Homedics SS-4510B Soundspa Autoset Clock Radio

• Projects the time in soothing blue light
• 6 peaceful nature sounds: ocean, waterfall, summer night, rainforest, thunder & rain
• Wake to nature sounds, am/fm radio or beep tone
• Automatic time set and daylight savings time adjustment
• Am/fm clock radio with led display
• 6 Nature Sounds
• Am/Fm Radio Feature
• Dual Alarms Feature
• Time Projection

I have three things to say about this clock:

1. If you, like me, hate a loud beeping alarm, this one lets you pick 6 "nature" sounds to choose from, and you can set the volume on those -or on the beep. This is, to me, a fabulous feature, and the reason I bought the clock in the first place.

2. It's a clock. It's a radio. It's a white noise machine. It's R2D2. (Ok, no, but the projector piece makes me think the video of Leia is going to show up on my ceiling.)

3. It's *ridiculously* bright. There are two settings on this clock, Really Bright and OH-MY-GOD-AM-I-IN-TIMES-SQUARE? bright. It cast a shadow of me on the wall while I slept. If you keep the clock across the room from you, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but mine is on my bedside table and it was like sleeping with a flashlight in my eyes.

I'm not kidding, I could read by it in bed.

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The clock projection is mounted on the wrong side of the clock. This would have been an ideal clock except that the project can be tilted only at a 90 degree angle, allowing the projection on the wall behind the clock. If you need to see the time on the ceiling, you have to turn the clock around backwards to have the time project overhead. I returned this clock to Amazon for a Sony Projector Nature Sounds Dream Machine which has a 180-degree range of motion in the projector.

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My only excuse is that I purchased this Homedics projection clock/radio using a Christmas gift certificate from a brick and mortar store. But I should have at least looked at the Amazon reviews.

I set up the clock radio, it flawlessly acquired the correct time via the atomic clock, and I set the alarm. I set the light setting on the display for the lowest of the two settings, and oriented the projection on the ceiling. As soon as my light was out, it was evident that the bluish lighted display was producing way to much annoying light, and the projection was not helping in that regard. We've had an Emerson projection clock in our household for a couple of years with a red lighted display and projection which produces no such problem.

Finally, by the early hours of the morning, I'd had enough. The comment someone made about Homedics clocks producing enough light to make shadow puppets was apt. The only good thing I can say about it was that it made enough light so that I had little trouble in what would have otherwise been the dark to find the cord and plug and pull it out of the outlet, so that I could finally turn off that blasted over-bright display and properly relax for a bit of sleep.

It is going back to the store at the next opportunity. And I won't make assumptions that nobody could mess up the manufacture of something as simple as a clock display. I'll read the reviews next time and steer clear of Homedics clocks.

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I did not read all reviews, so this may have already been mentioned. It was said the time reflects on the ceiling backwards. If you turn the clock away from you, the time projects correctly, and the light is not in your face. Can't deal with being awakened by startling noises of an alarm clock(who's idea was that). Have to have a sound machine.Thanx.

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This is a very poor quality product. The alarm could only be set once. When I tried to change the alarm set time it would not change. I then tried clearing everything by removing the battery. Not only would the alarm still not reset, but now the time and date could not be set. Typical chinese made garbage. This product is so bad that Michigan based HoMedics must know that it doesn't work and just doesn't care. Wish I still had my receipt--now all I can do is throw it in the trash.

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Philips HDD077/17 2 GB Digital Audio Player with FM Tuner

• Easily transfer your entire music collection for hours of private time with the super-fast USB 2.0 connection
• Activate Dynamic Bass Boost to maximize your music enjoyment with deeper bass performance
• SuperPlay provides hassle-free one-touch jukebox playback
• Rechargeable battery features up to 10 hours of playing time
• 2 GB stores up to 1,000 songs of music and data on the go

I've tried many MP3 players, and I've returned many MP3 players. The first one that I kept was the Virgin Pulse 64MB player. I've had it for nearly two years and finally after dropping it a few times, it's starting to go out on me. It was time to upgrade and get more space anyway. So I thought I'd do what everyone else did, get an iPod! So I bought a pink iPod mini, just to try it out, but I will definitely be getting a refund! Sure it's pretty and the sound is good, but is it worth $200? No!

So that brings me to the Philips HDD077. I will compare the two(iPod mini and Philips).

The Philips has a nice, sleek design. It is slightly shorter than the iPod mini and a tad bit thicker, but both are lightweight. The Philips only comes in one color (white with silver trim), but they offer red, black, and blue stickers to change up the trim. Obviously, the iPod comes in multiple colors.

The Philips has buttons that are user friendly, just push them. There's a volume button, a hold button, on/off button, all of that. The iPod mini has a few main buttons, not including a volume button. To turn the volume up or down or to scroll through a menu on the iPod mini, the user must move their finger around the button area (like a laptop mouse). This is really annoying because every time you go to touch a button, you may accidently change the volume!

The Philips has an FM tuner. The iPod...none.

The Philips has 2 GB of space and can hold about 1,000 songs and it also supports compressed files. The iPod minis come in 4 GB (1,000 songs) and 6 GB (price increase!).

Philips comes with a charger that plugs into the wall(17 hours of play, 4 hours to charge). iPod mini charges through the usb cable.

Philips came with a case that has a belt clip and a neck strap. iPod mini came with a belt clip.

Now, let's get to what counts most.....

