Home and Kitchen Reviews

Okay. Here is a write up, that I did, on the comparisons/contrasts on MP3 players. Mainly, the Harddrive versions (I.E. Rio Riot/Apple IPOD -both of which I own) and the flash memory type... (I.E. Memorex 3642 Mp3 Player/IPOD Nano, of which I own as well).
What prompted this little jaunt (of which you may send to as many people as you like) My (expensive) Apple 40 gig 1st generation iPod died during an autofill. Just me copying files over to it, and the battery ran out of juice. I would have not attempted to copy music had I known the battery was low, but the battery read FULL STRENGTH. There was, later on, battery issues, and one of the issues -there were quite a few- was the false read on the iPod. Don't try to do any sort of autofilling on a hard drive MP3 player (Apple or other brand) if the battery is low. Anyhoo, I called Apple, they said return it for maintenance. I did. Sent it back.

They returned it, still broke.

To my suprise, there is only a TEN DAY return policy.

TEN DAYS.

That policy has since been revised.. remember, this was the first generation of the iPod, and stuff like warrantee's and batteries were not quite worked out... but I digress...

So, after a month or so of messing around trying to find another MP3 player... I decided to go with a flash memory MP3 player, the ones that use an internal memory much like the memory in your computer. And I bought a german Mp3 flash player then a Shuffle, and then a bit later I bought a Nano.. both of which I liked quite a bit.

SO, here are the pro and cons of these devices.

Pro's for the Memory Stick MP3 players

-Cheaper. NORMALLY WAY CHEAPER than Hard drive types. For example, now Apple makes a 1 gig Nano, and it is 140 bucks. And you can get other brand Flash memory ones for around 65 dollars. And that is not so bad, and nothing like the 300 or more you will pay for the monster hard drive versions.

-If you go into music match or any other software (the iTunes software I think does this as well) and file convert to MP3 Pro and shrink the size of your MP3 to like, say 3o percent... you can really make a good Kompression. Example. My Memorex MP3 player has 32mbs of memory on board. It is expandable to 256mb. 32 mb will basically let you put one cd's worth of music. It is easy to put music on and off of them, due to your computer reading the USB as just another hard drive, so you drag and drop to put on, delete them to take them off. But, after you shrink your files to MP3 Pro 30 percent, you can put twice as many. So, basically a 256mb chip will allow me to put 208 songs on my little less than palm size MP3 player. And it weighs like 3 ounces.

- More on memory. Some of the Mp3 players have insertable memory chips. Much like the stuff you use in your camera. These little chips are the size of the upper part of your thumb, at least my thumb anyway. They come in 128mb, 256mb, 512mb and even though there aren't any MP3 machines out there to handle them YET, you can even buy a 1.5gig thumb size chip thingy. Considering the size of the chips and the shrinking kompression I told you about earlier, I could shrink my whole KOLLEKTION down to 10 of those 1.5gig chips. At the current shrink rate I am at 5 DVD's, which are way bigger and more fragile than these little chips. Other types use the internal memory, like the Nano. All the Apple Nano versions have various sizes, the Shuffle smallest one is 512, then goes up to 1 gig... now the Nano is as small as 1 gig and goes up to 4 gig (the one I have is the black 4 gig, and is only 50 dollars more than the 2 gig version).

- Flash Memory is not as fragile as hard drive type. You can drop one of these chips and not scratch it. I wouldn't stomp on one with my foot, or get one in water, but they are encased in plastic. Ruggedish. I have dropped my nano, and my shuffle multiple times and no problems. I would NOT try that with a hard drive version, although it must be stated that they make some very rugged cases for the hard drive versions, and I have a friend who has the video Apple 40 gig iPod and he says his rugged case has protected his after he dropped it... but they are sorta expensive.

- Batteries last for quite a while, and some have internal batteries (the ipods do), others just have regular removeable batteries... There isn't much going on here, no moving parts, no laser or hard drive to put power to. Most of these flash Memory types have a single AA battery. I use a rechargeable type, so we are talking very low cost here.

In comparison to the hard drive types, where you will get a solid 8 hours of playing, the battery powered flash memory can get up to 12 hours without a recharge, and the ones with removable batteries, if you buy the recharge ones you can just swap out...this really whupps up. So, in the comparison to the hard drive, the flash memory only wins out due to it not being so harsh to the drain on the battery.

- Size. Small. Very small. Mine is three inches by three inches. A square. But, you can get smaller ones. And the memory chips that go in them are the same ones you use for your camera. And you can put files on them. If you want to put a word doc on your memory chip, you can. Your Mp3 won't recognize it, but it is nifty storage. The Ipod Nano, you can put just about any file you want, you can put photos, you can put email info and song lyrics etc... very verstitle.

COMPARISON/CONTRAST

- Size does matter. In the case of hard drive Mp3 players... lets face it, you can, if you so chose to, put a library of congress on these monsters. They are the caddilacs of the hand held devices, and guzzle batteries like gasoline. But when it comes down to it, size is the only thing they have going for them. I don't mean to downplay the hard drive types, but don't drop them, don't shake them, and after shelling out $399 to Apple you might consider insurance. And now apple offers a two year warrantee, and I got one. It cost 50 dollars. If you are getting a hard drive version of iPod, you'd be foolish not to get a warrantee.

- Price/Komparison. IPOD ran me $450 bucks. The 4 gig Nano ran me 250, you can get the 1 gig nano for 149. My memorex MP3 player ran me 45 dollars. The 128 memory chip runs you 50 bucks, but are getting cheaper by the week. There really isn't a comparison to the two. The memory stick Mp3 players just kick @$$ on this issue.

I have really liked all the mp3 players I have bought, from the german ones, the rio riot (no longer being made I think) to the three different iPods... and the iPods are getting more durable.. but I really feel the future is in flash memory as it becomes larger and larger in memory bandwidth.

So, that is my review in a nutshell.


Have fun

This player is the dream MP3!!!! It has everything I had dreamed of on it!!!! It is better than the Ipod because it has an FM radio on it and you can get more for your money!!! If you have the money to spend, this is definitely a good investment!!!!

I received this pan as a Christmas gift to replace a favorite pan with a broken handle --what an upgrade it has been! The first thing I cooked in this pan was an extra large batch of sauce that required me to use the old broken pan and this new pan at the same time. Wow -what a differene! With my old pan, all the the steam was rising from one spot, whereas this pan distributed heat much more evenly. Also, the non-stick surface was so slippery, that a mere twist of my wooden spoon got everything moving. It's a bit heavy, and the extra long handle takes up a lot of cabinet space -- but all and all, an amazing piece of equipment. My old beloved but broken sauce pan (I thought I could never live without it) went directly into the goodwill box. I would recommend this to anyone.

I have the stainless version. I love it & find that I have less garbage as this compost goes right into my Green recycle at curbside.

I was very disappointed, The coffee had a burnt taste. The machine always shut off before it brewed a full cup. It fell apart after six months.

I am on my third machine now, and it too is leaking. Dont get me wrong, the coffee tastes really good, always fresh. But after a while the machine starts to leak when you are making a cup of coffee. I guess the machine only cost 25 bucks now, so if you dont mind only using it for a month it is a great buy.

I got this for a gift, but was very disappointed. My mother in law has the Melitta coffee maker and I had drank coffee from it many times. This coffee maker makes the coffee taste like plastic or like it has a chemical in it. It tastes terrible. I even took a cup to my mother in law to try so she could see the difference one coffee maker makes from the other with the same exact pods. It also splashes coffee everywhere and makes a horrible sound when brewing. I would spend my money on another single serving coffee maker, but not this one. I hope I can return mine.