MP3 Reviews

Before I used to think that i would be worth the prive that it was set at, I was wrong. I mean this does serve its purpose and does everything it says, but it is just too overprivced. I could see this at $15, maybe $20, but $40 is just outragous. If you are planning on buying an ipod, buy a 20 or 40 gig, if you really want this. Sepreately, it is just a waste of money.

For 40 bucks you get the dock, which is nice. For 75 you get the dock, a Monster Cable audio connection cable with RCA connectors; the Apple USB-iPod cable and the Apple power adapter. Apple calls this its stereo connection kit. In May 2004 it's $5 cheaper on Amazon than at apple.com. Seventy-five bucks is too much for this, too, but bought separately, I know these items would cost quite a bit more than $75.

You do need the dock to use the line-level output to your stereo. While it's true the variable output headphone connection works fine, the line-level output provides higher fidelity and eliminates the risk of overloading the inputs on your pre-amp or receiver.

If you don't have an iPod yet and you love music, especially if you travel on airplanes, you need one. Just know that podding, like most other things, is a bit of a money pit.

Let's put it this way: I think the dock is great. Aesthetically is much more pleasing to see my iPod propped up securely in this sturdy little accessory. Functionally, the line out jack is great for hooking up to a stereo. And for the sake caution, I prefer having a spot to place this pricey little unit in, rather than just leaving it lying down, just waiting for the first inadvertant soda can to be set on it, or crushed under a stack of books, and so on.

The price doesn't really bother me; it could be lower, but it's not prohibitive, considering how much you just paid for your iPod. And that's why overall, I'd give the dock 4 stars...

... But not 5. Because having said all of that, it's really sort of chintzy of Apple to make one have to pay extra for a basic component and, when all is said and done, one you don't necessarily actually need. So, in the end, it's nice, if you can get it -- but if not, you're not missing much.

DO NOY BUY THIS PRODUCT
1ST IT CAN ONLY TAKE 1 MORE 32MB CARD
2ND ITS HARD 2 SET UP

SO SAVE UR MONEY AND BUY SOMETHING BETTER ....

We've had this player for about a year and it has begun to short out. We really didn't use it that often, the only reason we got this one was it was offered with a rebate which put it (at a good price) at the time. Should have waited and done more research.

While the sound quality coming out of the devise is okay...the devise its self (...).

First, The battery cover on the back, is only held shut by a little plastic tab, easily broken with moderate use.

Second, There is no USB support for this product. The only way to transfer music is via a slow serial connection.

Third, While it takes only two batteries, it ought to take more. This thing is a major battery drainer, I can only get 3-4 hours of one charge.

Fourth, No backlight LCD screen. Makes it somewhat hard to see what song is selected in the dark.

Fifth, Only 32mb of space on the player, and while you can get more space with smartmedia cards, a 64mb smart media card costs almost as much as the mp3 player its self.

I would not recommend this player to anyone, unless you are sort of pressed on money. But there are other mp3 players under 200 dollars that are a lot better quality and have more features.

My draw to this product was the price. I mean compared to the iPod or the Zen, this thing is cheap... ...but it's got some serious drawbacks...

The drawbacks...
The engineering that went into this is really bad. First off, it's really heavy and bigger than normal CD players. It doesn't even fit into my jacket that has a pocket designed for cd players.

The display doesn't light up, and it's hard to read. It does become an orange color at certain angles, but none of the angles are practical for viewing. No album names, just numbers.

The display on the remote and the main unit is made of cheap, soft plastic... This stuff scratches very very easy. Nike should have packed it with a silk bag. Definitely doesn't fit the description of "sport equipment", more suitably for a Gucci toting softy that wants to be seen, rather than get fit. Why they didn't make it out of glass, I'll never know. I do know that after it gets scratched from simply leaving it your gym bag, you're going to get really choked.

When and if you decide to run with it, you're going to notice how totally annoying it is to change songs/volume, it's strapped to your hand, yet you have to use your other hand to change the input. Now you're going to say, "why don't you use the remote?" Well... the remote is awful... I'm not sure how many people with engineering degrees it's going to take at Philips to figure out that having the headphone jack at one end and the line going to the unit on the other end, IS A BAD IDEA!!! It's totally horrible to set up for a run. You end up totally wrapped up in wires. Wasn't the whole idea of this unit to allow you to run? So picture yourself running down the street with wires all over your body and a big bulky CD player in one hand and a remote magnetized to your chest. To change a song you can either reach up to your chest or reach over to your other hand... where is the logic in this remote???