Philips uses Musicmatch software to transfer files. This software is easy to use and I didn't even have to read a guide to figure out how to get music on to my player. The iPod uses iTunes software, which was supposed to be easy to use, but I had trouble figuring out how to get music onto the player and I still don't know how to delete music(I'll have to find the instructions for that one). I think that the software should be easy enough to use so that the user doesn't have to read instructions for simple things like transferring files.

The sound quality of the Philips is great! It has a fewer equalizer settings than the iPod. The iPod also has great sound.

Both have a backlight.

Overall, I think the Philips is a better choice than the iPod mini because it costs less and it offers more(like radio tuning!).

I only have two concerns about the Philips and they are minor. The earbuds are designed funny. The left wire is about 3 times shorter than the right wire and they are not adjustable. I called to ask about this and it's not a defect. The right earbud is supposed to go around your neck and then into your ear. But you can buy your own earbuds. My other concern is the case with belt clip. I think it could have been designed so that the user use the controls on the player, but the case covers up everything but the charger port, usb port, and earphone port.

So at least give this one a try before you blow $200 on an iPod! You might like it. This one is a keeper for me!

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I have had this model of MP3 player for just over 6 months. I found it easy to use and the manual is very clear on what to do if it ever freezes up. Mine did freeze up, but only once and when I followed the simple instructions, it 'unfroze' and I was able to turn the unit off instead of having to wait for the battery to die.

Personally, I think the sound quality issue has more to do with what headphones or earbuds you used. I am a music major and I need to have excellent sound reproduction when I am listening to my classical music. To use a splitter so my friend could hear, I bought some different earbuds, but the sound was extremely muffled and quiet. Once I put the Philips earbuds in, I was amazed at the sound, even when another set of earbuds was plugged in. I don't have to use more than 1/3 of the volume capabilities to listen to music on a bus full of noisy music students.

MusicMatch is a program that you get when you buy this product to transfer your music from CD's to the GoGear. It too is easy to use and transfering does not take that long.

Overall it has many great features, such as the equalizer settings, FM tuner, and sleep modes, a fair amount of storage, and a decent battery life if used properly.

I would recommend this product to anyone asking for a decent and easy to use MP3 player that is not overpriced or overhyped.

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Main reason to buy an MP3 player is for music! This player sounds OK with included earbuds, but if you try to use a full size set of headphones the volume and sound quality is severly lacking. I personally can't stand earbuds, they don't stay in my ears, plus the sound quality from headphones is usually much better.

Pros-

-Looks like a little iPod

-Included earbuds sound pretty good (but not great)

-Has FM tuner

Cons-

-Very S L O W USB 1.1 transfer speeds, takes forever to load songs to device

-When using headphones, volume at full up is lacking, sound not very good through headphones

-Sound quality not on a par with other MP3 players I have tried

-Limited information about song displayed

-Must use MusicMatch from Philips site to transfer songs, not the best application for this purpose

-Overall, pales in comparison to offerings from Rio and Creative

I suggest you do some homework before buying this item!

Why did I buy this item? I got it on a deal directly from Philips for a much lower price than listed here, still I wasted my money, gave it to my sister!

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I think people are just too hard on the reviews.

If you ask me, I think this is a GREAT deal. It's small, light weight, has a lcd screen, scrolling capabilities, and the sound is GREAT.

People are just stupid when it comes to writing crap. I got mine from wal-mart. I think it's a GREAT deal. Now, i'm sure there is much better ones out there.. but for the price this will do me just fine.

I haven't had a problem with it, and the transferring speeds DO NOT take a minute. I loaded 300 songs in less than 10 minutes. how fast do you want it? honestly?

The storage capacity is great too, i think they are stretching the 1000 songs u can put on, but even still you can put over 700 on it easily. and you dont need more. If you are looking for that, then u may as well get a ipod as they are made for storage.

It tells you ON THE BOX to use windows media player to sync your songs.. that is what i used and i didn't have a single problem minus one or two songs couldn't convert. but i EASILY fixed that by downloading it again.

The battery life lasts for about 5-6 hours, depending on what your features you have turned on. for example... if you have the LCD screen on all the time then obviously it is going to drain the battery faster. they say it could last 10 hours, i dont see that, but maybe, if you have the sound turned low, no lcd.. then.... maaaaybe...

Features on this are good, has a bass boost, 5 equalizer presets, the LCD screen is a great feature. And it has a mic built in which works great, if you need to record something than this would work great for it. the mic will pick up even the quiet sounds. sometimes a bit too much. There is a couple other features that you can look into by reading.

All in all, the product i think is great, i almost wnat to give it a 5 out of 5, but again, im sure there is better ones out there.. but just not at this price.

i bought it as a factory-refurbished one for only 85 dollars. Overall this mp3 player is great, especially its sound quality. The sound quality is amazing comparing to my friend's mp3 player. Also exterior design is nice. The speed of uploading songs from your computer to the player is average, and it depends how fast and healthy your computer is. If your computer has too many spywares, surely the tranfer will take a long time. The earphone comes with the mp3 player is very unique, and the sound quality of the player is only good with the standard earphone.

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HTC Amaze 4G Android Phone, White (T-Mobile)

Let me preface this review with my past phones. I've been thru 7 BlackBerrys in the last 6 years with Verizon. I recently switched from Verizon to T-Mobile as both my wife and I were constantly dropping calls in our home. I won't ever look back.

This phone is smoking fast. The UI is snappy and I've experienced 0 lag switching between programs even while streaming a movie over the 4G connection. I've downloaded and installed 10+ apps in the past few days including Netflix, a yahoo fantasy football app, a few games, a few social networking and chat apps as well as 3 different game emulators. I had 0 issues with installing any of the apps on this phone. When the 4G connection is active, webpages actually load faster than on my laptop over a local WiFi-n connection.

