Travel plan idea blog

I have a sansa clip and love it. It is very small and clips to your clothing or a pocket. I've downloaded books from the library and it holds a lot.

I travel a bit (averaged 2 trips per month in 2009) and bought an MP3 player, mostly for music, but also a bit for pictures. I wanted the following features:

* must support drag-n-drop file loading so that I could easily share files with friends (ie, no front-end proprietary software)
* no digital rights management restrictions
* long battery life
* memory card slot, for expanding the MP3 collection or swapping out sub-genre collections
* small and lightweight, to easily fit in a shirt pocket

I ended up with the 8GB Cowon D2+ for about $130. I think it's a Korean product, but has a US presence. Love it. Bought one for my wife after a few months, and she likes hers, too. The small footprint makes it easy to plug into the auxiliary input in most rental cars these days, enabling me to always have my music collection as I drive from the airport to my work or vacation location.

It has some quirks, tho, and this could be a deal-breaker for some:
* non-intuitive interface has a learning curve, altho after a day or two I became quite comfortable with it.
* playlists are a pain. You can set up a playlist on the fly, and it works well, but you can only store one playlist. You can make other playlists with Windows Media Player or other software, and then transfer them to the Cowon for potentially unlimited playlists, but it's not fast or particularly easy to do this.
* I had to rename some mp3 files to support 2-digit track numbers. For example, a cd with 11 tracks would play in this order on the Cowon: 1, 10, 11, 2, 3, etc. So I had to rename the track numbers on some files with 01, 02, 03, etc. Windows rips cds to this naming convention. E-music already names files this way. Amazon does not.

Some surprise features that I liked:
* built in voice recorder came in handy when I was talking to my dad's doctors in the hospital last summer. Works really well, too.
* I bought an optional in-line recording cable, and capture streams off the web very nicely, too!
* built in radio tuner works well. I *think* the Cowon might support radio tuning from other countries as well. Mine, at least, has a setting for Japan, Korea, Europe, etc. You might check this.
* charges thru USB, but also an external cable (alas, an optional item I purchased separately) which I believe is 110/220 compatible. Again, you should check this.
* I've gone an entire week on the road without recharging it. Battery life must be something like 40 or 50 hours if you minimize use of lcd settings.

Also, there are 2 active user forums on the web to help D2+ users get the most out of their device. One is sponsored by Cowon itself (http://www.jetaudio.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=89), the other is from the provocatively-titled "Anythingbutipod" web site (http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=86).

Even if this is not the MP3 player for you and your wife, it gives you an idea of the variety of features you could spend endless hours researching! Hope this helps!

One frustration I've had with my ipod is that the off switch is kind of difficult to work with. You hold down the start/pause button and it's supposed to shut off but it often just blinks off and comes right back on. That can get quite stressful when they're closing the airplane door. By the way, you'll probably want a good set of noise cancelling headphones.

I have purchased an Ipod and have also purchased a Sony Mp3 player. Technically, both are Mp3 players. In a nutshell, avoid the Ipod!!! The Ipod requires you to download another application off the net (called Itunes), without wich you wont be able to use and download what is on your pc. already. You can't with an Ipod just drag and drop what you have on your computer nor off your Windows media player files. You have to employ a laborious (and often times nightmarish) process of importing files to Itunes. Suffice to say, some files just don't wont to be imported. I found with my $300 Ipod Classic that the music i have on it today would vary with every connection to my Pc and Itunes. Oftentimes Itunes would show that i had certain tracks and music vidoes in my Ipod library, yet when i would disconnect my Ipod these files would mysteriously dissappear, only to reappear again, but only on Itunes. Ethically, i was disgusted that Itunes even tried to railroad me into giving my credit card details to them even though I HAD NOT MADE ANY PURCHASE WITH THEM!!! Do not give them your credit card details as Itunes does work without this having to happen, and it only allows for the good folk at Apple to charge you for anything (if you read all the fine print when downloading Itunes you will see that is exactly what they get you to agree on!!!) Frustrating? Homicidally Frustrating!!!! Sometimes i would have a few hundred tracks, sometimes nothing at all. Why or how, i couldn't figure out, and i am reasonably good with computers! My Sony on the other hand...dreamlike!! Completely compatible (most Sony's are) with my Windows pc. Drag and drop. Easily organize files in any fashion i like. Not have wastefull multiples of the same song or album (thankyou, Ipod). Please, don't waste your money on an Apple Ipod. If there is any good to come from my disastrous purchase, it would be to steer good folk away from bad rubbish. Good luck!!

Ive been traveling a lot more lately, and I could not live with out my Ipod Touch! Its thr only Apple product I own due to price, but it has made those long waits in between flights bearable as well as keeping me entertained on the flight.

In regards to a previous user commenting about Itunes, youre going to have some sort of player to store your music anyway and Itunes is great. You can create as many playlists as you want (Im at about 20 or so), and change stuff out as needed!!
I like the touch aspect and it is very responsive. The WIFI capability has saved me a couple of times... First MP3 player and I love it!!!

Oh, another word of advice: Go with as much memory as you can afford. I was on a budget when I bought mine and I regret it! Those music, videos and movies add up!!

Best of luck!

I have an iPod, iPod Shuffle and iPod Touch. (I have gotten them over the years and kept them all.)

I use the iPod at home, as my stereo, and used to use it as my primary portable player.

The iPod Shuffle is great for loading it with about 275 songs and going. It's tiny, the battery lasts forever and I love it.

I use the iPod Touch when I'm traveling on longer trips where I can watch stuff, as it has all my video podcasts and other shows on it. Its battery doesn't last as long as I'd like, but it does have everything I could ever ask for! Especially wifi, for checking emails real quick when I get a signal.