Speaking of the remote... when you do decide to use it, you'll notice that the volume isn't true. What I mean by this, is that it's just secondary to the main unit. This is really annoying. So if your CD unit is in your backpack and you want to crank the volume on the remote, you have to open your bag and turn up the volume on the main unit and then adjust your remote. These Philips guys have never heard of the KISS princple.

It has a couple of ESP settings, I don't bother using them. You can run and listen to MP3's without any on.

The head unit is noisy. Really noisy. I was in the library listening to tunes with it, and was getting angry looks by people. I couldn't figure out why, when someone finally asked me to please put the main unit in my bag. Everytime this thing loads an MP3 into it's buffer, it makes a loud awful sounds.

The magnets... AWFUL... I'm in the process of getting a couple degrees, one of which is computer science. I was working on an assignment in the lab, and I saved it onto a disk and tossed it into my backpack... ...can you guess what got erased??? The magnets on the remote (in the other part of my backpack) latched onto the disk and toasted it. Just a few hours of wasted work. Philips does put a nice little warning note about magnets and credit cards in the box. How nice of them. A simple clip would work about a MILLION times better!!!

The soft orange rubber coating they put on the front is a really bad idea. The other degree I'm getting is in Visual Arts, and while drawing for a few hours while listening to it, the buttons got covered with graphite. This wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that it's a real pain in the butt to clean, and in fact it doesn't get clean.

So basically after a week of use my unit has a scratched display (err) and a graphite-grey stained orange front.

But in some fairness, it does it's job. It plays MP3's from CDR's and has a nice long battery life - and thats why I bought it. I am just so suprised at how badly engineered this product is.

Would I buy another product from Nike/Philips? - Not a chance

I bought this walkman early this year, probably JAN/FEB to take running with me. I usually run on a treadmill, but anti-shock is still important, and I was impressed with the eight-minute anti-shock memory. This is the best thing about it - it literally wont skip, even if the CD is slightly scratched and skips on other players. The unit looks nice, and the no-look buttons work well while on the move. The mp3 option also works great, and the sound quality is indistinguishable from CD.
The rubber hand strap is a pain to put on the player, and needs frequent washing otherwise it starts to smell like rancid socks. As usual with these things, the headphones are rubbish; Nike is supplying this type of headphones with all it's sports audio and THEY DO NOT STAY ON, even when you turn your head, they need to start supplying more rugged, expensive headphones with these players. I had to use my old headphones, which worked fine. However, if you've spent $... on this thing, you shouldn't need to go out and spend another $... on headphones.
The remote control unit stopped working months ago, and the magnets on it rust up fairly easily. Yesterday (now early July), the display on the front of the unit started to disappear, and some of it appears backwards.
But, there's been no deterioration in sound quality, or interruption in play due to these faults.
I am probably going to try and return it under guarantee very soon, because when it works, this is a nice walkman. However, they need to bring out a new model with all of these technical and practical issues solved. Soon.

First of all, there is one word to describe the sound quality..........heh I can't think of any, thats how good it is.
Basically after trading in a previous defective Panasonic CD Player, and seeing as though I have millions of mp3s on discs, I realised an MP3 CD player was what I had needed.
After purchasing this for, wait for it...£100! I was satisfied.
Meaning, there was a lot a "Pro's" to this player, but just one (maybe three) BIG (and I express the word 'big') flaw/downside which balances it out.
Pro's: - Sound Quality
- Functions
- LCD Display
- Remote Control (However there is no need for this,
because after all, this is supposed to
be a "Sports CD Player")
- MP3 Support Function

CON'S: - =BIG...Player= (As soon as I held it in my hand, I thought of one word "BRICK", it was heavy...and as a frequent user of CD Players while walking, I couldn't fit it in any of my...pockets!)
- =Headphones= (I like the concept, but it just isn't
suitable for every head out there! The damn
earplugs are too big, larger than ususal,
and tends to fall out of my ears if i just
tilt my head once!) The Magnets are also a
good idea and are useful in certain
occasions, but are quite heavy, it also
causes the headphones to sag down and come
off seing as though the headphones are
really light)
As a 17-year-old, I don't usually use this for jogging etc. rather for walking, therefore the player being large and heavier than the average cd player is very annoying. However as soon as you turn this thing on, and bust out the hip hop, r&b, rock whatever music you listen to... you forget about all it's negatives, it made me get off my seat and breakdance out on tha street, 4realz!