I've read reviews of HTC phones having issues with the quality of the speaker. I was able to use this phone in the middle of a very noisy state fair, surrounded by screaming kids, rides and other distractions without having to plug my other ear to hear the caller's voice. My friend later told me that he had no issues hearing me either. I find that the speakerphone works well, but the sound quality is better when I flip the phone over. My wife says I sound like I'm on a land line when I use the speakerphone, and the sound coming thru the speaker was not tin-cannish.

The screen is amazing. There's a handy app built into the phone that tells you what is draining the battery the most. After quickly draining the phone (4 hours) a few times, I discovered this app and saw that the screen was eating up 95% of the battery life. Changing the brightness of the screen to the lowest setting greatly increased the battery life, but it still looks great when dimmed.

The camera is snappy. I can take pictures as quickly as I can hit the button and they look amazing. The auto-focus can sometimes be finicky in low-light situations, but overall I have to say this could easily replace my $250 Sony point-and-shoot camera, and I haven't even begun to touch all of the camera modes on the Amaze. The video is fantastic as well. When viewing the 1080p playback on my tv, my family was blown away with the quality of the picture. The sound capture on the video could be a little better, but that is a minor deterrent.

If there is one major drawback to the Amaze, it would have to be POP3 email issues. I found the POP3 email delivery system / syncing adequate at best when using Hotmail and a school email account. Gmail syncs well, so if that is your only email address, you should be fine with this phone. POP3 emails seem to disappear and reappear whenever they want, deleted emails sometimes don't stay deleted and I occasionally receive notifications for emails I've already read. I'm a systems analyst and even when working with T-Mobile support and trying to tweak every syncing setting there is, we could not get this to perform as well as a BlackBerry with regards to email delivery. That being said, the official Hotmail app from Microsoft works without a hitch on this phone. I installed that and it has been smooth sailing ever since.

Battery life is not awesome on this phone if you use it for anything besides email / calls / texting. However, I didn't expect it to be with the qHD Super LCD display and when running everything else that I do (Facebook, games, streaming video, messaging apps, taking pictures/video). I'm getting between 5-6 hours of battery life before I hit the 15% mark. Installing JuiceDefender from the Android Market helped the life, as well as disabling Bluetooth and the GPS connection.

Few other quick points:

The FM radio and MP3s sound wonderful over headphones / earbuds. No distortion.

The GPS navigation works better than my 2 year old Garmin, and syncing Google map directions with calendar entries is easy and helpful.

This phone is slightly weightier than the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S2, but for me this is a bonus. I prefer using a phone that doesn't feel like it could snap in half if I sit on it by accident.

If you are up in the air between the HTC Amaze and the Samsung Galaxy S2, you really can't go wrong either way. Go into a T-Mobile store and play with each as I did to see what your personal preference is. Enjoy!

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Update:

As another reviewer has statedHTC Amaze 4G Android Phone, Black (T-Mobile), the sound quality of recorded video is not that great. Since I've had more time to play with mine I've noticed that in some instances it is very hard to hear people speaking unless they are looking directly at the phone.

I've also seen a remarkable jump in battery life since updating the Amaze with software version 1.36.531.6. I can now use the phone for 12+ hours before hitting 15% most days (in good coverage areas).

Most beautiful, highest-quality hardware on the market. You can tell HTC takes a lot of pride in this phone. It's stylized down to the 'Sense' user interface, surely the most impressive UI on any device.

Aside from obvious aesthetic appeal, 'Amaze' is a significant upgrade from the Sensation. HTC addressed most of my gripes w/ Sensation by giving Amaze a hardware camera button, more onboard memory, more RAM & more ghz. Multi-tasking is effortless. Amaze can run a number of memory-intensive programs without as much as hiccup, and does so with style. To put it bluntly, the Amaze throws down the gauntlet.

The device also runs on T-Mobile's 42mbps 4G network, provided you live in one of T-Mobile's 4G regions. I do, and the service is no where near as consistent as their 3G service. The highest download speeds I've reached on SpeedTest is 4mbps download. Theoretically, it can reach much faster speeds & some tests on YouTube have reflected as much as 12. I'm less impressed w/T-Mobile's 4G, but let's not blame that on the Amaze.

As with any device, and impressive as the Amaze is, it comes w/a few disappointments. The ability to shoot in 1080p is a big deal and, as w/the Sensation, the audio recording quality is unacceptable. You can hear a sample by searching YouTube for (HTC Amaze 4G 1080p Camera Test| Booredatwork) or (HTC Amaze 4G 1080p HD Video Sample). HD looks, LD sound. The end result of the video is more important than style & process. So, if you're looking to take advantage of one of this phone's major selling points recording in HD this might not be the best device.

Secondly, although the screen in quarter HD, it's not quite as vivid, bright or impressive as some of it's competition.

iPHONE 4S (Requisite comparison)

The iPhone isn't really in the same league. It's an incredible device, but it's just an app tray squares on a screen. As a result, iPhones are generally far more consistent. They are also less glitch/bug prone than Androids. If you're new to Android, this will take getting used to. The Apple is a bit smoother because it doesn't have to do much more than launch apps. We don't expect a multi-functional SUV to be as smooth as a basic car. iPhones have no widgets, no multiple homescreens, (still) no full flash browser, no customization, no memory card, no removable battery, no keyboard options, no homescreen replacements, smaller screen... You get the idea. iPhones don't do much more than host/open apps. iPhones are well-designed, user-friendly & have wonderful cameras, but they're tract phones. Pretty basic & that has broad appeal. If you think you need Siri, Android already has Vlingo & Iris. If you're a busy career and/or family person, or not too good w/ technology, however, the iPhone is definitely better for you because it takes less time to configure, learn & operate. Not a matter of better/worse. There's something for everyone.

