Despite the fact that the gadgets have been around for years already, flash-memory-based music players are getting a lot of press with the recent release of Apple's iPod Shuffle, the company's attempt to capture the 30 percent of the portable-music-player market it doesn't already dominate.
The release of the iPod Shuffle was announced at the beginning of last month and Taiwanese customers who ordered it then are now getting calls to come pick it up.
But if the Shuffle has you mulling the idea of joining the iPod revolution, you owe it to yourself to check out the competitors Apple had in its sights when designing a wearable player. Doing so is a lesson in what the company did right and where it may have missed its mark.
The benefit of flash-memory players is that there are no moving parts. Harddrive players such as the regular iPod or iPod mini have a mechanism that reads a disk. If the device is dropped -- or, in some cases, if it bounces while you're jogging -- the mechanism can skip, or break altogether. Not so with a solid-state flash memory player. The downside, however, is that flash memory currently allows for up to only 1GB (the most popular models are 256MB and 512MB) of storage space.
Of course, this limited storage capacity is only a problem if you want to take most of your music library with you (i.e. when you're going on vacation).
At such times the roughly 120 four-minute-long songs you can fit on a 512MB flash memory player might get monotonous. But if you're simply going to work, to the gym or on a bicycle ride, a pit stop at your computer before heading out will allow you to swap out some eight hours of music in just a few minutes.
One of the flash-memory-player companies that has been in the business the longest is Nomad, whose Creative brand of players has sold steadily for several years. Their latest volley in the wearable player wars is the Creative MuVo.
The MuVo comes in a variety of models. The introductory MuVo offers 64MB or 128 MB of storage space, making it already something of a dinosaur. (The company's literature boasts that the 128MB model can hold 88 floppies worth of data! Floppies!?)
The MuVo TX model is larger, with 512MB of storage capacity, the FM version (NT$3,900) has built-in FM radio capability and the NX version has voice-recording capabilities.
The unique thing about the MuVo is that it's two pieces; a USB storage stick that slides into a sheath that houses the device's additional features.
The MuVo is making in-roads in Hong Kong among commuters who want a little more than the previous generation of flash-memory players offered; in other words the FM radio or dictation capability.
But if that's the type of device you're looking for, an iRiver player is worth a look. Earning top style points is iRiver's N10 Jewelry model (NT$7,000/512MB version). It streamlines all the basics of a solid-state music player (and adds a voice recorder) into a piece smaller than a pack of gum that doesn't look out of place around your neck when you're not listening to it. It's just 2.7cm wide, 5cm long and 1.3cm thick -- small enough and stylish enough that you have to look twice before realizing it's an electronic device. In fact, it's designed to be worm as jewelry.
The 16-shade OLED screen can generate a level meter, bolts of lightning or a dancing figure that moves to the beat of the music.
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