Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

MP3 Players Hot Christmas Gift This Year

Aired December 24, 2002 - 08:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Most of the electronics and high tech gadgets certainly to be guaranteed big sellers again this year. One of the year's gotta-have gizmos is the new MP3 players.
Janice Chen from CNet.com showed us a few of the hottest models this year. Here's Janice.

JANICE CHEN, CNET.COM: Well, I think this year a lot of people are trying to buy things that they can do with their computer, like digital cameras, MP3 players. And I guess I think they're going to be a popular product.

HEMMER: And I think the other thing is people are pretty new to this technology. The best way to understand it is that you essentially upload the software, upload your CD-ROM songs into your own computer.

CHEN: Right.

HEMMER: And take the songs from the software in the computer and load it on the MP3 player.

CHEN: Absolutely.

HEMMER: An easy way?

CHEN: And you can download music off the Internet, you know, like the services starting with Napster. And people sharing music and you can take those files and put them on.

HEMMER: All right. Well, let's get to this right here, then, with that as a backdrop. First up is what?

CHEN: This is the Creative NOMAD MuVo, and this is a really great MP3 player in that it's really super small. And it's one of the simplest to use. You pull it open, and you plug it up into your computer. And all you do is drag and drop music.

HEMMER: That kind of wipes out a step, doesn't it?

CHEN: Right. You don't use any software, you don't need to install any software or any cables. So we really like that one.

HEMMER: The price of that is what?

CHEN: One-hundred-and-thirty dollars for the 64MB version.

HEMMER: What do you not like about it?

CHEN: Well, it's very, very simple so there's no LCD panel. Some of the players like the ones I show you have LCD panels so that you can, say, you can read what track is coming on.

HEMMER: OK. That's from Creative. Next stop is what?

CHEN: This is the SlimX from iRiver, and what it is is that you'll see it sort of looks like a CD player. What you can do is you can play CD's in it, but you can also play CDs that you've recorded MP3s onto. So you can put about 250 songs onto a CD that you use in a CD burner on your computer, for example. And it's a really great, low cost way of having a lot of music on your -- on your player.

HEMMER: The disadvantage, you've got size here where you don't have with the other one.

CHEN: Size. Plus, there's the potential for skipping like with a regular CD player. But you can have as many CDs as you want and create mix CDs and everything, so it's a really inexpensive way of having media.

HEMMER: Price?

CHEN: This is also -- This is about $200, but the price for the additional memory is the price of the CDs. So it's a couple, you know, 50 cents or something for a CD.

HEMMER: Now I own this one. This is the Nike Sport MP3 for lack of a better phrase.

CHEN: Right. Now this one is great for people who want to use them working out. And one of the things about MP3 players like the NOMAD and the Nike is that they don't have any moving parts, so if you run with them, nothing's going to happen to them.

And this one has 128MB of memory on it, which translates into about four hours of music.

HEMMER: OK. And that's the big concern right now, you know? Can you have the technology to give you more power, to hold more songs, and how many songs can you get on there?

CHEN: Right.

HEMMER: So Nike's what, about $200? Two-twenty?

CHEN: Two hundred dollars exactly, so...

HEMMER: Well, that's cheaper than what I got mine for. So I won't be fooled.

Number four is the Apple. Tell us about it.

CHEN: The Apple iPod. Now this one is really, really popular right now, and the great thing about it is it's got a 10GB hard drive in there, which means you can put hundreds and hundreds of CDs on there. So you can pretty much put your entire CD collection on this small little drive.

HEMMER: How many CDs or how many songs?

CHEN: You can put about 2,000 songs on it. So depending on, you know, how long your CDs are...

HEMMER: Is that the high end right now? Are there those that go even higher than 2,000?

CHEN: There are. The iPod actually sells in a 20GB version, which you can put twice as much music on. And well, the 20GB version sells for $499. That's pretty expensive.

HEMMER: So it's twice the price and then some, too.

CHEN: Right.

HEMMER: Quickly, when it comes to technology, are you finding that now as you continue to review these products that do store more and more songs?

CHEN: Absolutely. They get -- They're getting bigger in capacity and smaller in size, so that you can take them with you, take more and more music with you. Products like the iPod, you can just transfer files onto it, so some people use them as backup for their computer, even, because there's so much storage on there that you can back up your entire computer on there for some people.

HEMMER: Well, I recommend it. I've had mine for a couple months right now, and it's really a nice little tool. And a step-up from the old Walkman, huh?

CHEN: That's right.

HEMMER: All right. Have a great holiday.

CHEN: Thank you.

HEMMER: Janice Chen, thanks for coming by.

