Uno Postola

Been ruminating over consolidation of the various portable devices I have that play MP3s. Everything plays them now: cell phones, dedicated music/video players, PDAs, electric razors, handguns and on and on. Anyway, I have the following devices with the corresponding curent/upgradeable storage capacities:

• Nokia N800 Internet Tablet (1 gig/8 gig)


• HP IPAQ 2755 PDA (3 gigs/lots with microdrive/sd)


• HP IPAQ Voice Messenger Phone (1 gig/2 gig)


• Samsung something or other mini player (512k/na)


• Archos AV400 (20 gig/na)


• Archos 104 (4 gig/na)


• Archos 404 Video Recorder (20 gig/na)


• Sony PSP (512k/whatever the biggest memory stick is)


• Sony Mylo (1 gb/see above)


• Sony PR-500 Book Reader - (1 gig/8 gig)

There are more, none worth mentioning. I have owned a few ipod shuffles which were given to me under various circumstances, but they are long gone via ebay. I need to sell some of this crap, and once I make my decision Craigslist here I come.

My main requirement for consolidation are:

• Not having to tag music for it to be recognized, I want something that can recognize an untagged file as I have a bunch of those


• Fast startup and easy access to the tunes


• Plenty of storage

I am obviously a fan of Archos. They build really nice technology that is Linux based. The interface is really straightforward, lots of storage and their batteries last forever. Wal-Mart sells their players now and they are reasonably priced. The Ipod touch is cool, but I am not a fan of ITunes (though I like the ability to buy music quickly).

Sony makes cool stuff too, but their software is overly complex sometimes. The Ipaq stuff is like pulling teeth to get to your library and Microsoft devices aren't exactly speedy. The Nokia is a blast and has a speaker and a stand. My dream device would be something like this:

• Small enough to pocket


• Sturdy cause I travel a lot


• Standard headphone port


• Strong Battery


• Lots of storage


• Recognize untagged files


• Decent External speaker


• Fast

Archos seems like a clear winner.

Have to think about it some more. Maybe I'll just put everything on Certron cassettes and carry one of those funky Panasonic tape players from the seventies.