Audio Reviews

I need to listen to music at the gym while doing aerobics. For a long time I used a portable CD player to accomplish this. However, developments in technology have brought us the more practical MP3 players. After reading reviews on several of these, I opted to buy this one. For the most part I really enjoy it. The sound quality is great and I like the album feature as sometimes I want to listen to a completely different kind of music. It is amazingly lightweight, so much so that I don't even bother with the armband. I just put it in my pocket or attach it to my waistband.

The reasons I could not give this player a higher rating are the following:
1) Setting the preset FM stations was a lesson in frustration.
2) The display is pretty small and can be difficult to read.
3) The download software does not allow one to arrange the tunes other than the order (alphabetical) that they are in when you open the folder. In other words, if you want to download a CD's tunes in the same order as they are on the CD, you have to first download them to the player, then arrange them in the preferred order. For me, this is a significant drawback.
4) As another reviewer mentioned, the USB port on the player is not accessible with the cover on. So, everytime you want to download new tunes you have to unplug the earphones and take it out of the case then, reverse the procedure to get up and running again.

As long as you don't mind these inconveniences, this is a good little, player. It is particularly better than lugging around a CD player.

I owned a Nomad IIc and played with several other MP3 devices. This player is superior by far, in every respect.

Audio quality: Excellent. The sound is crisp and clear. I don't know the exact SNR, but qualitatively this player sounds great through average headphones. I think a lot of people ignore the differences in sound quality on MP3 devices. For instance, the Rio players sound shallow and distant by comparison.

FM radio: This little machine picks up stations better than my receiver at home. And it is clear. The preset and tuning navigation are intuitive. It also finds stations quickly. You can record radio directly (like the voice recording). Now, I don't record too much radio, but the option is very nice. I personally feel a radio is essential on these devices as I get tired of my songs quickly, or just would like a change of pace or to listen to the news.

Voice recorder: Decent mic pick-up. Has auto-level feature that will start recording only when it picks up a signal.

Ergonomics: perfect size. I wouldn't want it any smaller. Jog dials are very easy and comfortable to use. Can fit anywhere.

Memory: 128 Mb. Too bad it has fixed storage. Perhaps my only complaint.

Overall, there is no 128 Mb mp3 player that can compete with the iaudio cw200. If you are in the market, spend your money wisely and order this one.

Others had covered the features of this little wonder pretty well, so I expected to be satisfied with this product. I did not expect to be amazed and delighted with it. Unlike most who were looking for an MP3 player, I was looking for a digital voice recorder. The few others that I'd tried had poor sound quality, very little memory, and poor battery life. This iAudio gem is astounding in the quality of the microphone, the crystal clear sound, the roomy 128mb memory, and long battery life. The sound is much better than I expected, especially in such a very small, convenient device. The FM radio is far stronger than many I've heard on larger players AND recordings can be made from the radio! As an MP3 player the value for the money is excellent and the four folders are great for separating albums or making playlists. The manual is okay -- all the necessary info is there but rather minimalistic. The software is good and pretty intuitive. The iAudio is small! and made well, with one exception: the toggle switches move smoothly side to side but stick a bit when pressed in. Since I've had it one has loosened up and is fine, the other still catches occasionally. Everything else is top quality! I've actually gotten more than I expected to for my money.

I got my speakers about a month ago. Mainly I go them for the iPod. They have amazing sound quality. For speakers so small the sound is amazingly crisp and clear. The bass is good, but a little unclear when turned up to maximum power. (It takes some adjusting on the subwoofer to get the bass right.) The little lights under the speakers provide for a nice little effect. Overall I think they were a good buy. I would have given them 4 stars except for the problem that I had with them when first bought. They worked for about 2 days and then one day the speakers decided to play full-blast all the time, and I couldn't turn them down. Luckily the product was still in warranty, and I was able to get new ones. So far these new ones have been great and have no problems.

Ok, these aren't the only computer speakers that can provide amazing sound, but considering you have to spend another $100 to find something that is even close should make your buying decision pretty easy.

I only bought these speakers from amazon.com for their amazing price, but I would never purchase speakers without hearing them first. After about a month of looking I was able to narrow my speaker choice down to two speaker systems, "BOSE MediaMate" two-piece system (for $99) and the "Klipsch ProMedia 2.1" system (for $169), the JBL Creatures weren't one of my choices because I was ignorant and thought they were too ugly considering I am not an apple owner.