CHEN: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 24, 2002 - 08:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Most of the electronics and high tech gadgets certainly to be guaranteed big sellers again this year. One of the year's gotta-have gizmos is the new MP3 players.
Janice Chen from CNet.com showed us a few of the hottest models this year. Here's Janice.

JANICE CHEN, CNET.COM: Well, I think this year a lot of people are trying to buy things that they can do with their computer, like digital cameras, MP3 players. And I guess I think they're going to be a popular product.

HEMMER: And I think the other thing is people are pretty new to this technology. The best way to understand it is that you essentially upload the software, upload your CD-ROM songs into your own computer.

CHEN: Right.

HEMMER: And take the songs from the software in the computer and load it on the MP3 player.

CHEN: Absolutely.

HEMMER: An easy way?

CHEN: And you can download music off the Internet, you know, like the services starting with Napster. And people sharing music and you can take those files and put them on.

HEMMER: All right. Well, let's get to this right here, then, with that as a backdrop. First up is what?

CHEN: This is the Creative NOMAD MuVo, and this is a really great MP3 player in that it's really super small. And it's one of the simplest to use. You pull it open, and you plug it up into your computer. And all you do is drag and drop music.

HEMMER: That kind of wipes out a step, doesn't it?

CHEN: Right. You don't use any software, you don't need to install any software or any cables. So we really like that one.

HEMMER: The price of that is what?

CHEN: One-hundred-and-thirty dollars for the 64MB version.

HEMMER: What do you not like about it?

CHEN: Well, it's very, very simple so there's no LCD panel. Some of the players like the ones I show you have LCD panels so that you can, say, you can read what track is coming on.

HEMMER: OK. That's from Creative. Next stop is what?

CHEN: This is the SlimX from iRiver, and what it is is that you'll see it sort of looks like a CD player. What you can do is you can play CD's in it, but you can also play CDs that you've recorded MP3s onto. So you can put about 250 songs onto a CD that you use in a CD burner on your computer, for example. And it's a really great, low cost way of having a lot of music on your -- on your player.

HEMMER: The disadvantage, you've got size here where you don't have with the other one.

CHEN: Size. Plus, there's the potential for skipping like with a regular CD player. But you can have as many CDs as you want and create mix CDs and everything, so it's a really inexpensive way of having media.

HEMMER: Price?

CHEN: This is also -- This is about $200, but the price for the additional memory is the price of the CDs. So it's a couple, you know, 50 cents or something for a CD.

HEMMER: Now I own this one. This is the Nike Sport MP3 for lack of a better phrase.

CHEN: Right. Now this one is great for people who want to use them working out. And one of the things about MP3 players like the NOMAD and the Nike is that they don't have any moving parts, so if you run with them, nothing's going to happen to them.

And this one has 128MB of memory on it, which translates into about four hours of music.

HEMMER: OK. And that's the big concern right now, you know? Can you have the technology to give you more power, to hold more songs, and how many songs can you get on there?

CHEN: Right.

HEMMER: So Nike's what, about $200? Two-twenty?

CHEN: Two hundred dollars exactly, so...

HEMMER: Well, that's cheaper than what I got mine for. So I won't be fooled.

Number four is the Apple. Tell us about it.

CHEN: The Apple iPod. Now this one is really, really popular right now, and the great thing about it is it's got a 10GB hard drive in there, which means you can put hundreds and hundreds of CDs on there. So you can pretty much put your entire CD collection on this small little drive.

HEMMER: How many CDs or how many songs?

CHEN: You can put about 2,000 songs on it. So depending on, you know, how long your CDs are...

HEMMER: Is that the high end right now? Are there those that go even higher than 2,000?

CHEN: There are. The iPod actually sells in a 20GB version, which you can put twice as much music on. And well, the 20GB version sells for $499. That's pretty expensive.

HEMMER: So it's twice the price and then some, too.

CHEN: Right.

HEMMER: Quickly, when it comes to technology, are you finding that now as you continue to review these products that do store more and more songs?

CHEN: Absolutely. They get -- They're getting bigger in capacity and smaller in size, so that you can take them with you, take more and more music with you. Products like the iPod, you can just transfer files onto it, so some people use them as backup for their computer, even, because there's so much storage on there that you can back up your entire computer on there for some people.

HEMMER: Well, I recommend it. I've had mine for a couple months right now, and it's really a nice little tool. And a step-up from the old Walkman, huh?

CHEN: That's right.

HEMMER: All right. Have a great holiday.

CHEN: Thank you.

HEMMER: Janice Chen, thanks for coming by.

CHEN: My pleasure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com