection to listen to wherever you please, and you didn't even have to spend the big bucks for an iPod. But anyone can play mp3 music on the run these days and you don't even have to be a techie to do it. So how are you going to distinguish yourself as an early adopter? How about jumping on a product that doesn't exist yet (to the best of my knowledge), but is surely coming.... a database of music with a Palm or PPC application for mobile access. You may have to wait a while, but I'm sure it's coming, and when it does, you can be the envy of the general public once again, just like you were when you did "iPod" before anyone understood it! Sure, there are currently products out there that let you store information about your collections, even on your PDA. There's even one that lets you scan CD barcodes to enter the information. But what a about a program that's actually useful? Here's what I see in my glimpse of the future for MP3 databases: It will contain album art, album and song titles, lyrics and even information about the artist such as discographies. And of course it will have an easy way to purchase those other albums also -- gotta get revenue in this modern day world, right?! You will not have to type almost anything in. You can download the information automaticlly from online databases, just like when you do CD ripping right now, except more info will be included, and eventually almost no album will be missing. Optionally, you can input the artist, album, song title info from existing mp3 directories on your desktop, either from the tags or the directory and file names. A scanner can be used to scan the CD insert with the lyrics if not available online Each MP3 player will be able to access this database (probably limited to your home collection of MP3s, or even just the MP3s on your device, unless you can access the database via wi-fi). That means you can look at all the info about the songs while you are listening to them, including the lyrics so you can sing along! Eventually, maybe there will even be music videos attached, or background images. Windows media player-like graphics that "dance" to the music. I kind of liked the older stuff like the dancing disco sheep, but I suppose the modern stuff is okay also. I like the light shows that move on the screen to music, and one of these days PDAs will plug into TVs (like the Dell VGA PPC can do now) and we can watch it on hi-def movie screens at home. Nothing here is past our capabilities right now. I'm not sure why it's not here yet. But surely it will be. I may not be able to sing that well, but I'd sure love to have my PPC show me graphics and/or lyrics for the music I'm listening to, whether I'm listening to it on my PPC or on my home stereo! This description didn't even take a lot of creativity. How about showing me up, and describing something really neat that is even better than this? Surely someone out there has even more imagination than me!