MP3 Reviews

i bought this one two weeks ago and returned it after 3
days. i noticed that its battery life is not very good.
further you need to send it to toshiba for a replacement
battery after 1-2 year of use (i called toshiba service).
it still does not fit in a pocket well....
fortunately, during that period, ipaq 1935 came out
at the same price after rebate.

1935 has everything e355 has except that
it uses a slower processor, but i dont use it for
intensive computing. it is a lot smaller. it is battery life
is quite good....very happy to swtich to 1935

I recently purchased this PPc. It was the first one I had purchased and found it very easy to use. I used it mostly for taking notes, and keep an organized schedule after I purchased the Targus Universal Keyboard, which works very well with the e355. I was impressed with the battery life on medium settings which gave about 3-4 hours of battery life.

Hopefully this review will give a student a little insight into this "student" view of this.

I am a high school teacher. I wanted something to take notes on and to remind me when homework was due. I searched far and wide reading review after review. I got alot more than that with the e355. I have been using it for about 3.5 months now.
I'll just list the Pros and Cons becasue i could go on all day!

Pros:
1. Great speed.
2. Works right out of the box.
3. Excellent battery life (3.5 to 4hrs continuous running)
4. Crisp display. (especially for video playback)
5. Smooth buttons that feel pretty nice on your fingers.
6. Good price for the quality you get
7. The speakers on this player play audio in the best way i have heard for a small speaker unit. You would not believe that a pda could do so well with sound. It plays my mp3s, wma, anything and don't forget the videos.
8. It has a SD card slot so you can expand the memory at any time. the SD card slot has a dummy card that protects it from being damaged by dust or other particles.
9. Quick charge time. Good size storage built in, 64mb.
10. Windows Mobile 2003 is much much much more stable than its predeccessor.
11. It's much much much thinner than many other pda's i have reviewed.
12. It's much more resiliant to 'falls to the floor' than the Dell or Ipaqs for example. I'm a teacher. I can guarantee you...running around the class will lead to a fall on the ground. It has a metallic covering. (no shaking inside!)

Cons.
1. Sometimes if you use up close to 90% of the memory, it stalls.
2. The 'record audio' button is placed near the top so sometimes taking it out you may mistakedly begin recording. (this can be disabled though so it is not really a con)
3. It does not include the ability to 'go wireless' for internet. You can still access the internet though but you need to be connected to your computer. I did not need wireless internet just yet. When it does become ubiquitous...maybe then i'll go for something else.
4. The battery is not removeable. By the time this actually becomes a problem I'll be getting a new pda..about 2 to 3 years from now.

THis is an excellent PDA is you do not need wireless internet access right away.
I would recommend it with all authority people out there.

I bought the TG-50 about a month ago after having my handspring visor for 3 years. I loved the functionality of the palm os and hoped 5.0 would remain simple. Although most of the OS usability survives it does as much as the windows pocket pc. It plays movies beautifully and is easy to convert (if its a file format that the sony convertion software likes, dont like divx for instance) and loading mp3s are pretty easy and sound great. The screen is bright and easy to read and the keyboard is actually faster than graffitti so I rarely even use the stylus. I was disappointed documents to go was not included as this is geared toward the business user whats up with that? What good is being able to view it with their packaged viewer if you cant edit on the road (doesnt replace my laptop unless I buy Doc to go)

pros: Great screen; great price...; FAST 200mhz processor; nice materials, good multimedia capability; easly to sinc up with Windows XP; and Palm 5.0 OS

cons: stylus pops out the bottom pretty easily; no SD slot; no Compact Flash slot; One of the few Clies that doesnt come with Documents to Go; low basic memory (buy a 128K mem stick at least with the clie); the great world clock and calculator prepackaged with older OS no longer avail on 5.0

I would have given 5 stars if it had SD or Compact Flash and slightly better software package.

Pro's: High res screen, Great multimedia features, built in backlit keyboard, etc.

Con's: No built in wi-fi

I love my new toy. I'm actually writing my review on it right now. I get a new one of these about every year. I started with a Palm Vx, then a Sony CLIE SL10. Now I'm on a TG-50. The MP3 player puts out amazingly good quality music. I'm not even going to buy a seperate MP3 player. The movie quality is great, you could put a couple hours on it, right now I only have a couple of my favorite ads though. The voice recorder function is fun to use. No one even knows when your using the voice recorder. Overall I love it and the amazing brushed metal styling. I wish it had built-in 802.11b but I found a website where you can pick a memory stick adapter up for only $159. For the time being it's my favorite gadget.

