Here's What's up

Yes, we are back. Please, look around the site for a few reviews and tips about players. If you have any questions or comments, shoot Mark or James a message or just leave a comment under the latest post.

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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Sansa Clip+ review


Sandisk Sansa came into the MP3 world strong, and is continuing to stay strong with their newest addition to their line, the Clip+. The + is the 2nd generation of the Sansa Clip, which was know for it’s tiny size, and big sound. The Clip+ holds up the Clip’s high reputation.

Specs-
Dimensions: 2.16 x 1.36 x 0.6 in.
Capacities: 2GB, 4GB, 8GB
Weight: .85 oz.
Colors: Black, Maroon, Blue
Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, Ogg, Audible
Battery life: 15 hours
Features: Audio playback, FM radio, FM recording, Voice recording, Music Subscription support.
Expandable memory: MicroSD, MicroSDHC
Prices: 2GB- $34.99, 4GB- $49.99, 8GB-

Pictures:





Out of the Box:
Out of the Clip+ box you will receive the Clip+ itself, a pair of cheap Sansa headphones, the Clip+ quick started guide, and a very short USB cable.


Product design:

The Clip+’s design is very sleek and finished looking. At a mere .6in think the Clip+ is very small. The button placement is very good, with 6 buttons on the face, and one on the top. The buttons include: a home, on/off/, pause/play, skip/fast forward, back, music menu,select, and rocking volume button. There were only two design flaws that I found was that the headphone jack is located on the side of the player making the player’s design less than perfect. The second being that there is no dedicated record button which is not that big of a deal, but is always nice to have. The clip on the back of the player is really nice making carrying the player around very easy. The Clips USB port is located opposite of the headphone jack.

User Interface:

The Clip+ plus’ user interface is very easy to use and is similar to that of the Clip, but one thing that it has that the original doesn’t is the ability to navigate via folder view. Folder view allows you to see the files on your player the way that they are before the player automatically organizes them.


Menu:
In the Main menu of the Clip+ you will find: Music, slotRadio, FMRadio, Voice, and settings. For info on slotRadio continue reading the review.

Music organization:
The Way the Clip+ organizes music is very nice and simple. After selecting music from the main menu, your music will be organized in the categories that follow.

Recently Added: This shows the last 50 songs that you added to the player.


Artists: Pretty much speaks for itself, this category organizes your music by Artists.

Albums: This means your music will be organized by each album. Then there’s songs, which organizes your music all by song title from A to Z.

Genres: organizes your music by genre and you can set a songs genre to whatever you want and the Clip+ will use it in the organization of your music. example: If I were to set a songs genre to Podcast in iTunes. And then dragged the song onto my player, and then viewed my music library using the genre view, Podcast would show up with that song in it.

My top rated: Because of the song rating feature the Clip+ will show the music on your player that you have rated the highest.

Playlists: This just shows you all the music that you have put into playlists.

Podcasts: This is one category that will come in really handy to a lot of people because on most other players there is no real good way to organize podcasts other than in with all the other music. One thing that is really nice about having a dedicated podcast section is the ability to pause a podcast, listen to something else and then when you come back you can resume the podcast right where you left off.

Audiobooks: Any Audiobooks on the Clip+ can be found under the Audiobooks category.

Folders: This feature is going to make a lot of people who loved the Sansa Clip love the Clip+ even more. With the folder view you can view all the files on your player just like you would be able to on the computer. Making it really easy to organize files using your computer and being able to find them the way you put them.

Extra Features:

FM Radio:
One thing that is really nice about the Clip+ is the fact that along with the players great amount of storage capacity, Sound, and product design the player also comes with an FM Radio. The FM Radio allows you to surf the FM radio band and set presets of your favorite stations.

FM Radio recording:
Something that is always nice to have along with FM Radio is an FM Radio recorder, which allows you to record live Radio, which is not always essential but nice to have.

slotMusic and slotRadio:
slotMusic and slotRadio is the concept of being able to buy a microSD card that is preloaded with content. slotMusic is a complete album with extras all in one. They both just go right into your microSD slot on your Clip+ and you can play away. slotMusic is good if you want to get a ton of music by one artist, and slotRadio is good for parties and general listening because if gives your a variety of genres and artists. for more info on these to products visit: http://slotradio.com/ and http://www.slotmusic.org

Voice Recording:
Voice Recording is always nice to have on a player incase you want to record a memo to your self or something else you might need. The recording quality is decent.

