Audio Reviews

These speakers sound like crap. I have a pair of old $12.00 Kenyo's that sound better. Do yourself a favor and spend a nother $40.00 and buy the Klipsch and get some REAL speakers!! Almost any of the lower end 2.1's will sound as good if not better than these.

I purchased the I-Trigue 3300's to replace my Bose MediaMate's because my deskspace was getting very tight with an LCD monitor, 2 cell phone chargers, 2 PDA cradles, a lamp, and alarm clock. The slim and sleek design, matched with a subwoofer and generous frequency range seemed to be a fantastic combination. But as I found out, you really need to HEAR a set of speakers to really decide what you like.

DESIGN: 5 STARS
The silver die-cast material used on the casing is very attractive and feels very well-built. The black speaker covers can be removed to give it an even better look.

SOUND: 3 STARS
The I-Trigue 3300's are ALL treble and bass. The midrange is nearly non-existant and for each PC application, I need to set the equalizer settings, which I didn't have to do with my Bose speakers. (...). In iTunes, the setting that worked best for me is the "Pop" EQ setting.

REMOTE: 5 STARS
The wired remote is very handy with a volume/power control, headphone jack, and bass level dial. The bass level dial is a VERY much appreciated design change from the old speakers where the bass controls were located on the back of the subwoofer! There is a cool indigo LED on the remote to indicate that the speakers are powered on.

VALUE: 2 STARS
The I-Trigue is a pretty expensive 2.1 setup considering that the fidelity derived from these speakers are not up to par with the competition. (...)

SUMMARY...
These attractive, space-saving speakers are a big jump from those crappy little Harmon Kardon's you got with your system. With an 80watt total system power rating, it'll pump up the bass and provide loud, shaking music and gaming effects. (...)

Because I use a Terk Leapfrog device to transmit my satellite TV signal from the living room to an old 13" TV in the kitchen, I wanted to connect a good audio device to the AV outputs on the Leapfrog receiver to get the best sound possible. The narrow footprint (1 3/4" wide) of these I-Trigues were perfect for the small space I had on either side of the TV, which sits on a small microwave cart, and the look was more stylish than any others I'd seen. I was more than pleased with how sturdy all the components felt, and was then blown away by the quality of sound these little things crand out. Keep in mind, I'm transmitting this sound across my house over a wireless device! The bass from the subwoofer blends quite nicely with the sound from the speakers, providing good, balanced sound imaging. If I have any complaints, the audio signal from the headphone connection on the remote is a little weak, especially when compared to the great sound coming directly from the speakers.

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This device works MUCH faster than connecting your camera directly to the laptop. For that reason alone its worth the price, but there's more...

I use this to allow me to take unlimited pictures when I'm on a trip. Fill up my CF card, copy all the images to the laptop, delete all the images from the CF card and start taking pictures again. When the card is full, I repeat the process - unlimited pictures! Why buy a larger capacity CF card when you can get this adapter for much less?

Another thing: Images from a camera are just computer files. I've used this adapter to turn my 32 MB compact flash card into a "disk drive". Once you put this CF card and adapter into the laptop's card slot, it shows up just like any other "disk drive".

So you can put the CF card/adapter in your home or offece desktop computer's card reader, use Windows Explorer to copy files (Word documents, spreadsheets, image files, or whatever) to the card, take the CF card out and move it over to the laptop - using this adapter. It makes the compact flash card act just like a high capacity disk drive! You can bring files home from work the same way, and the CF card fits in your wallet...
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I plugged this adapter into my new Dell Laptop and it brought up my CompactFlash card as an additional hard drive in Windows 2000, no software or additional drivers required.

I was then able to browse and even edit pictures on the card as if it were a disk drive. Truly amazing. All peripherals should be this easy to install and intuitive to use.

I use this product to move pictures from my camera to my computer. My primary purpose was to save my battery since it requires my camera to be on when downloading shots and I have a 256MB Compact Flash card.

Not only does it save my battery power by allowing me to put the CF card into my computer, but it downloads very quickly. I have had no problems with the unit and received the adapter from Viking earlier than I expected.

I bought the iPod from Amazon and it was delivered about a week ago. I also bought the Apple Care Protection plan. The product seems to work fine except I am having minor but irksom problems 'navigating' using the buttons and wheel thing. I am using it for an Audible book which is supposed to start where you left off. Well, after 7 hours it decided to start at beginning again. I try fast forward and the thing goes to the next book. I want to just finish the last hour of the one that is being played.

