Philips NP2500/37 WiFi Internet Radio Network Music Player with Rhapsody (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The entire problem with this player is that it does one thing really well, but has a couple of other features thrown in addition that don't work as advertised.
As a player for Rhapsody, this really rocks. The songs come up quickly, the interface is easy to navigate, and all the songs feature artwork that looks great on the small but crisp LCD. The only downside is that it requires a paid Rhapsody account, although the free month is a nice introduction.
When it comes to internet radio and streaming music as an UPnP device, this player really falls apart. The internet radio functions work well, but the connectivity is very slow compared to the Rhapsody service, and it is unable to display song information from every station. Some stations work, some don't. Also, to find radio stations you are limited to either browsing the menus, or using the number pad to enter the station's name or a serach keyword. The number pad works about as well as using a cell phone without T9, so it is functional but very, very slow.
The UPnP service for streaming music from your home computer never worked for me. I installed the bundled software, updated it from the company's website, but the music never started. I was able to find my music library, even my iTunes playlists, but when I hit "Play," the player just hung forever and never started the music. FYI, I'm running a Macbook Pro with iTunes, and I keep my music on an external network hard drive, so that may have been the issue. A search through the forums of the Twonky Media Player(used for streaming) revealed nothing helpful, and I was unable to resolve it in the time I had to review the item.
As far as the player itself, the design is attractive and should fit well with most home electronics. The screen is bright and clear, and the remote works as well as can be expected. There are no on device controls, so the remote is essential to any use of the player, but I had no problems. It was also easy to connect to the internet, although entering a wireless network password using the number pad was time-consuming.
Bottom line, don't expect it to work seamlessly as a streaming media center from your PC or Mac's music collection. If you want it mainly for internet radio, it works, but is a bit hard to use. Rhapsody works great, but again, it requires a subscription.

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Wirelessly access 10,000+ Internet stations FREE, your music library, and Music On-Demand with a free trial from Rhapsody. Streamium is your Home Jukebox. You can access Internet music from your home country or hometown, by musical genre (rock, pop, news, sports, 80's, etc.). Your digital music is easily accessed by Streamium so you are always connected to music you already own (in addition you can leverage music from multiple PCs/Macs). Finally, you can get music-on-demand with Rhapsody (free trial included). Search thousands of titles and artists for music of your choice or play "name-that-tune" with your friends and family (by preferred genre). This network music player allows you to "free your music" from MP3 players and your computer. With easy setup you can hook-up to your home theater or home audio system so you can experience seamless entertainment with quality you are used to hearing. FullSound is a great feature built-in that brings back high-quality CD sound from your digitally compressed MP3 files. Enjoy album art from your favorite artists (from your PC/Mac, or from Rhapsody) and enjoy radio station logos and pictures that can be shown on your player. A remote allows easy music management from a distance.

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Philips GoGear Muse 8 GB MP3 Player (Silver) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Philips GoGear is a nice AV player that doesn't hurt your pocket too much.
First of all, it has a great sound quality. The Philips FullSound technology enriches the sound and the earphones that come with the player are great (I have AKG K330 earphones which are great, and I now use the Philips earphones).
Video quality is good - screen view is crispy. the only bad thing is that you can hardly see it in direct sun light. The player has HDMI exit which I haven't tried yet.
Lets talk about the player's interface: I bought this player after having Microsoft Zune 120 for a year (it dies after a year of moderate use... Microsoft). The Zune had a great intuitive interface. I can't say this about the GoGear. In Philips' player you can't choose songs by their genre and you can't add songs to "now playing" playlist.
One more thing is that if you set the volume limit, you can't cancel it while listening to the radio. You have to go back to "Music" and cancel it.
The touch screen is the player's weakest link. Although it supposed to be capacitive it has poor and inaccurate response. Scrolling to 'Z' in song names or artists names is really frustrating.
The software that comes with the player is Philips Songbird. After using Microsoft Zune software I understand how poor looking is the software - and hence, much less intuitive. One thing that annoyed me is that although while installing the software I didn't want the software to update media info from the Internet - as soon as I added my libraries to the software it started to chance the organization and the ID3 tags of the files. As soon as I understood that I started using Windows Media Player as my media organizer.
Radio - I has a nice feature in which it auto tunes the presets. It also has RDS. In the American model, the radio recording feature is diabled.
To sum up, this could have been a great player if the screen was of better quality. Maybe next hardware updates will improve the player's user interface.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Philips GoGear Muse 8 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

With FullSoundTM, Surround for movies andSound Isolation earphones, take in an unrivalled sound experience with the GoGear Muse. Watch videos on its 3.2-Inch HVGA screen or hook your player up to a HDTV for greater viewing pleasure.

