Dell Digital Jukebox
Encyclopedia
The Dell Digital Jukebox or just Dell DJ was a brand name for a series of digital audio players sold by the Dell Computer corporation.
The Dell DJs were engineered by Creative Technology
and based on the same hardware and software platform as their Creative NOMAD
/Creative Zen
digital audio players. For example, these devices also used a single TMS320DA25x
processor as the main CPU
, and the user interface such as the menus, playlists etc was very much the same.
On February 7, 2006, Dell announced the end of production of hard drive players and continued to only sell their flash-based player, the DJ Ditty. Dell spokesman Liem Nguyen commented, "We transitioned our lineup away from hard drives to focus on flash players." On August 24 of that same year, Dell announced that they also discontinued the DJ Ditty in the face of competition from Apple, manufacturer of the , and other MP3 player manufacturers.
"It (DJ Ditty) will end of life and when the supply runs out we will not have a follow-on product to that music player," Dell spokesperson Venancio Figueroa said.
In a strategic U-turn, many Dell executives confirmed in July 2008 that Dell would be launching a new music player as early as September 2008 that would not compete on the price of hardware, but would instead have a strong online musical shopping experience. However, this new music player never appeared.
in 2004. It has 5 GB of memory, capable of holding 2,500 songs. It retailed for $199, which was the same price as the now discontinued 4 GB Apple iPod Mini
. The Pocket DJ has a 10 hour battery life and charges through a USB plug either through the computer or electrical outlet.
The Pocket DJ is compatible with many music stores and formats, such as WMA (Windows Media Audio
), and MP3. It also sports a blue 160 by 104 pixel screen, although easy for most people to read in the daylight, it can be difficult to read at night, because the blue reduces the clarity of the screen. The buttons also light up on the front, providing easy navigation. The buttons include, Back, Home, Previous/Rewind, Play/Pause, and Next/FastForward.
The interface looks similar to the Creative Zen Micro, except the Pocket DJ does not have voice recording or FM tuner.
Similar to the iPod
's click wheel, the Pocket DJ has a small scroll barrel that can be used to scroll through playlists, etc. When you scroll to a song, you push down on the barrel and a menu comes up asking you if you want to play the song, add it to a playlist, delete it, etc. You can bypass the pop-up menu by pushing the Play/Pause button.
and Dell DJ Explorer. The Musicmatch Jukebox software is used to copy, manage, and transfer music to the Dell DJ while the Dell DJ Explorer allows for the Dell DJ to be used as an external hard drive and provide more intuitive procedures to renaming, reordering, and simply putting songs on the music player by copying and pasting songs from the hard drive into the mp3 player.
The Deubox Explorer and RedChair software have, as a whole, stopped supporting their customers and can no longer register legally purchased software to use.
The Dell DJs were engineered by Creative Technology
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
and based on the same hardware and software platform as their Creative NOMAD
Creative NOMAD
The NOMAD was a range of digital audio players designed and sold by Creative Technology, and later discontinued in 2004. Subsequent players now fall exclusively under the MuVo and ZEN brands.The NOMAD series consisted of two distinct brands:...
/Creative Zen
Creative Zen
The Creative ZEN is a range of digital audio players and portable media players made by Creative Technology. The players evolved from the now-defunct NOMAD brand through the NOMAD Jukebox series...
digital audio players. For example, these devices also used a single TMS320DA25x
Texas Instruments TMS320
Texas Instruments TMS320 is a blanket name for a series of digital signal processors from Texas Instruments. It was introduced on April 8, 1983 through the TMS32010 processor, which was then the fastest DSP on the market....
processor as the main CPU
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
, and the user interface such as the menus, playlists etc was very much the same.
On February 7, 2006, Dell announced the end of production of hard drive players and continued to only sell their flash-based player, the DJ Ditty. Dell spokesman Liem Nguyen commented, "We transitioned our lineup away from hard drives to focus on flash players." On August 24 of that same year, Dell announced that they also discontinued the DJ Ditty in the face of competition from Apple, manufacturer of the , and other MP3 player manufacturers.
"It (DJ Ditty) will end of life and when the supply runs out we will not have a follow-on product to that music player," Dell spokesperson Venancio Figueroa said.
In a strategic U-turn, many Dell executives confirmed in July 2008 that Dell would be launching a new music player as early as September 2008 that would not compete on the price of hardware, but would instead have a strong online musical shopping experience. However, this new music player never appeared.
Models and history
- The first-generation of Dell Digital Jukeboxes started out with two models: a 15 GB version for about $199 and the 20 GB version that cost $279 according to Reader's Digest Commercial way back year 2004. These initial models featured voice recording; MP3, protected and unprotected WMA, WAV file playback; and use as an external hard drive (pending driver installation).