So, I call what they call Customer Service and find that they won't give me any advice whatever until I FAX in a copy of my shipping document from Amazon and another sheet with a magic number on it from within the extended service package. They say that Amazon is not an authorized reseller and that they cannot check my order and date of sale from Amazon.

I explain that I do not have a FAX machine, and that I will go send the stuff in a few days when I feel like walking that far using my crutches.

I think that it is probably a good product, but if you are in any way handicapped and it is not convenient for you to run around to get their service, I recommend not buying it.

When the iPod first came out, I wanted one, but hesitated. The hard drive on my old iMac didn't have much free space for mp3 files. Then I decided to get the latest iMac (17" monitor), and it had a nice 80 GB hard drive. That meant plenty of space to store my mp3s, so I bought the 20GB iPod as well. Within two days, I was hooked on this perfect little device, and it IS perfect.

FEATURES:

The touch wheel is so smooth and intuitive that I got used to it in about 20 seconds.

The menus are clear, straightforward and, again, intuitive. You can browse by artist, genre, composer, song title, album. You can have playlists of songs. You can repeat one song, or a group of songs. You can shuffle. And you don't need a reference book for how to do any of it. It's all right there, at the touch of your finger.

The sound is absolutely amazing--Equalizer settings are extensive. If you know how to play with iTunes, you can create your own settings, too, and they'll load into your iPod.

The download speed is fricking unbelievable--When I finally had a "few" songs loaded into my new iMac (about 140), it took less than 2 minutes to download all of them, including the playlists I'd set up. iTunes made the download process itself so easy--all I did was plug in the iPod and iTunes took care of the rest for me. Thank goodness for iTunes. I can't imagine handling mp3s without this nifty (and FREE) program! Oh--and while I was downloading my mp3s that first time, the iPod used my network clock to set the date and time on the player.

I haven't used the iPod as an alternate hard drive yet, but I definitely plan to. My husband has a PowerBook, and there are some files from my iMac that I'll want to bring with me when we travel. The iPod will be the perfect device for that.

I've looked at the calendar/contact features, but I don't really need them. My husband definitely plans to use both, though, in his work as a consultant.

I have one complaint about the headphones that come with the iPod: The earbuds are too big for my ears, and hurt after prolonged listening. This is most annoying, because the headphones are very, very good. The audio quality is wonderful--my husband considers the trade of his Sony earbuds for the iPod buds a great trade in HIS favor.

The remote control is great--I use it all the time, and it keeps me from having to pull the iPod out of my pocket or case to adjust the volume, pause, or skip a song (or part of a song--hold down the forward/backward button to fast-forward/rewind the current song).

The battery really does last 8 -10 hours, depending on how you use the iPod. Some battery drainers are excessive scrolling and backlighting, but, even then, the iPod lasts a LONG time without a recharge. This makes the iPod perfect for me, since I work in a factory and have my headphones on most of the time. Apple doesn't tell you that, yes, you can charge the iPod through your computer, BUT it doesn't charge as quickly as with the provided AC adapter. You also don't get as much info about the charging process when the iPod is plugged into the computer. A third party manufacturer makes a car charger for iPod. I bought one and it works great.

INTANGIBLES:

As always, Apple makes you feel good about spending so much money for one of their products, with the little things that make your ownership a delight. Providing nice headphones, a belt clip case, a remote control, a FireWire cable and an AC adapter are great touches [...] . The belt clip is well-made and the iPod won't fall out of it under most circumstances, but the clip isn't 100% safe. I was lucky to catch my iPod before it hit the floor when the cord caught on something once, and I don't know that I would feel safe doing strenuous exercise with it; I eventually bought a more secure case from a third party.

The convenience factor alone makes iPod worth every penny. Through audible.com, I can download books, and, thanks to my old portable CD car adapter, I'm able to listen to the iPod in my car. This means no more lugging around pre-recorded audio books and huge CD wallets of music. No more switching CDs while I'm driving. No more agonizing over which CDs to keep in my 6 + 1 player. I can record the songs I like off a CD (or the entire CD), and put the disc away, which means less wear and tear on the disk itself. I can put the iPod in my purse, rather than leaving all those listening goodies in my car, where they can get stolen or exposed to intense heat that destroys them (a serious problem here in Texas).

