I was mean to the Philips Streamium Player the other week. Some of you might have thought, “Well, that was a PC product and Fry is a Mac man to his boots, so what can we expect?” I can hardly express therefore the pleasure with which I am able to rave about another, in many ways, similar device, and one that is even more emphatically PC-oriented.
Trevor Baylis leapt to fame 10 years ago with his wind-up radio. Now comes his Eco Media Player (around £170). There is something about this adorable device that makes me smile, and keep smiling. The difference between it and the Streamium says a lot about the crucial emotional reciprocity between manufacturer and consumer of which one is aware the moment one opens the packaging. One product gives off an air of corporate indifference and separation from the human world, the other a sense of wanting to please, of wanting to love and be loved.
Chunky, rubber-skinned and round-cornered, the Eco Player’s dimensions make it thicker than the mainstream generation of players, but then it has to house the famous Baylis crank. For all that, it feels lighter than a packet of cigarettes. My version has 2GB of internal flash memory, but models up to 8GB are (or will be) available. All that you’d hope to find is present and correct: mini USB connector with which it can be charged via your PC or Mac’s USB (2.0) port, slot for a mini-SD memory card and sockets for headphones and line-in. Plus FM radio (great quality), a music player in all the usual formats (if you like volume, this blasts the iPod out of the water), video (using the asv codec: boo), a voice recorder, a self-styled ebook reader and a startlingly bright torch. Yes, torch.
Granted, the video is no better than on the Philips and the resolution and icon design on its 1.8-inch screen is never going to make Apple quake in their boots, but this device has got that thing, you know?
Its most obviously innovative feature is that whatever you have eaten that morning will power it – calorie-fuelled charge of one minute via the wind-up handle provides 40 minutes of audio play.
The details are so right, too. Both the mobile phone and the PC-to-device mini-USB cables come in sprung recoil housing. Good – really good – bud earphones. The torch simply makes one grin. And there’s more under the bonnet. A kind of cheerful openness pervades the Eco. Audio recording is fine for “voice memos”, whatever the hell they are, but the Eco goes one step farther with a software switch that lets you record via line-in, too. Cassettes, minidisks, DATs and vinyl are welcomed through a minijack for conversion into MP3. There are plenty of dedicated little boxes that do this, but Baylis has thrown this into an already function-rich object that has already more than justified its asking price.
There is also a switch that allows the crank to discharge its power not internally to the device’s own Lithium Ion battery but out through the mini-USB into a mobile phone, charging it with up to two minutes of talk time. A selection of popular phone connections is included. Very handy in an emergency, though I found it couldn’t deliver enough kick to start up a phone whose battery was drained. Still, it’s yet another pleasing extra. And did I mention that there’s a speaker so you can listen, in mono admittedly, without earphones? Eat Trevor’s dust, Apple. Only the iPhone can match that. No iPod can.
But yes, this is truly a PC-only device. The asv video codec is not available on the Mac. So far as I am aware, there isn’t any Mac software to allow you to convert into it. The Eco’s utility CD can’t even play on a Windows Virtualised or Bootcamped Mac, for it is a tiny disk and the slot-loading Mac accepts only the standard CD size. Well, that’s Apple’s fault, not Baylis’s, though the device works well enough with a Mac, mounting itself as a disc when connected.
A hand-cranked music player with radio, voice recording, in-line recording and a freaking torch? And it’s called *Eco*??
I think I just found my new music player. I’m naming him ‘Umberto.’
Thanks for the tip!!
Barmy, brilliant, and covetable.
And so is the music player.
Less painful than the windup that Philips got…
For your American readers:
Torch = Flashlight
Bonnet = Hood
Nothing says ‘buy me’ quite like an iPod with a Baylis crank.
Splendid device. It’s already on partner’s upcoming seasonal hype-day (day to endure relatives/brussel sprout day) list.
Now, I wonder if Bayliss or someone could invent the treadmill powered television. It would of course have an inverse relation to the quality of the programme being watched.
