Cannibals Descend on MP3 Players

[framewerkz]

http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,62509,00.html

Digital photographers have found a source of cheap microdrives for their cameras: Creative Technology's MuVo2 digital music player.

Like Apple Computer's iPod mini, the MuVo2 is based on a 4-GB microdrive from Hitachi.

But while the Hitachi microdrive retails for about $500 when sold as a storage device for digital cameras, the MuVo2 costs about $200.

As someone put it on a website forum, you get the microdrive for more than 50 percent off, and a free pair of headphones.

"The price was right," said Norman Yee, a professional photographer who bought a MuVo2 so he could use its hard drive in his Canon EOS 10D digital camera.

Yee then took the 1-GB CompactFlash card he was using in the camera and put it in the MuVo2. Both work perfectly, he said.

The Hitachi microdrive is the same size as a standard CompactFlash, or CF, card, a popular storage medium for digital cameras. In fact, the drive is designed to be interchangeable with CF cards. The drive can simply be inserted into the camera and formatted to store pictures. The drive can also be read with most CF card readers.

Yee covers motor sports for Car and Model, and often shoots up to 500 pictures at events and shows.

While the 1-GB CF cards he was using can store up to 170 shots, the 4-GB drive saves about 650 shots, Yee said.

"This is great for covering events," he said. "Having larger-capacity storage means potentially not having to swap out cards as often when covering an event."

However, Yee said he still plans to use CF cards for races and events involving high-speed action. The drive's performance when storing pictures is "pretty dismal," he said. "I could be left waiting for the camera to write out shots to the microdrive and miss a shot."

The MuVo2 hack has been lighting up digital photography websites and forums across the Net. It appears dozens of people have successfully dismantled MuVo2s for their drives.

Andy Mack, who claims to have been one of the first to cannibalize a MuVo2 for its internal drive, estimated hundreds of people have tried it, based on feedback to instructions he published on his website.

Mack, a 29-year-old production supervisor and part-time violin builder from Hong Kong, said the hack became so well-known that the store assistants where he bought a second MuVo2 knew all about it.

"Even the shop knew I would take it apart, simply because everyone did the same thing," he said.

The MuVo2 appears to be in short supply, according to posts on forums like Digital Photography Review, although it is unclear whether that is due to people dismantling them for the drives. The player was released in the United States in January.

Creative spokesman Phil O'Shaughnessy said the company was aware that some people are buying the players for the drives, though he cautioned users against dismantling their players.

"That will void your product warranty," he joked.

Because the MuVo2 appears to be hard to obtain, several people have tried dismantling iPod minis for their internal drives. Unfortunately, the drive in the iPod mini appears not to work in digital cameras, though there have been reports of getting it to work in the MuVo2 and some CF card readers.

One of the contributors to the iPoding website dismantled an iPod mini and, after a series of unsuccessful experiments with card readers and formatting utilities, rendered the drive inoperable.

"Oops," the writer said in a post. "If anyone knows of a reader/adapter which definitely supports the 4-GB microdrive, please let us know."

[ukexpat]

Sorry this is old news...I finally got my 4GB MUVO a couple of weeks ago and successfully replaced its 4GB drive with a 1GB version. I now use the 4GB drive in my 10D, no problems.