The mirror finish on the case and remote is beautiful, but it shows fingerprints very badly. I keep a polishing cloth handy and use it at least once a day. I don't remember if Apple mentioned it in their documentation, but the cover needs special cleaners. Alcohol and acetone-based cleaners will ruin the lucite layer on the front of the iPod. I've found that the iKlear polish kits work best for cleaning the iPod.

I didn't quite understand an earlier complaint about the lack of options for naming the iPod. Maybe on the Windows version this is a problem, but, on the Mac version, renaming the iPod is as easy as clicking on the name field when you first plug the iPod into your computer, and typing a new name for your new baby.

To be honest, the iPod has so many wonderful features that it's just about impossible to list them all here, and the potential uses for it are mindboggling. This is THE Mp3 player to have; no other comes close. BUY IT.

It's true - Apple's flair for design (certain models of iMac excepted) comes through again, albeit at a price (but that's always true for Apple).

I previously had an old USB Nomad Jukebox, with the drive upgraded to 30GB. My purchase of an iPod was prompted by an attempt to sync the 10GB or so of MP3s I'd ripped into iTunes to it. After 30 minutes, it was about 10% done - then it crashed for no reason. I'd previously ruled out the iPod as having too little capacity. Then along came the 20GB model. Technically speaking, it's still too small - I think I'd need at least 80GB to get my entire CD collection stored at reasonable quality - but the speed of the iPod's Firewire connection makes it so easy to drag music around that, once I get to the point where I've got over 20GB ripped, I can just sync particular playlists, rather than the entire iTunes collection.

Syncing is very fast indeed. The collection that caused my Nomad Jukebox to choke transferred in under ten minutes, automatically, the very first time I hooked the iPod to my PC. The only human intervention required in the entire process was to select English as my language when I first switched it on, plug it into a free Firewire socket and accept the default name it gave my iPod (the rather unimaginative "Alan Crawford's iPod").

The menus are easy to navigate (the circular dial for scrolling up and down is great once you grasp the idea of going round and round instead of linearly), the earbuds are comfy (as earbuds go - at home I still use my big honking Sony headphones), you can either charge it via the computer while it's connected or use the separate AC charger, there's a keylock to prevent sudden unexpected bursts of music, and there's a nice little belt holster to keep it in. Oh, and a little inline remote control gizmo that I haven't really had cause to use yet.

It's all packaged in that typical Apple style that makes just opening the box an event, the design is attractive (although I believe it's prone to scratches - maybe the holster will reduce that problem).

I really can't find anything wrong with it. I think that's a first.

For those wondering about the fate of the Nomad Jukebox - the drive went into a miniature Firewire enclosure for my wife's laptop, and the discarded husk is now a rather aerodynamically-poor frisbee.

The Nokia 6600 is really just a glorified 3650: you know the 3650, those bulbous, formless, big phones a few unfortunate ATT customers are carrying around. The Nokia 660 runs the Symbian OS, which works pretty well for most standard phone fare, most of the stuff is not that intuitive, but if you actually learn how to use it all, there's plenty of neat tie-ins.

I've got mine to the point where it checks my pop e-mail, I can send videos and photos straight out to my contacts that have synced via Bluetooth with my Macintosh, and I can even control iTunes on my computer using a great program called "Sailing Clicker". However, I doubt many people will ever get that far.

The camera is decent, the videos are fun and pointless because of their low quality and short length, but the design of the phone is much friendlier than the 3650. The screen does get scratched up, but the phone is very durable. The battery life is also very decent.

This is a very cool phone if you know how to use it, but, for the casual phone user, I would wait for Nokia to really figure out their operating system. If you like this phone but can't stand the size, wait for the Nokia 7610, which has a 1.3 megapixel camera and is a much more standard, dare I say, svelte size.

I did lot of research before buying this phone and it paid off. Thanks to all the people posted reviews on amazon.com and it is my turn to post a review. First of all this is my first Nokia phone and I had a samsung phone earlier. These two companies are so much different in making their phones. First let me get down to the pros.