As HTC comes out with a new flagship seemingly every month, however, this phone will not hold its value as well as an iPhone, which is released only once a year. Like Samsung, HTC is known for creating buyers' remorse by coming out with something better only weeks after you pay $100s for their flagship release. Be prepared for that.

ANDROID & de Führer Google

There is *a lot* to configure & customize on a high-end Android. Busy, older folks will either be overwhelmed, or proceed w/o a clue as to what this device can actually do, in spite of having paid for it. Secondly, Androids are *very* Googley. When you sync your Google account, be prepared for folks you've emailed once, 8 years ago, to show up on your phone. If you have a Picasa album, all of your photos will be automatically downloaded to you phone. If you erase them, all of the images will be deleted from Picasa online as well. Even storing phone numbers poses you with questions of storing to phone, SIM card... or Google. The same with calendar entries. Google is very invasive. Android has a lot of options, choices, customization, questions, combinations, permutations... It's like asking for water & the waiter spends 5 minutes asking sparkling or flat?... chilled or room temp?.... w/ or w/o ice?... large or small?... green glass or blue?... with straw or w/o?... It's overkill & obtrusive. Android won't win any prizes for being user-friendly, but it will for being thoroughly customizable.

GALAXY S II

Amaze's only real competition on T-Mobile, at the moment, is Samsung's Galaxy S II. The GS2 has a larger screen which, depending on your tastes & size, may or may not be a plus. The GS2 can be used on AT&T's network, should you hold onto the device long enough to weather the possible merger. The GS2 has the most beautiful screen colors & saturation, but Amaze has slightly higher pixel density. They're both very competitive.

In the end, this is a dual core, HD device. If you provide HD imaging, you should provide the corresponding audio for it. Amaze fails to deliver on the basics decent audio recording for videos. If you're not big on shooting videos w/ the HD shooter, then one is as good as the other. However, as 1080p is one of the primary selling points for this device (& you pay for it), the Amaze takes a significant back seat in audio quality to Galaxy S II. The audio it produces from recorded videos is an embarrassment, frankly. (You can compare video-audio quality for the competition on YouTube as well.) For this reason, I give it 4 stars. This is the only area where Amaze fails to live up to its name. It is, otherwise, an impressive device inside & out.

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...there are a couple of issues.

Pros: Blazingly fast, super sharp LCD pixel density...text is notable sharper on this than the Galaxy S2, but the Galaxy has better color saturation so this screen looks a little washed out side by side. Your pick, better color or sharper picture. Sense interface: It just makes sense! It rings louder when it's in your pocket, you can silence the ringer at a meeting instantly by setting it face down, the web browser re-wraps text when you zoom in on web pages (I'm unaware of any other phone browser that does this) which is a HUGE plus for me (on most phones, the text is either too small or doesn't fit on the screen. This phone solves that). The camera really can replace a digital point and shoot (you know the kind, the little pocket ones)...the camera really IS that good.

Cons: Here's the really big one: This phone is cancelled already! They are only selling what is left in stock. There are very few accessories that fit this phone. It's notably heavier than the Galaxy S2. Some users report that the back cover gets squeaky over time. The buttons on the bottom light up which bleeds into the screen at the bottom when you view something dark. The battery life on this is about half that of the Galaxy S2 (when I got it, it would make it about 9-10 hours on a charge. Now that I'm over the wow factor, it lasts morning 'til bed (since I don't fiddle with it and play games on it anymore). Oh, and it's cheaper at T-mobile than here at Amazon!

I love this phone, but know that there will probably only be one more update and then nothing. It is scheduled to get Android 4.0.3 sometime in the next month or 3.

UPDATE: T-Mobile raised the price back to $230 since this review.

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I love this phone. Hands down much better than the IPhone and Galexy SII. The reason I gave an adverage score is because Amazon doesn't send the full package. When you buy yourphone from Wirefly, Newegg or even Tmobile the Htc Amaze come with 16gig SD card. Now... I got my Amaze from Amazon and it was the phoneonlyfor$200.Imagine how mad I was to buy a phone with Zero memory! A brand new 16gig SD card cost about $60. Now my phone has cost me $260. At Tmobile or wirefly the phone cost $220 with the card already.

Don't waste your money on Amazon. Phone is missing the SD Card. So buy from a site that come with the card for only 20 bucks more :)

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Samsung P2 8 GB Touchscreen Bluetooth Portable Media Player (Black)

• Slim and robust 8 GB multimedia player with digital FM radio
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.0: compatible with Bluetooth headphones and speakers for wireless stereo playback
• 3-inch widescreen LCD with touchscreen controls
• FM radio, text viewer, alarm clock, world clock, and calendar
• Windows XP and Windows Vista compatible

Aesthetically, this is a really nice product from Samsung. The player is quite sleek, with nice rounded edges, a decent weight, and sharp piano black gloss finish. The sound quality is superb. I didn't get the same battery life the manufacturer did (they rate 30 hours, I probably average 20), but I would bet that's because I use the touchscreen interface more than their battery testers did.

As for the touchscreen, I have to admit it's pretty nice. I prefer tactile use, so I'm more of a fan of buttons than touchscreens, but Samsung has done a nice job executing this one. There are a couple of odd quirks to the touchscreen. For example, when you "swipe" the touchscreen to advance you have to swipe from right to left, which seems counterintuitive since you are advancing the progress bar from left to right. Obviously, the same is true of swiping to back up, where you swipe from left to right, even though you're going back on the progress bar.

