I’ve never quite understood the cult of the iPod. I mean, I’ve wanted one for ages, simply because 20 gigs is adequate space for the music collection I have (I rip all my CDs for portability). Other than that, the price tag just didn’t appeal to me. And I don’t like the idea of having to use iTunes either.
Enter iAudio. More precisely, my new iAudio M3L
I’ve heard this one called the iPod killer. It’s smaller, cheaper, same storage, long as battery life (35 hours!), USB 2.0, more formats supported (MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF and WAV), Voice Recording, FM Radio, Listening and Recording, Direct MP3 Encoding, yadda yadda yadda.
A friend at work bought one, and instantly I was impressed with the construction. Solid, metal casing that felt well put together and far from flimsy. The navigation and micro-screen take a little getting used to and is really the only complaint I read about. But the sound was fantastic, and the radio feature was the finishing touch. Plus the built in voice recorder is something I’ve been looking at getting because I tend to have instant thoughts that I forget within minutes.
I’ve got 14 gigs of tunes. At work, I used to stream them from home since our policy prevents us from having MP3’s on our desktops, but the bandwidth was a problem since I use Vonage. This will solve my problem and then some.
I’m excited. According to FedEx, it’s delivered already. We get out early today because of the holiday, so I’ll be like a kid in a candy shop when I get home. I’m sure my wife will be thrilled!
Any suggestions out there where the best place / software to get music online?