- Symbian OS. Excellent features. It has all the features I could ever think of and the UI is great.
- Display. with 65K colors the screen rocks.
- Connectivity. It has all the cutting edge connectivity(bluetooth, IR) I ever need( ofcourse I can crib on the lack of 802.11 and some other stuff but I want to be fair here). These are simple to use and very useful to transfer files.It syncs with outlook as well.
- Solid call quality. Call quality is extremely good. some times the signal is bad inside our home but I have checked with T-Mobile and it is T-Mobiles' fault. They don't guarnatee the coverage inside buildings.
- VGA camera. Nicely done camera for a phone.To be fair, Let's not compare canon S30 with this camera.
- video recorder is useful sometimes.
- Contacts has several customization options. You can store multiple numbers, change the label etc..
- Solid battery life.

Those are the big pros of this phone and now it is my chance to crib..

- Bulky. I don't know what Nokia is thinking. The form factor could be lot better.
- Sometimes the OS could be sluggish. I am not sure 100 percent sure on this but I want to mention this.
- Video recorder works for only 10 sec. I don't understand what Nokia is trying to do here..
- keyboard is slightly cramped. I don't have any problems with it but some people could.
- Games on the phones suck. I found lot better games online but I need to pay for them.

To conclude this is a great phone and I think this is the best Tmobile phone out there in the market. If you like the shape of this phone, this is the phone for you. There was a good deal on amazon when I bought this phone.

This phone is one of the best I've ever used. It has everything I needed: bluetooth, infrared, support for MMC, camera, and a good operating system with lots of supporting software.

I purchased this puppy for my new Visor Prism - Color. Overall, very impressed with this MP3 Player:

Here are the Pros/Cons:

Pros: Awesome sound quality(better than the Rio 500 I own), Small Size (fits flush into Visor), great user Interface (in color) for the Visor, excellent desktop client software (again it kills the RioPort software)

Cons: No add-on memory, earphones included are weak

Highly recommended

I just received it today and am enjoying the tunes. It uploads music to my Platinum fast (all 64 megs in about 4 minutes) and the sound is crystal clear. This is my first springboard and it was a good one (no pun intended).

Here are the reasons I went with this one over the MiniJam:

1) It fits nearly flush into the Visor. You can put your cover on the front just fine and barely fits on the back due to the fact that the springboard is raised about 1/16 of an inch from the back of the Visor. The MiniJam on the other hand doesn't look like you can put the cover on at all.

2)Although this doesn't support extra memory, 64mb is enough for me. That's over an hour of music. The MiniJam with 32mb costs the same price and then you get to pay extra for more memory.

3)I have issues with the company that makes MiniJam, InnoGear. They were supposedly going to come out with a SixPak module last year that I was totally planning on buying. Then, with no explanation, all traces of the SixPak development and schedualed release dates disappeard. They dropped the ball, I dropped them.

4)SoundsGood comes with a nice case to put everything in.

Battery life
Good battery life. I've noticed a slight increase in battery usage while the module was in use. Somewhat more than other Springboard (SB) modules such as memory expansion modules. Also, when the module is plugged in, it seems to affect the reading of the battery gauge, making it seem like there's less power than there should be. As a result, you may get a low battery warning sooner than you should. This is normal, but if you're using rechargeable batteries, you may want to swap fresh ones, since they have less capacity per charge than normal alkalines to insure you don't lose handheld data. The gauge returns to normal when the player is removed from the slot. My suggestion, if you use your Visor a lot and/or foresee using this player a lot as well, it may be worth your while to spring for nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries. You'll swap batteries more often due to its lower capacity per charge, but you'll get your savings back after a month of usage.

Sound quality
I'm no audiophile, probably nothing to brag about, but the sound quality is good enough for me. Very close to the sound you get on a PC with "average" speakers and sound card. I can't put my finger on it, but the provided headphones sound "tinny", so using a better quality set ought to take care of that. Max volume is more than enough in quieter places, but on a "rickety" subway like the older NYC trains, you'll be almost hard pressed to hear much of anything.

