The Nokia i6630: A Response to the ROKR

Ewan wrote:pick up the Nokia Audio Bundle, which includes the Pop port Audio Adapter, a 256 MB MMC Card, USB MMC/SD reader and Nokia Stereo Audio Cable.

Interesting stuff. No mention of new software though, so presumably it just comes with instructions for using the klunky music bit of PC Suite 6.6 to produce folders of AAC files?

With they'd just endorse OggPlay and have done with it!

I've asked Nokia PR for a music pack - if they come up with one, I'll report back.

Steve Litchfield

I think this could be a strong rival for the ROKR - they're both as ugly as each other...

On another note, I'd love to know what kind music format Nokia are using that fits 15 albums onto a 256Mb card:

15 albums = Approx 150 songs x a minimum of 3Mb per song = 450Mb worth of MP3...

Personally I think Nokia doesn't need to worry too much about the ROKR. With the recent arrival of the lovely iPod Nano (and it is lovely - I got one on the weekend), people have seen how small MP3 players can get and with the clunky interface on the ROKR, together with rumours of a cap on the number of songs you can have, it's not going to be the big deal everyone thinks it is. What everyone's really waiting for is the "true" Apple iPhone. Now that will be reason for Nokia to loose sleep.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, lanyard headphones, be it headset or the ones on the Nano, aren't going to catch on either - I don't think people are going to be fans of headphones you can easily strangle yourself with.

Good old Nokia - drag out sales of a (now) old handset by adding an i onto it's name 😉

Why couldn't they launch this with the N70? That would have made a much better combination!

(failing that, why don't Motorola buy a Series 60 license and release the X2? :tongue: )

Masamune wrote:On another note, I'd love to know what kind music format Nokia are using that fits 15 albums onto a 256Mb card:

15 albums = Approx 150 songs x a minimum of 3Mb per song = 450Mb worth of MP3...

I suspect they're using AAC, the same format they've always used with their PC Suite encoder. AAC sounds OK at about 96kbps, which means about 6 hours of music in 256MB, or around 9 40-minute albums. AAC at 64kbps would give 12 40-minute albums but would be quite tinny and only appropriate for trivial pop.

I wonder how they get the '15' figure, then?

Steve Litchfield
PS. Now, if they used OggPlay and .ogg files, they'd get CD quality music at 64kbps and pop quality at only 45kbps, making 15 albums a reality. But I bet they're not using this 8-)

Its an interesting marketing excerise, and I think the most interesting aspect is that Nokia have recognised using smartphone as a DAP is a primary use. I reckon using smartphones as a DAP is probably number 3 on the list after calling/telephony, and camera... though I may be a few places off (email, browsing)?

Rafe wrote:Its an interesting marketing excerise, and I think the most interesting aspect is that Nokia have recognised using smartphone as a DAP is a primary use. I reckon using smartphones as a DAP is probably number 3 on the list after calling/telephony, and camera... though I may be a few places off (email, browsing)?

For the main in the street, it's probably:
1:telephony/SMS [100% of people know it can do this]
2:camera [100% ditto]
3:music [20% ditto]
4:games [20% ditto]
5:PIM [10% ditto]

In truth, those are my own top 5 as well, though in a different order 8-)

Steve Litchfield

In terms of public perception, I would say SMS, then calling. Music and cameras aren't nearly as important as Nokia and other manufacturers think, leastways until the picture quality improves significantly (at least 4MP upwards). Music-wise, both MP3 and AAC will struggle in the face of the iPod for one very important reason - simplicity. Ask any iPod owner how many clicks it takes in iTunes to dump a ton of music on an iPod in well structured, organised manner and they'll either say 1, 2 or most often - "I don't". As far as I know, none of the Nokia handsets will ship with any kind of music organising software, which means the process of loading up a memory card or in the worst case a 4Gb microdrive is far too complicated for the average mush on the street. I'd be interested to see how the ROKR copes with this...

stuclark wrote:failing that, why don't Motorola buy a Series 60 licence

Moto won't go anywhere near it. "X2" with UIQ 3 is more likely.

martinharnevie wrote:Moto won't go anywhere near it. "X2" with UIQ 3 is more likely.

So when is this new firmware coming out then, it surely cant be hardware dependent?

mob453 wrote:So when is this new firmware coming out then, it surely cant be hardware dependent?

the press photo shows the nokia 6630 music player with a new screen, so surely it's firmware?

mob453 wrote:the press photo shows the nokia 6630 music player with a new screen, so surely it's firmware?

