MP3 Players

What to Know About MP3 Players:

In general, I am not an iPod fan. There are plenty of things that I can't argue about, regarding the iPod. Marketing seems to be the driving force of this item. While I will outline some advantages of the iPod here, I will cover other devices that are much better, in my opinion.

iPod Pros:

Accessories: Is there any limit to accessorizing you iPod. These days it would seem not. They even includ connections for iPod's in automobiles these days.

Intuitive: The navigation of the iPod is intuitive. Browsing through menus of photos, music and video is as simple as can be. Tactile feedback from the device is good too, as well as the nifty jog dial on the front.

iTunes: Great location online to pickup your favorite music and videos for people on the go. If you don't mind spending money all the time, there are endless amounts of entertainment from the website.

iPod Cons:

Software: I, clearly unlike millions of users, was not happy with the pc software for the iPod. While it seemed simple for some people, I found myself wondering why I had to convert a lot of my music before it got to the device. This added great amounts of time that it took just to get music onto the iPod. Categorizing and organizing within iTunes produced the same sort of confusion for me. Once all of it is learned it's pretty simple. But let me ask you this: what do you do without iTunes?

No Replaceable Battery: Oops! I forgot to charge my iPod. Guess that's another 8 hour day of humming my own tune. While many devices don't have a replaceable battery these days, it would be nice regardless of how long a charge lasts.

Price: Let me get this straight. You can fork out 100 bucks for an mp3 player without a screen (iPod Shuffle)??? There are tons of devices out there that at least give you a screen to let you know what you are playing for that price.

A/V Support: What types of files does the iPod support? Well sure, we got MP3's and AAC audio. Well there's other types of audio that are common out there people. And the video iPod. Ever tried to get your own video onto this thing? Good luck!

Prefered Devices:

Instead of a iPod Nano, get this: Iriver Clix

http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/iriver-clix-4gb-second/4505-6490_7-32327766.html?tag=prod.txt.2

or this: Cowon D2

Instead of a full size iPod, get this: MS Zune

http://reviews.cnet.com/Zune_30GB_black/4505-6490_7-32068976.html

Features to Look For:

While some of these items may contradict my personal preference device, these items may be of use to you for you own personal requirements:

Replaceable Battery: one getting juiced while the other living it up. Don't wake up with a dead device.
Expandable: I have one device that takes an sd card. I can have numerous sd cards filled with my daily preferences
Drag and Drop: Do I need iTunes or some other software to make it work? Some players appear as a hard drive on your machine and all you have to do is "drag n drop". When I get to Billy's house and want to share with him, I don't have to install iTunes on his machine.
Mini USB: This is now the most popular and readily available USB cord on the mkt. Often it's the same cord you use to for you digital camera, cell phone (razr), etc. Many players use proprietary cords. Am I supposed to carry that cord around everywhere? Work, Home, etc? What's it going to cost for another one of those proprietary cords?
Screen: Don't you want to know what you are listening to?
FM Radio: I get bored of my own music sometimes. How about something fresh? or news/sports?

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