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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I Wish Someone Would Invent: A Non-Storage MP3 Player

Have you ever thought about an invention that maybe YOU can't make, but it sure would be nice if someone else did?



I wish someone would invent a non-storage mp3 player. It would just consist of a female USB port, a headphone jack, an LCD screen, batteries, and a clip (optional). You plug in any USB storage device, whether it's your 1 GB keyring or your 300 GB external hard drive and it automatically finds all the mp3s on it and plays them. Or it tells you to put all of your music in folder of a certain name (like "Music"), and then it treats all of the subfolders in that main folder as playlists.

It would be cheap ($20-25), small, and easy to use. The batteries would have enough power to run whatever needs to be run in a thumbdrive (Obviously the big hard drives would need another power source). It would output a high quality signal to a stereo or to headphones, depending on whether you used it for a portable or home stereo.

So, you want to invent it? Already know about a gadget just like it? Got a reason why it would never work? Got some suggestions? Got your own "I Wish Someone Would Invent..."? See you in the comments!

6 comments:

C--S--B said...

Yeah I think that would be awesome too! You could probably rig something up, I think one hurdle would be that I think not all usb drives use the standard USB mass storage protocols, but you could just make something that only supported those devices. The other thing you'd have to worry about is the 5v you have to supply the thumbdrive, which would be hard to muster with a couple AAAs or something, so you might have to go with a lithium power supply like in cellphones which usually have like 7 volts. I'd start with something like this: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products0_id=7832
but it would almost be easier to start from scratch because you'd have to basically use an arduino board or something to convert the in/out from the MMC to the usb because usb only uses four pins, data+/-, 5v+ and ground . . . I wish I knew enough to program my own arduino boards, maybe someday. Then you could make almost anything. That or just build an interface to flash your own EEPROM chips and you could build something completely from scratch! that would be neat.

You know what I was thinking should be invented? A velcro felt disguise kit for kids! like with felt mustaches, muttenchops, and different bad wigs that velcro onto a skin colored felt cap. I would have loved one of those, wait I still would get a kick out of that . . .

Brittney Sabo said...

Zander....I want you to come with me to the future...where this has already been invented. And by the future, I mean now. You dont have to wait any more! =D

They were selling this exact invention (well...alot uglier...) in some scan disk memory cards a few month back at Target; it didnt store anything, and you could plug in the scane disk card with mp3s already on it, or plug in a thumb drive.

Also, if you look in the MP3 PLayer, or portable music player tags on http://www.gizmodo.com , there a few of them there too.

Unknown said...

Britt- that Gizmodo site could possibly destroy this entire blog section, but I'm soldiering on in my ignorance.

Curtis-- I like the idea of the velcro costume-- and I especially like the idea of making it a full face mask, so that you look like a guy who's about to rob a convenience store (or the killer from Red Dragon) before you put on the wigs and mustaches. Awesomely disturbing.

Anonymous said...

I WISH SOMEONE WOULD INVENT...

a convincing deity to die, kill, and base your life around their teachings.
all the current ones smack of pointless death inspired by bad literature.
maybe even create a deity who says killing is bad and wrong and MEANS it.
....sorry....
sorry....

Unknown said...

I HAVE BEEN LOOKING INTO THIS FOR LIKE A YEAR NOW IM TRYING TO CREATE A PORTABLE FILE VEIWER SO THAT YOU CAN PUT A USB INTO IT AND LOOK THREW THE FILES AND PLAY MP3S/ VEIW TEXT AND WORD FILES AND SO ON (sorry caps lock on)but i just cant figure out how i would be able to make the screen show the files

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