What's the Archos Jukebox?

The Archos Jukebox is a product from Archos Inc., a company which specializes in portable storage devices. It's a device about the same size as a Walkman, indeed you might easily mistake it for a Walkman were it not for three subtle differences:

The chunky blue rubberised bumpers on each corner
The weight of the thing - it's (shall we say) "noticeable".
The neatly placed USB port on the base.

The give-away is that last one, the USB port. This is no Walkman - this is a laptop hard disk, hastily disguised as a music player. Turns out, it does both jobs pretty well.

First, the Jukebox as a music player. The device sports a 6Gb hard disk, enabling it to store up to 150 MP3-compressed music CDs. I estimate I have about 200 in my collection, but truth be told I'm only listening to ten or so at any one time so the capacity is perfectly adequate. I am wary of giving too many hard shocks to the device (despite the bumpers) but so far it has proved stable. I have encoded all my favourite CDs (using the MusicMatch Jukebox software, supplied) and downloaded them onto the device - a remarkably painless and quick process. Now, my musical life is transformed. I listen to whatever I like in the car, in the office, in the kitchen, bedroom or out walking the dog, all with minimal effort on my part. I glance over at the stack of CDs to my side and question - am I really that bothered about the cover-art and lyrics?

Second, the Jukebox as a hard disk. The Archos has surprised be in its versatility as a secondary disk drive and backup device, due to its simplicity and handiness (there it is, next to me!). I can create copies of all my data files with ease, transfer information between my own and a colleague's laptop (we both need the driver installed, but it is available for download from the Archos web site), run incremental backups on a far more regular basis than I was doing before. Wherever I am, I nearly always have all my data with me - this remains a theoretical advantage, but handy anyway. Finally, a free software package available from CFlash Software, purportedly for copying MP3 files, is near-perfect (as slightly buggy) for synchronising my work in progress with an offline copy.

That reminds me - time to do a backup. If only I didn't have to turn the music off!

What's the Need for the Jukebox?

The Archos Jukebox is a result of convergence between computing and entertainment technologies. A few years ago, who would have considered wrapping a hard drive up as a music player? As soon as it has become practical, it has been done and very handy it proves to be. Archos is not the only player (sic) in this space - the Nomad is a popular Jukebox MP3 player, as is the Creative Jukebox.

The concept of carrying abroad range of music around is a clear winner, as is concept of the affordable, portable, usable hard drive. Manufacturers live in "interesting times" (according to the Chinese curse), in that they are free to try a wide variety of technology combinations, however there is no guarantee that the customers will be attracted to any specific combination. The price point (that is, how much vendors can get away with charging) is as important as what is being sold.

New device types are coming on to the market, including the Linux-based XX. This includes a comprehensive set of interfaces including a network interface, audio input/output, USB and even video ports. The idea is of the XX to act as a support tool for sales engineers, who can take the corporate presentation just about everywhere. One fatal flaw - apparently it's as light as a brick.

What's the Debate with the Jukebox?

Where to start? There is a debate about devices, how they interoperate and how they can be managed - for example, the Jukebox is one more device that can get lost or broken.

Manageability is overshadowed by the looming debate about music in general and MP3 in particular. Despite the law courts clamping down on Napster, it remains remarkably easy to obtain pirate copies of recordings over the Internet. While not condoning this, it has to be recognised that the music industry is going to have to change. The only thing holding back the tide is the lack of bandwidth, a missing link that is being forged even as we speak (see our discussion of broadband technologies, here).

What's the Future of the Jukebox?

Realistically, the Jukebox is just one more toy to be thrown onto the high-tech garbage pile of IT history. It will be superseded by faster, cheaper and (let's hope) lighter devices that do the job ten times better. Even the concept of the Jukebox is destined for the dustbin, as audio devices converge with audiovisual - it doesn't take a huge leap of faith to see the potential of a similar device with a built in LCD screen. So far, no-one has built one but you can bet the drawing boards are covered with the things.

There are a number of obvious convergences - PDAs and mobile phones will no doubt converge and provide some kind of jukebox functionality in the future. In the longer term, broadband connectivity may make such local storage redundant, or may reduce it to the lowly status of short-term cache. There are bound to be some less obvious ones - we'll wait for hindsight to tell you what they are.

Further Resources

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