"We just don't have the power Cap'n"

Cute, light and good looking - who could ask for anything more?

Well we all could to be honest, because we could ask for power and this cute little device has none. Simple to use, has many, many functions - although it includes an FM radio which I am guessing wont be too useful when the big digital switch over happens - and will take most formats (a major plus over any iEquipment).

But there is always a trade off and here it is power. The life of the thing is about 6 hours. I am not kidding, 6 hours and that is rubbish. As much as I dislike iEquipment, now, at least the stuff stayed charged.

Which is a real shame, because I want to like Creative products. In PCs they are great but this is my first relationship with them outside of a PC (please keep your minds clean people) and what a let down.

You have been warned.

Cute!

So small and light you can forget you have it with you!

The battery is charged by USB so no good if you're not near a computer. Once charged, it will play MP3s for some three hours or more. It probably shouldn't be thought of as just an MP3 player, as it has a few useful extras: FM radio, stopwatch, in-built microphone for recording. The storage is an inbuilt SD card so it doesn't skip when on the move.

The best aspect of it though is the ability to drag & drop files onto it; there is none of the need-to-use-iTunes to get MP3s onto it (you can also use it to store non MP3 files).

Negative points:
- The headphones supplied with it are basic and not that comfortable. For long periods of usage, a better pair of headphones would be recommended.
- There seems to be a limit as to how many folders you can store. Go past 100 or so and the unit doesn't seem able to see or play additional ones.

Apart from those points everything else is in it's favour.

Cute!

So small and light you can forget you have it with you!

The battery is charged by USB so no good if you're not near a computer. Once charged, it will play MP3s for some three hours or more. It probably shouldn't be thought of as just an MP3 player, as it has a few useful extras: FM radio, stopwatch, in-built microphone for recording. The storage is an inbuilt SD card so it doesn't skip when on the move.

The best aspect of it though is the ability to drag & drop files onto it; there is none of the need-to-use-iTunes to get MP3s onto it (you can also use it to store non MP3 files).

Negative points:
- The headphones supplied with it are basic and not that comfortable. For long periods of usage, a better pair of headphones would be recommended.
- There seems to be a limit as to how many folders you can store. Go past 100 or so and the unit doesn't seem able to see or play additional ones.

Apart from those points everything else is in it's favour.

Impressive but slightly flawed

I wanted a not-too-expensive MP3 player that played a range of file formats, had decent sound quality and looked cool. The L Player certainly meets those expectations. It's very cleverly designed so that the screen operates as a four-way rocker switch that allows you to navigate the various menus. The only other switches on the unit are tiny power and volume bumps on the lower edge (don't buy this if you have really fat fingers!) and a slide switch for"hold" on the back. The appearance is really minimalist and the construction makes the screen pretty much the same size as the housing. The screen is amazing. The resolution and refresh rate are superb. You'll be amazed by the quality of the sample video included. Also by the static pictures - the quality of the image is breathtakingly good. I haven't tried putting my own video on there yet, but I've added pictures from my library and again, the quality is outstanding. I have downloaded various music formats, mostly lossless WMA files, and the reproduction of modern music is fantastic. The earphones don't seem to have the dynamic capability to match what the unit can produce though, and I'll be buying some Sennheiser earphones, or something similar. I read somewhere that battery life was poor (12 hours apparently) but I haven't found this to be problematic. The player also includes the ability to record memos and has a built in FM radio. If you're on the move, the radio isn't of much use, but it's OK around the house.
On the down-side, the iRiver Plus 3 software supplied with the player is really cumbersome to use and very, very slow. I synched the music I wanted using WMP which was easy enough, but surprisingly, the album art didn't come across. I had to add this manually, album by album using the awful Plus 3 software. It took a long, long time and it was really difficult to determine how to do it. That was probably the worst thing about the entire experience. Another negative is finding music. There is no search facility as such, you have to browse through music files sequentially - but here's the really annoying part: you can't re-order files. They appear in the order you added them to the device. This is seriously annoying and hopefully something a future firmware update will resolve. In the meantime, I use playlists and genres to find the files I want.
All in all, for just under eighty quid, and with 8Gb of storage, I think this is a fantastic piece of kit and better in many ways than my daughter's iPod nano.

I haven't found better

I guess this is a rather outdated product, since it only has 256 kb capacity, will not handle WMA file format and has no visual information about the track playing. But it works well, within those limitations.

I have tried various other waterproof MP3 players/cases, with waterproof in-ear head phones, and higher capacities/more features. But their problem, for serious swimmers, is the water-noise when swimming with your head under water. I had not found another model that I could hear properly, when doing the crawl.

I was fairly sceptical when I read the description of this product, with its 'induction' sound system. But it works, especially with ear plugs (to shut out the water-noise). The volume is not great, but is sufficient to hear even when doing the crawl, at least when swimming in a pool without much ambient noise. But you probably need to watch the sound level at which your MP3 files are recorded.

Let's see how the product lasts in use, since I have only been using it since February 2007, less than a month. Watch this space for updates, if there is any problems over time.

If this had more features, it would rate 5 stars.

Magic MagicBox

I moved from an area with great DAB reception to a place where I could barely pick up anything on DAB so I thought internet radio could be a possible alternative. I did some research and plumped for the Magicbox. I am delighted with it. Access to all the DAB stations I used to enjoy plus thousands more radio stations from all over the world. The sound quality is as good as any similar size DAB or FM radio although this depends upon the bit rate of the transmitting station - some are pretty poor but there are plenty of others that are very good.

The set is easy to use. Unfortunately, mine did not automatically set up on plug and play but this was due to the configuration on my Netgear router so make sure you have your router manual handy when you set it up. Accessing stations is simple although beware if you select USA because there are around 6,000 to choose from so it is difficult to find what you want - to put it mildly. As more stations set up then this could become an increasing problem. However, it is possible to search by genre. Any negatives? Not really although it could perhaps do with more than 10 presets when there are thousands of stations to choose from! Choosing a top ten out of that lot is tough!

By the way you can also network the magicbox to your PC's I-tunes library and stream straight to wherever you have your magicbox.

One day all radios will be like this.