Mostly: Classical

[Sexton O Blake]

Lets see how much of a black Friday we are gonna get...

John, on the MP3 players.. I can only offer my observations. In the end you need to decide what is important and what is available to you - along with cost and specs. epinions.com (I am bellyman) is a great place to start. You can go crazy on this stuff.

After reviewing quite a few units I am left with the following important specs:

(A) Removable battery. Req AA or AAA. Although not tested I would hope a 1.2V rechargeable NiMH batter would work well in those. Nowadays most electronic devices are "replaced" and not fixed. Apple can sell you a new battery after the internal dies, the price is about $50-100US. My feeling is - instead of buying fancy gadgets that recharge at home and in the car and at work, or on a trip, what is better than just having a few extra batteries available?

(B) Memory based - you have to figure out where you are going on this. For me, even a 512MB would be ok since my tastes change from week to week. I spend a great deal of time in front of my computer. With >600GB at my disposal, it is a perfect music/movie server. Something to go out with on a walk or in the car or at school - a memory based unit is good enough. If you want your daughters to have their entire collection (you know how much and base it on 128bit rate) you can judge if a memory based unit will be ample or if you require to move up to a harddrive.

I am against the HD units in general since they are obviously prone to be dropped and that probably will cause the drives to crash. Memory based are cheap and if your daughter loses them, it isn't a great fortune.

YES $/MB v $/GB - without a doubt the biggest iPOD is $/MB cheaper than most memory based units. But the crashing part is still there.

Some memory based units offer memory sticks.. so you could always buy those (at various $ and sizes).

(c) For Windows, it is best to ensure the device is considered as a MASS STORAGE DEVICE (MSD). In otherwords, if you are running XP, you just plug it in via USB2 and boom - it appears as a device in my computer. Then you just move the music over as needed. Most can hold other "files". So if your daughter has a Word document to be moved to/from a computer at school, this device would be perfect. Not all devices are MSDs. iRIVER offers something but hasn't formally offered this by default. Quite a few do.

(D) Durability. This is where most are weak. Samsung and iRIVER have a JOYSTICK - many on epinions have complained about this. San Disk offers a rather robust unit it appears. However it failed in category E. Unless you get them dirt cheap, these are the kinds of devices you would want to saddle Best Buy et al with an extended warranty.

(E) Resume. A simple bookmark feature. I play 2hour streams. Some when they go off forget to resume at the place where it last ended. My car has that in its CD player. Amazingly most DVD players don't even have this required feature.
The robust SanDisk was a solid winner but you had to go higher up (to a less reliable unit) to get this basic feature.
If your daughters are playing music - one ofs, I would say this is not a big requirement.

(E) Glitz. If this is your primary function, forget everything I said above and get yourself an iPOD. Apparently the NANOs are very scratch prone and I have already read about class action suits on it. Without a doubt the NANOs are the way to go.

My opinion is - most units should last quite a number of years. They all may suffer with the occasional button problem. But lets say the buttons are ok - you could be left with a drive crash or a dead battery. Hence changable batteries and memory based. (no iPOD NANO battery is not changeable)

They are many other features - like custom equalizers, recording options, playlists etc. These vary from unit to unit. Remember - these aren't WINAMP and, therefore, still lacking in robust features. Samsung and others offer more than just MP3 and WMA and AAC. OGG is good since it is a lossless compression system.

I think the greater concern might be having the units stolen (#1!) and/or lost. Hence you don't want to spend a lot.

My advice is check out the likes of Costco/Sams/Wal-mart first.
To get a quick feel. Costco's selection is poor but in Canada they do offer today a Sanyo 512MB (SANDISK sticks) unit - not much info on those - but they use a simple pad, removable battery, MSD etc. Like $120CDN. (I choose this because of their liberal return policy - buy 2 .. try one as soon as you get it - don't like it return both). Check out Bestbuy.CA or FutureShop.com. If you are in the US, Walmart has CHITloads of Mp3 players including iPOD.

For most widdle girls 512MB is more than plenty. 256MB might be sufficient too. Again use 128 as the bit rate since most songs below that number tend to sound tinny. WMV has better compression so the files can be smaller.

OT: Wal-mart is entering the lucrative warranty extension market. Thats where the electronic stores actually make their money. And today in the US they are matching all competitor ads. The CEO stated he doesn't care if companies go bankrupt - its do or die for WMT.

For everyone reading this article.. here is a Samsung 1GB unit (YP-C1Z). Its new - seems to have a PAD instead of a joystick. The specs are in a word, what I would expect in a good MP3 unit. These specs seem to be across most Samsung units (again the buttons/pad/joystick) is where durability questions are raised.

http://www.samsung.com/ca/products/digitalaudioproducts/digitalmediaplayer/yp_c1zxac.asp?page=Specif...
- Battery; Memory based; Resume; MSD; FM tuner; Customizable Equalizer; Voice Recording; OGG: not to mention speced 42 HOURS on a single AA battery.

Either this helps you John to figure what you want.. or perhaps it helps you know what NOT to get.


As for me, have been focusing on getting my ass in gear. Not much reading on SI or iHUB. Check in every so often for messages. Still lost.. but feel a whole lot better!

Cheers and Happy Holidays!
Blake