The toggle switch on my new e805 broke the second time I moved it from WiFi to off. I sent the unit in under warrenty. Toshiba warrenty department said the mother board must be replaced to fix the toggle switch and is not covered under warrenty. They charged $125.00 to repair unit. I've bought a lot of Toshiba products, this will be the last.
Guy A. Edwards
Sturgis
South Dakota

When I first took it out of the box, it didn't, but I thought that was because the battery needed to be charged. I did finally get it setup and working. It was beautiful. Then the screen started acting weird, I'd tap the scroll bar and the today screen would pop back up, or I'd tape the "next" button and a different program would flash and then go away and then back to the today screen. Sometimes I'd turn it on and the screen wouldn't respond, then all of a sudden it did again. It was getting so bad that I hard reset and still couldn't get the screen to respond. I tried calling Toshiba, who only offers 90 days tech support, and they said they'd have someone call me back. A week later, I called them again and a week later I called a third time. Finally, I couldn't get the unit to respond at all, so I called J&R (where I purchased it via Amazon link) and they told me to send it back. They'd check it out and IF they found a problem they'd exchange it and refund my shipping fee. A lot of hassle for a very expensive machine, Toshiba is awful. I hope J&R comes through, as they agreed. They were nice on the phone, I think they will.
I did get my new, replacement from J&R. I was charged for it and I'm still waiting for them to credit me for the one I returned to them. The new one works MUCH better! It's a pleasure to use. I've only let the battery run down once; it stays pretty good, 4 or 5 days with normal use. This screen works the way it should. It responds well and it's really quick. I restored from a backup on my CF card and was up and running in seconds. I really love it. I like the CF and SD card slots and the fast processor. I like it much better than the iPAQ 5455 I had.

I had the iPAQ but I had to have an expansion pack to use a CF card and the battery seemed to die everyday. This has everything I want built in. I know it doesn't have Bluetooth, but either does my laptop or cell phone but both have IR so the included IR on the e805 was important. I have a 1gb CF card and a 512sd card which are recognized without a hitch (not the case on my iPAQ where I constantly had to soft boot) WiFi configured really easily. I backed up my new unit and did a hard reset and restore, which worked perfectly and easily. I love the large screen for viewing my photos and short mov videos and my maps from pocket streets, the included apps are great but I did have one multimedia app from my iPAQ that I use and love. Battery lasts about 3 days w/normal use. Not as large as I expected, but then the iPAQ w/expansion was very large and heavy. I use a leather case for the e740 which was tight at first, but works great. Toshiba isn't the greatest with support or customer service and this unit didn't come with ANYthing, no cards, no screen cover, no case, which did come with my iPAQ. But I love the built in CF and SD cards, the large screen, ease of use voice recorder. The only thing I don't like is the stylus.

Great player until the battery dies. Anybody know how to get a replacement?

I love listening to music and hate logging around a cd player so when I heard of this product using Iomega Click disks I was interested. They hold 40 minutes of music on each disk and I can use as many as I want. Smart media [costs more for] 32mb and for the same [amount of money] I can get 400Mb of storage with the click disks. I wish the volume was a little louder but I really love using this thing to listen to my music when I want.

I've had a fairly long list of MP3 players: Rio 300+500, Nomad and Nomad II, Sony Memory Stick, 2 CD-MP3 Players and the raveMP2300..The raveMP2300 bests them all. Someone made a point that only 9 songs fit on a single disc. If you encode a 128kbps MP3 into a 64kbps WMA file, you get near-equal sound at half the file size. It sounds even better if you rip a WMA from the CD directly. The raveMP player is capable of playing WMAs, so I can fit near 75 minutes on a $10 disc. The sound quality is excellent, and if you get a pair of headphones with volume control, you will get a volume boost, even though the volume is comparable to other MP3 players to begin with.

This thing is a piece of garbage. It is a piece of plastic that I cannot tell if it works or not because there is no display -- only some red light. You are better off spending your a bit more money on a real MP3 player.

Price and size are great. It's tiny, light and accepts standard CF cards to increase the memory size (no one in their right mind would use the 8mb card it comes with). Who cares about an LCD display or equalizer functions?

I do have a couple of problems with it:

1) Despite taking "industry-standard" CF cards, there are some cards that are incompatible with the IJ-50. I bought a Simple 96MB card only to find it was not compatible. There is a compatiblity matrix on www.ijamworld.com. Make sure your card is supported before buying. I have successfully used a Kingston 48MB out of the box with the IJ-50.

