November 22nd, 2008
Holiday Gift Guide 2008: MP3 players
I rarely see people carrying portable CD players anymore as it is much more convenient (size of players, amount of music, battery life) to burn your music to digital format or simply buy it online and download it to your PC/Mac. Many MP3 players support video too, but I’ll focus on just MP3/music capability in this guide. Even though the Apple iPod is the leader in the MP3 category there are still many other solutions available that you may want to consider this holiday season, including products from Microsoft, SanDisk, Sony, Slacker, Creative, and more. It is actually a bit surprising how many other models of MP3 players there still are on the market, but it really is tough to compete with the iPod and Zune players now that even their prices are dropping significantly.
It is hard to argue that the iPod touch isn’t the best multimedia player on the market with its large touch screen, slim design, and incredible user interface. That said, it is also quite expensive at US$229 for the 8GB, US$299 for the 16GB, and US$399 for the 32GB models so you’ll have to find someone really special to give one of these to this year. The ability to listen to samples and then buy/download music via a WiFi connection is a compelling feature of the device. The cover art in landscape mode, Genius music feature, and gaming aspects make the iPod touch a powerful mobile device and if I didn’t have an iPhone I would definitely have an iPod touch.
[Read the review (32GB)][Read the review (16GB)][Read the review (8GB)]
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Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 11/23/08