Sound Quality:
The Sound Quality on the Clip+ is better than most MP3 players on the market. The sound is very rich which is something that the Clip+ has over other players on the market, like the iPod Shuffle or Nano. There have been articles saying that the audio pitch is off, but most people will not notice this, unless they have a really good ear. If you don't have a real good ear don't sweat it, you most likely won't notice it all.

Summary:
Overall if you are a person looking for a tiny player with quite a bit of storage, sturdy build, expandable memory, sleek look, great sound quality, and are looking for an audio only player the Clip+ is the player for you. With the Cheap price, for the amount of storage and features, the Clip+ sits at a high value.


-James

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

500 Views

We have now reached 500 views on our blog. We hope to continue growing at an increasing rate, getting more views daily. If you have any suggestions for reviews, you may e-mail James at his address in the post below, or you may e-mail myself at markdh92@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Mark

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Computers are a pain.

Well I about had my Clip+ review done, when all of the sudden my Macbook decided to shut down and erase my file, computers are great aren't they? So the Clip+ review will be up within the next week. So just hold on, it'll be here soon. In the meantime, read some other posts, or send me an email at: jmanwestesy@gmail.com with any thoughts, comments, or questions.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Picked up the Sansa Clip+


Hey I just wanted to let you know that I picked up the Sansa Clip+ yesterday and the testing has begun. Within the next 2-4 days I should have a finished review ready for your reading, so keep checking for new posts. Also I think I will be doing a video review/demo so that should be done pretty soon too.
-James

Friday, October 9, 2009

How to install Rockbox Using the Rockbox Utility

Okay so you like the looks of Rockbox, but the question is "how do I install it?" Well here is a set of simple step-by-step instructions on how to install Rockbox on your MP3 player using the Rockbox Utility.

Download the Rockbox Utility: Download the Rockbox utility for your platform (Windows, Linux, or Mac) from: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/RockboxUtility by scrolling down to the download section. This program is needed to install Rockbox on your player.

Decompress the .Zip
file: When you downloaded the Utility you should have gotten a .zip file. Decompress this file to any desired location (Use a Program like WinRAR, or WinZip), just don't forget where because you will need it for the next step.

Open the Rockbox Utility:Open the file from the location that you decompressed it to.

Set up the Rockbox Utility: Once the Rockbox Utility opens it will prompt you to select your device. To do this simply plug in your player and click "Autodetect", or select your player from the list manually. Clicking "Autodetect" will tell the Rockbox Utility to find your device on the computer and automatically select it from the list.

(click to enlarge)
Install Rockbox:Then from the menu under the quick start tab you can select the "Complete installation" and the "Minimal installation". The Complete installation will install the bootloader ( the thing that tells the player to open Rockbox.), Rockbox, and all the extras (the things that make Rockbox great). The minimal installation only installs the bootloader and Rockbox, no extras. I recommend the Complete installation because the extras are what makes Rockbox great.

Install extras: After installing Rockbox you can now install themes, fonts, games, etc. The games, themes and such are located under the extras tab.

Unistallation: If for some crazy reason you decide that you want to uninstall Rockbox, the Rockbox Utility will do that for you too. Just go to the unistallation tab and click complete uninstall to completely rid your player of it.

Read the Manual for more help: The Rockbox Utility not only does it help you install Rockbox, it's extras, and uninstall Rockbox, but it also includes a manual that can be found under the manual tab of the Utility menu. This manual will provide any further needed information.

