i just pimped the
Pogo RipDrive... not bad. found it for
$300 + $20 shipping (grr). (See
www.shopping.com). Not the best DJing device (not why I bought it) but it can work in a pinch, better than the others because it PLAYLISTS.
loaded with the right features:
Pros:
- 40 gig @ $300 = bonus
- internal mic and line in (i need one of those battery-powered mics for bootlegging my own gigs... first i should test the internal mic though) + radio recording capability
- recordings automatically go to MP3 @ 128 kbps max (down to 64kbps). I haven't found a way to record to uncompressed WAV. Probably the quality of these recordings doesn't warrant more than that, but my LAMEyness makes me cringe at this limitation. (I'm emailing Pogo about this.)
- usb 2.0
- MP3 and WMA, no DRM
- digital FM tuner, 20 presets, seems to be a good receiver.
- external hard drive functionality
- includes carrying case, earbuds, and male-male stereo 1/8" plug
- 10 hr. battery life [untested], outlet-friendly charger (AC adaptor away from the outlet)
- displays text files
- folder layout (not ID3-based browsing) - i like this
- pogo seems to be very very good at email communication
- and for DJs, the best feature:
PLAYLISTS CAN BE UPDATED ON THE FLY! the implementation is somewhat clunky -- before taking the booth you have to start playing a song and add it to a playlist. then stop playback and switch to the playlist you just started, then start playing that song again, now from within the playlist. now you can select a song and add it to the playlist... it will be played next! now you can go dance or hit the bathroom without worries!
HOWEVER: I haven't yet figured out how to make this work with LONG FILE NAMES -- if you have "Artist - Title" format, you will not be able to read the whole file name as it scrolls by because the timer will make that screen disappear and replace it with the now-playing screen. I emailed Pogo about that, maybe they'll get back to me.
-
Human replaceable batteries. If your battery is dead, you can buy a new one for $20 and install it yourself. (If the same thing happens on an iPod, you send it along with $100 to Apple for battery replacement.) I think there's only one other player that allows this (Creative?).
Cons:
- Big, heavy & unstylish (not tragically so, but... it sure ain't no iPod.)
- obviously, no preview feature.
- Odd interface, it includes a clumsy wheel thing on the side that you hardly ever have to use it because of the big buttons on the front. Read the manual to find the features.
- My thumb hurts after using it a while, but probably my muscles will adjust the way they did when I got my cell phone. Like I said, it's no iPod...
- Very poorly written manual. The facts are there but buried under bad prose and terrible organization.
the Win98 driver CD doesn't work for me, but it can use the driver from the SanDisk Titanium (which I bought at the same time). (It should work 100% "PNP" with Win2000+ and OSX 10.1+, although I haven't tried that yet.)
http://www.pogoproducts.com/products_2.html
they also sell a mini keychain USB flash drive that has a screen and a headphone jack... might come in handy if you get to a dance and they turn to you and say "oh, we have no music, did you bring your CDs?"... i think Creative makes a similar product. I was looking at these but then I went with the SanDisk Titanium for the durability.
I'll post updates on the RipDrive as I live and deal with this device.
-yakov.