The Klipsch system blew me away with it's powerful bass and clear satellites. I was immediately blown away again when I heard the clarity of the Bose speakers, which made a mockery of the Klipsch satellites. This is great right?, except for the fact that the Bose system does not include a seperate sub which meant that the bass, although clear, was not very strong.

If only I could find a speaker system that combined the bass of the Klipsch and the clarity of the Bose system for a reasonable price...

In case you didn't get the idea, the JBL Creatures were the solution to my problem. As I was walking down the aisle of my local...store I heard the JBL creatures playing the new James Bond movie. Wow. Ever since then I knew that the JBL's were the best choice for my college dorm, and that was for $130 dollars in the stores. Considering Amazon.com has them for less..., you would have to be stupid or deaf to not pick up a pair of these amazing speakers.

WOW!!! These speakers are the best I have ever owned by far! They blow the little tinny sounding speakers on my ibook away!!!! The JBL Creature Speakers might be small (the satalites) but they sure are LOUD! My only problem with these speakers are the subwolfer is too big on my desk, and I don't have any room on my floor for it.

Watching DVD's with these babies are just like being in the theater! GREAT BASS! I love the lights under the two satalites, nice touch!

Playing CD's, mp3's, AAC's, and games with these are a pleasure! I especially love turning up the volume (with the touch sensitive buttons on the left satalite) when I'm playing games on my computer (such as Starcraft!) and enjoying being emmersed into the game! The sound is very crisp and clear, no muffled sound.

These speakers are worth every little penny I paid for them! My speakers arrived the next day, and I was so excited to get them out of the box and try them!

I also use these with my ipod...AWESOME!

I'm actually giving this Apple iPod four and a half stars, and that is only because you can't download songs and stuff from a Windows computer, which is what I have. My friend has this Apple iPod and she's always listening to it--she showed me how to download songs on it and such. And I've even listened to some of the songs she's downloaded onto this iPod. It is actually quit a good little gadget. You can download over 1000 songs on this little thing, and it's so small you can fit it inside your pocket. The earbuds that it comes with have great sound capability. The songs come out clear and it does not skip. Another con about this Apple iPod is that you cannot listen to your CDs on this or listen to the radio...it is only for downloading MP3 songs. A pro is that it keeps your songs well organized, which is good, especially if you are the kind of person who is usually disorganized or whatever. It doesn't take a very long time to download the songs, too. It is actually pretty fast when downloading the songs. So once again, if you do not have an Apple Mac, then this iPod is obviously useless to you. But if you have an Apple Mac, then this is THE MP3 player to buy! Heck--if I had a Mac computer, I'd buy this thing, too!

I bought my iPod in December and I have no regrets, even though they just announced a 10GB version. 5GB can hold around 1,000 songs, and using iTunes to manage your play lists, there's no reason why you can't make this work for you. For instance, around Christmas time, I downloaded a lot of Christmas music onto it, but once the season was over, I just removed that playlist. Does this mean I have to redigitize the music next Christmas? Nope, it's still stored on my hard drive ready for me when I want it again.

The simple controls and backlight lend itself to ease of use. I use my iPod most in the car and feel I can manipulate the controls without being distracted from driving. It also doubles as a hard drive, but I haven't had a need for this feature as yet.

My only suggestions for improvements are:
* A completely stainless-steel case...the plastic does scratch.
* A case (available from third-party vendors), hard to find though.
* A power adapter for the car. This is where I use mine most and it would be ideal to have it plugged in while I do.

Sometimes, when I'm walking around and I see people with CD players, I just have to wonder how they manage.

The most amazing thing about this device is the size. Not just the size of the iPod itself, which is a lot less than half the size of other MP3 players that hold the same amount, but the amount of space it saves you in terms of CDs. Have you ever seen one of those CD towers with around 60-70 CDs in them? You know, the ones that are as tall as a bookshelf? How would you like to carry that around in your backpack at school or in your pocket on the street? I think carrying this thing around, which happens to be the size of a deck of cards and holds even more than those CD towers, is slightly preferrable.

The next best thing about the iPod is the batteries. This thing goes for 8-10 hours without quitting. That is the same amount of time as a CD player, and twice as long as other multi-GB mp3 players. In addition to that, you never need to buy batteries again. Just plug the iPod into the wall at night and you've got another 10 hours of music when you wake up. That'll work even if you only sleep for 3 hours a night like me! So this thing is saving both space and money (batteries)!

