MP3 Review - Sansa Clip+

I am the proud owner of an MP3 player known as the Sansa Clip+. It is the 4gb size in blue and it has been a wonderful companion on my commutes, walks, and general waiting around times. I have listened to countless hours of music, podcasts and books on tape or rather audio books. It is fairly small, lightweight and has a battery that last long enough between charges not to be a hassle. I am still using the original headphones, which to me means that even though they are not perfect they don’t suck to the point I am willing to put forth the effort to find something else. They don’t shut out the roar of a jet engine on takeoff, and sometimes the wind whistles when there is a good breeze or you are riding a bike but that also lets in traffic noises that you need to hear and that is o.k. with me.

The Clip+ has a small window to navigate from (but at least it has a window) but it is all I need to get to whichever item I am trying to find. It has a simple straightforward interface which means it is very user friendly. That was very helpful for the first-timer that I was. I did not use the provided software or Windows Media Player for synching operations but instead just opened up Windows Explorer and used it like a thumb drive. I was not familiar with the other method and wasn’t ready to take the time to learn although I am sure I could figure it out now. The Explorer method of drag and drop is what I use on a daily working basis and still find it the easiest to operate.

The included FM radio works but I haven’t used it much as there are so many other things to listen to that don’t involve commercials. There is a recording function also which I have not used mainly because I got this unit for other reasons, primarily listening to books and it does that pretty well. There isn’t a bookmark function that I am aware of but it does save your place and starts up there again when you return. In all my uses I have not found a need for more than what this unit delivers…almost.

In fact I only have two things to squawk on with this little gadget in the 20 odd months I have owned it, one small and the other a bit bigger. First the small. I find myself spending too much time untangling the headphone cords. It doesn’t happen all the time (I am just noticing it more often lately) but when I want to put the thing in my pocket, unit headphones and all, I usual just kind of wrap it up and stick it in and carry on. This is fine until you pull it out to use it and find that the cords do not unfold as smoothly. It is a short cord so it doesn’t take long to unravel it but sometimes you are unplugging it to make it untangle faster. I have no idea if there is a better arrangement out there or not but 30 seconds is 30 seconds.

My only real desire that would make me want to get a different player is the ability to adjust the playback speed on the audio books and podcasts. I like to speed things up, sometimes quite a lot. This player will allow you to speed things up with a slow, normal, and fast setting but the fast setting is only about a 15% boost and it does not adjust the pitch so any voices will now have a slight chipmunk effect. The chipmunking is not bad, more annoying really, but 15% is slow on my scale. I searched long and hard for a player that could do better but found very little reference to playback speeds even from e-mailing the manufacturer. Apple has a speed adjustment on their players with a slow, normal and fast setting and they do have a pitch adjustment so that you don’t hear chipmunks. There fast setting is only 40% faster and while that is better in all respects I couldn’t justify paying 3 to 4 times as much and then being a slave to apples system. I still have some items in the Microsoft media player format.

Cost was a factor in picking the Sansa Clip+. I think I paid $40 for mine on sale. Sansa is also a good size company that deals in memory and other items so an MP3 player seemed to match their areas of expertise. And like I said, I could buy 3 of these and still be ahead of getting an Apple.

This brings me to one of the points that led me to the decision to stay on the cost effective end of the MP3 player spectrum. I have talked to several people and read many reports on line that lead me to believe that MP3 players are almost a disposable item in that many users have or have had more than one player over the years. Disposable is not my favorite term when describing something you are wanting to get lots of use out of.

So after all my fond use of a tool that has preformed fully for months without complaint, my Sansa Clip+ stopped dead cold in the middle of a podcasts playback on the way to work a couple of days ago. I was devastated and heartbroken. O.k. that is a little extreme but I was bummed.

I didn’t know why or what would make it stop like that. I had just recharged it over the weekend and knew it had a pretty full charge still. I had loaded it with some new items but kept it 500+ Mb below its capacity. I have heard that you never want to take any memory device to close to its full capacity. True with hard drives so why not small drives? No lights, no screen, no sound…so now what? Was the battery dead, shouldn’t be and as these are sealed units you couldn’t replace it even if you wanted too. Did I pick up a virus somewhere that killed my unit? The only thing I have plugged this into is an AC power adopter and my computer so I ran a full scan on the computer and found nothing.

