MP3 Players Review

Apple iPod shuffle 2 GB Silver (2nd Generation)

2008-08-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Apple iPod shuffle 2 GB Silver (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Get the bigger one

When I broke my original I-Pod (classic), I thought I would save money and buy this smaller one. It's really cute and perfect for the gym...for about a month until you realize 240 songs really is not enough. You can take off old songs and upload new ones, but this is a pain. My advice is to spend the extra money to get more memory storage.

Ipod Shuffle

Always liked these, just waited awhile to get one. Am using it for a special trip later in the year, and wanted a predominant music theme. Works great while working out!

ipod review

I received my order on time, in good condition, and it was exactly like the picture showed.

Great Workout Companion

I started working out again recently and purchased one of these to take along to the gym, on walks and other activities where I would like music without having to carry a big player. It is perfect, light and small with good battery life and sound. It does not have some of the features that my other iPod has, but I knew that ahead of time and wanted this because of its size. I load up a string of songs from some playlists and I am good to go for quite awhile.

Love the product, hate the lifespan

I own a bunch of iPods, and like them all. The shuffle is perhaps my favorite because it is so small and simple. I used it whenever riding my bike, walking to the coffee shop, etc. Sadly, my first shuffle died after 18 months of use. It began acting flakey (only playing 1 song on the playlist over & over) and within a couple of days it was dead. It will charge, but can't play any music. It used to flash yellow "error" lights, but it won't flash any lights any more after the initial "green = power on" light is displayed. Anyhow, I ordered another because it is an unbeatable companion during 6-hour bicycle rides, but I hope this one lasts at least a couple of years. I give this a 5-star for the product design, 1-star for durability. Average = 3 stars.

Keyword : mp3player

Creative Zen Nano 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-08-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

Creative Zen Nano 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

MP3 Player

Bought it to use while traveling. I download audio books to listen to while I am driving. Works well. Screen is a little hard to see.

MP3 Buyers Beware!

I purchased this product in December 2005 and began having problems shortly thereafter. It began when the product started powering off after a few seconds of play and now it won't power on at all. All the "fixes" that Creative suggested did not work and they want me to pay them more money to diagnose the problem. There is a major flaw in this product which probably explains why it is now listed on Amazon for about 50% less than I paid for it just a few short months ago. I refuse to give up any more of my cash on such an inferior product. Amazon please stop selling this product to unsuspecting consumers and offer to refund the purchase price to those of us who have already been ripped off!

Great MP3 player if you want your player to not play music

It stopped working for no reason at all (beside it being junk) after just one month. Creative also wants ME to foot the repair bill. No thanks, but I'd rather throw it away than send these con-artists any more of my money. It could happen to you.

I have a question

I was wondering if anyone has used the voice recorder on this MP3 player. I need to record a lot of lectures so I was wondering how good the quality of the recording is on the Zen player. What has other people's experience been like? And how many hours of audio recording can you save on the player?

Great, except for the....

Little latch that hold the battery door broke off! Other than that I would say it's the best mp3 player I've ever had, and I've had plenty! It's small, lightweight, uses replaceable batteries, has good sound, does audible books, never crashes, takes a licking and keeps on ticking, HAS DRAG AND DROP FILE TRANSFER, and lasts forever (I've had mine for about 2 years of constant daily use at work!) I kind of wish it would die so I could upgrade, LOL! The Nano could be improved, however. It could be louder (make sure you record at a high level!) It could have a better scroll button (it's kind of hard to advance to the next song without bringing up the menu)! The battery door WILL break after enough time! Could have better earbuds (they are WAY too big for my ears and fall out quickly!) The voice recording should give you a better choice of format (wav files are SO big, I would like to have voice recording at like 32kps mp3.) I would like to upgrade to a 2 gig model of some kind, but I'm afraid whatever I buy will give me grief, like most of the other mp3 players I've had. Maybe I'll just upgrade to the 1gb creative nano, although I would like to like the Apple Nano Ipod. I'm just afraid I will be disappointed in the Nano like I was when I bought a 10gb Ipod. It was supposed to be SO great and all that, and I was really disappointed. I've looked at Cowon, Iriver, Samsung, Toshiba, Sandisk, Olympus m:robe, Apple, Creative Zen, and many others, and I just can't find one that has the features I want like the Creative Nano! It really is hard to beat the Creative Nano. The one that does come closest is the Nano Ipod, though it is 50% more expensive (doesn't Creative care about them stealing the Nano name?) I like the sturdy construction, the sex appeal, the color screen, and GUI of the Ipod. I dont like the nonreplaceable battery, having to use Itunes, and the fact that it's an Apple product. Hmmm.

Keyword : creativelabs

CreativeLabs NOMAD IIc MP3 Audio Player 64MB with FREE 64MB of Memory ( BNDLE70000000 )

2008-08-19T05:18:00.000-07:00

CreativeLabs NOMAD IIc MP3 Audio Player 64MB with FREE 64MB of Memory ( BNDLE70000000 )

Customer Reviews

MP3 Player for the Masses! High Value

If you are looking for an affordable MP3 Player that is easy to use, has great sound, and won't break your budget,the Nomad II or IIc is for you.

My Nomad IIc, which is identical to the other Nomad II products minus the FM radio, has been a very enjoyable experience. It has:
* 0 to 128MB of internal memory, depending on your price range (mine had 64MB and I believe it is only available in 128MB now)
* 0 to 128MB of external memory add-on capability with SmartMedia or SSFD (solid state floppy disk) memory card slot, for a total of 256MB of memory possible (I added a 128MB SmartMedia card to mine because my Olympus Digital Camera also uses this external memory type)
* Small size and awesome sound with 6 selectable base/treble settings (normal, pop, rock, classic, jazz, and one you setup for your listing taste).
* Software that allows you to transfer songs on your CDs directly to the Nomad IIc with a quality level(file size) you select. I found 32KBps sampling rate(file size) provided about 1 song per megabit of Nomad memory with good sound reproduction (if you are an audiophile you can sample up to 160KBps if you want to, or about 1 song per 5MB of Nomad memory).
* A Digital Tape Recorder which I tried but it didn't seem to pickup very well. I removed one star rating for this and it may have been cockpit problems cause I don't use it anyway.
* An FM Scanning Radio on Nomad II models, which mine wasn't so I can't rate.I am very happy with my Nomad IIc and would highly recommend it for those looking for a practical, quality, MP3 player. Imagine carrying around up to 25 of your favorite CDs(assuming 10 songs on each CD) in an all solid state product the size of a pack of
cigarettes, but half as thick! No bulky CD player with CD case(s) to carry around(and possibly lose) and no switching of CDs, they're all in this little player!!.

Keyword : creativelabs

Coby MP305-4G MP3 Player with 4 GB Flash Memory FM Radio, USB Drive and LCD - Black

2008-08-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Coby MP305-4G MP3 Player with 4 GB Flash Memory FM Radio, USB Drive and LCD - Black

Customer Reviews

good mp3 player

I had a nextar 1GB and wanted a cheap player with more memory. I'm pretty happy with this one. It sounds much better and down loads MUCH faster than my other one, but the other one was a little easier to use. However, for the money, this was a good buy. I did buy this one instead of the $5 cheaper version to get the FM radio and its only picking up 1 station. Not really worth the extra money but overall I'm still happy with my purchase.

You get what you pay for...

I purchased this MP3 player for its price. I normally listen to audiobooks while workingout in the gym so I am not that concerned about sound quality. I was disappointed by this player. It continued to glitch and lock up on my while playing tracks. I tried to re-copy files and nothing seemed to work. I decided to return this player and find another brand. I give it two stars for ease of use and size.

very good for the price!

This little thing does everything it's supposed to. It's easy to load with music via drag & drop. I found the easiest way to transfer music was to leave it in MTP mode, format the drive, and just drag and drop my music onto it. There are some files on it from the factory, some podcast program also, I don't need that stuff so a format worked the best for me. MTP mode lets you just pull it out and go, without having to do the "safely remove hardware" method. (windows XP) The battery life is what it is. I used it for about 13hrs before needing to change batteries. I will be looking into a rechargeable battery for it soon. It's not as smooth and slick looking as the image shown here. It looks a little cheaper and bulkier in person. There is no mic either, as shown in this image. It has a little hole for it, but no mic. The FM tuner worked just fine, and has a lot of available presets (31). Instructions are very detailed and easy to understand. The included earphones are not comfortable, they are the hard disc type. I bought this with the Coby CVE92 Isolation Stereo Earphones Isolation Stereo Earphones which together make for a great inexpensive MP3 player.

First MP3

This little MP3 is not only compact and handy but very easy to use. My only complaint is the player goes through batteries really quick. I use this product five times a week for 2 hours a day and within two weeks I have to replace the battery.

Good basic player

Good: - cheap - excellent sound quality (for my untrained ear, at least) - plays by folder, simple drag-and-drop interface. Just drag the folder with MP3s onto the player and the folder's name will be listed in the player's menu - ability to delete files on the player itself - FM radio - pretty small - AAA battery source - no need for a charger - standard USB connector - standard male-female USB extender cable included - serves as a USB thumb drive Bad: - in a folder mode in order to switch to a diffrent folder you have to scroll through all files one by one to go to the top, you can not just jump to the top in one keystroke. So do not put a lot of music files in one folder. - cheap plastic body - no silicone case available - removable cap will in all probability be lost - only 8 hours battery life, so rechargeable AAA batteries might need to be used - only 4GB and no extension memory slot - headphones probably would not satisfy most users - tuner is not the best - COBY products do not have a bullet-proof reliability record Can not provide any info on tag IDs, I-Tune compatibility. etc. Specifically was looking for a player without all this nonsense, just with simple drag-and-drop interface. This is one of very few. I do not think you can find a cheaper 4GB player with all these features. Price is so low so it makes it almost disposable. Loss would not put an owner in the poor house.

Keyword : coby

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB MP3 Player (Pink)

2008-08-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB MP3 Player (Pink)

Customer Reviews

LOVE LOVE LOVE this MP3 player

I bought one of these in black at Circuit City for my husband and ended up buying 2 additional ones right here at Amazon (one black/one pink). When I found out there was a pink one.. I knew I had to own it! It is so easy to use and load with songs,pictures & video (MP4). We also bought all the accessories to go with.. arm band/leather case,car & wall chargers,and FM transmitter for the car. We are happy with the quality of all of them. I am a Sansa fan... not a IPOD fan.

Met my extremely high exspectations and more!

About three years ago I had purchased a Sandisk Sansa m230 Mp3 player (the blue 512 MB one). I loved the little gadget, until it was in a horrible accident involving a heavy book bag and the floor. Amazingly the player still worked, but the screen was scattered. So I used the device for the past year a bit messed up, then I saw that Sansa was coming out with the Fuze in March. I new that if my little mp3 player could be smashed by a 20 lb. book bag and still work, the Fuze would have to be wonderful. I never even considered an iPod. They are not worth the money and friends have had way to much trouble with the devices for me to begin to think about buying one. The Fuze has all the abilities of videos, radio, pictures, music (of course), and so much more. And their prices for the about of memory that you get is amazing. Who ever uses 80 GB of memory anyway? If you do or have, I applaud your unimaginable music library. Since I was going away to college, I decided to spend a bit of my graduation party money on one, I bought a 4 GB Pink Fuze. When it arrived, I have to admit I was surprised how small it really was. But it fit perfectly in your hand, so the smallness doesn't really affect anything. The screen is unbelievably bright. I have it set to the lowest brightness and still can see things perfectly fine in complete darkness. The turn wheel glides smoothly, and is easy to select the songs you want. The sound is wonderful also. The headphones that come with the Fuze fit so nicely and sound terrific. I wish I could buy just those! I will admit that the screen does scratch a bit easy. I was cleaning it, something which I obsess over a bit, with an eye glass cleaning cloth and little scratches appeared when I was finished. So it might be a good idea to invest in a hard case that covers the screen or those screen protectors that companies make for GameBoys or something like that. You should also know that you must convert videos and pictures using a download found on the sansa fuze forum. It takes a little while to download, but the conversions don't take all that long to finish. It also puts them right to the Fuze. There is also a firmware download on the Fuze forum that might be a good idea to download. It doesn't take very long either. I love my Fuze and wish I would have bought one sooner. You can't bet the price for the memory and the quality of the product. Sansa put that little bit of effort into their products that make them extra special. For example the silicon like back on the Fuze to help the device not slide. It feels neat too. If you are thinking of buying one, DO IT! You won't regret it! They are awesome!

A Good Value but I had trouble with it

I did some really extensive research as well as talk to the students that work in my office. They recommended the Sansa because it had a lot of features, was small and had pretty good reviews. My research showed mixed reviews. So I took the plunge and bought it. I had an IPod so the conversion of the files was a little daunting but I was able to convert all 600 songs. After about 1 1/2 months of using the Sansa on a daily basis it suddenly just stopped working. I tried all I could to get it running again with no luck. I shipped it back to Amazon for a credit. After a few days of looking at other items, I went to Best Buy and bought another one and go the replacement policy. For the money, size and sound quality this is still the best buy out there I can find. It seems all the Mp3 players have their good and bad points, I stuck with this one because I bought the accessories already and as long as I have a way to replace it free if it breaks again, I'm happy.

I Love This Thing!

I just purchased this today, and I must say I couldn't have gotten a better deal. I charged it, added songs, and jammed to my music right out the box. I love the hot pink, and it's interface is simple and easy to navigate. I also love the fact that you CAN expand it's memory. You can't beat that. It's affordable....a good value for it's price. I highly recommend this mp3 player.

Great alternative to an ipod

I have been looking for a new MP3 player, and I am so glad I got the Fuze. It works great and has all the options I need. It is easy to use - I especially like the drag and drop feature, which eliminates the need to use any special programs just to add music. The player is bigger than the ipod nano, which for me was a little too small. I really like the pink color, too, because it stands out. There is nothing shiny on the case, so it does not show fingerprints, in fact the back side has a silicone like feel to it. The screen is clear and bright. The scroll wheel works very easily and is raised a little, which I think is helpful. I think this is just as functional as an ipod, but costs about half as much. I also like the fact that you can add more memory using the micro SD card slot. I've had my fuze for a little over a week and have already put on more than 2 GB of songs, so it is nice to know that when I fill up the 4 GB, I can still add more using the SD memory. Overall, this is a great item and I would highly recommend it.

Keyword : sandisk

SanDisk Sansa View 8 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

2008-08-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa View 8 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Decent

Well, on the plus side it has great sound and good picture the ability to expand the memory and an FM radio(iPods don't have this feature). The downside it that the screen has a somewhat greasy look. This doesn't show very much during movies but it is a bit annoying. The screen scratches very easily so I would reccomend a case. When watching a movie, sometimes the whole thing freezes up and you have to turn it off and back on again. This is not horrible but it does get on your nerves after a while. The spin wheel is awesome ( I like it much better than the iPods because the spin wheel actually moves on the Sansa View). The whole thing is very easy to use and very user friendly. Overall this is a good product.

decent player if you don't touch it.

This player looks good, sounds good(when you get its eq settings right) and has expandable memory. Thats the good stuff. Its big color screen has a habit of locking up whenever you press a button. It will show album art of a previously played song,and the title shown may or may not be the correct one playing. It also likes to freeze up when you press a button rendering all further inputs inoperable till it unfreezes. It also likes to list all songs stored on the memory expansion card twice, and includes album art in with your pictures. I've downloaded every firmwire update and still have these problems. But, if you just leave it sit and play on shuffle mode it makes a fine jukebox.

Works fine

I will start by saying I am pretty picky and that's why still do not own an MP3 player myself. Anyway, I bought the Sansa View 8GB for my father, who wanted a microphone to record live lectures and other stuff. I had to set it up and got to test the player quite a bit, so here is my impression based on one-month experience: GOOD: + Works fine, decent capacity and price ($110) + Lots of features, including FM radio and microphone recording + Good sound, no major software bugs or freezes BAD: - Number one for me is the poor music organization and PC sync-up! I cannot understand why would a player need two different modes of connecting to a PC, any file loaded on the player in one mode is invisible when the PC is connected in the other mode?!? Total nonsense! On top of everything these modes are NOT documented in the user manual! I am a pretty tech-savvy engineer and still wouldn't bet I got all the kinks of the two modes after quite a bit of web-reading and experience... - The player doesn't pick up album tracks from the file tag. I read that in one of the modes that should be fixed, but it didn't work for me, so you can either listen to an album in pseudo-random (alphabetical) order or add the track number to the names of the tracks. Imagine doing that for a collection of several thousand songs... - No support for self-converted audiobooks. I converted a CD audiobook, but had to put it under "podcasts" to separate from the rest since "audiobooks" is RESERVED for special format books only from Audible. What a crap! - FM radio and mic recording are hard to rename and put back on the player as recordings (if you care). - Poor selection of docking stations with speakers (as compared to hundreds for iPod) - The package does not include a charging power supply (only a USB cable, which can be used for that if you care). Overall, I bought this player after serious market review and would still recommend it to anyone who is buying. I, myself, will hold off for a while more until I see something better. I would really like to get Internet Wi-Fi radio (not through Yahoo but just about any online stream) , as well as a decent docking station...

Sansa View 8GB, very nice little unit.

I bought it to use for taking my Unbox videos mobile. Great, clear little screen. Very easy to use, very easy to transfer media, very compatable with Unbox, Windows Media, Rhapsody and Yahoo Music (which will soon be Rhapsody, too). Can't load my photos on it, but I think that's more of a problem with my computer rather than the Sansa Media Converter. (It originally worked until I started messing a bit with it, and it was easy to use, too. Will fix the problem when I find the time. Until then, it's not a big deal.) Expansion slot is a big plus. The View automatically senses what media is being loaded and adjusts accordingly, a feature that is absent in the E250, which I also have. Great sound with the right earphones. Loads of space. What else can I say that hasn't already been said. I love my little View and hope it lasts a long time. Good price at Amazon, as always.

Great Product!!!

We ordered three of these for my husband and two children for our really long plane ride to Europe. We "test drove" the product on a short trip the weekend before, and the girls loved them! They hold a lot of movies, and have an oversize screen as compared to my iPod Nano. The movie quality is very good on the Sansa View - we tend to forget that the device is so small! The music quality is great too. The battery lasts about the length of time it says, although it's a stretch to get a full 6 hours when watching video consistently. And sometimes the sound when watching movies isn't loud enough, so be prepared to have really good headphones. All in all, we are very happy with the Sansa View! It kept my children and my husband entertained during our 10 hour flight!

Keyword : sandisk

Coby CX90BLK Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Black

2008-08-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

Coby CX90BLK Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio, Black

Customer Reviews

Coby CX90BLK Digital Pocket AM/FM Radio

I love this radio! I use it at work in my cargo pants pocket. It was easy to program, get great reception even inside an industrial work area, slides easily into any pocket, has a clock feature, adjustable volume and best of all it has a locking feature. When I set the lock, no matter how hard this radio gets jiggled, it stays tune to my radio program. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Unbelievably great for the price..and yes it has FM stereo

I wasn't expecting much from a radio that's sold for such a low price, but I was pleasantly surprised. VERY good reception on both the AM and FM band...above average to say the least. I'd even go so far as to say it's comparable (almost as sensitive and selective) to the (well known to long distance radio enthusiasts)Sangean DT200VX AM/FM/TV Portable Pocket-Size Radio at about 1/4 the price. It's only drawback in that regard is it's lack of a FM mono/stereo switch for fringe aria reception...a small flaw worth overlooking. It's audio is a bit better than you may expect in this price range(when using a decent set of headphones, of course), but it's nothing to write home about...I'll just call it "sufficient" (i.e. not unpleasant or harsh at all). It also has enough output power to drive a set of larger headphones without any problem as well as flat out rock a set of sensitive buds. Of course the earbuds that come with it are awful..but that's to be expected All in all I'd say it's a great radio and worth every dime if not twice as much. A real bargain that performs quite well. Don't let the price or the brand name fool ya as it's nothing short of outstanding....especially for it's price class.

Great product!

I originally considered a Zune or iPod, but I didn't have a lot of digital music nor did I feel like going through the hassle of organizing a collection. I just wanted something simple, easy to use, and cheap. Gets excellent reception and I listen to it every day on my commute to and from work while on my motorcycle. Keep a spare set of rechargeable AAA batteries in my backpack and I'm ready to roll!

So far so Good

I read other reviews on Colby items and they all seem to be lacking. Initally I was looking for an MP3 with a radio but opted out due to scary reviwes and instead picked this up. I only use it to listen to my favorite morning show at work without annoying everyone else and so far I have had no trouble. It's been a great find. =o)

awesome radio for the price

i needed an AM radio to listen to while at the office and my first choice was the popular SONY ICF-S10MK2 which is a popular purchase here on Amazon.com... that radio was old, clunky, had a huge antennae, poor AM reception, a manual tuner dial so if you touched it you'd lose your station, and had a mono headphone jack so you could only hear sound out of one side (i verified this with 3 different sets of headphones). the Coby DX-90 on the other hand was $2.00 more, is smaller, sleek, completely digital (no knobs or dials), has a stereo headphone jack (again verified this with 3 sets of headphones), comes with earbuds (that are not very good, but at least they tried), has an internal antennae, and has awesome AM reception. get this radio, it's more than worth the money, don't get suckered into buying the Sony brand name like I did, you'll regret it.

Keyword : coby

1GB Sansa Shaker Red Sd Slot 2 Jack Headphone Blt In Spkr Batt

2008-08-11T20:05:00.000-07:00

1GB Sansa Shaker Red Sd Slot 2 Jack Headphone Blt In Spkr Batt

Customer Reviews

Shaker fun

I gave this to my daughter on her 7th birthday a few weeks ago. It hasn't left her side ever since. She loves it. It's very easy to use and the external ear-saving speaker is a feature I wish my iPod had. Two minor gripes are that it seems to go through batteries pretty fast but then she has it on seemingly all the time. The other is that it only plays MP3's. I'm on a Mac which means I have to use a 3rd party program to convert my iTunes tracks. These are minor. If you are looking for a music player for a young child this is the one to buy.

Great for kids!

This was a purchase for my two girl's birthdays. Almost a month now and they haven't destroyed them yet. Simple MP3 player with decent capacity - you can't beat it for the price. Easy to load songs in either WAV or MP3 format.

It's a blast!

I am an adult user. It works perfectly. Battery lasts quite long. Durable and fun to take on vacations. Earbuds sound great (nice bass), and are comfortable.

Designed by Duracell

Runs on a single AAA battery - advertised lifetime 10 hours, I don't have enough patience to test that, but whatever the lifetime is, I'm sure it would be longer if it did not continuously flash the BRIGHT blue led. It's cool, it's amazingly small (would it have hurt them to make it run on a AA? they cost the same, but AAs have way more lifetime), and like the Sansa Clip we have, it just works. The single speaker is about an inch across, and as you should expect, the sound quality is not much, but it's not bad for what it is. Ours was fun for the kids right out of the box, with preloaded kids songs and a single AAA included - and loading additional music couldn't have been any easier after the USB port was exposed, it's normally covered. One concern we have for our younger boy is if he puts the speaker up to his ear, it gets pretty loud like that, much louder than an earbud does... if your kids have good sense (meaning, if they're like 30 years old or more) then you don't have to worry about this, but it is something to keep in mind.

Cute little player

This is a cute little shaker. Kids love this. I bought three and would be a great gift idea for Christmas too. Built in speaker feature makes it easy and shaking feature to forward is amazing.

Keyword : sandisk

Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Light Blue)

2008-08-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Light Blue)

Customer Reviews

Very Good MP3 Player - but is it right for you?

[Note: all 10 colors are available at retail price from Creative Web site. Cambridge Soundworks stores also carry a good variety of colors.] I would have given Creative Zen Nano Plus (abbreviated "CZNP") 5 stars, except for two small deficiences: it does not have gapless playback (see #10 below), and the build quality and controls are kind of cheap (see #4 below). Assuming it lasts, it seems a very good unit for the money. Here's why I bought mine, and some questions to ask yourself when you're choosing. [Updated 8/28/2006] 0. Do I want to make a fashion statement with my MP3 player? Some people will only buy a trendy iPod. Buying a lesser-known unit like CZNP makes a different statement, and you can choose from 10 colors. I prefer function over form, but CZNP offers some of each. I bought an orange one because it is easy to find in my black bag. 1. Do I want to play more than just sound? The CZNP is a basic MP3 player, FM Radio, and recorder. It has a simple monochrome display and controls that make it a good choice for playing music, podcasts, and ebooks, and listening to local radio stations. It can record from the built-in mike or radio, or from a line input, which may be handy for some. Some players can play videos, show pictures, etc, and cost a lot more because of the required color screen and larger memory. I don't need these things and prefer not to spend the money needed to get them. Of course this player can STORE any kind of content, just like a thumb drive, but it only plays audio. 2. Will I be listening to mostly music or mostly spoken content? When you switch off a unit while it is playing, or pause it and it turns off automatically after awhile, some units will resume at the beginning of the current track, and others (e.g. CZNP) resume exactly where you left off. If you are playing music, you usually prefer to start the song over again. For ebooks or long podcasts, I need to resume where it was turned off (like CZNP does), because it is hard to fast-advance back to where you were. 3. What kind of accessories can I get? Creative has a set of speakers tailored to the CZNP, and there are many generic accessories that will work with it. By comparison, there are entire catalogs of accessories tailored for optimal use with an iPod (and may not work with others). I have what I need, but pine for some things available for iPod only. The best accessory of all is a cable that has a 1/8" stereo plug (like the headphone plug) on one end, and two RCA plugs on the other. Plug one of these into the auxiliary or CD input of all the stereos you use, and you can quicly plug this in and play on the speakers. Such cables are available at Radio Shack and most places selling electronics products. 4. How convenient is it to use? MP3 players vary considerably on how easy they are to use. The iPod is famous for ease of use, though it does not do everything I want to do. The CZNP has relatively cheap controls that work well enough, and does what I want. You don't have to be a computer whiz to use it or its software. I have been using it while driving with reasonably good results. It is easy to pause and start it, turn it off, adjust volume, skip or repeat tracks, back up or move forward in the current track, and small enough to hold in your hand and still be able to hold onto the steering wheel. But if you want to skip to a different album, you have to skip, wait, listen, and skip until you find the first track of the desired album. Of course there is a menu way of getting there more easily, but you can't use menus while driving. It is small and light. About like a Bic cigarette lighter except twice as wide. So far I have found the size very convenient; I don't think I would want it any smaller. But being small, it might be easier to lose - which is why I bought an orange one. 5. How long will it last? On Amazon, click the link "See all ... customer reviews", then look for the dropdown "Show:" and choose "Lowest review first" and click the Go button. There are a number of reports from people who had problems with their CZNP, some bad enough to throw it away. Some are real problems, others might be a lack of understanding how to use the player. Despite these complaints, the average review is high. You'll find about the same mix of reviews for most players. I decided to take a chance. My unit will be well-cared for. If I have a problem, I'll update this review. 6. Can the battery be replaced? CZNP uses an AAA battery which is said to last for 15 hours and can be changed easily. The iPod Nano has a rechargeable battery that is not designed to be replaced, which means the iPod Nano becomes landfill when the battery no longer takes a charge in a couple of years. There will be millions of iPods being thrown away simply because the owner cannot make them continue to work, which has an impact on the environment. There are now battery replacement kits for iPod, with tools and instructions, so this concern is lessened for DIY people, but most won't bother. 7. How does it sound? The CZNP sounds very good to when when I use good earphones like Koss "The Plug", or when plugged into a stereo. The free headphones you get with it won't give you the best sound, and you should not judge any player on how it sounds with the included headphones. Go buy quality earphones for any new player, as this will make a huge improvement in your enjoyment at relatively low cost. 8. Does the player use flash memory or hard-disk for storage? CZNP uses flash memory. Flash memory is more expensive per MB/GB than hard disk memory, and flash memory players are smaller than hard disk players. I would not want a hard disk, which I think is too heavy and too fragile for a portable player. Get a hard disk player if you want to carry a lot of content, but make sure you have a backup. Get a flash memory player if you want to hold the content you will listen to today or this week. 9. Does the player have enough memory? I use Highest Quality VBR, which gives me MP3s usually 200-250 KBPS, and I get about 10 hours of MP3 music. For podcasts or other material recorded at lower quality, you'll get a lot more. With that much space I can have some new or favorite albums left on the player, and have plenty of room for content that changes (like podcasts). If you don't use a computer regularly, you might want more memory, maybe even a hard disk, but 1GB is very convenient for my purposes. 10. Does the player support gapless playback between tracks? Some albums have music that flows continously from one track to the next. Examples: Radiohead "OK Computer", Dandy Warhols, Moody Blues. The listening experience is disrupted if the tracks have a gap as the player switches from one track to another. I don't know of any portable MP3 player that offers gapless playback (without Rockbox), though it's bound to come. The CZNP has a brief gap with no clicks, but it is still somewhat disruptive. One solution is to rip the album as one continuous track. The Rockbox open-source technology essentially replaces the firmware on your player, and it features gapless playback. It is supported on a few players, including some iPods, but not CZNP. 11. Does the player require proprietary software or hardware? CZNP includes software, but since it also works like a USB drive, you can manage content with Explorer / Finder if you want to. All connectors are industry-standard and you can find matching cables in electronics and computer stores. iPod can only load music using iTunes, and other players require software supplied with the unit, or with Windows. The iPod and others also use proprietary connectors, so replacing a lost cable is more expensive. I would not be happy with such restrictions. Open standards promote flexibility and interoperability. On the other hand the iPod is widely supported and it's easy to find compatible accessories. For me, at a minimum, the player needs to look like a USB drive when I connect it to the computer, so that I can load it by dragging files to the player's file system, and the CZNP does that. I want to have a program automatically create a custom listening program of various short podcasts that play in a particular order to support Radio on Demand, and I want that to happen by simply connecting the device to the computer, with no keyboard or mouse interaction involved. I have not found such a program, and may have to write it, but I can do that if I want to. With an iPod I have no choice but to use iTunes (or replace the firmware with Rockbox). iTunes will not do what I want it to do, and there is no option to use my own or third-party software. 12. Is the player file-based or tag-based? The CZNP is file-based: it will play songs in alphabetical order for a given folder. Naming songs with a two-digit sequence number at the beginning of the filename ensures they play in the correct order. It also has shuffle play, etc. I had tried the SanDisk Sansa, but returned it because all content is organized and played on the basis of tags, exclusively. While my music has tags correctly set to play the way I wanted, podcasts don't use tags consistently enough to play them in a particular order that I chose. With the CZNP you can at least control the order by putting a sequence number at the beginning of each filename. Tag-based may have some advantages over file-based (though not for my uses), but only if all of the content you want to play is properly tagged.

