scott2k

Hi,

A friend/co-worker just asked my advice re: an MP3 player for her husband for Xmas. He wants to use it during exercising, so it needs to be small, lightweight, and otherwise suitable for exercising. He would also like FM radio as well.

She is going to head to MP3 Direct in Strathfield after work. Here is their website:

http://www.mp3direct.com.au/webstore/default.asp

Any advice on suitable models to get. I told her my friends swear by their Ipods but I don't know if they are lightweight or have FM radio.

Thanks,
Scott

fisting dwarves

i just bought a Creative MP3 player for that exact same purpose, 128MB with FM radio, Myer sells them for $199 but I got it from JB Hi-Fi for $159.

IPOD don't have radio.

2kturkey

Ipods are not recommended for exercise - they have a hard disk and therefore can skip. They're also not particularly light

My daughter bought an MP3 player (128MB + FM radio + voice recorder) for $175 in July last year. You can buy the same units today for half that price. Unfortunately the unit died after 14 months - it still works fine connected to a PC as a USB memory stick but won't power on in stand alone mode.

You guessed it, the warranty is only 12 months.

AusS2000

I take turkey's point about the HD, and have always thought the same, but then I've seen people jogging with iPods and in every ad there is a someone throwing themselves around like St Vitus dance. I guess it could be Apple's way of increasing consumption.

Generally a HD based MP3 player won't skip as they buffer the information and play it back from RAM. But that own't stop the heads skipping over the platters and causing bad sectors. But iPods use laptop HDs which are designed for a certain level of shock. The minis use an IBM microdrive but I'm not aware of it's G specs.

Fact is the solid state MP3 players are getting bigger and cheaper simultaneously and aren't affected by shock. They are usually pretty badly made but at the price you can afford to use them for a while then throw them out when they die.