Up until a few days ago, i really wanted a 4GB iRiver clix.
i mean, what's not to like about it? Huge screen, great audio, intuitive interface, lots of memory, can play audiobooks and runs flashlite so i could create programs to load onto it pretty easily.
Well, turns out, there is quite a bit wrong with it.
First off, i'm not a big fan of proprietary connectors. Excuse me, let me clarify. i hate proprietary connectors. All that they mean is that the company responsible is trying to milk more money out of their player by charging licensing fees to third party vendors. Of course, unless your device is a planet conquering juggernaut, a great many of those potential third party folks just ain't gonna do it.
But to find out that not only does the player have a proprietary connector, but so does the USB cable, that's a bit extreme. Doing a bit of digging around on the iRiver wiki site, i see that the extra pin is used for additional power, ok, no big deal. So i poke around a bit more and discover that it can only be charged from a PC running Windows Media Player 11.
Wait, what the hell?
Mind you, plugging the player into a USB port (like the kind i've placed in both my cars) kicks it into USB mode and stops the player. That's annoying, but i can deal with that. i just don't plug it in while.. well, i'm in the car driving around. Ok, that's beyond annoying, that's just plain stupid, but that's currently beside the point. What this means is that if i'm traveling around with this thing, not only do i need to remember to bring the stupid proprietary cable that i can't buy at the local radio shack, i need to remember to pack a computer that runs WindowsXP and has the latest version of their Media Player installed.
Ok, you know what? Forget everything good i ever said about this device.
This is a device that was created by morons. This is a device that rightfully loses against things like the iPod, Sansa and the Zen. This is a device that has a lot of promise, but should only be given to those you wish ill upon.
i'll note that i have a laptop with WMP11 loaded on it, that i travel around with it. Tossing the cable in would not be a problem. i still think that tying this to a specific version of the media player is asinine because the last player that i had to do that became worthless when Microsoft decided not to support WMP5 anymore. It will happen again (Did someone say Zune?), and that means that soon after i won't be able to use this decharged paperweight.
Suddenly my Zen Microphoto is looking a lot more appealing again. It charges and plays at the same time, has a standard Mini USB connector, works with any version of WMP installed (really wish that it did USB instead), and has a micro drive so that i'll never run out of flashes.
My search for the perfect media player continues…