External controls
There 4 controls: play/pause (technically play/stop, as when you DO "pause", it actually turns off while remembering where you last were), skip forward one track, skip back one track, and a volume jog dial control. The first turns on and plays the player, or pauses and resumes play. The next two are self explanatory, but further adding that reaching the first or last track will wrap around to the last or first track respectively. Unlike many CD and mp3 players however, there is no search mode available (done by pressing and holding these buttons). The last controls volume, but also can be depressed (like the wheel of a scroll mouse), which will automatically bring up the control screen regardless the current state of your Visor. The jog dial gets you to your desired volume setting after a few flicks, but the controls are just rounded knobs, so you'll have to press hard or use your nail. Also, you may accidentally lift and pull out the head phone jack (mine plugged in wasn't snug, but a little loose) when you try to press the button next to it. It has it's faults, but is still a nice alternative to having to whip out your stylus and cover just to control the audio. One thing I do like about this is the play button will light green (dim or bright) if you set it that way. This takes more battery power, but I recommend it so that you can tell if the unit is on or off, without having to turn the screen on or plug in headphones to listen and potentially draining your power without knowing it.

Software interface
It's simple and intuitive. Similar to Winamp minus the skins and fancy equalizer. You can bring down a pull down menu of all the songs you've loaded, there's an simpler equalizer where you can adjust bass, treble, and general frequency settings (none of which I really used), sliders for volume and track position (volume adjustable through the up and down keys as well), options to view details of mp3 tracks, and set modes of play (repeat, shuffle, etc.), as well as oversized standard buttons for play, stop, etc.

Loading music
Easy enough. All you need to do is ensure that all your music files are indeed mp3 format, drag and drop, and your next hotsync op will transfer the songs over. On the desktop software, it even tells you how much space you've got left before you transfer. Takes about a minute to transfer the full capacity. Pretty reasonable considering it Is USB 1.1.

Stability/reliability
Reliability has been good. I've never needed any tech support, and the thing's never broken down on me before. There have been times where upon plugging it in, I get "module was inserted improperly" or "Module seems hung, please try again". I sometimes get that once or twice in a row. The only time I get it 6 times in a row was when I left it in the car for weeks, in 35F degree weather, which I guessing was due to the cold.

Tech support
N/A as far as I'm concerned. The company is still there, but they've changed their business model. I tried calling them up about months after they changed their ways (this was approximately around summer of '02) and only one guy was there who had a decent understanding of what this product is and does. He wasn't able to answer my question though. Don't count on getting ANY tech support. IMO, this product is well made, so assuming there's nothing wrong with your Visor, tech support won't be needed.

Other notes
First, you can play games, take notes while the music is playing simply by hitting the home button. You actually need to hit the 'stop' button either internally or externally to actually turn it off. You could also leave the screen off to save battery. Next, you don't have the option of rearranging your playlist on the handheld. You need to do that before you load the music on there. Finally, only 64MB of nonexpendable memory? That makes this best suited for workouts, grocery shopping, and "low-end" users. 128MB would've been IDEAL. 4.5 stars is my actual rating, since there are some trivial issues with this, but it does deliver what it says smoothly and acceptably.

I purchased the LA-95 last year for a roundtrip flight from NY to Hawaii. From the reviews, I knew that I needed something to extend the battery life if I wanted to use it for more than a couple of hours without recharging. I purchased the extended battery from Panasonic which worked beautifully, more than six total hours. I also purchased what was advertised as an adaptor for use in the car or with airline power outlets from J + R. It turned out to be incompatible. I was able to connect the player to tvs in every place we stayed but one, so we had dvd movies everywhere we needed them which was not very often since we were in Hawaii. I've taken it on every plane ride since and have hooked it up to tvs in many hotels and condos. As long as there's a compatible input, I can watch movies. One little glitch did develop a few months ago. The lcd screen got what looked like a black splash across the screen which obscured the picture. Since it was under warrantee, I had it fixed for $65. They replaced the lcd panel. Fortunately, I only had to drive to New Jersey. My other option was to ship it to Texas. I don't know how this happened since it had been stored for about 3 months in a padded case in the closet, not dropped or mishandled. It must be very delicate. I did not ask how much it would have cost to repair if it wasn't under warrantee; I was afraid to know since between the unit and the extended battery, I have a considerable investment. It is a LOT of fun, though and you're never stuck with airplane or expensive hotel movies.

