My wife says she wants an MP3 player for Mothers Day. She just wants something nice to jog with. An actual Ipod is overkill and not worth it for her. She would probably only want 100 songs so any 1Gb player would be enough. The key considerations are ease of use and suitability for carrying while she jogs. Nice earphones would be nice as well.
It needs to be under $150 and under $100 is better. I saw some Ipod shuffles for about $80 that may be good but I am open to anything.
***I already have most of the songs she might want and can load it up for her. It just needs to be very portable and user friendly in all other ways.
My girlfriend and I picked out a nice 2GB Sandisk player for less than $80 at Circuit City. Seems very capable.
I think that half of what you pay for an iPod is paying for the trendy-factor, not the function. The Sansa/Sandisk takes standard batteries, holds gobs of songs, and plays mp3’s and wma’s.
I LOVE the Shuffle. I ruined my Ipod mini within a year. Sometimes it would just pop out of the little holder and fall on the floor. On other occasions I’d be walking around and clumsily drop it. This all did a number on it and it died.
The shuffle clips on to my clothes. I use it to work out and during my commute if I forgot to bring a book.
I second the Shuffle for your wife. It’s perfect for jogging and so tiny it’s unbelievable. Yes - the Sandisk is better bang for the buck (I actually have a Sandisk as my main player) - but you can’t beat the Shuffle for running.
It’s ridiculously user-friendly and I like the earphones that come with it for jogging.
It’s tiny and powered by a triple A battery so I don’t have to worry about recharging it.
The whole thing is essentially a USB thumb drive with a connection to the battery. You can use it as a mini hard drive if you want. Also, all you have to do is pull it out of the battery charger and attach it to the USB port of your laptop. No wires.
Additionally, you can click and drag to transfer files. Creative gives you software but you don’t have to use it to operate the player.
And it’s got a radio and costs well under a $100. What’s not to love?
One caveat: You use a plastic wheel/toggle thingie for pretty much every function. It seems like a pretty flimsy mechanism but I haven’t had a problem in the year and a half that I’ve had the player.
My first MP3 was a Creative Zen. I hated it. It was poorly made amd would often shut off for no apparent reason. The battery life also sucked.
I then got an IPOD and fell in love. I know you don’t need a Nano but go ahead and get the Shuffle. I know people that have it and are happy with it. User friendly and the charge lasts forever.
I think that for something like that, I would reccomend a sandisk sansa, rca lyra, or creative muvo. There are all kinds of variant models in all three lines, so you may have to pick and choose, but all three seem to be very dependable flash players from my experience.
And I hope that whatever you get she loves!
Cattitude - I think I agree that the zen’s aren’t amazing, and would probably be overkill for a jogging player anyway. My zen micro is okay for playing in the dock at home, or at the library-in a hotel room etc, but I think that it doesn’t really like having to play while I’m walking or on the bus. (which kinda takes the fun out of a portable music player. :D) Haven’t had the same issues as you had with yours though.
I have a Zen too but I don’t care for it as much as I do the Muvo. It isn’t as well made. That said, the battery life has always been around what is advertised, about 15 to 18 hours on a triple A battery.
Are you sure that you turned it off after you finished using it? That’s one weak spot in Creative’s design. You have to hold down the power button for a little to turn it off. It can be easy to forget or not hold the button long enough
I run 25mi/wk and it’s really the best.
I load books on tape onto it, telling iTunes that those shouldn’t be in the “shuffle” sequence. When I want music, I switch it to “shuffle” and listen to my tunes. When I want my book I switch it to “in order” and triple-click the button to go back to the beginning of my playlist.
It’s goofproof. It clips securely to anything. You don’t even feel its presence.
Here’s a nice review that culminates in abusing until destruction and the following autopsy: Shuffle Review
I gave my mom the same Sandisk e250 that I bought myself, and nearly every time I talk to her she mentions how much she loves it. It’s a great player, with flash memory, and I absolutely love the thing.
Another vote for the Shuffle. There are good reasons why Apple has like 80% of the MP3 player market, one of which is it is designed exactly for people like your mother.
There are all kinds of variant models in all three lines, so you may have to pick and choose, but all three seem to be very dependable flash players from my experience.