MP3 Players

I'm still enjoying my compact Muvo MP3 player. It accompanies me everywhere I go and I don't how I survived without it! LOL I'm scouring the ads for great buys on 512 meg and 1 gig SD cards. Their compact size (about the size of a postage stamp) makes it so convenient to carry serveral genres of music and podcasts. I was showing a friend the Muvo, as he rides the train daily and has a 50 mile commute. I think he's getting ready to buy a MP3 player because he's tired of caring CDs and CD player. I pointed out to him that in the end, it's also more costly. He copies his original CD so that it doesn't get all scratch and dinged in his backpack. That right there is extra cost for the blank CDs and his time copying them. He figures his copy CDs last about a month before he has to burn a new one.

Add to this dynamic the increased weight or, as in his case, deciding which CDs to leave behind. He finds that carrying ten or more is too cumbersome yet, the CD he wants at any given time, is 7 out of 10 times sitting on his table at home. He also mentioned the awkwardness of holding his CD player or wearing a jacket with large pockets, so he can stuff the player in the pocket. We looked at it and, it's pretty banged up and could use a rest. He's now at the stage I was stuck at for awhile: deciding which features in a MP3 player matter most, what size, expandable media, type (hard drive or flash memory). We'll see!

Last but not least, I promised a review of the Creative Muvo C100, so here it is: After looking long and hard for a flash based MP3 player and comparing the Rio Cali Sport, the RCA Lyra, and the Motorola DAP025, I settled on the Creative Muvo. It is the best bang for the buck you can find. Online it sells for about $80 (I bought mine at Fry's for 60.00 after mail-in rebate). I've been using it for about three weeks now and have had no problems.

I love its compact size and rubberized molding. It feels durable and solid and the navigation buttons are a good size. The LED readout is clear and the type readable. It's not so small that you'll go blind trying to read it. It has a blue backlight that's great in dark situations (i.e. riding public transportation and going through tunnels, at night when you're walking).

The Muvo resumes playback at the exact spot in the song when you turned the unit off. You can create playlists via folders and you can have it play the songs in both resident memory (256 meg) and the SD expandable memory together, by navigating to the root directory, which is above both the resident and expandable memory, and simply pressing play. All songs in both memory banks will play!

The sound quality is quite good and I like the supplied headphones. They're comfortable and sit in the ear from behind your neck. The headphone wire is long enough to accommodate runner's as they move their arms, without straddling you. You add music through true plug N play/drag and drop, no custom software needed. Though, I would advise buying a card reader. It's faster in transferring music.

The packaging advertises up to a 512 meg card, though, I've heard from several folks that it will recognize a one gig SD card. Awesome!! The battery life is good, up to 20 hours (I haven't changed my battery yet) and it uses one standard AAA battery. So if should die on you at the most inopportune moment, you can easily find and buy a battery at any drug or discount store. I do not hesitate to recommend the Creative Muvo 100 to anyone.

Addendum: Cons
No shuffling of songs (how they're transferred to the player/SD card is how they're played).

No forwarding/reviewing through a song to specific lyrics or rifts.

It's not possible to repeat a favorite song. I must manually press the back button to replay my favorite tune.

You must remove the Muvo from its plastic armband cover and then remove the battery cover to install/change the SD card. I don't view this as a hindrance, though. I prefer it this way because I feel the player's quite secure and I don't worry about the battery cover flying off and losing the card.

Still, I'm extremely pleased with my purchase and would not want to pay more for added functionality.