I've tried to imagine what our road trip with 3 small children from northern California to southern New Mexico would have been like without this player, but I shudder every time I try. The picture quality of the Panasonic DVD-LA95 is excellent for a portable and the sound quality and volume were sufficient enough to enable our kids to watch their favorite DVDs in a noisy minivan without the need for clumsy headphones. But more importantly, this player provided me and my wife with a peace and quiet you just can't put a price on. No having to endure the dreaded "Are we there yet?" mantra coming from the back seat. No shouts of "Daaaaaad, he's on my side!" or "I'm bored!" to contend with. A true sanity-saver. My only complaint was the short battery life and the somewhat cryptic setup menu. Neither of which would prevent me from highly recommending this player to other parents planning cross-country vacations with a carload of kids. However, if you plan on taking this unit on the road, do yourself a favor and purchase a cigarette lighter adapter. You'll be glad you did. The unit has also proved to be an excellent in-home player for the TV in our bedroom. After extensive research online and through local retailers, I found the Panasonic DVD-LA95 to be the best portable DVD player on the market. If only they had these things when I was a kid.

The 9" screen cannot be beat. Although I must admit that the sound and the picture quality on the Sharp 8" player (which is cheaper) is moderately better, the LA-95 is overall the best portable player. It also does not get any sleeker than this. It is very easy to use, extremely light, and has the best collection of portable accessories of any new players (many of the older Panasonic model's accessories work with the LA-95). After all - if I am going to watch a DVD movie at home - why wouldn't I watch from my big screen TV? I recommend getting the optional battery pack CGP-H501... and/or the the XTend airline power adapter if you plan on (as I do) using on long trips to keep your children occupied. I am not sure, though, if I will ever need to play any of those other formats (what exactly is DVD-RAM?). By the way - cartoons look the best and color sci fi the worst.

The Xitel Hi Fi Link produces better sound than obtained thru the headphone output of my powerbook G4, however, you will be disapointed if you connect it to a high-end sound system as the sound is very digital and lifeless. It works best for social/casual listening and for that purpose, it's a good value at the amazon.com price.

So you've digitized your CD collection or listen to internet radio, but are tired with the tinny sound of your computer speakers. "Why can't I use my stereo that's located just 15' away," you ask yourself? Having bought a DVD/CD player that can read .mp3 disks was a reasonable stopgap, but what about internet radio?

If this sounds like you, the HiFi-Link is a must have.

There are three items in the box: (1) a USB cable for your computer to the HiFi Link, (2) the HiFi Link, and (3) a 30' long RCA cable for between the HiFi Link and your stereo. Hookup was reasonably simple (I did get a message that a certain file was not found during installation, but the HiFi-Link still worked). The HiFi Link is small - about the size of fat candybar - so you can stuff it anywhere easily out of sight. The sound quality is great.

On the downside, using the HiFi Link requires you to change your multimedia default sound output to "USB device" instead of your soundcard; this means that everything will play through your stereo (computer games etc) unless you toggle the sound output back to your sound card. A minor inconvenience for the overall utility of digital music on your home stereo.

I purchased the HiFi-Link for connecting my laptop to the stereo in my family room while listening to the Rhapsody music service. I read good reviews here so I ordered one - I was not disappointed. I connected the USB cable, Windows XP installed the drivers and I was up in running in seconds.

Originally I was connecting from the headphone jack of my laptop to a stereo, and while the sound was adequate, it wasn't what I would consider 'CD Quality'. There was a very noticeable improvement after connecting up the HiFi link and listening to my first song. The sound quality is great and I had no issues with hum or noise - the device really works as advertised.

Bottom line, for the small investment you can't go wrong with the HiFi Link.

I just got the dreaded e18 error message on this camera and its only two years old. canon has a problem with all of its retractible lenses and they get either jammed in the out or the in position and the camera wont power up, rendering this useless. canon will fix it for 175.00 but the problem, as i have found from others on the web will happen again. it is a mecanical flaw? and canon wont support you at all.

This is the ultimate camera for active/sporting/outdoor snapshots. It's so small you can stick it in a pocket, and yet it has flash, 3x optical zoom and 4 megapixel resolution! Because it's digital you can see the results immediately, and you don't have to worry about wasting film. Send your experiences and memories to everyone!

