TS: Zen v. iPod

If you want drag and drop mp3 playability then the get the Zen or and iriver (there are other HD based players)

I believe there is an FM radio/microphone attachment for the Zen Touch that I have, but The new model has one built in.

It's 2 years old, 60 gig and huge. But in 2 years I've never had a problem with it.

We should all have such lovely statements.

Still going on my iPod from summer 2002. Handy little sucker, that.

Beware an earlier statment in the thread though: MOST of these players aren't "drag and drop". You need a client to transfer files for most of these players, which probably has something to do with Digital Rights Management. Curiously, the Creative MuVo Micros (available up to a gigabyte last I heard) are drag-n-drop because they double as flash memory drives too.

Since you're looking for a "consumer reports" type of thing I'm just gonna drop in the majority of one of my recent columns on newish MP3 players, including my (to me, anyhow) unexpected defense of the iPod Shuffle.

It might seem odd to some that Apple's most recent digital audio move was the iPod Shuffle, which basically strips player functionality back to the earliest days of the category. Oh sure, the Shuffle has 512MB or a full gigabyte of storage ­ far more than the 32MB or 64MB you used to see on earlier players ­ but by removing the LCD screen outright, Apple is essentially selling a player with roughly the same capabilities that you'd have found on a player from 1998.

Is it a triumph of marketing over substance? The cynics might say so, but to quote my favourite Klingon warrior: "It's the software, stupid!" Back when the Rio 300 was first introduced, getting your music onto the player was pretty much a manual process: choose the songs one-by-one, and then transfer them to the player ... slowly.

The Shuffle, on the other hand, relies heavily on the years of smarts built into the iTunes software, to the point that you don't even have to be involved in the process: just plug it in, and iTunes will pick your next batch of music for you based on your pre-determined criteria. Simple. No matter how nice the hardware, competing manufacturers still have trouble duplicating the ease of use of the software, which is why Apple's still the one to beat.

Snap snap

One area where other digital audio player manufacturers have already taken their lead from Apple is in hard drive players with photo display capabilities. The iPod Photo's colour screen not only pepped up the menu system, but made it possible to show off small reproductions of your favourite photos. The only problem ­ as with previous iPod products ­ was the price.

Enter the competition. Taking their cue from the physical size and disk capacity of the iPod Mini, manufacturers such as Samsung, iRiver and Creative have hit back with price-conscious models that can also display photographs.

Samsung's Yepp YH-820 (www.samsung.ca) comes with a 5GB hard drive, and features a 1.5-inch (128x96 pixel) colour screen for displaying your JPG images. The player handles both MP3 and WMA audio files, has a built in voice recorder, and can sync to your computer using Windows Media Player 10. The downside: It's only compatible with Windows XP. It sells for about $300.

The iRiver H10 (www.iriver.com) seems remarkably similar if you glance at the spec sheet, but look closer and you'll notice that it also has a built-in FM tuner, and gives you the ability to remove and replace the battery yourself ­ something you don't get on either the iPod or the Yepp model. You're going to pay a bit more for these bonuses, though: the player costs about $380.

Creative is also working on a photo version of its Zen Micro player, to be released mid-way through the year. The player looks to be virtually identical to its current Zen Micro model, but will feature a colour OLED screen. Many manufacturers are continuing to work through pesky quality issues with OLED screens, which could account for the later launch of the Creative model. When it finally does hit the market, expect it to have a competitive price.

Going on the air

If it seems like there hasn't been a huge change in the world of digital audio players for a while, get ready for SoniqCast's Aireo 2. (www.soniqcast.com). The Aireo is billed as a "wireless" audio player, and it's true in more than one way. First off, in addition to an FM receiver so you can listen to your favourite stations, the player has a built-in FM transmitter, so you can become your own favourite station ­ no need to buy a separate component to send tunes to your car's FM radio.

More importantly, the player has built-in WiFi, allowing the Aerio to double as a hotspot finder. Better, you can connect to the hotspot and wirelessly download content from sources like Audible.com, talk radio, or print sources, as long as you have a subscription. The player supports both WEP and WPA encryption, but you have to set up your keys on your PC ahead of time ­ not on the fly, sadly.

Hope that wasn't useless.

Well it depends on the drop, natch. I've dropped it onto wood floors and concrete once. And I was awfully nervous every time that happened, but it ended up fine. YMMV.

I've got the 20GB Zen Touch that came out last year and I'm slightly annoyed that my model is practically obsolete. Is this how old iPod oweners feel??? :(

The Ipod is all about the scrollwheel. No other user interface I've seen comes close. The formfactor is also bueno.

For in-car use, I have an XtremeMac FM transmitter, which works well--it broadcasts over the full FM range and changing channels on-the-fly is easy. Plus, it's powered by the Ipod's internal battery, so no need to plug in to the car charger unless I'm charging the Ipod itself.

I've dropped it a few times, and haven't noticed any problems, particularly not now that I got an XtremeMac Ipod leather case.

I don't know anything about the shuffle functions on the other players, but Ipod battery life can be extended dramatically if you create a playlist of all of the tunes and shuffle that list. Anapod still has some playlist creation glitches, so for that feature I use the free EphPod. I only open it and create a new shuffle playlist when I've put a whole bunch of new tunes on my player.

I also have a Belikin Ipod microphone, which I use for dictation and recording interviews. Biggest pain - although the Ipod is technically capable of recording uncompressed high-quality audio, Apple has never enabled this feature in the Ipod firmware, and I don't think that there are any hacks allwoing it either. If you're trying to record live music in high quality, the Ipod is not for you.

If you're a Windows person and you want to use your Ipod to transfer large files, you can use it as a disc that intergrates directly with Windows Explorer. With Macs, you have to enable disk mode to do this. Other players are supposedly drag and drop for both files and music, but my understanding (see xxxpost above) is that this isn't really the case for some of them. However, a friend has an IRiver that does this well (although it's USB2 and therefore pretty slow on transfer rates).

The Ipod headphones suck, and I've never used them. I have a pair of over-ear Sennheisers with background noise dampening that are awesome and super comfortable. However, they are also mucho expensive. I got mine as a gift, but now that I've used them I'll never go back to earbuds.

I think this is true of all players, but I've certainly found it to be true of the Ipod -- you have to leave a little free space on the thing, or else it gets wonky. I always leave about a gig of space, but I'm extra cautious and I have a 40 gig Ipod.

The Ipod scratches easily, but if you get a case and keep the thing it in it, you'll be fine.

All Donations are dedicated for a handsome little handicaped girl named Lisa-Marie in order to help her to swim with the Dolphins. It's is a great opportunity to heal her disease and Dolphins will help to do so!