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OLYMPUS "m:robe" MIXES MUSIC PLAYER WITH DIGITAL CAMERA FOR THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE IN A MULTIMEDIA DEVICE
Fashionable Compact Design of m:robe 500 Puts 20 Gigabytes Worth of Music and Images At Your Fingertips With Unique ?No Button? Touch-Screen Interface
Melville, New York, October 13, 2004 - Olympus, a company known for taking product design innovation to a higher level of style and functionality, officially enters the digital music market today with the launch of two models in its new "m:robe" series of digital music players. With this effort, the company is combining its audio expertise with its optical heritage to create products that embody the best of both sound and vision.
m:robe 500 Redefines What A Music Player Can Be
The flagship model of the new Olympus m:robe series is the m:robe 500 that combines a 20-gigabyte digital music player with a 1.22-megapixel digital camera to create a compact and stylish multimedia device unlike any other that's come before it. With a one-of-a-kind "No Button" flat touch-screen interface incorporated into a vibrant 3.7-inch color VGA LCD display, music and digital images spring into action at your fingertips in several dynamic and captivating slideshows. Now, both your music and your digital images - the core elements of your self-expression - can conveniently travel anywhere with you.
"Unlike traditional digital music players that only allow you to tune out the rest of the world, the m:robe 500 actually allows you to tune into the world by taking and experiencing your digital images on their own or together in a remix with your personal selection of music," said Keith Swiderski, Business Development Manager, Olympus Imaging America Inc.
"The m:robe 500 reinvents the photo album, altering it from something you leave on a coffee table to something you can take with you and share with others. Whether using images taken by the m:robe 500 itself, or using high-resolution images imported to it and synching them to your music to create a 'remix' slideshow with audio, it delivers an interactive experience that excites the senses."
Elegant Simplicity with Intelligently Designed Interface
Olympus is the only company today using a touch-screen interface on a music player, and this is emblematic of the company's approach to breakthrough industrial design and finding a better way for products to work. The design of the m:robe 500 is elegantly simple both inside and out, with an easy-to-use interface that eliminates all unnecessary buttons and allows you to organize and access images and music in a way that makes sense.
On the surface, the all-black face of the m:robe 500 is as flat and smooth as glass, and its contoured body is strikingly compact at a mere 4.3in. (W) x 2.89in. (H) x 0.83in. (D) and 7.4 ounces to slip into a pocket, purse or backpack. The back and sides of its body are a pristine, incandescent white. With the push of the ON button located on the top of its body, its bright 3.7-inch backlit color VGA touch-screen display (640 x 480 resolution) bursts into life with three main icons for MUSIC, PHOTO and REMIX.
Touching the MUSIC icon on this intuitive interface brings up any one of up to 5,000 songs in WMA or MP3 format you can store on the m:robe 500's 20-gigabyte hard drive. Sound comes through the ear-bud headphones in high fidelity, and by adjusting the Equalizer you can bring out the throbbing bass, subtle mid-range and crisp treble tones in your music, or choose from several custom EQ settings. Moreover, because the m:robe 500 is as much about seeing as it is about hearing, it can display not just song titles and lyrics, but also the CD art of the musician?s work should you choose to upload it to the player.
The ability to easily adjust volume, EQ, search songs by playlist, album, artist, genre, 100 most frequently played songs and favorites, and sort all images in albums at the touch of a finger, means the m:robe 500 delivers music and images your way. This is made possible by an intelligent search capability.
With a wired remote that features a two-line LCD display connected to the ear-buds, it is possible to control the m:robe 500 while it is tucked out of sight. Find a song, skip a song, shuffle the songs in random order and let it surprise you, add a song to favorites, or adjust the volume without ever removing the player from its hiding place.
Point and Shoot To Never Miss A Moment
Touching the PHOTO icon on the m:robe 500's main menu instantly transforms it into a 1.22-megapixel digital camera. The VGA touch-screen acts as a large 3.7-inch monitor in which to compose and review images taken with the camera located on the back of the m:robe 500. There is no shutter button - just tap anywhere on the touch-screen and instantly take digital images of a resolution that is perfect for emailing or viewing on the m:robe 500. View images a variety of ways: all at once, by album, or by date in a calendar view.
It is possible to upload digital images taken by any camera, at any resolution, from a PC to the m:robe 500 - making it a great way to bring your photo collection to the party. And because it is PictBridge enabled, the m:robe 500 can connect quickly and easily to any printer that incorporates the PictBridge standard via the auto-connect USB 2.0 cable, without using a PC, and print out photos taken by the m:robe 500 or other images imported to it and stored on it.
Create a Soundtrack For Your Life
Things get even wilder when you tap the m:robe 500's touch-screen and select the REMIX icon. "Remix Play" combines both your music and your images into an animated montage to create a soundtrack for your life. First, choose the photos you want to include in the remix. Then select from one of the available Remix Templates - Flash Back, Tiles, Geometric, or Birthday - and then choose the song you wish to accompany the remix. Sit back and watch the show.
Imagine the possibilities. You can take a trip to New Orleans and photograph every step of the journey and then play back the images with a Jazz background. Chronicling a trip to Vienna? How about playing those images back with a Classical Mozart soundtrack? No matter what you display or what music you play, the m:robe 500 makes the experience interactive and more enjoyable than simply flipping through the pages of a silent photo album. Additional Remix Templates are planned in the near future and will be available for download from Olympus.
Getting More Out of the m:robe 500
The m:robe 500 was designed as a complete "out of box" solution. That's why it comes with a cradle to synchronize your songs and images as well as charge the player's Lithium Polymer battery in 3 hours to deliver 8 hours of quality playback time.
Downloading songs and images from a PC to the player via the high speed USB 2.0 connection is fast and easy thanks to the included "m:trip" Photo/Music Management Software for Windows operating systems. The m:trip application can be used to play music captured from CD or purchased via Internet download, and allows images captured with the m:robe 500 or another digital camera to be viewed or combined with music in various ways, and to save Remixes.
The m:robe 500 also comes with external jacks and wires to connect to a stereo or receiver or television and play back images and music for a crowd. The m:robe 500 conveniently operates as an external hard drive for transporting large files from one Windows-compatible PC to another. Just drag and drop files from your PC to your m:robe.
m:robe 100 Packs Power Into Miniature Package
Olympus also introduced today the m:robe 100 Digital Music Player, a smaller dedicated music player that delivers 5 gigabytes of storage for over 1,200 songs. At a petite size of just 3.5in. (H) x 2.0in. (W) x 0.6in. (D) and weighing a mere 3.5 ounces, the m:robe 100 is more compact and lightweight than the m:robe 500 and its minimalist all-black face incorporates a No-Button touch-panel interface with a monochrome 160 x 128 dot-matrix display with striking red LED.
Like the m:robe 500, the m:robe 100 has great ease-of-use so you can control the listening experience completely with 16 pre-set EQ settings, and simply search and customize your playlists. With a USB 2.0 cradle and charger, you can rapidly download music to the m:robe 100 and listen to it for up to 12 hours between charges. The included music management software allows you to keep track of your music collection efficiently. If you wish to leave the cradle at home, then the m:robe 100 can be charged via the USB 2.0 cable connected to your PC.
Availability
The m:robe 500 and the m:robe 100 will be available in January 2005.
U.S. Pricing
m:robe 500 Estimated Street Price: $499.99 (U.S.)
m:robe 100 Estimated Street Price: $249.99(U.S.)
