2010年7月15日星期四

Review of the Xonix 256MB MP3 Watch

Viewthe Xonix MP3 Watch photo gallery.The Xonix MP3 watch is essentially a *** quartz analog watch embedded insidea small and equally *** MP3 player on top of a 256MB USB storage device. Althoughthe Xonix MP3 watch packs a fair amount of functionality into a single device (includingthe USB cable, tucked neatly away in the band), Xonix manages to keep both thesize and the price very reasonable.Simple analog quartz watch. It's not fancy, but it does its job. Multiple equalizer modes. Choose between pop, rock, jazz and classical. Built-in 2.5mm headphone jack. You won't be using your Bose QuietComfort headphones with this watch without an adapter, but 2.5mm is still a standard size, often used for things like phone headsets. Built-in USB 1.1 jack. The Xonix MP3 watch actually has a short USB 1.1 cable and jack tucked into the rubber strap (the watch comes with a USB extension cable for less accessible USB ports). The USB cable is used for both recharging and data transfer. Five hour battery. This is no exaggeration. I tested the battery and found it lasted almost exactly five hours. It takes about two hours to fully recharge. Automatic power off. Stretch that five hours out as long as possible. When the MP3 player is paused, it will automatically shut off after two minutes. It will also shut off two minutes after all the tracks on the watch have played, just in case you've fallen asleep. Upgradable firmware. Firmware is software that runs in read-only memory and usually manages specialized and relatively *** devices. As the name implies, it is somewhere between software and hardware. You want firmware to be upgradable so bugs can be fixed without having to replace the hardware. The process of upgrading the Xonix MP3 watch's firmware is very ***. Sequential and random modes. Either play tracks in order, or let the watch decide what track you hear next. If you're really into watches, or you're reallyinto MP3s, I'll warn you right from the beginning that the Xonix MP3 watch willseem like too much of a compromise in both respects. However, if you just needsomething that tells time, and you just happen to want to have a few of you***vorite albums with you at all times, the Xonix MP3 watch could be exactly whatyou're looking for.Features of the Xonix MP3 WatchBuilt-in MP3 player. The Xonix also plays Windows Media Audio(WMA) files, and WAV files.256MB of storage. At least my model has 256MB. The capacityof Xonix MP3 watches ranges from 32MB to 256MB. (There's a table below that showshow capacity actually relates to music quantity.)Portable hard drive. The Xonix MP3 watch storesmore than just MP3s. You can copy any file that will fit onto the Xonix anduse it as a backup device. Built-in voice recorder. There's a microphonebuilt in next to the headphone jack that allows you to record up to 18 hours ofvoice notes. Listen to thissample recording to get abetter idea of the quality.