The MP3 Jukebox I've been waiting for - almost. Keep waiting
Written: Oct 02 '00 (Updated Oct 10 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great form-factor, great storage size
Cons: One-way only storage, dumb decisions on drivers, terrible menuing system, extraneous features, missing core features, bad charger, cheap batteries
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| Doctorow's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad Jukebox (6 GB) MP3 Playe... |
I got one of these after seeing a demo at DDMI in LA a couple weeks ago, and I'm listening to it at the moment. This is another device whose amazing utility outweighs its terrible implementation. In brief, the Nomad is a 6GB MP3 player with the form-factor of a Discman, sold as a personal stereo/home stereo component. Connectivity is through USB, and there're good Mac and Win32 drivers available.
But there's the rub. Why do I need ANY drivers for this thing? Why doesn't it just show up on my desktop as a 6GB drive that I can drag files back and forth on, create aliases (shortcuts, symlinks) and folders (directories) on? Certainly, it'd be nice to be able to back up all of hundreds of hours of music I can store on my nice new 6GB device. MP3 player manufacturers are all scared of contributory infringement suits, so they've all decided not to allow their devices to send files, only to receive them.
But there are significant noninfringing uses for a two-way player. Right now, my player is a data-black-hole -- it only takes files, it doesn't spit 'em back out again. This means that I can't use it with something like the Wrapster to move arbitrary binaries around. It also means that I can't edit the ID3 information on my existing playlists (right now, half of the Beatles stuff I've ripped is filed under T for "The Beatles" and the other half is filed under "B" for "Beatles" -- damn you, CDDB!). I can't create playlists on my desktop, where I have access to a full keyboard, mouse, and other useful bits of UI.
I've got a ton of indie stuff on my Jukebox, stuff that friends have sent me by email, whose creators would love to have it shared around. Even if the only way I could share files was via a USB cable, it would kick ass, but even better would be 802.11 connectivity, especially with collaborative negotiation -- i.e., our Jukeboxes would connect, compare listing in s a given genre (say, C&W), discover our similarity, then similar Jukeboxes would synch their listings for that genre. Imagine this in traffic for a car stereo!
The UI for the Jukebox is rotten. Really slow and badly thought out. Switching modes takes several seconds, even turning up the volume can take a few seconds. If you're listening to a track, you can't delete it from your Jukebox (you have to switch modes, refind the track and delete it -- a process that can take 60 seconds or more), nor can you delete it from a playlist. Inexplicably, if you want to switch from sequential play to shuffle play, you have to view the ID3 tag info for a given track, then switch modes for the whole list.
There's all this EAX shizbot, stuff that can make a given track sound like it's playing a cave (that's never been a real priority for me, believe it or not). But there's nothing that can correct for the white noise of an airplane or car (the audiobooks included on the unit are totally inaudible on a 747, let me tellya).
I'm guessing that most of this can be fixed with a firmware update, and that's what I'm holding out for.
The form-factor's pretty good, but there are fit-and-finish issues there, too. For one thing, the Jukebox's headphone jack is on the side, but the included carry-case is open on the back, so that you can't carry it and listen to it at the same time. For another, this fairly expensive (US$500) device comes with shitty little NiMh rechargables instead of manly LiOn cells, limiting playtime to approx. four hours. Finally, the AC adapter is big, clunky, two-piece affair avec transformer, very poorly suite to travelling with. Combine short battery life and a bad AC adapter with a mobile product and you've got a match made in hell.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Doctorow
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Member: Cory Doctorow
Location: Toronto, ON and San Francisco, CA
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 2 members
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