I've got a request for a small, portable audio playing device that can be worn while jogging that will not bounce or skip like a CD player, but also does not have the needlessly high price tag of an iPod. It need not be fabulous, but it cannot be bulky or heavy, and it would be nice if it came with headphones that didn't just fly off while jogging like those flimsy earplugs.

No need for fancy high-price shit; MP3 player or whatever is cool. Just need a good deal is all. God bless.


Fett seal of approval™

You're best off buying an iPod Mini for its value if you want something 1GB or higher, but that might still be too expensive, but if you're looking for a cheap MP3 player the next cheapest thing is a flash memory based player, which you might as well get if it's for jogging. 128MB of flash will get you enough music, and you can quickly upload music before you leave, especially if you make playlists that you can use to shift over groups of songs.

This one is pretty sweet. $149 US and has a voice recorder, FM tuner + recorder, plays MP3/OGG/WMA, and you can also use it as a portable storage device. It has 256MB of storage.

It's helluva sweet. Tiny, decent quality, easy to set-up and use, and doubles as a 256MB USB thumbdrive. Runs 2+ weeks of fairly regular use on a single AAA battery. Headphones are a bit clumsy to get on and off, but stay put while jogging, etc. Comes with a belt-clip/protective sleeve thingy too.

http://accessories.gateway.com/AccessoryStore/Consumer+Electronics_381930/Audio_381931/MP3+Players_316716/MP3+Players_316717/7004733_proddetail.htm?ref=merch

-nZero

> You're best off buying an iPod Mini for its value if you want something 1GB or
> higher, but that might still be too expensive, but if you're looking for a cheap
> MP3 player the next cheapest thing is a flash memory based player, which you
> might as well get if it's for jogging. 128MB of flash will get you enough
> music, and you can quickly upload music before you leave, especially if you make
> playlists that you can use to shift over groups of songs.
>
> This one is pretty sweet. $149 US and has a voice recorder, FM tuner +
> recorder, plays MP3/OGG/WMA, and you can also use it as a portable storage
> device. It has 256MB of storage.
>
..gave the iRiver a better review than the iPod.

> You're best off buying an iPod Mini for its value

You're kidding, right?

Silly me, of course you are.

> > You're best off buying an iPod Mini for its value if you want something 1GB or
> > higher, but that might still be too expensive, but if you're looking for a
> cheap
> > MP3 player the next cheapest thing is a flash memory based player, which you
> > might as well get if it's for jogging. 128MB of flash will get you enough
> > music, and you can quickly upload music before you leave, especially if you
> make
> > playlists that you can use to shift over groups of songs.
> >
> > This one is pretty sweet. $149 US and has a voice recorder, FM tuner +
> > recorder, plays MP3/OGG/WMA, and you can also use it as a portable storage
> > device. It has 256MB of storage.
> >
> ..gave the iRiver a better review than the iPod.
>

> > You're best off buying an iPod Mini for its value
>
> You're kidding, right?
>
> Silly me, of course you are.

What other player in the $200 price range has 2GB?

The iHP-120 plays more formats, has an LCD remote, does more. Since it is completely open hardware and the specs are publicly available, soon you'll be able to put software such as Rock Box on it which will even enable it to play games, MODs, and other formats, showing graphics files on the LCD, and who knows what else will be added. Check out the screenshots.

> The iHP-120 plays more formats, has an LCD remote, does more. Since it is
> completely open hardware and the specs are publicly available, soon you'll be
> able to put software such as Rock Box on it which will even enable it to play
> games, MODs, and other formats, showing graphics files on the LCD, and who knows
> what else will be added. Check out the screenshots.
>

> > > You're best off buying an iPod Mini for its value
> >
> > You're kidding, right?
> >
> > Silly me, of course you are.
>
> What other player in the $200 price range has 2GB?

...which runs $250.

Alternatively, your two-and-a-half bills can grab you one of these or one of these or one of these or one of these.

Now, if you want to talk about $200 ≤ x < $300, then there's lots of players in the 20+ GB range, most of which are north of $250. True, they don't come in five fruity colors and feature TEH APPAL on the back, and you'll have to suffer with five to ten times the space of the iPod mini, but whattaya gonna do?

That's pretty cool, didn't know those products existed. It's funny, I guess the stores around here don't carry those.

> Now, if you want to talk about $200 ≤ x < $300, then there's lots of players
> in the 20+ GB range, most of which are north of $250. True, they don't come in
> five fruity colors and feature TEH APPAL on the back, and you'll have to suffer
> with five to ten times the space of the iPod mini, but whattaya gonna do?

The iPod itself isn't a great thing, supposedly the processor on it is too underpowered to support many audio formats anyway. Might as well get something cheaper if you can, the iPod Mini especially doesn't have many features compared to the other products. I just didn't see anything else in any flyers like what you posted.

Still, with a hard disk player VS a flash player (though the Mini contains a Mini HD but I didn't think that would be so succeptible), and the fact that he wants to jog, wouldn't jogging + hard disk = bad sectors, with the hard disk read/write head constantly being jostled?

> That's pretty cool, didn't know those products existed. It's funny, I guess the
> stores around here don't carry those.
>
> > Now, if you want to talk about $200 ≤ x < $300, then there's lots of players
> > in the 20+ GB range, most of which are north of $250. True, they don't come in
> > five fruity colors and feature TEH APPAL on the back, and you'll have to suffer
> > with five to ten times the space of the iPod mini, but whattaya gonna do?
>
> The iPod itself isn't a great thing, supposedly the processor on it is too
> underpowered to support many audio formats anyway.

Shit, it's too underpowered to effect a song change in less than 2.0 seconds about a quarter of the time. Supposedly, the Minis and 4th gens have a more powerful processor, but I'm still a little skeptical.

> Might as well get something cheaper if you can, the iPod Mini especially doesn't
> have many features compared to the other products. I just didn't see anything
> else in any flyers like what you posted.

Well, Apple has like 90% or someshit of the MP3 player market tied up. That might have a little something to do with it ("It's not iPod ∴ it must suck").

> Still, with a hard disk player VS a flash player (though the Mini contains a
> Mini HD but I didn't think that would be so succeptible), and the fact that he
> wants to jog, wouldn't jogging + hard disk = bad sectors, with the hard disk
> read/write head constantly being jostled?

The drives they use are portable type drives, so they're designed for a more abusive environment, but yeah, they'll probably collect bad sectors over time if they're used in strenuous activity. Doesn't stop people from using them. I've seen several cases that feature armbands, which is probably a better place to put a HD player than on your hip (less jostling). Still, the flash players are better, like you said. An expandable one is even better, since I've noticed flash card prices dropping like a rock over the past few months.

> > > > You're best off buying an iPod Mini for its value
> > >
> > > You're kidding, right?
> > >
> > > Silly me, of course you are.
> >
> > What other player in the $200 price range has 2GB?
>
> ...which runs $250.
>
> Alternatively, your two-and-a-half bills can grab you one of these or one of
> these or one of these or one of these.
>
> Now, if you want to talk about $200 ≤ x < $300, then there's lots of players
> in the 20+ GB range, most of which are north of $250. True, they don't come in
> five fruity colors and feature TEH APPAL on the back, and you'll have to suffer
> with five to ten times the space of the iPod mini, but whattaya gonna do?
>

Some selfish bad to the bone guy want to :P shit on my face. lolol just joke nt - Dany