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Logitech Squeezebox Wi-Fi Internet Radio Remote Controller Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've owned the Duet (part of which is the controller I'm reviewing here) for about 2 years. Though I've always thought it was very cool and useful, it was difficult to set up in the beginning and has suffered from the scroll wheel being imprecise. Because the device was so useful, I overlooked the flaws. Others, as you can see from the reviews, couldn't overlook these flaws.
However, recent software updates have taken care of this. With the 7.4.0 release of software, the UI on the controller was changed. The current version as I write this is 7.5.0. This is the version that I'm running after upgrading from 7.3.3.
The screen has changed and doesn't look like what is pictured here. Better use is made of the screen real estate resulting in easier to read text and a much larger artwork display. The scroll wheel is very precise now - no overshooting your selection. The controller is overall very responsive now.
I recommend this product, escpecially with the recent performance and usability improvements introduced through software updates.


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Listen to the music you love in any room in your home. Browse and play songs from your personal collection, online music services, and Internet radio. Control your existing Squeezebox or Transporter from anywhere in your home, or just add this Network Music Controller to your Squeezebox Duet setup. The multi-room controller with 2.4" color display makes it easy to browse playlists, albums, artists, and more. Convenient scroll wheel, simple menus, and intuitive buttons make navigation a breeze. Browse your entire music collection, tune to your favorite Internet radio station, or check out millions of tracks from services such as Rhapsody, all from the palm of your hand. Advanced 802.11g wireless technology eliminates the need to string wires everywhere just to listen to the music from your computer. Setting up an additional room is simple as pushing a button, even on secure networks. Access millions of songs, thousands of Internet radio stations, and music service providers such as Pandora, Rhapsody and Slacker, without ever turning on your computer using mysqueezebox.com, our unique Internet service. Even your personal music collection can be stored online in an MP3tunes music locker and played through your Squeezebox.64 MB high-speed RAM NAND programmable flash 3-axis accelerometer tilt sensor Removable 1250 mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery Bridging capability allows Ethernet devices to connect to the network through Squeezebox Receiver's wireless connection Throughput up to 54Mbps, high speed PCI interface to radio module Automatically detects available networks for quick setup Supports both WPA Personal, WPA2-AES and 64/128-bit WEP encryptionSupports all 802.11b and 802.11g access points Dimensions -Approximately Length 6.15 x Width 2 x Height 0.74 (156.2x50.8x18.8mm)

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Philips GoGear Muse 16 GB MP3 Player (Silver) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The Philips GoGear is a nice AV player that doesn't hurt your pocket too much.
First of all, it has a great sound quality. The Philips FullSound technology enriches the sound and the earphones that come with the player are great (I have AKG K330 earphones which are great, and I now use the Philips earphones).
Video quality is good - screen view is crispy. the only bad thing is that you can hardly see it in direct sun light. The player has HDMI exit which I haven't tried yet.
Lets talk about the player's interface: I bought this player after having Microsoft Zune 120 for a year (it dies after a year of moderate use... Microsoft). The Zune had a great intuitive interface. I can't say this about the GoGear. In Philips' player you can't choose songs by their genre and you can't add songs to "now playing" playlist.
One more thing is that if you set the volume limit, you can't cancel it while listening to the radio. You have to go back to "Music" and cancel it.
The touch screen is the player's weakest link. Although it supposed to be capacitive it has poor and inaccurate response. Scrolling to 'Z' in song names or artists names is really frustrating.
The software that comes with the player is Philips Songbird. After using Microsoft Zune software I understand how poor looking is the software - and hence, much less intuitive. One thing that annoyed me is that although while installing the software I didn't want the software to update media info from the Internet - as soon as I added my libraries to the software it started to chance the organization and the ID3 tags of the files. As soon as I understood that I started using Windows Media Player as my media organizer.
Radio - I has a nice feature in which it auto tunes the presets. It also has RDS. In the American model, the radio recording feature is diabled.
To sum up, this could have been a great player if the screen was of better quality. Maybe next hardware updates will improve the player's user interface.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Philips GoGear Muse 16 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

With FullSoundTM, Surround for movies andSound Isolation earphones, take in an unrivalled sound experience with the GoGear Muse. Watch videos on its 3.2-Inch HVGA screen or hook your player up to a HDTV for greater viewing pleasure.

Click here for more information about Philips GoGear Muse 16 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

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