DAP as a PDA/smartphone?
We thought about it … digital audio players (or DAP’s) have quite a bit of functionality built in these days, with basic calendaring, address books, and simple file readers. Of course, no one would expect them to have the input capabilities that PDAs are traditionally known for, but hear us out on our little concept:
What if you use your voice for your organizing and note-taking instead of putting it all on text? Granted, this will require some kickass menu/function navigation and data (in this case, audio file) management - but it’s not entirely impossible. We can record our notes, contacts, to-dos, and heck - even entire articles (think podcasts!) into individual audio files …
But how are we to tag these files to know their contents? An audio ID tag? That’d be cool, but would it be too time-consuming to drill thru them if you are to look for Billy-Bob’s phone number? What if, manufacturers can devise a simple form of data entry - like those joystick-controlled things we use to enter our names for highscores on gaming consoles?
If somehow this can be made to happen - and we are just dreaming really - we can finally be rid of styli and such on our “Personal Digital Assistants” or even smartphones. Navigation could all be done via keypads, navi-pads, or even finger-driven touchscreens.
While we mull over the possibilities, we leave everyone with a very compelling DAP that not only does playback - but also displays .jpg pics on its color display (before the iPod Photo came to being), .txt-formatted files (for simple text files), and direct line-in MP3 recording from any audio source including an external microphone:
Check out the not-so-new but very capable iRiver H320 digital audio player with 20GB hard drive, available for as low as $263 on the Web.