I've had some problems, but I'll keep it for awhile

I'll start off by saying I wish I'd gotten an iPod Shuffle. But I've got this working now, so I'll keep it for 6 months and then maybe get the iPod. I'll start with the positive aspects of the Zen Nano: 1) It is cute and lightweight 2) It has a radio 3) It is easy to forward through the albums and songs 4) It holds about 20 albums The negative aspects are: 1) You can't easily download iTunes songs into the Nano. You have to burn the iTunes files onto cd then rip them into Windows Media Player. Unfortunately, the song titles and album information doesn't copy, so you have to either type it in or click "find more info" and hope that it will copy it from the internet. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. 2) If you don't get the software upgrade, your Nano will eventually not power on. So you MUST go to http://www.creative.com/ and get the upgrades for the Nano Plus when you first get it. I didn't and lost all the music I had on it when I finally did the upgrade. It has worked fine since I got the updated software. 3) The headphones aren't good enough, so you'll probably want to get different ones. 4) The software it comes with is a little confusing to work with. So I download the music using Windows Media Player, then use the Creative software to organize the folders. So in conclusion, if you do not buy music from iTunes and will only be downloading from cds, then this player is fine. But if you have a lot of iTunes files, it will be better to get an iPod.

Super Easy to Use

I have no idea what everyone's problem is with this thing. I am super technology-ignorant and I found the Creative Zen Nano 1GB to be extremely easy to set up and use. The drag and drop feature was quick and easy, although I did find that dragging an entire folder of songs versus individual songs worked much better (dragging individual songs decreased the capacity of the player for some reason; dragging a folder of songs alleviated that problem). I also read on other reviews that the Zen Nano functions like the iPod Shuffle, which I find to be untrue. As long as you drag your music onto the Nano in album folders, it stores the songs per album, per artist. So you can listen to an album in its entirety--it does not shuffle around like other people have said. Also, you can customize the eq, and it really sounds pretty good once you have it set up. The battery life is fine--about 15 hours, which is pretty good, and since it only takes one AAA battery it's not a big deal to change it out once in a while. Another good thing is its size and weight. It's TINY!!! I can easily fit it into my pocket, plus it comes with a nice gummi carrier which actually does not detract from the player's coolness. I had some intial concerns about the durability of the thing, but I have had it the side pocket of my purse for the past month, which has gone across the country with me on an airplane and been stuck under my feet for 5 hours, and it's totally survived. The earphones do suck; they're big. I purchased the el-cheapo JVC Gummi ones and they work very well and are about as comfortable as $7.00 earphones can get. Overall, I think the Zen Nano 1GB is a great value (I found mine for $70, although I've seen it for as much as $130 on-line).

Two out of three is weak.

My gripe is with Creative and the MuVo Micro which has morphed into the Zen Nano Plus. I bought 3 of these for Christmas gifts, and now, less than 6 mos. later, 2 of the 3 have bit the dust, refusing to stay powered on for more than 5 secs. Useless. No downloads or upgrades helped. The 90 day labor warranty had expired and a $25 fee was required for each unit I wanted to fix...i tried to get them to look at both for $25 (they shared the same problem), and they responded with a this-is-the-warranty, send $50 if you want them fixed, "have a wonderful day" e-mail, which i found particularly irritating.

After reading these reviews, I don't feel so bad...

What a piece of junk! After four hours of messing with this thing and at least that many system recoveries, mine is repackaged and ready for return. The "simple" drag and drop loading of this turd has locked my computer up more times than I care to recount. The one time I was able to get more than 20 songs onto the thing without having to CTRL + ALT + DEL and start over from scratch, the player itself locked up! I consider myself to be fairly computer literate, but this thing made me feel like a complete and total idiot. I'm so disgusted right now, I'm not even going to waste my time with Creative Labs' customer support (which, by the way, is only open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday). Save yourself the time, trouble and headache and buy something else -- anything else. Aaaaaarrrrrgh!

Keyword : creativelabs

Samsung YP-K3JQR K3 2 GB Slim Portable Media Player

2008-08-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Samsung YP-K3JQR K3 2 GB Slim Portable Media Player

Customer Reviews

Good stuff

Searched for a non ipod mp3 player and found that samsungs had the best sound. Product works great and I am very happy. This is my first mp3 that I bought. i had other samsungs which were older and I still love the way they sound.

Just okay

Overall this is a fairly good product. I like the option of the FM radio in addition to the MP3, screen looks good, easy to use. The down side is that the battery doesn't seem to last very long, the plug for the USB doesn't seem to stay in very well when charging, and the software is not very intuitive. All in all it is still a good option over the iPod especially for a kid.

Excellent MP3 player.

I bought this item about 6 months ago, to replace my outdated Creative MuVo n200. I have loved every minute with it. The user interface is very intuitive, and in my opinion it makes more sense than the ipod's. The touch controls are great too, because there aren't any moving buttons for dust to get down into. The casing is very sturdy, and with six months of shuffling through my backpack and being thrown on my desk, it still has only a few minor scratches on the back and none on the screen/front. Two more great things: 1.) The earbuds. I have tried several that I have bought in the store, expecting greater sound quality. I haven't found any. The earbuds are comfortable for long periods of listening, they stay in my ear, and they have good sound quality. 2.) The battery life. I can use this for (it seems) days on end without recharging it. I drove 8 hours in one day, 4 to my destination and 4 back, listening to music the entire way. The battery still had 3/4 charge left. One possible con: the memory size. I'm quickly running out of space for my music, and I'm having to be more selective about what I put on it. It's only 2 gigabytes, but I believe that Samsung has a newer version with more space, which I may be looking at soon. Definitely go with Samsung: their mp3 players beat ipods in both price and quality.

Nano Nanoo

Well, here's Samsung's answer to the ipod nano, and it's a beauty. Yes, this is the RED Samsung K3 2GB mp3 player with built-in FM tuner. The unit is sleek, stylish, easy to use, and it offers EXCELLENT sound. The earbuds provided sound as good as my Sennheiser earbuds, unexpected performance for pack-ins. Though I haven't filled the K3's memory to capacity, it would appear to hold around thirty albums or 500 songs at the standard 128bit sound quality. There are a number of EQ settings designed for different types of music, but you can also set up your own custom setting using the built-in seven-band equalizer. FM performance is excellent as well, with adjustable sensitivity. The little color screen works great as a GUI but washes out in sunlight and doesn't do the greatest justice to your photos. This unit excels at playing music, not displaying photos. Beyond that, battery life is claimed to be 25 hours. I have been using the K3 with the Belkin mp3 armband designed for nanos and K3's, and it's very unobtrusive and comfortable to wear. For someone who grew up in an era of portable battery-powered record players accompanied by a stack of worn 45's, this is an amazing device!

Keyword : samsung+mp3

SanDisk Sansa Clip 2 GB MP3 Player (Blue)

2008-08-09T05:07:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Clip 2 GB MP3 Player (Blue)

Customer Reviews

Great For the Price - Not Perfect

I've had my blue SanDisk 2GB for a couple of months now and I really like it. You will not find a better 2GB MP3 player on Amazon.com for under $50. It has many different features and modes (It has FM radio, but I would LOVE an AM radio feature on it as I listen to quite a bit local sports talk radio). However, that is besides the point. The only two things I don't like are: 1) The USB cord is very short and it connects extremely tightly to my Sandisk. So much so that I really have to use quite a bit of force to disconnect it from the cord. 2) It seems to take an awfully long time to charge the battery. My old MP3 player was a Creative Muvo and it charged rather quickly - plus it seemed that a charge on the MUVO lasted longer than a charge on this Sandisk. Having said that, I do like it and would recommend it as an alternative to buying a more expensive iPod or MP3 player.

Bad battery

I purchased this for my sister as a gift (she loves these electronic gadgets, but she is still in college so she can't afford to buy them for herself.) At first she loved it. She went on about how great all the features are. Then about 3 months after I gave it to her the battery stopped holding a charge. Great item if you get one with a good battery, but based on this experience I won't be purchasing an item from SanDisk again. I'll spend a little more on her birthday next year and spring for an iPod.

Great Little player!

I was looking for something simple just for my music. I had bought my daughters the Creative Labs Zen 2gb and 4gb and they good too, but this one is so much easier to load with music and the sound is phenomenal! It has a built in clip so there is no need to buy anything extra. I wear it while doing yard work walking etc and it gives me what I want - my favorite songs, no skips, freezes for breaks. I know it can do more that just store and play music, but I have a laptop computer for that! I love this little player and the color options make it fun!

Great MP3 Player

The SanDisk Sansa 2 GB MP3 player is a great buy and is wonderful in so many ways. It is incredibly small and lightweight, easy to navigate & understand, and sounds great too. The included headphones are a little flimsy so I use my own. I also own a Sansa Express that I love and I was sad that this mp3 player doesn't have expandable memory like the Express, but 2 GB should be plenty. Definitely a great buy you won't regret!

Great MP3 Player at Great Price

I bought this for running, so I needed something lightweight, easy to operate, and can work while moving. It holds plenty of music, is easy to load, delete, and reload, and the battery lasts a long time. The charger to my phone fits, so I can plug it into the wall and charge it quickly. The clip is very convenient; it attaches to my waistband and is so light and little, I forget it's there.

Keyword : sandisk

Bose SoundDock digital music system for iPod (Black)

2008-08-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

Bose SoundDock digital music system for iPod (Black)

Customer Reviews

Bose & Kicker Comparisons

I own the Kicker iK-500 Sound Dock. I was not dissatisfied with it, but decided to get the Bose Sound Dock to see if there was a major improvement. I think the Bose is a little more refined with its sound, but not a lot. The Kicker has treble/bass controls. This give the Kicker a slight edge over the Bose with the treble, but I could not set the bass control on the Kicker much beyond normal without getting distortion. I believe that the Bose is a little better with the bass. The Kicker is heavier and more difficult to move. It has slots for grips which help a bit, but not much. The Bose is much lighter and easier to move. All I use these sound docks for is to play my iPods. If I had to choose between them I would take the Bose, assuming similar prices. There is a fancier Bose unit, but I was informed by Bose that the sound quality is no different than the basic Bose. The more expensive Bose has additional features.

Don't Get Fooled Again

Beware all those who have the technical ability and desire to go wireless,the bose SoundDock is not your solution. You can spend $225 for a very good sounding music system exclusively for your Ipod. Or,spend $399 get the Bose "portable" SoundDock and go portable, carry it to the beach, pool, anywhere or join with AirTunes, I did and I'm thrilled.

The Greatest

I just received the Bose SoundDock as a gift and WOW! what a gift!!! I cannot believe the sound quality. I was not really using my Ipod because I hated the ear buds so it was tucked away in a drawer. With my new dock, the Ipod music sparkles and swirls around my room. The music is wonderful and I love the small size (I have a small apartment). Superior sound quality.....actually, amazing sound quality. Thank you Bose for making such a wonderful product.

Great

After a month of owning the SounDock, I was satisfied with the quality of this product. I can not justify paying extra $100 for the portable version which includes rechargeble battery.

MONEY WELL SPENT....!!!

I'd been contemplating buying this unit for quite some time....after much deliberation, and looking over all of the reviews, I decided to take a leap of faith....and I am certainly glad that I did. I wanted to be able to listen to my iPod while in my home....and I stumbled upon this unit on Amazon. Of course, there is no denying the reputation of high quality that Bose has. This unit did not disappoint; I was thrilled at the sound quality that emitted from something of this size. The relatively small footprint lends itself to portability....and also allows it to fit in virtually anywhere. There is virtually no assemble required (just attaching the size appropriate dock for your individual iPod), and the remote comes ready to go, What more can I say? If you're thinking about it....don't waste any more time. This piece of stereo equipment is definitely worth the expense. DYB

Keyword : ipod+nano

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-08-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Happy with the Fuze

I've had the Fuze for about a month and am quite happy with it. It's easy to navigate, looks good, good sound. I had the small sansa M250 before and this is FAR superior. I found it a bit weak in the bass and am learning how to adjust the settings. This may be more my weakness than the Fuze's. The one thing that really bothers me is the on/off switch. I have a difficult time making it slide to especially turn it off, since it has to be held up for a second or two. This has become even more difficult after putting it in the silicone skin. The skin is quite thick and it's almost impossible to get at the little on/off slider on the side of the Fuze. I'll upload a photo of this to help explain. Otherwise, I'm quite happy with the Fuze. I'll soon be taking a trip abroad and will be better able to judge this device after the trip.

Fantastic

I did a lot of research before purchasing the Fuze. My research led me to narrow my choice to two options. One being the Fuze, the other being the IPod Nano. In the end I bought both units. The Fuze I paid cash for from Amazon, the Ipod I redeemed credit card points to obtain. After having both for about a month now I don't understand why anyone would buy an Ipod. Other than the beautifully designed packaging and product it is the most difficult proprietary product out there. You have to use Itunes to register the unit and load music. In my case downloading Itunes messes with my Windows Media Player which I use as a player linked to a hard drive which is my in home music server. In order to fix the software conflicts between Itunes and Windows Media I had to resort to uninstalling Itunes which by it self did not solve the problem. Only after defragementing my hard drive did the problem go away. The Sansa Fuze was so simple to load with music I was amazed. Simplily plug it in and drag and drop. It even gives you the option of specifying what type of music file you prefer (ie compressed or not). With storage expansion via card and an FM player it is fantastic. So while I appreciate the visual design of the Ipod it is extremely over rated to me. Don't buy an Ipod unless you are only interested in looks over performance.

Great player and great price

The san disk fuze 2gb player is the best player i have owned. I had many mp3 players including an ipod nano. Some were very simple and others had all the bells and whistles, but this one is my best buy yet. Very good sound quality and video quality. I been look for a multimedia player but didn't want to shell out money for an expensive player like the new nano. And I didn't want one that was going to break or not be to do what i wanted even if the price was reasonable. This one was exactly what i was looking for and the price was very reasonable. I especially liked that memory can be expanded up to 10 gb with 8 gb micro sd card. I enjoy my player and hope to get many years of use from it. I highly recommend it whether the 2, 4 or 8 gb fuze.

Sansa Fuze 2GB

This is the first mp3 player I have owned and I LOVE it! It is affordable and does the same things and more than an ipod nano. I love being able to listen to the radio on it. The channels are very clear. The screen on the player is bright and easily navigated. The only thing I have a complaint about is finding accessories for it. You can buy a million accessories made for ipod brand, but they don't work for the fuze because the power button is on the side of the player. I also love that if you get a lower memory player you can add more music to it buy purchasing a micro SD card.

"I love it"

This is the first Mp3 player I've ever owned, so I have nothing to compare it to. Having said that, my experience with my first Mp3 player is I love it! I thought it was going to be hard to download music but, it was so easy and fast. Being able to listen to music for hours like that is wonderful! I have no complaints.

Keyword : sandisk

Coby MP-C582 Clip MP3 Player 1 GB - Red

2008-08-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

Coby MP-C582 Clip MP3 Player 1 GB - Red

Customer Reviews

Not so good

Had a Zen Stone, but left it in my pocket and washed it. Still worked! Did it again. Doesn't work. Decided the Coby clip sounded like a good way to prevent further washings of my MP3s (I like CLEAN music). Player feels cheap and flimsy compared to the Zen. And...broke on second usage. Play button snapped and now the player won't stay on. Having a hard time getting Coby customer service to answer questions. Guess I'll be going back to another Zen stone--just try to keep the trips through the washing machine limited to one.

Great for the price!!

It may look like a cheap flimsy player, but I have been enjoying it on my runs. The clamp hold well and I love the rechargable battery which makes it much lighter. I use a different earpiece - a clip-on style stereo headphone since it stays in my ear even after running for an hour. You just can't beat the price of this mp3 player!!!

Economical No nonsense MP3s

I bought this for the purpose of having a cheap alternative to the Nano/Shuffle. It does that. It is a no-frills, no nonesense MP3, no LCD and the battery life is satisfactory. Only complaint would be the clip is not too functional if you intetnd on moving a lot - it will slip and fall off. But the function vs. price rating is very high.

Fun Stuff

My grand children love these. Only problem is that some of the songs are MP4 and won't download onto these. But the joy I have watching my 6 year old grandson ... singing off key to secret Asian man.... is priceless!

Only positive is the clip

I bought this player because of the clip on feature which is great. Other than that it has a cheap feel to it, it's hard to skip songs or adjust the volume while running or exercising without unclipping it and looking at it, and the buttons have a loud clicking sound to them. It says the rechargable battery will last 5 hours and it hasn't so far. The USB adapter to charge the battery and add songs is not a cable, more like a bulky flash drive and it won't fit into the front ports on my computer so I have to plug it in the back....it's a pain unless you have easy access to the back of your pc.

Keyword : coby

SanDisk Sansa Express 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-08-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Express 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

really bad library system

Without mentioning the poor / total lack of compatibility with other devices (it just crashes when I connect it to my in-car mp3 stereo using the usb connector); The main problem with this player is that it can't read mp3 ID3 tags. As its entire library system is based on tags, it only works properly in shuffle mode. You always end with a lot of music sorted as unknown artist / unknown album. As it can't find the track number on e-books, the chapters come in the wrong order. I got so sick of it that I went back to Creative...

Works great here

Had one for about 6 weeks and am pleased. It does what was expected; play MP3/WMA/WAV and audio books with the FM radio and recorder being sauce for the goose. Contrary to others I've found the menus adequate and easy to navigate even with my size 12 ham-hands. Of course our 10 year old son can fly through them. Not exactly feature-rich menus, but good enough at this price point. As for the OLED: of course it washes out a bit in the sun....but then so does every digital cameras LCD I've seen, but the OLED doesn't wash out as much. The only cons so far are that MicroSD's are too easy to eject (not uncommon with many devices) and the neck rope was too stiff. Many have complained about it dying or locking up, sometimes recovering with a hard reset and sometimes not. In my experience this is usually due to just removing it from a computers USB port without using Windows "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog. Not doing so can cause instabilities in MANY makers devices that show either immediately or later.

SanDisk Sansa Express 2Gb

I bought this item with a little trepidation having read very mixed reviews of the product. In the end I decided to buy it on the basis that I was looking for an MP3 player that is easy to use, compact and doesn't require any additional leads etc (which can easily be lost/forgotten). This seemed to be the only unit that satisfied this for my budget range (<$50). I've had the unit one month so far. I should point-out that I am not an intensive user of MP3s and perhaps use mine around 2 times per week. So far I have found it to work pretty well. It looks nice and the battery life seems fine. I used it on several long-haul flights and it seemed to last fine (the ear-plugs feel a bit unconfortable after an hour or so). The unit has crashed on me few times (poor software I guess) but was quick to re-boot after pressing the reset button, ie. it did't particularly bother me. I haven't upgraded the firmware. The unit seems to work well with MS Media Player - it seemed to auto-detect and worked seamlessly. I haven't bought an expansion memory card yet so can't comment on that. The pros and cons of this unit are: Pros: * Cheap * Looks good * Compact * Simple to use - no leads to forget/lose * Has a radio that works! Cons: * Sometimes stalls (but comes back to life after a reset) * the wiring is a bit messy - a problem shared by other units * sound sometimes a little hissy * menu sometimes seems a little awkward to navigate (minor complaint) * Earphones a little uncomfortable (probably best to buy nicer ones if you plan to use it a lot) Overall, this unit works (so far) well for me, but I'm not a big user. Keep that in mind when reading this.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

for some reason i could not submit this review without at least 1 star rating...this product deserves -5 stars...i would not recommend the sansa express mp3 player to anyone...i have had mine for less than 6 weeks and already it is unuseable...the menu/power button has become stuck so it cannot even be turned on...i only used it 3 times a week so it failed with only 15 uses...a google search showed that other people had the exact same problem so it is not user failure but product failure...

Stopped working after 3 days use

Worked fine for 3 days although it was irritating that you can not add folders to the data directory for storing text files etc. Then it would not power up at all. Tried to recharge but it was dead and I sent it back. Gonna try the Creative Muvo T200 next - similar music and radio features but is supposed to be recognized as a standard HD for data transfer. Hopefully I'll have better luck with that.

Keyword : sandisk

Samsung YP-K3JAB 4 GB Ultraslim MP3 Player

2008-08-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

Samsung YP-K3JAB 4 GB Ultraslim MP3 Player

Customer Reviews

my daughter loved it

My daughter had to have one of these after seeing her friend's. She loves the interface and additional space over her old iRiver U10, and despite the fact I knew we ordered it used, the product was in such great condition it wasn't possible to tell the difference looking at it. Saved lots of $$, happy daughter, and very fast shipping.

Gives Great Sound

Samsung YP-K3JAB 4 GB Ultraslim MP3 Player I love this player. It is cool to look at and to hold but that isn't the most important thing about it for me. It is the sound. The music you play on this MP3 player will sound fantastic. I don't think you could get better sound reproduction anywhere. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars: I do wish it had a loop on it and that it had come with a case. But even so I would buy it again.

Cool MP3

The samsung k3 is really cool. Sound quality is is tremendous. The earphones that came with it tend to fall off my ear, the playlist feature wasn't available you have to download the firmware for it, drag, other then that it's a great mp3 and is easy to upload tracks just drag and drop.

Sleek, Great Quality, Good Looking

From when I looked at the reviews till the day I bought and received this product, I knew I would love it. It really is the best looking MP3 player I've ever seen and it really is great quality - in sound, graphics, functions, and easiness to use. In my opinion, I prefer the sound quality in this MP3 rather than the IPOD NANO mainly because the bass, music, and voice quality is clearer, more defined, and sounds more natural. The graphics are also very clear but some of the pictures may not look perfectly sharp depending on the size of the picture files (basically because all of the pictures must be resized and reformatted to fit on the player and to be viewable on the small screen). This player is also very easy to use and is very fast at transferring music into it. You can either use it like a USB drive, or you can use the "Samsung Media Studio" to create playlists, organize, and transfer your files. To tie everything up, I am very pleased with this product, I use it everyday, and I don't regret buying it!

Totally satisfied

This MP3 player is very intuitive to learn and use, extremely thin for comfort, and was a terrific decision to purchase. I'm very glad I bought it.

Keyword : samsung+mp3

Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (6th Generation)

2008-08-07T02:07:00.001-07:00

Apple iPod classic 160 GB Black (6th Generation)

Customer Reviews

Everything you expect

The iPod arrived very quickly - no delays in shipment. The iPod is exactly as it is described on the site. It works perfectly, does not malfunction, and has a very good battery life. (I have not yet watched videos on it, so the battery life refers only in regards to music). This product does not come with a car adapter, that has to be purchased separately. I have no complaints.

Perfect for Music Lovers

I bought this item one month back. And I am happy about it. Sound quality is very good. And the navigators are very smooth. Battery quality is also good and after full charge I can listen to music for 40 above hours. This is my first iPOD and I am loving it.

almost too good...

I purchased this ipod recently and my first impression was that it looked uber cool! The metal encasing seems tough and more scratch resistant than previous models. I might add that it was also very nice that it came fully charged :-). Onto sound quality. So far I have been rather impressed with the sound quality; when I compared the ipod to a zune and a samsung mp3 using the same earphones, i found the ipod slightly clearer. I would reccomend replaceing the earbuds with sennheiser px200s though, because the standard earbuds are a bit muddy, uncomfortable, and they dont match my ipod! :-) Screen quality is tremendous, it is nice to have an extra .5 inch over a nano, and it makes videos more enjoyable to watch. There are also a few unique funcions I find helpful and interesting. First, the coverflow feature is my favorite! I also found it nice that when you pull out your earphones, the music will pause automatically. How smart! Also, I like the added stopwatch feature and the ability to adjust all of the setings. The only thing I wish could also be adjusted is the sensitiveity (pardon my spelling :-}) of the click wheel, but it hardly matters. The 80 GB has plenty of storage, my laptop wont be able to keep up! I actually wish it held like only 50 gig because that might reduce the cost :-). It is nice though, to be able to put on all my pics, flix, and songs on it. The battery life is great, I haven't had to charge it after listening to if for like 8 hours and it is still almost full. In fact I did a little research and the batery can last up to 40 hours (if the back light is mostly off and you only listen to songs). That is the best of any ipod. Overall i am very impressed and would highly reccomend it. I hope this review helps you decide on a great product!

Love it, love it, love it

I have been an Ipod junkie since it's inception. I bought the 80gig because I have such a vast collection of music that I could no longer fit it it all on my 8. der. Anyways, I have had nothing but a great experience with my little bundle of joy. It's fast, music sounds great, no problems with movies, TV shows, videos, it's all good. It did, however, lock up once due to accidentally dropping it, but after holding the center wheel down, it was just fine. Movies, Videos, TV Shows, Podcasts: When I first downloaded a movie, I thought I would have problems viewing it, or the screen would be too small. But it was not only a perfect size, but the graphics were great. Videos, podcasts, shows, all good. Games: I have no problems with games. Just be sure you read the compatibility requirements before you buy any games. Which they do tell you on Itunes. Wheel is fast, almost too fast. But I chalk that up to user to Ipod malfunction. The only thing I would have to complain about is the actual speed in which syncing is done. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but that actually has nothing to do with Ipod and merely the computer. Someone wrote that they are having issues listening to their Ipod while charging. I would return it. There should be no issues with that unless it is syncing. Overall, I am very pleased with my Ipod. My son also has the same Ipod, and I have to say, it's pretty tough. I have had to buy him a metal case, but this kid has dropped his pod so many times, I am surprised it works as well as it does. Kudos to Apple for making it thick skinned.

Great purchase experience.

Purchased the Apple iPod classic 80 GB Black (6th Generation) online and was a super purchase. I could not believe how quickly I received it too.

Keyword : mp3player

Coby MP300-4G MP3 Player with 4 GB Flash Memory, USB Drive and LCD - Black

2008-08-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

Coby MP300-4G MP3 Player with 4 GB Flash Memory, USB Drive and LCD - Black

Customer Reviews

Nicely done.

I've got very few problems with this mp3 player. The songs can end up in random order, but I've had experience with these mp3 players that don't really have a structure to put them in. The best way to set them in the order you like would be to put each song in individually. I also recommend using folders down to each album because the songs will probably get mixed. However, most of the time I don't really care what order they're in as long as its on there and I can find it through the menu. Those are the only negative things to say about this, so if you're the type of person that likes to hear your songs in random order, you'll have nothing against this. The design is pretty small, which is good because I need to hide it a lot of the time. Its also pretty easy to hold onto if you don't have a place to store it specifically. The headphone jack is a little oddly placed, but I think that can be adjusted to easily enough. It really holds my headphone connector piece in place though, so I won't be spinning it around as much anymore. It seems to play my music really well, there's no distortion that isn't being caused by the headphones. The switch from song to song is fast. The best part is, this came 2 days early for me. It might have just been a fluke in the route calculation, but 2 days early is 2 days early. Also, a USB cord came with the mp3 player that plugs straight into the computer. The last time I asked about those the manager said that they didn't exist. Dunno what happened there, but I got one with the mp3 player.

Easy to Use

The MP3 player is easy to use. Although it's a MP3 player, it's still a memory stick so to think of it as only a MP3 player will make it difficult to figure out how to use. When putting songs into the player, the order the songs are put in is the order they will appear. If Track 2 is put before Track 1, Track 2 will be played before 1. If you want to play songs according to the album or artist, you have to make a folder first. After putting the songs in their respecitive folders, it's simple to have them played. Let's say you want to play the folder where the artist is XYZ. First, play a song in that folder. Second, go to the menu, then settings, then select Dir normal, in which Dir stands for Directory. The player will then ONLY play songs in that folder. If you picked, dir repeat or dir shuffle, ONLY songs in that folder will be repeated or shuffled, depending on which option you picked. If you think of it as only a MP3 player, you will never be able to figure out out to get it to work. You need to think of it as a memory stick first and MP3 player second.

keep it simple

for the one who just need basic mp3 wma playing. the best of its kind

Works well for what I want

I had one just like this with only(!) 2GB only it was a Rixxo Mambo brand. The functionality was identical though the buttons are differently placed. My son broke his (he's not real gentle with stuff) so I gave him mine and bought this. It plays MP3s and WMAs very well. I use it through my car radio (external input on the front) and it sounds beautifully clear and clean. It also plays podcasts very nicely so that when you turn it off then on in the middle of one it picks up exactly where it left off - almost to the syllable. Doubles as a USB drive if you mistreat it as my son did and break a button. It also claims the ability to delete songs without going to iTunes or WMP on your computer and the ability to jump to different folders according to the well written instructions though I don't use those features since I just want to hear whatever I put on in any old order. Since it is about 1/4-th the cost of the 4GB iPod or Zune I am quite happy with it. The output connector is at one of the ends so the headphone jack goes in straight with the body. This makes it easy to fit in my pocket when I'm at the gym listening through my big Sennheiser headphones. Next to the headphone jack is a small ring for some thin thread or wire or something so you can attach some holder. 4GB is about 1,000 MP3 tunes for me at 160-192 Kbps, tunes being 2 to 12 minutes long, mostly 3 minutes. That is a lot, and I'm finally getting to hear my 3 star selections instead of the same 500 5-star selections. I had some trouble with WMP at first not seeing some of the tunes I had loaded from my other computer so I reformatted it as if it were an external drive (which it is) and reloaded everything and then it was fine. Likely a WMP issue. The connection to the computer is USB 2.0 and it connects like a USB drive - take off one end protector and stick the whole thing in. It also has a USB cable if the angles are wrong for sticking it directly in.

zero navigation

According to the manufacturer, this player "supports" ID3. What that means in practice is that it will display some of the ID3 information when it plays a track. As far as i can tell (and i've scoured the Coby web site and searched the web for info), there is no way to use the ID3 information for *navigation*. (Compare the Sansa machines, for example, with menus that list albums by Artist, or by Title. And that *order the tracks within an album* correctly.) So i now have a player that is loaded with several hundred tracks, in essentially random order. (I have a folder structure--by artist, then by album--in place, but the machine doesn't list the tracks in order within a folder, nor does it seem to provide "play this folder" capability.) The manufacturer's website is useless. If i don't soon find out how to access my content in a rational way--and i've already wasted 2 hours too many of my life on this--i'm going to throw this machine into the garbage.

Keyword : coby

SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

2008-08-05T05:13:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Quality Control?????

The first Sansa View I received worked great, but it would not hold a charge on the battery for more than five hours (advertised as 35 hour capacity). Also a slight amount of heat given off as battery discharged. Amazon replaced with no problem. Second Sansa View had a battery that would last a very long time, but it would freeze up at the introduction screen when it was turned on. Leave it alone and most of the time it would eventually come on and play mp3s. I returned that one to Amazon too. I am now going to get an IPOD.

Disappointed

The Sansa View 16GB was returned after I had it for only two days.I spent many hours attempting to load music onto it, with limited success. The instructions were minimal, and doing a drag and drop of music files did not work reliably. I spent some time on the phone with tech support; they took me through the process of music transfer from my PC to the View. When the file transfer was complete, only a small portion of the music files showed up on the View. Since I did like the size, display, and thumb wheel of the device, I was disappointed that the View just wouldn't function properly for me.

Another Great Sansa

Sansa continues its success with another affordable mp3 player. The View is solidly built and very functional. I bought this for our home stereo system. Its interface simple enough that the whole family can use it.

Does not play AudioBooks

Despite the claims of the Best Buy salesman, the Sansa View is unable to play Audio Books from NetLibrary websites. It is not WMA compatible. I only wanted to listen to AudioBooks with this MP3 player, so it is now obsolete to me.

