mac drives

first, great service by amazon. got the unit exactly when they said i would.

i had the original archos jukebox 2 years ago. i went to the ipod because of the craze that it would be the best mp3 player hands down. well, im back to archos. if youre thinking about getting an ipod, understand that A, it seperates music by id3 tags, and B, the battery dies in a year and it is $100 to replace! the gmini 220 seperates songs by folder much like using windows explorer. if you dont want to deal with the hassle of making sure all your mp3 id3 tags are correct so the ipod will read them then get the archos.

this unit is really easy to use. it takes a little getting used to, but so do all of these mp3 players. a couples of the features that are really cool and good to have. 1. the CF card reader. not only is it really neat, but you can use that to transfer music to or from the player (in small quantities) if you find yourself without your usb cable. you can also use it to store pictures from a camera or other digital devices. 2. the internal microphone and line in recording. FINALLY! i can make tapes into mp3s and even radio shows i like. all you have to do is use the supplied cables to record from a device, or you can even use the mic which i found to be pretty good quality. the display is very nice. i was worried it would be difficult to operate the device with one hand, but it is pretty easy.

ok, so why 4 stars instead of 5? well, the battery doesnt appear to be as long as they said it is. they list 10 hours, but i think it is probably close to 8. this isnt THAT big of a deal, and any other mp3 player most likely will give you the same thing. also, the unit did freeze up a few times. this has happened with all the mp3 players i have had (3). i dont think they will ever make mp3 players perfect, but this one is the best i have used so far. i would recommend it over the ipod.

First, I want to explain why I started off enthusiastic, but returned the 220 after a week.

1) My simpletech flash card, which works with many other devices, couldn't be read by the Gmini

2) Battery life was around 6 hours

3) The screen was poor, even with contrast settings and backlight

4) Playlists got mangled when used with the resume function

5) Recording using the internal mic picked up loud screen noise

I just replaced it with an iRiver ihp-120. It is my third player, and I think I might keep it.

Here are the properties that the iRiver shares with the Gmini:

-same volume/weight
-browse by folder and connect as external hard drive
-record either by line in or internal microphone

However, the iRiver adds:

-true 16 hour playback, more than double what I had with my Gmini
-a full functioned remote with screen
-built in FM tuner

Now, you can't dump CF cards directly onto the iRiver. However, Macally makes a product which will let you do that. See http://www.macally.com/new/new_syncbox.html for details

I checked out http://www.misticriver.ws for a while before I made my decision. There is lots of good information there.

I spent weeks researching mp3 players and ended up with the GMini 220. I wanted both the music and Photo wallet features. I travel for extensive time without a laptop and needed something to down load pictures to. The sound quality is great and the photo wallet works great. I've had the unit for 5 months now and it has worked perfectly. I would buy another one (or maybe the GMini 400 series when that comes out)