2) No belt clip or arm band. This radio is useless for exercise except for walking. A belt clip would next to nothing to the price but make this player so much more useful. As is, it is very easy to drop while running (as I have done several times).

This product is so economic & small! The price is really fair. You can have it for less than [amount] in some stores (without Compact Flash Card & Reader but with earphones).
This MP3 Player has 90mW power output: where mostly all MP3 players has 60mW... It's really useful in a noisy environement (subway, a lot of people talking, etc...).
Some help for those whom owns the JS-50U (the I-JAM CompactFlash Card Reader), you need to update the drivers from Microtech (ZIO Reader is the same) or Delkin (eFilm Reader-2). I guess the guy before who reviewed this product didn't have the correct version of the drivers. Be sure to initialize the CompactFlash cards in FAT (not FAT32 or NTFS).

I recently purchased this model after comparing to the Koss unit. What clinched the purchase for me was actually going to Panasonic's site and checking out the specifications. This is the headphone they sell with their portable DVD units. I bought this set of headphones to go with my new laptop, which also has a DVD player, and I thought they would be useful for that task.

The effect of the noise cancellation is very nice and something that isnt very easy to describe. The best term I can come up for it is "active silence." You can "hear" something in that the "something" you hear is different than the ambient noise, but its just dead quiet. Very useful when youre working around computers.

The sound quality and the construction of the unit are my two beefs.

First, the headphones do hiss a bit. There is an audible background hiss just having them plugged in. This does go away pretty well when the noise cancelling is turned on however.

I have had to create an equalizer setting for them because their range seems a little odd. The low range on them is about right, but the mids are weak and the highs are too strong. So its necessary to turn the highs down, turn the mids up, and the medium-low range down. This is easy enough if youre using a computer with an equalizer that supports presets. It might not be so easy with, say, a discman or something similar.

Second, somebody reviewed this unit and said that they "pinch" a little and that the ear muffle is shaped incorrectly for human ears. This is mostly correct. Because the unit folds in half, there is a constant tension against your ears, which the pads on the phones do not really protect you from. I noticed that taking my glasses off eased this pain in my ear. However, not having my glasses on makes using the computer futile. They get real uncomfortable after about two hours of use.

Would I buy them again? Well, maybe, if the price was dropped $20, and I had a chance to try out the Koss unit. Otherwise, I think the only real reason to purchase them is so you can wow your friends and tell them they have noise cancelling. Hardly worth $110 for that.

I picked these up as possible replacements for the Panasonic RP-HT850's, which apparently have been dropped from the line. Like the 850's they're true "foldaway" headphones--light, compact, comfortable, convenient to carry and wear. Unlike the 850's they use a two-sided, rather than a single-sided, cord connection, and they require insertion of a battery (which makes them marginally heavier). The sound is efficient, or responsive, and bright if not brilliant. But in side-by-side comparisons with my other headphones, including Panasonic RP-HT710's and Sennheiser PX-100's, the Panasonic 100's are definitely wanting in terms of balance, spaciousness, and fullness. If you don't mind the cumbersome size and 16-foot cord, the Panasonic RP-HT 710's are hard to beat for the price. Otherwise, the Sennheiser PX-100's are the inescapable choice--little overachievers that not only make the ride but hold their own against the more costly and conspicuous competition.

UPDATE: the plastic broke while travelling, so they no longer stay on my head. Consider a product like Koss' "The Plug" instead.

I bought a pair of these about 18 months ago and use them regularly on airplanes. They are a substantial improvement over the usual cheap headphones provided by the airline, because of the noise reduction, the "around the ear" instead of "on the ear" construction which itself seals against outside noise, and the sound quality.

The sound quality is quite acceptable for airplane listening. They don't stand up to good quality headphones that don't have NC and don't fold up, but their convenience makes up for it.

They don't sound as good as the Bose headphones that are sometimes handed out on business class, but they are substantially cheaper.

Two minor downsides. First, they can get uncomfortable after a few hours of listening. Second, there is a little plastic cover for the battery which recently came off and got lost, and now the battery sometimes falls out and gets lost.

Overall they are a substantial improvement over what the airplane gives you. You can actually understand the spoken parts of a movie. They are compact, light, and easy to carry around so they are always in my carryon bag, and I use them a lot.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the newer units in the same or slightly higher price range would be better, as this is an older unit.