Not too great

I think they forgot to put the decimal point in when they claimed a whopping 35 hours playback time. Mine got more like 3.5. It didn't seem to be reverse compatible with my wall charger or my cigarette lighter charger. You plug it into them and it either shows the charging animation for a few seconds than goes out or doesn't show it at all. Which tied me to my laptop which sucked. The best I ever got when I timed it was 14 hours but as time went by this seemed to get worse and worse. It seemed every time I turned around it needed charging again. I actually returned the first one for this reason, and had the same problem with the second one. But getting 14 hours out of it decided not to return it also. (big mistake) Locks up a lot playing simple mp3's The fast forward button (not jog dial) only has one speed approximately 8x so if your trying to fast forward though a 1 hour podcast expect your finger to get pretty tired holding the button down. When this happens and you slip and push it again it changes modes to thinking you want to go to the next song so the 6 minutes you held down the button was for nothing now, start all over! I don't know how many times I've done this even knowing the problem it's hard to avoid. Last the extra large screen is great! For viewing your menu's and what not, but it also makes the unit much more venerable to TOTAL DESTRUCTION! I was leaning up against a bench seat with it in my pocket and pushed the cheap plastic shield right into the fragile lcd display and totally destroyed it. After having done this I just pressed with my finger and it takes hardly a pound of pressure to push the protective clear plastic shield into the fragile led! If you have one of these DON'T CARRY IT IN YOUR POCKET. Buy a case and attach it to your belt.

Keyword : creative+mp3

Zune 8 GB Digital Media Player Green (2nd Generation)

2008-08-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

Zune 8 GB Digital Media Player Green (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

If God would make an MP3 player...

...he would call it Zune. I'm not a "Zune Fanboy" or an "iPod Fanboy". I was just on the market for an MP3 player. My older brother owns an iPod Nano(first generation) and absolutely loves it. I've played around with it a lot and really like the product. The first Zune came out and I thought it looked stupid. I finally got a job and got tired of burning CD's and changing them and looking "Old School". Then I saw the Zune 2. I thought that it looked very similar to the Nano 1st Gen.(which I have no idea why they changed it to that dumb triscuit lookin' thing) And decided that now was the time, I was either gonna buy a Zune 2 or an iPod. I up and one day spontaneously bought a Zune. I don't even remember how the decision came to be, but it happened. I bought red mostly because of it's glossiness. I was overwhelmed with impressiveness. I thought that it was amazing. I didn't know it contained a Radio(which is very, very good.), had video playing capabilities, Wireless song, pic, and video sharing. You can also set picture backgrounds in place of album art. It's built completely solid, and actually kind of heavy(which is a good thing). It's a very sturdy MP3 player. I've dropped it several times, and nothing has happened to it. The buttons are really tight fitting into the holes for them, which keeps dust and water out. The screen is made of glass and not plastic. Glass is stronger, more scratch resistant(I have ZERO scratches on my Zune screen, my brother's ipod...looks like he put it in a blender). And provides a clearer picture. I did have a problem with the Zune. One day, the back button didn't work as responsively as it should have. Sometimes wouldn't work at all, sometimes worked right away. I filed a report with microsoft. The next day a box arrived at my house with all the packing materials and free overnight shipping back to the repair facilities. Four days later, brand new Zune was at my house. No questions asked, no paper work, nothing. I am DEFINITELY a Zune fanboy now. All of my friends have a Zune now, and the wireless sharing is so much fun. You no longer have to say "Listen to this song" and hold out an earbud, but just send it to them. There are absolutely ZERO cons to the Zune. It's Economical, user friendly, stylish, durable(very...very durable), fun, just overall one of the best purchases I've made in my life. Click the "Buy" button. 'nough said.

Best MP3 Player On The Market

Great overall quality, price, and features. The Zune offers a wide array of cool features like wireless song sending to another Zune, and has good album art display.

Major Upgrade

I am a technologist and musician, and love both with a passion...I love this techology and being able to take it with me. Now I own a Zune 8. This review is more about how I think MSFT should improve the Zune and gain some market share over iPod, which IMO is overrated. A little background first: Christmas 2006 I bought my teen girls 80GB iPODS. These replaced Creative 20GB Sleek's which were just not very good, especially the clunky cable design and poor battery life. The iPods are good and lots of folks keep buying them but I am not a fan of being forced to use iTunes. My first personal MP3 player was Creative Zen 1gb for exercising - sound quality actually better than either Zune or iPOd but the interface is tiny, and the unit eats AAA batteries. This year I decided to step up in capacity first with a Sansa Clip 4Gb. But it was hard to read the display and the menus were confusing and fiddly, and it was buggy, so I sent it back. In the mindset of "you get what you pay for" I finally just decided it was worth the extra bucks to go with the leaders, being either Apple or MSFT. I really like the design of the Zune over iPods, especially in the 4 and 8GB offerings. So I ordered this Zune 8GB from Amazon (the price beat all, to boot). It arrived in just a few days, the order being fullfilled in typical Amazon expediance. Zune Pros: great form factor and build quality. Menus are well thought out and easy to navigate. Don't have to use iTunes...IMO iTunes is a pest... Zune sound quality, compared to my teen's iPods, is superior. Also, the FM radio is a huge deal for me and I'm baffled as to why Apple avoids including this in iPods. Con's: the removal of an equalizer and a proprietary cable instead of mini USB (Sansa Fuze now offers this but I think they have other issues i.e. their interface is awkward, quality suspect) Thoughts on Zune: Lack of equalizer - I'm not sure this is a big deal as the sound is pretty good and I have not missed it. I have experimented alot with the iPod equalizer and I never found it to help much. However, I think MSFT is making a mistake here just because people expect it to be there. Proprietary cable interface - only hurts, IMO does not help build market share. Sansa Fuze offers standard USB. Is Zune just copying iPod to have a proprietary cable? what's up with that...I say to heck with the marketing guys - give us standards where it makes sense and proprietize in areas where it does not hurt the consumer. Let the essence of the product - the user interface, build quality, reliability and performance - speak for itself. Build quality: very good. I turned away from buying more Creative and Sansa products after experiencing first hand, and also reading about persistent quality issues. Comparitively, the ZUNE has been trouble free after several weeks. The unit feels good in the hand. Come to think of it I have always had good luck with MSFT electronic gear - even my xBox and xBox 360 work just fine. Battery life: The battery life so far has not been great BUT this is likely the way I use it....I hardly ever use the ear buds as I prefer to run it through AUX jacks into car, home and even my home studio mixer, where I run the volume at like 15, 16 etc way higher than most folks using ear buds so batt life may suffer. But running the sound from the 3.5mm headphone jack into an AUX jack is likely way less efficient than if it were via the main Zune port - my guess being I would get a stronger signal and would not have to crank it to get the signal to overcome lack of preamplification going into the AUX jacks. UI: Compared to the iPod, although I like the wheel on the iPod, the Zune is easy to flip through to find songs. The user interface is well thought out compared to Sansa and Creative products. I would say iPod and Zune are both well design interfaces and it comes down to what you get used to. Accessories: I see a sea of iPod junk,,I mean, accessories,,, when I walk into a store or browse Amazon and alot less for Zune. This likely hurts Zune market share and so it chicken vs egg etc. I think MSFT needs to get on top of this and drive OEMS to build more accessories i.e. a Bose system for Zune with a Zune port (instead of just the AUX jack). Or just go with standard USB for goodness sake. In fact, I think MSFT should pander to technologists like myself and even audiophiles - offer things I take for granted in my home studio i.e. fast USB 2.0 interfaces, higher sound resolutions that appeal to audiophiles etc....just me 2 cents. Apple does not do this and I think Microsoft could win market share by educating folks about better sound quality and features that differentiate Zune from iPod (right, right, going off topic I know but just a little grist for the mill). RAP: I look forward to two things - 80GB of flash memory instead of delicate hard drive techology; and the ability to control Zune from my car and home stereo - not just in a Ford via Synch...hmmm...does Synch even let me control my Zune? Bottom line: Zune is a superior player that deserves way more credit and attention. Maybe version 3 will take the cake.

Love My Zune!

I was late to the ipod game when I decided to purchase an MP3 player and while I still have accessory envy (especially around speaker/docking station options), I absolutely love my Zune! From the initial, simple "out of the box" experience to my "all you can eat" plan in the Zune marketplace, everything I need to do has been straightforward, easy and fun to experience. The device itself is great, with clear menus, a good size screen for such a small device (even for videos) and ample battery life to get me through a week of long runs and cross country flights. This is my second Zune (I also own a first generation "brick") and I am hooked. I hope Microsoft can land enough accessory partners to provide real competition to the ipod as the device itself offers a great alternative.

Zune Review

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Red (2nd Generation) I had a little trouble realizing the phone jack needed to be inserted completely (really had to push to completely insert). I find the thumb control to be a little over sensitive for me but every other feature including software installion is A1. I think the FM receiver is an absolute great feature. This is a pretty neat little piece of technology.

Keyword : zune

Samsung YP-P2JAR P2 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player (Burgundy)

2008-08-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Samsung YP-P2JAR P2 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player (Burgundy)

Customer Reviews

It's SO pretty!

I've always been a samsung fan, and this is definitely a great product. Sound is great, features are great and as always, it's so pretty!!

Great buy

I will keep it simple. P2 is a great purchase. Incredible sound, great looks. I have not used the bluetooth feature yet, but other aspects are flawless. It sounds even better if you can get it for about $130 from Amazon.

NO DRIVER

I bought this on the 23rd of june 08. I have had problems with this product ever since. The problem that I am having I can't transfer my music to this device. The people at samsung that can help me are only there from 8-4:30 pm. The problem that I am having is my computer is telling me there is no driver load for this device. If any one else is having this problem what did you do to correct it. I have update my driver on my computer many times but that still dosen't help. I have intstall/ reinstall the cd that come with this product many times nothing works. I am very disappointed with this product because I have two other samsung mp3 player and one is a t-9 and I don't have any problems with neither one. I am sending this yp-p2jab back and get a refund to buy something other than a samsung. Before I bought this I read the requirement for your computer. So I don't understand why I am having this problems.

Awesome MP3 Player!!

This is the best mp3 player! It has fantastic sound quality. Pictures and videos are really stunning on this 3" widescreen. FM radio is very clear. With a firmware update, you can even record the radio, which sounds terrific. In addition, with the new firmware, you can even play fun games, with its good touch screen. With other updates you can have a calculator to perform simple calculations; you can also create your own menus with EmoDio (a new version of Media Studio). This player also has bluetooth. It allows you to pair the player with a pair of headphones or bluetooth speakers. You can even transfer files wirelessly between bluetooth devices. The touch screen takes a little while to get used to, but after getting used to it, then it is really easy and fun to use. Its interface is cool and this player is fun to use. It has many useful extras like text viewer, alarms, and a world clock. Downloading music and video onto the P2 is very easy even with Samsung Media Studio. You just bring in the file into Media Studio, then you click the arrow and it converts it into the correct format, svi, then transfers it to the P2. Samsung has very good firmware updates that raise the value of their products and add more features. The first and second updates added added the ability to make calls with the P2 with bluetooth and transfer files to other bluetooth devices. It also improved the touchscreen interface so that it is more responsive. The 3rd update added games and more menu styles. This was followed by the fourth one that added a touchscreen calculator to the Samsung P2. As you have read, Samsung continues adding additional features to make the P2 even better. I think more people should buy this rather than an ipod. An 8 gb nano is about the same price, yet you get much more with this mp3 player. It has a wonderful touchscreen interface unlike the ipod. It has a 3 inch screen compared to the ipod nano's 2 inch screen. In addition it has FM radio, bluetooth capabilities. I really recommend this player and I think everyone should get this. If you are thinking of getting an ipod, think again and consider this P2. You will be glad that you did so.

Great player, minimal problems

Sound Quality: Great, a majority of average users will be more than satisfied; audiophiles may be slightly disappointed. Provided Headphones: Average, acceptable for common use, but for a significantly upgraded experience, invest in a slightly more expensive product. Video: Clear, smooth. Above average quality when encoded at 30fps. Bluetooth: Excellent functionality. Connected to my 5 year old Sony Ericsson T637 without a hitch. When a call comes in, music fades away and call is routed through the player. Can also make calls by entering a number, or by selecting an existing contact (requires you to bluetooth your addressbook to the player from your phone. in order to do this, make sure the two are NOT connected as a mobile device first). Functions as a headset when connected to a phone, wireless headphones when connected to bluetooth headphones/headset. Functionality requires a firmware upgrade (see below) Firmware/Software: Firmware upgrades easy and without problems, just follow the onscreen instructions from the software. Software functions okay as a media player; transfer is quick and conversion speed is acceptable for video. Microphone: Player with most recent firmware as of June 08 still does not have a voice recorder option. When relaying phone calls through the player, microphone is weak and requires either loud talking, or holding the mic end up to your mouth. Screen Button Size: I have small/thin fingers, and even I have trouble sometimes with the touchscreen buttons, especially at the bottom. Generally not a problem, you just need to be very conscious about exactly where you touch. Touchscreen: Easily picks up fingerprints, but also easily cleaned. Responsiveness is average, occasionally swiping left/right to go next/prev will activate the up/down volume control, and trying to swipe occasionally changes the visualization option instead. Outside of the Now Playing screen, functions well. Screen is bright and vivid indoors, but will be washed out and difficult to see outside. Battery Life: With bluetooth on, around 10 hours on full charge. Physical Buttons: On/Off/Play/Pause, Lock, Volume Up, Volume Down. USB Interface: Proprietary, requires the Samsung USB cable. When connected to a computer, the player is un-usable, and will display a USB Connected screen. When connected to power-only, player is usable. Most annoying problem IMHO: Tapping the visualization in the Now Playing screen changes it to the next available vis. This annoys me to no end, as I like to keep it on the Album Info vis (static, no animation).

Keyword : samsung+mp3

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Red (2nd Generation)

2008-07-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Red (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Best MP3 Player On The Market

Great overall quality, price, and features. The Zune offers a wide array of cool features like wireless song sending to another Zune, and has good album art display.

Major Upgrade

Love My Zune!

Zune Review

This B-Day Present was a big hit

I bought the Zune for my daughter for her 15th birthday and she absolutely loves it. She had nine friends over for her party one month ago and now all of them have either bought one themselves or got their parents to buy them one, even if they already had an ipod. Now they carry the zunes and the cell phones with them everywhere. They really like the fact that they can share zune to zune. They also like the quality of the screen for videos and the amount of storage space for the price.

Keyword : zune

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Pink (3rd Generation)

2008-07-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Pink (3rd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Hey, it's an iPod!

What can I say, Apple designs most of its products quite well; nice appearance with pragmatic functionality...and the iPod is no exception. I have seen quite a few other MP3 players (my brother owns a Zen Micro), but none seem to match up to the iPod. I think what impresses me most are the extras: calendar, contacts, games, alarm, stopwatch, etc. The only difficult thing is picking the color! I definitely recommend going with the 8 GB model - might as well, considering the price difference. You may also want to consider an alternate pair of earbuds or headphones. As others have noted, the pair that come with the iPod might not fit very well. This is one area where Apple really needs to look at design/functionality with something that comes in the box. Other than that, if you're concerned about potential damage/scratches, I would order a sleeve at the same time, and put it on right away.

Great product.

After my wife broke her Ipod shuffle, we started looking for an upgrade. After a bit of poking around, we found an excellent deal on a new Ipod nano. Do not pay full price from Apple or any other retailer. Do a little shopping around and you are sure to find a better price. Highly recommend getting some kind of case for it as well.

Love the Nano!

The 8G Nano is great! It is so easy to use! I am new to all things Apple and I'm glad I made the purchase. I also bought a new MacBook recently and I love Apple's ease of use! The Nano has great sound and a very clear picture! This is a great value for what you get!

Only had one problem

I love my iPod Nano. It plays all my music and have had no problem with the music and photo portions. The only problem I have is getting it to stop when I am searching for a song, photo, etc. I rented a movie from iTunes to watch on a flight I was going to take. When I tried to access the movie somehow it had 2 choices....Delete or Cancel...........tried to get it on the cancel tab and Pfft, the movie was deleted..........Maybe it's just me and I need a little more practice. Otherwise, I have no problem with it.

Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3rd Generation)

Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3rd Generation) good quality product. quick delivery. no case included though.

Keyword : ipod+nano

SanDisk Sansa c240 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-27T05:32:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa c240 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Good value

I was looking for a simple mp3 player for my wife to use while walking. I accidentally ordered two instead of one, but after using one, decided to keep them both so that I could have one. I have used both the radio and music features. The display is small, and the menus take some getting used to, but it is hard to beat for the price.

Great Mp3 Player (for geeks)

For the price there isn't a lot that can beat the Sansa c240. I bought it because it has a MicroSD slot. (extensible memory is great) The FM Radio, Picture Viewer, and Voice Recorder aren't all that great, but they're fun extras. Speaking of fun extras, the biggest boon to the c240 is it's ability to run RockBox [www.rockbox.org] as custom firmware. This is a bit geeky for most users, but since the original interface is horrible, it might be worth a try. You'll find that your c240 is much more powerful than you thought it could be. With RockBox you can watch videos, play games, skin the interface, run simple programs, and still have all the original functions (radio/voice) intact. The biggest limitation is it's screen. At 132x80 you really can't do a lot with it. If you want to show off to your iPod using friends, just show them how your mp3 player can run DOOM. I adore my c240 running RockBox, but here's why it's still a 3 star. RockBox is an add-on and isn't terribly easy to get started on. The original interface is horrible. The screen is tiny and lo-res. The USB cord is custom and replacing it isn't cheap. Nonetheless, I love my new Sansa c240. If you're geek who loves to customize your electronics then you will love it. If you aren't then you might want to pass.

Better than Shuffle, less expensive

This MP3 player is the best!! A screen to navigate your library of songs, a slide show feature for your photos, FM radio and download capabilities, voice recorder for lists and messages. Love it so much I bought 3 (for other family members)

Zero Stars

Seriously, should you purchase the SanDisk Sansa c240 1GB mp3 player, you may be very disappointed. My player performed properly for only a few months before imploding. Contacting SanDisk for assistance proved futile. You're wasting your money.

SanDisk Sansa C240

I love this product I have purchased 4 one as a 2 gb and the other three as 1 gb. I use the 2gb to record class lectures and then review them later but also to listen to music. It is very easy to use and love that it is rechargable so I don't have to be buying batteries for it all the time. If you are into listening to music and just want something to use everywhere I suggest this product.

Keyword : sandisk

Samsung YP-U3JQP 2GB USB Digital Audio player with FM Radio (Pink)

2008-07-26T14:45:00.001-07:00

Samsung YP-U3JQP 2GB USB Digital Audio player with FM Radio (Pink)

Customer Reviews

frustrating

i was excited to receive my new mp3 player as i am so done with i-tunes! this device was so easy go load up with songs - just drag and drop. that was probably the best feature of the mp3 player. here's what i didn't like: - the color - it is very highlighter, 90's scrunchie sock pink - the menu controls (play, stop etc) are very touch sensitive and most of the time i end up having to scroll through all the menu options to get back to the "now playing" to fast forward, stop or pause - very annoying! - the usb connector thingy (yes that's a technical term lol) it was very cheap feeling and i would suspect it does not take much pressure to snap it off. -the ear buds were horrible!

Made simple for people like me!

I am electronically illiterate...this player is awesome for me! Very simple to figure out and the quality of sound is great! I would not suggest this product for those who want a lot of songs, but it holds just enough for me! I would also suggest this for anyone who is looking for a gift for someone who is in their teens! Thanks bunches Amazon!

Doesn't work with all computers

You better be computer savy if you buy this MP3 player or you may not get it to work on your computer. It is not a plug and play device, at least not on my laptop (Acer, Windows XP SP2) The computer would not recognize the device, no drivers were available on the Samsung website and an email to customer service had me try things I had already tried on my own with no success. A friend and I spent several hours using Google and finally found a fix. From what I read on the internet I'm not alone, there are a lot of customers who purchased the same model who were having some of the same problems. Now that it works with my computer and I'm able to transfer music it's a nice, compact little unit. The sound seems to be just fine and it's easy to use. Just be prepared to do some research if it doesn't work on your computer.

Samsung YP-U3JQP

The price is great and it doesn't need any cable to be hooked up to a computer. The sound is really good and has a built-in radio. If I had to find some shortcoming I say 1) I don't like the touch sensitive buttons. You don't have the feeling that you are pressing them and sometime you touch the wrong one by mistake 2) the pink color is not like it appear in the picture, it is more pinky.

samsung mp3 player

enjoying it! only drawback is that its standard-size earpieces are a bit too big for my small ears. Excellent sound quality - haven't used all of its features yet.

Keyword : samsung+mp3

Creative Labs NOMAD MuVo 64 MB MP3 Player

2008-07-25T23:20:00.001-07:00

Creative Labs NOMAD MuVo 64 MB MP3 Player

Customer Reviews

Bought one of these for each of my teens

My children are 15 and 12 who received this as a gift. I was not interested in buying a high end device for either of them because they tend to leave their things lying around to get stepped on or stolen by the dog. It was perfect for them because they not only download music but also use the flash drive capability to store their homemade videos, illustrator images and even school assignments which they upload at the school computer labs. It is very durable and while it may not have state of the art audio output it is fine for listening to tunes on the school bus, in the car or while walking the dog. Awesome unit for the price.

This is very good, durable product.

I bought this 64MB Muvo from WalMart, like 4 years ago, when I was in college. It's still working properly. It can take high temparature. I keep this machine in my car and I live in Florida. It's very hot in sunny day in Florida. But this machine is working fine. I dropped this machine many time on the concrete floor, and it's working fine as like nothing happended. Only problem is its memory size. It's 64MB. Actuall memory we can use is like 54 MB. It provide drag and drop transfer, which is very convinient. I know some MP3 player requires convert format of files when we transfer into machine. I can store like 10 songs in this machine. But I can re-loaded song when I got tired of songs. Someday, I will get new larger memory MP3 player. But I am okay with this product right now. I think current MP3 player manufactures do not know what customers want. They just put many un-neccesary features like Text view, photo view, and Video view, Voice recording and etc, which most of cunsumers will never use. What I want from MP3 player is 1. Durability like this machine and 2. Easy Inteface(Easy Usability) like Ipod. 3. Quality sounds like Samsung mp3 players.

If you want simple - buy this one.

I purchased this for my little neffew. This is his first MP3 player. This player is very simple, and non-frustrating for a first-timer. It does what it does quite well, and it is about the size of a pack of gum. However, if you can still find this one (it has been discontinued by the manufacturer), and you want simple, buy it!

Was great, but is now very much out of date

This player is too old and not worth the money. Spend a few more bucks and get a player with Gb's of storage space and way better audio output.

Worked OK for first year or so

When this device worked, it was great. Small, could go running with it, and I remember excellent audio clarity. But every once in a while it wouldn't work. And I could never figure out why. 80% of the time worked great. 20% of time it really pissed me off. A year later it seems to have completely stopped working. Would probably have given a 5 if the player was more solid and tech difficulties/bugs had been worked out.

Keyword : creativelabs

iRiver T10 512 MB MP3 Player with FM Tuner

2008-07-25T13:15:00.001-07:00

iRiver T10 512 MB MP3 Player with FM Tuner

Customer Reviews

iRiver T10

My first mp3 player and I love it. FM reception is very good. 18 hours of battery life may be a little optimistic but still not bad. Installation disc would not run on Windows Media Player v11. Had to roll it back to v9 before it would play. Very satisfied with this purchase.

Great work out MP-3

I bought this a year or so ago. It has been everywhere with me. Durable, easy to load songs, I work out 4-5 times a week and it has been awsome. Loved it so much I picked up one for my wife when she needed a new one. Highly recomended.

Great little MP3 player

I have had this IRiver T10 player now for over 1 year. NO PROBLEMS WHAT SO EVER. I use it daily for music and audiobooks while I work. It gets a jostling daily and it has held up nicely. As a matter of fact I purchased another one lately for my wife to use. I highly recommed this player.

GREAT PLAYER FOR OTR AND AUDIO BOOKS

I have searched far and wide for MP3 players which feature the "Resume" feature, sometimes referred to as "Bookmark." For those who are unfamiliar with the term, assume you are listening to an audio book or an old time 1 hour radio program. At any given point in listening to the program, you might decide to stop listening and turn the unit off. HERE'S WHERE THE I-RIVER SHINES. After the unit is turned off, most players revert back to the BEGINNING of the program. The I-River(And the Creative Zen Muvo units) pick up at the very word you heard when you shut the unit off! This is a very necessary feature for those of us who listen to old time radio (OTR) or those who are up to page 211 in a 300 page book!

iRiver T10: Great for the low price!

This mp3 player is great, especially for the functions you get at such a low price. I bought it 6 months ago and it still works great. Napster is another story though.

Keyword : iriver

Zune 8 GB Digital Media Player Pink (2nd Generation)

2008-07-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

Zune 8 GB Digital Media Player Pink (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

This B-Day Present was a big hit

Zune 8GB Digital Media Player

I love this Zune!!! Bought this for a technically challenged person and loved the ease of use. I know it won't be shoved in a drawer somewhere and not used.

Excellent

Great for road trips and passing the time The Zune does everything very well and I have no problem managing all the songs via the Zune Application. I recommend this over and Ipoo in terms of reliability and less likely to be stolen.

Good but lacking

I was fortunate enough to win the 8gb Zune from Pepsi Stuff. I have owned it for about three months and enjoy the concept of an MP3 player. However, this one has some issues that would not have me buy another Zune (or replace it with this brand when/if mine fails). The Zune software does not offer track leveling (setting a consistant volume for your music) unless you go through their marketplace (a way to purchase music). Therefore a third party software like media monkey or mp3gain must be used. The Zune software assignment of album art is bad. It assumes that the customer has one folder for each album in their collection. If you don't (like one folder of singles) the program adds an album art file to the folder and assigns it to every song that doesn't have the album art embedded in the mp3 tag. If you digitized your cassettes and LPs (as I have) this creates album art being assigned incorrectly. Using a third party program like media monkey allowed me to correct this issue easily. However, why do I continually have to use third party software? Songs must be added to your Zune through the Zune software. However, if you move your music files and fail to correct the location in you zune software BEFORE connecting your portable device, the program removes the songs from your Zune requiring you to reload the music. I also discovered that the Zune software fails to import any MP3 files using a variable bit rate (vs constant bit rate). Therefore, in order to load any songs having a VBR you have to re-encode them to a constant bit rate. The case I purchased for the Zune required modification to allow the connectors from different brand headphones to properly seat. In my case, in order to use my Bose headsets, I had to cut a larger opening in the case to make a good connection to the Zune when it was in the case. A bad design. One positive note in winning this device, I discovered Amazon.com MP3 downloads. That is a great service (but the search engine could be improved). Again, overall I enjoy having an MP3 player. However, I would not purchase this one for a gift or to replace mine when it breaks. Microsoft has enough problems with it's software and should probably stay out of the hardware market.

Menu more navigational then IPOD

I would definitly say yes, of course most of have owned multiple ipods in the past and i'm in that group as well. I just bought my gf an 8gb ipod nano and i was tempted to buy one as well, but i wanted to give the zune a try. I'm glad i did, the best thing about this is the navigational menu on the zune, i thouht the ipod was easy..this is just simpler and cleaner and easier to use interface. There is clicking but not as much and hardly any scrolling involved navigation. The zune is lightweight, wireless which is pretty amazing and the screen looks so much better on this then the newest nano. Microsoft did an excellent job with this MP3 player. Plus i love having the FM tuner, seems like a little deal but it sure is nice to have when you just want to listen to something different, sound is excellent on the device and the packaging it came in was quite a surprise. Very applesque like, and the best thing is that it's cheaper then the 8 gig nano. Give this MP3 player a try and i'm sure you won't be dissapointed. It's and excellent alternative to the ipod.

Keyword : zune

Cowon I7-04SL iAUDIO 7 Portable MP3 Player 4GB (Silver)

2008-07-25T02:15:00.001-07:00

Cowon I7-04SL iAUDIO 7 Portable MP3 Player 4GB (Silver)

Customer Reviews

Great little player, iffy interface.

My U2's battery died after almost two years (two-three hours per day usage). Since you can't replace the battery--I knew that going in--I bought a replacement. I don't know if I'll ever get used to the touch sensitive controls. My advice is, if you aren't used to them, start out gingerly or the device will run away from you. I didn't understand that "press" means put your finger in the general neighborhood of the "button" for a nanosecond. I ended up stuck in Korean, unable to find my way out because, duh, the menus were in Korean. And the instructions for reverting to factory settings given in the manual don't work. But now that I'm back in English, I'm sure I will love this device as much as I did my U2.

Awesome

This was the first MP3 player I ever purchased. Being a novice I relied upon a few audiophile websites' reviews leading to this selection. It proved to be both an exasperating and exhilerating unit. First the negatives. The printed manual included was the sparsest I ever encountered for a product. It did come with a CD manual which was a bit more detailed. However, possibly because I am new at this, it was confusing to set up resulting in a few head scratching moments. Although Cowon's website did provide databases and FAQs certain files were not available until you registered with their site and wait for the E-Mail providing a password. Make sure you register on Cowon's American website or you'll wait forever for a password! Somehow I muddled through the set up. Now for the positives. It was everything the reviews said it was. For it's size the Cowon I7 can hold a staggering amount of picture, music, etc. files in every format I had or can think of. Sound quality was impressive with enough tweeking available to satisfy everyone. Just use better headphones than the disappointing earbuds provided. Controls were maddenly sensitive with even the slightest of touches sending you careening through various menus and files. However I did manage to quickly adjust. All in all I can recommend the Cowon I7. Experienced people will love it immediately and novices such as myself with a little patience will also.

Awesome!

This product is perhaps the best MP3 player ever! The sound quality is amazing, and the capabilities rock. It has an FM radio to which you can record songs as they are playing if you wish to do so. You can record yourself as well. In addition, I find that the scroll bar is phenomenal. Getting to the menu screen is simple, raising the volume is simple and turning it on and off is a snap. There are three ways to charge the battery back up as well. It hooks to your computer through a USB port, in which you can download new songs, but it is still charging. There's a wall outlet, and you can get a car charger. All in all, I'd give this player a 9 out of 10. The player smudges easily, which is perhaps the only annoying thing and that is easily cleaned anyway.

Great player

This is a great product. It has very nice features, easy to use, easy to transfer files. I love that it plays flac files! The only thing I don't like about this player is that it is far too easy to accidentally record. The button should be moved or more difficult to activate. I don't get 60 hours of use from it, but I can use it for about 3 or 4 days without recharging the battery. I also wish the battery was user replaceable.

great sound poor interface

The quality of the sound is very good, the user interface is not as intuitive and easy to use as it should be. It doesn't have instructions about how to operate the controls and is not user friendly, after the first really bad impression you noticed the really good quality of the reproducction and became more familiar with the controls.

Keyword : cowon

Coby MP705-4GBLK MP3 Player with 2-Inch TFT Color LCD, 4GB Flash Memory, FM and Touchpad Control (Black)

2008-07-24T08:30:00.001-07:00

Coby MP705-4GBLK MP3 Player with 2-Inch TFT Color LCD, 4GB Flash Memory, FM and Touchpad Control (Black)

Customer Reviews

Cute, Great Price, Great Product

I just received mine today and it was just what I expected. As the reviewer before me said, it's got lots of space and great battery life. The buttons look like they light up blue, but mine's are actually a pale green, it's little and has a really nice, sleek look to it. The box came with the USB cable, head phones, a little CD for converting Videos, manual, a card for 50 free songs, and a soft little cloth to keep it shiny since it does smudge easily. The keys are sensitive but easy enough to work. I am very glad I took the chance to buy it, I wanted something that wasn't an iPod and this was great, just as good with half the price and twice the space, with nothing like iTunes to have to download. And no I dont work for the company, I just really liked the player ^-^

One of the best products I've purchased on Amazon!

