What is a Feature Worth?

Cell Phones and MP3 players now come with many more features than required for basic functionality. You don't need a camera to make a phone call, but your cell phone probably has a camera. You don't need a calculator to listen to music, but many MP3 players include a calculator.

I'm often asked what a player is worth, and find it a very hard question to answer. Many companies add unique features to their players to make them stand out from the crowd. You can do a simple comparison between two players by just counting features. If a feature has little real worth though (like a calendar you can't add appointments to), should it be given the same weight as an amazingly useful feature (like an email client that provides access to all your email accounts)? You may also discover two players with a feature, but only one with a version that is useful. The thorough calculator on my iPod Touch is FAR more useful than the basic calc (no mem, sq.rt., percent, +/-, 1/x, etc.) that comes on many of my Korean made players. You can't score both players the same for having a calculator.

Another consideration is "worth to you". A feature that is worthless to me may be incredibly useful to you. I don't care for any of the "social" apps out there, yet there are millions of FaceBook and Twitter and Linked-In members out there. Someone must find value in them. FM radio is common on many MP3 players. Some add RDS to it. The Zune HD allows listening to HD radio (if you can find any HD broadcasts in your neighborhood). Several player let you record off of FM radio, but they vary in what format and bitrate level (quality) is used. A few players will let you assign names (station IDs) to the preset stations by adding those names in a text file stored on the device. FM radio is very useful IMO, as local news, sports, and weather are often only available via local radio. Those extra features are where measuring gets tricky though. The Radio app may also only be used 2% of the total time the player is used. Should the features and quality of the radio app be compared equally with the features and quality of the Music app that may be used 85% of the time?

I could make a spreadsheet of course, and give each application a weight and sliding usefulness scale. I could grade each device on a point scale, with higher scores being better buys for the money being asked for them. It means some $20 players might get a higher score than some $200 players. It demands that price be considered, and that features have some monetary value to them. "Worth to you" is a variable I can't predict or control. It has to be stripped from the equation. That leaves a sterile result that you'll have to add your own relative value to.

The ability to play an MP3 file might be worth a standard 20 points, with how well it sounds to me reducing that to an A, B, C, or D grade. Or I could simply multiply 20 times the Signal/Noise ratio. The S/N number does usually relate to the quality of sound produced. The Samsung P3 has an 89 dB rating. The Cowon S9 has a 95 dB rating. I also think the S9 sounds better to me. By S/N rating the Samsung would get 89% of 20 points (17.8) compared to the Cowon's 95% of 20 points (19) for music playback value. Of course each player has other music properties, and they would be factored in as well. You can see how the math might get complicated.

Do you want a more detailed analysis of a players worth, or is a subjective grade enough?

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iAudio E2. My Review.

I became a fan of Cowon/iAudio products when I first got their flagship Cowon S9. They make a less expensive player, the iAudio 9 (review coming later), which for audio performance is equal to the S9. At the low end of their offerings is the iAudio E2, and so I bought one to find out how well it would do against the larger models.

Black is the only color available in the U.S. at the moment. It appears they intend to sell the E2 as a fashion accessory in several other colors though. Time will tell.I like the E2's design. A simple rectangle intersected with a circle, the statement is clean and striking. The circle/ring also presents a few options for attaching the device to oneself, and the whole device can be easily mistaken for a "fancy" USB thumb drive.