First of all..this is a VERY beautiful product! It would have definetely gotten 5 stars!! In my opinion it is well above par (par being the famous iPod)I beleive this product COULD have been a huge contender to the ipod...BUT Philips ***ked up BIG time and decided to includ crappy software (DMM) that is probably the worst programming weve ever seen. Basic features of ANY current media program seem to be missing from this software. Its almost a guarantee that the software will freeze or crash at some point. (Beleive me, I tried it on no less than 4 totally different computers). It honestly seems like Philips spent all there R&D and Production money on the actual physical device and only had enough money left over to pay some high school student to build a software program in a couple days. If you DO happed to buy this device, my best advice would be to run the DMM software, copy as much music as u can as fast as u can and then get the HELL out of there!! I can't beleive a company this big would do something so stupid. Or maybe it IS beleivable cuz it seems that the bigger the company gets, the less and less the company cares about its customers...us. On that note, customer support was also very bad. Dont even try to send an email to them. As far as the physical device goes, it works pretty well. The volume is wayyyy to low, though. Anyway, i have this device and i am stuck with it. At least it looks good as it sits on my desk, unable to be used! One last peice of good news is that there are a couple different websites right now who are working on programing totally NEW software to replace the philips DMM software for GOOD!! Who knows, maybe all the Returns philips gets and all the negative feedback will get them to change, or hopefully get someone fired! STAY AWAY FROM THIS DEVICE UNTIL PHILIPS WISENS UP AND TOTALLY !!!!REPLACES!!!! (NOT UPGRADES) ITS CURRENT SOFTWARE!

...until my computer needed to be repaired and I now have windows XP Pro on it. Does the DMM software work now?Fuggehdaboudit!!!
Also a slight power surge in the house, wiped out all my tracks - so what do have to replace those track with - NOTHIN, the application will not open!!! I am heartbroken, because this was a pretty cool device. I really bought it because of the direct recording of analog sources! YAAY - a way to preserve my wax tracks, but ...alas. I have to do some research on more mp3 players righ now. Thank goodness I had a replacement plan where I purchased it! Too bad Philips.

I mulled over a jukebox for a while and finally settled on this. The product is greatlooking, but the software belongs to a former decade. It does have a major downturn which no one has mentioned it is not skip resistant, so if you jog forget it. Overall looks great, but needs serious improvement on many of its features. And there is a way to upload to your computer all your playable songs, but I can't tell because I respect copyright. JAJAJA. It is pretty easy though, just think....

I bought mine in Jan. 2004 at $300 Canadian.The protective cover on mine wouldn't stay on. Kept coming off in my pocket. 3 months later the Clie fell to the floor and sustained a small crack in the touch screen. End of Clie
Cost of repair would of been $200 Canadian.
I maintain if the protective cover stayed on as supposed to, it probably wouldn't have broken.
Sony didn't support their product. End of Sony in my future.

(...)
Sony seems to pump out Palm-based PDAs as if its factory is about to be taken away by some off-world daemon and its contents vapourised. Hardly a month goes by without a new device appearing; recently we've had the ultra high-end PEG UX50, this rather more sedate entry-level machine and a less well-specified variant on this review model, the PEG TJ25.

Sony has come up with yet another new hardware design for the Clié PEG TJ35, the key feature of which is a roller positioned underneath the screen. This is the vertical movement interface, and to its left and right are tiny buttons which are used for movement across the horizontal plane.

It is a bit fiddly, but it is all you get, as Sony has abandoned its jog-dial wheel this time around. Instead of having said wheel on the left edge of the casing there are hooks for a removable flip-over screen protector, which is surprisingly robust.

The right edge of the casing has a dual-function 'Power and Hold' button. The 'Hold' feature is useful, as this PDA is supplied with Palm's own audio player. The 'Hold' function means that when listening to music with the Clié in a bag or pocket you aren't going to accidentally tap the screen and do goodness knows what to the data and files stored on the device.

There is 32MB of RAM but only 23MB of that is available to the user for applications and software; the rest is set aside for some of the army of free applications Sony pre-installs to complement what comes as part of Palm OS 5.2.

These include CLIE Launcher (a replacement for the usual Palm application launcher), CLIE Viewer (digital image viewer), CLIE Files (file manager), CLIE Memo (write notes to the screen), the Picsel Viewer (read documents in various format), and Decuma (for handwriting recognition). If you want more storage space - for example, for music files - you will need to invest in Memory Sticks, as this is Sony's memory format of choice.