This is a fantastic product! It's about the size of an Apple Nano (the older one); holds a tremendous amount of media; is very durable; and costs about 1/3 of the cost of a Nano. The best part is not having to mess with the I purchased this to replace my last Coby mp3 player. Coby is a gem in the rough. Many people don't know about this company. They put out a quality product at a much more reasonable price. There are only two small down-sides. You can't delete the file from the unit. You have to plug it into a computer. Also, the controls take a little getting used to. Even though it has a circle, it doesn't have the feature of scrolling by tracing the circle with your thumb as Apple does. Transferring files is very easy. You can either use software like Windows Media Player, or open the files yourself to give complete control. You can't as easily do this with Apple. The battery lasts a long time as well. The best part is you don't have to mess with proprietary software with Apple that restricts your capabilities to add music for a cheaper price than iTunes.

Keyword : coby

Apple iPod touch 8 GB without Software Updates

2008-07-24T01:57:00.001-07:00

Apple iPod touch 8 GB without Software Updates

Customer Reviews

Mr.

I have to recharge the battery evey 4hrs after less than 40 min. talking time, and the WiFi is real slow. I CALL THIS A DESIGN WITH NO COMMON SENSE. Do not buy it yet! Wait until Apple fix the battery major problem first hand.

very cool but be prepared to buy other neccesities for it!

This is my first Apple product. I used to own a Creative Zen (very cool device) but I cracked the screen and needed a new mp3/video player. I was planning on spending $150 for another 8 gig Zen but I had some extra cash and decided to try this. This device is very cool. The touch screen is nice (but gets dirty easily) I had to buy some clear covers (.50 each) and you definitely need a case. I recommend the DLO HipCase Leather Folio for iPod touch. Great case. The biggest problem I find with this device is iTunes. iTunes sucks. With my Zen I could dump anything on to my device. Dealing with iTunes is a headache. Unfortunately you pretty much have to use itunes unless you want to jump through a 1000 hoops. But the product is great. I recommend it. Highly.

daughter loves it

got this 4 my daughter and she loves it one of the cool things is that you can get internet on it i didnt know that when i got it 4 her. she loves it

I love this thing

it works like every other new ipod coming out but with wifi. its kinda like an iphone without the phone and the edge internet. has a few glitches and freezes sometimes though.

Cool Idea but a little tough to use at times

This is a really cool toy and is very useful at times especially the built in web browser and wireless antenna. Only drawbacks ive found so far is that it is nearly impossible to use while driving, running, walking, chewing gum, breathing... etc... the touch screen is clever but is frustrating at best. I also wish i had held out and got a 16 GB or even the 32 they offer now since it is almost full already.

Keyword : ipod+touch

Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Red)

2008-07-23T21:12:00.001-07:00

Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Red)

Customer Reviews

Zune 30gb Doesn't Cut It

I gave my wife the Zune 30gb mp3 player as a birthday gift. It was a bad choice right out of the box. The skimpy setup pamphlet actually says, "It's as easy as 1, 2, 3" to get started. Just insert the set up CD, follow the prompts. Well, the prompts never came and the unit wasn't set up. We looked for more detailed instructions in Help, looked online, looked in the box to see if anything was missing and found nothing. There is no instruction manual in print or online that we could find. Very frustrating. Microsoft has to do better. I returned the Zune unused and will replace it with a Sony 8gb unit.

positive review

My friend lent me his Zune 30gig and its a pretty good player. It's actually much better than the iPod Classic if you want to watch movies, simply by virtue of the screen. It's big, bright, and clear. The interface is decent, but I keep acting like its an iPod (which is not surprising, I had a 20gig for 3+ years but it recently broke). The PC software is kind of spotty, it's not very clear and the tri-paned interface does not feel as intuitive or clear as iTunes (which, to be fair, I have been using for more like 4 or 5 years). If you have a lot of music and/or movies, I would definitely recommend the Zune 80gig over the iPod Classic. The iPod's scroll wheel in big libraries is less workable than the Zune's scrolling (no, really...) and the larger Zune screen is much better for video content. The Zune's feature set obviously does not come close to the iPod Touch, though, so for smaller libraries that would probably be my recommendation. I'm not really sure where Microsoft is planning to go with the Zune. They want to carve out something in a market dominated by iPod but shown no indication of attacking or matching it in its newest incarnation. The Zune is a great product compared to the old iPods but lacking versus the new one.

Want an MP3? Go for it

My first MP3 and I'm very satisfied. Easy to use, long battery life (shut off the wireless and keep the backlight to a minimum) and good quality. Portable, yet not small enough to "forget" in a pocket and launder. Good amount of storage - I have several operas and Broadway shows (yeah, I'm a dork) and I still have plenty of room for my other "one-offs" tunes as well as several movies for when I travel. 8 GB wouldn't have been enough for me and 80 was overkill - this is perfect. I read the reviews both good and bad; have to say I've had zero problems with this. Sooooo easy. Just wish it came in orange. I got the white because it was cheaper, it looks nicer than the pictures.

Its nice but it has software issues

im not talking about the software being glitchy it just isnt very good, my software does not recognize the fact that i do want that music on my zune just not on my computer, because of this it is incredibly frustrating because it deletes the music off of your zune, so you have to go dig through your cd's to find the cd and rip it again just so you can put it on your zune, it has good music and video quality, and other than the pain it can be to get the software updated, it works well and i like it

I love my zune

I love my zune!! it's amazing. the screen is soo big and large and very clear. my friends said that I should of got an ipod but when I showed them the zune they were surprised. I highly recommend this product you will not go wrong. actually I'm thinking of getting the 80gb.

Keyword : zune

SanDisk Sansa Clip 2 GB MP3 Player (Red)

2008-07-23T11:09:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Clip 2 GB MP3 Player (Red)

Customer Reviews

Gift for my baby

I ordered this for my daughter's 13th birthday to update her old 1GB. She always had to "switch out" her songs. Now all of her music fits and it's easy to add music to it. She listens to the radio occasionally and it sounds fine. The only thing is, it doesn't seem that the battery lasts that long but again, you're talking about the constant use of a teenager. but she loves the color and love the whole thing so I'll say it's a wonderful product. Hasn't frozen, lost music, etc. Headphones that come with it sound pretty good and havent' had to replace them yet (that's a first for us!) So I'll say the product is great!

Wonderful little mp3

One of my co-workers bought this player and brought it to work. I was amazed @ how small it was. When I listened to it the sound was amazing. I have an IPOD, 30 GB, but decided to buy this one because of the size and the power it packs. It was well worth my money. It's plug and play and very easy to upload music.

Bad battery

Great player, upgrade the firmware

This is a great little player. Good sound (don't use the included headphones though), FM radio, and with a firmware upgrade, it is even better! Works well with Ubuntu Linux, and again, even better with the firmware upgrade! I highly suggest you upgrade the firmware. You either need to do this in Windows or do a search for the download to do it in Linux. Just download the zip file, extract, and put the .bin file in the player root directory. With the upgrade Linux will recognize the player as a music player instead of just a flash, and will open up on a music player. Additionally it will add added audiobook and podcast support and folders. It will also allow the player to recognize .ogg files, which is a great addition for even better quality music files! Radio is a great feature but reception is a little weak. That is common among MP3 players, as you really don't have room for an antenna. Great buy for the money. Don't waste money on that product from the fruit company. You will get better options and quality from this player, which is less expensive! Oh, and transfer speeds (drag and drop files in Linux) are VERY fast. Nice that the transfer speeds are good, so you don't have to waste time when swapping out your files.

Sansa Clip 2GB

Great small player for the gym or exercising outdoors. Easy to clip on shirt or shorts rather than wearing a bulky armband. Upgrade the headphones and you are ready to go.

Keyword : sandisk

Apple iPod classic 80 GB Silver (6th Generation)

2008-07-23T10:10:00.001-07:00

Apple iPod classic 80 GB Silver (6th Generation)

Customer Reviews

cool item but beware!

this ipod is slick, but buyers should beware that this 6th gen locks out video to 3rd party assessories & will only work with "apple approved" players of which there are few right now. This means that most of the video docking players (like the sonic impact v55) out there won't work with this until you buy a $50 cable from apple. Pretty underhanded of apple to do this quietly don't you think...

This Apple iPod is an Instant Classic

Disclaimer - I base this review off of currently owing the Classic 80 gig, the mini 1 gig, the original iPod Nano 1 gig, Shuffle 1 gig and the original iPod 5 gig. And in the past I have owed the iPod 5th generation 30 gig, the iPod Photo 30 gig and an iPod Mini 4 gig that was lime green and got stolen. I have owned the iPod classic 80 gig for about four months now and when I read other reviewer's thoughts about this model I was a little worried that it would not live up to expectations. But I made the purchase anyway and decided to make the best of it. The main reason that made the decision to purchase the Classic instead over the iPod Touch is that you get so much more memory for the money with the Classic. And I didn't feel that I much use for the applications that Apple had for the Touch, or the Iphone for that matter. And even with the addition of the Application section of the ITMS the Classic is still a better deal than any of the Touch models. What makes the Classic worth buying? The screen is a lot clearer and cleaner to view than the previous iPod 5.5/5.0 generations of which I owned also. The metal front of the Classic is easier to keep clean and harder to damage than previous iPod generations have been. The touchpad on the Classic works really well, and is always sensitive to use. In fact, the game Phase that you can buy for the iPod Classic totally relies on the sensitivity of the Classic touchpad and it works great. Never stalls, reboots, slows down or crashes. If you read the first reviewer of the Classic he totally trashes this model iPod, although I have found out that this unit is very reliable and has plenty of space to fit all of your pics, podcasts, movies, games and of course music. The Coverflow use of the Classic software works very well even through many a reviewer it seem to believe that it doesn't load fast enough and is a little bulky for the processor to handle. True, depending on the number of albums that you have on the iPod Classic it takes a second for all of the graphics to load. Currently, I am using 10 gig of the 80 gig capacity and it doesn't bother me if the software needs a second or two to load all of the album pictures that Coverflow uses. Coverflow is really great and makes selecting your music very easy to use. Also, I have read that other reviewers believe that the sound quality of the Classic was downgraded from the previous models but the must have some super sonic hearing because I can't tell the difference. The battery is also another amazing aspect of this unit because it has never ran out on me even during continuous use of a 7 hour cross country flight last week where I watched a 2 hour movie, played Phase for at least an hour, listened to an hour of an audiobook, watched three 20 minute Anderson Cooper Podcasts among others, looked at pictures and listened to music. Therefore, I used every single aspect of the iPod Classic for hours, numerous times and it has never given me a problem. If you like buying products that are worth the money are going to add happiness and convenience to your life then the iPod classic is for you.

Just not good enough

I wanted to use it as an external drive for my 91gb of music between my mac laptop and my pc. Just to find out you can not do this. You van only have your ipod formated to one-pc or mac-not both. Sound quality is a little worse than my older 30gb video ipod. So I kept my older ipod.

Exceeds Expectation

The 6th Generation Ipod Classic exceeded my expectations. Software problems mentioned in some other reviews are non-existent. I did purchase Bose ear pieces due to the fact that the ear pieces which come with the Apple are hard to keep in the ear. I use the unit in the home, car and gym. I did purchase an "incase" leather case which protects the unit and make it easy to clip on belt or waistband, or just put in your pocket.

Grandson loves it

My grandson loves this. Now I wish I could get the earphones out so he can listen to me. :-}

Keyword : mp3players

iriver 1CLIx8B Clix 8 GB Multimedia Player

2008-07-23T05:07:00.001-07:00

iriver 1CLIx8B Clix 8 GB Multimedia Player

Customer Reviews

Sweet player!

I love my Iriver Clix2! Here's what I love most about it: - plays ogg vorbis (fully compatible with tags and all); thus you can fit more high-quality music onto the player; with a mix of ogg and mp3 files, I've got it nearly full with about 130 hours of music - no touch screen, so I can easily work it in my pocket, or while I'm driving (i.e. without looking at it) - it looks really cool, and is very customizable (fonts, wallpapers) - excellent sound - 8 GB *flash* drive, so you don't have to worry about shaking or vibrating it This is my third mp3 player from Iriver. The first was the Rio Volt, which was an mp3 CD player actually made by Iriver and sold under the Rio name. The second was a much improved mp3 CD player (the IMP-300 I think it was). This player is another excellent unit. And the price for an 8GB unit was comparable to others. It also rated highly at CNET. Two problems I've encountered, and their solutions: It caused Winamp to close every time I connected it to my player, so I downloaded and installed the free player called MediaMonkey. The Clix2 syncs beautifully with MediaMonkey. It's great. Second, I found the battery life to be a little short, so I changed the setting such that it fully shuts down when you turn it off, instead of going into standby. The only drawback is that it doesn't remember what song you were in the midst of when you turn it on next, but that's tolerable, and now the battery seems to last much longer. An interesting idea: I stuck velcro to the back of the Clix2, and then accopanying pieces of velcro on my desk and in my car so that I can stick it various places. Works great! I highly recommend this player.

Try before you buy

The reviews on the Clix2 were great, so I bought one "sight-unseen". Big mistake. After the first Amazon recommended seller failed to have any in stock (despite being listed as such) I managed to get one through JetAudio, another Amazon recommended seller. Their shipping was slow and expensive (USPS turned out to be much cheaper and faster, see below), which is surprising for a business based on shipping things online. I finally received my player about 2 weeks after placing my initial order. They had sent me the Rhapsody model, which is not the same as the vanilla CLix2 I ordered, but the difference is minimal as far as I can tell. Nevertheless, I was not impressed by the Clix2. The build quality seemed flimsy. The buttons were small and cheap looking. The top plate (which serves as the click device) could rotate slightly on its housing, which added to the subpar feel of the device. Despite much talk of the interface, it is nothing spectacular: you click into menus and select songs just like any other device. So I returned the Clix2 within 2 hours, shipped it back via USPS which cost less than the original shipping options from JetAudio and took only 2 days to get back to them. In JetAudio's defense, they responded promptly to my email and quickly authorized the return. Once received, it was not long before I received my refund. My lesson learned was not to buy a player online that I had not physically played around with. Online reviews and videos are fine but don't give you a feel for how you will like the device. Paying for shipping twice to try out then return the Clix2, plus waiting 2 weeks to receive it, will have me buying my next player (probably the Creative Zen) from MicroCenter which has a 30 day return policy.

Great buy

I got this to replace my Ipod nano that has gone flaky. I have used it continually for about 4 weeks, and have learned how to work through the menus. Love this player. Pros: Great Battery Life. Beautiful styling. Excellent Music quality. Plays Flash. Easy to use software. The button (click) interface is easier to use than ipod while moving. Cons: Manual is obscure at best. Questionable support. Hard to read in daytime sun. Menu traversal a bit difficult and not obvious. Notes: Lots of good forums with great info. Use them. Get a good set of ear phones. Big difference. Spend some time learning the product and set your quick button. That way you will know your menu paths while on the go. I got mine refurbished, and a lot of original content was missing. The afore mentioned forums pointed me to an area to pick it up and more.

Better than an iPod

I have been looking around to buy my first mp3 player and after some research and talking with friends, I decided to go with the iPod. There were 2 reasons - cost and accessories. The cost was acceptable and the accessories seemed limitless. I bought the iPod and thought it worked very well. During my research, I came upon the iRiver. I thought it sounded great but because it was more expensive and I couldn't walk into a store to buy, I didn't get it. After thinking about it, I decided to buy the iRiver from Amazon. I figured I could always return it if I didn't like it. I was so glad I tried it! I couldn't wait to return the iPod! For those that have the iPod or for those looking to change, here is what I discovered when comparing the two: A. Comfort: The iPod Nano is tiny. Too tiny. I don't have large hands but I couldn't use the wheel without 2 hands. I may not have the dexterity but I just couldn't get my thumb to contort. The iRiver click screen can easily be done with one hand and I'm not accidentally going to the wrong screen. B. Available Songs: I signed up for iTunes with the iPod but just couldn't get myself to pay for each song. So we used Limewire which allowed for distorted songs and whatnot. We use Rhapsody with the iRiver and it's just great. For one monthly fee, we get all the downloads we want to the iRiver and they're CD quality. We haven't purchased any songs to burn but that's fine with me. One more thing about Rhapsody - their channels are great! I can download 5 hours of a particular type of music and even save a song if I like it. Instead of searching through thousands of songs (or trying to remember an artist from long ago) I listen to the 80s hit channel and suddenly, I'll hear a song I used to love. I'll save that song and add it to my own playlist. As they said in the 80s, "it's like, wicked easy!" C. Cost: The iRiver cost about $50 more than the iPod I bought and it's worth it. I bought the wall charger and that has helped heaps! I plug my iRiver into the wall and my stereo and it's great! I didn't buy any accessories with the iPod so I could only charge via my computer and the charge only lasted for a few hours. D. Overall: I'm a newbie to this technology but so far, the iRiver is steps ahead from the iPod. CNET has it right when they said that if you're looking for something other than the iPod, go with the iRiver. From ease of use to trouble free downloading, the iRiver wins my vote. I have since returned the iPod and have never regretted it. Hope this helps anyone looking for a new mp3 player or their first one. I haven't even taken it outside yet!

Iriver clix is very nice

I've owned it for several months now and really like it. I listen to music and lots of audio books. I'm discriminating about the sound quality and it's noticeably better than iPod. I particularly like to use my Bose Quiet Comfort's with this. Synchronization via Windows Media player is fine. I really love the Clix interface. Pressing the sides is something I can easily do without looking, as when listening to music or a book in the night. I don't watch video on it at all. Don't want to. The earbuds sound decent for a free set, and have a tendency to come unscrewed. I've somewhat abused them by dragging them around dangling outside the hip case I bought for the unit. Battery life is pretty good, not great, no complaints. I like the cradle and rapid wall charger. All in all, a very easy to use, great sounding, convenient unit that stores all my music, audiobooks, and doubles as a flash drive when needed.

Keyword : iriver

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-23T04:04:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

The Nano has competition.

This is everything I ever wanted from an MP3 player plus more. By plus I mean 3 extra (BIG) features that the FUZE has and the Nano doesn't. That would be 1: microSD slot expansion ( I have an 8gb SDHC on mine, a total of 12gb ) 2: an FM Tuner and 3: The ability to record FM radio, That means recording a favorite song from the radio and going back and listening whenever you want YES!!!! . Another thing I like about the FUZE is that it's fully compatible with my Playstation 3 (the Nano isn't) . I pop in a CD and then import it into my Playstation 3 in MP3 format then copy to my FUZE . The control wheel is easy to use as it actually turns and clicks so you won't over travel like on the Nano's touch (very) sensitive wheel. One feature that surprised me was the Podcast feature. I thought that was just for iPOD's. If there's one thing I don't like it would have to be the ON/OFF switch NOT button. It's a little hard to turn on and off with no nails. Overall, Im VERY satisfied with this neat looking, high quality, easy to use MP3 player and look forward on buying accessories with the $100+ that I saved on not buying a Nano.

Great MP3

This is a great player! I picked it up at Circuit city for fiteen dollars less then they wanted to sell it to me, so already I had a good feeling about it. I couldn't help but tear open the packing in the car at a red light, just to look at it. It has a thin, sleek design, with an easy to use thumb-wheel. I brought it home and right away signed into Rhapsody, the music service I use. It is quick to download and has plenty of space for all the music I use, plus photos and videos. Plusses: Lots of space. Can play music, videos, and eBooks, with room for photos. Has lots of setting so you can personalize it. Cool design. Small. Downsides: No big downsides. Overall, a great player. I would reccomend it to anybody, children or adults. Who needs an iPod when you have this?

Awesome Player

I had a Sansa e250 that broke after much use so I bought a Fuze because of Sandisk's usability. I like the fact that you can toggle the Play/Pause right from the main menu. The jog dial is steady and the buttons are very responsive. It uses my 2gb microSD card perfectly and I can easily drag and drop my music onto it. I recommend this player to anyone who wants quality sound at a good price while not being worried about fitting their whole music library on the device.

Great for Podcasts

I purchased this item to replace a previous MP3 player that died. I primarily use it for listening to podcasts. The one feature that I love in this player is the ability to resume a podcast from where you last paused. What they dont tell you, is you can do this with a number of podcasts. Sometimes I have a few podcasts that are only partially completed and want to listen to something else. Its great, I just leave that one and come back later and pick up right where I left off.

Terrific Affordable Media Player

This little device is a high quality and very easy to use 'MP3' player. Of course it does more than just play music. From a usability perspective, I think it rivals the iPod interface and provides more feedback. While I really love the device, there are some things that I wish were a little better. Pros ---- - Very nice screen and just big enough that if you were stuck on a plane, watching a movie still is an enjoyable experience. - Simple and very intuitive interface. I love the fact that the iPod-like wheel actually rotates. - Expansion via MicroSD cards is a great feature. I was able to swap the MicroSD card between my BlackBerry and the Fuze and be able to share images, and music. - The FM Radio and ability to record from it is one of the coolest features. There's something about the randomness about radio that I still really like. And the ability to record a song that I don't already have can save you some money. - I haven't used the external mic yet, but I think that's a neat feature to have when you have a thought and want to record it. I can think of several times where I've had a thought and wasn't able to write it down. Cons ---- - The most frustrating experience I've had with the Fuze is the ability to get Video transferred. I've tried multiple formats and have been very unsuccessful in finding the right format to use. This is the main reason I've not given it a full 5 star review. Of course it's ridiculous to think that this would be a 'Movie' player. However, I have some great concerts that I would love being able to watch as well as listen to. I'm not interested in watching a movie. - The on/off switch is great if you want to make sure that you don't accidentially turn on/off. However, I think it's overly difficult. Especially if you have large fingers. I would have preferred to press the Play button for a couple of seconds. - The device 'hiccups' when scrolling through music that has album art. For some reason, when you get to the list of albums, the select button doesn't work until the album art appears. Often requiring you to double-click. Not a big deal, unless you're quickly trying to find a song to add to the play list. - Finally, the device is either too new or not popular enough to warrant accessories. I really want to buy a protective cover, but they don't exist. I've read that some people are using Nano covers, but they don't fit well enough. This is really bad if you want to use the Fuze while exercising or cutting the lawn. Overall, I would highly recommend the Fuze to anyone looking for a low-cost small media device. The cons shouldn't sway you away from buying it, but they are good to know. I'll update my review when I figure out the right combination of video formats for the device.

Keyword : creative+mp3

Samsung YP-U3JQB 2Gb Touch Control MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-22T04:26:00.001-07:00

Samsung YP-U3JQB 2Gb Touch Control MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

YP-U3JQB very cool

Very nice system. The touch based controls are nice, but do make it difficult at the gym when I want to change the volume. I think the hold button might be designed a bit better. Great sound and contols beyond those very minor complaints.

Good , Simple,functionable..

This is a good MP3 player , It is simple to use . It plugs right into my Laptop and I can click and sync music right away in Windows Media Player. The downside is the player when I am running or working out the sound cuts out because the connection to the headphones is a piece of crap.If you are buying an MP3 player for running or anything that is gonna be jostle the cord around very much don't buy this player.

Excellent Choice

I have had this mp3 player for a few weeks now and really love it. Like another reviewer I use Ubuntu Linux; but for me this player works perfectly with the Amarok software. As others have noted this device is not a flash drive, so if that is what you want get something else. Pluses: Good sound. Very cheap! FM radio works great (I live in a city). Plays ogg vorbis -- most of my music is in this format. Built-in USB connector is great -- no batteries/charger no USB cable. Did I mention CHEAP. Minuses: I wish it were 4Gb. I didn't like the earbuds it came with, but I bought a pair I like. Mixed: It is quite small and light -- I like this; it fits in a shirt pocket; other reviewers found this problematic. It uses MTP rather than a VFAT file system (like flash devices). This is why it can't be used as a flash drive with windows. It needs some software to work like Amarok or RhythmBox under linux.

Returned, very unhappy with it.

This is what I think of this product. Firstly, I thought that Samsung would be able to read Japanese since its HQ is base in S. Korea. I'm not confusing and culture here, it just that a lot of Japanese product are able to read Korean so I thought it would be vise versa. Anyway, some thing other than the language support. -The USB is weak and will likely break if something hit it. -The button on it looks like a good ideas, but it really is not. There don't even glow too. No indication of which button do what at all, and will likely cause problem when you try to reach in your pocket to change song. -The OS suck(I don't know how to describe it, I just hate it) -Annoying light that keep beeping(For WHAT?) -The belt clip and made from cheap plastic. -WOn't even transfer files if with my laptop that run Vista. The price is also quite high when you can get the creative 4gb version for a little more.

nice unit

I wanted a reasonably priced MP3 player and I got it with the Samsung YP-U3JQB. The only knock on it so far is that the touch controls are very sensitive so you must have good finger dexterity and patience in operating the MP3 player.

Keyword : samsung+mp3

Zune 8 GB Digital Media Player Red (2nd Generation)

2008-07-22T01:06:00.001-07:00

Zune 8 GB Digital Media Player Red (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Menu more navigational then IPOD

why?

who in the world would buy the zune when you could buy an ipod??? Makes no sense

Very Happy - and a Built-In FM Tuner!

I'm very happy with my 8GB Zune. The fact that it has a built-in FM tuner gives it a big edge over the Nano, which requires an extra add-on piece of hardware for FM. The FM tuner is excellent and gives the station genre, song name, and artist name. My daughter has a 4GB Nano and she's jealous because I got my 8GB Zune for less money and it does more.

no zune for me

the zune looked to be just what i wanted. but it was not, to use the zune you must have an internet connection. to use the zune you need to load software from the internet on to your computer, you can not put it on a flash dive then load it and i have no wireless lapton. so i returned my zune.

Keyword : zune

Creative Zen 20 GB Portable Media Center

2008-07-21T07:44:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen 20 GB Portable Media Center

Customer Reviews

price OD high

this is more than 400 bucks. i rather buy the psp which i already brought for 200. it has better waity media then psp i heard but i dint know.

Absolutely do not buy this device

I have owned Creative products before, and have generally been happy with them: I have a MuVo I have been using for about five years, and have Soundblaster Audigy cards in my machines at home. The Portable Media Center is a bad effort by Creative, and for several reasons: 1) It has a nice screen, and if you play WMA files with album art, the art displays. However, if you have MP3s with album art, forget it. I tried to get Creative's help with this, and got nowhere. 2) Some MP3 files will not play at all. You get the message "The item is missing or damaged. See Portable Media Center Help on your computer." 3) Some MP3s play, but with weird glitches in the first ten seconds or so. It sounds like pieces of the file are skipped over at high speed. This is repeatable (when a file has this problem, it always has the same glitches in the same places.) Creative was no help with this. 4) Periodically the machine forgets it has an internal speaker (pull the headphones out of the jack and you hear nothing.) If you reset the device then POOF, the speaker works again. 5) Though the PMC is VERY expensive ($500 for a 20Gb device that can only play Windows Media Video files?), Creative has never released an update for the buggy software. I have been checking the Creative web site for a year and a half (since I got the player as a birthday present from my wife) and they have not put anything on there since 2004. They released half a dozen updates for the Muvo firmware for my other player, but nothing for the PMC. Apple updates their iPods, why can't Creative update their expensive clunker? 6) Creative will not help you with any problem after 60 days, unless you either buy their Support option or pay them $13 for a half-hour call. They tell you to check the web site for information, but they don't even admit to the problems I have been having on their FAQs. (I know they are aware of these problems, because I have read other people's complaints about the player, but they pretend the problems don't exist.) One comment about the player itself. The ergonomics are strange. The rocker switch on the left only works when you are in the menu system; you cannot use it to skip from track to track while playing something. The rocker switch on the right is not a "wheel" type rocker, though it is circular. There is no "up" or "down" on it, though it would have been trivial to use that for volume, which would have reduced the number of switches (and the cost of the product.) Because there is a special button to escape to the menu system, you could have got rid of every button on the right, and had exactly the same functionality. Maybe they needed a box big enough to hold the battery and hard drive, so they decided to fill the space with buttons. There are preset buttons on the top of the unit. If you press and hold one, it will "bookmark" a song or video. Pressing the button later will return to that content. I have never had a use for this feature, and fail to understand what having four song or videos available by pressing one button is useful for. (Maybe you need theme music when you enter a room?) The video iPod is smaller, the Archos players play all kinds of formatted video, and virtually every other player in the universe can display the album art from an MP3 when playing it. There is no reason to ever consider buying this player. I am surprised Creative is still selling it.

Owned this for 2 years now - still works great

I bought this for my autistic son for christmas two years ago. I wasn't sure about it then but it still works fine two years later. My son is rough with this player and it can take a licking and keep on ticking. He loves music and I've loaded disney pictures and family pictures on it as well as a favorite video on it. (getting the video on it was the most difficult). Keith has been able to manuever through all the different songs and he figured out how to get the picture slide show to play while playing music. This player is a bit on the heavy side but it has been such an enjoyment for Keith. It is the best $500 I've ever spent on him. He has an ipod shuffle I bought after this but he prefers the Zen. He has dropped it and tossed it aside when the battery has died. I recharge it and sometimes have to reset it (it is computerized). But it is hardly scratched at all. The only downside is that it shows fingerprints but even that is not so bad.

Excellent product

Terrific product. I recently bought one on eBay and I love it. I read a lot of the reviews here to help make the decision and found them very helpful. It hooks up very easily with Windows Media Player and is simple to use. I tried out a lot of programs to transfer DVDs and I found the best one to be the CloneDVD Mobile program. I have been transferring a lot of my DVD collection to a format of 320x240 and vary the size of the file to around 700MB. I've also put a lot of the videos I have downloaded from the web on the the PMC. Like people have said, the best thing to do is just set it to transfer and just go to bed. I don't understand the complaint about it not having a kickstand for easier viewing, the carrying case can also double as a kickstand, so problem solved. I highly recommend the PMC, after reading the reviews here, I was left unsure at just how good the picture quality was...would it be grainy? pixelated? not sharp enough? All my worries vanished when I watched the first video, amazing quality, crystal clear, sharp, and very impressive. Do some research like I did, go to creative.com and look at the PMC, read reviews on this site or at CNET.com. CNET even has a video clip showing the PMC. PCWorld.com has some good reviews.

Very good product

I own a Media Center and I added this to watch programs. The product works great: excellent battery life, outstanding sound and nice screen output. Software is easy and user friendly and sync seamingless with my desktop Media Center. Easy to send audio to other devices (cars, home teathers, etc.) The Cons that I found on this product are: 1. Unable to program your own playlist or to create them inside the PMCE. If its possible...not so easy to find out how. 2. You need third party software to convert video like Tv shows (mpeg) and DVDs...it is not expensive, but not included. 3. Device somehow thick. I think this is going to be an issue on the next generations. Also it is a little heavier than other products. Overall is a great product and I am really satisfied with it. Much better to carry a protable DVD player. If you want a really cool device to hold your music and have a couple of movies to have some fun, this is for sure a great buy. Doesnt worth to pay the "list price".

