IPOD KILLER

[DP]

Hi CNET just posted a review in which Cowan iAudio M3 was billed as an THE ipod killer, just wondering what you guys think especially with the H120 and H140 in the comparison


H120, Koss portapro.

[Sharki]

First of all Cnet is very good in the sense of information, but not so much on the in-depth review. I think every hard drive based mp3 player that came out in the past year, they dubbed "the ipod killer" and other attention grabing titles so I wouldnt really be all that concerned.
Second, and this is my personal opinion, who in their right mind would make a 20gb device with no display?????? I must be missing something, how on earth can you navigate and work your way through anything over there. sure the cradle and hooking it up will give you a display but then why make it portable.
That's just my 2c.

[uXs]

There's a screen on the remote.

[pomegranate]

I think to call the M3 (or any mp3 player) an "iPod killer" is pretty lame. It has some advantages over the iPod and some disadvantages, whether the M3 is better than the iPod depends on the needs of the individual.
I think that it's essentially pretty similar to the iHPs, the main difference obviously being the screen.
I think that an on-wire screen is always useful, but I don't think this is the way to do it. I really don't like the way either iHP or Cowon have done their remote screens - I find the iHP hard to look at and control at the same time, because of the way the buttons are laid out, and the "landscape" format of the screen and whole remote. The M3 looks like it would be the same. I think navigation is too complicated a task to bother trying to do it "portably" i.e. not on the main unit - so I think it's best to restrict remote display functions to playback controls and volume. I don't really see any advantage of not having a display on the main unit.
In comparision to the iHP, what I'd like to know is what the on-screen interface and software is like for the iAudio, because these are the two main aspects that disappointed me about the iHP. Going by the CNET review the bundled software isn't much to shout about for managing the player. I've used it just for playing music and I don't like it, it's not intuitive at all and doesn't maintain a proper music database, which is a shame as it has some great functions.
So basically it the interface doesn't seem to be much different to the iHP. It seems to have most of the same functions, plus record-from radio, which could be pretty cool. Battery life appears to be a bit lower than the iHP but still quite reasonable. I don't think "10% thinner" than the iPod is much of a selling point. I'd say the M3 is a lot nicer looking than the iHP.
Overall, if I could try out the remote to see how it feels, and if I liked it, I would probably choose the M3 over the iHP if I didn't already have the iHP.

[Alynat]

Hi:

It seem cool to me until I checked the reviews of buyers of the cowon, and apparently there is a big problem with the remote, it tends to die quite often, and needs to be replaced with a new one. Not very good, eh? I am afraid that until they do not fix this basic problem, there is no need to talk about it, right now is a piece of junk.

[y0da]

yeah the whole remote or die thing with the cowon is a deal breaker ....the thing needs a screen on the main unit....as it stands now its just asking to be broke all the time

[DP]

As expected, very insightful comments from y'all. I started off with the IMP-350, after less than a year of use it broke down, tried to get some help from iriver but they were not very helpful so I decided to switch to the ipod (3G-20GB). Tried it out for two weeks however, I was not impressed. That having been said, apple provides excellent support (email and phone, something that cannot be said of iriver, atleast for us customers in europe). Anyhow, I gave up the ipod and bought the H120. Impressed with the functionality but like most users, I have some basic issues that could easily be addressed with firmware updates however I feel that iriver is churning out loads of products and streching themselves thin so I envisage a situation when firmware updates will be as rare as blue moon sightings. I personally think the H series beats the ipod 3g's hands down, however, poor support and updates that never seem to come out are begining to push me away from iriver

[molex]

There are updates scheduled for this month and next addressing most of the main problems.
I think the rio would be the only player on the market I'd choose over the iHP, but then it needs software to connect to the PC apparantly.
Basically, I'm happy wiht my iHP and can't see anything that is so much better that I'd go through the hassel of selling it.
Also, most people (myself included) have had great support from iriver. Weird that you haven't.

[baggss]

There is an interesting thread on this over in the iPod lounge. Some good exchange of points of view and some mud slinging (yes, I'm guilty). You can read it here:

http://www.ipodlounge.com/forums/sho...threadid=32286