The third thing about this is how well it turns heads. Sometimes I try to hide this thing when I take it out, because strangers will literally come up to me and ask me "is that an iPod?" and want to play with the buttons and stuff. Sometimes, it gets a little annoying. In these cases, the size comes in handy because its very easy to hide while you are using it. But if your in the mood to turn some heads, just put this thing on your lap and play.

There are tons of other great things about this. The interface is beautiful... sometimes, I just stare at the screen while a song is playing, or turn on the backlight for fun. It takes 10 minutes to fill the entire thing, meaning that if you ever get tired of the songs you put on it, you can have them replaced in the snap of a finger.

But it all comes down to this; when you buy this, you will never need another music player again. If you have a Mac, go buy this. The money you save on batteries and future music players will more than make up for the ... price tag.

Weighing in and sizing up as to be no larger than a regular deck of playing cards, the Nomad IIc is a great little MP3 player. It is packaged with a single software CD, USB cable, and 1 battery. Yup, no headphones.

Once you have the player setup, it's ease of use is straight forward. The screen is backlit and there are different setting options to help you maximize player feedback. Out of the package, this player supports both MP3 and WMA (however I am finding WMA's a bit more picky to set up). The onboard 32MB of memory will support roughly 40min of music if ripped at 160Kbps. You can rip in the range between 20 and 320kbps (CD quality is roughly 128). The higher your setting, the more memory is used, hence less music you can store. So I suggest buying a Smart Media chip to increase memory if you want to listen to anymore than 45 minutes worth at a time. The open end of the firmware will allow you to upgrade to future codecs (so Creative says).

The player also has a built in microphone for voice recordings in which you convert later to .wav, .wma, or mp3.

I found the onboard menu's pretty easy to navigate. If you can operate a modern microwave or alarm clock, you can operate this player.

The nice thing I think aboout when it comes to Smart Media cards, is that there are no moving parts. Unlike small hard drives or discs, there is no wear or tear on internal parts.

Now the software on the other hand is a bit of a disappointment. Upon opening the package there is no manual. You actually have to install the CD-ROM and Adobe Acrobat to get to the manual .pdf files. Also there are some programs on the disc that have no description on what they do, or why they were included so I am at a loss on whether I want to load them or not. Basically you only need to load the IIc driver and player software in order to use your Nomad, all others seem to be fluff. At the very least Creative could have supplied a one page document explaining what exactly the 6 programs on the disc do.

The Creative Play Center, while serves it purpose, could have been much more robust. If all you want to do is tranfer files from PC to Nomad, or rip CD's, its very painless and straightforward. Third party software like Real's Jukebox or WinAmp does a much better job in organizing your MP3 library and making changes. The changes you can make in the included software are basic at best and really limit full control over your music library. The manual is also buried on the disc and while explanations are adequate, it lacks depth. For a computer/MP3 newbie, this could prove a little challenging and overwhelming, you may want to look at other software music organizers. Overall the disc is not too user friendly.

This is the first MP3 player I have owned and i am extremely satisfied. My friend has the Nomad 2 so i knew that the Creative Labs digital audio line was a good one. I decided to get the Nomad IIc and an extra 32mb card. This makes the Nomad IIc just the same as the Nomad II if you allready have headphones and you dont want the extra FM radio feature. Why pay 50 bucks for headphones and a radio? I convert all my files to wma at 64kbps to get 32 songs onto my player with the extra 32mb card. This is below CD quality but I cant tell the difference and you get an extra hour of music. The software is also great! It is so simple to use. It only takes about 5 minutes to get a fresh 30 or so new songs onto the player. No moving parts meens no skipping. All around--- a good choice.

I've had the Nomad IIc for about three months and couldn't be more pleased. It's extremely light weight, it's durable, dependable, easy to operate and the quality of the sound is wonderful. The software was easy to load and easy to use. Downloading into the IIc is a snap. I had a 128m card in the desk drawer when I got the IIc and immediately filled it will music. I also had a couple of 64m cards from a previous I-Jam player that I gave away (piece of junk) and I filled those. Changing genres is easy...jazz on one care, blues on another, classic rock on yet another. Using the 128m card, plus the onboard memory, I can get about 3 hours of music into the little guy. You can pay a lot more and not get the features and quality of the IIc. It's a great product from a great company. If you get one, you will not be disappointed.

I owned the original 5GB and the bought the 10GB version when available, I had been a minidisc user for many years. I have a 2000 cd collection and was carrying 20-30 discs every time I travelled; now I carry none, just a 'fits in my shirt pocket' IPod.