Keyword : creativelabs

SanDisk Sansa m230 512 MB MP3 Player (Blue)

2008-07-21T04:52:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa m230 512 MB MP3 Player (Blue)

Customer Reviews

Works with Ubuntu Linux

I have used the Sansa m230 for over a year now and have had no problems loading music onto it (into the AUDIBLE folder) from Ubuntu Linux (Gusty & Hardy). I've tried newer models, like the Sansa c250, and they would not recognize the music put on them, but with the Sansa m230 I did not have that problem. They say newer is better, but in this case the older model worked better. If all you need is a simple mp3 player and you use Ubuntu Linux for your operating system, get one now while they are on sale for only $20!!!

ilikemysandiskaishaluv101

this product was awesome i was leary at first becuase of the feedback but i went ahead and brought the item i recieved it in two days i downloaded my music pretty fast it only took about 5 min and we were done done so until i get enough for my ipod this is the way i am going now the negatives is the batery dies really fast but for 18 dollars whats to complain about i got a good deal even though i recieved negative feed back

Love It!!!!!!!!!!!

I have enjoyed it tremondously. I don't know what I have done without it. Great product. I would recommend this any one.

Great little MP3 player

SanDisk was recommended to me for an MP3 player. The player is superb, easy to set up and operate. The ear phones are a tad difficult but other than that an excellent purchase. Mine holds 83 songs...more than enough to enjoy. Would recommend to anyone.

sandisk sansa m230 512 mb mp3 player(blue)

it looks nice but i can't use it because the company never sent me a disc to set it up.

Keyword : sandisk

SanDisk Sansa Clip 4 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

2008-07-21T03:38:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Clip 4 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

Customer Reviews

A serious Product

Bought the 4gb sansa clip, when it came out, and I have been using it since. I think it's the best mp3 player of its kind and category, yes better than the shuffle thanks to its screen, radio and mic built-in !!! Better than the creative stone, thanks this time to its better sound quality and its better ergonomy. Sandisk has definetily made a product with a lot of qualities that makes the Clip a must buy player, except if you've also fallen into the hands of the billion dollar Apple marketing. + : small with an elegant design and very resistant very good sound quality drag and drop mode while usb conected built in mic radio player (with 10 presets, and possibility of recording) - : no automatic volume control no search by first letter (when having 200 artists you might want to search by the first letter)

A MUST HAVE

After reading other positive reviews I decided to buy. Everything you've read is true. This thing sounds amazing. It is hands down the best sounding MP3 player I've owned (Archos, IPOD, Mobiblu, & Zune). I listen to it through a pair of Shure SE530's. While it may seem crazy to drive $500 headphones with an $80 player, let me tell you it is justified. Buy one you'll love it.

Very good deal & features

I love this little player, it fits just the right amount of music for me, the size and light weight is great. I've got around 600 songs on here. I did have one problem with the disk space not returning to full after I deleted most of my songs, so I had to use the Sansa website forum and format the player. Also, the buttons stick and do not work from time to time, but the problem goes away quickly... feels like a software problem, not a hardware problem.

Very nice and great sound

I have never had an mp3 type player. I have never tried one. I do use computers and pro digital cameras. Therefore I do understand menus that are good or not. The menus are intuitive and are quite simple. This is good. The sound is great. It charges somewhat slow via usb. This may be normal for the mp3 of any type. The screen cannot be seen whatsoever in sunlight. Not a bit. Huge negative. The earphones are okay. This was [...] dollars at [...] . They have this thru Aug at this price. I do not know if 4 gb is good. I would prefer much more. (above [...] are 59 and c- o- s t co)

Worked Well for Three Weeks

The Sansa Clip has a long list of nice features for a nice price. The integrated radio receiver and voice recorder are definite bonuses, and the capacity is high for the price. As far as functionality it is standard or a bit above in terms of user-friendliness. Since the buttons are tactile instead of "touch" type, the device is still very usable--including volume control--if you are wearing thin gloves (such as for spring/fall biking or running). Now the negatives. It has a cheap feel to it, particularly the power/hold switch and volume rocker button. The menu system takes some getting used to. The screen is extremely hard to read in sunlight and the lettering can be too small to read even in darkness if the user is moving at all. As an added minus (the biggest by far), my Sansa Clip stopped working after three weeks. Unplug it from the computer and it becomes entirely unresponsive. No amount of cajoling or number of attempts to update the firmware have been able to bring it back to life. Thus, I'm facing the unpleasantness of long runs in silence while I exercise my warranty. Overall I would say the unit is quite worth the price if it stays alive.

Keyword : sandisk

COWON Q5W 60GB Dark Navy

2008-07-20T21:28:00.001-07:00

COWON Q5W 60GB Dark Navy

Customer Reviews

Cowon Q5W almost hits mark

I've had the q5w 60gb model for about 2 months and overall I am very pleased with it's performance. The only drawback was the fact that it does not play AAC music files, but adding Coreplayer took care of that. Wifi works well, I can go approximately 90 feet from my linksys 54gs router without any slow web pages or disconnect issues. Audio is awesome, even using Coreplayer instead of the built in one. Video looks fantastic on the 5" screen. Battery life could be better, but I get 7 hours on audio and 5 on video. A bigger hard drive would also be a plus, but that can be solved by adding a bigger one. This is my first Cowon product and I would buy from them again.

Great player with some small flaws

I bought this player too, overall it plays the Video & audio in high quality.What is a bit disappointing is that you can't charge the unit via USB but perhaps that will be possible some day by software modify.The wifi area is to small, when I get only a 50% signal from my router I can,t connect to the wlan/internet.What I like too about the player is the Windows CE 5 ( ok Win CE6 would've beenbetter)I found already a lot of applications for the Cowon Q5W.

Best item ever

i have used this Q5W for 2 months and i am 100% satisfied with the item. It has very high-quality video player which is much better than archos 605 and ipod touch. The sound quality is way better than other mp3 players. Wi-fi,,, is not that super as i expected at first, but, you will get used to it. One important thing is that you cannot watch YouTube from internet not because of Active X, but because of so slow motion. If you are youtubing person, Ipod touch would be better choice. Radio is great option in this PMP. Lyric can be written on the songs so that PMP will display the lyric. The most important options on my favorite are the COMIC VIEWER and TEXT VIEWER. As zip files or folders, it can display comic books. With 5" size screen, there is no difficulty in reading them. The text is super that you can feel as you are actually reading the books. Also, battery life is outstanding. Even though it does not last 7 hours actually, it does last about 6 hours, which is still long enough to do everything outside. Anyway, i recommend this PMP to everybody if you are condisering among other PMPs or MP3s

Best Quality Big Touchscreen Player

The Cowon Q5 is quite simply the best big touchscreen player for quality video. It is 5" measured diagonally, and the larger size makes videos vibrant and reduces eye strain. While touchscreen players have an inherently grainy screen, the Q5 somehow eliminates most of the graininess that plagues other touchscreen players (such as the Archos 705) and provides great clarity, contrast and detail when watching videos. And the audio quality is stellar (consitent with most other Cowon players). Music sounds so much better than on iPods, Zunes or other music players. Detail, soundstage, and stereo separation are all exemplary on this player. You can also customize your music with some of the best effects and equalizer settings available on any player. Much has been written here and in the press about the UI and the use of Windows CE 5.0 as a base program for the Q5. While some of these complaints are legitimate, most of the complaints have been resolved through firmware upgrades (the last time I counted there were five upgrades in a very short period. The most recent firmware upgrade, 1.47, was just released a few days ago.) As a result of these upgrades, the UI is no longer sluggish, the wifi browser is much more user-friendly and there is no stutter in the playing of videos. It has been said that Cowon makes some of the best hardware and only mediocre software. This is usually true at the inception of a product, but Cowon does regularly upgrade its software to address problems identified in its forums. I did not award the Q5 five stars because it does have some shortcomings that have yet to be resolved. There is no pan and scan feature as in the A3 to adjust the size of videos to the screen. (The Q5 has adjustments for the aspect ratio, but these adjustments are not always satisfactory.) Music is not recognized by ID tags, and all songs cannot be played randomly, but random playing is limited to folders at this time. There are white lights that shine mostly from the bottom of the player which are noticeable during dark scenes. (Some users are bothered by this and others are not.) The flash player is outdated, and people generally have trouble playing youtube videos without some hesitation or audio/video sync problems. However, based on Cowon's history of firmware upgrades, some of these problems will certainly be solved, while others are not significant enough to impair my enjoyment of this player. Above all, if you value the highest quality video and audio playback, you will enjoy this player.

Good media player

I purchased this product few weekes ago. It is a great product with tons of features and possibilities. It needs some improvements but overall i'm pleased with it. Pros: -great screen quality and resolution. -great audio and video codec support. -sensitive radio. -very functional internet browser. -can read excel, word, powerpoint or pdf files. Cons: -crapy wireless module. You have to stay close to the wireless router (up to 15/20 feet) to be functional. I wasn't able to make it work from one room to another in my apartment. -need a lot of improvements on user interface functionality. -only headset profile over bluetooth. -can't record from radio. -week build in microphone during recording. -can't play VOB video files.

Keyword : cowon

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Pink (2nd Generation)

2008-07-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Pink (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Menu more navigational then IPOD

why?

who in the world would buy the zune when you could buy an ipod??? Makes no sense

Very Happy - and a Built-In FM Tuner!

no zune for me

Better than an IPOD

For a long time I waited for a product that I could say was worth using and finaly the ZUNE came out wow great product

Keyword : zune

SanDisk Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black)

2008-07-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa e260 4 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black)

Customer Reviews

Love Sandisk!!

I had the 2GB Sansa with expansion, and had used all space. Instead of deleting, or adding more memory, I decided to upgrade to a larger GB. The Sandisk is a very easy item to use, especially for someone who is a computer illiterate. I take it everywhere, and listen to it all the time. It is not as commercialized as the the ever popular IPOD, and definitely not as expensive. I had my first Sansa for 4 years, and have now passed it on to my preteen daughter (who LOVES it). I would definitely look into other Sansa products if need be. I feel they make a quality product without all the hype.

My husband loves it!

I bought this for my husband, who is a music fanatic, and he absolutely loves it! He uses it in his car which has a jack. He says it is fantastic!

A great player.

Having tired of a tiny and not all that user-friendly MuVu player, I "upgraded" to the Sansa e200. I am very happy, although there have been issues. First, I incorrectly assumed that the Rhapsody software was necessary in order to use the player. There was no information anywhere to the contrary. Not a problem, except that the software wouldn't load-- some 45 minutes wasted. Second, the text on the player was in German and couldn't be changed without help. A call to tech support (promptly answered) led to another 38 minutes and many steps, including downloading a file from the Internet, but we installed the English text. The player interfaces with Window's explorer, but I have found that creating a play list in Windows Media Player is more efficient, especially since you can change the order of the selections. The sound quality, with Bose headphones, is excellent. The FM radio works well, and allows for presets. Negotiating the menus is fairly straight forward, although expect to invest some time until you become familiar with them. Volume control is easy, and the duration of the back light is adjustable. The recorder also works well, although the sound quality is marginal. Of course, you need earphones to listen to the recording. The "Quick Start Guide" is not particularly helpful. Use the help file on the CD. For the approximately $90 that I paid on Amazon, this is an excellent product. Tks to all who reviewed the player, making an informed decision easy.

SanDisk e260 is great

Bought this for my oldest daughter. She loves it! Easy to load, easy to operate, holds tons of songs. It can be set to sync with the computer when it is plugged in or you can sync it manually (we prefer manually or it loads everything-pix and all). No software included so just plug it in and go. Also, SanDisk's website will download new firmware to the Sansa to keep it constantly updated. This is the second SanDisk we have bought, they are a great product!

Cheaper and Better thaniPod

I purchased the Sansa e260 for my 16 year old daughter after her second iPod had been lost/stolen. I had owned and preferred Windows based mp3 players (Creative and Rio) but she bought into the hype and had to have an iPod. Over time, she started to get annoyed with iTunes and their "exclusive" music management system. Now that she has the Sansa she will never go back. You can use their music management software if you like, but you can also just cut and paste folders like any other windows storage device. It is far easier to use and more flexible. She loves the controls, the sound is great, and it is far less expensive than the annoying to use iPod. PLUS - the micro SD expansion slot is a great feature. For $13 we bought a card and added 2GB of space. We have not, to this point, used the video or photo feature so I can't speak to that. Overall, this is the 7th mp3 player we've owned in our household - it is a great device and a tremendous value.

Keyword : sandisk

iAUDIO I7-16RD 16GB Portable Multimedia Player Red

2008-07-18T14:10:00.001-07:00

iAUDIO I7-16RD 16GB Portable Multimedia Player Red

Customer Reviews

Good, but some bugs

This was a cool little player. The only problem was I had problems with the music that I transfered over to it. It especially had issues with ones that I had bought online, that had the digital rights. It wouldn't play them, when I tried, it would just spin alittle while, like it was looking for the file. Then it would play the next, non-protected song, but all the descriptions would disappear or be change to korean letters. Weird. One I turned it off and then back on, the descriptions would re-appear (in english). So back to Amazon it went. The positive part of my story is Amazon's quick, very few questions asked return policy. Sometimes I worry about ordering things online, but I never have to with Amazon!

Amazing!!!

The player is simply amazing. About 60 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE. Can't beat that. I've had this player for a few months already and I only recharged it fully only twice. And the player does not use battery when it's off. Another good aspect about it is that even when the player is "locked" or on the "hold" position, you can still program the top buttons to put the volume higher or lower and pause the song you are playing. The sound is excellent. You just need to buy good headphones. Yes, the slide function can be a little annoying at first, but I quickly got used to it. You can customize the folders in your player and you could record the radio which is pretty cool. Very simple. The screen is kind of small for videos, but the quality is clear. You can also just drag and drop music into the player. Videos need to be transfered by the use of the jetaudio program. Definitely worth the money.

No playlists?!

This device is good in all the way people claim it is. It's small, has a lot of storage, has an amazing battery life, supports a huge variety of file types (including OGG and FLAC), and the sound quality is fine. But it doesn't support playlists, other than its single playlist that you build and manipulate on the device itself. I find that to be very frustrating, since I usually don't listen to full albums but rather to playlists that select a few songs from many albums. None of the professional reviews mention that, and so I was completely blindsided by this major failing. The iAudio 7 would have gotten a 5-star rating from me if it only had playlist support.

Cowon IAudio 7 - 16GB

The Good -------------- 1) Linux Friendly - Works like a regular USB device, no need for any software. 2) Plays Ogg and flac files. 3) Good sound quality. 4) You can create your own play list by creating sub directories. 5) Size but see below. 6) Long battery life but it doesn't seem to be the 60 hours claimed. 7) Storage - 16 GB's. The Bad ------------ 1) Non - Replaceable Battery. 2) Only records in WMA format. I find this baffling. 3) Does not come with a separate wall charger, just the USB cable. 4) The interface takes a lot of getting used to and is not user friendly (IMO). 5) Size-Small screen is tough to see especially for those of us over 55. 6) Virtually impossible to see in sunlight. 7) Controls are way too sensitive. The Conclusion: All things considered this is a very nice unit, especially if you have sharp eyes. Not needing any additional software for transferring files is a big plus, I only wish it had a replaceable battery. I'm not an audiophile, but it does sound very good with a good sound stage and details for ear bud headphones. The sensitivity of the controls is a pain in the neck since I am constantly switching from locked mode to unlocked mode. If I don't put it in locked mode, the song will change by the time I get it into my pocked or even from train vibrations. I'm not the only one who has been frustrated by the interface, but after a while you start to get used to it. Sometimes I find it easier to create a playlist in a sub-directory than to use the dynamic playlist feature of the device. Being able to browse music by artist or other tags would make this device much easier to navigate. A lot of the interface problems might be due to the small size of the unit.

Great sound, great price, great battery life, low weight, can't ask for more!

If you're looking for an mp3 player that combines good looks with GREAT sound, fantastic battery life (the battery STILL has yet to lose one bar after several WEEKS of use), good picture quality, and ease of use, then this is your mp3 player. I like bass-intensive music, and this bad boy DELIVERS.

Keyword : cowon

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation)

2008-07-18T11:11:00.001-07:00

Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Menu more navigational then IPOD

why?

who in the world would buy the zune when you could buy an ipod??? Makes no sense

Very Happy - and a Built-In FM Tuner!

no zune for me

Better than an IPOD

For a long time I waited for a product that I could say was worth using and finaly the ZUNE came out wow great product

Keyword : zune

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

2008-07-18T07:20:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

Customer Reviews

awesome player for price

I'm not new to the Sansa products having had a Sansa Rhapsody e250 & Sansa Express now for about 1.5 yrs. I was very happy with the simplicity of syncing the above that I looked at the new Fuze. I've had for 2wks. and love it. It's classy looking (silver-actually more metallic silver-gray), sturdy not plasticky, and what I love about it is the ease of syncing thru Windows media Player. You can also drag and drop and with expandable micro memory card, you have loads of space for your music, podcasts, audio books & videos. I didn't get it for the video feature since the screen is very small and 50 somethings don't need more eye strain than what we already experience with reading glasses. Photo viewing is not the best but then this is not a high definition digital TV so you get what the product can offer in such a small screen. I probably would've given this 4 stars because of the small screen but everything else is working w/o problems and it's easy to use, so I gave it a 5 stars. I've had several "oohs and aahs" from friends and they were really impressed by the classy look on the Silver Fuze. for the price, you should not be disappointed, never had an IPOD and don't plan to switch now.

Great MP3

I bought this for my husband and have enjoyed sharing it with him. Unlike the iPod, the Sansa Fuze can be used on multiple computers. We switched earbuds because they weren't too comfy, but other than that have been pleased. As soon as the price drops on Amazon, I plan to buy another one for me. Before you buy, check the price, it's been as low as $111.00 and as high as $129.00. If it's closer to the high end you might want to wait a few days to see if it drops back down.

Excellent MP3 Player for Podcasts

Yesterday I received my Sansa Fuze 8 GB which was ordered from Amazon. I plan to use it mainly for podcasts/recorded lectures with music breaks between podcasts. (UPDATE: I have now been using the Fuze for several days. I have decided that it is the best MP3 player available for podcasts. The bookmarking feature is key. Also, it is easy to navigate through lots of podcasts.) POSITIVES - Ability to erase a podcast - Excellent bookmarking (if you exit a podcast, when you return a menu asks whether to resume where you left off or start over) - Easy voice recording. NEGATIVES - Case looks easy to scratch (comes with cheap ultrasuede pouch -- will probably lose within the first week) - Poor main menu; can't do even the minimal customization as on the Zen. Thus, can't have the menu skip items for features that you don't use, such as the radio or the voice recorder. - Poor navigation among menus. Nothing innovative in relation to other MP3 players that I own, including the Creative Zen and the Sansa e280. - On-off/lock button is difficult to move; finger slips and you need to use a nail, which makes it hard to do without directly viewing. In sum, the Fuze has two terrific features for podcast listeners: it has the first really functional bookmarking and delete. Overall, however, it is a disappointment. The ideal MP3 player for podcasting has yet to be produced. Such an ideal player would allow file level organizing, it would display the full file name and all of the metadata. Since there is no uniform file naming and metadata scheme, to identify podcasts you need to be able to see this information. In addition, there would be an option to display large size characters so the screen can be read by adults with less than perfect eyesight without glasses. The Fuze does not begin to approach perfection. Given the popularity of podcasting, it is surprising that manufacturers have focused nearly exclusively on optimizing MP3 players for music. However, the Fuze does have a few very podcast-specific features and this is a good sign that manufacterers are beginning to understand the needs of podcasters. (The Fuze includes free songs and Rhapsody software, which I intend to remove as neither is of interest to me.) SUMMARY COMMENT AND FURTHER ABOUT METADATA: I have found that the Sandisk Sansa Fuze is the best MP3 player currently available for podcasts. It has a nearly ideal bookmarking system and the ability to delete podcasts after you've finished with them. However, the Fuze is not perfect. The perfect MP3 player would allow organizing by file name and would display metadata. There is no universal metadata/file naming scheme for podcasts. This is the achilles heel of podcasting today. It makes it difficult to know what you have on your player and to find the podcasts you want. In the future, metada will be richer (include a full abstract for the podcast) and MP3 players will display the metadata in an easily readable form.

Great player - doesn't have to convert music files like Itunes

Love my new sansa fuze. I got this because I wanted something besides an Ipod. When I dumped my entire cd collection, Windows Media dumped the songs as wma's. Of course, Itunes must convert these files before dumping them to the Ipod. With such a large library, I did not want to have to go through this conversion. Besides being half the cost of the 8 Gb Ipod, this also allows for expansion through a memory card. It sounds great and lasts about 20-30 hours on a full charge listening to music. Scrolling is a little slow as it doesn't accelerate at all like the Ipod. I am hoping that Sansa is working on this and can update it in a firmware upgrade because it can be a little annoying when trying to get through a list of artists. Large playlists are also slow to appear. I have some playlists that are about 250 songs and they take 20-30 seconds to open. Player starts immediately even with the space filled over 7 Gb. Haven't tried the video feature, but I was really just looking for a music player. I bought a rubber skin for it as a protector. So far, no scratches or dents even after dropping it a couple of times. I will be getting a screen protector for it as well.

Very, very good product

I'm a SanDisk convert after the Sansa Connect and, now, the Sansa Fuze. Being used to the Connect's format, the Fuze was a snap to adjust to. As an MP3 player, I have almost no complaints (other than the inability to scroll backwards to Z - you start with A and have to wheel down the alphabet and, same as the Connect, the jack is on the bottom which isn't the best place for it). The only complaint I have is that I haven't been able to watch Video on this player. I thought that any MP4 file, once transferred over to the Fuze's video folder, would show up and play. No such luck. I'll keep trying since playing Video is sort of the icing on the cake, not the primary reason for the purchase. The BEST thing between the Connect and the Fuze is that the Fuze's battery is 1000x better. The Connect will die after 4 hours whereas the Fuze can go for 24 hours +. Now that Micro SD cards can hold 8 gigs, I've got a 16 gig device here. VERY cool! Great little product. Ipod?! We don't need no stinkin Ipods...

Keyword : sandisk

SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-18T03:45:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa e280 8 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

It stopped working

This was the greatest alternative to an ipod I loved everything about it but after about a year it completely fried! maybe i just got a defective one. ? Im not gona buy another R.I.P. sansa e280

died after 3 days

NOT happy... got this as a gift from my husband... and it totally died after 3 days... i only used it for about 6 hours total and it just went dead... won't charge... totally dead. returning it asap

Great unless it breaks..no parts available!

This unit is great, very easy to use...But don't be unfortunate enough to crack the screen...Sansa doesn't care...there are no places to get it fixed...they don't sell parts... We have one that is less than a week old and the screen(with the flimsy screen protector ON) cracked as it came into contact with my son's cell phone! Sansa says tough luck. I'll not be buying or recommending these to anyone again...AND I BOUGHT 4 of THEM!! NICE! Thanks for nothing Sansa!

replaced sansa c150

replaced 6 year old sansa c150 2gb. plenty of space for the right amount of money. small, compact, lightweight. works great with RHAPSODY TO GO service.

How to make your Sansa E2x0 even better...

This is a fine device, the firmware is just ok. To make it better, install Rockbox firmware (rockbox.com) (free, open source) Then, you can use WinFF (also free, open source) to make videos for it (WinFF actually has a Rockbox/Sansa preset) Using this combo, I put flv's from YouTube on my Sansa all the time and they "Just Work (tm)"

Keyword : sandisk

CreativeLabs NOMAD MuVo 128MB ( 73PD028000003 )

2008-07-17T18:06:00.001-07:00

CreativeLabs NOMAD MuVo 128MB ( 73PD028000003 )

Customer Reviews

Loves it

I've had this little MP3 player for about three years, and I love it. It's tiny, I can fit it in my Rock and Republic Jean pocket on a plane (and those puppies are snug) it's super easy to use (for the "I need it very user friendly" techno-gadget person, such as myself) is TOUGH. I've stepped on it, taken it around the world multiple times, it's gotten wet, dropped it in a milkshake. Still works. Good as the day i bought it. I-pods are cool and all, but if you just want some good tunes, in a super easy to use, tough, tiny device, this is your thing. Oh, and it costs less than those designer jeans you're also eying, so you can afford to by it AND the jeans.

Great price - seems easy to use so far...

Got this on sale at Fry's for $19.99. Mine was missing the installation cd for some reason, but after some searching, I was able to download the software from Creative's website to save a trip back to the store. It's really easy to use - it works just like any USB thumb drive/memory stick. You can just drag and drop music files onto the player - it shows up as an external drive once you plug it into a USB port (assuming you have Windows XP). I used the free Creative MediaSource software to convert both CDs and mp3 files stored on my computer into .wma files to save space. (Hint - unless you're a serious music geek who's worried about unhearable sound quality, I found that when you convert your music into wma format, you can set the rip format to WMA, Stereo, 64 kbps, which is the lowest "quality," and be able to fit a ton of music onto the player. I have about 40 songs on my player right now, and it's only a little over half full.) The software is very easy and intuitive to use - a lot more so than the MusicMatch software. I used to have an old RCA Lyra mp3 player that was a royal pain in the butt when you wanted to add or remove music - this one is 10x easier to use. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles (no display screen, FM radio, or easy way to organize the music to play in a particular order), but if you're looking for a cheap player to store a couple of hours of music on to listen to while working out, riding a bike, etc. and don't want to drop a bunch of money on an IPod or other fancier MP3 player, I would highly recommend this one so far.

Keyword : creativelabs

Creative Zen Nano 512 MB MP3 Player (White)

2008-07-17T07:31:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen Nano 512 MB MP3 Player (White)

Customer Reviews

love my zen nano!

i love this thing. i've had it for several years now and it just keeps going. i was trying to decide which brand to buy and my girlfriend had a zen nano and accidentally washed and dried hers in the laundry machines and it kept working! i was sold on creative from that point on. i've since moved on to bigger and better creative players, but i still have my zen nano and break it out occasionally. i also think it has great sound quality.

The little mp3 player that keeps going and going and going...

I bought this little guy a few years ago, have dropped it, scratched it, played it 'til it turned blue. It's amazing that the battery cover hasn't broken; heck, that the whole thing hasn't. Great sound output and battery life as well. This version's suitable for bringing along your favorite tunes, and considering how simple and cheap it is, it's a smart tag-a-long purchase for when, like me, you don't want to drag around your $300 iPod (Touch, in my case). Buy it if you need a small flash player and can get it for cheap!

Do not waste your money on this piece of junk

I want to give this product a zero rating! Within one month of purchase, the battery lid got broken and I could not put it back. I made a phone call to creative and was told that the battery was NOT covered in warranty. The replacement would cost me $4.9 plus shipping and package with totals around 30. I argured with the CSR and they just rudely hang off the phone. I will never ever buy a creative product again. Guys, if you want to waste your money and be treated rudely, do not hesitate. Otherwise, choose a more honorabl brand!

The Creative Zen Nano Plus Rocks!

The Creative Zen Nano Plus MP3 player is very small, not much bigger than a cigarette lighter, but it delivers great sound. From music to audio books, this little gem will not disappoint, especially for the price. The only con is that the battery doesn't charge from the USB port from what I've read, but you can buy rechargeable batteries and a battery charger or an ac adapter.

Good for exercise

The 512 MB player doesn't hold a ton of songs, but is definitely enough room for songs to listen to while exercising. You'll want to purchase the arm strap specifically made for this player. It's available on the Creative site. The main buttons (on/off/pause; volume; and forward/back) are easy enough to work while jogging. The menu system is useless. For example, it let's you skip a folder, but nothing (on the menu or in the online documentation) tells you how to get it back in the play rotation. I've had this player for over a year now and it has been on my arm while jogging in the elements (snow, rain, heat) practically every other day and is still functioning great. The ear buds that come with the player are pretty sad - they fall out and the foam pieces come off rather easily. I finally had to replace them with something less annoying. Bottom line - if you can get this player cheaply, it's a good buy. Just don't expect it to be comparable to an iPod.

Keyword : creativelabs

Coby TF-DVD7377 7-Inch DivX Compatible Portable DVD Player

2008-07-17T00:41:00.001-07:00

Coby TF-DVD7377 7-Inch DivX Compatible Portable DVD Player

Customer Reviews

Yes plays Divx, but finicky at how you can play them

I bought this thinking I could connect a USB portable drive to this player, and play my divx movies on it, but I cannot. It will not recognize them. I have two, one is a 160 GB Fat 32 Western Digital Drive usb powered, and the other is a 500 GB, Fat 32 Self powered drive. It only allows me to put movies on a thumbdrive and plug it in. Luckily, I have an 8 GB thumb drive for my trip, but this is not what I wanted. I also tried putting the movies on a DVD-RW disk, and it didn't like that either. If this isn't a problem for you, then this is a good buy, if it is not, then I suggest looking for a Philips or a Toshiba that might play movies from the usb drive.

do it all DVD-MP3 USB SD player!

Coby has packed what i consider to be very desireable features in this little wonder. besides the obvious DVD content playback, it handles media on CD, SD cards and USB memory sticks, and DVD-RW's. i pushed my playlist to a SD 2GB card and it has been pumping the tunes since. a very good piece of equipment for the price so far. it's been 2 months. vendor sent item quickly and it was well packaged. kudos Amazon!

Coby DVD player does it all

Throw any format you want at it and it will show you a picture or a Movie. Finally, something that will play everything you get and/or record. Of course it's not High Def which we all want nowadays, but it works and works fine for its intended use. Paid a little over a hundred. That's cheap. I especially like that I can feed it a CD, DVD, Thumb Drive or USB cable, and a SD card straight out of my camera. Good. Good. ...and Good.

Excellent Portable DVD Player!

This is an outstanding DVD player! It doesn't skip at all, all the accessories are great and work perfectly! The screen is very crisp and clear and is not pixel-y at all! Also, the audio is outstanding whether your wearing headphones or not! The DVD player is lightweight, sleek, and looks much more expensive than it actually is! The DVD player is very simple and easy to use. The SD and USB ports work very nicely, although I haven't figured out how to play videos off of my SD card yetThe only reason I rated this DVD player with 4 stars is because I ordered one a few weeks ago and the screen was not working and I had to exchange it for another one and the new one works flawlessly. If it hadn't been for this instance, I would have given this DVD player 5 stars!

Practico dispositivo

He usado este producto por 2 semanas y estoy encantado con lo prÃ¡ctico que es; reproduce videos grabados en un pendrive o en una tarjeta SD; debe tomarse en cuenta que el archivo debe ser archivo de pelicula porque si es archivo de audio o video el aparato no lo reproduce. Las fotos se ven bien y los videos excelentes. Es muy practico pues si tus fotos o videos estÃ¡n grabados en un pendrive los puedes ver sin necesidad de usar un cd pero ojo con el formato: para videos mpeg y fotos jpeg. Es un aparato muy liviano y funciona bien con su control remoto. Puede enchufarse a la corriente de 120 volt sin necesidad de colocarle la pila. Es muy bonito.