I have used the TG-50 for about 9 months now and it has performed well. In addition to the basic PDA functions, I like the one button activated voice recorder. I also use it to play MP3s and music videos and it works well.

I use Outlook on my PC when I hot sync, and have not had a problem. The software that comes with the TG-50 lets you sync with Outlook without much hassle.

The only irritaion that I have had is, sometimes it will give an error and the only option left is a hard reset. However, when it comes back up the most recent data is still there (I use a memory stick). Use the TG-50 with a memory stick and back-up regularly. Data back-up is essential no matter what technology you use.

Bottom line is...It really is a cool little gadget, and provides great value for your money.

This is a piece of junk, the screen went out shortly after is was bought. Avoid at all costs.

The RCA Lyra is the best MP3 player hands down. It was incredibly easy to install, and downloading songs took no time. Many people complain of popping songs with Realjukebox, but they just didn't notice the preferences feature, allowing you to use the error control. That ultimatly fixes the problem. The Lyra has a clear LCD screen and convienient back light. Its state-of-the-art compact flash memory is so easy to use. Automaticly upgradeable,and convienient when you want to change the songs. Unlike on-board memory and such, you can switch cards instead of downloading again and again. The Lyra also comes with excellent headphones, that give a real-life sound. I can just imagine Darren Hayes singing right next to me when I listen to his music with this player. No contest, the Lyra is simply the best there is. Great job RCA, I look foward to buying your products in the future.

Let me tell you that I've had my Lyra for about three monthsnow and never had a single problem with it. The encrypted file formatmentioned earlier is only used on the flash card itself. It causes noproblems because the transfer software included (Real Jukebox) is made to use this type of format. All you need to do is click and drag your songs into another folder to transfer them onto the falsh card. Apart from that, the player has great features. You can change play mode, DSP (digital signal processing), and even the contrast of the LCD screen. The flash card is easy to eject and change and you can fit the whole thing in your pocket. It also has a cool looking illuminating light for dark areas. This package also comes with a DC power cord, a tape adapter and headphones. Even the batteries are in there! So, even though that the lyra only plays encryted file formats, it doesn't mean that you can't put your mp3's on it! Believe me, it is one of the easiest things to do on my computer. Buy one of these now. END

The DM-1 appears to be a high quality device. The recording and playback sound quality is acceptable with internal speaker and mike.
The playback quality in the Music mode with WOW is better than expected.
However, for dictation, the basic ability to rewind and "edit" a voice file after it is recorded is missing. That is a serious limitation for using this for dictation.
Also the Music Match Jukebox software necessary to load Music files is limited unless one pays another $20 to upgrade. The limitations are bad enough, but the constant nagging messages about upgrading are disruptive and offensive. Also transfer of files to the device is very slow using the Music Match Software.
Also of note, drivers for Windows Media Player are not available.
The best way to transfer files between the DM-1 and PC is to use a card reader. That is much faster.
The concept of a voice recorder with MP3 capability and removable media is great but the missing voice file edit capability and crippled Music software are disappointing and very limiting. I expected more at this price.

Please read the other 2 star reviews before buying! I didn't and... I wish I could have my money back.

The product is just average. Hardly deserving the Olympus brand.
As a recorder it... records! No editing, no inserting, if you want to see the date/hour data you have to go to the begining of the recording and be fast as the info will vanish in a split second.

Also, if you rewind when listening at low volume, the volume will decrease! There are small software bugs like these, not serious but annoying. The bateries will run out much faster than expected (sometimes only 3 to 4 hours use if you happen to leave them in the recorder for a month). The buttons are cool but seem fragile: you'll never be confident while pushing.

MP3 player: since I'm not a expert on computers, I had to ask for especialized help to have the mp3 player to work: it needed a specific Olympus program put inside the DM-1 card. I don't find this a problem: what is a problem is the fact that nowhere in the instructions such requirement was mentioned. Playing games, are we?

The sound? Not all that pleasant, noisy and sometimes "metalic".

I always relied on Olympus for my dictation/recording needs but this product is a non buy. There is better at half the price (at least).

