Now I don't try every model, nor have I owned very many MP3 players (less than 5), but I have NEVER had any problems with my Creative Labs player (are they just bad people, did they harm you, or is there some other reason why they don't deserve $? :)
I agree, though, Apple does a really nice job engineering their devices all-in-all, and there is a bit of unfortunate back-lash against their popularity. Too bad we're not special and unique for buying Apple anymore :)
For me, I just need good battery life, decent amp & sound quality, and a fair interface that I can use while riding my bike if need be :) I've used some players with very small screen and som with no screen, and crappy buttons, etc, but I am not a power user in the mobile audio realm... Just want to point out that so often a simple cheap device will get you what you want, and you won't be heartbroken when it falls in the river or gets smashed... ;) I mean to say that I have *not* experienced any bugginess or unreliability -- and I haven't noticed any missing features, it plays my music as I wish.
Ben
On 6/14/06, T. Joseph Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 08:40:52AM -0700, alan wrote:
> "PlayForSure" is the Microsoft branded DRM. "PlaysForS%$%^" is more like
> it. (It is a very troublesome bit of code to keep working, even if you do
> use Microsoft products.) It also drains battery life on the device
> because of the extra cpu load.
>
> I have been looking at either the SanDisk or iRiver. (iRiver will play
> ogg files!)
SanDisk players are turds. Bug-ridden pieces of crap.
Creative doesn't deserve your money, and their products are not better
than SanDisk's.
Samsung's player isn't bad, but it's like an iPod with bling..
iRiver has Ogg going for it, but I wouldn't say it's got anything else.
I'm looking at an iAudio U2 or U3 (random Asian manufacturer) because of
its recording features, which are supposed to be at least as good as the
typical digital voice recorder, and doesn't use unusual highly compressed
voice codecs to be able to put a $150 price tag on a 64/128MB flash device
because you can advertise that it can record a week's audio at RealAudio
on a 9600 baud modem quality. No promises that either is actually decent
at audio playback!
Seriously, there's a reason why the iPod is the top seller in its market,
and it's not fashion. Most music players are crappy and limited when you
compare them to the iPod. They're either clunky compared to similar model
iPod in size or functionality or both, or they're so buggy, unreliable,
and missing essential features that anyone who buys one tells everyone
they know to get an iPod instead.
I've been looking for a decent quality non-Apple music player because I
actually need support for WMA DRM, whether I want support for it or not.
(Digital audio books..) The conclusion I reached was that every single
product on the market was horrible. The Creative Zen Nano, for example,
was hard to use and several times larger than my iPod Shuffle, and equally
unsuitable for audio books. Bigger players just weren't any better.
_______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
