I want my MP3
By Sean Carruthers, posted 9/8/2003 4:13:28 PM
A handful of portable audio
options and accessories
If you love music but don't want to be tied to your home stereo, it's
hard to beat the new digital audio products. For a long time, people
carted around portable cassette or CD players, which can be bulky.
Thankfully, the new digital media players can store a lot of music in a
very tiny form factor. In addition to portable CD players that also play
MP3 format music, there are two other types available: those using use
flash memory and those that come with a hard drive inside.
Flash-based players use the same memory technology you find in digital
cameras, and like those cameras, sometimes the memory is built in and
sometimes it's removable, in the form of memory card. These players tend
to come with 64 and 256 MB of memory, which can hold between one and eight
hours of music, depending on your encoding. Flash-based players tend to be
much more compact, making them a good choice for active people.
Players using hard-drives can store far more music; a player with a 30
GB hard drive may hold between 300 and 700 hours of music (again depending
on your encoding). Because they include a notebook-sized hard drive, these
players are bulkier than flash-based players, but you do get to carry most
of your music collection with you, everywhere you go. This month we look
at one of each type of player. In the upcoming months, we'll be looking at
plenty more!
Estimated price: $749
The iPod has been the technolust item for digital music fans ever since
it was introduced, and the new versions are unlikely to change that. The
top -of-the-line iPod has a 30 GB hard drive (which can hold roughly 7,500
songs), but still maintains an ultra-slim shirt-pocket design. The player
is compatible with both Mac and Windows right out of the box, and while it
comes with a FireWire docking cradle that connects it to your computer, a
USB 2.0 cradle is also available (sold separately for about $60). This
version and the 15 GB version ($599) each come with a carrying case and
wired remote. The 10 GB version ($459) skips those items, and doesn't come
with the dock. The user interface is still the most elegant out there,
thanks to the scroll wheel. I found the operating system a bit buggy;
requiring more frequent resets, especially after being in the dock for
longer periods; the problem went away after upgrading the iPod's firmware,
though. Despite the price premium, it's easily the best of the hard-drive
based models currently available.
Other recent hard drive players:
Nomad MuVo NX
Estimated price: $230
Creative's previous version of the Nomad MuVo was one of the tiniest
digital audio players out there, fitting up to 128 MB of digital audio
onto a USB key that turned into a digital audio player when inserted into
the battery pack. The new MuVo NX not only adds an LCD window -- so you
can finally see what song is playing -- but it also adds voice recording
capabilities (up to eight hours). It uses one standard AA battery, which
offers up to four hours of runtime. The MuVo NX has 128 MB of memory, and
a 256 MB version will ship later this year (for $300). One really nice
thing about the MuVo NX bundle is the inclusion of a second battery pack,
so you have your choice of colours, as well as a beltclip that can hook
into the included sports armband.
Other flash-based portables:
By Sean Carruthers
URL for this story:
iPod 30GB
http://www.HUBCanada.com/story_10688_36
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