Okay. Here is a write up, that I did, on the comparisons/contrasts on MP3 players. Mainly, the Harddrive versions (I.E. Rio Riot/Apple IPOD -both of which I own) and the flash memory type... (I.E. Memorex 3642 Mp3 Player, of which I own as well).
What prompted this little jaunt (of which you may send to as many people as you like) My (expensive) Apple IPOD died during a sync last month. Just me copying files over to it, and the battery ran out of juice. I would have not attempted to copy music had I known the battery was low, but the battery read FULL STRENGTH. Anyhoo, I called Apple, they said return it for maintenance.
I did. Sent it back.
They returned it, still broke.

To my suprise, there is only a TEN DAY return policy.

TEN DAYS.

I did not realize this at all... and will not ever buy another apple product.

So, after a month or so of messing around trying to find another MP3 player... I decided to go with a flash memory MP3 player, the ones that use memory sticks.

SO, here are the pro and cons of these devices.

Pro's for the Memory Stick Mp3 players

-Cheaper. WAY CHEAPER than Hard drive types.

-If you go into music match and file convert to MP3 Pro and shrink the size of your MP3 to like, say 3o percent... you can really make a good Kompression. Example. My Memorex MP3 player has 32mbs of memory on board. It is expandable to 256mb. 32 mb will basically let you put one cd's worth of music. It is easy to put music on and off of them, due to your computer reading the USB as just another hard drive, so you drag and drop to put on, delete them to take them off. But, after you shrink your files to MP3 Pro 30 percent, you can put twice as many. So, basically a 256mb chip will allow me to put 208 songs on my little less than palm size MP3 player. And it wieghs like 3 ounces.

- More on memory. These little chips are the size of the upper part of your thumb, at least my thumb anyway. They come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb and even though there aren't any MP3 machines out there to handle them YET, you can even buy a 1.5gig thumb size chip thingy. Considering the size of the chips and the shrinking kompression I told you about earlier, I could shrink my whole KOLLEKTION down to 10 of those 1.5gig chips. At the current shrink rate I am at 5 DVD's, which are way bigger and more fragile than these little chips.

- Not as fragile as hard drive type. You can drop one of these chips and not scratch it. I wouldn't stomp on one with my foot, nor get one in water, but they are encased in plastic. Ruggedish.

- Batteries last for like two days. There isn't much going on here, no moving parts, no laser or hard drive to put power to. Most of these flash Memory types have a single AA battery. I use a rechargeable type, so we are talking very low cost here.
In comparison to the hard drive types, where you will get a solid 8 hours of playing, this really whupps up.

- Size. Small. Very small. Mine is three inches by three inches. A square. But, you can get smaller ones. And the memory chips that go in them are the same ones you use for your camera. And you can put files on them. If you want to put a word doc on your memory chip, you can. Your Mp3 won't recognize it, but it is nifty storage.

COMPARISON/CONTRAST

- Size does matter. In the case of hard drive Mp3 players... lets face it, you can, if you so chose to, put a library of congress on these monsters. They are the caddilacs of the hand held devices, and guzzle batteries like gasoline. But when it comes down to it, size is the only thing they have going for them. I don't mean to downplay the hard drive types, but don't drop them, don't shake them, and after shelling out $499 to Apple you might consider insurance. Apple doesn't care about you or your apple after 10 days of ownership.

- Price/Komparison. IPOD ran me $499 bucks. My memorex MP3 player ran me 45 dollars. The 128 memory chip runs you 50 bucks. Owch. There really isn't a comparison to the two. The memory stick Mp3 players just kick ? on this issue. And, you get MORE than a ten day return policy, since you buy these things at Target/Wal Mart etc...

So, that is my review in a nutshell

What a blast this is! I love it. I primarily use it as an MP3 player. You can store about 12 songs on the 16 MB card. Works great, sounds great. Very easy to use. You can transfer songs using the provided Kodak software, or just copy/paste right out of Windows Explorer.

The camera is a nice bonus. Not great resolution but not too bad either. More of a toy than a serious camera. No flash is the biggest drawback. Holds a ton of pictures if the card is not full of MP3's.

The video feature is great too. Takes surprisingly long quicktime movies WITH SOUND! You get several minutes to record, not the 60 seconds you get with a typical digital camera. Very good mic picks up even low volume sounds. The video quality is okay, really meant for computer screens only.

Just buy it! You'll love it. For the price it is one hell of a deal.