Monday, October 5, 2009

200 Views!




We have Reached 200+ views! We are so happy for this, we didn't think we would get that many hits that fast. Please take time to read some of the Reviews and comment on them. Also please take the time to comment on THIS post and quick just tell us how you stumbled upon our Blog. Comments are open to anyone so please type away. We need to find out how people are stumbling upon our site so we can figure out where our "advertising" is working, and where it isn't. Help us help you. Much Obliged,
James

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Rockbox: The Open Source Jukebox (Review)




Do you ever find your self saying, “I don't like the looks of my MP3 Players UI (User Interface)?” Or, “I wish that my Player had more features, and was more customizable?” Well here is the answer to all of those questions. Yes and no.

Before I get into any details, Rockbox runs well on these players, has a complete manual and is supported by the installer:

*Apple: 1st through 5.5th generation iPod, iPod Mini and 1st generation iPod Nano
(not the Shuffle, 2nd/3rd/4th gen Nano, Classic or Touch)
*Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
*Cowon: iAudio X5, X5V, X5L, M5, M5L, M3 and M3L
*iriver: iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series and H10 series
*Olympus: M:Robe 100
*SanDisk: Sansa c200 series, e200 series and e200R series (not the v2/AMS models)
*Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series (not the S series)

Unstable ports

Rockbox runs on these players, but is incomplete, less usable or has problems that limit it to advanced users:

*Cowon: D2
*Olympus: M:Robe 500
*Samsung: YH-920 and YH-925
*SanDisk: Sansa e200 v2 (AMS) and Sansa Fuze V1

Unusable ports

Work has begun on porting Rockbox to these players, but much remains before they are usable:

*Toshiba Gigabeat S, Cowon iAudio 7, Creative ZVM, Logik Dax, Meizu M6, Samsung YH820
Philips GoGear HDD1600, HDD1800, HDD6300 and SA9200, Onda VX747 and VX767,
Tatung Elio, Apple iPod Nano 2G, Sandisk Sansa m200, c100, Clip v1 and c200v2

What is it, and Why use it?

“ 'Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for a growing number of digital audio players. It has been in development since 2001 and receives new features, tweaks and fixes every day to provide you with the best possible music listening experience. Rockbox aims to be considerably more functional and efficient than your device's stock firmware while remaining easy to use and customizable. It is a goal to not only offer a wide range of functionality, but where possible make sure that this functionality is presented in a consistent manner that is easy to learn and use. It is written by users, for users. ' ” A Quote Directly from Rockbox.org/wiki/whyrockbox

Positives:

Rockbox is full of many things that add a plus to the player that they are on.

-Rockbox allows for you to make, install, or get other's themes and install them onto your player.

(Themes can be downloaded from: http://themes.rockbox.org/ )

Example of a Theme menu:

(This example is the theme titled: Wide cabbie
Submitter:
Jonas Häggqvist
Description:
This is a mod of Cabbie 2.0 by Marc Guay and Johannes Voggenthaler, with a number of changes. Mainly a far larger font, but also 168x84 album art, which I create by merging album art with an artist picture from last.fm. You could also use it to show front and back cover. It looks fine with square album art as well.)

-It allows the ability to play Gameboy and Gameboy Color ROMs ( a ROM is a digital copy of the game see this article for further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image )

-Plugins such as a calculator, Movie Viewer (MPEG-1, MPEG-2), Text Viewer/editor, Rock Paint, Calender, Stopwatch, and many more. (For Complete list visit: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/WhyRockbox)

-Once you have Rockbox installed on your MP3 Player you can still switch back and forth from Rockbox and the Original Firmware.

-File View

-Is Constantly being updated, and has great user support.

-Very Customizable


Negatives:


-It could void your warranty

-You need to know what you are doing before you install, or bad things could happen (Very low probability)


Overall Rockbox is the best alternative to your Original firmware if you are looking for a Customizable, great looking, easy to use, free, and feature packed open source firmware, Rockbox is for you. Check out Rockbox.org for even more info on rockbox and its many features. (A how to install Rockbox Tutorial will be posted very soon)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

100 Views

We have now hit 100 views on our blog. Although this may seem like a minuscule amount, it is a large step for us in our young blogging careers. As traffic increases, and more blog posts are put out, we hope to continue expanding our blogging horizons to more than just mp3 players. As traffic increases, we hope to increase our blogging output. So, tell your friends, and we thank you for your continued patronage to our blog.

- Mark

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