Also, in the default menu setting, you make circular gestures on the touchscreen to advance through the menu. Neat? yes. Functional? not really. The biggest problem I had with this is that my thumb kept obscuring the icons as they moved into view. Ultimately, I found this too annoying and I disabled it in favor of a regular grid menu. Not as cool to show your friends, but much more functional.

The audio player functions are top notch. As a caveat to this, I will say that I could not get this to sync with Winamp 5.5. My Winamp crashed every time I loaded it when the P2 was plugged in. Instead, I did my syncing through Windows Media Player, and it worked fine. It synced playlists perfectly, and did a great job recognizing albums when I copied them directly like a mass storage device. The on-board player functions include a customizable EQ with quite a few presets and a clarity adjuster. There are preset visualizations including a couple of light shows (that do not track the music), album art, track info, and a spectrum analyzer.

The video player is pretty good, but I don't really like watching video on such a small screen anyway. I'm not a big fan of the fact that you have to convert through Samsung's software to get it to run, but I guess that's the case with most MP3/video players. The widescreen playback is properly formated. FM reception is satisfactory. Not sure how the eReader works since I don't have any ebooks for it, but you can see test screens of it.

This is, overall, a good MP3 player, even if it is a bit pricey. It is only $50 cheaper than the iTouch, but it also brings in an FM radio tuner and bluetooth support for up to two bluetooth devices--including a pass-thru for your cellphone to a set of bluetooth stereo headphones like the non-US release Samsung T9. Bluetooth is a great feature if you've got bluetooth headsets, speakers, or car radio. So you're getting more features than the iTouch offers. A major downside for me is the fact that it is primarily touchscreen-only (there are hard buttons on the side: on the left a lock button and a play/pause/power button; on the right, two volume buttons). Since I tend to like to keep my mp3 in my pocket, I prefer to have tactile skip buttons as well.

Samsung has made some great strides with their feature packed MP3 players. And while this one was almost perfect for me, it fell short of the mark only in the somewhat high price tag and the lack of hard skip buttons. I give them kudos, however, for having hard play/pause/power and volume buttons (FYI, play/pause and volume can also be controlled via the touchscreen).

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I wanted a video player that was easy to use with UnBox and other video sites other than iTunes (I have owned a 3G 40G and own a 4G 30G video and 3G Nano 4GB). Here are my initial thoughts:

Fast charging via USB

Easy to use Samsung proprietary software for music, video and RSS feeds

Nice User Interface with Touch Screen, bright colors

File transfer from UnBox a breeze, recognized immediately, very fast file transfer vs. IPOD

Easy interface to add, update and load RSS feeds

Drag and drop computer files for music and video

Syncing is much easier than an IPOD, does not sync all of your files to obtain new files to load

Updated firmware was fast and easy (Bluetooth upgrade)

Great sound quality and form factor

Cost per MB more affordable than an IPOD

Love it so far after 1.5 hours of use; will update once I have it for a week or two.

WORTH considering, like the fact that it does not require quirky Windows Media Player

Purchased for $200, which was a bargain vs. the 4G IPOD Nano

Considered the Creative Vision and Archos; Archos was more than I needed as I just wanted to plug and play and take this on a plane. :)

Update 1/20/2007: The Unbox and Vongo video downloads work great. Vongo at $9.95 per month gives a variety of videos to download (14 day trial). Vongo does load any video that you choose from your subscription (total rental fee per month) vs. Unbox which only lets you download purchases --no rentals for portable video devices.

I also purchased the JabraBT620s Bluetooth headset and it paired immediately. Wireless music and video. However, the P2 does not support bluetooth with FM radio. Price for the Jabra is around $38-40 from an Amazon seller, 1/2 the price vs. other websites. When on Bluetooth, you can not change the equalizer settings.

Wish this were 16GB which would hold enough music and video; Samsung is coming out with 16GB model. However, this is not a deal breaker. Just means that you have to take videos off and swap them, and that would be the case with Vongo as you can download new videos all of the time.

When I take a plane trip this coming week, I will come back and update my review. Will be using Bose Quiet Comfort 1 with this player.

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Just wanted to post that if you are in the market for a portable player, you should not pass this one up. I have the 4 GB version, and I rate the sound quality 10 out of 10 with some KOSS headphones mp3 encoded at 256. The screen is bright and clear, and while the volume has to go almost to peak to push one set of my headphones it is crystal clear when I get there, and every step before it! I am impressed by the sound quality, and highly recommend it.

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I anticipated this device arrival for a long time, and now that I have it I am somewhat disappointed.

This review covers 16gb version, and latest European firmware (5.08).

Pros:

Hard volume and Hold buttons. Invaluable to me at the gym.

Bluetooth headphone connection. This was the main reason I got the player as headphone cords always get caught in things. Bluetooth also works fairly well without audio dropouts, though I have not been able to initiate file transfers using my laptop's Broadcom Bluetooth stack (works ok with Toshiba's). If you have Broadcom BT, beware.

Subway maps (note I have European firmware, this feature may not be available in US devices). Definitely a helpful feature as it has maps covering all major cities (i.e. London, NY, Chicago)

Solid sound and video quality (but neither really wow'ed me).

Handy and intuitive touch interface, though the touch controls are not always precise.

Great form factor.

Excellent Radio reception with RDS (I believe RDS is not available in US firmware, but I am not sure it is definitely there in EU firmware).