The processor is not one we have come across before, an i.MXL from Motorola. We found it coped with the demands we placed on it without breaking down. The battery did irritate us a little though. We ran a benchamarking tool at both its Full Power and its Normal Use settings. In the former case we got nearly two and a half hours from the battery, in the latter four hours ten minutes. Heavy audio-visual users might want to consider a machine with more stored 'oomph.'

The Clié PEG TJ35 is both relatively small (110 x 75 x 12 mm) and light (140g) which means it is easy to carry around, and its 320 x 320 pixel screen delivers the goods nicely. You don't get a docking cradle - instead a cable does the job of synchronising and charging.

Verdict: Sony's Clié PEG TJ35 is a likeable PDA if you are nimble-fingered enough to cope with the navigator wheel, and the large bundle of software Sony supplies make it an appealing choice for those looking for a versatile 'out of the box' experience. This is a busy price-point, though, so be aware that there may be other PDAs that meet your needs for the same amount of cash.

I've had the TJ35 for almost a month, and it has been mostly outstanding (I used a Palm Vx before). Although I didn't have the backlight problem-- yet-- my unit is one of the ones on recall by Sony to have the flaw fixed, so it is about to be sent to Sony (using a prepaid fedex mailer they sent me when I signed in on the backlight problem website). The unit is very convenient. The size is right for a shirtpocket, Graffiti2 is easy once you know how -- it's OK to take 2 strokes to make t's and k's because you don't have to shift up to make capitals anymore. Decuma is not really that helpful-- the learning curve isn't worth the effort and I don't use it. The only problems I have noticed have been: (1) The Intellisync software that comes with it for syncing with Outlook refused to install properly, but I didn't mind that because I use Chapura's KeySuite instead (and it works fine); and (2) on rare occasions, HotSync doesn't work without rebooting my laptop. I use WinXP, but the laptop is normally connected to a port replicator and the Clie cradle is connected to a USB port on the port replicator. Sony's literature says this can be a problem with HotSync (i.e., that you should connect directly to the root USB port), but I had noticed no difficulty until the past couple of days. The display is easy to see (especially compared to the "old" Palm Vx). All in all, if the backlight problem is a thing of the past, and the HotSync issue doesn't recur much, it's a nice little unit.

I bought this product to store the RAW Canon Digital Rebel photos of my Australia trip. Instead of buying a set of expensive flash cards, I kept my 2 512 MB flash cards and copied the results at the end of the day.
The good:
In the end, it worked and saved me a lot of money, since I already owned an iPod.
The bad: where do I start?
- Copying 512 MB of data almost completely drains the iPod battery. Don't even think about copying more. It doesn't give you a good piece of mind to see the battery indicator go down quickly. Quickly, I decided to fill up the flashcard up to 75% capacity, to have some margin.
- It's EXTREMELY slow. 26 minutes for 512 MB. Not really an issue for me, since I never took more than 50 pictures/day, but other may find this a problem.
- Media Reader battery usage. A set of 4 AAA allowed me to copy roughly 10 512 MB copies. When the batteries run out, everything still seems to work fine until it stops after, say, 12 of the 50 pictures on the card. There's no indication at all about what happened.
- Software Robustness. From time to time, it wouldn't start copying or stop in the middle of a copying session. Restarting always solved the problem, but if this happened at the end, your iPod battery might already be drained by then.

Conclusion: it worked for me, but I can only recommend it if you are really really cash strapped, are a amateur who doesn't shoot that much and already own an iPod with some spare gigabyte. Otherwise you just don't bother.

Tom

I bought this device to download pictures from the Memory Sticks used by my Sony digital camera when I am on vacation and away from my computer.

The device works as advertised. It takes me 3-4 minutes to download a full 128 MB Memory Stick. No, that isn't super fast but it wasn't a problem for me.

The biggest negative on this device for me was the fact that it can't read the new Memory Stick PRO media.

Yes, it isn't very fast (about half or a third as fast as uploading to the computer in my experience) and it does tax the iPod battery, both negative qualities.... but its not as bad as some have said, and it definitely works as advertised.

To be honest though, I've only used it with 256MB cards, but I've used it for 6MP full size .jpgs (about 2.5MB) AND for RAW files (~6MB) from a Nikon D70 and it works equally fine for both. The RAW files obviously take longer, but there are less of them per card, so big deal.

Just as a rough estimation, I'd guess I could transfer somewhere between 1-2 gigs of photos before the iPod battery died.

Overall, if you are going somewhere that you can't bring your powerbook its a worthy investment. Its a lot cheaper than buying a couple gigabytes of flash memory (I only paid $82).