It's not tiny but it's size is just large enough to provide room for the required buttons. You get external power, volume and track rockers, and an Options button. The lone jack serves as the headphone jack and the USB charge/sync connection which requires the included unique USB cable. There is a reset hole on the back next to a tiny LED that indicate charging/charged and on/off status of the E2Music: Although you can use the E2 as a portable thumb drive, it's primary function is to play music. It supports several formats your music might come as, including MP3/2/1, WMA, FLAC, OGG, and WAV. It finds any music files you've transferred to it's memory and will play them sequentially or shuffled. It's only major shortcoming is in not giving you a way to easily jump through folders or albums. If you put 1000 songs on it expect to spend a tediously long time finding a specific one. The E2 doesn't play consecutive songs gaplessly (with no gaps between songs), but the gap is very short. You get to enjoy a subset of Cowon's BBE EQ/sound enhancement presets. With a quick tap on the Options button you can switch between Normal, BBE, BBE ViVA, BBE ViVA 2, BBE Mach3Bass, and BBE MP, BBE Headphone (1,2,and 3). Hold down that same Options button to switch between shuffle and consecutive play. You get a pleasant female voice to confirm your choice. Audio output sounds great to me, with both the included earbuds and through my favorite Sennheisers HD595s.

Conclusions: At $64 for 4gb, the E2 is priced $10 under the 4gb iPod Shuffle. I haven't listened to a Shuffle and won't buy one to test as I think it is the poorest designed MP3 player Apple has ever come up with. The E2 is a solid performer though, and easily worth the price. You get a great music player and an eye-catching conversation starter. I haven't found anywhere to buy the optional belt/pocket clip shown on Cowon's web sight, but did discover I can clip it to my belt with a little d-ring or hang it from my neck by passing a loop of leather cord through the ring. If you're looking for a great MP3 player to replace an old shuffle, the E2 is a hard one to beat.

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A Tablet Scattershot.

Apple's iSlate, JooJoo, Freescale Tablet, HTC/Chrome Tablet, Archos 9, and a half dozen more. That's what we can expect to see this month. Will anyone get it right? Does anyone need a tablet PC? It's not an original idea. These won't be the first tablet devices on the market. Of those listed above expect at least four different UI/operating systems.

You know what everyone really wants, don't you? It's Star Trek's everything tablet. That thin pad Jordi or Trip would reference for Enterprise specs or anyone on board would look up a family history or read a book on. They are everywhere, and a commodity. They apparently charge whenever set down, or are so thrifty they run forever on their initial battery/capacitor/fuel cell charge. Will anyone get it right? I don't think they will on the first shot. Someone will get close, though. It's inevitable with a scatter shot. Yet no one knows what we really can use since we don't have one yet. This month will be full of experiments. The company that learns the most from their first device will have an easier shot the next time.

Why have previous tablets failed:
- Lack of portability. You'll need a large coat pocket, briefcase, or purse to carry yours in.
- Price: If you can't carry one easily around, you'll want one for home, your car, and your workplace. At $300 to $1000 no one will want to buy more than one. Make it a $99 device or three for $279 and it's got a chance. Add auto syncing between your pads so they all have the same content and state like the Kindle ebook device and apps have. Set one down and whichever one you pick up will be right where you left the last one at.
- Fingerprints. Sure, a stylus can keep the screen clean, but it limits you to mono-touch. Multi-touch is the future. Move directly to fingers and subsequent prints. Most of us would stop using our keyboards if we could easily see how dirty they are. There's a reason they are usually black. You can't hide the smear when you have to look through it though. We'll need a new surface and/or way to interface with this new tablet.

It doesn't surprise me at all that Apple's Jobs has been dissatisfied with their tablet development up until now. Expect something original as an interface from Apple. Facial Expression Recognition maybe? Their iSlate will certainly have a web cam. Maybe it will read lips. Everyone else looks to be moving today's touchscreen UIs onto larger tablets. I've seen several different strategies, and more than a few that were horrible. Move past single-handed use and the ergonomics completely change. I would expect a voice command interface if we were always alone with our tablets. We live with other people though and are already annoyed when someone talks on their cell phone in our presence. Imagine everyone around you now who has a cell phone all of a sudden talking to their new iSlate. Voice command won't cut it.

I'm enjoying my Archos 5. It is thin but could be thinner. It could also be lighter. It could also be cheaper. The UI isn't ideal either. Yet it works. It may be the closest thing to that Star Trek pad we see though.

