Ultra Products ULT31576 8-in-1 MP3 Player Author: jonnyGURU Date Posted:23/11/2004 18:52.57 SLRating: Bottom Line: If you need a portable MP3 player you could do a lot worse than the Ultra Products ULT31576 8-in-1. Its small compact and looks nice but what about data transfer and ear buds? Article Navigation Introduction First Impressions Observations Conclusions Pages: 1 2 3 Discuss This Article

Conclusions

The built in e-mail client is nothing more than a few files stored on the thumb drive that make it possible to check your mail from any PC without having to install additional software onto that PC. As I mentioned before, the one added feature of this e-mail client that makes it unique to this device is it's ability to autorun when the device is plugged into the USB, but as I stated; this gets annoying after a while. That said, it is a very good email client. In the photo above, you can see there's a little bit of bloat added by having a JPG of the device pop up when the client first starts. Functions are self explainatory, set up is easy and mails are stored in a file format that is compatible with Outlook so e-mails can be saved and then later viewed in Outlook.

The software included on the CD is an MP3 player, ID3 tag editor and lyrics editor all in one player. The ID3 tag editor certainly has it's uses, but the lyric editor was particularly neat to play with. One merely has to play the song, pause it and a time stamp is created, type in the lyrics that should appear at that time stamp, and then the lyrics scroll across the ID3 tag part of the display while the music plays. Very neat.

In conclusion, I will say that I definitely like this device. The audio quality was better than expected, the features were plentiful and the fact that even as just a 256MB memory stick that can be upgraded to 768MB by simply adding an MMC to it is too slick. The MSRP on the device is $129, which seemed a bit high, but one can buy the device from Think Geek for only $99, and from now until Christmas there's a mail-in rebate for another $30 which means you can get one of these for only $69. THAT is a steal for even a 256MB thumb drive, never mind a thumb drive, card reader, MP3 player, FM tuner, voice recorder and portable e-mail client!

Pros:

Nylon neck rope has room for improvement

Overall, this is a product I can strongly recommend.

Only because of the ear-buds, the tuner that wouldn't keep presets and the slow data transfer do I give this product an 8.5 instead of a 10. Of course, the ear-buds are a matter of personal preference and the presets issue is likely an isolated issue so this item could easily get a rating of 9.

Introduction

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Article Navigation Introduction First Impressions Observations Conclusions

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