-”Oh, I see you want to watch ‘Big Brother’/'I’m a Celeb. get me out of here’, ?” “Well, that’s 20 miles on the treadmill I’m afraid”.
-”Ah, you want to watch ‘QI’?”, “Well, let’s see, our quality rating scale measures that as good for you, so it’s only half a mile……if you start running now, you can enjoy both the endorphin high from running and the genius of the programme”.
What a great gadget post to follow your blessay on “Housekeeping”.
Here is a gratuituous comment, not regarding the above post which has made me contemplate both my bank balance (it is not bountiful, alas) and my terrible lack of up-to-date modern gadgets, but to thank you for writing out here. I think you are just wonderful, and I’m so very happy that you’re sharing both your written and spoken voice with me (other people get it too, I know *waves hand dismissively*). Gush gush my apologies to the weak of stomach, but sometimes it just has to be said, you know?
Me think this will be a less controversial topic then the whole Prachett/Global warming/heated discussion debate
And Mr. Fry dont be a silly monkey who in the world wouldnt like you tssssss
I just bought an old baylis windup radio for the shed and the sound quality is top notch…
so if the build quality of this new product is up to that standard it is well worth a look… and maybe just for the other features…. apparently clockwork in sheds it the future
I agree: design and feedback, that’s everything. What’s the point of a little thing that does everything you want but does it unpleasingly and in a non-stilish way? What’s the point if it doesn’t give you the impression of being listened and obbeid? (Is that the word? Sorry, I’m spanish!).
We, as human beings, love beauty as much as function. This seems a little lovely device, though
One product gives off an air of corporate indifference and separation from the human world, the other a sense of wanting to please, of wanting to love and be loved.
Stephen, I know exactly what you mean. There’s just something about Bayliss’s cranky innovations that makes me smile. It’s possibly because they are genuinely innovative rather than just painted a new exciting shade of cerise. It’s only a pity it doesn’t work with Amaunet, my little MacBook, otherwise this would go straight on the Christmas list.
[...] story here Der Beitrag wurde am Friday, den 23. November 2007 um 17:47 Uhr veröffentlicht und wurde [...]
I was interested to hear that the flashlight..er…torch is brilliant. Every hand-cranked flashlight I’ve ever used has been disappointingly dim.
Wow I’m so tempted =]
Trevor Baylis is ace, I’ve got a wind up radio somewhere of his lol =P
It sounds great, might end up saving up ;]
Finally, an mp3 player that tempts me. Love the e-book reader bit. No, love it ALL. The torch just makes it even more “Boy Scout”-ish! Must investigate at once. Thanks for the review!
Wow…
The odd thing is, I recently left ‘the big smoke’ to travel a whole 40 miles from London to go camping. It was the usual bonding affair, and all was set. Until phone batteries started running out, no one had any music (as the guitar had been destroyed a few nights previous after drunken stumbling back to the tents).
We all hit upon the idea of wind-up radios, and wind-up MP3 players… “one already exists, surely?” I said, but I didn’t feel confident it would be any good.
I’ll have to look into these when I’m next out for a replacement. However, the mac compatibility may be an issue, I am no bootcamping my mac again, last time it went horrifically wrong.
Besides, my digital music library has become huge, and I’d need Apples new ‘classic’ iPod to satisfy my needs. If only Baylis can get that crank to power a hard drive.
I can’t get excited about the iphone. However, this I like. What’s that all about?
Is the USB connection just for power input / connection to a PC, or can you can you also charge USB compatible devices such as Ipods with the Eco player?
In addition to AxmxZ’s remarks: Do you think they are aware of the fact that Eco recently published “On Ugliness”?!
Mr. Fry, that sounds like a wonderful device! I hate batteries, and could use a bit of exercise anyway.
You’ve sold me on it. (I’m glad you’re not using your talents for Evil.)
Here’s a couple of links that may be handy to fellow readers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Baylis http://www.windup-products.com/shop/ I don’t think the latter is connected to Trevor.
@ Real_Icon_Canzonett:
Who ‘they’ – Trevor Baylis et al.? Are you saying you find the contraption ugly?
