[tlug] "Long Live Portable OGG-Players"

["Lyle H Saxon" <llletters@example.com>]

iPod's are taking over to the point of exclusion of everything else!
Shudder-shudder-shudder!  About a year ago, when I went to Yodobashi
Camera in Shinjuku to buy a sound file player that would play OGG
files, there was a pretty even mix of things from different companies,
but when I went back to the same store last week, I was unpleasantly
surprised to see something like 95% of the display space taken up with
those bloody iPods.

As I wandered around feeling shell-shocked (the owners of the Sanshin
Building are planning to smash it to bits and Apple is seemingly
driving all sensible audio file players into oblivion), I remembered
meeting a friend at the Bic Camera in the old Sogo Department store
building by Yurakucho Station and seeing that they had more
OGG-playing models than I've been seeing at the Shinjuku Yodobashi
Camera, so I rode the Yamanote Line over there... and walked in horror
through another large and obnoxious display of bloody iPods, finally
finding evidence against a far wall on the second floor that they
still have some machines on display that will play OGG files, as
follows:

- AVOX OR8 1GB

- SIREN DP-200 / DP-300

- COWON

- iriver

I bought a SIREN, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.  Anyone
else using one?  I'm happy there are still choices - but will they
continue to be available in the future, or will we be swallowed by an
insipid and soulless monoculture?

Lyle