Me: I live in Silicon Valley with my wife, child and cat. I have worked at Microsoft since I graduated from College, both in the Macintosh Business Unit on products such as Outlook Express, Entourage, IE, and Virtual PC and in Windows Live on Hotmail, Calendar and People. I am currently a Principal Lead Program Manager on the Windows Live Social Networking team. I basically manage a team of Program Managers responsible for delivering features to support our web and client applications. I've been blogging since 2001 and like to play around with .NET in my spare time working on projects such as dasBlog (the blog that powers this site) and Send to SmugMug (an application for uploading photos to SmugMug). I blog about a number of technology and productivity related topics.
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© Copyright 2010, Omar Shahine
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In order to help you keep informed of my quest, I've created a category feed you can use (Technology | Digital Audio). For the meantime this category will be focused 100% of iPod replacements and related technology. I will try not to rehash existing reviews out there if I think they accurately reflect my opinions. In those cases I will point to the review and cover some of my thoughts.
As a primer, you may want to read my post about PlaysForSure to get some background.
Criteria
I have the following criteria in getting any new device. I will rate the device using a simple system.
Size: No more than 15% bigger/heavier than the 3G 20 GB iPod. Smaller & lighter is better.
User Interface: It does not suck/was not designed by monkeys. Provides the following (in addition to basic features like play, pause, ffwd, rewind etc):
Connectivity: Must support USB 2.0 for synchronization.
Charging: Must support charging via USB AND charging during Sync. Extra bonus points if the device has no other way to charge (no DC plug with a proprietary adapter). This is important for those of us that travel with Digital Cameras, Phones, an all sorts of other nonsense. The more devices that can just use a USB Type B to USB Type A plug have a special place in my heart.
Sync: Supports AutoSync with Windows Media Player 10 either via MTP or Mass Storage Device
Accessories:
Battery Life: Must be better than the iPod, but this is easy to beat since my 3G iPod battery sometimes lasts as long as 6 hours.
Software: No installation required with Windows XP SP2 + Windows Media Player 10. If you require me to install software to meet any of the requirements you fail.
Price: Less than $400
Storage: At least 5GB for the mini form factor and 20 GB for the iPod form factor.
PlaysForSure:
Support: Manufacturer has a proven track record for supporting this device by shipping firmware updates that fix bugs.
Web Site: Manufacturer does not make false claims about the device's capabilities, or omit critical detail.
Optional Features:
Next up will be my review of the iRiver H320 and the Rio Carbon.