I bought the mc3 primarily because I needed a video camera. It is excellent. I originally thought that the funtions were going to be so-so but I thought wrong. The mp3 player is excellent. The sound is CD-quality. It is excellent and it is LOUD. It hurts to turn it on full with the earbuds in. They are not the greatest but those are easily replaceable. The display tells you how many songs you have and the artist and album name. There are 5 equalizers. The software was fairly simple to setup and it may be a little difficult for people who are not used to computers to run it. It is very quick to load and easy to change songs. The camera does not have the greatest quality and no flash, but it works if you have lights on indoors. I have a standard 35mm camera for important occasions and most pictures. The digital camera is purely for fun and fast pictures. The video camera is excellent. It records really well. Overall it is excellent. The software is easy to install and use and it does not freeze up the computer. I had mp3's downloaded about 15 mins after I opened the box.(It would have been 10 but I had trouble finding my USB port). When you hook up the camera it automatically searches for new pictures and videos. It is incredibly easy to use and it is small and lightweight, easy to fit in my purse or pocket. The included wriststrap is useful for carrying it while listening to music.There are two pitfalls 1.The memory card included at 16 mbs holds NOTHING so it will be expensive to buy another. I suggest buy a huge one and then you won't have to change it. The other pitfall is no flash. But that is not as big of a deal as I thought. As all other battery-operated products on the market, it sucks the power like nothing. I suggest rechargables. All in all it is a really really portable all-in-one multimedia player.

They should call this the MC1 because it's only useful as a camcorder. As a camcorder that is $120, it gets 5 stars. Everything else out there that is <$200 are ALL 10 frames per second. They claim to be cool but are extremely choppy and look like web cams. A TV is 30fps, movie theaters are 24fps and the MC3 is 20fps. Not perfect buy light years ahead of everything else. Yes it has other problems but nothing that the exact other brands don't have too. Face it; this is the best camcorder you are going to get for <$200. If you like choppy web cam action it will record in 10fps and give you 4X more recording. A 16mb card (included) will give you 1:17min @ 20fps, and a 256mb card will give you 20:06min @20fps. You should buy a 256mb card ($60 ebay) and at least 6 rechargeable AAA batteries + recharger ($25) I've spent days trying to find something better than this and still can't. This is the best of a the junk that is out there. If that means anything.

Bought a UX50 used off eBay. Have had it for about a month. I would pay 400$ max for a used one. Now that Sony has stopped the entire Clie line, you should find them cheap off the internet.

PROS:
- Nice keyboard
- Love the fact that you can listen to music at the same time performing other functions like browsing, email etc (probably an OS5 feature not restricted to this model only)
- The wireless works like a charm right out of the box.
- Great resolution.

CONS:
- Had to soft boot at least 3-4 times already.
- Most apps require portrait mode which the UX50 does not natively support.
- Battery life - 3hrs max if you use the wireless.
- Need an additional memory stick (128MB - 40$)
- Crappy camera - 0.3MP!!! cmon Sony!
- Native doc support restricted to read only.
- Need the docking station to charge, no direct connection to PDA.

Must have software:
- you can enable the landscape mode for most apps using Code Diver. This is a MUST if you want to use the UX50.

(shareware + 10$. Remember to use the latest beta and not the handango version)
- Also I strongly recommend buying Documents to Go and Contacts to Go (add another 75$ to the tag)

Overall, you can end up spending about 1000$ to make this thing really usable, not worth it. But if you dont mind getting a used one cheap off eBay, this is definitely a nice toy.

... I recently came into possession of this baby as well as an HP iPaq 5550. It's been an interesting comparison.

The Clie is exquisitely designed. Everything fits together very nicely. The keyboard is large enough to be useful, and you can hide it when you flip the screen to tablet mode. The one gripe I have about the physical ergonomics is the location of the scroll wheel -- I wish it had been placed on the left, where the power button is presently located. Its placement underneath the keyboard can be somewhat awkward. I thought the screen would be bigger, but it's high resolution and quality compensates for its size.

I'm relatively new to PalmOS, so I have no point of comparison other than the iPaq I'm also using, which is based on Windows Mobile 2003. For good or bad, you don't feel like you're using a regular computer on the Clie -- the interaction style is rather different. I'm guessing this is a feature of the PalmOS in general.

