In short, I really like my new toy.

How does it look?
I am of two minds about the design of this box. It certainly is unique, stylish and small. On the other hand, it sticks out, and I think I'd rather have it blend in to the rest of my entertainment hardware.

It is packed well, and has a quick setup sheet, a driver CD, a full manual, a USB HomeRF wireless adapter, a remote and the main unit.

Setup
One starts by popping in the CD. You install the HomeRF driver and the SimpleServe software and restart the machine a couple times. One annoyance is that the software is not installed as a service, so someone has to be logged in so the server software starts.

You then configure the server so it finds the player by typing in the last three digits of the serial number. Keep the device near your computer while you do this the first time so you can see the display and ensure communication is working.

If, like me, you have an 802.11b wireless network, the HomeRF network will not interfere and all the devices will be happy. If you have a HomeRF network already, you'll have to do some extra configuration.

Once you register the software online, SimpleServe will look up its list of Internet radio stations. Right now the list includes ShoutCast, Live365 and Virgin Internet Radio. There are quite a number of stations you can pick up and some have really good quality.

The next step is to make or get a bunch of MP3 files and make your playlists. Making playlists is very easy, and you can add tracks to as many playlists as you like.

The SimpleServe software is written in Java so it may be ported to other platforms, and it performs pretty well, if a bit sluggish with a lot of tunes.

Making It Go
There's a nice tutorial track that describes the user interface of the remote, but basically, you can scroll through your "channels" (which are just collections of playlists), scroll through playlists and once a playlist is selected, you can scroll through tracks.

Once you have it working, go to Motorola's site and get the latest version of the software. It will upgrade the server and the firmware on the SimpleFi, adding Shuffle play capability.

You can also shuffle entire playlists and channels, which is what I usually do. Playing albums may be a bit more work because you'll have to make a playlist for each one. Some CD ripping software does this, but it's pretty easy to do with SimpleServe too.

SimpleServe also makes playlists sorted by artist and genre so you can just play those tracks if you like.

What's Missing?
A digital output would be good. I'm sure the DAC's in this gizmo are OK, but they're no match for a good receiver.

Playing of Ogg Vorbis audio files would be good, and cheap to add. The SimpleFi is upgradeable, so this may be done in the future.

The display is a little hard to read from across the room, but I really don't look at it much.

I bought my unit from eBay, so I got a good price. Motorola offers a 90 day warranty on the SimpleFi.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 175