http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/ Engadget Comments for Gear Eye: iAudio M3 20GB digital audio player http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/I have one and i use it more like a hard drive instead of listening to music with it due to its usability. i like my creative zen better.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/
Not a very detailed review, even though hardware info is good.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/
Oh. And now I want one of these instead of my iPod!]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/The M5, while looking to be a very decent player, does not at all follow the trail blazed by the M3. They've gone and added the screen to the main unit--wonderful--but at the expense of a relatively huge protrusion in order to fit it in. Very unsleek when compared to the iPod, and especially so when compared to the video-playing Gmini400.

Curt:
Our Gear Eye reviews are not specs-centric. If you're into specs and heights in milimeters, etc., do go check out the M3 website, it's got all that in droves. Engadget Gear Eye reviews are more about the experience of using (and having) a product, something we feel is often lacking in reviews. If the format's not working for you, or you have any changes you'd like to see, please do let me know: ryan at engadget dot com. We're always trying to improve our content. That said, it plays MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, FLAC, all the same formats as the Rio Karma; it also works on both PC and Mac platforms.

Charlie:
Correction noted.

Thanks for reading!

Ryan]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/
File sorting isn;t a problem for me -- I've used a geat piece of software called 'Tag & Rename' to properly ID3 tag all my files. T&R then is able to rename all the files using the ID3 tags. Thus I now have them sorted by genre, then artist, then album. I actually prefer this to the iPod database method -- I always browsed via genre etc. anyway on my old HDD100. DJ mix albums always caused problems here -- I never want to list a song artist as 'various'. Another nice feature is you can play by folder, or all subfolders (including shuffle). That way, I can listen to all my 'drum & bass' tracks for instance, or shuffle through 'hip-hop'.

I never actually tried the headphones until I needed some for my laptop. They're crap. For a start, you need ears bigger than Batfink. Replace them straight away with some Sony Fontopia EX71s. That said, the iPod, Philips, and Creative 'phones are all rubbish in my experience too (it's interesting how the explosion of white earphones after christmas has died down now -- the Sony EX71s seem most popular on the commute now).

Oh, and it won't play DRMed WMAs.

On the other hand, it's been vaguely promised by iAudio for a future firmware release. The guys at iAudio seem to release a firmware upgrade each week -- constantly adding new features. This is great in my view -- as is their customer support. Very helpful and very prompt.

Anyway -- if you want a very slim MP3 player, that has good sound quality and plenty of features and a good battery life; I'd highly recommend the M3.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/
Ive said it before and I'll say it again, this is an exaustive list of everything that counts in an mp3 player:


Capacity
Battery Life
Dimensions
Plays open source audio formats
Very high sound quality
Style
UI
Ease of doulbing as a portable HD



Apple iPODs meet like 3 of these on a good day. the m3 meets more, but when will they come out with one that meets ALL??]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Battery Life - m3
Dimensions - m3
Plays open source audio formats - m3 and ipod
Very high sound quality - m3 easily, dont even bother ipod owners...we all know m3 sounds better

Style - m3. the ipod reminds me of a kitchen appliance, all white, chrome and plastic...
UI - ipod, have to say they done good with the wheel...however the ipod doesnt allow for scrolling long music files, unlike the m3 which does.
Ease of doulbing as a portable HD - m3 no doubt, you have to use crappy software with the ipod, very lame.....m3 beats ipod in more than 3 i guess (",)

]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/
A couple advantages of the player is that it has an external screen, so you can keep the layer in you pocket and dont need to risk dropin or scratchin it. and if the screen breakes, you can replace it with another on for about 20 bucks, while when i broke my ipod, i had to send the whole thing in to be replaced and costed me about 90 dollars. that a huge amount. I also reccomend to you that getting the gunmetal or "Brown" color is cooler because it has a mor attractive color body, but when it comes down to it, you never really see it besides it beein in the cradle or somethin. it stays in your pocket most of the time. The other thing that plows the ipod away it the SOUND QUALITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UNSURPASSED! I am a full audiophile, and i need a perfect sound. i record my music in a vbr mp3 or mp3 pro, and make sure that my files are click and jitter free. I hate noise in music. with the sound enhansements like the mach3bass and the 3d sound, you will feel like your in the studio or the concert. AMAZING, UNSURPASSED audio quality. P.s. i reccomend you use the supplied headphones or get 16 ohm headphones that can handle 40mW, because this thing pumps it out! i mean loud!. I have sony MDR-F1 headphones, which are a 12 ohm input. Thses are awesome with the m3 only with high volume, bacause the headphones are tested at 79 mW for each side. they can handle it. overall a wonderful item of audio, and a huge recomdation to all if wantin the ipod. and besides, the ipod cant support any kind of wma, and, lol, needs to change formats to acc or aac format or whatever there stupid format is. how dum is that.



OH yeah, m3 now supports flac with a firm update.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/
Dear CUSTOMER,

Thanks for your interest in Jetaudio.

So I might just hold off buying that M3!!

M5 official release date is pushed back to May.

Please check back with us in the near future.

Thanks,



Regards,

Jetaudio Inc.

]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Dec 19th 2005 1:01AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/08/gear-eye-iaudio-m3-20gb-digital-audio-player/Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM