More lack-of-knowledge seeking-wisdom

[mi_guida]

People of wisdom, I crawl unto you once more seeking your knowledge and internet-savvy-ness and advice. What do you think of this player (in blue) from this store?

Edit: There's a review of it here. And I don't care about what it says about photos, I want it for music, silly people. It also says you can do the draggy droppy file thing... er, technical teerminology abounding, of course.

Does the site selling it look reputable? Or will they cackle and fry me and steal all my money, or inadvertently let someone else do so?

Comments

[sushi-radical.livejournal.com]

Nice, but:
a) do you really need that much storage space on it?
b) needs to have software installed on the computer - so you can't just nick a friend's music.

[mi-guida.livejournal.com]

Where does it say (b)?

And as regards storage space - if I'm spending that much money on any mp3 player, I'm of the view that I might as well get a bigger one and half use it to back up my music.

[sushi-radical.livejournal.com]

The fact the package includes an installation CD, so I assume it won't work on any pooter it's not been installed on.

And yeah, looking, you don't really save much by getting a smaller one, really...

[half-of-monty.livejournal.com]

No, actuallly, lots of things come with a completely unnecessary installation CD. My Samsung did. I ignored it.

I think this is the one pozorvlak recommended - and he specifically said that it didn't need extra software. (I hope you appreciate, pozorvlak, that I looked up your P name rather than using your offline one. See how I am concentrating.).

[sushi-radical.livejournal.com]

Fair enough then, my arguments are as poop.

Buy away.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

It's a later model than mine (an iHP120), but mine certainly doesn't need the CD. I've never used it, for one.

Reading the review, a couple of things worried me:

The device also mounts under My Computer, but not as a fully accessible, removable drive. You can copy and delete music and photo files, and you must use this method to copy text files, but you can't perform other file operations.
...
It's important to note that the USB cable is proprietary and that it incorporates the power port, so you'll need to carry it for recharging the H10 -- a pain.
...
The primary music option uses the file ID3 tags to break down your library by artist, album, genre, title and playlist, as opposed to the folder-based categorisation seen in previous iRiver products.

The worry with the last bit being that mine requires the CD if you want to build the ID3 database, and the worry with the first bit being - copy in both directions? Or just onto the player? It seriously limits its usefulness as a generic USB drive if the latter.

In general, it looks like they're moving away from the brutally functionalist approach that I loved so much. Of course, not everyone likes brutal functionalism :-) The interface looks sweet, though.

There are some more reviews here. 3 raves, 2 pans, 1 neutral.

[mi-guida.livejournal.com]

"One of the great things about this player is you do not have to install any special software; just drag a folder of MP3s over to it. The best feature is its future potential; the manufacturer brags 'firmware upgradeable' on the box and an Internet search reveals an active user forum and homebrew software available. " from the reviews suggests you can drag and drop music same as yours.

AAC not working isn't a problem, I don't have AAC files.

Re: needing the USB to charge it - does that mean you need that and the AC adaptor? Even so, is it that much more to carry? (Remember how much crap very useful stuff I carry round with me the whole time anyway).

And, er, ID3 - if I don't have the ID3 info loaded, will it not play the music? Or just not know what it is? I.e. if I get music off another computer but my laptop could I not just wait till I got back to it, and use WMP to input the ID3 info then put the music back on? Or am I missing the point...

[sushi-radical.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you end up looking at a Sony, don't know if I mentioned before, but SonicStage (the music software it uses) is the single worst piece of software I've ever used, and I'd say it's reason enough to avoid them by itself. Shame, cos I do like Sony otherwise.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

I think you mentioned it once or twice...

[sushi-radical.livejournal.com]

XD I'm really not a fan... (could ya tell?)

[half-of-monty.livejournal.com]

The foolishness. You should get the red one! For it is RED!

(Just attempting to maintain continuity of opinion).

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

wormwood_pearl and I went out to buy a teapot for her flat the other day. Needless to say, we bought the red one. We got back, only to discover that one of her flatmates had had a teapot all along, and had been hiding it for some reason.

Flatmate 2: Well, the one you bought is good. It's red.
Flatmate 1: But my one's Chinese...
Me: Yeah, but this one's red.
[mutters of agreement around the room]

[mi-guida.livejournal.com]

Trouble is, red would clash with my hair. They don't do a green one. Not that I attempt to wear green as much as possible with the red hair, no. *tries not to look guilty*

[sushi-radical.livejournal.com]

As to the site - no idea! Myself, I'd prefer to buy from a local shop, so I can go in and shout if I need to, but there's no reason to think the site is anything but kosher.

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

What kind of computers do you use, btw? This could have serious bearing on the answer.

[mi-guida.livejournal.com]

I use my laptop which is a Toshiba running Windows XP (yes, I know, I keep trying to use Linux on other peoples' machines and never figure it out for I am rubbish), and, er, home computers run XP or 2000, and, um, basically Windows. Do I need to be more specific?

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

OK, looks like there are things you can do to make it work like a USB drive (magic button combinations, kinda thing).

[mi-guida.livejournal.com]

OK, looks good. I always carry a flash drive with me anyway, and have never needed a huge one so I'm not too worried about that as long as I can get music across.