Nightmare -- Don't Buy This Thing

This is a really cute looking device -- too bad it doesn't work at all. The firmware and software combo is horrible. You cannot simply drag and drop songs to the device. You MUST use their Philips branded version of MusicMatch Jukebox to transfer songs and it DOES NOT work. Two phone calls to Philips didn't help either. They were polite and all but otherwise useless. I've owned and used MP3 players since they were first introduced and this is by far the most time I have wasted trying to get something to work. I never did succeed.

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Great Covenient Player

I'm a mom ... that being said I do not need to hear every instrument during my very hetic day. This provides the music I (& the kids) love to get us moving. The first one I purchased, which was a 250 MB, did not power up at all. One call to Philips to trouble shoot, no luck, so they had me send it back, on my dime. However, they replaced it, about 6 weeks later, with an upgraded 512 MB unit. No trouble whatsoever with the 512. I did reset it once with ease, did not loose anything. Battery life is quite long, and built-in rechargeable. Downloading is so simple, or transfer your CD music, easy enough, I am not one to fiddle with instructions. The volume is loud enough, can also use with headphones. No need to carry CD's for the car now. Have used as portable speakers for the kids DVD player, as an alarm clock, auto shut-down, etc. Play music by artist, type, shuffle, repeat. Holds plenty of music. Built in radio. Very portable, took on vacation for the cabin. Obviously not for the pocket. Wonderful idea, very satisfied.

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A unique product

I was looking for a memory based sound system for long time and really glad to have found this product. I don't mind paying more for larger storage size (like 1 or 2 G), but 512MB is what Philips' offering.

I had no problem getting started, music was up and playing within 1 hour of opening the box. (I had previous experience with other philips MP3 so that helped)

The main use of this player is to play lullabies and other children songs for my 15 months old and it works really well. My kid loves the unit, pointing at it when she wants music, and often just carries it around happily when the music plays. I couldn't have done it with other mp3 players (needs headphones) or an Ipod with a dock.(not protable)
The unit did lock up once (blank and no signs of life even plugged in) that resulted in a customer service call, reseting the box resovled the issue. All in all, I am very pleased this product exist. I just can't find another product like this - portable MP3 player with speakers

Even this product works well in my case, it's not perfect and here is why it only gets 3 stars:
- USB 1.1 is slow, takes a long time to load music
- Must use music match to synch music, not very easy to use
- Sound quality is similar to alarm clock radio, no mid-range and bass, and treble isn't particularly clear either. But then, what can you expect from these tiny speakers.




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