The web browser NetFront, which I'd read rave reviews of, is somewhat lame. You can't control the font size, and bookmark management is not especially flexible. As far as I can tell the only thing you can do is create a long linear list of bookmarks -- no user-defined folders or anything like that. It's also darn near impossible to control the web browser from the keyboard exclusively -- I found myself switching between keyboard and stylus quite frequently, which was somewhat annoying.

The "entertainment" functions such as the still/video camera capabilities are merely toys. By no means are they a replacement for a real digital camera. Still, very handy when you need to take a quick picture of something for a report and all you have is your PDA.

I have not yet tried syncing to my PC, so I can't comment on that aspect of it. The wireless networking capability (802.11) works well. I had it up and running with my Linksys wireless router in a matter of minutes with WEP enabled. Connection reliability was very good; I never lost a link to the router when within reasonable range (this has *not* been the case with the iPaq, I might add).

All in all, a pretty nice device. Would I have spent my own $700 on it? No way. I could never justify that kind of dough on something so frivolous. But it is a very slick gadget for those who must have the latest and greatest.

The search for the perfect palm pilot has always been an issue. Many have features that others don't have, that making it complicated to get the perfect one. Finally, Sony has created a PDA that has every feature that anyone could ever want "The Sony Clie UX50".
This PDA has more bells and whistles than any palm powered handheld that you have seen. With its wireless Internet and its blue tooth, it is easy to connect to every type of compatible device and the cradle for charging would be the only thing needed to be connected physically to it. This PDA has crossed over into being more like a laptop.
The UX50 also has a spaced out keyboard, which makes it easy to type in all the information that needs to be typed. Also the UX50 has a swivel screen, which allows you to change the keyboard into a screen. The pda also allows for the left and right-handed user to be comfortable and also eliminating the High-resolution display not to be covered while you write.
The screen resolution (420x380) is better than any pda out. The screen will let you enjoy little movies with the memory stick pro, which goes up to a gigabyte. Also the screen will be perfect to view your pictures from the camera on the pda or other sources. This pda has hand writing recognition for those who like to write on the screen. Also it has an MP3 player and a voice recorder.
This palm powered device is surely one the greatest inventions in the land of the pda's. It almost goes into the realm of laptops. If you were to buy any palm pilot and didn't mind dishing out 650 dollars then the Sony Clie UX50 is the palm for you.

the overall quality of this cd player is ok but some part really stink. it uses triple a batteries which i dont no why but run out really fast. i always had to use the peice to add on double a batteries. the music play is ok,its smooth and all.

advantages:
- brand name
- great sound quality (even when u use the supplied headphones)
- good price compared to other brand names like sony , phillips ...etc.
- the remote control is light and easy to use
- uses either AA or AAA batteries or both
- the album button (lets u jump between albums on the cd without having to skip each single song to reach the desired one)
- the (+ 10) button lets jump 10 songs at each press on the button to quickly find your song)

disadvantages:
- the LCD display is NOT backlit ( although the picture on the box have a backlit LCD !!!)
- does NOT support any other file format except MP3
- does NOT support id3 ( does not show the song title or singer name )
- the remote control does NOT have album or +10 buttons
- the remote control does NOT have LCD display
- the remote control and the extra AA battery pack looks poor
- does NOT have DSP ( u can not change from hall to live to rock to jazz...etc.)

comments:

- if u can not live without id3 and a backlit LCD then do not buy this product

- for me those options are not that important ( i always put the player in the glovesbox in my car , i do not see the player at all so what can i do with an LCD itself !!!)

- a final word to say : IT IS A GOOD MP3 PLAYER

I purchased this item because I was going to be taking a 19 hour bus ride and I wanted something handy, without having to switch cds all the time. My player plays mp3s and they sound great. Naturally, if you have a bad quality mp3 file, it's going to sound bad on this player. I had a few problems where I would put in my mp3 disc and it would say that there were 47 songs, when I knew that there were 163 or more...so I would take out the disc and put it back in and then it would read properly.

I have since learned that I have been making my mp3 cds wrong. I was dragging and dropping them on to the disc, a few songs at a time. The proper way, so I've been told, is to use your cd creator program and make a data cd once you have all your files. I've since made a cd that way and have NO problems.

As to the earbuds, they are extremely comfortable, unlike the others I've had that really hurt the ears. The player is lightweight and the remote control thinger is extremely handy. I don't care if it doesn't name the mp3s right on the player, I made myself a cover, yes, I spent the extra hour and typed out all my songs...saves mixing up cds as well.

