Wal-Mart Tries Hand at Gadgets with Low-Cost iLo Brand
By Donald Melanson 
posted December 15th 2004 1:59PM
posted December 15th 2004 1:59PM
Not content with merely selling other people's electronics, Wal-Mart is aiming for its own piece of the market with its new iLo consumer electronics line. First launched in May with a plasma TV selling for $1000 less than its competitors, the line now includes MP3 players (one of which is pictured at right) and DVD recorders. But Wal-Mart's playing it safe with the brand for the time being, only selling it at stores where it belives the products are most likely to sell, although everything but the plasma TV is available on their website.
It isn't that much cheaper than the others but it does have an sd card slot which makes it different than the others. The next more expensive one has a backlit screen which would sell me over this one& seems to function more like a usb flash drive. I'll take a look at it next time I'm out there & let you know what I see.
I just went to walmart to check this out... there was one left and it was in a plastic safe.
Its sort of larger, but still not to big. That rown navigation thing you see is about the size of a US quarter.
Gonna play some j.Lo on your iLo?
What bad naming...
Seeing as it has "alien crime syndicate" as the default band on the LCD in the screenshot, is this an OEM Rave MP device? (they use that band in their screenshots too)
This isn't bad-looking for Wal-mart. I bet that cheap plastic casing feels pretty crappy in your hand, though.
cheap plastic casing? just pretend it's from Sharper Image
I was skeptical about this mp3 player at first. I actually bought two of them for Christmas presents. But before I gave them away, I needed to check them out. All in all I was pleased. There aren't many players out there that have 256 MB memory with a memory card slot. This one also includes a FM radio tuner that can be recorded onto the device. It has a backlight and really doesn't need one. 16 hour battery life is not bad at all. The voice recording option works surprisingly well (much better than my $130 digital voice recorder). The buttons and overall feel of the device seem to be pretty solid. The menu system is very easy - no manual needed to figure it out. The drag and drop transfer is a definite plus as you don't need extra software clogging up your computer.
All in all - you probably get what you pay for. Time will tell, but this little player somehow combined all of the important options I was looking for in an mp3 player. And many of the players I was looking at were double the cost and still sacrificing some of the options.
Only thing that stinks is that this little player doesn't accept SD memory cards bigger than 512 MB. I've got a 1 GB card, but it won't accept it.
I just returned one of these this morning. It is indeed an OEM'd Rave-MP device. The volume is way too low (range is 1-20, anything below 10 is a whisper), the device freezes in FM mode, and the voice and FM recordings are poor quality.
I really, really wanted to like this device for its price-point and expandability, but it didn't satisfy.
I'm thinking about either buying this at Walmart, or getting the Rio Forge. Given that this is $10 and the Forge is $146, I am inclining to go with the Ilo. However, I'd like to ask this..given it's a house brand, is there no website for updates? Also, it won't address 1GB of SD???? Is that true? Please let me know!
I just returned 2 Rave MP players, the 256mb models that accept the 512 SD cards. The Rave's are junk and I suspect these would be just junk in WalMart disguise. (same features and same song list, etc.) I am searching further for info on the Rio Forge 256 which also accepts SD cards. Maybe the iLo is ok, but the Rave locks up, etc. seems ok when it is working, that is "when" it is working!
I bought an iLo, it lasted less than a day. Figured the battery was dead so I put a new one in, nada!!!!! I will return to Walmart today and exchange for another one. It's too bad, it seems like a pretty cool product if it works!!!!
The ilo MP3 Player is very good overal regarding sound quality (bass, treble) and the amount of songs it holds. The FM tuner is pretty good if your in the open. However, its peak volume isn't that great, and the screen easily gets scratched up. However, for that price, it is an excellent product.
I was just asking. you know that slot in the back of the ilo player. is that the memory card spot and does that make it so it can hold more songs and if that is what it is for what kind of card should i get. and where do i get it
this is a horrible product it takes 2-5 times to load and 2-3 full minutes to load each time. my ilo also does not allow any left headphone to play. i have used mine maybe 10-15 times and have kept it in optimal conditions. oh and by the way this is the second one. YOU CAN DO BETTER!!!!!!
I purchased one of these up a few days ago and so far it's rockin....easy to use...straight forward..no problems at all.
I've formed a google group for owners and people who are interested in the iLO. The site URL is http://groups-beta.google.com/group/ILO-MP3 .
I don't think there is any question that for a replaceable SD player that the Rio Forge is probably at the top of its class. But the iLO is cheaper and is available at almost every Wal-Mart. I would not recommend it until its get its rumored firmware update (which was supposed to be last week).