Keyword : coby

Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 GB)

2008-07-16T22:44:00.001-07:00

Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 GB)

Customer Reviews

Horrible product, horrible customer service

Archos products spend more time broken than working. What's the point of loading all my media on a device just to have it crash 3 days later. When you have to talk to customer service to get your product fixed, you might as well just take your broken unit, and smash it over your own head. That would be the easiest way to describe what it is like to talk to their staff of incompetent technicians.

Good but.....

I've had the Archos 605 30GB since Christmas and I LOVED it. (Past tense) It has slowly deteriorated. Freezing up, doesn't cooperate with Media player but worst of all the volume doesn't get very loud anymore. I have to have it on MAX volume with the EQ adjusted to play it anywhere. Earphones, car, home stereo...it sucks! Using it on an airplane? Forget about it you'll never hear the sound. I even bought new headphones and it didn't help. It just doesn't get loud enough and I have had others try it to confirm it wasn't just my 40 year old ears going bad. I've even put the same music files onto a cheap MP3 including an Ipod nano and the volume is too loud to go up to max. Something is wrong so I called Archos and sent it to them for repair. They kept it for 12 days and said they found NOTHING wrong with it and reinstalled the software. Then they seemed to have forgotten to ship it back to me until I called everyday for 4 days requesting a tracking number. I still don't have a tracking number and they refused to ship it back to me overnight for my troubles. If/when I finally get my Archos back I hope it is fixed but so far nothing will be worth the trouble of dealing with their customer service. The unit is great when it works but I would NEVER by one again. I am not an Apple guy but if their product works trouble free, I'd buy it before this one.

Great product, so far so good

Had the unit for a little over a month and no real problems except for crashing once in a while while connected to wi-fi. Battery takes very long to charge initially (even with the dvr unit) so be patient Awesome video quality and touch screen works well. Very easy to use and set-up was pretty simple. Could use a slot for the stylus in the future. Get the DVR as well and you will be able to record directly from cable/etc. Dragging and dropping files is also a breeeze. No real issues except for the occasional crash/freeze with wi-fi

POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR A PRODUCT WITH POTENTIAL

This is my first review of a consumer product and unfortunately it has to be bad. If all worked well, a satisfied customer tends to be a quiet one. Owned a 604WiFi since February 2007 with DVR station....bought on Amazon for $300 plus $100 for the DVR station. Out of the box the thing worked great. Moving music and photos to the unit was simple, the graphics were amazing, and the DVR worked well enough, though it is far from intuitive. From a day to day perspective the unit worked as intended and you feel you have a more superior product than anything similar Apple or Sony can make. Except for the slow browser, heavy weight of the unit itself, the extreme heat the hard drive generates, and the incredibly short battery life, I give it 4 stars for effort and see potential. However, customer service and support are less than 1 star if possible. In May I plugged the unit into my PC to swap music out and the hard drive crashed (all files on unit erased except for the system file). The unit wouldn't even turn on. I called customer service in Colorado to get the response of "yup, it's your hard drive, that will cost you about $150, here's your RMA number." Well now, that is half the price of the unit for approximately 450 days of use. Thus, if I decide not to repair it, the unit will cost about a $1.00 a day to operate. If I do repair it, the unit will have cost me $550, including the DVR station, with no guarantee it won't crash in another year. I don't know about you, but a 30GB MP3 player for $550 is a little high. No thanks Archos, your product is garbage and so is your warranty program. If you can't back your product, why should I, and thus this review. If you buy the product know that you are receiving a state of the art unit with everything you need in an all in one package, but should it "break," it is a very expensive investment. Perhaps consider buying used to hedge your bet. Hope this is helpful.

Archos 605 wifi works great

I received the unit from the refurbished section. It works great right out of the box. I sold off my 30gb i**d in favor of this. The screen is crystal clear and the resolution is outstanding. No dead pixels. Drag and drop beats the alternative. Settings need changed to drag and drop or syncing with WMP11. I have never played with a Touch but so far this is more than adequate. Not gym friendly, too big and heavy to take on runs or lift weights with. Great traveling companion for long trips and airport layovers. Battery life is about average for media players. Pro's- Crystal clear screen Drag and drop capability or usb drive with mini dock station. Easy to navigate Cons- Too big and heavy for gym use None other I can think of.

Keyword : archos

SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Clip 1 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

awesom

This product is awesom, very slick with all the features I wanted. memory is little small but enough for me. FM, recording, mp3 playback, all works great. only issue I had is connecting device on XP system. there is no CD for driver, so I need to find driver for this. other than this I liked it.

Hangs frequently, files cannot be deleted

Although the product has a nice design and great price and sounds good, it is reliable. It hangs (locks up) frequently, and the only way to unhang it is to cycle the power. Files that were deleted via the computer still appear on the device, cannot be deleted with the device menu, and appear to be corrupted. If these problems were fixed it would be a great product.

Sansa 1GB Clip

Excellent MP3 for the money. Easy to use and the clip is perfect for what it is intended. Great for use during workouts.

BLOWS IPOD OUT OF THE WATER!

Buy this, you will NOT be sorry! way more features than the iPod, longer battery life, better sound quality, sexier and more fun. LOVE IT!

great mp3 player

blows the doors off ipod shuffle in every way and amazon was so fast i barely hit enter and it was at my doorstep!

Keyword : sandisk

Meizu M6 - 8 GB Flash MP3 MP4 Portable Media Player ( Black ) - for Audio Video Photos - FM Radio / 30 preset channels - Text & Games - 2.4" TFT-LCD Screen

2008-07-16T08:52:00.001-07:00

Meizu M6 - 8 GB Flash MP3 MP4 Portable Media Player ( Black ) - for Audio Video Photos - FM Radio / 30 preset channels - Text & Games - 2.4" TFT-LCD Screen

Customer Reviews

A good music player

PRO- -Plays FLAC and ogg -Sounds good and the EQ works well -Drag and drop -Easy to skin if that's your thing CON- -Sometimes when it switches tracks there is a sound. It does not happen frequently (couple times a day) and firmware may fix it eventually, but its there for now. Im not sure if maybe some of the older firmware had this problem or not, it doesn't bother me enough to look into. -Included 'features' like calculator and 'games' are kind of worthless due to the scroll/touch strip. -Video is not as good as some other players, but if you want to watch a lot of videos you should be looking at the HDD players. Neutral- -The scroll strip is kind of sensitive and it takes a couple days before you get the hang of it and stop doing things you don't want it to. But once you get the feel for it down its no problem. -Battery is decent, i don't watch a lot of videos, but for music i listen to it maybe 8-10 hours a day and the indicator never goes below half. -As always, included ear buds are no good. Get some portapros or PX100s. -The text reading capabilities is restricted to regular old .txt files. Its great for what it is. I give it a 5/5 from the perspective of a little flash memory music player. If the 'other stuff' is very important to you then you may want to go elsewhere.

Great Player!!!

I got my Meizu 8g player about 3 weeks ago. I love it! I like that it's drag and drop so even my technophobe friend can do it. It's easy to navigate the player to find what you want. It has extra things like the calandar and calcualtor that I will never use, although some people might like it. It took a while to find the right settings for the EQ. I got on line and copied what some other users had done. Now it sounds great on headphones and in the car. The written directions are pretty bad. The company didn't have the right people edit it but you can understand the point they are trying to make. I was using a Rio before this with very little memory so to compare the two woundn't be fare. The Meizu is way better. I haven't used the video yet but the preview that was pre loaded was pretty good. If you like bass this is the player for you. If you want to you can blow you ear drums out. For the money, ease of use, sound quality and the memory I don't think there is anything out there that can compair.

Good video and sound, bad picture response time.

The quality of this player is second only to the iPod. The sound quality and picture quality are good to excellent depending on the quality of your sound and pics from the begining. Pictures are another story. On my wifes iPod pictures come up almost instantly, with the Meizu player pictures take a long time to pull up and this is a major drawback. I hope they develop a firmware update that will correct this issue. This is why I give it 4 stars only. As for the capacity I have more that 500 songs on mine with about 12 videos and tons of pictures and I still have another 4 Gigs to go! The built-in radio is a nice touch too.

Keyword : meizu

Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Green)

2008-07-15T11:41:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen V Plus 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Green)

Customer Reviews

Stay Away!

What junk! The unit froze up a number of times after a few months of use. I attempted to use the reset (no button just a tiny little hole on the side) one last time and the unit gave up the ghost. I'm never going near any Creative product again.

Neat little music player

I bought this for a friend and she loves it. I helped load it up with play lists for running and working out. She has no complaints. It seems to be compatible with nearly every format and it holds books as well. Great for running and listening to tunes.

Great buy!

I have this Zen V plus for over a year now and am still enjoying this little thing. I watch video's, photo's and listen to music with great sound. No problem with drag and drop in contrary to other reviews. It had never been easier. With the freezing I have never experienced this only when the unit battery is almost done. I have used the "pin" I think 3 times to reload it again. Overall, this is a great buy. My daughter and son have Apple. Iphone and Ipod and they have to admit how great this little fellow's sound is. For the price this is a BUY!!!

Creative Zen V plus

This little player sounds great. I bought it along with a docking station for my daughter's birthday. The Zen V plus holds lots of music and I can use it with the music subscription service I have.

LISTEN TO ME!

Mark me that this is a WONDERFUL, affordable, MP3 player. You can change the background by clicking one of the pictures and pressing the back button, in that menu you will see "set as background". You can use you're own pictures! Aside from that, the ear plugs aren't for small ears as the ones I, ruefully, was born to have... yet the sound from them is amazing! Also, before you let anyone dis the 2 gigs, think about it. Do you actually like more than 1,000 songs enough to put them on an MP3 player? You do? Oh, well buy the one with 4 then. :( And if you get it from Amazon then I guess you've got serious money... I work at Burger King and that isn't my luxury so I recommend buying those that are slightly or not used. I bought mine from KY Store for less than 50. I am very pleased. You do not need to buy the wall cord as long as you follow the instruction and do not rush your MP3 player--all will be well. Trust me, it charges FINE. You can change the background color, too. Blue, Orange, Lilac, Red, and Green, are the options... of course, they have better names for the themes than that. Also, the keys are easy to use, in the center is a joystick, that means it makes you happy. ;p And the voice recorder is good. That joystick did break in half on me. But I pried off the two top plastic pieces on the bottom and super glued them back together. Worked good. Haven't had any other problems. And so my final advice: If you want to get the docking stereo... aside from it being a lot of money and making me jealous, you could just get a tape adapter, like me. Best of luck in your choice--this would be a fine one. -The Godfather

Keyword : creative+mp3

Creative MuVo TX FM 256 MB MP3 Player

2008-07-15T08:52:00.001-07:00

Creative MuVo TX FM 256 MB MP3 Player

Customer Reviews

I love this little robot with all my heart

I was given this device as a Christmas gift several years ago. I adore it and use it daily. It's the rarest of gadgets: 1. Utterly useful: it plays MP3s, records WAVs, and receives FM radio. 2. Utterly simple: It's basically a USB drive with a play button and a headphone jack on it. It runs forever on a single AAA battery. It's light as a feather and can fit comfortably inside your mouth, should the need arise. 3. Utterly compatible: I've used it with a multitude of computers and operating systems, and the little guy has never let me down. True, it's not going to hold your entire music library, it's only going to hold the songs you really, really like at any given time. It encourages you to live a life of all killer, no filler. In today's "infinite, instant gratification" culture, that's a humane gift. This little robot has markedly improved the quality of my life without asking anything in return. I just bought another one for backup in case anything should ever happen to mine, God forbid. Enthusiastically recommended!

It's A Classic!!!

I've had mine for a few years...has fallen a number of times....even split open at one end...just pushed it back together...and pressed play. Nuff nice features, good sound quality...not the best...but pair it would the right headphones and it will surprise (the headphones that came with it didn't last that long). The only real con is that the voice recording function isn't the best...a little noise always kicks in at the beginning of the recording. I have access to a variety of mp3 players...Ipod, Sandisk, SE W810i(good sound quality) but for the rugged fun this is still my pick. It is a little dated but if you can get it cheap...definitely cop it.

2.5 years and going strong

I bought this MP3 player 2.5 years ago,and have had no problems with it. I used it off and on for most of the time, but this past month I use it daily when going for walks. It holds enough music for my hour long stroll about town. The battery life seems to last a while. It's no big concern to carry an extra battery anyway. Very easy to plug and ply on my pc and my laptop, no software needed. All music is loaded via drag'n'drop. I do use an outside program to rip my cd's to mp3,which is a life saver. I've also used this as a flash drive before I bought a 2 gig usb drive. My only true complaint is the earbuds, I hate them with a passion. So I replaced them with a pair of behind the neck head phones, problem solved. Only thing I wish I did different was to not get FM radio (Sirius Subscriber,so I avoid terrestrial radio), and maybe more memory. But 40 or so songs is enough to cover my daily walk routine. All in all(minus the ear buds) I'd say this little guy has been very reliable. I wouldn't hesitate to get another if I have to.

Really need improvements

The battery cap is extremely fragile. It breaks easily. I bought three MuVo to my daughters and all of them are broken. They aren't kids anymore. At least, the gadget works fine but you must update its firmware or it will stuck very soon.

Better that the Nano....the 1GB version

This item is better than the Nano, has voice recorder, FM, mp3, it is great !

Keyword : creativelabs

Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

2008-07-15T02:30:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen 2 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Love It!

I bought this product because I wanted a quality MP3 player that was also convenient and compact. After reading other reviews from different sites, I was sold. I bought two, one for my husband and another for my 17 year old son. They both absolutely love it.

Great mp3 player, except one thing

This is a great Mp3 player, with expandable memory, folder browsing, no software needs to be installed for copying mp3s or video, great sound quality, customizable equalizer, nice video playback divx, mpeg, radio, and microphone. I-pod is not even close to it. You stuck on stupid Itunes with IPOD. and you have to tag all your mp3's, even if you tag them you have bunch of unorganized mp3's floating around. But with Zen, you don't have to tag any mp3. You can just search between folders and you can see the file names and folders just like your pc or mac. and when you copy your mp3's you can copy back to you PC. Music sharing with friends is just that easy. you don't need to install softwares, it's works like any flash memory. But there is only one thing needs to be improved. Folder browsing is only available for SD memory and if you want to search new music or video while listening music, music just stops. Also on SD mode, you can't create playlist. These are annoying. if creative can fix that with their new firmware upgrade, it will be perfect. But it is still better than Ipod, at least now I can upload my new musics without tagging or lunching Itunes or any other mp3 softwares. Just get 2gb version and buy yourself a 16gb or 32gb SD or SDHC memory and you are all set.

Worked great for 32 days, then DIED!!

We purchased this product and were very excited for the first 32 days. It was cared for gently and the just died! It totally stopped working and would not come on nor would it be recognized by the computer! We are 2 days past our return date, so we are very upset and disgusted!!!

Zen 2 GB

Creative made a Media player with lots of potential, BUT. It locks up to easy :o( and it is overly complicated to load media into, and finding the media to play back is a bit hard to start :o( The play back quality is good with a good volume. You don't have to crank it to the top setting to hear it. The video looks like it may be good, but none of my AVI's play back on it. JPG's photos look good on it. I put and eight gigabyte SD expansion card in it and it holds a few days of music, that's cool. It also has a nice way to index through the listings of music, that's nice... Over all it's nice, but it could have better software to load, select, and playback media...

Good player but.... No good support

Well I bought this player because it had really good reviews and it seemed like the best player in it's price range... In fact I think it is a really good player, the feel is pretty smooth. The texture doesn't feel cheap at all, it doesn't feel light when held in the hand. The buttons, on the other hand do feel kind of wacky (cheap). The navigation within the player is really easy, like all other PMP's you don't need any instructions and you can start using it right away. As soon as I put some music in the player it populated the albums, artist and all other categories for navigation. The pictures look really good and bright, I didn't try the slide show setting, but too bad you can't see the pictures on your tv (in case you want to show off!!) I tried putting some MP4 videos (iPod format) and the player didn't recognize them, I'll try to play some AVI's to see how it performs. THE BAD: First of all, when I first plugged it into my PC I was expecting a "Charging" or "Initial Charge" message, but unfortunately no message was displayed and the player didn't response to anything I would do. I was trying to turn it on but nothing happened, I almost freaked out.... After some time (30-40 minutes) it went on and then the other issue came up. Getting my computer to recognize the device was not an easy task, and not only for me (according to some googling). My computer kept saying there was a problem with the device and that it could not be recognized, I installed the software that comes in the CD, but it was worthless. Tried disconnecting and connecting, updating drivers and nothing seemed to work.. I kind of got frustrated (and don't think I'm a computer newbie!), but then I searched the web and found that it would work if you uninstalled all the ZEN apps and then connect the device. Thankfully it did work after I did this, but I think this is a MAJOR disappointment, we shouldn't go through all that nonsense research just to transfer our music into the PMP. Oh, by the way, checking the creative website for support was far more than useless!!! Overall I consider it a good purchase for it's price range, as the matter of fact after all the trouble I went through I still like it and I'm satisfied with it. I only give it 4 stars for all the trouble on connecting the device, plus bad tech support and no documentation for that issue, which seems pretty common. Hope it helps,

Keyword : creative+mp3

SanDisk Sansa Clip 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

SanDisk Sansa Clip 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

07/14/08 Sansa Clip Review

The Clip itself is great - better than I expected. Unfortunately the earbuds were deficient (could not get both channels consistantly) and I had to buy a separate (Nike) set.

Great MP3 Player

This is my first MP3 player, so I opted for one of the more basic models. I chose this model based on reviews that I had seen and the high ratings that it received. I am Extremely pleased with how great it sounds and the ease of use. I Highly recommend this to other "First Time MP3 buyers." All of my existing MP3 songs that already had on my PC were transferred seamlessly to the Sansa Clip player. Additionally, the Rhapsody interface is easy to use with this player too.

Sansa is fabulous

The Sansa Clip is a fabulous MP3 player. It meets all my requirements. For the price, it is amazing.

Great Investment

I was a little hesistant about buying an expensive piece of device that can turn up missing. The iPod wasn't for me, but I am a traveler and I need my music. The Sansa Clip is a great investment and it sounds great. It's easy to manage, has a led screen so I can see the artist and song playing, and it categorizes my music. I haven't had any problems thus far and I also bought a charger for my Sansa Clip instead of charging it through the computer. Lastly, it is inexpensive and worth the money. Great product!

Very Portable

I bought this as an iPod Shuffle alternative. Despite various online forums that suggested it would be easy for it to be recognized by ITunes (it was not) and to move iTunes music to the CLIP (I could not) - it is perfectly good if you have lot's of MP3's (like from using Limewire -wink-wink, nod, nod). It's very small and portable - I think my ear buds weight more! The screen is very bright and interface is easy to learn. The battery life stinks. I get two workout sessions out of it before needing a serious re-charge which is slow. If not for the whole iTunes fiasco which I wasted a lot of time on, I would have probably given thjis 4 stars considering it's super cheap price.

Keyword : sandisk

Creative Zen 32 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

2008-07-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen 32 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Good player, but beyond the hype...

The unit is a good media player, but when you look beyond the hype: I was disappointed to find it does not support lossless WMA format. And the player apparently does not properly use ID tags with WAV files. So I'm forced to use a lossy file format. So, even though the player has good sound quality playback capability, it is compromised by having to use lossy formats. Support from Creative Zen has been nonexistent: emails have gone unanswered, there is no toll-free number, and wait times are untenably long on the toll number.

Good Successor To The Vision M

The new Creative Zen is a great product, and an excellent bang for the buck. Pros: 1) Obviously, great sound quality which is what matters the most 2) Intuitive menu system 3) SD expansion slot 4) Beautiful screen! 5) Excellent battery life 6) Extensive file support compared to other players 7) FM tuner 8) I'm not forced to use proprietary software. (Apple, please take notes) 9) Small size Cons 1) Attracts fingerprints and scratches. (Buy a case and screen protector) 2) As early reviewers mentioned, no video out capability. 3) Included USB cable is a joke and no wall charger I highly recommend this mp player! You will be hard pressed to find a better mp3 player for the money. Invest in some good earphones and a SD card if you plan on filling this thing up (SD cards are dirt cheap these days!).

The dreaded "White Screen of Death"

I'm so bummed. After having mixed results with a Cowon iaudio 7, I decided to try this player, since it had such great reviews everywhere. Once I got it, I plugged it in to charge, and patiently (well, maybe not so patiently) waited for it to charge up so I could play. After about an half hour or so, the screen started flickering. I thought that was alittle weird, so I tried turning it on (or off) I wasn't really sure. Nothing happened. I let it charge for 6 more hours, and still couldn't get even the home screen to load. Nothing but a white screen. I searched around the creative website, and saw that they said not to worry if it takes alittle while before the "charging" icon appears on the player. That said it could take overnight until the unit's fully charged the 1st time. Then I searched on google for "white screen zen" and found a ton of information about people having trouble with their players. They call it the white screen of death or "wsod". After reading descriptions of the problem, I figured out that this was what was wrong with mine. I was also really surprised that I didn't really see it mentioned in any of the reviews. But if you do a google search, you'll see countless forums where they discuss the issue. There's even a youtube video showing ways to make it go away. (it didn't work for me) It does seem like a really cool player, if it would just turn on. Honestly, I think the size is really great for what it would do. But I'd just be cautious ordering it, because $300 is alot to spend for a paperweight.

I'd buy an 8-Track Player before I bought another one of these defective things!

I usually love Creative products. I bought this player after my Creative Zen Micro 5G filled up. Before the Micro, I had a Creative Zen Nano 1G. I never had any problems out those devices. I read the reviews on the new Creative 32G and saw that some people were having software issues and some dead on arrival players. I was hoping that wouldn't happen to me. Three, yes THREE, players later, I have given up. I use Yahoo Music Jukebox as my music manager. The first player I ordered had sync issues. It would begin to sync and then just as suddenly "disconnect" and stop syncing. It was quite a hassle loading my library onto the player. In all fairness, the sound quality, as usual with Creative products, was terrific once the player was working. Then shortly after getting everything set, the player began randomly stopping for no reason. When the stops happened, I always had plenty of battery power left. I reset the player and everything seemed fine. Then it happened again and again and again. The player would inexplicably just stop playing and have to be reset. I clipped a safety pin to the ring on my plastic case so I could have a conveniently located "reset tool" handy. I decided that it was ridiculous that I had to constantly reset my brand new $300.00 MP3 player, so I sent the first one back and got a second one. This one was better than the first--no syncing issues at all. But it wasn't too long after I got it that I needed a handy reset tool for this player too. Again, plenty of battery power, but suddenly the player would stop--usually right at the end of a song. I liked the player so much, I was hoping the third time would be a charm so I tried one more time with a third player. It worked great the first week or so after I got it, but now it has reset issues too. I have had to reset it 4 times or so since getting it a little over a week ago. So I'll be sending this one back too and getting a refund. This is a great player if you get one that functions. The sound is great, the screen is clear, and it's the perfect size. Unfortunately, there is a good chance of getting a defective player--as evidenced by the three duds I got. For that reason, I have to give this product one star.

A Well Thought Out Product

Hi - I happen to own the 16 GB version (actually have two) and have been using it for several months now. It's great! I use it for podcasts and TIVO. Even though the controls are tiny, the software is intuitive (especially if you have used previous Zen products). The quality seems to be improved as I have not seen any screen cracking or delamination. I opted for the leather carrying case as in previous experiences with screen covers and gel cases, I couldn't help but wonder if they were retaining sufficient heat as to damage the screens. Anyway, if you are in the market for a do-all media unit, this is the one.

Keyword : creative+mp3

Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue)

2008-07-14T10:52:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player (Blue)

Customer Reviews

Great little player!

This is the third Creative Zen that I have purchased over the past few years. I have one for the car, one for workouts at the gym, and one I use during yard work. They have enough memory to store almost 500 songs at 64 kbps, and the quality of playback is plenty good enough for my "getting on old" ears. I can say for sure that I would not have bought a second player of this type and manufacture much less a third if I was not sure they were able to deliver as advertised, convenient, and long lasting. I know that the manufacturer has followed latest trends to upsize their flash memory in their newer model MP3 players, but the 1-2 GB size is about right for the use I put my three to. I hope there will still be some around in the future when and if I look to replace mine. Here are what I see as their best characteristics, not necessarily in any particular order: - they use triple A batteries for playback of 12-15 hours, so no added expense to buy a charger or finding myself out of reach of an AC charger - just change the battery out "on the fly" and keep the tunes a coming. - they are small and take up almost no room - carry easily in shirt pocket - they are quite durable when kept in their soft outer shell which clips to the armband - they are cost efficient for the sound they deliver, and not costly to replace if they do break - which hasn't yet happened to mine (oldest is now 3 years) - are less likely to be stolen because thieves target the larger, more versatile, and more popular players manufactured by Apple - they store more than enough music so that one does not become quickly bored with the playlist - FM stations come thru with quality sound

Great for the price

I received this MP3 player as a gift two years ago and it still works great! I bought my fiance a different brand for Christmas and it was too confusing to even figure out how to download music so I returned it and bought him the same exact one that I have!

Few complaints for this economic MP3 player

I purchased my Zen Nano over a year ago from an overstock-type site for around 35 dollars. I can't recall exactly but it may have been an open-box return, which might explain the only problem I have had with it (see below). Having tried other zen players, an old Muvo flash-drive player, and after sampling several different ipods, I have found this to be the best option, as well as the cheapest. The functionality is something unrivaled in most players I've tried. It includes line-in recording so that you don't actually need a computer to load it. An FM tuner, with admittedly limited reception, works in a pinch if I need to walk to the store in the middle of a football game. It has a small microphone that is useful for note-taking, though not much else. These lesser functions are somewhat basic but do not detract from its main function of music playback, which works excellently. The sound quality is every bit as good as any player I've tried, as long as you are willing to pay out for some more expensive earbuds(sony EX51s are nice but break relatively quickly) than the ones included, which are the same quality as the tinny pieces of junk you would get with an ipod. The player's operating softare includes playlist organization, mp3 encoding (which I've never used), and even a basic equalizer with presets which helps when I change audio inputs from my over-bassed Koss Sparkplug earbuds to my home stereo. I should note that some have complained that there is no gapless playback on this player, which is true although I'm not even sure gapless playback is possible with Mp3s, as they don't usually contain that sort of information (I could be wrong). The interface may provide some problems for those who are less familiar with computers like the elderly or perhaps those who simply don't have the dexterity for smallish buttons (for instance: the very very obese) but I found the interface perfectly comprehensible and transparent, including a faux-scroll wheel, an on/off/play/pause button, and two dedicated volume buttons. The only problem I have found with the player, which may be because I did not buy it new, is that the battery case cover on mine broke fairly soon after I bought it, making it very easy for it to fall off in my pocket. This is not a huge problem, as it comes with a belt-clip plastic case I can put over it, preventing the battery from falling out. The downside is that it increases the size of the player by about a third, but this is minimal in my opinion as the player is already a little smaller than the average disposable cigarette lighter. For what I paid for this player, I would still be happy with my purchase if it died completely tomorrow. It outlasted the more expensive earbuds I purchased for it, and if you are willing to pay the extra money it costs at Amazon, you can return it for a new one if it is DOA, as plenty of electronics are.

My new best friend, but for how long?

I've had this about 2 weeks now, and I'm really happy with it. I was able to use all the advertised features within minutes of opening it up. I also downloaded all my music using the drag-and-drop feature which is a must-have if you don't want some proprietary software converting all your files and then deleting them (I've had this happen!) Most of the files I have are ripped from CD using software for the Zen Stone since I had some problems finding anything simple for the Zen Nano Plus. The radio is better than the one in my car, and recording both the radio and lectures is very straightforward. There's only one minor problem with this player (for the price) and that's it's shoddy case. Don't get me wrong, it's the right size and heft, but within one day the plastic crevices were caked in dust and it looked like the two halves are trying their hardest to split apart. I might have to duck tape it together because I want this player to last me at least a couple years.

Great MP3 Player

I have had this MP3 player for well over a year and still love it. I have taken it boating, camping, shopping, bike riding, hiking, and it still works. I also have gotten it wet twice. I am rough on things, as you can see. I liked it so much, I bought one for my husband and daughter. It has all the features more expensive MP3 players have, except bigger screen, but cost a lot less. My daughter likes the radio. I just like to take mine shopping so I can ignore all the "Mom, can I get...".My husband uses his at work, and enjoys having all his music. I would reccomend it. It is a great buy.

Keyword : creativelabs

Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Blue)

2008-07-14T02:14:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Blue)

Customer Reviews

Easy, one-handed player

This product from Creative is very easy to use. I downloaded 795 songs in a short afternoon from my PC which I needed to do for my trip. Needed to download the newer version. Listened to many of my songs on the plane, sounds just great. The real test will begin shortly as I am going to the Arctic Circle. Loaded with many features and I like that it fits into my coin pocket on my jeans. So far so good. I can give a much better review in about a month. The price is definitely right. MG http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IBNXX2/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title

i regretted buying an ipod, now i regret this more

If your looking for something that has an incredibly long battery life then this is it, but there is a reason why ipods are still the number one best selling mp3 player. i bought the zen after my failed ipod mini (first generation) hoping for something to substitute it but i was wrong. The controls are hard to use and i was warned this when i read the reviews before this but i didn't think it was a big deal, it gets annoying. The screen has a horrible glare, the volume doesn't go that loud, and it is VERY hard to use. navigating through takes forever! i dont have that many artists but it would take forever to reach the lower level alphabet letters, it doesn't increase in speed, the back button would constantly get stuck. the thing i hate the most is how it isn't easy to sync with the computer. It has its own program that won't sync with itunes and to add everything you must add each song individually and find each song on your computer. To make a playlist is the worst, you can't make it automatically from the zen itself you have to go on the program and add each song individually not from its origin file. its a pain! the thing itself is like a cheap toy, it has treated me well and will last a long time but i honestly don't enjoy using it and i am going to return it and get an ipod.

Never ever again....

iPods aren't the top dog because they are great but because products like the ZEN V Plus make iPods look great. It worked for a day then just stopped. 1st it wouldn't charge. Then wouldn't even come on. Then came on but was frozen. Tried changing usb ports, then another computer, then a wall charger. Nope. my iRiver Clix, niece's Nano and my MotoQ still work using those but not the ZEN. Tried Creative's "customer support". Filled out the email form only to get a message that my message couldn't be sent. Short story long I'll never buy another product from Creative again and this whole experience has really turned me off on the idea of buying from Amazon again.

Creative Zen Rocks

I love my Zen 4GB. I enjoy listening to music as I do mundane tasks and this player holds all of my favorites w/room for more. The neck lanyard is so much nicer to use than the older strap-it-to-your-arm or clip-it-on-your-pants methods of carrying your player. My husband basically confiscated my player. I need to buy a second one.

useful

I found this mp3 fits my hand perfectly; controls are a bit touchy and it is easy to skip around if you flick the control lever rather than hold it for a couple seconds (depending on whether you want to move to the next unit/song) or just move ahead a bit into the present selection. Overall, I can run and hold the unit in my hand without difficulty.

Keyword : creative+mp3

Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

2008-07-13T08:23:00.001-07:00

Creative Zen 16 GB Portable Media Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Good, but ..