Transferring songs is a snip with Firewire. I use the device as a hard drive and just drag and drop songs onto it, very easy, takes just seconds.

The quality is excellent, the sound is excellent, especially through the superb Endymion headphones ER6's - I rarely have to have the volume full up even when listening on the subway, the interface is excellent, in fact the IPod is just ...excellent.
I use it nearly every day and rarely have a probem. The only one being that every now and then (very rarely) it 'locks up', easily solved by pressing the Menu+Play button for a few seconds.

Most of the cons have now been addressed by Apple, ie Remote Control, Windows compatibility, loadness(?) and its cheaper, (but not cheap). I have been using 'walkmans' for nearly 20 years none have even come close to this.

The iPod is a fantastic MP3 player. From a design standpoint, there is no competition - nowhere an MP3 player as cool. I swear, if there is one piece of electronics that will get you girls this is it (seriously).

You can transfer 10 gigs in under 15 minutes (note that 10 gigs with a USB connection will take hours upon hours). I often visit friends and download their entire iTunes music library onto the iPod in minutes. You can't, by the way, copy iPod music to a computer - only computer to an iPod, for copyright reasons of course.

The iPod has a very intuitive and easy-to-use interface - just 5 buttons and a scroll wheel control the whole thing. I happen to really like the new touch-sensitive scroll wheel. The quickest way to get a feel for the interface is to actually go to the Apple site, where they demo the interface very nicely: ...<

My only complaints with the interface is that long song names will be cutoff (except in play mode, where the song title scrolls across the screen) - this makes it sometimes tricky to view items in the iPod by song title.

In terms of sound-quality, I now import my CDs at 128kbs (to maximize space)... and on the iPod it sounds fine (no hissing, or problems of any kind that I can notice). The iPod will play very loud, which is an improvement over the old model, I have heard.

I listen to my iPod with headphones, in the car (with a audio tape adaptor), and at home connected to our receiver. Again, no complains with volume and sound quality. You might, however, have a number of MP3s that play at different volumes - and this can either startle you or make you think nothing is playing. The "Sound Check" feature of the iPod supposedly addresses this issue - however, it doesn't seem to make to much of a difference in my opinion.

Battery life for me has been at about 5 hours (I think)... but I keep the iPod volume very high on the unit when in the car.

My only real complaint is with how easily the unit scratches, but really, if you take good care of it, scratches will be minimal.

This is the best! Superior audio quality. Excellent battery life (8-10 hours). Super fast transfer using Firewire. Very intuitive and easy to use menus. Great feature set including contact lists, calendar, games and more. If you know a music lover, this would make a great gift! I take this thing everywhere. I would recommend the Sennheiser PX 100 headphones (available on Amazon for under 40 dollars) as a must have accessory for this. I also like the ability to use this as a firewire hard drive which allows backup of important files from my hard drive. It costs more than the competition but is worth EVERY bit of it.

My first experience with a portable MP3 player was with a Bantam Interactive BA350...what a nightmare! That horrible experience taught me to ALWAYS research a product BEFORE buying it! So, I read, and read, and read all I could about numerous flash players, and the undisputed champ was the iAUDIO CW300. I prefer a flash player over a hard drive player because it's tiny and can fit in your shirt pocket. The CW300 can not only fit in your shirt pocket, it also comes packaged with a nifty armband and armband case, great for walking or running. Mine also came with a leather belt clip case, and even a cool little necklace so you can hang the player around your neck. I chose the option of Sennheiser MX400 earbuds with mine and they sound fantastic. All of the above are more than enough reasons to buy this gorgeous little thing, but wait, there's more!

SOUND QUALITY IS SECOND TO NONE!!!!! I guarantee you will not find better sound quality in ANY other MP3 player of any kind at ANY price!

Oh, did I mention that it also plays FM radio? It does, and reception is very good.

Plus, it's also a voice recorder. You can adjust the sensitivity and it will pick up soft spoken nearby conversations. Who would have thought this little beauty even has clandestine uses. Hardly anyone would ever guess it was a recorder unless you told them, but that wouldn't be any fun ;-)

Bottom Line, if you're looking for the best flash player available, the CW300 is the one...BUY IT!!!!!

I have a CW300 512MB and I'm fully satisfied.
... here are my comments:

- Sound Quality: VERY satisfing, all the spectrum is represented without noise. I had to buy the CW300 with Cresyn hearphones (the 512 Mb is not available with MX400 yet), then I went to a shop and bought MX400 for [price]. The MX400 are much better, you easily notice a far better bass reproduction.

