I know a girl who picked that up last year. It looked really cool. I didn't know it was drag-and-drop though for mp3's, that's a great feature. So is the voice recording. Internal mic? Or do you have to plug one in? Does it have a line in? It looks a lot cooler than in ipod too, and if I remember correctly, the control interface is a black touch screen and the navigation options light up when they are available. Pretty slick. Looks like they are about half of what they cost when they came out originally, too.
It's an internal mic, no line-in. I've never actually used it for that, so can't say how useful it is - but yeah, it does have a touch screen that lights up; I think it's a pretty intuitive interface but one of my housemates had a bit of a problem with it [then again, she was a bit odd]. I think the early firmware versions were a bit dodgy, but the most recent one seems to work ok...
Should say, it is fairly delicate though; mine has a bit of a crack just underneath the main bit of the screen when I, er, accidentally hit it with the hoover, ha ha...
ive used the creative joint and a few others, but the ipod and itunes just does it for me. Its easy to use, the design and architecture of the OS is real easy to get use too. You cant really transfer mp3s to a computer from it, but you can dump shit from any computer to it so whatever. I didnt like how the creative was laid out and it was bigger and clunkier. The ipod fits right into my pocket just right. And i love itunes. Its real easy to write id3 tags for your music and organize shit thru playlists. The search engine is dope and burning cds from it is sick. I dunno man im an ipod/itunes fanboy some im biased as fuck.
why in gods name can I not get this on a digital player!?!?! Its totally ridiculous. The cowan has an internal mic, and line-in attachment but its not actually part of the machine. REALLY- I just want to be able to field record as I would have with any of my busted mini disc players.
The Iriver H140, H120, H320, and H340 all record with line-in to mp3 or wav. My H140 is dynamite especially with the rockbox operating system.
why in gods name can I not get this on a digital player!?!?! Its totally ridiculous. The cowan has an internal mic, and line-in attachment but its not actually part of the machine. REALLY- I just want to be able to field record as I would have with any of my busted mini disc players.
The Iriver H140, H120, H320, and H340 all record with line-in to mp3 or wav. My H140 is dynamite especially with the rockbox operating system.
The iRivers are well-built, have great sound quality, play almost every format, but have a GUI that is as bass-ackwards as they come (at least on the models I've tried). There's a learning curve just for finding songs. I'd consider buying one, because for someone that's moderately technically savvy you can adjust, but I wouldnt get one as a gift cause they might get real frustrated.
why in gods name can I not get this on a digital player!?!?! Its totally ridiculous. The cowan has an internal mic, and line-in attachment but its not actually part of the machine. REALLY- I just want to be able to field record as I would have with any of my busted mini disc players.
The Iriver H140, H120, H320, and H340 all record with line-in to mp3 or wav. My H140 is dynamite especially with the rockbox operating system.
The iRivers are well-built, have great sound quality, play almost every format, but have a GUI that is as bass-ackwards as they come (at least on the models I've tried). There's a learning curve just for finding songs. I'd consider buying one, because for someone that's moderately technically savvy you can adjust, but I wouldnt get one as a gift cause they might get real frustrated.
My response was not about the gift question, just the recording. I agree iRivers aren't as user-friendly as Ipods. But the Rockbox recording features are .
My response was not about the gift question, just the recording. I agree iRivers aren't as user-friendly as Ipods. But the Rockbox recording features are .
I have no doubt the ipod is the best designed, but being the old cynic I am, I can't let the bells and whistles obscure the fact that I can't just plug the ipod in to ANY usb, and simply drag the mp3s back and forth, like I can with any chinese free-in-a-cornflake-box mp3 player. Why is this? Until this issue is addressed, I'll go eleswhere. I don't care about design or looking cool when the thing infuriates the living fcuk out of me.
ITMS + recording industry restrictions are the main reasons. Labels aren't going to let apple sell music w/o some assurance in file sharing restrictions. Makes business sense to me, plus there are a myriad of 3rd party programs that enable music dl from ipods.
It would certainly be great to have line-in recording for iPods, but not at the expense of reliability and ease of use.
My response was not about the gift question, just the recording. I agree iRivers aren't as user-friendly as Ipods. But the Rockbox recording features are .
Rockbox is an open source replacement firmware for mp3 players. It runs on a number of different models:
Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio iriver: H100, H300 and H10 series Apple: iPod 4th gen (grayscale and color), 5th gen (Video), 1st gen Nano and Mini 1st/2nd gen (Nano 2nd gen and Video 5.5th gen are not supported) iAudio: X5 (including X5V and X5L) Additional models are in development
basically, anyone with some programming skills can update rockbox software features. It makes your player very customizable, like you can design your own while-playing-screen, use images, any font, size or tag info, adjustable scrolling, etc..
