Swedish manufacturer "Jens of Sweden", has just released a new flash-based mp3-player in 128 MB, 256 MB and 512 MB versions, what's specificly interesting is it's support for Ogg Vorbis.

Se more information here:
http://www.jensofsweden.se/media/MP-130/mp-130.pdf

It seems there are no bitrate limitations like on iRivers, so I think it might be the player to get. I mean, 512 MB + Ogg Vorbis Q2 =

Looks very interesting to me. I have an MP100 which I have been very happy with. I have visited their forums frequently, and I can see that they have really listened to what people wanted in future players. In MP130 they have included some of the top request in the forum, such as Ogg Vorbis, line in, MP3 recording, better battery time, higher output power, and some more or less useless features such as clock/alarm and screensaver. The only thing missing is USB2.0, that would have meant the perfect player for me at least...

Too bad they only released the product info in swedish so far. I guess you can understand most of it, but here are som things translated that you may not have been able to understand:
- The player has a "mirror screen" which they claim to be very sharp.
- It is possible to insert your own images and animations
- Wheight of 42 g includes built in Li-ion battery
- No USB cable is needed, i think the USB connector slides out in one of the ends.
- Display: 96x64 pixels, orange/blue text/images
- user defined EQ
- Screensaver with support for animated files. Guess you can make your own.
- Battery is charged trough the USB port, but you can buy 230V and 12V chargers. I am pretty sure they will offer 110 V as well but his product sheet doesn't mention it since it is targetting swedish customers only.

The rest should be understandable anyway...

Whether there really is no bitrate limitations for Vorbis and how much the battery time is reduced when playing Vorbis compared to MP3 remains to be seen though.

http://www.iops.co.kr/home/iops_product.html

It's been available in Korea for some time.

The USB connector swivels out on a hinge.

Very nice, esp. how there aren't the bit-rate limitations like in the iRiver and it's a flash memory player too.

As I understand it, "Jens of Sweden" ("Tom of Finland" anyone?) is not developing anything of their own. They are just rebranding other companies products, in this case IOPS apparently.

Right. There was an anonymous person on slashdot who stated otherwise, but IOPS states clearly that they played a crucial part in the planning and the design of the player.

http://www.vamp-mp3.com/iops_f300/index.html
http://www.ism-technologie.com/fr/iops.php
And it looks like they're doing business with more than just Jens of Sweden.

They claim to develop the products together with a couple of korean manufacturers. How much they actually do is hard to say, they do develop their own firmware on most models however. All manufacturing is done in Korea of course.

EDIT: kjonlee was a bit faster.

Does anybody know if this player supports gapless playback, or if gapless playback support is being developed?

[OT]
Every time I see a product with the logo "Jens of Sweden" I can't help wondering how they came up with that name. It just sounds cheap to me, just like "Tom of Finland" or "Ola of Norway" would have. Not the first thing I would spend my money on when there are other alternatives.

iRiver apparently thinks changing their logo will be advantageous, what did the people at "Jens of Sweden" think when they came up with their name
[/OT]

Has someone seen this player in real life? I'm wondering about the mirror, as that seems like a strange effect to add to a screen. Is OLED really that superior?

The Korean version has been unconstrained since Jan 2004. The French site mentions the bitrate limitations, and I don't know if it's outdated or not.


While a lot of people in Korea want Vorbis, not many want gapless playback.

Consequently, not many companies in Korea support gapless. One source tells me it's not gapless yet.

The founder of the company is Jens Nylander and he is from Sweden. To me it sounds like an underwear brand, but their products are of good quality.

Also available in France. The "manufacturer" name is ISM:
http://www.clubic.com/n/n12252.html (comparative test in french language)

Some quite strange english is used on one site


This should be a good player though. Can it play AAC? Can you use memory cards with it?

(I don't speak neither korean, nor french, and not even swedish )

http://www.iops.co.kr/enghome/index.html

They claim 17 hours of playback.

No AAC, though. I'm not aware of Korean manufacturers supporting AAC. (iRiver did use to support it in their old OEM devices, but I don't think I've seen them supporting it in their own products.)

If you want to use memory cards, then you'll have to wait for an offering from Nextway.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/show.php/showtopic/13320
Crude PowerPoint intro to "host mp3 players"

hi!

does anyone know if it is available in austria or germany? how much is the price for the "jens of sweden"-product?

thx

Since I live in Germany that would also be my question as well... Anybody?


Regards.

According to their press release they only sell their products through retailers in scandinavia and USA.

USA? Huh? Wha? Where can I get this thing now?

They probably only started to sell it in Scandinavia so far, since they have only put out a swedish press release. There only seems to be two retailers in the US so far:
http://www.jensofsweden.com/where.asp?base=5&country=usa

Been looking at this - anyone found any suppliers in the UK?

the new iriver flash players look better on paper to me

http://www.irivernordic.com/products.php?pid=49

IFP - 899

Frequency Range: 20Hz - 20KHz
Headphone Output: 18mW + 18mW at 16Ohm
S/N Ratio: MP3 90dB
Radio: 50dB
FM Tuner Frequency: 87,5 - 108 MHz
File Types: MP3, WMA, ASF & Ogg Vorbis
Bit Rates: 32Kbps - 320Kbps
ID3 Tags: ID3 V1 Tag, ID3 V2 2.0, ID3 V2 3.0, ID3 V2 4.0
Power Supply: 1x 1,5V AA Battery
Size: 88.5x36.2x27,3mm
Weight: 65g incl. std batt.
Memory: 1GB (1024MB)
Transfer: USB 2.0
Max Playback Time: up to 40 hours