- Output Power: with the internal hearphones there is plenty of power. I tried with external hearphones (I have Sony MDR-V3, quite old and I don't know the impedence) if you use the maximum power the sound is loud but tolerable. I would have liked some spare power, just in case you come across a low level MP3 when you are using big hearphones.

- Voice Recording: this was a surprise, the sentitivity of the microphone is really good. If you set it at "high" and if you turn on the volume of your hearphone to the maximum you can hear the faintest sound while recording, even your breath! It seems that your hearing capacity is enhanced by this amplification and the microphone has good directionality too.
Just an annoying little problem: when I touch the controls during recording, the backlight turns on and a high frequency hiss is heard (and recorded) until the light turns off. Maybe mine is a defective device, I'll ask iAudio.

- Radio: good quality but far from the MP3 quality. Here the problem is that once you get used to the very good quality of the MP3 player, it is very easy to criticize the quality of a FM receiver, intrinsically lower. The difference is worsened if you try to record one radio station with the recording functionality because the result is mono only.
Sometime I notice that the scan function tend to be too selective and to skip some good signal radio stations; for receiving all the stations you have to manually find them.

What I would have liked:

- a bookmark functionality to set points in long MP3, it may be useful if you are listening to an audio book and you want to switch to some music without loosing the possibility to come back to the point you have reached.
- you must store all the MP3 in 4 folders and this is good, but you are not allowed to store more then 64 files in each folder. This can be annoying if you have 512 MB of free space, potentially containing 140 songs, because you cannot keep all in one folder if you want to do so.

Overall I strongly recommend this player, everybody should have one (and iAudio and its competitors should lower the price).
...

Marco

I just received the CW-300 and we already have an I-Pod so all of our songs are on I-Tunes, however we run a PC (Windows XP)....DOES ANYONE KNOW...how to download to the I-Audio....from I-Tunes.....HELP!!..I like the product but need to figure out how to use it!!!....Thanks, CG

I've been very happy with this product, BUT recently my presets are lost every time I poweroff. At first i thought it was because the battery was running low, but now since changing it for a fully charged battery, it still returns to no presets level when i turn the unit off. This is becoming very annoying having to set the 5 stations i like to flip through during my workout at the gym. Haven't checked out the manual to see what it says. This might have started when I accidentally erased all the MP3 files on it, but still, i don't see why it would matter with the presets. Just something to be leary of before you buy.

I bought this device for Christmas 2002 after doing a lot of research on the internet, and I have been very satisfied so far. It had all the features I was looking for, including enough built-in storage so that removable media is not necessary. I also wanted something with a beltclip that I could use when exercising (the main use for this device). It can also receive FM radio and the reception is very good. And it can record voice memos. I have had no trouble with the software for managing audio files in the unit. The included Jet Audio MP3 player is OK, but I prefer using Windows Media Player because the update of album info is easier. The only thing sort of missing is the ability to play WMA files, but MP3 appears to be a more widespread standard. I got an MP3 plug-in for Windows Media Player. The sound quality of the unit is great. Output is plenty loud for me. I highly recommend this unit as a player to use for exercising. The iPOD has much greater capacity and may be the best unit to take all your music with you, but its movable parts (hard disk) makes it unsuitable to me for use while jogging or engaging in other vigorous exercise.

iAudio CW200 256Mb review

Pros: Incredible sound ! Light, minimal size but maximal reliability. Intuitive buttons and softwares. 256 Mb means about 90 songs and about 5 hours of continuous music. Voice recording works very well. FM radio works fine. Battery saving: 6h with 550MAh AAA batteries. Comes with all practical accessories. Firmware download. Support and service is great (thanx Francis).

Cons: My opinion would lead to nothing in this category. But I want to stay completely objective: no WMA support and FM reception could be a bit better...

Full review:

I've been now using the iAudio for about 2 months.
I tested only one before this one (the Nike one). I was convinced to buy this player when reading all the positive comments on Amazon...
Now I use it every day in the train and on the bike between my home and my office. This means about 3 hours/working day.

All I have to say is THIS PLAYER IS PERFECT :-)

Sound: the best I've ever heard. Also the clearest. The headphones included give very good sound quality. Basses are deep (it surprised me that so small headphones can give so loud basses) but don't hide middle or treble. I was wondering how it comes. I found the answer by switching headphones, using my Sennheiser (the very big ones). The basses there are too loud so it appears that the player sound settings have been adapted to the included headphones.
30 seconds to change equalizer settings and I had wonderful sound in my new headphones.
Do the test once: try connecting hifi headphones to the player. Adjust equalizer and you'll be surprised...