Pros:
* Very small and handy
* Unobtrusive-your friends will stop posing every time you try to take a picture! My friend Christine has mastered the art of stealth photography with her S410; she looks in a different direction while glancing at the LCD viewfinder!
* Uses Compact Flash (CF)- Low-cost easy to handle memory cards available in capacities up to 1 GB!
* Picture quality (so far) is excellent

Cons:
* Uses a rechargeable battery-This takes some extra planning and perhaps a purchase of a spare battery.
* Non-automatic operation is difficult-the small size makes it hard to read and navigate the controls
* Small size can be a danger! You could lose it accidentally or drop it out of a shirt pocket

I've been reading the reviews on this Canon PowerShot S410 camera before and after purchasing my own. There certainly are numerous whiners out there. It seems people love to find something to whine about. Honestly, this camera has given me nothing but pleasure, excellent pictures and compliments from others. This is a solid well-built camera (my cats knocked it off my desk and dragged around a bit and it had no scratches and still works excellently) with excellent picture quality both indoor and outdoor and easy to figure out menu and buttons. People also seem to complain about the LCD screen being small on digital cameras in general. My answer, look through the view finder. In addition, with the Canon S410 the image on the LCD screen is so vivid and clear and the colors so rich that it doesn't really matter. After all, the most important thing is both the final print and how it looks on your computer not the size of the LCD screen. When I connect the camera to my Canon CP-330 compact photo printer, it's a one press operation and away it goes printing the best quality pictures ever. Unless you love to nit-pick (there's really nothing to nit-pick about on this one) you'll love this camera. Minor note, Canon could have possibly been a little more generous in what comes with the camera, such as an AC power adapter (although I love the battery recharger). However, don't consider this a complaint, just a suggestion to Canon. If you do decide to purchase, ENJOY! And to those whiners, life is too short .......

Pros: Lots of accessories, backlit lcd, reads ID3 tags, great ESP.

Cons: Backlit lcd, no line-out, hardware glitches, lack of quality control.

Summary: I have owned this unit roughly a month. It has wayyy too many things wrong with it for me to justify the price. One, it has no line-out, which is unforgivable, and the headphone jack is on the front which makes it impossible to mount in a car and make it look good. It also gets really hot underneath when the dc power supply is used. The LCD is backlit blue and looks good, but is really hard to read off-axis. The backlight turns on for about 4 seconds when you push buttons, and then turns off. I think they should have a backlight switch so you dont waste battery this way. The backlight quit working a week ago, so its a moot point anyway. The buttons also beep when you push them, something I find annoying, and the unit beeps when you pause it, something I also find aggravating. The point of pausing it is to NOT hear anything. The unit's headphone jack is also incapable of driving higher-impedance headphones like my Sennheiser 535s, so you are forced to use more efficient ones (like the crappy supplied earbuds). One of the most aggravating things wrong with it is this glitch in the ID3 reader that takes the last part of whatever the artist's name was before the artist name that you are viewing, and tacks it onto the one you are viewing; if the first artist you viewed was Matchbox 20, and the current one is REM, the ID3 readout will say REMchbox 20. The unit also has a display switch, but it doesn't remember your choice, thus, it displays this unneccessarily long filename whenever you switch tracks. The ergonomics are poor, and are hard to use if you use the belt clip. The ESP also turns on whenever you turn the player on, which wastes batteries if you forget to turn it off. The volume control is also recessed, which makes it hard to adjust, and the thing blows through batteries like nobody's business. You can expect maybe 6 hours on standard alkalines.

So what's good about this player? Not much. The backlight looks cool (when it works), and the player has good skip protection even when the ESP is off. It does read ID3 tags, and the belt clip is cool. Since I am currently on my second player, which also does not function properly, there is no way I can recommend this unit. I actually liked the player when it worked, but it has too many unforgivable flaws to be sold as a production unit.

I had purchased 2 Philips CD players a little less than 2 years ago and for the wear and tear that my boyfriend and I put them through they lasted & we really got our money's worth. I didn't have any kind of worries in buying another Philips product, however I was leery of the MP3 player part. Prior to my last CD player purchases I had bought an MP3/CD player combo that just was awful built by memorex. The sound quality was poor, and the CD player was laggy to get it going when you first switched the mode from MP3 to CD, so I wasn't sure I was going to like this model, but seeing as though it was from Philips and I had good luck with them in the past I figured I'd give it a try. I purchased the product and immediately was pleased with it because it had many of the same features that my elder Philips CD player had such as the anti-skip, the belt clip, the buttons were all in about the same place, bass & double bass modes etc. As time has gone on I have had my player for a little over a month and I'm very pleased. I have told all of my friends and family about this marvelously pleasing purchase and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for this type of audio entertainment.