Re: ‘On Ugliness’. I was at the talk Eco gave on Nov. 15th in NYC. It was an evening to remember. Eco’s struggle with his iMac-controlled slideshow apparatus was epic.
Are you reading this, Mr. Fry, sir? It was EPIC, I tell you. By the fifth or sixth time the software spontaneously itself to the opener slide – the Venus of Willendorf – the audience was howling with laughter. But I digress.
Anyway, Eco said an interesting thing: “Beauty is terribly boring. An ugly nose, on the other hand, can be infinite.” My Jewish honker agrees. It is large; it contains multitudes. (Or at least the promise of multitudes.)
Oooh, now I want one! I’m addicted to gadget, this is totally something I’m asking my parents for for Xmas, lol.
On a tangent (complete and utter one at that) I just saw that documentary you made on bipolar disorder. Kudos talking about it, I’ve just written a novel about my experiences and, naturally, not easy to get that published, but I’m determined! I just had to say I really related to your documentary. You’re an incredibly brave man, I think you’ve done a lot to make people more aware. Well done man!
Lorcs
Hello, totally unrelated but on behalf of the English students at Queens’ Cambridge please do come and give a Prac Crit session as it would be awesome!
More on ‘the crucial emotional reciprocity between manufacturer and consumer’.
I already own a hand cranked torch that is bright (ah dem LEDs!) with an external jack for powering mobile phones.
Unfortunately, it feels like I’m holding a piece of 4″ piping, and somebody’s idea of casing design included a tapered,curved bottom… so you can’t set the @#(*## thing upright!!
[...] Stephen Fry reviews the Eco Media Player from Trevor Baylis which means, yes, it’s a wind-up mp3 player. “One minute via the wind-up handle provides 40 minutes of audio play.” One thing that’s always struck me about iPods, etc is they assume you’re always going back to your computer at the end of the day. If you’re off into the wilds then even an iPod with a new battery ain’t gonna cut it. Oh, and is also has a torch. Genius. [...]
Bayliss is just two sideburns short of God-like status.
Love the man. Love the intentions.
Though his ripples are small, they do have significant seismic resonance in the technology landscape.
I’m not 100% sure what ASV is (and neither are Google nor Wikipedia), but I suspect it’s an ASF file by another name; if so, the wonderful VideoLan Client (www.videolan.org) will export WMV1/2 based ASF files via its streaming/exporting wizard. Not having access to an EcoPlayer I can’t vouch for the efficacy of the technique, provide advice on other aspects (resolution, maximum supported bitrate, etc.), and it’s also important to remember that there’s the very real danger that I’m talking through my hat.
(I’m convinced there’s a market for a mini-to-normal disk converter — sort of the inverse of the little widgets you used to need to play some 45s that had (for reasons I was never privy to) a big hole instead of a little hole in the centre. If I weren’t so lazy and unmotivated I’d do something about it…)
Eco sounds really quirky and cool. Me want! (well a girl can dream can’t she?) ^_^
I so want one of these!!! Sadly I am skint as a jobless collage student maybe I think I should ask my parents nicely. =D
Hello people,
the latest instalment of Stephen Fry Appreciation Monday, so pop by
http://www.couchslobs.com/?p=90
How absolutely adorable. It’s the cute puppy of gadgets.
[...] Eco Media Player Cranks up the volume [StephenFry.com] [...]
Ah, the crank. I have a hard time believing the crank on such a small machine is comfortable to use, but who cares? Ever since I worked in an anarchist-run restaurant that had lost its electricity due to lack of revenue and mis-management by mostly teenagers and ex-deadheads, I have loved the Baylis crank radio and wished that everything in the world had one of those little cranks attached. We did manage to steal enough electricity from our neighbors to light the dining room for a few hours a day that year, but cooking is no fun in silence. That little crank radio made my day. The restaurant in question now has a new benefactor, solar panels, and a whole new generation of employees, but I will always have a soft spot for that little radio.
