You may recall that back in January, I posted on my very durable music player, a Creative Zen Micro. Sadly, after years of devoted service, it is no more.
After my recent trips to Portland, I’d lost track of it for a couple days and finally found it in one of the gazillion pockets on my laptop bag. Unfortunately, when I turned it on, I was greeted with a mysterious failure screen that looked something like I was booting Linux on my Zen. It suggested I reformat the hard drive, which I did. I let it run for my whole commute home, about 40 minutes. Once I got it into the quiet of the house, I could hear the tell-tale death rattle tick-tick of the hard drive.
Poor little guy…it didn’t have a chance.
So, after exhaustive moments of grief, I did what every red-blooded man would do with something broken…I took it apart. I discovered that the defunct hard drive is just a little Hitachi Compact Flash drive. Of course, it is dead, so fat lotta good that does me. And replacing it would not have been worthwhile anyway. Just for the heck of it, I did stick it in my PC and listened to its hopeless ticking sounds for a few moments.
Although, I do want to point out that even in this dismantled state, if I put the battery in and turn it on, it does start to boot – which is pretty impressive. He just keeps giving.
So now what? Keeping in mind my genuine distaste for a media player that won’t work with Windows Media Player, iPods and Zunes are off the table.
I want something that has at least 8GB of space. 16 gig would be nice, but I’ve gotten along with 6GB all this time and am a notorious cheapskate, so 8GB looks like the place for me.
I couldn’t care less about video on my music player.
I don’t want a converged device. I don’t want an MP3 player on my camera or a phone on my MP3 player. I just want something with great battery life that I can leave in my car.
Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of me and the digital music player market has outright collapsed compared to a few years ago. 
Having been so happy with my Zen Micro, I naturally went out to see what Creative had these days. Leaving aside the big glass screened video playing devices, it looks like the uniquely butt ugly Zen Mozaic would be their contender. I just don’t think I can do this to myself.
According to the review I read, the screen sucks but it has a 30 hour battery life. Sadly, no more removable batteries.
So what else is out there?
My wife has a 6GB Sandisk Sansa (below left) that is pretty nice. Unfortunately, they don’t make this one any more. The new Sandisk offering is the Sansa Fuze (below right). It’s OK, but I don’t like the little square look they’ve got going.
A possibility, but it just doesn’t turn me on.
So that leaves us with the Sony Walkman E-series. Yes, I know, Sony screwed up on their first attempt at digital music players with their own goofy format, etc. But they’ve repented and these new units work great with Windows Media Player and PlaysForSure music.
This little guy has a 30 hour battery life and weighs under two ounces. And it is pretty cheap.
I think this is the one that will go on my Christmas list.
That last one seems perfect for you. It's sad though, after having used the Zen for so long.
ReplyDeletegood post -
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there were mp3's to go with media player. Maybe when I need a new one I'll look into it. I hate when I'm making a video on the comp and the song I bought in itunes won't work. It totally bums me out.
Hayden has the Mozaic- and he lost it (maybe because it is - hmmm ughmmm- 'butt ugly'?) I know it will turn up, but we can't find it now.
ReplyDeleteConnley broke his Sandisk that he had for 2 years- when he dropped it off a cement wall to the playground below. Finally Parker, has a little Sandisk player that was like, 30 bucks- that he LOVES. Like a fake Shuffle.
Unfortunately for us, I have a Video Ipod- 3 years now, that dominates most music purchases and a shuffle for my running- which I LOVE, might I add. Now that my iTunes music library is loading up I think all my kids are leaning to iPods.
Life would be so much easier if they would just make things interchangeable!
Boo on Apple and Microsoft for making us pick sides!
Anyone can connect their player through Windows Media Player. There is even a mechanism to handle the DRM on the music. This is what Creative, and Sony, and Disney, and Sandisk, and all the other PlaysForSure players use.
ReplyDeleteApple didn't want to use that. They wanted to do their own thing and own the format, the DRM, the software and the player. So you get iTunes - which looks like crap and insists on updating itself every 10 minutes. And worse yet, has part of itself running 24x7 on your PC just to keep checking if it needs to update itself.
Evidently, it works for them, but I just can't stand iTunes. If it weren't for iTunes, I'd have an iPod no questions asked.
I'm such a loser. I forgot about eBay!!!
ReplyDeleteI just bid on player just like the one I had, which is actually all I want. And I still have spare batteries for it. Hope I win it.