|
Software:::…
Media
Source Audio Converter
This
is a program to convert your wav, mp3 or wma files to wav,
mp3 or wma files.
Very
straightforward and easy to use, you can tell which file(s)
need converting and where to put them.
Media Source Organizer
This
program is much like Apple’s iTunes, a simple tool to organize
and upload you music to a portable device.
When
you select the Zen Micro within the organizer you get an
extra set of options you can choose from.
These
options are the same as when you’d use the Zen Media explorer,
except for Burn CD and settings.
With burn CD you can straight away
burn the music files you have to an audio CD.
It’s
very easy and handy to use.
The
settings are the same as you would find in the system menu
item on the Zen Micro.
Media Source Player
This
is basically a general multimedia player by Creative.
It
plays most of the favourite music formats out there.
As
you can see from the screenshot, the player is part of the
organizer and the 2 programs share a common menu with the
same options.
In
the player it’s possible to record music files and play
music files, in the organizer you can go one step further
and organize them properly.
One
option you find throughout the Media Source software is
the music analyzer option.
This
feature allows you to organize your music files by tempo
or loudness.
Now
you can quickly make play lists sorted by speed or sorted
by volume levels.
It
saves you the trouble of sorting them yourselves.
Windows Media Player 10
Windows
Media Player also has support for portable audio devices.
It
allows you to manage your music files easily; it doesn’t
however let you manage the data from Outlook.
Usage:::…
First
off you have to pop in the Li-Ion battery in the back.
Here’s
where you do that.
Now
let’s get familiar with the key layout.
The
touchpad mainly has three areas, up, down and center which
is select.
Enter
menu will allow you to enter the menu of the Zen Micro and
will also go back into menu like an escape button.
Options
will display the option within the menu item you have selected.
For
example when you select the date and time from the menu,
you can use the option button to customize how the date
and time are displayed but also adjust date and time to
correct it.
The
touchpad will allow you to scroll through the menu and select
menu items.
Here’s
a short overview of the connectors.
Like
I mentioned earlier, the on/off switch is a toggle which
you can toggle to turn it on and off, and switch it to lock
the device.
The
other connectors are straight forward.
Once
you plug in the Zen Micro you get a nice notification that
it’s detected and ready to go.
This
popup is shown in the bottom right and a sound is played.
The
Zen Micro is menu based.
In
the main menu you have several choices; I’ll list them for
you.
þ
Music
Library
þ
Now
Playing
þ
Play
Mode
þ
FM
Radio
þ
Extras
þ
System
Music Library
This
option allows you to play your music by selecting a category.
The
categories are: *drumroll* play lists, album, artist, genres,
all tracks, recordings or the DJ option.
Recordings
allow you to playback the recordings you made with the microphone
or from the FM radio.
The
DJ option then allows you to play the rarely heard audio
files, the most popular, album of the day or play all files
randomly.
As
you can see there are quite a few options you can choose
from.
Now Playing
Now
playing just shows you what is currently playing on your
Zen Micro.
It’s
pretty simple and straightforward.
Play mode
Play
mode allows you to choose the play mode of the files you
have selected to play.
Here
you can choose from randomly play tracks, repeat tracks,
shuffle tracks etc.
FM Radio
This
is simply a FM radio.
Here
you can tune in and set 32 presets.
You
can also choose to record from radio, when you have selected
this menu item.
Extras
The
extra option hosts the date and time, microphone, organizer
and removable disk option.
Organizer
allows you to see the contacts, calendar and tasks you synchronized
from your outlook source.
With
date and time you get a nifty clock and date, which you
can customize to fit your needs.
Removable
disk allows you to expand your Zen Micro with an extra disk,
the option allows you to format, label and set the disk
size.
Microphone
is straight forward, to record using the microphone.
System
Here
you can find general information about your Zen Micro, adjust
your audio settings, adjust individual Zen player settings,
set the language or reset the player settings.
The
audio settings cover the equalizer and smart volume settings.
Individual
player settings cover the backlight function, sleep timer,
owner name, contrast, idle shutdown, touchpad and configure
menu.
Configure
menu allows you to choose which menus are displayed.
Since
the device is actually a hard disk, I was curious if it
could or would skip, which it didn’t.
The
music continued to play as I had it in my pocket for a short
jog and I even tried to shake it (within reason), to no
avail.
That’s
actually pretty good.
I
had to adjust the touchpad sensitivity settings to low,
because the touchpad is really sensitive.
Of
course this is more a matter of personal taste and customization.
Conclusion
The
3DVelocity 'Dual Conclusions Concept' Explained: After discussing
this concept with users as well as companies and vendors
we work with, 3DVelocity have decided that where necessary
we shall aim to introduce our 'Dual Conclusions Concept'
to sum up our thoughts and impressions on the hardware we
review. As the needs of the more experienced users and enthusiasts
have increased, it has become more difficult to factor in
all the aspects that such a user would find important, while
also being fair to products that may lack these high end
"bonus" capabilities but which still represent
a very good buy for the more traditional and more prevalent
mainstream user. The two catergories we've used are:
The
Mainstream User ~ The mainstream user is likely to put
price, stock performance, value for money, reliability and/or
warranty terms ahead of the need for hardware that operates
beyond its design specifications. The mainstream user may
be a PC novice or may be an experienced user, however their
needs are clearly very different to those of the enthusiast,
in that they want to buy products that operate efficiently
and reliably within their advertised parameters.
The
Enthusiast ~ The enthusiast cares about all the things
that the mainstream user cares about but is more likely
to accept a weakness in one or more of these things in exchange
for some measure of performance or functionality beyond
its design brief. For example, a high priced motherboard
may be tolerated in exchange for unusually high levels of
overclocking ability or alternatively an unusually large
heat sink with a very poor fixing mechanism may be considered
acceptable if it offers significantly superior cooling in
return.
The
Mainstream User ~
The
Zen Micro is a feature rich, easy to use portable audio
player, like so many portable audio players.
It’s
small and easy to take along and nicely designed.
This
device is just as good if not better then most flash drives
type portable audio players out there.
It
has a lot of storage space and good synchronizing options
and not just for audio.
The
Enthusiast ~
It’s
the all in one portable player for you simple music listening
needs.
You
can use it as a memo recorder or portable radio as well.
It
hosts a lot of storage in such a small device.
The
small sturdy design makes it easy to take along with you.
We're
always looking for ways to make our reviews fairer. A Right
To Reply gives the manufacturer or supplier of the product
being reviewed a chance to make public comments on what
we've said. They can explain perhaps why they've done the
things we were unhappy with or blow their own trumpet over
the things we loved. It's easy for us to pick a product
apart but sometimes things are done a certain way for very
specific reasons.
Should
Creative decide to exercise their "Right To Reply",
we'll publish their comments below:
|