When I first heard about MP3 CD players a year or two ago I knew that I had to have one. But as with all technology sometimes it's best to sit it out and wait for it to mature. Thank you Philips for the first grown-up player!

This thing is great. I am quite familiar with MP3 and I try to keep up on the latest technology and I must say that the one most important feature of this player - sound quality - is extremely excellent. All of my MP3s are "archive quality" (IMHO!) and the Philips does an admirable job of reproducing them. Most of my MP3s are variable bit rate, many with BRs ranging from 12 - 320, and I have had no problems there. Needless to say this was a big selling point for me. The ID3 feature (which recognizes artist & song info) is also excellent, as well as the interface, backlight, speed of song title recognition and startup, and included accessories. It is also very compact and light. About the only complaint I can come up with is that it does not include a case... personally I'd like to see a small case befitting this beautiful little player. Needless to say most of the CD player cases out there are bulky and ugly, so I had to create one out of a CD disc case. Ah well, one can dream...

As far as the color, as others have mentioned it is not black, but more of a purple color. However, I like it! Black is so... black. The purple is something of a pleasant change and has a nice iridescence to it.

Way back in the day, when SB 8-bit was the coolest thing around.. everyone had one, cause thats what was out. Then a few years back there was some good compition in the sound card market. Creative Labs, and Aureal to be specific. I went Aureal (rip)when I built my last system... and it has lasted me for these last few years. I was never a fan of SB or SB Live! price vs performace, or features for that matter. A3D (i think, and most will agree) kicked EAX right in the pants. My last card, Aureals Vortex SQ2500, I absolutly loved. Music, 3d gaming, all rocked. Matched with Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 I have been totally happy until I upgraded my system (2.4 P4) and to Win XP Pro. Since Aureal went belly up, support for XP just isn't there. I lost quad sound, the great Aureal control panel. Time to upgrade, and i figured SB was going to be the only choice. But I searched around, and found the Santa Cruz. Familiar with the Turtle Beach name, and what info I gathered, seemed wise to purchase one. Awesome. Easy to install, new XP drivers right off the webpage. Music sounds even better to me now. I really like the control panel layout, and a real EQ, like my old Aureal card. Effects sound great, and none of that system hogging, useless software that SB crams on your computer. I reccomend this card for anyone, music lover, gamer.. doesn't matter. Solid card, lots of features, can't go wrong. To top it off, cheaper than SB cards. Only gripe: no games bundled :) Haha, but i can't live with that for sure.

I have had problems with the sound quality of captured video. The on-board AC'97 made it sound scratchy & tinny. Hence I decided to get a sound card. SB live! and Philips cards were no go as they locked up my system. Hurricane Extreme was no better than on-board audio. In a last desperate measure, I installed the Santa Cruz 5.1 card. The installation was unbelievably smooth (W2K + MSI K7-Master) and the sound quality is excellent. I heartily recommend this card to anyone looking for a stable PCI card with excellent audio quality

I recently upgraded from basic speakers to a 5:1 speaker set and discovered a hardware problem with my old sound card, a Creative Labs card that was a standard component with my system. The documentation that came with the card wasn't great, and it took a while to identify the problem, so I was looking outside the Creative family for my next sound card. I'd read several good reviews of the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card, so I figured I'd take a shot on it.

That shot definitely paid off. I have nothing but good things to say about my new sound card: installation was easy (I only had to unhook the microphone connector from my old card and snap it onto this one), the drivers installed quickly and easily, and the accompanying software was far superior to the software that I had from Creative. There are a host of sound options available: your standard volume-by-source controls, a graphic equalizer that can be turned on and off with several presets, options for multiple speaker setups with an accompanying image showing where your speakers should be connected (2 speakers, 4 speakers, 5:1, and so on), and additional applications if you want to get more involved.

I haven't had a chance to put the card through its paces with a decent game, but the difference in listening to my iTunes files is amazing, and the control I have over the music is great. I'd definitely recommend this card to anyone looking for a reasonably-priced, fairly high-powered sound card, and with Amazon's newly-lowered price, it's an even better deal than when I got it. Buy it and enjoy!