9-band Graphic Equalizer

Major Cons:

No gap-less playback. Any serious MP3 player should have this as a feature, considering how easy it is to implement.

No mp3 file info (bitrate at least???).

Very limited accessories. I am not obsessed over this but a decent selection of sports armbands, docking cradles, etc would be nice (oh and the wi-fi cradle that was mentioned all over the net like on YouTube is a fake).

A non-standard USB port on the device. Yet another redundant cable that I need to ensure I don't loose. Ridiculous and inexcusable. Thankfully it has a standard headphone jack (unlike my Sony Walkman cellphone). And yes I may sync up using Bluetooth instead of USB but it is VERY slow only useful for a few tracks. Transmitting a few albums can take a very long time.

No DSNe enhancements over Bluetooth. I am still holding out hope that this will be remedied, but I somehow doubt it. This makes two big selling points of the device (BT and DSNe) somewhat muted.

The Emodio software for data sync is a badly programmed joke (though I suppose it being a 'beta' is an excuse). But at least the player is recognized by Vista just fine so I don't have to use it (except you have to at times like uploading themes).

Radio does not work when using BT headphones. I understand the reasons for it, but do not completely accept them. Can't I just plug in regular headphones to act as antenna, while using BT to listen to the radio?

Minor cons:

Use of bad english grammar (just check out emodio website). This isn't an issue with a tiny company, but for a huge company like Samsung a worldwide player it is inexcusable especially for a top price charged for this device.

No bookmarking for MP3's so listening to mp3-based audiobooks is total pain. Bookmarking is however available for videos and text.

Video conversion is not very good (just try to dump one of TiVo To Go files to your player good luck). Thankfully this isn't why I bought it. It can be done by the way though you will have to look for alternative software.

Theme and skins support is very rudimentary and not impressive at all (whole 3 fonts available for selection and no size options, for example).

Wasted 'Home' screen it does not have any details on what's playing, BT or battery status. Considering amount of empty space there, this is inexcusable. Only a basic clock is available.

Support for only wav and mp3 audio formats (no Flac for example).

No song ranking or tracking how often a song is played which would be quiet useful if I want to hear least played or most often played, etc.

Five playlists are available for assignment on the fly but there is no way to create more while the player is detached from the PC.

No support for m3u playlist files.

Useless Features:

Cellphone bluetooth sync. Well to me at least. Since I use the device primarily over BT, this function is unnecessary. I suppose for wired headphone users this will be handy.

Text reader. It seems Samsung put more thought into text reader than they did into MP3 support. This obviously cannot be used for any prolonged reading maybe for a rare occasion its ok. It definitely works though.

Cosmos interface. What is the use of showing the menu few buttons at a time it sure is cool when you just unpack the player but this gets old very very fast.

So bottom line is that this is an OK player, but it is not a serious contender with only a few basic features for its primary use (listening to music), and seems like the 'sleek' factor and bluetooth is really the main selling point. It is to me of course getting rid of the wires at the gym is great but if you like plenty of control and tweaking, this device may not be for you as it is fairly simplistic.

i really wanted to give this product five stars but it has some real bluetooth limitations. i purchased this product primarily so i could be unwired in the gym. i also purchased this product because of its high quality sound ratings. it turns out in the bluetooth mode all the sound features are turned off and the equalizer and sound enhancement does not function. Also the FM radio does not work over Bluetooth, so if you want any sound enhancement or if you want to listen to the radio you still have to have those wired earphones/headphones around. i am using this unit with a Sony DRBT21G/B headset and all the remote control features work quite nicely. Sound is good but not as good as it could be if the equalizer was available. Bluetooth range is very good with line of sight operation out to the spec 10 meters with no problem. Except for these limitations the unit is a beautiful design and even with big fingers the touch display works well (although a bit slow on the equalizer screen when you do have wired headphones plugged in). The display is clear and bright and the menus are easy to navigate. A little nit is you have to carry another cable around as Samsung did not use a standard USB plug on the unit (probably because it is too thin). Also would have been nice to have include a mico SD slot so you could add memory.

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Pyle Vehicle Radio Player and Speaker Package for Home, Studio, Car, Van, Truck, Mobile etc. - PLRCS

• PLRCS20U - Auto Reverse Cassette Player (automatically rewinds); AM/FM 2-Band Radio; Anti-Theft Pullout System
• AUX Inout Front Panel; Built-In USB Port; RCA Preamp Output; 4 Channel Output
• MP3 Compatible; Auto Antenna Lead; Night Illumination
• Auto Antenna Lead 200 Watts Ouput; Cassette Player; Clock Function
• PLG6C - Non-Fatiguing Butyl Rubber Surround; High Temperature Aluminum Voice Coil; Special Electroplated Steel Basket; 40 Oz. Magnet Structure; One Pair 0.5" Tweeter; 0.5'' Silk Dome Tweeter; Neodymium Magnet

I bought this radio after researching which radios had built in usb ports and then I started looking into Pyle. Never had one before, but absolutely adore it! and this one is the one to buy, I installed it in my Toyota sedan and used the cheap factory speakers but with the awsome bass and multiple selection EQ and punch, it sounded like a million bucks, you just can t beat this product! The USB port is so kool you can plug in your flash drive or any device charge it or just play your music files. Enjoy !!

