Continuing their look at portable music players, the Duo move up a size to the micro-hard-drive-based units, exemplified by Apple's IPod Mini. Angela was initially unimpressed by that device, but points out that the market has spoken: Folks love these 1-to-5GB devices. Steve notes that people simply like the choices available--and that even a small player can keep 3 1/2 days' worth of music on tap with no repeats.
All the units the Duo checked out come with good monochrome displays, and most are relatively well-made. In addition to the IPod, which Steve and Angela got in the now-hard-to-get gold-tone case, Creative's Zen Micro made an impression as a colorful contender, with 5GB of storage and ten case colors available. (Angela, perversely, decided she was rather fond of its built-in FM radio.)
For a full stock of music, however, only a full-sized player will do. The IPod wasn't the first player on the shelves, but it certainly broke the market open. Other companies offer similar devices, most of which tend to have the same range of capacity and price. (For example, the Dell DJ and Creative's Zen Touch.)
So why, asks Steve, is everybody buying IPods? Angela says it's mainly about style--the IPod is iconic at this point, and many people strongly prefer its interface to those available for other players. Angela, however, dislikes the ITunes track-management software, and finds that other players have answered her main requirements for a great player: lots of hard drive space, flexibility, tons of hard drive space, and extra space on top of that.
SAVE/DELETE
Steve: DELETE all
Angela: SAVE all
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