Your MP3 Player As Your Phone

By | March 24, 2005

I’m not convinced that this gadget is exactly the wonder it claims to be, but it’s an interesting fusion of functions. The soon-to-be-launched Ezmax MP3 Player includes a VoIP feature that, in the words of PC World’s Paul Kallender

when the device is linked to an Internet-connected PC via a USB 2.0 port, people can make local and international calls using a microphone that is included in the device’s earphone cord.

I must confess I share some of the skepticism expressed about whether this is a breakthrough product or a gimmick. But there are some interesting elements here that perhaps merit a closer look:

For one, this represents an interesting variation on the idea of USB application drive, where you keep the programs (and not just the data) that you need on a portable drive. (Here’s a discussion of the issue and some examples.) In this role the EZMP-4200P is simply working as portable application device.

But there’s also the built in microphone, which illustrates how the quality of recording, both in terms of input (the microphone) and storage (compression, sampling) have improved. I’m still using my Olympus DM-1 to record interviews but this is old, expensive and stale technology. It would be much better to have the same capability on a key drive (or, as some people do nowadays, their cellphone. iPods are an option, but an extra load.) The existing EZMP-4000 for example, already lets you record your lectures or conferences for up to a maximum of 18 hours(on a basis of 256MB) through a built-in high efficient mike. The USB drive as a good digital recorder. That’s pretty much all a journalist, writer, academic or whatever needs.

Then there’s the idea of identity on a stick. The EZMP-4200P, according to the article, would contain details of the VoIP accounts held by the user, and, while of course it needn’t serve an actual authentication role, it could. Carry your USB drive around, just plug it in to an Internet-connected PC and all your VoIPs accounts synchronise, just like your email, capturing voicemail, letting you make calls etc. Your USB drive would be like a SIM card: Just yours.

So maybe the EZMP isn’t that great a leap in itself, but it’s a sign of the opportunities that USB drives could provide.

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