This will certainly be an interesting month. A tablet may be THE device of this decade. Do you want your own Trek pad? What would you pay? Please leave a comment.

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Philips GoGear Muse, 16gb. My Review

This will be my third Philips portable media player. The first was the cryptically named SA5245BT. I still enjoy using that player. The included Bluetooth is great. Yet with a non-memorable name it is hard to recommend to anyone in conversation. Philips got smart this year and started giving their products family (GoGear) and model names (Muse). I love the name. Cleverly appropriate. Perhaps they've been reading my blog.

Dimensions: 110 x 55 x 8.9 mm or 4.33 x 2.16 x .35 inches. It weighs 95 grams or 3.35 ounces.
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Included: USB charge/sync cable, slip case, noise cancelling ear buds with 3 different sized tips, registration form, warranty info, a Quick Start guide, offers from Audible and Rhapsody, and an installation CD.
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I HIGHLY recommend the Muse. Why? It plays just about every form of media I throw onto it. The Noise Cancelling works well, and the included (required) earbuds are comfortable. It's well made (is that stainless steel?). The big LCD screen is great to watch Photos and Videos on. They've already updated the firmware with a more colorful and animated set of icons. Lastly, it sounds great!

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Specs and Features can be found HERE. What stands out to me are the supported codecs:

- Audio includes MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, APE, and Real Audio.

- Video includes AVI, WMV, MP4, and RMVB. Resolutions up to D1 (720 × 576) in AVI and MP4, with up to VGA (640 x 480) in WMV and RMWB. WM-DRM is also supported.
- Picture support includes JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG files. It came with some 800 x 480 photos on board which look great when displayed.
- You also get FM Radio and text display with the Muse. FM includes RDS for additional information about the station and song you may be listening to. There are 20 station presets you can program. You can mute FM Radio too. Not all players can. Text files (.TXT) will also display on the screen.
- You can record FM radio to the Muse as MP3 (stereo) files. There's also a built-in microphone for recording voice messages in MP3 (Mono) format.

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Details: Across the top is a noise cancelling switch and volume control rocker.

The microphone is on the right edge next to a slot to tie a lanyard or wrist-strap through.

UI: Getting around through the icons and menus is done using a 4-way direction pad with pause/play/select in the middle. There's also a back button bottom left of the pad and an options button top left of the pad.

A Power and Hold slider is on the bottom edge next to the USB port. Far right on the bottom edge is the headphone jack.

The headphone jack has an extra "keyhole" slot to key with the noise cancelling headphone's plug. The player will also take standard headphone plugs. That key keeps you from using the included headphones with any other player though.

As non-touchscreens interfaces go, this is average. To finding one song in a long list is not too bad. The longer you hold down the down button the faster the list scrolls. A little better than typical.

Music: With noise cancelling (NC) the Muse is more of a pleasure to listen to than most players. With NC on the ordinary sounds of living go away and leave just your music to enjoy. I type this with my CPU case next to my monitor on my desk, and the CPU has the expected fan and hard drive sounds coming from it. Plug into the Muse and that din disappears. Getting to the music is surprisingly easy as well. The Music icon is first in line and takes one tap of the play button to select. You can then choose from All songs, Rhapsody channels, Smart Shuffle, Artists, Album Art, Albums, Genres, Rating, Playlists, and Audiobooks. The screen area is well used. While any song or book is playing you'll see cover art/album art on the left and information on the right. From the Options menu you can adjust sound settings, Add the current song to a playlist, Bookmark, Delete, Rate, and choose play mode. The only thing I haven't been able to do is play all songs (across more than one album) from an artist. There are 10 preset EQ settings, and one 5-band custom EQ you can set yourself. You've also got Philips Full Sound option to turn on or off. Lastly there is an option to set a volume limit. Music play gets an A from me.

