I purchased this from Amazon. It worked for about 18 hours -- long enough for me to transfer about 256 mb of songs to it. I used it for about 2 hours. Then it died, less than 24 hours after I opened the package.
Amazon was very wonderful and replaced it. I sent back the broken one, and they shipped a new one before they even received the broken one.
I have not had any problems with the 2nd one not working, though I was unable to upgrade the firmware, and since the first one died immediately after I did this, I decided not to try too hard.
I paid $92 and change for this player. It's really a bargain at the lower price it is now listed for (around $75). It's hard to find a 1 gb player with that kind of price.
Pros:
*1 gb for a low price
*attractive look, looks a bit like an iPod
*comes with a short USB cable (though this would be a "con" if you have a desktop computer which only has USB ports on the back)
*lots of ways to search for songs and other files
*good sound
*immediately recognized as an external drive when connected, no software required to transfer files to it
*expansion slot included
*compatible with Windows Media Player -- you can use that to sync songs to it, and you can also rename songs in there before syncing them. Changing the genre and making sure the artist, album and song name are correct makes it much easier to search
cons:
*runs on AAA battery, no rechargeable battery included
*generally awkward interface (see comments below)
*inconsistent battery life -- one batter will last a long time and then the next one, from the same package of batteries, will die in about a week
*it doesn't remember where you were in a file -- if you listen to podcasts and shut it off in the middle of one, you'll have to fast forward to find where you left off when you turn it back on
*it takes a long time to turn on when it's got lots of songs on it
*you can't play songs that you download from iTunes on this player
I still haven't figured out how to make a playlist or to make something a favorite. And while it has a lot of things you can search (name, artist, album, genre, and also new songs that were added to the player within 1 day, 1 week or 1 month of today), it's still sometimes hard to find songs.
The interface isn't intuitive -- you'll have to at least take a peek at the manual unless you're really lucky to think that pushing the power button once will bring up the menu -- I would have thought it would shut it off, but to shut it off you have to hold the power button down for several seconds. Once you know how to bring up the menu, most of the functions are relatively easy to use. There's this funny little wheel/gear thing that you turn instead of using the round thing on the front of the iPod to scroll up and down.
The player came with relatively cheap ear buds, but I bought better ones at Best Buy.
It also comes with a clear plastic case. I've kept mine in this all the time to keep it scratch-free. It's got holes so you can do everything but change the battery with the case on. It's hard to figure out how they meant for you to use the armband with the case, though. There's a grey strap across the back that the armband fits through, but then you've got this top-heavy player strapped sideways to your arm. It just doesn't work that well. Then I tried it with the strap slipped through the clear flap that you unsnap to change the battery or to take the player out of the case. So far, that has worked for me, though I would be afraid to do any strenuous exercise while it was strapped like that because if the snap unsnapped, it would fall. There are 3 snaps that hold the case closed, and this slot I'm referring to is between them, so only one snap holds the armband in place when you've got it slipped through that part. I don't know how they intended for the armband to be used -- there were no instructions, unless they were in the manual which I did't bother to completely read.
One of the biggest inconveniences of this player is the way it doesn't remember your place in a podcast file, when you shut it off. My old player, a little Rio Cali that I loved except for the small storage size, would turn on and be right back where you left off, except if you updated the files. This player remembers what file you were in, except when you update files, but it will bring you back to the beginning and you'll have to fast forward to where you were. I try to remember the number of minutes into the file I was, that's the best I can do. One thing it does remember, for some reason, is the very first song -- I don't know if it's alphabetical or what, the song starts with a (parentheses), so maybe that's why it's first, but every time I update, and then turn it back on, that's the song that's played first. If I turn shuffle on, it will choose a random song after that, but it always goes to that first.
I learned an interesting thing that I didn't know before I had an mp3 player: iTunes doesn't sell mp3 files. Really, it's true. They sell some proprietary file format with drm that only iPods can play. So, if you buy this player, or any of the non-iPods that Amazon sells, you have to find another place to buy songs. There are lots of them, but they all seem to require you to use Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player to download them. Not a great alternative for us Firefox users. I just wanted to include this in case anyone else was mislead a bit by all this talk of mp3s. I just assumed iTunes sold mp3s, and I don't think I'm stupid to have thought this.
This player also plays wma files, and audible book files. That's another good point.
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