Product Requirements:
Device:
Pentium 133MHz or faster
Windows 98/SE/ME/2000/XP/Mac OS
USB port
CDrom
I’ve had a fascination with music since I came into this world. I have some
fond memories of listening to a transistor radio late at night under the covers,
of my
sister and I spending Sunday afternoons taping our favorite songs off Kasey
Casem’s American Top 40 with a tape recorder microphone held up to the radio
speaker, and of trying to pick song melodies out on my guitar. It stands to reason
that being the gadgeteer that I am, that I’d eventually merge my love of music
with my love of technology. That’s one reason why I love Pocket PCs, I can fill
up a CF or SD card and listen to music whenever I want. Of course, Pocket PCs
suffer from battery life issues, sometimes don’t have the greatest sound
fidelity and let’s face it, even the smallest PPC can be bulky when all you want
to do is just listen to tunes. So, I’ve been on a crusade to find the smallest
most feature filled MP3 player available.
My first find is the MPIO-DMG Digital Music Player from
digita@lway which is available in 32, 64 or 128MB
internal memory versions and in 3 colors choices: Silver, Blue and Gold.
Hardware Specs:
Digital Audio Format: MP3, WMA, AAC (option)
Internal Built Memory: 32/64/128 MB Flash Memory
External Memory Expansion: Smart Media Card (SSFDC)
Host Interface: USB 1.1 (4Mbps file transmission speed)
LCD with blue back-light: FSTN, 30 x 30 (mm) size, 128 x 48 pixel
Voice Recording Function
LCD Fonts: All languages displayed
Power: 1 AA battery (1.5V) (~ 20 Hours Playing Time)
Size : (W x H x D): 2.66 x 2.66 x 0.72 inches (68 x 17 x 68mm)
Weight: 3.2 oz with battery
The MPIO has quite a few features crammed into a package that is small enough
to fit in any pocket or gear bag. Besides playing MP3s, it is also a voice
recorder and can double as a digital camera with an optional attachment (sold
separately).
Made of plastic and aluminum, the MPIO feels very solid and well built. The
casing doesn’t flex, creak or crack during use.
The face of the player has a nice sized round LCD in the middle which is easy
to read due to a nice blue backlight. This backlight will shine for 5 seconds or
so before turning off. Pressing any button will cause it to turn on again. When
the backlight is off, the display is similar to the black on green LCD of a mono
Palm PDA. The LCD can display 3 lines at time. For the most part, you’ll be
using the display to scroll thru the songs stored in internal or external
memory. While a song is playing, the name, and timer are displayed. I really
like the LCD because it is easy to read and is big enough to display song title
and time information while the song plays.
Also on the face of the player is a microphone for voice recording. More
about that feature later.
The left side of the MPIO has the USB connector, digital camera connector and
Smart Media slot. Both connectors have soft rubber covers to keep dust and dirt
out. SM cards slide easily into the slot and can be ejected by a slide button on
the back of the player.
The top of the MPIO has the earphone jack, hold switch, and volume adjust
buttons. The earphone jack is a typical stereo jack. The hold switch when
slid to the on position, disregards all button presses so that you can’t
accidentally activate or change settings while listening to music. The volume
buttons raise and lower the volume level by pressing either the + or – button. A
level indicator will be displayed briefly on the LCD while you are performing
the adjustments. The volume level can be set from 0 – 40. I tend to run it at
10-15 and find the volume to be more than loud enough. There’s no way I could
listen to it at a level of 30-40.
On the right side of the player is the mode button, power on/play/stop/power off
button, and record button. The mode button is actually a little joystick that
can be pressed up or down to do such tasks as moving to next or previous songs.
Pressing the button in allows you to go into a setup mode where you can choose
equalizer settings, repeat settings, memo pad viewing, file erase, and language
settings.
For the equalizer, you can choose presets such as Normal, Pop, Rock and
Classic. You can also pick the User setting which allows you to change the level
of bass and treble.
The settings for repeat are:
Normal: Plays all stored files one at a time in order.
Repeat One: Repeat the current file.
Repeat All: Repeats all stored files.
Shuffle: Please the files in random order.
Intro: Plays the first 10 seconds of each file.
One unusual feature of the MPIO is the ability to list memos on the LCD
screen. Using the desktop software you can save short memos on the player that
can be viewed later. So for example, you could save important phone numbers and
addresses. I’m not sure how useful this is due to the fact that the display is
so small on the player, but the feature is there if you care to use it.
If you would like to erase one or all files on the player, you can use the
erase feature. This is useful for deleting old voice recordings.
The other feature that is accessed thru the joystick is the Language setting
for the onscreen menus.
The available languages are: English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, German, French
and Spanish.
On the back of the MPIO is the SM eject slider and the battery compartment.
This little player is great on batteries. It only takes 1 AA and it seems to
last forever. When I had to send this unit back, it still had the first
battery that I had installed since receiving the unit for review… and that was
a couple months ago. I’ve listened to entire albums on more than one occasion,
and have listened to multiple songs (usually 7-10 songs at a time) at least a
half a dozen times during the review period.
On one corner of the player there is a little metal slide out eyelet that you
can attach an included hand strap if you desire.
Regarding the sound quality, I’m not going to pretend that I have the ear of
an audiophile, but I do think that the MPIO sounds really good. I only have
Pocket PCs to compare it with, and from what I can tell, the MPIO has a warmer
bass and a more full bodied sound all around. There is a set of ear bud
earphones included with the player that sound pretty good. I don’t really care
for ear buds though and tested the unit with headphones.