Video: What I love about the Muse is that I can drop about any video files I have on it and it will play. MP4 Videos at 480 x 320 for the iPhone and iPod Touch are most easy to come by and they play fine on the Muse. AVI files formatted for my players with 480 x 272 pixel screens also play fine. I've thrown 512 x 288 and 640 x 360 MP4 files onto the Muse and they play as well. They only thing to keep away from is DRM encoded videos. Video gets an A.

Pictures: The Muse displayed photos taken right off my 7mp digital camera. It's obviously internally shrinks then to display on it's screen. It doesn't offer any Zoom capability that I could find. You can rotate images in 90 degrees steps. Photos look typical for an LCD screen, and will fade out as you tilt away from a straight-on view of the screen. There is a slide show function. You can select the time between photos, as well as shuffled or sequenced play order. There is an option to add individual photos to an Album. You can also delete photos from the player. To display the photos in a single folder use the browser to find that folder first. I'll give the Photo app a B- for not having a zoom option.

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Conclusion: The Muse from Philips leaves me with a generally good feeling. There are no major flaws or shortcomings among it's features. The price (mine was $128 from amazon.com) is right for what you get, and what you get is a versatile and great sounding media player. Philips seems to know there is little 3rd-party support for it's player so they throw in a nice slip-case to keep the muse in. A simple but appreciated touch. Should you buy a Muse? I see no reason why not. There is no memory expansion slot on the Muse, but you can get one with 32gb memory installed if you need it.

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ViewSonic VPD400 Review.

Although ViewSonic has proven to be a reliable source for monitors and related electronics, I was surprised to come across their 4.3" HD MovieBook at amazon.com. It comes in Black, White, or Pink. It comes with 8gb of internal memory and also supports microSD memory cards up to 8gb (so far).

It does NOT have a touchscreen. Control is managed using assorted buttons along the top of the frame or the include IR remote control. The left end is where you'll find a standard mini-usb port and the microSD slot. There are speaker grills on both ends for stereo audio output. The headphone and HDTV jacks are on the right end. So is a Volume Control rocker.

The User Manual in PDF form can be found: HERE.

The VPD400 certainly lives up to it's "MovieBook" nickname. It will play almost any video file you put on it, including these formats: AVI, RM/RMVB, FLV, MP4, MOV, PMP, MPG, VOB, DAT, H.264, and H.263. It comes with component video and L/R audio cables so you can hook it directly into most HDTVs. It includes it's own remote control and AC power adapter. You can park it next to your HDTV, plug it in to both power and the TV, and control viewing of 720p video right from your sofa. Or watch those videos on the beautiful 800 x 480, 4.3" LCD screen.

Audio playback isn't shabby either, with MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, APE, and OGG formats supported. You'll enjoy more detail from your JPEG, BMP, PNG, or GIF photos as well. They've thrown in a microphone so you can record voice memos, and there is also a text reader.

For the money it's a great video player. Battery duration is barely acceptable but perhaps mine will improve after a few charging cycles.

Music playback is great. Sound quality (with good headphones) is excellent. Getting to the sort options using the external controls is cumbersome and frustrating though. Using the remote is far more efficient. The internal speakers are almost pointless, but can be cranked up to entertain you if no headphones are available. There will be no appreciable bass frequencies from them though.

My conclusion? It's a great player for what it costs. Touchscreens are far more efficient in getting to your media. I'll give it a B.

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New Firmware for the Creative X-Fi2.

On 11/25/2009 Creative posted new firmware version 1.10.04. Among other things it added a Sudoku game within a new Apps icon on the second page of the home screen. You can find the update after clicking on "Agree" on this page of Creative's site. Other improvements include:

Enhancements:
• Automatically rotates photos when you turn your player sideways.
• Adds a Sudoku game under the Applications menu .
• Updates your player with new colorful themes.
• Enhances the touch screen's responsiveness.
• Ensures a "press and hold" behaviour for the Power button when you turn on/off your player.

Given the new Photo Rotation it looks like there may be a G-sensor inside the X-Fi2. That leaves open much more potential for apps.