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Tivoli Audio Model 10 Clock Table Radio

• Large, High visibility LCD clock and men screen with adjustable backlight
• FM RDS text information
• Remote control
• Top-mounted rotary dial provides simple, multi-function control
• Five station presets

Nice sound. Looks good. Stereo is a plus. But it's very difficult to use because of a single button interface. Call me old fashioned, but I hate it. I like to change the alarm times from day to day, and it's not easy. I replaced my Bose Wave dual alarm radio with this unit, when the Bose died. After I used this unit for a couple weeks, I got the Bose fixed! There are better sounding radios for the money out there.

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iBRIGHT LLC myLamp Docking Station with FM Radio and Alarm Clock for iPod and iPhone (Baby Pink)

• The reading lamp use E26 /E27 lamp holder for replace different bulb easily
• LCD display with adjustable backlight.
• PLL FM radio, Stereo high quality speakers.
• iPhone docking for playing iPhone /iPod's music and recharge.
• Clock function with alarm and sleep

Originally wrote a good review for this product as it worked great out of the box. However, have to now revise because it shorted out and stopped working after only 5 months. Paid 69.99 at the time, and now price is jacked up to 129.99? Piece of crap! Not worth the cheap materials it's made of. Instruction manual says warranty information on Page 9, only problem there is no Page 9 (stops at Page 8)! Return window closed, so only eligible for partial refund from Amazon (assuming they process it). What a waste.

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iBRIGHT Mylamp iPod docking station is cute, all in one, lamp, speaker, alarm and fm radio, you can add something to your room, enjoy this fantastic lamp.

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I bought this for my six year old granddaughter, she's really in to 'hot pink", and she loves it! Much to my surprise and delight she can work all of the functions with no problems. She uses it to wake up for school, listen to music and of course for light. We are very pleased.

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IT CAME DAMAGED THE SHADE IS BUMPED IN WILL CHANGE FOR ANOTHER ALSO MY DAUGHTER SAID IT IS NOT CLEAR WHAT TYPE OF BULB TO USE...

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i set the item up it looked very cool(DISPLAY). then i came back into room to check on charge of my iphone, which it had finished quickly. I took the phone off began to set clock and alarm & it just went blank. I redid setup of plugs and still no power?? So i sent it back hoping to get a replacement, however Amazon could not replace due to it coming from a seperate company. so i packed it up for refund, went back to buy another, however, the price had gone up in 2 days. BOTTOM LINE IS, IT LOOKS GREAT AND CHARGES GREAT BUT I HAVE TO LEAVE THIS AS INCOMPLETE. I WILL COME BACK IF THE NEXT ONE I BUY DOES,NT GO OUT, SORRY, I'M SURE THIS REVIEW DIDN'T HELP MUCH?????????

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Nokia C3-00 Unlocked Cell Phone with QWERTY, Dedicated E-mail Key, 2 MP Camera, Media Player, WLAN,

I am a college student who was in desperate need of a new cell phone after my old one stopped working. Because of that I wanted to buy a phone truly worth the money, and one that would last.

For someone who isn't willing to pay for 3G service, but still wants internet, and a modern looking phone, THIS is the perfect cell phone. Phones like this are very hard to come by because most do require data packages (the ones considered smartphones anyway). I can't say how it compares to a smartphone having never owned one, but for someone like me it's perfect.

QWERTY keyboard is well spaced, text messaging capabilities are wonderful

WIFI! Can I stress how important this is? It's probably the best feature of the phone. Wi-Fi is pretty much everywhere nowadays, so why buy a smartphone when you can get a phone with Wi-Fi capabilities for a much lower price, and without having to buy a data plan?

I've had it for about 3 weeks now and I have absolutely no complaints. The battery lasts about 3-4 days and that's with a good number of hours using it (mostly texting or listening to music).

So if you want to buy something definitely worth the money that not only functions great but LOOKS great, this is the phone for you. Best $120 I ever spent!

First off I love the phone after I got everything figured out. Basically all I had to do was pop my sim card out of my existing (AT&T Customer) phone and I was good to go, sort of! lol From that point I could call my contacts, send text messages, and even connect to the internet via wifi. Now the problems I discovered shortly there after was it connected to the wifi but could not go to any webpages because it would time out. It would not even go to the nokia pre-loaded store icon on the phone. Well, I could tell that there was settings not configured somewhere because it is unlocked for different carriers and needed at&t settings entered. Another problem I encountered was I could send text and recieve them just fine but could not recieve or send pictures with text messages succesfully. That was aggrevating because I could do that with my old phone just fine, but not this one. I found the solutions to fix these problems on-line after searching for awhile. So if you want these problems fixed here they are:

MMS

Menu > Settings > Configuration > Personal Settings > Options > Add New > Multimedia Msg

Account Name: AT&T MMS

Server address:

Use pref. Access pt: No

Access point settings

Proxy: enabled

Proxy address:

Proxy port: 80

Bearer settings

Packet data acc. pt: wap.cingular

Network type: IPv4

Authentication type: Normal

User name: (all capital letters)

Password: CINGULAR1 (all capital letters)

Now go back to the Personal Settings (Personal accounts) > Options > Activate

Internet

Menu > Settings > Configuration > Personal Settings > Options > Add New > Web

Account Name: Media Net

Homepage:

User name: leave blank

Password: leave blank

Use pref. Access pt: No

Access point settings

Proxy: enabled

Proxy address:

Proxy port: 80

Bearer settings

Packet data acc. pt: wap.cingular

Network type: IPv4

Authentication type: Normal

User name: (all capital letters)

Password: CINGULAR1 (all capital letters)

Now go back to the Personal Settings (Personal accounts) > Options > Activate

After I did these changes the phone worked like my old one. Just thought I would pass this info along because you will encounter these problems with at&t as your carrier. Overall I would definitely buy the phone again because it is Nokia quality and thats hard to beat in my opinion!!