I have one of these. It does not like me, and I do not like it, even though I really want to. I’m in the middle of composing a complaint that I’ll probably never send. Maybe it’s just my particular device, but I find it to be incredibly unpleasant to use (except for the hand-cranking, thats awesome and the reason why I probably won’t send it back)
I’ve so far found the whole thing to be poorly designed and frustrating to operate. I have tiny fingers, yet each time I try to turn up the volume the song skips instead (painfully slowly too: fade-out, long pause……). Can’t skip through more than one song at a time either, each file has to load before it can be skipped. I tried listening to a whole album and it played back in the wrong order despite my carefully numbered file names. I set it to random and frequently heard the same song play consecutively. I’m almost craving the functionality of my old (battery powered!) flashdrive/mp3 player.
[...] case you missed it in the Guardian last week, Stephen Fry’s new gadget column was about “Eco” – a wind-up media player from Trevor Bayliss, [...]
Elbiggus:
ASV – as far as I can tell, it’s actually MP4 – and the software converts other video formats to it.
45s … As I understand it, those with the big holes in the middle were ones that had been inside juke boxes.
Alice – I’m hoping that it was just yours that was a bit quirky … I’ve just ordered one. That said, it’s mostly Audio Books that I’ll be using it for, and so I won’t generally want to skip sections (though I will want to be able to carry on from where I got to; would be a pain to hear chapter 1 every time.)
The comment that it didn’t play things in the right order could be a pain though.
I’m afraid I have to concur with Alice on this. I picked one up (Green & Easy have ‘em for £130, btw) but have been terribly disappointed. There is indeed a certain charm to it, the sound output is very good and cranking the power up is far more fun than winding a crank should be, but the interface comes crashing down with an almighty thud.
Navigating between albums is a convoluted affair (hinging on an orderly use of folders), the controls are unresponsive (anything that spends a second flashing “initializing” before playback doesn’t bode well) and as mentioned above, getting songs to play in any proper order seems to take some kind of tagging beyond my ken. Oh, and stepping out of the audio play mode even to browse the other modes (to, say, look at photos or read an ebook) halts play.
And I’m gutted. I wanted to love this thing, I really did. And in many ways I do. It does have the feel of a good, solid earthy piece of technology. The torch is great, there’s a nice little speaker on the front, and there’s a lovely tingle when you see your mobile recharge bar come alight as you wind the crank (and not due to poor electrical insulation), but it’s not quite there.
My advice: wait a bit. The idea is solid, and it shines with all manner of hardware innovation. Now they just have to get the software on the same page.
And speaking of hi-low-tech, anybody had a go with one of the XO laptops? I love the “buy-one-get-one” program they are running, but it’s not available in the UK at the moment. It strikes me as a great tool for writing on the go!
Sadly we probably won’t be able to get this product in Australia for another dozen years…
I was given one of these at Christmas. It’s odd, in some ways it’s great (the sound quality, the light, the winder/charger, the look and feel, the features as sold and the canny little spring loaded USB cord) but by heck is it strange in other ways.
I swear I’ve set the clock right several times to no avail. The on/off switch only works when it feels like it. Locking the keys mean the screen displays ‘hold’ rather than something logical like ‘keys locked’ (why?) and the radio, while of good sound quality, has audible ticks every second or so while listening (unless the signal is absolutely perfect) and tuning involves putting up with scratchy squeaks with each change of frequency. And don’t mention the back to basics type face.
But, I’m using it and becoming rather fond of it. Hit or miss? Well, atm it’s at the wicket but looking out of form, it’s innings depends on the bowling I guess.
Just wanted to thank ITV & Stephen Fry for making my Sunday evenings something to look forward to, I am of course, referring to series 2 of ‘Kingdom’ with the wonderfully funny & charming Mr Stephen Fry. I also congratulate the entire cast and production team for this outstanding comedy/drama. Its mixture of comedy, pathos and compassion, makes it for me the perfect combination for a best drama award. With the collective sarcasm & impressive wit of Stephen Fry and the cheeky humour of Karl Davies, it has re-activated my chuckle-muscle. Well Done Mr Fry & ITV… Best wishes to Stephen on his recovery.