1. The buttons are stiff and need some getting used to. It isn't a feather touch device by any standards. 2. I got "Audio Format Is Not Supported" errors on some of my mp3s copied through Winamp. This is not on account of format protection issues, but to do with proper file tagging. On syncing the same files through Windows Media Player, they play fine. I'd suggest dumping their software (which takes forever to install), just using WMP (Ver 11). 3. Supplied earphones are not worth their weight in paper. 4. Decently priced and great feature set.

great upgrade from my 1st gen Nano

The Zen is a terrific upgrade from my 1st generation Nano. Music was easy to transfer from my iTunes library. (My music is mostly from my own CDs, but if you purchased most of your library from iTunes, this may be an problem for you due to DRM.) With 16GB, there was more than enough room for everything I have. The software is easy to use and functional, and WMP works fine for managing files. Video and sound quality on the Zen are excellent (better headphones should be your first accessory, which is true of every player on the market) and all features work as expected. Using the menus, while not as elegant as on the iPod, is simple enough. The SD slot (uses a separate option on the menu, which takes no time at all to get used to) means you're limited only by the number of cards you want to take along. Great for a long flight, and every SD card I have, regardless of size or speed, has worked fine for audio and video in this player. There are plenty of aftermarket accessories available, and the standard USB connection means I can charge it with my cell phone (Moto RAZR) chargers, which eliminates extra devices from my suitcase.

Best I Ever Had

I have had this player for six months. Pros: 1. Capacity. 16gb internal, plus a card. 2. Sound is good. 3. Watching movies is awesome. Watching the old movies with the square format is great because they fill up the screen. Cons: 1. Freezing up occasionally. But never had a unit that didn't also have the same issue. It seems some people's Zen have more of a problem so I suppose it is luck of the draw. 2. Software. I have never liked or took the trouble to use the Windows Media Player to sync. Most of my MP3s are not tagged so they go everywhere when you try to sync. You can drag folders into the player from the computer but you can't access them. You can create a play list but I would prefer using the folders. Another thing is when you bookmark a track it won't play the next track in the play list when you go back to it. 3. Havn't tried a firmware update as many had had problems and none of my issues have been addressed. Would be great if the Rockbox software would be available.

an excellent alternative to the iPod nano

Compared to the latest iPod nano, the Creative Zen has: bigger and better display, better sound quality, FM radio and voice recording (nano has neither), similarly excellent battery life, better included earphones, slot for SD memory expansion card, and similar stunningly compact form factor. And a lower price: at the time I write this, the 16gb Zen costs the same as the 8gb nano! The Zen will play unprotected AAC files (including "iTunes-plus" DRM-free tracks), so iPod owners who want to give it a try can get most of their music on the Zen. (The exception is copy-protected AAC files purchased from iTunes, which the Zen won't take.) Don't get me wrong - I love iPods, I own a few of them, including the nano, which I like a lot and recommend. I think most people familiar with both would agree that the iPod's interface is more elegant and intuitive than the Zen's - though the Zen's really isn't bad at all. Before plunking down your hard-earned cash, though, I recommend a visit to your local Best Buy to see the nano and the Zen "in the flesh". They're both great, though the Zen is a better value and probably a better choice for (1) people who aren't yet heavily invested in iPod-specific accessories, (2) people whose music collection isn't mostly comprised of copy-protected AAC files from iTunes, and (3) people who are a little fussier about sound quality.

ZEN 16 GB portable player AWESOME!

This media player is absolutely awesome! Great little device that lets you play all sorts of music and movie files. It's great because you can move the files off of it as well as to it from your PC. It's small and lite and very self explanatory to use. Great sound quality and the screen is clear. Beats the 8 GB iPod nano in performance to price ratio.

Keyword : creative+mp3

Cowon A3-60SL 60GB Portable Media Player (Silver)

2008-07-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

Cowon A3-60SL 60GB Portable Media Player (Silver)

Customer Reviews

Stunning PMP

I have had my eye on the Cowan A2 for quite some time, and when I was ready to purchase it, i saw the A3 was out, wow what an awesome PMP! Great battery life, beautiful picture, excellent sound with lots of enhancements. I can't say enough about this media player, it is probably the most satisfying purchase I have made in years.

For True Audiophiles. Hands Down the most feature packed & best Sounding player for the $$

It even makes poor quality mp3 sounds great when I hook it up to my living room speakers where there's no where for poorly encoded mp3s to hide, unlike on small headphones which have no range in frequency (highs & lows) you know? You can tweak the sound with the many EQ, bass settings and Digital Signal Processing (DSP)fields like Rock, Jazz etc. you'll freak. IT has Line-In Recording which is a huge plus for me. The picture quality is equally amazing near HD quality. It is not for the faint of heart, only for true audiophiles providing freedom for music lovers. It's even a portable Digital Video recorder as it can record from the TV etc. It's a god send. It plays virtually all types of media files. No proprietary software needed (crappy I tunes). It is a little hefty but it isn't meant to be for those on the run as much. For that purpose, I suggest the little 2 or 4 gigs ones. This puppy I believe is for extended travel perhaps to watch a movie on when you are away and for the jukebox feature of hooking it up to my audio-visual system. It even has a built in alarm clock!! The company provides firmware upgrades too so the battery life is higher than the reviews.

Very good - yet has flaws.

Pros: Beautiful HD Screen, reasonable hours of play, GREAT (!!!) format support - just throw it into the device and it'll play. comfortable, light weight even on 60GB version, wide subtitles support, great menu language support. can use it as TiVo. You can connect it to a TV and watch good quality movies. Reading small documents is cool. Supports BBE so your music will sound FANTASTIC! Cons: For First, and HD support is a lie. it WONT support most x264 files. Some devices has a problem with its volume (too low), some don't, and can't be fixed with firmware. plus COWON are not even aware of this problem so...don't count on your volume to be very high. The way you search music is just plain stupid, you can only see the filename. you can't sort the files by Band or by Album, so you have to make your own directories for each band, which can be annoying when you have 30GB of singles on your Cowon. No gapless playback - you gotta listen of The Dark Side Of The Moon with about 3-4 seconds gap between each track. No Thumbnails view for the pictures, and it will only zoom x4. No case for the device (cheapest I found is 30$). No Wi-Fi, but who needs this $h1t on the go, right? Conclusion: It's a good device, but don't sell your soul to the devil for this. Little advice: since it supports FLAC format don't forget to buy atleast entry level headphones for it - those earbuds suck.

Cowon A3 - If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is...

If this player performed as advertised and did everything it was supposed to, it would easily rate five stars. Unfortunately, it has a few MAJOR flaws and several minor ones, which Cowon does not seem to be addressing through firmware improvements. I bought the A3 for the purpose of playing music, so for nearly four hundred dollars that's what I expect it to do perfectly. Unfortunately it falls far short of perfection. First, the good points: The sound quality is great. I own two other mp3 players - an IRiver, which has extremely poor sound quality, and a Cowon F2 which has good sound quality, but not as good as the A3's. The graphic equalizer works well. The "Jet effect" sound enhancement features are useless if you're using a good pair of headphones. When you turn the volume up loud there's no distortion. (With the F2, too much bass will cause major distortion at medium to high volume.) 60GB seems to be plenty of storage for music. I use high-quality mp3 files (256+ kbps) because I can't hear any difference between that format and the original CD. I put almost 3,000 songs on the A3 and only used up about half the available storage space. (Remember, ALL manufacturers including Cowon lie about hard disk capacity. The A3 actually only has about 54GB of storage.) File transfer is reasonably fast - probably as good as it gets for this type of device. And speaking of transferring files, there are no artificial restrictions. This is no Ipod. Cowon doesn't force their customers to jump through any hoops to use their products. You can change the wallpaper as often as you like, change the startup and shutdown screen, and play your songs as many times as you wish without the manufacturer trying to squeeze more money out of you. I use the A3 mostly while driving. It can handle normal driving conditions and road bumps fine without skipping. Although I use the A3 almost exclusively to listen to music it is nice to have other capabilities available. The picture viewer is very good. I uploaded a few photos that were already sized for the A3's screen (800 x 480 pixels) and they looked fine. The zoom feature works very well - the photos still looked sharp when magnified. The display quality is good for LCD, but when I compared a photo on the A3 to the same photo on my computer's CRT display the A3 appeared washed out and flat. However, the A3's display is perfectly acceptable for its primary function of navigating menu items. In fact, it's very impressive. The joystick works fine for me. I have large hands and have very little trouble manipulating it. Cowon's on-line technical support is pretty good. The technicians seem to be reasonably competent and they do try to help. However, they aren't interested in documenting the A3's many bugs and passing the information on to Cowon's programmers and technicians. It's great to have .flac support. Now for the bad points: There are three huge flaws in the A3. First, there's often a loud pop between songs. I verified the pops weren't actually part of the mp3 files. I contacted Cowon about the pops and they didn't have an answer. The second major flaw is that there's always a pause between songs. That might be a nice feature when listening to random songs, but it's very annoying when listening to a CD in which the tracks are supposed to blend together. Also, the pause isn't silent - there are always two or three small pops between each song (different from the loud pops mentioned above). There's no way to disable the pause. I guess the only way around it would be to encode albums in one large file instead of separate tracks. I really don't want to spend a few days re-encoding dozens of CDs. The third major flaw is poor video playback. The A3 supports lots of file formats, but after spending many hours trying to figure out what the A3 will play correctly and what it won't, I've pretty much given up on watching high-quality videos. The A3 is able to play SOME low-quality files without any problems. I spent several hours trying to get my three favorite DVD-quality music videos (which play perfectly on the computer) to play on the A3 without success. The A3 also has problems with some music file formats. I have a few .ape files, which the A3 would not play at all. The .ape files caused an error message stating "Compression is too high." I re-encoded the songs at a lower compression setting. The A3 then played them, but skipped every few seconds. No .mp3's by "QueensrÃ¿che" will play. The "Ã¿" causes problems for the A3. Some other problems are also present. It's very difficult to locate a file in a large list. For example, I have one folder that contains about 2,000 songs. Locating a specific song is very time consuming and frustrating because of the way the scroll bar works. Adjusting the "Jet Effect" settings (equalization, BBE, etc.) while music is playing can cause the A3 to suddenly turn itself off. The A3 doesn't use the same type of USB plug as other Cowon devices. Since I use a Cowon F2 frequently as well, it would be nice to be able to connect both of them using the same cable so I wouldn't have to switch cables all the time. Connecting the A3 to the computer can be tricky. The instructions indicate you should use the USB ports on the back of your computer. I found this to be true. Connecting the A3 to the USB port on the front of my computer did not work, and caused problems with an external USB drive connected to the back port. The quality of construction is average. The only noticeable flaw is that the unit does not sit flat. It will rock back and forth slightly when placed on a flat surface. In my opinion the firmware is beta quality. Hopefully Cowon will get their act together soon. The fact that a nearly $400 device generates all the skips, pops, and pauses that it does is almost unbelievable. But it's still better than an Ipod or any Microsoft product. I can't imagine what life would be like if all the appliances in my home were as poorly programmed as this device. Here's a helpful tip: The A3 scales album cover images to 180 x 180 pixels. If you assign the top left corner of the A3's screen the x, y coordinates 0, 0, the album cover images fill the area from 81, 99 to 260, 278. I pre-scaled all my album cover images to 176 x 176, then added a one-pixel-wide white border around the outside, then a one-pixel-wide black border. That looks very sharp. (I'll post a sample as a customer image.) Another helpful tip: You can create your own startup and shutdown screen image to replace the Cowon logo. This isn't documented in the instructions. Here's how: Make an 800 x 480 picture. Convert it to an 8-bit 256-color .bmp file (I used IrfanView - load your picture, select "Image," "Decrease Color Depth," "256 Colors." Make sure the "Use Floyd-Steinberg dithering" box is checked. Click "Ok." Save the picture as a .bmp file.) Rename your file "A3_LOGO" with no extension. The size of this file should be 377KB. Then, follow the steps to upgrade the firmware with this exception: Replace the "A3_LOGO" file in the firmware archive with your "A3_LOGO" file before completing the firmware upgrade. You can also delete the "\Photo\Logo" directory on the A3 since the image will be stored in memory from now on. Follow up: I did some file format comparisons and found more problems. There are so many bugs in the A3 that hoping a firmware upgrade will fix things is like hoping the next version of Microsoft Windows won't have any bugs. The reality is that Cowon is concentrating on adding more features instead of fixing the ones that are already there. After using this device daily for a couple months and trying lots of things with it, I'm convinced that a lot of the A3's problems are a result of a slow microprocessor. That would explain the sluggish response time, the inability to play .ape files (which take more processor time to decode than .mp3 or .flac), and the inability to play high-quality videos. No firmware upgrade will ever overcome slow processor speed. In spite of the A3's many flaws, I still think it's the best of its type even if it will never be perfect, and I don't regret purchasing it.

Cowon A3 Customer Review

Audio and video playing are very good. Will play .avi no problem. Audio sound enhancement is also very good. User interface needs improvement. Battery lasts about 4 hours for video and 6-7 hours for audio. The hard drive will cause skipping with harsh movements, i.e., anything other than walking. Softwares that can be used with player are not all included. Full softwares require additional fee. The player does heat up if put inside a pocket. Too bad there aren't any exposable carrying case with backpack straps for secure carrying and heat dissipation. However, if video and audio quality is your primary purpose, I don't think there is anything better on the market. If this player drops its price to $250, I can't see anyone buying anything else in the same category.

Keyword : cowon

Creative MuVo V100 2 GB MP3 Player (White)

2008-07-13T02:14:00.001-07:00

Creative MuVo V100 2 GB MP3 Player (White)

Customer Reviews

Small with lots of Memory

I take this everywhere with me, so small, it easily fits in my pocket. If you listen to audio books and like to carry lots of them with you, this will fit seeral audiobooks, music, etc. (I have at least 20 audio books in mine and it still has a lot of room for more) I love this product.

good, slow transfer, hair inside

I have used this little guy for about 6 months. It is my second MuVo - the first was 256MB one with FM radio. I don't miss the radio but I do miss the speed of transfer -- the new MoVo is sloooooooow. I do a lot of podcasting (no FM radio) and it takes far too long to move the podcasts to the player. AND there is a black hair across the screen -- yep, the manufacturing process has incorporated the hair into my MoVo. The hair does not impair (or speed up for that matter) the performance and is a nice conversation starter. One point off for the hair and for the transfer speed.

Happy customer

I bought this player for my mother after I was so happy with my older model. While most of the features of this one were similar to mine, it was very useful not have to keep track of wires to hook it up to my computer to load music. Simply slide the cover off and the USB is right there! Neither my mother nor I needed anything too fancy in an mp3 player. We just wanted simple drag-and-drop functionality to get the music on it and to be able to see the names of the songs on the player itself. I love that I can separate the genres into folders and switch between them rather than just having a whole mish-mash of songs in one big folder. That's very helpful for audio books too. So as long as you're not looking for fancy features, this is a nice little unit! I've had mine for over a year and my mother's had this model for about months with no issues.

Good player especially for audio books

After reading the reviews here and on other web sites, I decided to give this player a try - and I lucked out when Creative Lab's web site has this (refurbished) on sale for $20 w/ free shipping in a one-day sale. I've had this for two weeks now and have been using it daily, and I love it. I use my mp3 player mainly to listen to audio books, and I needed one that will play downloaded audio books that are protected. This player is one of the most affordable unit from the list of supported players for Overdrive Media, which is used by our public library. While it doesn't have bookmark feature, it "remembers" exactly where you stop and start at the same place (as opposed to the beginning of a track) when it powers on again - which is very important when listening to long audio book files. The use of AAA batteries is a key benefit also; my rechrageable batteries can last 5-6 hours. The player comes with 3 library folders (A-C) that you can use to organize your files - I am able to create sub-folders in each to hold the various audio books I downloaded, so you are not limited to just three lists. Once an audio book is loaded to the player, it doesn't expire like it does on the computer; with 2GB of space I can load up the player with books and take my time listening to them. I did notice the plastic battery cover that slides on and off is rather fragile, and have taken note to be very careful when replacing batteries. The scroll wheel is not the best tool, especially when you hold it down one side or other to forward or rewind. If your finger slipped and let go, you may ended up in the previous or next track. With practice it can be overcome though. I always invest in a protective case when it comes to electronic devices. The only cover/skin I can find for the Muvo V100 is over priced and from the reviews not very good. So I keep it in a knit mp3 player sock that has an attached hook; I carry it around my waist and can easily get to the buttons, and there is room for an extra battery inas well. I would suggest everyone to do the same. Overall it's a great player and excellent choice for anyone who doesn't need advanced features (video, radio...etc.) Highly recommended.

Mixed reviews - one is great, the other died

This is our first and only experience with an MP3 player so far, so I have nothing to compare it to. We ordered two of the Muvos a few months ago, one for the kids and one for us. Our main use is for audiobooks (esp. for the kids) and language learning. We were immediately impressed with the sound quality. We could use headphones, or plug them in to speakers anywhere in the house. The single AAA battery lasted 6-8 hours or more, which was great for traveling by car or plane. The Creative Player software was easy to install, is VERY easy to use and works like a dream. Using Audible with the Muvo device setup was a snap, and so fast to download everything onto the Muvo! The buttons were a bit confusing at first because the screen is so small & you use just one button to navigate; so until you get used to it, it's hard to remember how to get to the various menu items. And once we learned we can use Creative Player to move files & folders around, that was a big help! Now for the downside: After less than 3 months of moderate use, one of the Muvos will no longer power on. The LCD screen still lights up when plugged into the USB port of our computer, but other than that we cannot get it to turn on. (Of course we tried new batteries several times) So we are waiting to see how Creative will respond. We were just about to order a couple more (so each child could have their own) plus I was going to order one for a friend who tried mine out. Now I am holding off until I see if Creative will resolve the problem. So I would give the Muvo a "5 star" rating, except for the SIGNIFICANT fact that one no longer works.

Keyword : creativelabs

Samsung YP-P2JAW P2 Widescreen Touch Screen MP3 and Video Player

2008-07-13T00:43:00.001-07:00

Samsung YP-P2JAW P2 Widescreen Touch Screen MP3 and Video Player

Customer Reviews

Great buy

NO DRIVER

Awesome MP3 Player!!

This is the best mp3 player! It has fantastic sound quality. Pictures and videos are really stunning on this 3" widescreen. FM radio is very clear. With a firmware update, you can even record the radio, which sounds terrific. In addition, with the new firmware, you can even play fun games, with its good touch screen. With other updates you can have a calculator to perform simple calculations; you can also create your own menus with EmoDio (a new version of Media Studio). This player also has bluetooth. It allows you to pair the player with a pair of headphones or bluetooth speakers. You can even transfer files wirelessly between bluetooth devices. The touch screen takes a little while to get used to, but after getting used to it, then it is really easy and fun to use. Its interface is cool and this player is fun to use. It has many useful extras like text viewer, alarms, and a world clock. Downloading music and video onto the P2 is very easy even with Samsung Media Studio. You just bring in the file into Media Studio, then you click the arrow and it converts it into the correct format, svi, then transfers it to the P2. Samsung has very good firmware updates that raise the value of their products and add more features. The first and second updates added added the ability to make calls with the P2 with bluetooth and transfer files to other bluetooth devices. It also improved the touchscreen interface so that it is more responsive. The 3rd update added games and more menu styles. This was followed by the fourth one that added a touchscreen calculator to the Samsung P2. As you have read, Samsung continues adding additional features to make the P2 even better. I think more people should buy this rather than an ipod. An 8 gb nano is about the same price, yet you get much more with this mp3 player. I really recommend this player and I think everyone should get this. If you are thinking of getting an ipod, think again and consider this P2. You will be glad that you did so.

Great player, minimal problems

Sansung Touch Screen MP3

I think its very nice, it's as good as advertised. The touch screen works well and it's easy to get around. The bluetooth link to your cell phone is great, and there is enough memory for what I need it for. The bad it that it must hook up to a usb port to recharge and all of the video has to be converted to some other format. But it is very easy to do with the Samsung media center provided.

Keyword : samsung+mp3

Archos 605 WiFi (4 GB)

2008-07-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

Archos 605 WiFi (4 GB)

Customer Reviews

Make sure you get a comapatable SD card!!

I have to say that when I first got this product, loaded some movies on it, they wouldn't play and required the plug ins. If you are going to buy this product and don't want to spend countless hours converting movies, you will want to make sure you account for spending and extra $30-$70 in plug ins to make this a great full featured device. Now that I have the Web Browser and two audio and video plug ins, this thing is WONDERFUL. Browsing the internet was snappy and easy. Movies played smooth and audio was good, yet a little on the quiet side. MOST IMPORTANT. Next I bought an 8gb SD card to use with it. It was a transcend which is supposed to be compatible with this player. by the way, they don't tell you, but there are a LOT of SD cards that just will not work with this player! In fact, mine actually bricked my player. Finally after hours of screwing around trying to reinstall the Operating Sytem and hours searching the internet for solutions, I finally got it to work. If you own one of these players, it is essential to go to Archosfans.com and check the forums. This is by far, not an iPod when it comes to just anyone being able to use it. At least that is my experience.

Extremely bad quality

1. The side buttons do not work 2. Need to reset very often - because the device get stuck/freeze 3. While you are charging then you can not watch anything without holding it by hand ( because the charging device/jack/plug is at the bottom side) So I consider it as total wastage of money.

...7 months and my Archos 605 WiFi (4GB)

I've had my Archos 605 WiFi (4gb) for about 7 months now. I take it where ever I go. It allows me to bring my music (DRM Free), videos, and pictures where ever I go. Simply put, the Archos blows the doors off of the iPod and what ever Apple, Creative and yes even SanDisk can offer for media players. No additional software needed, you plug it into your PC via USB and use it like an external hard drive, and drag files to and from the unit. Making no need for bloated software such as iTunes to only put your music on the unit. It plays a various amount of video formats right out of the box (.avi, .mpg, .divx, .flv, etc), with the option to purchase more CoDecs. Excellent music player, album art, play lists, etc. So your worried about the 4GB RAM limitt? You can expand the storage space of the unit via the SDRAM slot on top. With its WiFi capabilities, you can share, copy files from your network, or access the internet (browser is an additional cost). You can stream media from any source sharing. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great media player for a decent price.

Great Product

I really don't see what people are complaining about, this product is amazing. The internet plug in works great and connects to all of the wifi networks I have tried which includes both WPA and WPA2 without a problem. I am really impressed with the speed and easy of use of the internet on this device. Also the video playback is amazing. I personally don't like Ipods, this device is far more cableable at a much more reasonable price. The archos portal works great and I downloaded and installed my internet plugin as soon as I paid for it, no problem what so ever. Firmware updates are a snap. Battery life seems to be around 15.5 hours for music playback and about 3.5-4 for video. Keep in mind it takes about 8-9 hours to charge the device via usb but only about 4 to charge via ac adapter (sold sep) Great product overall

great buy

i researched this item and couldnt wait to buy it. once i got it it was everything i that i hoped it would be. i love my pictures, videos, and music, so now that i can have all of them with me whenever i want im very happy. plus if im near a wireless hot spot i can surf the net!! what more could any one ask for in a media device? the ony reason why i dont give it five stars is because of all the extra plugins and accessories that come at an extra cost, but even that makes the archos more customizable. overall ths is a great buy>:}

Keyword : archos

SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-11T07:21:00.001-07:00

SanDisk Sansa m250 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Just Okay

I bought this MP3 player within the last 3 weeks. It was great the first week, I enjoyed the fact it wasn't too big or bulky, and was easy to use. However, after that first week I noticed it often would not power up when I tried to turn it on. And now it has begun to shut itself off at random. I never used it excessively, less than an hour at a time, not every day certainly. No idea why it has suddenly gone bad.

Sansa M250 MP3 Player

Nice Product - the only 2 things I would say could be improved are 1. The random mode seems to play a lot of the same songs over and over, I have about 200 songs on the player and 30-40 of them are the ones it plays everytime. 2. The armband was pretty cheap, I had an old sandisk player and I am using the armband from it as it is twice as thick as the one tat came with this But overall I am very pleased with this player and expect to use it for a long time and would recommend it to someone looking for an mp3 player

Not as reliable as my old m230

I had a Sansa m230 up until recently. The thing was great, exactly what I wanted in an MP3 player - long battery life, drag & drop music loading, and quality playback. I had it for three years or so, then I dropped it one too many times and the display stopped working. I decided that since the m230 was so great and since the m250 had all the same features, more capacity, and was now less than what I paid for the m230 when I got it, getting an m250 was a no brainer. I'm sorry to say that this product is just not good. Even with the latest firmware, it locks up regularly, the randomizer plays the same song multiple times in a row, and the sound quality is worse than the m230s was. This player is a textbook case for a product taking a serious step backwards. So if you can find an m230 and don't need a lot of capacity, I could not recommend that player more. As for the m250, I have to advise you to stay away.

Great... but I had to work really hard on it...

I never own an MP3 and finally decided to try one so I thought I'll get this one to try out since the price is awesome :). May be I'm inexperience or mis-understanding how it works, but I expected it to work like a memory stick (plug in then drag and drop)... I sure have the problem here. My laptop does not show this device in my Window XP -window explorer(?), I can't find it anywhere; uh oh... so I open it in my window media and do the copy to device(I have version 9.0)... I can't find it either. I think this is useless on my laptop. However, I took it to work and plug it into my desktop... hmmmm... can't find it in window explorer either (?). I was so confused and was going to cry, but hey one more try; I opened up the window media and try to copy to device again... Halleluiah, it saids SansaM250! I had to manually create artist and Album folders then copy each album to each folder created... Darn it, I had to have 2 cups of coffee this morning (I'm only a weekend drinker). Wait, its not over yet...How does this thing work? It just kept playing the first song from each album from each artist and if I hit the >>, it toggle back and forth from one artist and album to the next one(ahhhh...)hmmm... may be it didn't recognized my folders(?); I really can't listen to classical then the next song is rock and roll and then the one after that is hip-hop then country then opera ??? I can only listen to one gern at a time. Anyhoo, it was my bad (first time inexperience :))I swear the up/down button (>ll and Repeat/AB) didn't work! (only the side to side ones), I couldn't scroll to artist/album. I started to get kinda mad now so I pushed every freakin button... well, somehow the up/down button decided to work and I can move to my artist/album now. Well, now all is well (Haaaaa...) but I still can't down load anything from my lab top because it seems that this device does not exist. I guess I can only download from my work desk top and only through window media (weird), well then I will have to knock off some stars on this. I really didn't expect it to be such hard work like this. Now that it works, I'm ok with it. I guess I didn't pay much for this, but sure I had such big headache over it. I guess I will have to go to bed early tonight then. Good luck and have fun with it. Tata everyone :)

Just what I needed

When I bought this player I didn't have a clue how to work one. I plugged it into my computer opened up Window Media and dragged and dropped the songs I wanted into the sync window and that was it! Couldn't be any easier than that. I haven't installed the software that came with it yet. I was amazed at the clarity of the sound through the head phones. There was some static in between songs but not bad. The radio picked up all of the stations in my area with no problem. The only complaint I do have is the UBS cable it too short. My tower sits under my computer desk and I have to bend under my desk to view the LCD screen on the player. Otherwise, it's a great little player for the price. I love it so far.

Keyword : sandisk

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Blue (3rd Generation)

2008-07-11T04:52:00.001-07:00

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Blue (3rd Generation)

Customer Reviews

JUST WHAT I NEED

I really like this nano!!! The size is perfect for easy going...!!! It looks so great!!! I really love it!!!

Problem with Apple iPod nano

We purchased the Apple iPod nano for my son. He was able to load songs he already had on the computer onto the iPod, but has been unable to load songs he purchases from iTunes onto the iPod. No one has been able to figure out what is causing this problem, including the iPod help folks. This has been very frustrating for everyone in the family. The problem may not be the fault of the iPod itself, but we have been unable to determine whether it is or it isn't. We would not purchase another iPod for this reason.

Awesome!

I got this as a birthday present for my boyfriend. He hasn't stopped raving about it. He keeps telling me that it is the "best birthday present EVER!"

iPod nano

Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3rd Generation) I have purchased a total of three iPods from Amazon and I am extremely happy with product and Amazon Services.

refurbished rocks

This has been a great purchase. I have not had any problems with this item and it arrived in a timely manner in great condition

Keyword : ipod+nano

iRiver 1CLIX4B 4GB clix MP3 Player GEN2

2008-07-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

iRiver 1CLIX4B 4GB clix MP3 Player GEN2

Customer Reviews

Not what I expected.

I ordered this player, but got the rhapsody one instead. I was originally irritated, but then decided to give it a try. The player is well worth the money! I sounds great, is easy to use, and is small. I would recommend the item to anyone who has rhapsody.

Good Product, Big Problem

This is a great product, but the problem is I dropped it once and now the screen is screwed up. It's readable, but extremely aggravating.

iriver clix gen 2 doesn't live up to my expectations

I purchased an iriver clix gen 2 for the sole purpose of downloading digital audio books from my library system on Overdrive Media Console. The specifications for the product claim that it plays wma files as well as wma-drm files. Not true! I've read all the forums and tried every trick in the book, updated the software and everything else possible. It simply will not play these files. A friend bought a $40 Creative Zen Stone Plus and it works great with Overdrive.I contacted customer service and they informed me, too late, that Overdrive Media Console is not supported. Other than that,an extremely major defect for me, the iriver clix 2 is very easy to navigate and the screen is delightful. The fm radio is great. It accepts transfers of and plays music from other CDs that I own. I only hope that iriver will come up with a software fix that will enable Overdrive Media Console.

mom of 3

Within 4 months of use, the screen went blank.(the screen going out is a common problem) Sent it in to be repaired. It took 3 months to get it back. When we got it back it was DEAD! I have called customer service so many times but they never return any calls. They have been useless. I would not buy this product because any problems will only cost you more $$$$$$ to replace the unit.

Awesome product...under rated in the U.S. !!! Great Anti-IPOD

I have had this for about 3 months and I absolutely love it. The battery last for about 20+ hours. Depending on what you are using, if it is the video, of course it would be shorter. I got this after it won a lot of different tech awards, and they were right. It is a great, and realiable product. The video is clear, music can be equalized to fit what your ear likes to hear, and has almost unlimited amounts of functions!!! It even has a radio (which IPOD's don't have), and amazing radio and external recorder built in. Lets just say that everyone who I have shown it to, DOES WANT ONE, PERIOD!!!

Keyword : iriver

Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Purple (2nd Generation)

2008-07-10T01:39:00.001-07:00

Apple iPod shuffle 1 GB Purple (2nd Generation)

Customer Reviews

I love my Shuffle!

I've owned my silver iPod Shuffle (G2) for about a year and a half now, and have used it extensively. I primarily use it when working out, and love the unassuming size and weight of this mp3 player. It holds enough music for more than one workout, and the battery seems to last forever! It is so light, I just clip it to the silver chain I wear around my neck and it pretty much stays out of the way. It's heavy enough not to flop around, but light enough for me not to really notice it. I don't need a screen on it to show me the song/etc., because I know what's on it and where it is in the loop. My biggest complaint is with the headphones. I would have liked to see Apple include a more workout-friendly and comfortable set of earbuds. But with the new price for this, it is a GREAT value and you can pick up whatever headphones work best for you. I bought my wife one from Wal-Mart for $49, and it came with a $15 iTunes gift card! Tip: set it for circular play and not shuffle, and you can easy move through songs to the one you want.