I prefer the aluminum case to the plastic ones you can get.

I'll finish by saying that I have had NO problems with my cds, except for the fact that I wasn't making the discs properly. I'd recommend this product.

P.S. There are also some mp3s that WILL NOT play in any media program on my computer, so I would recommend testing your mp3s on your cd creator program before breaking a cd.

I always thought that Classic was cheep garbage. Well, they have proven my point. My sister got one, and what happened, it crashed my computer! I had to do a complete system recovery and lost all my files. DO NOT USE WITH WINDOWS XP.

Setup was real easy. Stick in a battery, and then plug in the included USB cable. Let the computer recognize the new hardware, and grab the drivers from the included CD-Rom. Next run setup.exe from the CD-Rom, and install the MP3Manager application. First thing you do in the app is format the built-64Mb memory. You can also slot in a 128Mb SmartMedia card, for a total of 192Mb (3 hours). Copying files take a matter of minutes, and although the app doesn't have a drag-and-drop mechanism like Explorer, it's easy nonetheless. Sound quality is awesome. I would recommend buying a better pair of earphones. Has all the functions of a portable player - FF/rewind, next/prev track, volume, bass, treble, etc. Nice & compact - slightly bigger than a pager. Loses one star because the casing is that transparent plastic used on cheap pagers. PS - XP users need to download updated drivers from EMIGlobaldotcom.

I LIKE THE CLASSIC MP3 BEACUSE I HAVE A CAT THAT LIKES HARD METAL AND THE THE CLASSIC HAS A STRING THAT THE CAT PLAYS WITH AS SHE (SWEET CAKES) LISTENS TO HER METAL. BUT ALTHOUGH THE BATTERY IS FALLING OUT I HAD IT FOR A GOOD OHHHH........8 HOURS.
IT IS STRONG PLASTIC NOT CHEAP PLASTIC LIKE EVERYONE ELSE SAYS. IF YOU ARE GOING TO BUY THIS EQUIPMENT I STRONGLY SUGGEST IT (IF YOUR A PET LOVER OR HAVE YOUNG CHILDREN) BEAUSE IT IS THE CHEAPEST ONE OUT THERE AND YOU HAVE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT BUT SOMETIMES ON THE SCREEN IT SAYS _I_WILL_NOT_WORK_FOR_YOU_.
OHHHH P.S. BASKET ROBINS IS HAVING A HUGEMONGUS SALE ON THE 4TH CHECK US OUT. SEE YA THERE. P.S. NAMES TIMMY

The combination of FM radio, Voice Recorder and less importantly WMA/MP3 player in a small form factor appealed to me and, knowing the risks of such a behaviour, I became an early adopter.

Good things first: the device looks nice, isn't too big - barely bigger than the original Muvo - and, the stock earphones sound are relatively decent. But... but... even after setting the FM mode to Europe (why in the world is Creative shipping such a device with inappropriate default local parameters when they do attempt to maintain three different regional web sites for their slightly different product lines?) FM reception remains of very high quality. The signal to noise ratio is reminiscent of an early 80s turntable, tuning isn't very stable, "best" reception seems to be achieved about 0.05 Mhz above the official frequency, the dynamic range seems a bit compressed, the auto-scan misses 90% of the stations a cheap tuner gets, etc... All of this conspire to create an overall disappointing FM listening experience. Radio recording is therefore intrinsically limited.

The battery life is closer to 8 hours than 14. Voice recording is acceptable, no more. MP3 playback is good (but who has bad MP3 sound nowadays?). Creative Media Source is a big improvement over the useless stuff Creative used to ship with its device.

If Creative doesn't address some of the FM issues by a firmware update - if that is possible - the Rhomba will disappoint me.

Okay. Here is a write up, that I did, on the comparisons/contrasts on MP3 players. Mainly, the Harddrive versions (I.E. Rio Riot/Apple IPOD -both of which I own) and the flash memory type... (I.E. Memorex 3642 Mp3 Player, of which I own as well).
What prompted this little jaunt (of which you may send to as many people as you like) My (expensive) Apple IPOD died during a sync last month. Just me copying files over to it, and the battery ran out of juice. I would have not attempted to copy music had I known the battery was low, but the battery read FULL STRENGTH. Anyhoo, I called Apple, they said return it for maintenance.
I did. Sent it back.
They returned it, still broke.