- The introduction of the second-generation of Dell digital jukeboxes began with 5 GB Dell Pocket DJ (see below). Features unique to this second-generation of players were its smaller physical size and firmware that achieved Microsoft PlaysForSureMicrosoft PlaysForSureStarting in 2004, Microsoft PlaysForSure was a certification given by Microsoft to portable devices and content services that had been tested against several hundred compatibility and performance requirements. These requirements include codec support, DRM support, UI responsiveness, device...
certification. Since then, Dell has produced 15 GB, 20 GB and 30 GB versions of their players. - On September 2005, Dell introduced the Dell DJ Ditty, a 512 MB flash memory based player. Features unique to this model (apart from its storage medium) were smaller physical size and integrated FM tuner.
- On October 11, 2005, it was revealed that, both Sirius and XM (with partner Samsung) will offer an MP3 satellite player that fall. Dell then announced that it would upgrade to a third-generation DJ and Pocket DJ with capability to play XM radio streams pre-recorded on an accompanying dock system. A color screen would replace the monochrome display.
- On February 6, 2006, it was announced that Dell discontinued their hard drive based players, and will not release any future models at this time.
- On August 18, 2006, Dell discontinued production of the Dell DJ Ditty.
Dell Pocket DJ
The Dell Pocket DJ is a pocket sized player released by DellDell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
in 2004. It has 5 GB of memory, capable of holding 2,500 songs. It retailed for $199, which was the same price as the now discontinued 4 GB Apple iPod Mini
IPod mini
The iPod Mini is a digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was the midrange model in Apple's iPod product line. It was announced on January 6, 2004 and released on February 20 of the same year. A second-generation version was announced on February 23, 2005 and released later...
. The Pocket DJ has a 10 hour battery life and charges through a USB plug either through the computer or electrical outlet.
The Pocket DJ is compatible with many music stores and formats, such as WMA (Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
), and MP3. It also sports a blue 160 by 104 pixel screen, although easy for most people to read in the daylight, it can be difficult to read at night, because the blue reduces the clarity of the screen. The buttons also light up on the front, providing easy navigation. The buttons include, Back, Home, Previous/Rewind, Play/Pause, and Next/FastForward.
The interface looks similar to the Creative Zen Micro, except the Pocket DJ does not have voice recording or FM tuner.
Similar to the iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
's click wheel, the Pocket DJ has a small scroll barrel that can be used to scroll through playlists, etc. When you scroll to a song, you push down on the barrel and a menu comes up asking you if you want to play the song, add it to a playlist, delete it, etc. You can bypass the pop-up menu by pushing the Play/Pause button.
Dell DJ 20 and Dell DJ 30
The Pocket DJ has three siblings: the DJ 20, which holds 20 GB of music; DJ 30, which holds 30 GB of music; and the DJ Ditty, a flash-based player which holds 512 MB of music.Dell Ditty
The Dell Ditty was a small player that had 512 MB of flash memory and a built in FM tuner. It had a small screen showing the currently playing track. MP3 files could be dragged and dropped into the player through Windows Explorer. The player did not offer file choosing, just playback in order or random "shuffle" and repeat. Different color caps were available for purchase from Dell. The Ditty was discontinued in August 2006.Dell software
Dell supplies two pieces of software with the purchase of a Digital Jukebox: The "basic" version of Musicmatch JukeboxMusicmatch Jukebox
Y!Music Musicmatch Jukebox, a remake of the original Musicmatch Jukebox made by Musicmatch, Inc., is an audio player that manages a digital audio library...
and Dell DJ Explorer. The Musicmatch Jukebox software is used to copy, manage, and transfer music to the Dell DJ while the Dell DJ Explorer allows for the Dell DJ to be used as an external hard drive and provide more intuitive procedures to renaming, reordering, and simply putting songs on the music player by copying and pasting songs from the hard drive into the mp3 player.
Third-party software
Beside the Dell included DJ Explorer program that is used to transfer music and data, there are other transfer and track/file management programs- Free softwareFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
:- AmarokAmarok (audio)Amarok is a cross-platform free and open source music player for KDE, but is released independently of the central KDE Software Compilation release cycle...
is a music player for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(homepage) - Creative Nomad Jukebox KIO::Slave is an integration driver for KDEKDEKDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
(homepage) which should also work with the Dell DJs. - Gnomad is a DJ Manager for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(homepage) - Neutrino is another DJ Manager for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(homepage) - Nomadsync is a DJ synchronization tool for LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(homepage) - XNJB is a DJ Manager for Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
10.3 and later (homepage)
- Amarok
- Proprietary softwareProprietary softwareProprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
:- Deubox Explorer (formerly known as Dudebox Explorer) by Red Chair Software (homepage) is a transfer program for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. This $25 program includes a file streamer and with the ability to convert an MP3 player into a file server that is accessible over the Internet.
- Deubox Explorer (formerly known as Dudebox Explorer) by Red Chair Software (homepage) is a transfer program for Microsoft Windows
The Deubox Explorer and RedChair software have, as a whole, stopped supporting their customers and can no longer register legally purchased software to use.
External links
- DJ Life - Dell has released a new website specifically designed for the Dell DJ's
- Dell Pocket DJ - Driver download and Firmware Upgrade (download for PlaysForSure support & updates)
- Dell DJ (20GB/30GB Gen 2) - Driver download and firmware upgrade (download for PlaysForSure support & updates)