Size: With a size comparable to a chewing-gum packet, this player is the smallest and lightest MP3 flash player I've ever seen. When running (using the armband) you even don't feel it. Except maybe the headphones wires...

Package and menus: with only 4 functionnal buttons (including the hold button and REC button). The 2 other buttons are 2 jog dials commands (left right push). They're very easy to use and combination are possible to enable shortcurts of commands.
Menus are very intuitive and also very complete.

Voice recording: As far as I tried this feature, it fulfills completely my needs. I recorded a one hour meeting, by just letting the player in the middle of the table. The result was perfect. Even when 3 people are speaking, you can still understand correctly. This feature is ideal for this use (lectures recording or meeting recording)

FM radio: Works fine. Maybe reception could be a bit better sometimes. My main problem with it is reception when I move. For example, in the train or in the car don't use it. Except if the radio station is powerful and if it doesn't change frequency.

Memory: The iAudio comes with 3 different memory sizes: 64, 128 or 256Mb. I personnaly have the 256 version. And I recommend it. I can fill it with about 90 songs in 128kb/s format (CD quality). It means almost 5 hours of continuous music. So it means for me never twice the same song/day ... And using random play order it means that I keep the same songs for a long time without being bored..
A small comment to JetAudio: maybe for the next generation of the player try to include external memory expansions. I think new memory card format miniSD is light and small enough to fit in your player.

Screen: Blue backlight LCD. Very readable. MP3 tags are displayed. You can customize the iAudio logo animation during booting. Displays the battery status, mode, time and title of the song.

Batteries: Again a positive point ;-). iAudio uses 1 standard AAA battery so you can buy cheap AAA rechargeable batteries. For example, I use some 550MAh and they last for at least 6 hours. I bought 4 batteries like this one for about 15$. So with one set, I go for 24 hours...

Software included: Jetshell is the utility that comes with the player. It can be used to directly rip CDs to the iAudio. But its main feature is the maintenance and upload/download of the iAudio. I t also provides access to CDDB to directly find titles of songs. It's also very very easy to use. Transfer is done via USB port. Filling completely the 256Mb takes approximatively 5 minutes. Not bad :-)

Accessories: Another good point. The player comes with all accessories you can dream of. The most useful being without hesitation the white leather carrying case. It protects player against scratches and falls damages. It also provide access to buttons and LCD. It comes with a beltclip. I just got today the armband. I tried it on the bike. It fits perfectly on my arm and really doesn't move at all even when shaking your arm. You can also use the necklace (I use it in the train), it's also very useful.

Firmware download: I told this would be a minor advantage compared to the other players. But no, it's a big one. It seems that JetAudio permanenetly tries to ameliorate the embedded software. The last firmware doubles the FM presets and allows equalizer setting while in FM mode. I hope they will continue to improve it like that.

Support and service: 10/10 . I had some questions and I sent them to JetAudio. It took less than 4 hours to get an answer. An sth really relevant. Also I had a special request for them. They satisfied me completely... bravo ;-)

First things first, this thing is huge! I'm used to carrying around the Clie-N760 in the front pocket of my scrubs. Great for quick and easy access, however, the Clie-NX70 feels heavy and uncomfortable.

In addition to the size and weight, the clamshell design (which seems kind of cool at first and offers those grafitti illiterates a keyboard) slows you down by hiding your quick buttons.

Another negative is the co$t. If you have any experience with handhelds you know that they just don't last, so it's hard to justify spending a large amount on what is basically a disposable item. Don't expect to get more than a year or two out of any of these devices if you use them regularly.

My last complaint is that there is only a minor memory boost; only 11mb (available) memory!

On the plus side, the large footprint does give you a great big screen, and the slide away graffiti area is functional and slick.

Sony throws in some cute things like a .3 camera (very poor performance), a voice recorder, and some software freebies like Documents to Go, and Clie memo which is a sort of post-it-notes free writing program.

The only thing I noticed about OS5 was that standard JPEG pictures can be read.

The major fix for me is that audio can now be played in the background; you can listen to your mp3's while clicking around on this and that =)!!! You can also change your playlist on the memory card.

