Not really very perfect at all: mobiBLU Cube
Only at Walmart.
It's an iPod shuffle with an FM tuner, voice recorder, and tiny OLED display (no, not LCD).
The FM receiver is really awful. It uses the headphone wire as an antenna, and as you move your head around, the signal will drop in and out. in general, the signal is just ass-poor. Too bad, but really, I do not listen to much radio anyway.
The display has high geek factor (oooh...organic LED's!) and it's readable at night...sort of. It is so insanely cluttered that you have a hard time making out what's what. Boo on that.
What really gets me is that the cube doesn't read ID3 tags; instead, it scrolls the file name across the screen, extension and all. I have not tried WMA files from the Walmart music store. Perhaps it manages to be clever and extract embedded data in their case -- I don't know.
On the good side, it connects with a minimum of fuss and talks happily to any OS you want: it shows up as any USB solid state drive. The (Windows-only) software it comes with lets you zap the firmware, but is not necessary for daily use. (Hell, it's not necessary at all. The disc mine shipped with had an older version of the firmware than my player. The mobiBLU website had my player's version. Sort of pointless to ship the (mini-)CD, really.)
More goodness: you can select a portion of a track and make it loop. Good for drilling foreign languages or figuring out Michael Stipe lyrics -- which are pretty much the same thing. More badness: no way to fast-forward or rewind within a track.
In all, yes, it's the same price as Apple's iPod Shuffle, it's even smaller, and yes, you get a voice recorder, and an OLED screen (don't expect to get a radio). But in the end Apple wins, because they understand that how something feels in your hand and how easy it is to use is what counts. UI over features. The mobiBLU feels like a toy, about to break apart. The buttons are not easy or "desirable" to press (no satisfying click). The screen is cluttered to the point of useless. The radio is a joke.
Unless you need to play DRM'ed WMA files from the Walmart music store, just get a Shuffle. Better yet: save up for a nano.
It's an iPod shuffle with an FM tuner, voice recorder, and tiny OLED display (no, not LCD).
The Good
- it plays music
- it's tiny
- it has an FM receiver
- it has a voice recorder
- no stupid free software, no driver needed
The Bad
- it feels cheap
- the radio sucks
- the display is very cluttered
- no ID3 tag support
- the free headphones are crap
The FM receiver is really awful. It uses the headphone wire as an antenna, and as you move your head around, the signal will drop in and out. in general, the signal is just ass-poor. Too bad, but really, I do not listen to much radio anyway.
The display has high geek factor (oooh...organic LED's!) and it's readable at night...sort of. It is so insanely cluttered that you have a hard time making out what's what. Boo on that.
What really gets me is that the cube doesn't read ID3 tags; instead, it scrolls the file name across the screen, extension and all. I have not tried WMA files from the Walmart music store. Perhaps it manages to be clever and extract embedded data in their case -- I don't know.
On the good side, it connects with a minimum of fuss and talks happily to any OS you want: it shows up as any USB solid state drive. The (Windows-only) software it comes with lets you zap the firmware, but is not necessary for daily use. (Hell, it's not necessary at all. The disc mine shipped with had an older version of the firmware than my player. The mobiBLU website had my player's version. Sort of pointless to ship the (mini-)CD, really.)
More goodness: you can select a portion of a track and make it loop. Good for drilling foreign languages or figuring out Michael Stipe lyrics -- which are pretty much the same thing. More badness: no way to fast-forward or rewind within a track.
In all, yes, it's the same price as Apple's iPod Shuffle, it's even smaller, and yes, you get a voice recorder, and an OLED screen (don't expect to get a radio). But in the end Apple wins, because they understand that how something feels in your hand and how easy it is to use is what counts. UI over features. The mobiBLU feels like a toy, about to break apart. The buttons are not easy or "desirable" to press (no satisfying click). The screen is cluttered to the point of useless. The radio is a joke.
Unless you need to play DRM'ed WMA files from the Walmart music store, just get a Shuffle. Better yet: save up for a nano.
posted by alex. at 16:11
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