To my suprise, there is only a TEN DAY return policy.

TEN DAYS.

I did not realize this at all... and will not ever buy another apple product.

So, after a month or so of messing around trying to find another MP3 player... I decided to go with a flash memory MP3 player, the ones that use memory sticks.

SO, here are the pro and cons of these devices.

Pro's for the Memory Stick Mp3 players

-Cheaper. WAY CHEAPER than Hard drive types.

-If you go into music match and file convert to MP3 Pro and shrink the size of your MP3 to like, say 3o percent... you can really make a good Kompression. Example. My Memorex MP3 player has 32mbs of memory on board. It is expandable to 256mb. 32 mb will basically let you put one cd's worth of music. It is easy to put music on and off of them, due to your computer reading the USB as just another hard drive, so you drag and drop to put on, delete them to take them off. But, after you shrink your files to MP3 Pro 30 percent, you can put twice as many. So, basically a 256mb chip will allow me to put 208 songs on my little less than palm size MP3 player. And it wieghs like 3 ounces.

- More on memory. These little chips are the size of the upper part of your thumb, at least my thumb anyway. They come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb and even though there aren't any MP3 machines out there to handle them YET, you can even buy a 1.5gig thumb size chip thingy. Considering the size of the chips and the shrinking kompression I told you about earlier, I could shrink my whole KOLLEKTION down to 10 of those 1.5gig chips. At the current shrink rate I am at 5 DVD's, which are way bigger and more fragile than these little chips.

- Not as fragile as hard drive type. You can drop one of these chips and not scratch it. I wouldn't stomp on one with my foot, nor get one in water, but they are encased in plastic. Ruggedish.

- Batteries last for like two days. There isn't much going on here, no moving parts, no laser or hard drive to put power to. Most of these flash Memory types have a single AA battery. I use a rechargeable type, so we are talking very low cost here.
In comparison to the hard drive types, where you will get a solid 8 hours of playing, this really whupps up.

- Size. Small. Very small. Mine is three inches by three inches. A square. But, you can get smaller ones. And the memory chips that go in them are the same ones you use for your camera. And you can put files on them. If you want to put a word doc on your memory chip, you can. Your Mp3 won't recognize it, but it is nifty storage.

COMPARISON/CONTRAST

- Size does matter. In the case of hard drive Mp3 players... lets face it, you can, if you so chose to, put a library of congress on these monsters. They are the caddilacs of the hand held devices, and guzzle batteries like gasoline. But when it comes down to it, size is the only thing they have going for them. I don't mean to downplay the hard drive types, but don't drop them, don't shake them, and after shelling out $499 to Apple you might consider insurance. Apple doesn't care about you or your apple after 10 days of ownership.

- Price/Komparison. IPOD ran me $499 bucks. My memorex MP3 player ran me 45 dollars. The 128 memory chip runs you 50 bucks. Owch. There really isn't a comparison to the two. The memory stick Mp3 players just kick ? on this issue. And, you get MORE than a ten day return policy, since you buy these things at Target/Wal Mart etc...

So, that is my review in a nutshell

just for the record: last day off my vacation in mexico and i dived into the Carraibean with my digital camera into my pocket :) (don't ask why) and althogh the camera is now mearly scrap (pentax optio s) the memory card works fine and i didn't lost any of my vacation photos with would have been a lot worse - so SD cards are water proof and salt water proof :)

The combination of FM radio, Voice Recorder and less importantly WMA/MP3 player in a small form factor appealed to me and, knowing the risks of such a behaviour, I became an early adopter.

Good things first: the device looks nice, isn't too big - barely bigger than the original Muvo - and, the stock earphones sound are relatively decent. But... but... even after setting the FM mode to Europe (why in the world is Creative shipping such a device with inappropriate default local parameters when they do attempt to maintain three different regional web sites for their slightly different product lines?) FM reception remains of very high quality. The signal to noise ratio is reminiscent of an early 80s turntable, tuning isn't very stable, "best" reception seems to be achieved about 0.05 Mhz above the official frequency, the dynamic range seems a bit compressed, the auto-scan misses 90% of the stations a cheap tuner gets, etc... All of this conspire to create an overall disappointing FM listening experience. Radio recording is therefore intrinsically limited.