It gives you tons of options, and if you think of one that isn't there, you can develop it yourself or just ask someone else on the forums to do it! It's actually updated on a daily basis with improvements each day.
iirver's are especially useful if u are in the circumstance of having a couple of turntables, with no 4 track or computer accessible near them. with their line in and line outs, u can easily record to them via mixer, and output what your recording with some simple computer speakers for monitoring. a real cheap & efficient setup, if like i said u dont have easy access to recording.
its a shame that there aren't too many companies duplicating the older iriver mp3 players...cowan is the closest (though i dont have direct experience with them). there really isnt a great market for what they do, at least compared to general demographics of mp3 player audience, but for what they do, iriver did it godamn well. iriver has basically phased out that aspect of their product line, but u can ebay them, and get a replaceable battery that can last u a while... and i thank strutters, amongst otis for turning me on to them.
- radio play - line-in recording - photo gallery - video player - voice recorder - storage
after not trying to look towards cowon because an unfavorable experience with an earlier model, i discovered their iAudio X5L, which has all the above that i was looking for. from the reviews on cnet, all of the reviews have been favorable, all 8-10 ratings.
this is interesting: The FM tuner is sufficient for picking up strong signals. You can record the signal in MP3 format at up to 320 Kbps, and there's a scheduling feature for TiVo-like time-shifting. Line-in MP3 recording is also up to 320 Kbps, and you can use the auto-sync feature to break up tracks automatically. Voice recording???including an adjustable voice-activation option???is impressive. Using the built-in microphone, which picks up surprisingly little hard drive whine when the recording level is set to Low, the X5 can record at up to 128 Kbps. Unfortunately, you can't attach an unpowered external mic.
Comments
It's an internal mic, no line-in. I've never actually used it for that, so can't say how useful it is - but yeah, it does have a touch screen that lights up; I think it's a pretty intuitive interface but one of my housemates had a bit of a problem with it [then again, she was a bit odd]. I think the early firmware versions were a bit dodgy, but the most recent one seems to work ok...
Should say, it is fairly delicate though; mine has a bit of a crack just underneath the main bit of the screen when I, er, accidentally hit it with the hoover, ha ha...
Haha.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.
John
The Iriver H140, H120, H320, and H340 all record with line-in to mp3 or wav. My H140 is dynamite especially with the rockbox operating system.
The iRivers are well-built, have great sound quality, play almost every format, but have a GUI that is as bass-ackwards as they come (at least on the models I've tried). There's a learning curve just for finding songs. I'd consider buying one, because for someone that's moderately technically savvy you can adjust, but I wouldnt get one as a gift cause they might get real frustrated.
My response was not about the gift question, just the recording. I agree iRivers aren't as user-friendly as Ipods. But the Rockbox recording features are
plaese to essplain rockbox.
ITMS + recording industry restrictions are the main reasons. Labels aren't going to let apple sell music w/o some assurance in file sharing restrictions. Makes business sense to me, plus there are a myriad of 3rd party programs that enable music dl from ipods.
It would certainly be great to have line-in recording for iPods, but not at the expense of reliability and ease of use.
from www.rockbox.org :
Rockbox is an open source replacement firmware for mp3 players. It runs on a number of different models:
Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
iriver: H100, H300 and H10 series
Apple: iPod 4th gen (grayscale and color), 5th gen (Video), 1st gen Nano and Mini 1st/2nd gen (Nano 2nd gen and Video 5.5th gen are not supported)
iAudio: X5 (including X5V and X5L)
Additional models are in development
basically, anyone with some programming skills can update rockbox software features.
It makes your player very customizable, like you can design your own while-playing-screen, use images, any font, size or tag info, adjustable scrolling, etc..
It gives you tons of options, and if you think of one that isn't there, you can develop it yourself or just ask someone else on the forums to do it!
It's actually updated on a daily basis with improvements each day.
i started that thread and i ended up getting an ipod
i enjoy it very much
its a shame that there aren't too many companies duplicating the older iriver mp3 players...cowan is the closest (though i dont have direct experience with them). there really isnt a great market for what they do, at least compared to general demographics of mp3 player audience, but for what they do, iriver did it godamn well. iriver has basically phased out that aspect of their product line, but u can ebay them, and get a replaceable battery that can last u a while... and i thank strutters, amongst otis for turning me on to them.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6490_7-6543950.html
after not trying to look towards cowon because an unfavorable experience with an earlier model, i discovered their iAudio X5L, which has all the above that i was looking for. from the reviews on cnet, all of the reviews have been favorable, all 8-10 ratings.
this is interesting:
The FM tuner is sufficient for picking up strong signals. You can record the signal in MP3 format at up to 320 Kbps, and there's a scheduling feature for TiVo-like time-shifting. Line-in MP3 recording is also up to 320 Kbps, and you can use the auto-sync feature to break up tracks automatically. Voice recording???including an adjustable voice-activation option???is impressive. Using the built-in microphone, which picks up surprisingly little hard drive whine when the recording level is set to Low, the X5 can record at up to 128 Kbps. Unfortunately, you can't attach an unpowered external mic.