I've been testing several digital music players and third party headphones - none of them from Apple. It's not that I don't like the iPod, I just haven't gotten one in recently from Apple. My past experiences with iPod suggest that Apple leads the industry with good reason.
I prefer SanDisk's Digital Audio Player to the iPod Shuffle, though I understand the Shuffle's appeal - particularly the tight integration with iTunes for moving music on and off the device. Still, I prefer seeing the title of what I'm listening to, and the SanDisk has both a screen and a remarkably good user interface for such a small thing. SanDisk has just announced a new flash player with removable memory; I have not gotten one in yet.
For most people looking for a hard drive player, the iPod product line has no equal. I've even recommended an iPod mini for my father (he uses it to study Talmud. Really). But what if you aren't most people? What if you want to subscribe to Yahoo!'s new service? What if you've ripped all your CD's in WMA format? Then you'll need to look outside the land of fruit.
I've used three 5GB players recently, but with Virgin's player now off the market, I'll focus here on Dell's Pocket DJ and Olympus' m:robe 100. Both can play WMA files, and the Dell is compatible with Microsoft "Janus" powered music subscription services (Windows Media 10 with Digital Rights Management). Both have excellent fidelity. Both have just slightly more storage space than the 4GB iPod mini, and cost a bit less (the Olympus actually costs more, but can be bought from discounters online).
The Dell DJ gains versatility by giving up software. It uses Microsoft's Windows Media player for all synchronization and music management activities, which turns out is a good thing. Apple's iTunes synchronization is slightly more straightforward (especially for novices), but Microsoft is running a close second here (and MusicMatch a close third - MusicMatch will recognize and sync with the DJ as well). The physical interface on the DJ is a scroll bar, not a touchpad, and it works fine. The user interface is nothing fancy, and does not try to add PDA functionality or FM radio or voice recording - it's a music player.
The Olympus m:robe 100 has gorgeous industrial design. From the white back it looks like an iPod, but the front is a dramatic glassy black slab with no visible buttons. The whole front surface is touch sensitive, and bright red LEDs light up when needed to indicate where the buttons are. A high resolution red LED screen complements the "buttons." It is a striking design and works well in practice, though the sliding lock switch is a necessity with the m:robe, not an option.
However, there are problems with the m:robe. The headphone jack is on the side, which makes it difficult to pocket the device. The Olympus does not support subscription services. And here's the deal breaker: the Olympus demands that you use its proprietary - and terrible - m-trip PC software for synchronization and music management. You can't drag music files to the device directly, you can't use MusicMatch or Microsoft or Apple's to manage music on the device, and the Olympus m-trip software is missing basic functionality such as syncing playlists and the songs that are associated with them. With a 30GB player, you can move all your music to the device and then mostly forget about it. But with a 5GB player, if you have more than 5 GB of music you need to move things on and off the device frequently. I found the m-trip software too painful to use on a regular basis.
I really wanted to like the m:robe - I love holding and playing with it - and I really wanted to dislike the Dell - design-wise, it's just "OK." Neither beats Apple at its own game. But despite the m:robe being prettier than any iPod, the m:trip software it comes with is too painful to use. As a basic device for playing WMA files or tethered music from subscriptions, the Dell is much easier to recommend.
-avi
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