It's probably just another OggPlay skin 8-))))))

(Seriously, I'm doing a tutorial for PDA Essentials magazine at the moment on turning your Nokia 6630 into an iPod using the iPogg OggPlay 'skin'.)

Steve Litchfield

This isn't a direct competitor with the ROKR by any means - it doesn't tie in with any popular music servers (ie. iTunes), its more expensive, doesn't have as much memory, is a fair bit bulkier ....

Oh, and the 100 tunes limit on the ROKR is with the iTunes interface .... you can create/edit playlists for MP3s with the regular music player application on the ROKR/E398/V635 that doesn't have the 100 tunes limit.

ps. I agree about OggPlay - its by far and away the best player, with the 512 meg card on my SX1, it makes for a fantastic combination. Currently have about 160 tracks on there.

It's the one failing of the mythical N91 - no OggPlay support. And You can't even install it on there because it uses OS 9....

slitchfield wrote:
PS. Now, if they used OggPlay and .ogg files, they'd get CD quality music at 64kbps and pop quality at only 45kbps, making 15 albums a reality. But I bet they're not using this 8-)

Somewhat off-topic, but...

Does anyone know of a decent program to transcode high-bitrate MP3s to ogg, reducing filesize to get this sort of space saving? My mobile solution was a Zen with a pretty big HD, but I would like to use OggPlayer on my phone without having to re-rip my while CD collection. Ideally something that'd go though all the subfolders in my music directories, but the space saving's the thing; the few apps I've tried haven't saved much, if any, space at all.

Tom J

TomJ wrote:Somewhat off-topic, but...

Does anyone know of a decent program to transcode high-bitrate MP3s to ogg, reducing filesize to get this sort of space saving? My mobile solution was a Zen with a pretty big HD, but I would like to use OggPlayer on my phone without having to re-rip my while CD collection. Ideally something that'd go though all the subfolders in my music directories, but the space saving's the thing; the few apps I've tried haven't saved much, if any, space at all.

Tom J

Given that both OggPlay (and tools like CDex) are Open Source, the technology really should be out there. All it needs is some C++ wizard to hack together a little recursive tool, trawling a folder structure and converting everything to WAV (internally) and then to Ogg, with suitable warnings if the source MP3 or WMA files were already too compressed. From my own experiements, I'd suggest that you'd need a source bit rate of at *least* 192kbps for MP3.

Steve Litchfield

Do a quick google for MP3 to Ogg converter - I found a free one a little while ago that quite well for me. However, any variable bit rate MP3's you've got will come out sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks....

Masamune wrote:Do a quick google for MP3 to Ogg converter - I found a free one a little while ago that quite well for me. However, any variable bit rate MP3's you've got will come out sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks....

Bother - I have a feeling mine are mostly VBR. Still, do you have the URL? As I said, I did try a few, but didn't see much filesize reduction. I might have to see about dconverting them all to WAV then to ogg; a faff, but still more convenient than pulling loads of discs in and out of boxen and cup holders...

Tom J

dBPowerAmp is the way to go...

Google it, it's freeware... 😊

I have a feeling that's the very one I used...

Masamune wrote:I have a feeling that's the very one I used...

A lot depends on the initial sample rate. 192kbps constant bit rate should sample down to .ogg at 64kbps quite well. 128kbps constant or 192kbps VBR would be rather horrible, yes. I suspect that 320kbps VBR would work better though.

Steve Litchfield

stuclark wrote:dBPowerAmp is the way to go...

Google it, it's freeware... 😊

Yup that's the one I use too and it works pretty well. Transcodes all BR, including VBR MP3s to OGG pretty well. I encode at 64kbps, sometimes stereo sometimes mono!

One problem with my 6681. Downloaded the Nokia Music app on my 6681 and Stereo OGG files don't play well in that app. I'm not very happy with Oggplayer itself. I normally use the default music player of the 6681, the one you get to from the gallery!

Boom!

drag out sales of a (now) old handset

I suspect they're using AAC

using smartphones as a DAP is probably number 3 on the list after calling/telephony, and camera

Just found the 6630 Music Player on HOFO, it's a .sis install, says it's actually for the N90/N91, but works perfectly well. It's not from an official source, so I dont know if it's legal and I wont be posting the link on here.