Although the tried and true palm interface is still there, out of the box it defaults to the new Clie launcher. It looks cool and after a week or so of tinkering with it I have found that it not only looks refreshingly new but that it is just as quick if you can use your thumb on the jog dial and the back button to navigate.

Battery life seems spectacular. Click around all day with little loss of power.

I only give it 3 stars because even though it is great and cool and one heck of a handheld, for me it is too big and heavy and the clam shell/keyboard design is cumbersome and frankly unnecessary. When something like my Clie N760 gets OS5 I will be back adding it to my shopping cart.

The Clie NX70 is a bigger (320x480), brighter palm-OS based PDA with a lot more -- exactly what you'd expect from a Sony. Navigation among applications can be done with the traditional touch interface, pull downs, buttons directly to core functions or with the selector wheel.

Data input is done through graffiti or the built-in keyboard. I found the keyboard somewhat useful for quick jobs, especially while I've been learning the weirder letters in "graffiti," but any time I had to do upper case, punctuation or numbers, it's a pain because there are odd key combinations or locations.

The audio player works well, but you really need additional memory, otherwise you're limited to one mp3. Memory expansion is through Sony's memory stick format, which is unfortunately limited to 128Mb (compared compact flash, which can go higher). There is an additional compact flash slot, but it only supports Sony's network card.

The camera is a novelty and, in my opinion, not worth the additional 100 bucks over the NX60 model. Pictures max out at 640x400 and require perfect lighting. Any movement and you get blur.

The remote control is truly cool and supports Sony and select non-Sony TVs, stereos, DVD players and VCRs. It was really easy to set this up to control my hodge-podge entertainment center with a 12-year old RCA TV and a 8-year old Magnavox VCR.

The biggest weakness is in the PC software supplied. The installation program is a demo sheild front-end, and presents you with over two dozen things you can install on the CLIE or your PC. It's really confusing and requires administrative priveleges on your Windows box -- this presents some difficulty in an environment where my IT department has things locked down.

Installation of the core Palm desktop on Windows XP directed me to Sony's site for an unspecific patch that I never could find. (Indeed, finding software updates was at least a half dozen clicks away.)

After the Palm desktop was installed, I was faced with a laundry list of additional options, with no guide as to what was important. For example, a really important one: Windows XP also needed the memory stick driver operating so it would recognize the stick as removable storage when the Clie was connected. On the other hand, there was also a lot of clutter like "8 ways to relieve stress."

I think it's pointless to go on and on when writing a review so I'm gonna keep this short:
The Sony clie peg-nx70v is one wonderful piece of equipment.
I found that I extremely liked some of it's features like the compact design with the rotating screen, the thumb keyboard, the icon lay out, the camera/video recorder, and the voice recorder.
However, I rate it only good not great because of the annoying weight, how prone it is to being damaged, it's batery which tends to die rather quickly, and it's price.

Overall, I recomend the Sony clie peg-nx70v to most anybody!

Pros: Tiny player with great sound, features like shuffling and EQ, lightweight, easy to set up and copy music or files
Cons: Buttons may be too small for bigger fingers, one AAA battery life only about 5-6 hours, included ear buds are dinky

I already own a CD MP3 player, which is fine for most applications except when I'm at the gym. It's too big and it skips whenever you move. So I really wanted one of the new tiny players. My wonderful boyfriend got me this player for a birthday present.

It is super simple to set up; just install the Creative software, plug the player into an empty USB port, and you'll be copying files in no time! I can either drag and drop from my folders, or create a playlist in Windows Media Player and copy it automatically. It also holds any kind of file. I've used it to copy photos from my laptop to my home PC.

The sound is terrific. I like to turn up the volume fairly high, so that probably eats into the battery life. I was pleased to find out that I can randomly shuffle files, skip folders, or maneuver around my songs any way I like. I can also set the EQ to boost the sound even more.

I find the buttons easy to use, but someone with thicker fingers might not like it as much. Just rock the slider back and forth to move from song to song. The attractive and readable display shows you the time elapsed and any MP3 tags included in your file.

The included belt clip is very secure and slides into the included armband. I've only used the armband once, but I noticed a funny rubbery smell on my arm after working out. Could be because it's new!

I have not yet tried rechargeable batteries with the player, but a normal alkaline battery lasts about 5 or 6 hours. That's certainly long enough for any intense workout, or a 2 or 3-hour flight, but I don't want to have to keep changing batteries. Two colored battery "skins" are included, blue and gray. (You can also buy more skins via the Creative website for about $8-10 apiece.) You could either swap the player out to a different color and match your outfit, or keep a battery in each skin and use the alternate skin as a backup.

