Portable Media Centers

There was an article recently in the New York Times about a new gadget called a Portable Media Center (PMC). The PMC can play music and videos and store pictures. This would allow you to listen to music and watch movies or shows that you have stored in your hard drive whenever you wanted. Many companies, such as Samsung, Creative Labs, Archos, and iRiver, are offering slightly different versions of this product. Some of the products are available now, and some have yet to be released, but they all run on Microsoft software.

These devices seem like a very neat idea. The gadgets are small and portable and can keep you entertained for hours. However, the problem with these devices is that they cut people off from the world even further. We already have people listening to music on their iPods everywhere they go (don’t get me wrong, I love my MP3 player), but it seems that everyone would rather be in their own little world than in the world around them. I wonder how many more products we can come up with before Americans become complete anti-social recluses. At least the PMC has a small speaker so that people can watch the tiny screen together.

Here is a link the Microsoft website for Portable Media Centers:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/portablemediacenter/default.mspx