I figured it was done, like those that I had read about, and I would need to start shopping for another one. I have had good luck with this one up until know so why not stay with Sansa unless of course I could find a new unit that had a better playback speed function. Sansa has a new Clip Zip player that other than a slightly bigger screen that has color appears to be a copy of the Clip+. I went on line to find a copy of the owner’s manual to see if it still had the playback speed function and it did. I was just about to say sign me up when I noticed mention of a reset function. Vaguely I recalled a similar function in my owner’s manual and went in search of it. Eureka a reset is done by holding down the power button for 20 seconds. I had tried that (along with all the other buttons and several combinations and groupings) but not for that long.

I went racing upstairs to find my Clip+ and try this last resort to restore functionality to my player. I pushed the power button for two seconds and lost count on my way to twenty and let go of the button to start again when the lights came back on. My player was working again. I didn’t need the whole reset. Why…I don’t know. The battery was showing a very low charge so I brought it back to the computer, plugged it in and everything appears to be working just fine. I am so glad. If you have read any of my past post you will know that it took me more than 6 months of shopping to settle on this MP3 player (and I am glad I did) but I didn’t want to be without a working MP3 player for 6 days. I understand now why those that have had them are so willing to have another or more than one, these things are great…when they are working.

I will still keep my eye out for a better audio book player but for now I am glad that I still have my Clip+. This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

On slow downloads and the reality of over sold expectations.

As I write this I am waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the last of a few files to download. I started the download sometime yesterday afternoon. It is now nearly 6:30 the next morning as the last file reports that there are 15 minutes remaining. The files are good size files I admit. There are about 50 files in all representing two classes, one on financial markets from Yale and one on Hebrew Scriptures in Judaism and Christianity from Harvard. Each file is in the 600 to 850 MB size range representing a 60 to 75 minute video lecture on the given topic. They come from the iTunes U store. There is a fascinating array of topics to be discovered there and so far if you stay on the Pod casts and iTunes U side of the iTunes store it has all been free, a price I readily relish in the internet age where far too many things have hyper inflated pricing under the label of being cutting edge technology. So why is my Qwest taking so stinking long to download a couple of school videos especially when they are bragging all the time about high speed internet and there wonderfully cheap pricing plan. By the way we have seen neither in our many months of belonging to them even after the changeover to CenturyLink. The bill remains high with extra charges that don’t make any sense and seem to reappear time and again even after request to have them removed. I am definitely going to have to find a better way. I know my computer is starting to show it’s age (and if you look in past entries you will see that it started showing its age shortly after we got it). It is very frustrating to be throwing good money after bad which makes a lot of decisions about upgrading versus buying new a dilemma as well. Who do you trust to deliver the goods on whichever path you proceed down? In these tight economic times, which decision will lead to the best value for the hard earned dollar? And if I get something new, will I ever be able to find a machine that can play the flight simulator programs with a fair bit of competence? Yahoo, the last file just finished, I am out of here, other errands to run, the job being one of them. Wish me luck. This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

A quick run over to TEDs

Being stuck home sick is certainly no fun. Being able to catch up on a few things at home, things that don't take too much effort, at least makes you feel like the down time hasn't been a complete waste of time. One of those things was going to iTunes and downloading some of the latest TED video's. I don't know how many of these I have watched now but I can't think of a single one that didn't have something interesting in it.

Of the latest group I downloaded there where two individual yet very related videos that I just happened to download and watch in the same session. These two videos sum up rather well the two points of view that are competing for attention in the world today. Watch and think about which side you align with.

This will take a little time so make sure you have a few minutes to watch or at least download for later viewing. You can find TED 'Ideas worth spreading' from the link.

Then search for Paul Gilding 'The Earth is full', and watch it first, play time is 16:47 though that might include an advert at the end.

Next search for Peter Diamandis 'Abundance is are future', with a play time of 16:14.

If you want to go one step further the moderator brought them both out together for a little follow on discussion. It is a wonderful little debate with a bit of humor thrown in for good measure.

I would have added links to each site but links have a way of becoming obsolete almost as fast as they are loaded. The web site should stay constant however and they have a pretty good search function. You can also find them on iTunes store under pod casts again with a little searching.

If you have not explored or discovered TED yet you might want to plan for a little more time. There is a lot there for the curious to take in. Enjoy.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.