Craptastic!

Bought this for a friend only to find out in months time the battery doesn't charge right! When I informed Amazon and the seller who sold it to me they refused to do anything about it. They suck don't trust them and get stuck with a malfunctioning I-pod.

Ipod

This Ipod came SUPER-FAST! I like to use it while running. The clip stays tight and is very convenient. Holds a good charge and comes with everything needed to start playing music right away. Would have been five stars, but it can be purchased pretty much everywhere for the same price.

the best mp3 player for running and workouts

If you like music when you workout, this is the player for you. It's VERY small, so it's easy to clip onto your shirt or hat. No need for the armband or any of the extras. Controls are simple. If you have iTunes, getting music on and off is simple. And even the 1GB is enough for 250 songs, which is plenty to keep most people entertained. Sure, it doesn't have some of the features as other players. No screen, no FM radio, no voice recorder. But it has what I need, which is great for me. Headphones, like the rest of the ipod headphones, are no good. Invest a few bucks there and you've got a winner. Bottom line-- I love this thing. In fact, I have pretty much stopped using my iPod Classic since this handles everything I need so well.

Ipod as fashion accessory

For my wife's birthday, I got her a purple Ipod Shuffle (1 gb) and gave her my Grado SR 60 headphones for stationary listening (the stock ear buds are for on the go--we do need something better, though). She loves the Shuffle. It is tiny, clips on to a shirt pocket or collar, and holds a lot of tunes. As many are now eschewing full length CD's for downloaded singles, one can pick just the songs that one desires. Nice. In an informal survey in one of my classes, almost all of my students preferred downloading what songs they wanted and had pretty much stopped purchasing regular cds. I still buy cds--regular and SACD--but I'm used to buying albums, not singles (okay, when I was a kid, I used to buy 45's). The Ipod shuffle is easy to use. It is highly portable and small. The sound is adequate. One could use a headphone amplifier and better headphones, but that just takes away from the portability. The Shuffle sounds pretty good with Grado SR 60 cans (but they are big and the cord is rather too robust). Anyway, my wife is happy (and thus, so am I). You can't go wrong with the Ipod Shuffle. It looks good, sounds good, and is easy to use. Now, I just wish that I had sprung for the 2 gb version. C'est la vie.

Keyword : ipod+nano

ARCHOS 605 Stand Case, Black Leather

2008-07-10T00:14:00.001-07:00

ARCHOS 605 Stand Case, Black Leather

Customer Reviews

Horrible case for a great product

The Acrhos 605 is so f-ing amazing, and this case is a joke. The were drunk when they made this case. Google a company called Noreve, they make a high quality leather case. It's like $50, but it is very well made and well designed and your little 605 deserves it.

30 GB and Below Only

There is a different case for 80 and 160 GB units, they don't fit in this one as you can tell by the idiots who bought this one for the bigger cap units and gave this one a bad review. The 80 and 160GB units are thicker and have a shorter battery life. I have one of thicker cases and my Archos 80 GB fits perfectly. The Amazon description is wrong on compatibility. It fails as a stand, and if you want to charge while it's in the case, you better get some scissors. I like it for protection and it's a huge improvement over the one that is shipped with the unit. cheers

Poorly designed, reduces Archos 605 portability.

I concur with prior reviews asserting the poor fit of the stand case with the player. It takes quite awhile for me to tuck the player under that annoying top lip, and it does fall out of the case way too easily when unbuttoned. However, my biggest problem with this case is the the type and quality of the leather. Unlike the soft, thin leather of the AV500 case which only slightly increased it's size, the 605 case is thick and stiff. It adds loads of protection (when it stays in), but adds considerable heft, bulk and weight, greatly reducing portability convenience. I carry my player everywhere so I actually find I prefer the cheap nylon case that comes with the player.

Awful. Just awful

I bought this case to go along with Archos 605 160GB. The case looks ok, but thats the only positive remark. Player does not fit well inside, as the left corner of the case is too high and pushes the raised part of the player below power button out. I tried to push player in. It doesn't stay because the side ridge is elastic and pushes the player out. Then there is a really horrible design flaw: when case flap is closed, it presses against the play/stop button and stops the playback of music. And there is no place to put stylus. Why would a player that comes with a stylus, not have a place to put it in? and the same applies to the case. I'm sending it back to amazon for refund and buying a Noreve case.

This is a terrible case

Cheap quality leather. Its those generic barely passable grade leather. Stitching is shoddy. Worse part is that it is not compatible with the 30gig model even though the description says it does. The hole on the side cannot possibly line up with the archos' headphone outlet. Plus for the 30 gig model its an akward looking fit. Kind of like making a small child wear xxl clothing. The stand doesn't work very well. I prefer the cheap case that came with the 605.

Keyword : archos

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Green (3rd Generation)

2008-07-09T11:02:00.001-07:00

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Green (3rd Generation)

Customer Reviews

iPod nano

Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3rd Generation) I have purchased a total of three iPods from Amazon and I am extremely happy with product and Amazon Services.

refurbished rocks

This has been a great purchase. I have not had any problems with this item and it arrived in a timely manner in great condition

Excellent product

The product came in excellent conditions. The new generation of Ipod works perfectly. I recommend this product very much!

reat deal

Great price on what appears to be a never before used nano-It came as promised and I would recommend this to anyone.

Ipod 8 GB

Product was as represented. Did not come with any cords, which perhaps should have been specified, but other than that-was as advertised.

Keyword : ipod+nano

iriver Clix Rhapsody 4 GB Digital Music and Video Player (Black)

2008-07-08T08:33:00.001-07:00

iriver Clix Rhapsody 4 GB Digital Music and Video Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Great device and tech supports number

I had the ifp300 for a long time and the thing was a workhorse, never a problem. So when I went looking for a new player I gravitated towards the Clix Gen 2. After having used the Clix2 daily for over a month I am not disappointed. This is an amazing device. The sound is incredible and has been impressing my skeptical ipod loving friends. The menus are incredibly simple and the easy to get use. Synchronizing the Clix2 is easy (I have tried it with Widows Media and Rhapsody). Of course the Clix2 continues the iriver tradition of including clever features such as FM radio and a microphone. Of course the Rhapsody features are great. The bad. After the first month of using Rhapsody the Clix start up screen displayed a notification that the Rhapsody license had expired, which it hadn't. I connected it and updated the license, all the songs still play but the warning still comes up so it is more of an annoyance than a problem. The folks at Rhapsody reminded me that I had to manually click the license button a couple of times a month (which I hadn't) but determined that it was a player glitch. The folks at iriver suggested reformatting, which is a pain and not much help. Yes the support for iriver is poor. For all those who can't get in touch with iriver's support here is the direct number 562-968-9100. If iriver upgrades the support side of the house this would be a 5 star product.

Great when it worked, but temperamental

I bought this against my better moral judgment (Rhapsody partnered on at least one major event with Maxim), but I have no one to blame for that but myself. The device was great when it worked, but it took many agonizing, sometimes fruitless calls to Rhapsody Support to resolve what should have been simple, straightforward compatibility issues. There were several times I had to reformat the device, which meant wiping it clean and reloading it -- the kicker came when Rhapsody wouldn't recognize the device at all, and after frogging around with it for too long, to no avail, I gently tossed it across the room, where it died altogether! It felt good to get my frustration out, and I didn't even feel bad when the thing died. I may try my luck with the ibiza Rhapsody. Reviews are much better, and as an appliance co., they probably don't partner with magazines that exploit and objectify half of humanity!

Loved it then returned it

Below is what I wrote when I first got it. I ended up returning it because after spending too many hours downloading all kinds of updates from Rhapsody and going back and forth with Rhapsody's support people: - It prompted me to sign onto Rhapsody to get back my playlists every time I turned it on -- rather than the once-a-month it should have. - It took hours to "update" my playlists once I connected to Rhapsody. It was not workable. I am now trying a Sandisk. I would love to hear other people's experience with Rhapsody-to-Go -- an amazing idea. Has anyone actually gotten it to work? I have been a Rhapsody subscriber for the last few years and love it. I did a lot of research on their recommended MP3 players and finally chose this one due to the sound quality that was touted in all of the reviews. I've never had an MP3 player before and thought I would have to spend some quality time getting it set up -- not necessary. It arrived today and it took a couple hours to figure it out and load my Rhapsody playlists. I got a refurbished model -- it seems reasonably "sturdy" for a tiny plastic thing. The easy and great: - The interface is really easy /intuitive. Everything is in the main menu display -- just click up or down to select menu items, right to make changes and left to go back to main menu. Song playback is equally straightforward. - It is literally a drag and drop thing from Rhapsody to load playlists in (our wireless router/broadband connection has some issues and it averaged 10 seconds per song). - The sound is really good -- even with supplied headphones. Based on prior reviews I googled "clix rhapsody sound settings" and found a message board with recommended settings which took no time to change and produced great sound. The only not great things: - Where I am gets not a single FM radio station. (I haven't really tried to figure this out but our clock radio picks up a bunch of stuff.) - The Rhapsody To Go needed some research -- I consulted the "troubleshooting" on the Rhapsody website and found out that I needed to upgrade my Windows Media Player to get it to "authorize my device". Not a big deal but it was a surprise that unrelated software was the problem. This thing is SMALL, great display, intuitive menu, great sound and with minimal effort I have hundreds of songs loaded in -- for Rhapsody users a great thing. I agree with the prior reviewer -- it makes me happy.

An unfortunate disappointment

I have had my Clix for almost a year now and truthfully I have had nothing but problems. I had high hopes for it because it is a truly gorgeous player and touts some great features but the reliability and support have been so horrible that I couldn't recommend this to anyone. When the player works it has a stunning screen for photo and video playback. While the sound is significantly quieter than other players, the quality is very high. The problems I have had with the player however, significantly outweigh those benefits. The first player I received didn't work at all right out of the box and getting it replaced was a miserable experience because iRiver's customer service is the worst I have every experienced. Since their US presence is so small, there is little hope that you will ever get a satisfactory resolution to your problems. I eventually had to simply send the player back with a note attached to it requesting a full refund and crossed my fingers that it would happen. After that I decided to give it one more shot since I figured the player was probably a dud which I was just unlucky enough to get. I was wrong. While this player works for the most part, I frequently experience issues such as my entire music or video library disappearing despite the player showing reduced memory. It also freezes up on a regular basis and can be quite frustrating to reset. I personally like the clicking controls as opposed to most other players on the market but other buttons on the Clix are troublesome such as the locking button which does not function correctly most of the time. Additionally, some of the things that are annoying on the player is that you have very little control over files after they are on the player. Your music software can transfer or delete files wonderfully but you are unable to do basic functions on the player itself such as deleting files, rating them, or moving them to different playlists. These features seem pretty standard in players like this yet they are lacking on the Clix. The biggest issue with the Clix is that when you do happen to have a problem you are basically just screwed. Since iRiver customer support is all but non-existent, and they aren't likely to have a store which will support you in your area, you can basically say goodbye to any investment you make in the Clix if something goes wrong. Since I love the video quality and the styling on the Clix, I put up with it for quite a while but I think it is time to move on. Only buy this player if you have money that you don't mind gambling with.

A BIG disappointment

I bought the Clix gen 2 8GB because it was advertised as Rhapsody compatible and got a great review on CNET. It has a great display and user interface but I was not able to get it to work with Rhapsody to Go DRM transfers and I also had trouble with tranferring my own MP3 music files to the device using Rhapsody. They transfer OK but will not show up in the music menu unless you "rebuild library" each time. I tried working the problem with both iRiver and Rhapsody tech support without success. I don't think it's a Rhapsody issue as I experienced the problem on two different computers running Rhapsody and I have not had the issue with the Sansa players that my kids use. I was also not satisified with the "fit and finish". The D-click user interface is very innovative and easy to use, but the top part of the device shell feels loose and wiggles around. I'm concerned it might come off. So what could have been a delightful product was instead a big disappointment. I'm shipping the Clix back to Amazon for a refund. I hope this review will help others avoid the frustration and waste of time that I experienced with this product. Brad Freeman

Keyword : iriver

Meizu Slim 4 GB MP3/MP4 Player (White)

2008-07-08T01:03:00.001-07:00

Meizu Slim 4 GB MP3/MP4 Player (White)

Customer Reviews

Quality, Quantity & Linux Friendly

I purchased this item as a birthday present for my mother, and in a household that exclusively uses Linux, I can safely say that Meizu's little media player is a quality device. With support for video playback, playlists, ID3 tag display/browsing, file tree browsing, OGG, radio, audio/radio recording, MTP/MSC, text files, JPEG, and custom backgrounds, Meizu's miniPlayer SL can do a lot of things, and it does them well. Gorgeously crafted out of brushed aluminum and smooth, high density plastic, the miniPlayer is first and foremost a portable audio player. As such, it delivers a powerful low end even with the included earphones. It's so strong that Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" makes a sound that I can only describe as a heavy, unpleasant thud throughout playback. Not only do I have to LOWER something called the bass boost, I have to completely turn OFF another setting called the virtual bass enhancement as well. The rest of the sound spectrum is less pronounced, but still very clean & clear; for example, in Starship's "We Built This City," the highs during the chorus aren't earsplitting, something that my beloved Insignia Pilot can't boast at its default setting. Also compared to my Pilot, and my old 2nd Gen iPod Nano as well, climactic portions don't distort at higher volumes such as portions in Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson's "Beauty and the Beast." If the miniPlayer's default sound setting still fails to impress, there are several tweaks that can be done to cater to just about everyone's personal tastes. In addition to the bass boost settings, there are also settings for treble boost, spatializer, and equalizer. The treble boost is self-explanatory and quite ordinary compared to the spatializer, which does an awesome job of distinguishing different instruments and other sounds, and the equalizer, which adjusts various sound frequencies. With the spatializer, of which the virtual bass enhancement is part of, I can hear sounds that I never even realized were there in the first place. As for the equalizer, it offers several presets and the ability to adjust TEN different bands just in case sound is lacking in quality or is distorting too much. Other players usually offer only five bands (like my Pilot) or no customization at all (like my Nano). At four gigabytes (GB), this particular model of the miniPlayer can store upwards of a thousand songs. Navigation would be daunting if it weren't for the intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). Basically, anyone that has used a Zen or iPod in the last few years will be right at home since the miniPlayer emulates their step-down method perfectly. The button layout is also a combination of the old Zen VisionM/Micro and the latest iPods. The miniPlayer uses a touch strip like the VisionM/Micro as well as buttons embedded under the touch-sensitive surface like the iPods. If there's any drawback it would be that the touch controls need little pressure to activate making it easy to make mistakes--practice is needed for precision. As for the GUI, if your music files are tagged correctly, you can browse by album or artist, but strangely not genre. You can also make your own playlists using either a computer or the miniPlayer itself which can save on-the-go playlists (I'm not sure how many though). Currently, I haven't found an easy, sure fire way to make playlists under Linux. If you prefer folder browsing, the miniPlayer supports a folder hierarchy at least three layers deep. The only thing lacking is a word search function. The miniPlayer's secondary role is video playback, a role it plays reasonably well. However, this is one area that other similar devices trump the miniPlayer. With the ability to play XVID encoded AVI videos at max 20 frames per second (fps), videos are quite smooth except for maybe high speed action scenes. To achieve the full 20 fps, though, video bitrate and thus crispness must be sacrificed, with a max of about less than 300 kilobits per second (Kb/s) to eliminate lag. In comparison, my Pilot and my brother's 3rd Gen iPod Nano can play videos at 30 fps at 512 Kb/s without a solitary hitch (plus both support A/V out for video playback on TV). Still, video playback on the miniPlayer's large, beautiful 2.4" 320x240 260k color display is hardly choppy or blurry. Furthermore, for some reason, videos at low bitrates on the miniPlayer are less blurry than videos at the same bitrate on my Pilot. Lastly, the miniPlayer has a very sensitive voice recorder and a radio with decent signal, auto-scan, save and recording. The remaining features includes games, a calendar, and a calculator, all of which are near useless due to their lack of refinement and function. Software-wise, the included video converter does a great job of converting most common file types. The software is Windows only, but it is compatible with WINE. Personally, I use the command line, but there is an excellent free program called iRiverter if you prefer something with a GUI. If all else fails, there is an online community dedicated to supporting the miniPlayer such as the AnythingButiPod, MeizuMe, and Ubuntu forums if you need guidance. Other complementary programs for Linux users are Easytag or Kyamo to edit MP3 tags/OGG Vorbis comments (nothing for wma unfortunately), and Amarok to help organize and transfer your music. Other things of note are support for album art for MP3/OGG files and firmware upgrades, both of which can be manually done under any operating system (take that Sandisk!!!). You can also use your own pictures as the default background and change the color scheme. Aftermarket accessories include a myriad of skins, plastic cases, and silicon cases as well as a speaker dock. In addition to the useless calendar, calculator, and games, cons include the lack of a resume function for audio files (although there is a fast and competent search function), no gapless playback, no memory card slot, and having to manually update the music library every time you disconnect from the computer or wall charger. With so many good quality features, most of the cons are overshadowed by the pros. The only deal breaker would be the lack of memory expandability, and truthfully, that is why I am sticking to my Pilot. However, there is little to be disappointed about the miniPlayer. Ample memory, fair price, sleek design, good community/developer support, and superior sound quality, the miniPlayer is a good choice for people who enjoy music and the occasional video but aren't self-described power users.

Keyword : meizu

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Silver (3rd Generation)

2008-07-08T00:19:00.000-07:00

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Silver (3rd Generation)

Customer Reviews

Excellent product

The product came in excellent conditions. The new generation of Ipod works perfectly. I recommend this product very much!

reat deal

Great price on what appears to be a never before used nano-It came as promised and I would recommend this to anyone.

Ipod 8 GB

Product was as represented. Did not come with any cords, which perhaps should have been specified, but other than that-was as advertised.

My first experiences with an iPod

This is my first experience using an iPod. We have a son who designs the top of the line earphones for the iPods. It is through his interests for us that we purchased a Nano iPod. I am 80 yrs old and love using this equipment in my woodshop. I can't say enough good about the whole system. The earphones are the very best and the Nano is great. My advice to seniors, get help from your children and grandchildren, as I have done, get to understand and appreciate the wonders of the new technologies out there today. My wife is a tole painter and loves to listen to the equipment as well. The ear phones are made by Klipsch and they are the "greatest". Marvin Blanchard.

3rd Gen Ipod Nano Rocks

I love the 3rd gen. It's so much better than the 2nd gen. This one plays videos and the screen is much bigger. Everything is much better!

Keyword : ipod+nano

Samsung YP-S5JAB 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player with Speaker (Black)

2008-07-07T00:30:00.001-07:00

Samsung YP-S5JAB 4 GB Slim Portable Media Player with Speaker (Black)

Customer Reviews

Wouldn't load Library Audiobooks

I bought the YP-S5J AB specifically to play audiobooks that can be downloaded from the local library. This model was on a list the library made of devices that worked with their files, so it does work for this purpose sometimes...just not for me. I spent about three hours trying it various ways, downloading firmware, and double-checking with the library to see if I missed anything (The books played on my computer fine, so it wasn't a problem with downloading from the library). I would get the error message "It is not possible to transfer this file. Contact device maker for firmware update." I then spent half an hour on the Samsung Technical Support Line. The only thing they could tell me was to go to website and download any firmware updates, which I had already done (twice) so I am returning it. I also didn't like the design of the device with regard to its actual usage (turning on, selecting music, etc.) Using the push screen felt akward and I had to press the "buttons" multiple times before it would take, although maybe this would improve as you used it longer.

it's alright

i purchased this product mainly b/c i like to listen to sermons, and i wanted to find a way i could speed up the tempo. i'm not completely satisfied since i did so much homework looking into this product. the fact that it has a speaker is definitely a plus. however, the buttons are too sensitive (touchpad) so that it's difficult to navigate. also, the fact that it resets your volume settings to default everytime you turn off the device is very annoying. oh, and in case anyone is wondering, if you increase or decrease the tempo speed (up to x3), the pitch WILL change - this is a bummer, but I guess there's no way around it. the video also sucks b/c the screen is TOO small. it is a nifty recorder, however, if you need to record class lectures. I think the IPOD is more user friendly, and i would recommend apple instead.

Hot, Hot product!!

first off, great price for this Mp3 player. The S5 is the coolest Mp3 player out there. I am in love with it! I also love the software the comes along with this player, really easy to upload dah music. The speakers are so clear sounded and can reach a really high volume. The touch screen is awesome, but very sensitive. So I would buy some protective shields for it when purchasing (You can get those at Walmart, cheap price). The player over all is worth 10 stars in my point of view. Everyone is so jealous of it! I would drop an Ipod anytime for dis piece of fine work! But there's more to this player! Sooo so customizable. You can change pretty much everything to fit your s-s-style... honestly you have to get the S5 because the T5 maybe the same thing, but the S5 has that cool, retro speaker design that is like friggin sweet man. FAST SHIPPING TOO

First mp3 player, pretty good

I ordered the Samsung S5 a few months ago and so far it has proven to be a pretty well made player. I was a bit wary at first because this was my first mp3 player and wanted something other than an iPod. Not because I'm anti Apple, but because people should realize that a lot have more features than the iPod. Anyway, What I like about it is the size, sound quality, and the capacity. It struck me as odd however that the 8gig version will never be available in the North American market unless you get it imported. The Bluetooth has also come in handy many times for when I'm working and will not be able to hear the phone otherwise. However a text alert would be helpful too (instead of just calls). The sound quality is amazing. The sound is loud and with different equalizer settings (including a customizable one) the sound has proven itself for my 4 sets of headphones (2 over head models and 2 ear bud models). Now the nitty gritty: Pros- Good sound Small size Speakers very useful for sharing with friends Dropped a few times, and is still functioning and not too many scratches Radio is handy to have Voice and radio recording Text reading capabilities Cons- Software slows down my computer (but files can be dragged and dropped by Windows explorer) Some mp3s are difficult or unable to transfer to the player Battery life is short if you're not the playlist type After long play time with the hold button on, the buttons become 'stuck' and I have to reboot.

One star? Five?

This may be a perfectly good product, but the one I received wouldn't take a charge, so I returned it and got a Zen V Plus instead. The latter works fine.

Keyword : samsung+mp3

iriver T60 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

2008-07-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

iriver T60 2 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Customer Reviews

Good sound, crappy controls

EQ settings are awesome. Sound quality is great. But the little knob for controlling the unit is horrible. Pressing the knob is the equivalent as typing the enter/return key on your keyboard. Don't do it too hard, though, because the knob gets lodged into the unit, making it impossible to adjust the volume. When I say "lightly" use this button, its an understatement. The prism screen looks awesome. Battery life... is ok I guess. You can record an FM station for about 3 hours before the battery is dead. You also can set whether you have a rechargable battery or alkaline installed. If you set rechargeable, the unit will die quicker. I have no idea why. I can get maybe an hour out of recording before the unit turns off. I measure my battery's life in my charger, and it has PLENTY of juice left. So needless to say, if you are going to use rechargeables, just leave it on the alkaline setting. Seems like a useless feature.

Not quite what I expected.

What I liked about the T60: Being able to schedule FM recordings, The ability to adjust the sound EQ, compact and easy to carry. What I didn't like: The controls a difficult to use (to small, very sensitive), the AAA batteries only provide enough power to record for a couple of hours (about 2), the battery meter will show 3/4 to 1/2 power remaining but will stop recording after approx. 30 minutes.

Best MP3 player

Sound quality is excellent and all the functions are easy to use. Some people mentioned that there is some problem with the toggle for navigation, but I don't have any problem at all! They must have very thick fingers... It is made very firm and also delicate. From a mechanical point of view, I can see how much effort they put when they design this product. Another thing I like about this product is that it uses AAA battery. I have used other MP3 players which have built in rechargible batteries. They are small, but as time goes by, you need to charge more and more often as the battery dies out and there is no way to replace battery. Iriver T60 vertually last forever. I have been using Iriver T30 for three years with no problem at all(except 512mb is a bit small now), and I know the quality of the Iriver products. I highly recommend this player and stay away from cheap MP3 players like Sandisk, Philips, creative, coby,and etc. I believe Iriver is the first company that developed MP3 player and you can trust the quality.

mixed bag

When I was looking for a portable music player (pmp), I had several criteria in mind that made finding a decent player extremely difficult: 1) Most importantly, it needed to have high sound quality. Mostly what I mean by this is high quality signal processing and a high (>/= 90db) signal to noise ratio. I say this from experience, not as a snob: I tried a Phillips and the sound on acoustic guitar recordings produced noticeable distortion and artifacts around each picked note. On another player w/higher specs, the same exact file was clean. So the specs (if they are accurate) DO really matter if you care at all about sound quality. I'm a plug 'n' play person, and never use any EQ settings (parametric, presets, fancy "SRS WOW" or any of that). It should sound the way the musicians wanted it to sound without any fiddling with those things. I listen to all sorts of music: underground rap, indypop, folk, acoustic, bluegrass, progressive metal, jazz, classical, etc. So far they all sound good on this. 2) I changed from Windows to Ubuntu Linux (it's free! and also amazingly good!) on my laptop, and wanted something that supported the open (free) Ogg Vorbis format, which is vastly superior to both VBR mp3 and wma in sound quality. And I wanted to support open vs closed standards. Unfortunately, Ogg (and its lossless counterpart FLAC) don't yet have as much hardware support as the closed wma and mp3 formats. 3) I wanted a flash-drive, not a portable mass storage library. I rip my cds to FLAC, encode to Ogg Q6 (~192kbps), and archive the FLAC albums on an external hard drive in case I need to re-encode something. Besides, pmp's with hard drives have too many moving parts and wouldn't last long with the way I abuse hardware. 4) Needed to run off of a standard AAA or AA battery for future-proofing and convenience: standard batteries are everywhere, and can simply be replaced with another fully charged one when they are drained, rather than having to find a wall plug and waiting for a recharge. Plus, when they die, you can be assured that more are easy to buy, rather than hunting for a rare, expensive proprietary battery pack that might be discontinued. I use 4 AAA NiMH rechargeables, and between them I get plenty of battery life in a package that's still not very bulky or heavy when compared to a CD player. And it's super-cheap. 5) Decent microphone to record voice notes, memos, song ideas, and conversations. 6) I learn a lot of songs by ear, so it's really nice to have an AB function that is easily accessible. A lot of casual listeners consider it a bell and whistle ("who would want to listen to part of a song over and over?") Well, anyone who wants to truly learn the song (music and/or lyrics) inside and out. Other than that, I can honestly say I don't care much about other "features" such as color screens and graphics, FM radio, etc. Verdict: 1) Amazing sound quality without any fiddling. I haven't even touched any of the EQ and effects settings it has, and probably never will. Some audible hiss, but I have yet to find any player from anywhere at any price that didn't have some, and during playback (which is crystal clear -- no distortion!!) it isn't noticeable. The volume on this sucker goes very loud -- with noise cancelling earbuds (try the $30 ones from Creative -- amazing sound for the $$!) I don't have the volume above 7 - 8 most of the time. When I plug into an external system, I crank it up to 20. 2) iRiver says it supports Ogg Vorbis up to Q10 (highest quality). I haven't tested that, but it plays Q6 well enough. Playback isn't gapless, however, which is annoying on some albums. It also plays mp3s well, and they sound decent. 3) It's flash. I considered the 4 gb model, and sometimes which I would've gotten it instead. But in the end I think 20-30 albums at high quality is enough. 4) It runs well off rechargeable AAA's. I haven't yet measured the actual battery life it gets. Some annoying points that others may have mentioned: a) It drains battery during USB transfers, which is completely unnecessary. b) There is a "battery selection" option to toggle between alkaline and rechargeable so you get an accurate readout. However, the toggle is reversed, and you need to set it to alkaline to get an accurate rechargeable readout, and vice-versa. Weird. 5) Microphone recordings are very clear and of high quality. It does a good job of picking up voice and acoustic instruments, and has a well-tempered balance between close and distant sound sources. It records to mp3 format, which saves space and allows you to choose 3 different quality settings. Good enough for my purposes. 6) The player has a button *dedicated* to AB functions. Like this player was made for musicians. How cool is that? Other players hide it under a couple layers of menus, which can get annoying. Some other musician friendly features: "study mode" lets you use the track forward/back buttons to jump to 3, 10, 30, etc second intervals within a song, making rewind easy without risking a jump back to the beginning. Dedicated ff/rw buttons would be better, but this is nice. There is also a "playback speed" function, but it doesn't work on my player. Too bad, so sad. Other notes: a) The joystick is slightly annoying. I don't generally have a problem with it, but you have to use both hands in order to do what you want to do with it. Wish it were just push buttons, though. b) Like I said above, it drains power during USB transfers. WTF? At least a couple of these issues could be fixed by a firmware update, but the current version is 1.03 and was released in May 2007. iRiver responds to e-mails for support, but sometimes doesn't answer the question I asked. As I don't care about the funky shape or other issues like that, four changes would make this the perfect pmp in my opinion: 1) Get rid of the joystick 2) Redesign to run off USB power. Relocate USB plug or get rid of need for a USB cord and have the player plug directly in to the computer like any other flash storage drive. 3) Update the firmware to resolve the stupid software issues: Nonfunctional playback speed option, reversed alkaline - rechargeable setting. 4) (not as important) a dedicated, gain-adjusted line-out jack. But there's only so much surface area on a Toblerone...

Like it alot

This is my first mp3 player. I have bought similar players as gifts for my kids so I have read some reviews before buying. I like the sound quality - of course that too depends on the earphones (I bought JBUDS with it - the stock phones are poor quality so get a better pair). Nice features like many different equalizer settings including presets and two that you can tinker with - I especially like the SRS mode that you can adjust to your liking. Other things like a sleep timer, alarm, clock, etc. But what was very important to me in picking a player was the battery. This one takes one regular AAA size battery. I suggest rechargeables. I bought the 2gb version - you might want to buy the 4gb if you have many mp3's or wma's.

Keyword : iriver

Apple iPod touch 16 GB without Software Updates

2008-07-06T06:31:00.001-07:00

Apple iPod touch 16 GB without Software Updates

Customer Reviews

very cool but be prepared to buy other neccesities for it!

daughter loves it

got this 4 my daughter and she loves it one of the cool things is that you can get internet on it i didnt know that when i got it 4 her. she loves it

I love this thing

it works like every other new ipod coming out but with wifi. its kinda like an iphone without the phone and the edge internet. has a few glitches and freezes sometimes though.

Cool Idea but a little tough to use at times

Got this for my wife for her Birthday...

She doesn't use all the features, but what she does use she in the envy of everyone around her. COOL GADGET! She really liked this gift.

Keyword : ipod+touch

mobiBLU DHH-200 8 GB Media Player (Blue)

2008-07-06T01:58:00.000-07:00

mobiBLU DHH-200 8 GB Media Player (Blue)

Customer Reviews

Easy to Use but don't bother with their website

It is very easy to use and has good sound quality. Cute, too. If you follow their step by step instructions you end up deleting the firmware. The manual directs you to do so from their website - but it is in Korean. (this made things difficult b/c I don't read/speak Korean). I googled firmware and found an alternative site to download it from. Works fine.

Keyword : mobiblu