There are two ways to get music files into the MPIO. If you have a SmartMedia card, you can fill it up with music and insert it
directly into the SM slot and
you’re good to go. Otherwise, you can use the included MPIO Manager desktop
software and USB cable.
This is a really easy to use drag and drop type program. You can use the file
manager to navigate to a folder on your PC that has MP3 files stored, and then
drag them to the internal or external storage windows. File transfers are very fast thru
the USB cable.
You can also change the play order of the songs by dragging and dropping.
I really like the MPIO-DMG and will be sorry to send it back. The size is
fantastic, the controls are easy to use and understand and most importantly, the
sound quality is great. The only things that would make this player perfect
would be increasing the internal memory size and lowering the price. $219 for a 128MB version seems
way too pricey to me.
Available thru DGN Depot.
Price: $139 (32MB version), $189 (64MB version),
$219 (128MB version)
Pros:
Great size
Very good sound quality
Easy controls
Cons:
Expensive
Product Information
| Price: | 139.0 |
| Manufacturer: | MPIO |
| Pros: |
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| Cons: |
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Post your comments here on the Insuring Your Gadgets Article.
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Just click the POST REPLY button on this page.
Normal homeowner ins. does not cover ‘coffee spilling’ and other breakage damage. It’s to ensure against theft, fire and the like.
I agree with dequardo. I have looked into insuring property as well. However, the fine-prints are so fine that you really can’t claim much. It order for your gadget to be covered, specific things have to happen to it under specific conditions. It is almost like buying a lottery except this one doesn’t have a big return.
My hesitation about filing on Homeowners Insurance would be that it might contribute to raising your rates.
As it is – I already pay almost $4K a year. I don’t think I could afford to pay any more! 😡 West Texas is tornado and hail alley, so it is inevitable that every couple years we have a claim for something related…which is why our rate is so horrific.
Does a claim for an item that is carried on a rider count against your general policy? If so, I could never justify making the claim – especially for a +/-$600 PDA.
Judie :0/
$4k per year!!??? Holy crap! Wisconsin winters look better all the time 🙂 (We pay $200/year)
Mike
Believe me, Julie has fun rubbing in her Columbus insurance rates. 🙁
To go totally off topic for just a moment, I also have to pay about $2400 a year in property tax. Someone told me once that San Angelo had one of the highest property tax rates in Texas, second only to Houston. I don’t know if it is true or not, but it sure sounds right. It’s enough to make me want to move into a shed on the ranch, some days…hook up a satellite modem and I would be set. 😉
Judie :0)
Well you are ahead of me there. I’d kill for $2400/year up here:-)
Okay…then that makes me feel a little bit better. 😉
Hey, I don’t rub it in that my taxes are only $600 a year 😉 We’re all getting re-evaluated here though. They have been screwing around trying to figure out our new rates that we only had to just now pay our Spring taxes. It’s going to be bad next year when we probably will have to pay double and then a make up payment for the fall 2003 taxes. Blech!
Judie has an excellent point here, but I’ve recently read (I believe it was in the Dallas Morning News. If I can find the exact reference I will post it.) of a couple who had several buyers lined up to purchase their home, but they were unable to actually close. Why? Because the current owners had made “too many” claims against their homeowners insurance and the insurance companies refused to insure the new potential buyers!
It is a sad commentary on the insurance industry, but I have to always view insurance as critical use only. House burns down, car is totaled, etc. If I lose a microwave to a kitchen fire or a rock breaks my car windshield, I would rather eat that myself. Insurance companies will use any excuse to raise your rate and/or cancel your policy, so I prefer to not give them any more ammunition.
The couple above may have had their insurance woes aggravated by living in Texas (between bad weather and a big mold problem, insurance companies are starting to pull out of writing homeowner’s policies here), but I would be wary of using my insurance policy for anything but the most dire of situations.
That being said, I’ve read in posts in the Garmin iQue 3600 forum on pdastreet.com that CompUSA has a very liberal extended warranty that you can purchase no matter where you originally bought your product. I’ve never bought an extended warranty, but from what I understand for a fixed price you cover your item for 2-3 years with full replacement/refund no matter what happened to it. One fellow on the forum took in a several years old Clie with problems and they applied his full original purchase price toward a new iQue. Sounds like a great upgrade policy to me. Here’s the link to the thread: http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24030
0 deductable.. sure but read the fine print.. you are almost always RED-flagged for even using the service you are paying for..
and if you use it more than a few times a year, they will drop you like a rock..
You have to just love the insurance companies in the USA.. all they want is your cash.. but when you need some help, they just give you the finger while they cash your checks..
sorry Judie.. Home Insurance is for criticle and catastrophic scenarios only.. They want you to add those little $56 dollar options so you can use it and give themn a reason to drop you.
BTW: I have insurance, but only cuz it’s a safetynet.. not in case i puke on my PDA after driking with my collage frat buddies..
F.
I hope Lauren doesn’t ever have occasion to try to make a claim for accidental damage to her handheld — a friend of mine tried this (he has a $250 deductible), and his rates increased more than the cost of a new unit. Yikes.
Great article.
My experience with claiming off home-owner’s insurance (which I’m going to boldly go…is not that different to renter’s insurance) is that once you make a claim, you’re damned to the firy pits of hell with nothing but a glossy photo of your Palm | C to keep you company.
When I made a claim, my next policy rocketted up. I was told by a broker friend some time later that, well, you’re not SUPPOSED to claim. They’ll hike your policy way up.
So do some checking in to that angle before you sit on your laurels and think you’re ok…
Tony.