I also bought new sports-style headphones because I found the included earbuds to be totally useless.

Overall I love this little gadget! It's exactly what I needed in an attractive usable extra-light package. Thanks, sweetie!

After comparing several MP3 players in it's class I decided to go with the MUVO NX because it's perfect for working out in the gym and lightweight for running. I considered going with an I-Pod for the larger storage capabilities at first, however when
I found out that the included rechargeable battery will stop holding it's charge after a about 2 years of use it wasn't worth the money for me. The 256MB memory included in the NUVO MX stores a good amount of music so you won't run out of songs in the middle of a workout or on a 4-5 hour plane flight.

The Pro's:
- Lightweight, compact design.
- Plug and play USB connection.
- Easily drag and drop files directly onto the player.
- Good amount of storage for music.
- Decent battery life. (I suggest investing in some rechargable AAA batteries)

The Con's:
- I only have one negative comment about this product. After opening the package the earphones included were defective. One side was about 3 times a long as the other side and the sound wasn't the best. This is why i'm giving it a 4 Star rating instead of 5.

Okay, So this is the 4th MP3 player I purchased in the past month. I tried the Dell Juitbox 20G. A Samsung and a IPOD. I needed to take off a week of work to stay home and figure out the Dell. On my Harley the thing kept freezing and finally just bit the dust after 2 weeks. The Samsung would NOT let me download from Musicmatch WMA files. The IPOD was miserable to figure out menus. So I purchased the Creative Labs Muvo NV 256MB as a last resort before returning back to my simple Tape cassette player on the bike. Plain and simple: This is SO SIMPLE, beautifully designed, AGAIN SIMPLE to use MP3 there is. It downloaded all songs both MP3 and WMA files no problem and no glitches. The menus on it are superb, easy to read, easy to navigate, no brainer toggleing. Its tiny, amazingly free of glitches, and wont freeze on my Harley. Plugs directly into the USB port with no wires and no problems with my windows XP like the others had. I actually hired a guy to help me figure out the other MP3 playes I purchased and even he was boggled. I didnt even call him for this. Whoever invented this thing is a genious and realized that I AM NOT. BUY this thing and dont think twice. Enjoy.

I received my Garmin 2610 a week ago and I have been having lots of fun ever since.
I saw a review where another buyer had troubles with the software that comes with the unit. The operating system on my computer is an ME too but I got the software installed with the help of a Garmin tech. This is my first GPS but the unit is really user friendly. Even I could use the unit in my van the first day that I received it. I have a van, truck, and a motorcycle that I will be using the unit on and it will get it's share of use. I always worry about my wife getting around but I don't have to worry any more. Yesterday she had to go to the airport and did not know how to get there. I set a route for her to the airport and showed her how to use the "home" feature to get her back to the house. She made the trip there and back without any problems. It worked so good that I may not ever see the unit again because my wife says that she loves it! I went for a ride on my motorcycle with a few of my friends and found a down side to owning this GPS unit. Now all my friends look to me to get them everywhere we go. If there is a negative to having this unit on my vehicle I can't find it. This is one of the most effective pieces of equipment that I have ever put on one of my transportation vehicles. If you had six stars this product would get it!

Mr. De Leon cannot be talking about the 2610.
* It is not hard at all to program addresses from the car - use the remote, or the on-screen spelling capability. You can type the first part of a street (or city, or business, etc) and then see all starting with these characters.
* You can drive to a location and mark it as a waypoint. Then you can easily give it a name (other than default 001) and change its symbol from a box to a school, a house, etc.
* 2610 doesn't have batteries! Use car cigarette lighter or home AC power.
* I think De Leon had the StreetPilot III Deluxe. Using the III is much more cumbersome than the 2610.

For more info, see my other review, the first on this device.

My bottom line: If you're looking for an excellent GPS for navigation in your car and you can afford the price, then this is the device for you!

The Garmin automotive navigation is a great item in which for those new comers who drive or ride from Florida or California. This little item makes it easy for regular travler to find their way around. So in times of going to the club in the next town or just driving around major one way streets this little gadge makes anyone a pro in getting to thier point of orgin. So travel a little safer whether you take the train in holland or the drive to El Paso, Tx. Here's to TRAVELING ON A SAFER LEVEL.

Thank You
Shara L. Bouie
Atlanta,Ga<USA