12-12-01 This
special series of Holiday
Buyer's Guides is dedicated to the holiday shoppers that
also happen to be terminal procrastinators. Every day through
the 21st, we will post a new guide covering gift ideas from
a variety of categories and price ranges.
Today, we take a look at portable MP3 players at a variety
of price points. Apple's new iPod is a beautiful piece of
engineering, but at $399, it doesn't fit everyone's budgets,
ours included. We are still waiting for Steve to send us one,
but hope grows dimmer with each passing day.
Keeping the iPod company in this holiday guide, are the Nomad
Jukebox from Creative labs, and two offerings from Sonic Blue,
the Rio 600 and Rio 800. The Nomad Jukebox is a 6GB player
about the size of a large portable CD player. The Rio 600
and 800 are roughly the same size as the iPod but only sport
32 and 64MB of memory. Only the iPod connects to your computer
via FireWire. The other three rely on a far slower USB connection.
This is not a significant issue with the low capacity Rio
players, but for the 6GB Jukebox it is practically criminal.
Only the Jukebox's lower price and ability to record qualified
it for inclusion here.
There is some confusion over promotions that may or may not
be available with the Rio players. Outpost.com lists the Rio
600 as coming with a free extra 32MB memory backpack [PDF].
According to the Rio
promotions page, this promotion ended last August. According
to the Outpost rebate form, the promotion ends December 31st.
Likewise, J&R lists
a $50 rebate on the Rio 800, valid through February 1st, 2002.
There is no mention of this promotion at all on Rio
page.
Notable Quotes
Apple's iPod (5GB)
"When we ran our First Take of the Apple iPod, we were
convinced that it was the best MP3 player we'd ever seen.
After testing a final production unit, we still think that
it beats the pants off of anything else out there." —
ZDNet
"The iPod is no bigger than a deck of cards, but I predict
this new handheld digital-music player will stand tall. Very
tall. It's going to do for MP3 music what the original Palm
Pilot did for handheld computing in the late '90s -- that
is, ignite demand like a match to dry twigs. " —
BusinessWeek
"Apple makes strong claims for the iPod's storage capacity
and battery life, but this is one of those rare products where
the manufacturer's claims are actually understated, not overstated."
— Wall
Street Journal
Creative Labs' Nomad Jukebox (6GB)
"The Jukebox lets you organize your songs by albums,
artists and genres- the first two of which have a search feature
which works brilliantly. You can easily find you favorite
artist or album by either scrolling through the alphabetized
list or selecting the search option and keying in the first
couple of letters which will narrow the displayed list."
— t-break
"The Jukebox includes good-quality behind-the-head earphones
and runs on four rechargeable batteries, providing approximately
four hours of playback. (Your mileage may vary.) Besides boasting
a big-enough Fujitsu (dossier) hard drive to hold around 100
hours of near-CD-quality music uploaded from your PC, a memory
buffer prevents skipping if the device is jiggled. The Jukebox
also offers a line-in jack for recording your own audio."
— The
Standard
Sonic Blue's Rio 600 (32MB)
"If you're like us, you've had enough of cheesy techno
music blasting your ears off at the gym. Well, luckily for
you, Sonic Blue (formerly S3, which acquired Diamond Multimedia)
provides some solid - and decently priced - ammunition in
the form of a slick, teensy MP3 player so light (3 ounces
without battery) that your shorts won't sag while it's in
your pocket." — MacAddict
"It's great to see (and hear) a growing selection of
Mac-compatible MP3 portables. The Rio 600 is the best of the
three tested here, sporting an attractive design, the most
legible LCD, and an innovative expansion scheme. It's also
the least-expensive device and has the fastest transfer times."
— Macworld
Sonic Blue's Rio 800 (64MB)
"A few years ago, you were probably toting around a
Walkman that would conveniently break right after the warranty
ran out or some hefty Discman that skipped more frequently
than a five-year-old. Luckily, things have changed - for the
smaller and the better. One of the companies leading this
latest phase of the eardrum-destroying revolution is Rio (a
division of Sonicblue), which produces the renowned Rio line
of MP3 players. Its latest offering, the Rio 800, offers the
perfect amalgam of power, quality, expandability, and svelteness."
— MacAddict
"This Rio 800 comes with 64MB RAM, which is enough for
one hour of music. Its battery life is a reputable eight hours,
and its interface -- for creating playlists and selecting
songs -- is direct to navigate with big buttons and a clear
LCD. Extra touches like backlighting the display for dark
rooms make this player a solid performer." — macHOME
Copyright 1996-2007 by Cider Press Publishing LLC all rights reserved. MacReviewZone is not authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Computer. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPod, iBook, iMac, eMac, and PowerBook are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
This
special series of 
