Decent HD, useless MP3
Written: Mar 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Low price, large capacity, versatile, decent audio quality
Cons: Very poor user interface, almost no documentation, limited functionality
The Bottom Line: It's a hack: a decent 40Gb hard drive with MP3 playback as a novelty. But the interface makes it functionally useless as a standalone player.
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| cdespinosa's Full Review: Interactive Media KanguruCD-MP3 CD / MP3 Player |
I ordered the Kanguru Portable HD, 40G size. My intent was to use it to store .mp3 files and move it around among machines (at work and home). They shipped a free "upgrade" to the Portable MP3 of the same capacity.
The hard disk meets expectations. It's very quiet, and works with versatile (though pricey) cable adaptors for either USB or FireWire. It's as fast as the cable you choose, and I can rip CD's right onto it at 3x-4x even using the USB cable. (One disappointment is the unmentioned power adaptor -- I expected a "portable" product to be bus-powered or battery-operated.)
The MP3 feature is worth what I paid for it: nada. First, they deny it works with Macs at all (it does, if you format the drive as FAT32). Then there's no mention of MP3 playback at all in the documentation in the box (all the documentation is in -- get this -- Word files on floppy disk). And the links on their website are broken. I finally found their "operator's guide" which elucidates the following:
- Songs play from the directory "Favorites", then all other directories (recursively), in order of creation in the FAT32 file system.
- The controller lets you skip to the next song, or the first song in the next directory. Pressing "Play" and "Stop" together goes to the previous song or directory. It'll also shuffle-play the whole 40Gb disk.
Since the capacity of a 40Gb drive is about 600 CDs, stepping thorugh albums one by one with a 3-second delay between songs is, uhm, unsatisfactory.
If you want a 40Gb drive with versatile cabling and a decent price, and a fun demo of computerless MP3 playback, get the Kanguru and hope you get the free upgrade. But I wouldn't recommend paying the price premium for the MP3 feature voluntarily.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
cdespinosa
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Reviews written: 1
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