There was a firmware release less than two weeks ago as well, but you don't need to install it before installing this latest one. I'm hoping this indicates Creative will have more apps for the X-Fi2 and possibly a Software Design Kit (SDK). To be competitive in the MP3 player market a few apps are required. I personally am addicted to Sudoku and delighted to find a version for my X-Fi2.

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Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android. My Review

Now that Archos put Android on one of their touchscreen monsters I thought it was worth a look. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet (with Android) comes in 8gb (Radio Shack), 16gb and 32gb flash memory models, as well as 160gb and 500gb hard drive based models. The 500gb model is roughly $500 and a great deal per gigabyte. I don't have any need for that much space so I picked up the 32gb version. The flash memory models are thinner and have a microSD slot for add-on storage.

Dimensions: 143.2 x 78.8 x 10.4mm. Mine weighs 182 grams (6.4 ounces). The Screen is 800 x 480 pixels, 4.8" TFT LCD, 16 million colors. There is a nice little fold-out stand which holds the 5 up at a great viewing angle.

Source: BHPhotoVideo.com. Amazon.com and Newegg.com have them as well. Typically $380 for the 32gb model.

Media play includes:
- Music: MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC. Up to 22 hours. Gapless play seems to be there, at least with the MP3 files I've tested. - Video: MPEG-4 HD (up to 720p), MPEG-48 (ASP@L5 AVI, up to DVD resolution), H.264 HD (up to 720p), WMV (MP@ML, up to DVD resolution) including WMV protected files, MKV (up to 720p, 2500kbs, 23fps), M-JPEG (Motion JPEG Video) in QVGA resolution. Up to 7 hours. - Photos: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF- Flash Games
- FM Radio (with RDS). You can find it after tapping on Music. I'd love to have a dedicated icon for it but haven't figured that out yet.

Media Input includes:
- Voice Recording with the built-in microphone.
- Stereo Line-In recording with the optional DVR Station or DVR Snap-on.
- FM radio recording.
- Video Recording with the optional DVR Station or DVR Snap-on.
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Radios:

- Wifi including 802.11b, g, and n.

- Bluetooth for wireless headphones and more. Bluetooth keyboard and mice work too.

- GPS for Navigation and location sensing (Google Maps).

- FM Transmitter.
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Other:

- G-Sensor

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Apps: I'm not going to list or review them here, but you can find a list at Archos.com. Many rely on you subscribing to their associated web sites. Email and contacts are there thankfully. You can also find many more apps and download them directly to the 5 using the AppLib application on the 5. The User Interface: Sensitive and reliable. Some actions take awhile to process and that can make you think the UI is sluggish, but once you are at the Home Menu or within the photo app you'll see there is plenty of horse power for smooth graphics and quick response when it is most important. The body has only three external buttons. Thankfully they included VOLume Up and VOLume Down along with the Power button.
Quality: As a media player this Archos has what it takes. Music, Video, and photos all take advantage of the hardware, sounding and looking great. Using Wifi you can also access shared folders on your home network to find far more than you might have stored locally on the 5. As a pocket computer the 5 is not completely there, but it's got the tools to improve with firmware updates. Support for a bluetooth keyboard and network printer would be all that's needed to eliminate one's need for a notebook PC. The 5 tends to attract fingerprints front and back, but so do most touchscreen devices I've tried. Seams between body halves are a little sharp. The built-in stand is a nice touch and is mounted stiffly enough to be adjusted to variable viewing angles. It will also prop the 5 up on it's right end but the 5's rounded end makes for a teetery perch.
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Conclusion? My Archos 5 is growing on me every day. So far the software has updated itself twice. It now runs on Android 1.5, and version 1.4.25 of the Archos firmware. While pricey, you are getting the largest screen that will still fit into a shirt pocket. There doesn't look to be too much the Archos 5 won't run eventually. It might be an amazing value in a year. At the moment though it is incredible but pricey.
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