I've had no real problems with the unit except for the 128 song limit and that the resume does not work. The latter is of great importance to me since I want to listen to audio books with the unit but really can't without a resume function.
I baught one of these last week.
Good points:
- 256 MB, with SD slot
- Drag & Drop
- Cheap
- FM Tuner, Sound Recording
- can sort by Artist, Track, Album, Genre
- 16 hour battery life
Bad Points:
- Low volume,
- Screen does scratch easily
- takes a while to load, the longest it has taken me is 20 seconds
- it has never frozen on me, but it has happened twice when i let other people look at it
- the volume is always set to 15 when it turns on
I just got mine from my kiddos for Mother's day. I LOVE IT!! No problems, has a key guard, and the sound is perfect for me. I can't hear anyone when they talk to me!! I like how it's backlighted so I can use in a pitch black room if I want. Love that is has a radio as well. Works great!
Hey my friend gave me one of these just the mp3 player though and it has all these voice recordings on it, how do i delete them? how do i delete songs?
what i want to know is how i delete some of the voice recordings?
Are you serious JM6? You just hook it up to your computer, browse to the removable drive that comes up and delete the files on it, just like any other file you've ever deleted. The voice recordings are stored in the folder named "VOICE".
Do not buy this piece of junk! i have bought and retured 5 of them, the same thing keeps happening the left earphone stops working in like just around 15hrs of playing save yourself the money and trouble and dont get it.
Mine crashed several times when I first got it, and I was ready to take it back to Wal-Mart. Once I installed the upgraded firmware from the rave-mp website, my iLo worked fine. Time will tell.
How do you install the firmware update from mac osx? And when i delete songs, they disappear from the actual volume - but the memory space is still taken up...by something. I don't know, i can erase the whole volume and it will still show that i don't have any more empty space left? What's the deal?
this is nice at first, easy to use (drag and drop) but this is my second one and the same problem has a occureed within 2 and a half monthes of owning it this time, last time was 5 monthes--the headphone jacks do no play in the left ear, and when moved, the ilo's sound in the headphones dissapate. dont waste your money, get a better company.
I bought the ILO 256 in June of this year at Walmart. Man I loved this thing. It had some quirks, but not bad considering the expandability. Two weeks after the 90 day warranty ran out it stopped working. It would power on but no sound at all. I take it to Walmart, they refuse to make it good because the warranty has expired, and that I should contact GoVideo. GoVideo offers to fix or replace for $59.95 + s&h. Yeah, right!
Piece of junk! I opened it up to check for the obvious. The headphone jack has come completely loose from the circuit board. Anybody know if these can be resoldered?
You guys are all idiots.
Do not goto another vendor, you bought this product becuase it was cheap and affordable. Not becuase of the quality, you bought it at WAL-MART!!!! What do you think you were getting Top of the line direct from the factory Indestructable items? Y god you guys are more pathetic than I thought.
I bought my iLo 1gig IN Oct, Man it rocks I have droped it from a 3 story building while i was working on the roof, and it didnt even budge no cracked screen no nothing, and it was still playing!
I dont knwo what you guys do, but you obviously throw it againt the wall, beat it with a hammer, and still expect it to work. I normally take care of my electronics, since electronics tend to be fragile anyways. I have yet to see an Indestructable item come from anywhere, unless it was built inside a steel/titanium/lead box and even then you still woudl have problems with anything built like that.
So in other words get over it and go frak yourself in the butt, you got it from walmart what do you expect, you wanted a cheap Mp3 player and you got it dont complain becuase you were to cheap to buy a better one.
-Jordan
FYI... I bought mine beucase it was orange, and no other Mp3 Player anywhere was orange like mine... plus the sd card slot made it better than the others. So that is why i bought mine.
Also FYI... I do take care of my eletronics, so dont go and say i dont jsut becuase I droped my mp3 player once, did i do it again... NO i didnt and i was a lot more careful now that iam up there.
And FYI... Take care of your shit... dont complain when YOU frak it up you dipshits.
One question regarding the Ilo 1gig unit...Does it support playlist? Can I create my own playlist & transfer it to the device using Windows Media 10. Thanks.
I got an ilo for Christmas this year and so far I love it! i've never had an mp3 player before but so far i'm impressed. the only question i have is that when i delete songs from the ilo's library and disconnect the usb cord it tries to remove the song but then comes up with an error 1317. can anyone tell me what that means??? any input would be greatly appreciated! have a happy new year!