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When you first pick up the Nokia C3, you can think that you have a modern looking full QWERTY Blackberry. It is a cool looking phone, with a very easy to use keyboard.

Its light weight, so it dosent feel heavy in your pocked, has great battery life. The sound clarity is good, as is the camera. Its not a high end camera phone, but its pictures are just as clear as my old 8900.

It dosent compare with the high end smart phones like the new Blackberries or HTC androids, but for the $160 range that its in, it certainly gives you that expensive look, and is a great email/messaging device.

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Firstly, it's a great price for an unlocked phone that can be used with AT&T, TMobile, prepaid, and any other GSM (SIM card) service providers worldwide. I'm not going to repeat the technical specifications. It is very light, portable and has excellent battery life. You can talk for a really long time. Make sure to turn off WIFI when it's not being used. This phone is perfect for everyday use, or as a backup or a second phone. I love the FM radio.

It also makes a decent gift.

I would recommend it over any carrier branded phone. It is always cheaper in the long run to get an unsubsidized phone.

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This is a great product. It's small, but feels solid in your hand. Has a GREAT battery. I text a lot and I was used to having to charge my battery daily. With this phone, the battery lasts AT LEAST two days, and that's with heavy texting and limited internet usage. Well constructed. Shows conversational style text. You can attach ringtones and photos to your contacts. You can set up recurring appointments. It has an alarm which works really well. You can use up to an 8GB micro SD card with it. If you have AT&T service (which I do) you need to know how to configure it so that you can receive multimedia (picture) messages and access the internet. I have the instructions for the configuration, which I will enter below. I would highly recommend this phone to anyone who wants a good phone, but doesn't want to pay for a 'smart phone'. You can get unlimited data (internet) usage for $10/month (again, AT&T) versus $25/month for what they consider to be a 'smart phone'. Okay, it isn't blazing fast on the internet (uses Edge rather than 3G or 4G), but it's fast enough for me. I don't actually use it for the internet a lot because I prefer to use my computer for that. Multimedia messaging works great. It does everything I want it to do and I've been used to using the Samsung Blackjack II and Jack. I've been a cell phone user since 1995. Again, I highly recommend this product. Instructions for configuring MMS and Internet (Web):

Nokia C3 -MMS and Web settings

Multimedia Messaging

Menu > Settings > Configuration > Personal Settings > Options > Add New > Multimedia Msg

Account Name: AT&T MMS

Server address: mmsc.cingular.com

Use pref. Access pt: No

Access point settings

Proxy: enabled

Proxy address: wireless.cingular.com

Proxy port: 80

Bearer settings

Packet data acc. pt: wap.cingular

Network type: IPv4

Authentication type: Normal

User name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM (all capital letters)

Password: CINGULAR1 (all capital letters)

Now go back to the Personal Settings (Personal accounts) > Options > Activate

Internet

Menu > Settings > Configuration > Personal Settings > Options > Add New > Web

Account Name: Media Net

Homepage: device.home

User name: leave blank

Password: leave blank

Use pref. Access pt: No

Access point settings

Proxy: enabled

Proxy address: wireless.cingular.com

Proxy port: 80

Bearer settings

Packet data acc. pt: wap.cingular

Network type: IPv4

Authentication type: Normal

User name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM (all capital letters)

Password: CINGULAR1 (all capital letters)

Now go back to the Personal Settings (Personal accounts) > Options > Activate

Oh, one more thing.....make sure you order the one that's sold by and fulfilled by Amazon!! Good luck and you're gonna love this phone!!! :)

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Energizer Max AA Batteries, 4-Count

WAHT CAN I SAY. PRODUCT NEVER ARRIVED. I IMAGINE I'D HAVE BEEN HAPPY WITH THE BATTERIES. IMAGINE IS ALL I CAN DO.

Has worked for a month so far in my wireless keyboard and mouse without issue. They work fine. I'll be back when they die.

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This product is good over all but the cardboard the batteries were in (not the packaging) was bent a lot from all sides but i am sure that wouldnt affect anything

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These power gadgets that use AA batteries.

WARNING: These will not fit into devices requiring AAA or 9V batteries.

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how do you write a review for 4 batteries until you see how long they last? i'll keep in touch but don't hold your breath.

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PowerFactor 9V Alkaline Battery (12 Pack)

• 12 9V Alkaline Batteries
• A Long Lasting, Dependable, and Economic option for Smoke Alarms!
• Perfect for Flashlights, Smoke Alarms, Toys, Remotes, etc.
• Mercury free
• Power You Can Trust

So far, these have been pretty amazing. I am using them to power various smoke detectors as well as a preamp for my turntable and they are still running like a champ. I can't believe what good quality I got for this price. If they die too soon, I will come back and update my review, but so far I am very impressed!

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This was a great deal on batteries that I could not pass up. 9V are typically rather expensive and this was the best per-unit cost I could find. I was a little skeptical but when I got them they all read at 9V and held charge for a reasonable amount of time on a hobby project.

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They come in nice, easy to open/close cardboard box. No annoying plastic packaging to cut open. Batteries do their job of supplying 9V. I haven't owned them long enough to comment on how long they last, but they haven't died yet.

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This brand of batteries is as good as a popular namebrand. I like the convenient little box they come in.

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This battery is a great bargain. It performs as well as any comparable alkaline battery; but it has the best price of any such product in its category. It has become my default 9V battery. I have been using the PowerFactory for nearly a year now, and I expect to keep doing so.

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