mobiBLU's B153 153-hour player US-bound

Looks like Hyun Won's got plans to bring their mobiBLU DAH-1900 to America as the B153, but the 153-hour player's gonna see some minor changes; its namesake, for one, and it'll also have direct podcastready support for software-free content downloads. It'll still have the FM tuner / recorder, line-in encoder, OLED display, and PlaysForSure support, but since the B153 doesn't come in capacities larger than 2GB (yet) you'll probably wind up listening to the same tracks a few times if you can't make it back to your music library for a while -- unless you fill up with low-bitrate Podcasts, anyway.

[Jobrozrock @ May 2nd 2008 6:07PM]

I need help. I forgot how to delete folders off of my mobiblu cube. Also some of my songs arn't showing up. I had downloaded them 100 times and it still will not show! I really need help fast.

[Keith @ Apr 18th 2006 10:56AM]

What times we live in when 'old fashioned' refers to a few years ago. :)

[Si @ Apr 18th 2006 10:57AM]

Ah yes, the smash hit 'Imissing you.m' by Root. Quality.

[zoara @ Apr 18th 2006 10:59AM]

lmissing you?

I can't find a band called Root, either. They aren't seriously using filesystem terminology in a consumer-level product, are they?

[PEZ @ Apr 18th 2006 11:23AM]

2GB is plenty of space, esspecially if you use 64K WMA - you guys are foolishly critical. As if anyone needs the option of 10000 songs at their finger tips. Usually, storing music on an MP3 player is so you can listen to the songs over and over again. If you wanted Variety, listem to FM or Satellite radio! :-P

God, I kill me/you.

[adrian gonzales @ Apr 18th 2006 11:46AM]

It looks like a cassette tape player.

[proee @ Apr 18th 2006 1:56PM]

Ok Engadet get your story right, where did you find that this thing supports PlayForSure subscription music services??? There website says it supports "protected" WMA but this does not imply compatability with DRM10. Can you site your source for this? When the DAH-1900 came out, I contacted MobiBlu and they said that this player did NOT support subscription music servies, but did support protected WMA. Please get your story right! Cheers...

[syukton @ Apr 18th 2006 3:04PM]

The 2GB model is already for sale in their store:
http://store.mobibluamerica.com/b153mp3player.html

[jefe @ Apr 19th 2006 3:59AM]

ditto #7
I would've pulled the trigger if proee hadn't pointed that out.

Does this puppy support ToGo or what?

Please dig up an answer, that company has the worst tech support ever!

[proee @ Apr 20th 2006 10:27AM]

#9, here is the respone I recieve from MobiBlu. Looks like they are working on it...


"At thi moment, do not support play for sure. We are working on the firmware.
Please check back in 2-3 weeks. Thanks."


Have a great day!

Best Regards,
Customer Support

[Will @ Apr 28th 2006 10:30AM]

To 5: As WMA is inferior to MP3 (LAME, at least), you wouldn't really want to listen to songs at 64kbps. Only WMA Pro is slightly better, but is only supported by a bunch of portables.

@Topic: Ugly looking, 2 line display, side-mounted buttons - I think I'll better stick with my iPod. The OLED technology and the unbelievable battery time are really impressive, though.

[Little Joe @ May 27th 2006 12:20AM]

Im sorry but this is fantastic bang for the buck. 2gigs and 150 hours of battery for $140? Thats phenomenal. Who the f*** cares what it looks like. Its obviously very small. Whens the last time you played solitare or did a slideshow on that nano? I love my ipod... but this is a better deal by far in my eyes.

[Ben @ Jan 13th 2007 10:20PM]

Well, they technically have the 2GB for sale on their website, but when you try to checkout, it says the following: Note: Requested quantity not available for some items at this time. Stinks! I would like it now, but all they have is the 512 and 1GB! Anyone know when it's coming to the US?

[mobibluguy @ Dec 13th 2007 1:38PM]

IT is now here and in the 4 gb model at mobiblu.biz

[findtheconstellations @ May 28th 2007 11:48AM]

5/28/07 revision to review below:
I revived mobiBlu B153 - myPodder/autorun.inf may cause problems

I'm guessing the problem has to do with the myPodder software on it - just a guess. When I deleted the autorun.inf file on it, it started to behave normally when connected to the PC. I was flailing to get it to that point.
Recap: Windows would recognize it to the point where it gives you the menu of things you can do when you plug in a USB device. When I would try to open the folder and delete a file, it would say it couldn't find it, the contents of the file folder would disappear. Disconnecting and reconnecting would cause a warning that the USB device was not recognized. To get it recognized again, I had to totally power down the PC (not just restart). I tried a few things. Checked if it was the recent (mid-April 07) MS update that affected PnP devices. I uninstalled it - no effect. I deleted all files I could delete directly using the device (no PC connection). No effect. I recorded many hours of FM on the device, hoping it would overwrite corrupted data. This may have done something - after recording something like 20 hours at 128 kbps, I was able to open the log.txt file on the device and read it. That was all I could do before it failed. I did a cold restart, then deleted the mypodder.exe file. It got stuck, but seemed to delete; when I cold restarted it was gone. It failed again. Next cold restart I deleted autorun.inf. It seemed to fail again. Next time I cold restarted, the autorun.inf file was gone and the device seems to be behaving normally now. So, I guess if I just received this device, I would at least consider deleting myPodder.exe and autorun.inf. The mobiblu website is not much of a resource in troubleshooting problems. Latest firmware is a year old. It would be a shame if this was a great device crippled by poorly designed unnecessary software (myPodder).
-----------------------------------------------
5/24/07 revision to review below: I retract my recommendation. I would change my rating to zero stars if I could. I can't get the player to connect to my PCs anymore. I'm a geek, so I don't think it's due to a lack of impatience or ignorance. I did have some expired DRM WMA audiobooks on there, so I suspect Windows is refusing to recognize it (even after I deleted the files). But there were also a few unprotected mp3s that were displaying messed-up file names also, so it may have been a case of an electron or two being misplaced somewhere - anyway, it's a pain - don't buy it - I apologize to anyone who already bought it based on my earlier recommendation.
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On 3/30/07, I got a 2GB version of the MobiBlu 153B player (also know as DAH-1900V). I have successfully used it to download and listen to audio books from both Netlibrary and Overdrive. The player has 5 bookmarks and a resume function. I find it easy to use. Consumer Reports rated it a best buy in a recent issue. The 2GB version cost me about $130 including shipping. I ended up getting mine directly from the company's store because Amazon only had the 512K version, and were out of stock on that. I had a little problem with a little slide switch (HOLD) that was slipping. I pulled it off with my fingernail and popped it back on and that fixed the problem. Also, one of about 20 podcasts I loaded onto it made it freeze. I reset it with a paper clip. (It doesn't wipe everything out when you reset it. You can easily delete files off it from Windows Explorer.) Those are minor annoyances. Overall, it seems to me to be well designed. Windows Media Player 11 had no problem syncing to it for NetLibrary. The OverDrive application had no problem syncing to it. It uses a USB connection to recharge. It supposedly gets 153 hours of play out of 1 charge and can be recharged 500 times. Well, I've been using it alot over the last 4 days, and the battery indicator still says full. So I think it's a good choice for an audio book player (assuming it doesn't break over the next 12 months anyway).

[John Farrell @ Nov 7th 2007 4:17PM]

Stay away from this thing. Mine has locked up and cannot gain recognition from Windows. It happened once before but worked again when I plugged it into the computer's USB port. No such luck this time, and don't even get me started on the absolutely useless website.