The battery life is closer to 8 hours than 14. Voice recording is acceptable, no more. MP3 playback is good (but who has bad MP3 sound nowadays?). Creative Media Source is a big improvement over the useless stuff Creative used to ship with its device.

If Creative doesn't address some of the FM issues by a firmware update - if that is possible - the Rhomba will disappoint me.

Okay. Here is a write up, that I did, on the comparisons/contrasts on MP3 players. Mainly, the Harddrive versions (I.E. Rio Riot/Apple IPOD -both of which I own) and the flash memory type... (I.E. Memorex 3642 Mp3 Player, of which I own as well).
What prompted this little jaunt (of which you may send to as many people as you like) My (expensive) Apple IPOD died during a sync last month. Just me copying files over to it, and the battery ran out of juice. I would have not attempted to copy music had I known the battery was low, but the battery read FULL STRENGTH. Anyhoo, I called Apple, they said return it for maintenance.
I did. Sent it back.
They returned it, still broke.

To my suprise, there is only a TEN DAY return policy.

TEN DAYS.

I did not realize this at all... and will not ever buy another apple product.

So, after a month or so of messing around trying to find another MP3 player... I decided to go with a flash memory MP3 player, the ones that use memory sticks.

SO, here are the pro and cons of these devices.

Pro's for the Memory Stick Mp3 players

-Cheaper. WAY CHEAPER than Hard drive types.

-If you go into music match and file convert to MP3 Pro and shrink the size of your MP3 to like, say 3o percent... you can really make a good Kompression. Example. My Memorex MP3 player has 32mbs of memory on board. It is expandable to 256mb. 32 mb will basically let you put one cd's worth of music. It is easy to put music on and off of them, due to your computer reading the USB as just another hard drive, so you drag and drop to put on, delete them to take them off. But, after you shrink your files to MP3 Pro 30 percent, you can put twice as many. So, basically a 256mb chip will allow me to put 208 songs on my little less than palm size MP3 player. And it wieghs like 3 ounces.

- More on memory. These little chips are the size of the upper part of your thumb, at least my thumb anyway. They come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb and even though there aren't any MP3 machines out there to handle them YET, you can even buy a 1.5gig thumb size chip thingy. Considering the size of the chips and the shrinking kompression I told you about earlier, I could shrink my whole KOLLEKTION down to 10 of those 1.5gig chips. At the current shrink rate I am at 5 DVD's, which are way bigger and more fragile than these little chips.

- Not as fragile as hard drive type. You can drop one of these chips and not scratch it. I wouldn't stomp on one with my foot, nor get one in water, but they are encased in plastic. Ruggedish.

- Batteries last for like two days. There isn't much going on here, no moving parts, no laser or hard drive to put power to. Most of these flash Memory types have a single AA battery. I use a rechargeable type, so we are talking very low cost here.
In comparison to the hard drive types, where you will get a solid 8 hours of playing, this really whupps up.

- Size. Small. Very small. Mine is three inches by three inches. A square. But, you can get smaller ones. And the memory chips that go in them are the same ones you use for your camera. And you can put files on them. If you want to put a word doc on your memory chip, you can. Your Mp3 won't recognize it, but it is nifty storage.

COMPARISON/CONTRAST

- Size does matter. In the case of hard drive Mp3 players... lets face it, you can, if you so chose to, put a library of congress on these monsters. They are the caddilacs of the hand held devices, and guzzle batteries like gasoline. But when it comes down to it, size is the only thing they have going for them. I don't mean to downplay the hard drive types, but don't drop them, don't shake them, and after shelling out $499 to Apple you might consider insurance. Apple doesn't care about you or your apple after 10 days of ownership.

- Price/Komparison. IPOD ran me $499 bucks. My memorex MP3 player ran me 45 dollars. The 128 memory chip runs you 50 bucks. Owch. There really isn't a comparison to the two. The memory stick Mp3 players just kick ? on this issue. And, you get MORE than a ten day return policy, since you buy these things at Target/Wal Mart etc...

So, that is my review in a nutshell

just for the record: last day off my vacation in mexico and i dived into the Carraibean with my digital camera into my pocket :) (don't ask why) and althogh the camera is now mearly scrap (pentax optio s) the memory card works fine and i didn't lost any of my vacation photos with would have been a lot worse - so SD cards are water proof and salt water proof :)