Rating: 
Summary: Great Audio/Data Device with a few niggles
Review: I've now had my Iomega HipZip for a couple of weeks, and have found it to be a great little device. However, there are a few cons that lowered my rating from a perfect 5-star to four.First a little background: I originally started in the market looking for a portable data storage device. I needed to transport files between home and work (at the local university), but often work with files bigger than 1.44 MB, making floppies obsolete. In the midst of the search, I realized that some of the current MP3 players can also store data files, so having a data storage device that could also serve as an MP3 player would be a huge bonus. Most MP3 players that also store data files (such as the Creative Nomad series (flash-based only) and the Rio series) use a propriatary interface to move files. In other words, if that program is not installed on the computer you're using (like Creative's PlayCenter) then you're out of luck. Also, most of the MP3 players are flash memory based. If you need more file space, then you need a new memory card - a very hefty expense. That's where the HipZip comes in. Here are some of the standout features: - As noted in the general description, the HipZip uses the 40 MB PocketZip disks to store music and data files. The media is relatively cheap ($10 per disk if bought in the 10-pack), and can store quite a few data files. But what about music? Well, if you encode your files in Windows Media format at 64kbps (near-CD quality) you can squeeze just shy of 80 minutes of music on one disk. That's not too shabby! Plus, you can store data and music on the same disk without any problems. Finally, if you run out of space - buy another set of PocketZips (80MB total) for as little as $30 (for the 2-pack). - Unlike other MP3 players, the HipZip uses the same familiar Windows Explorer interface to move files back and forth. Hook up the USB cable to your computer and the HipZip shows up as an extra drive letter. Saving to it is just like working with a floppy. Plus, if you are using Windows ME or Windows 2000 *no additional software is needed!* Just plug in the HipZip to *any* Windows 2000 or Windows ME computer, and it is instantly recognized as a "USB Mass Storage Device." This makes it great for students that may need to connect their HipZip to various computers in computer labs. (For Windows 95 and 98, installing the Iomegaware software is required.) - The sound is phenominal (provided you toss out the crappy included headphones for a better pair). - It might have moving parts, but this thing *does not skip.* - It has a very nice user interface. - Features a great equalizer with preset settings, plus customizible bass/treble. - You can search within music tracks. - It plays WMA and MP3 files (variable and constant bitrates), plus there is supposed to be support for the Audible format in the future (promised on the box) - It's fairly small - about the size of two decks of playing cards (bigger than flash MP3 players, but hey, it's a drive!) Now for the few cons: - Currently, the player auto-offs after 30 seconds (if no music is playing). This wouldn't be too bad if the auto-off didn't erase your playlist and lose your spot on the disc each time it goes. This was originally fixed in a firmware update, but that update was later revoked when it was found to cause other issues that didn't previously exist. Look for additional firmware updates in the future to resolve this. - Pressing the "back" button takes you to the beginning of the previous song, rather than the beginning of the current song (like most CD players do). - There is a about a 1 second delay moving from track to track, making a quick "scan" of the disk a slow process. Overall, it's been a wonderful MP3 player, and a simply outstanding data storage device. If you're looking for a way to handle your data AND music, this is the way to go.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Product
Review: I have had my HipZip for a few weeks now and love it. It was my first MP3 player, so I will not compare it to memory card based products as far as performance, however I can't imagine they perform better. The disks are 40Meg and other than a few seconds to load each song (like 1 - 2 seconds) you don't even know you are reading from a disk rather than RAM. It has never skipped on me, it loads a lot of the song into it's RAM ahead of time. Essentially this player is a little zip drive. You can actually just run it as a hard drive off your PC if you want, and can use the 40Meg disks to transport files of any type (not just MP3s). I recommend this product because I think in the long run you will get more for less money. The disks are really cheap and the price is much less than memory cards so you can have a little library. It also has a rechargeable batter that lasts a long time so you don't have to buy batteries. If you want a mobile MP3 player, and don't want to have to spend a lot in the future on it then get this one.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a Great Unit, but...
Review: I bought two of these units as gifts for my teenage children. The controls are easy to maneuver, the software very easy to use. Unit cost for memory is downright cheap compared to flash so your not constantly erasing and re-recording the "Music selection of the day". Be aware of the following problems and/or observations. 1. The headphones are uncomfortable to wear and the sound quality is only fair at best. I recommend purchasing a pair of Sony headphones to go with the unit. We've done this and the resulting sound is awesome. 2. The headphone jack portal does not fit well on either unit we purchased...The headphones do not seem to "click" in place when attached to the unit so they always seem to be loose fitting. This has resulted in the music wavering in and out as the connection is made...and lost. This has occured on one unit so far (the most played)...but I'm expecting this to happen on the other unit at some point as well.This apparently is a design problem as I've seen it mentioned several times in different forum groups.(SEE WARRANTY SERVICE BELOW) 3. The rechargeable battery works wonderfully. It seems to last approximately as long as Iomega has stated without recharging...HOWEVER... again, the charger tip does not fit into the unit very well. It seems very loose and does not appear to fully insert. We haven't experienced a problem yet...but I'm leery. 4. The case fits the unit well and doesn't impact the controls BUT the holes for the headphone and recharging jacks do line up very well which makes it difficult to plug in. 5. This is the killer>>>WARRANTY SERVICE<<<<<<< Once I started having problems with the headphone jack, I called IOMEGA for Warranty service. I was told that as a service...and in order of expediency...they would ship me a new unit, via 3 day UPS, if I gave them a credit card number with my promise that I would return my defective unit when the new unit arrives (or I would be charged for the new unit). I agreed and have been waiting for 3 weeks.I was given a case ID# and an RMA# (neither of which show as being valid on their website) and have made 4 phone calls to their customer service dept..each time being told that it HASN'T shipped but would be "tomorrow". There service has been HORRIBLE. I just hope that it's been the exception and not the rule. If these concerns are cleared up...and my unit(s) are just a bad "batch"...I will highly recommend the player...but if you purchase a HipZip...check the connections well for a good fit. If they don't fit well...return the unit and look into something else.
Rating:
Summary: The best portable MP3 player out there!
Review: I was looking for the best MP3 player with good sound quality with good usable features. Based on the reviews of sound quality, I was considering between Nomad II MG, Rio 600 (or 800 when it comes out), Compaq PA-1 and Iomega Hipzip. I bought the Diamond Rio PMP300 when it first came out, but I have never been happy with its sound quality, nor its build quality, and never considered buying smart media card since they tend to be expensive. The Hipzip offers the following advantages over other players currently in the market: 1. Excellent sound quality - Player should have both good quality sound and be able to play reasonably loud. Only Nomad II MG qualifies here. 2. Low cost changeable media - No other player offers 25 cents per MB, let alone changeable. Who knows which media (compact flash, smart media, MMC, SD flash, Dataplay, Memory stick, MagicGate Memory stick, you get my point) will die out in the next few years, but knowing reputation and success of Iomega, they should be around for the next few years at least and the media is cheap enough to buy a few and stock up now. 3. Works like a drive in Windows Explorer - No quirky software to deal with. Again, no other player offers this. You will hear a lot of people complaining about various quirks of using software like Rioport manager, Realplayer G2, and Musicmatch to manage MP3 files with a portable player. 4. Built in belt clip with the included case - Other than the Compaq PA-1, Rio and Nomad do not offer belt clip for running or even walking. May seem minor, but you won't realize you need this until it's too late. 5. Solid build quality - Rio has serious issues with build quality as everything about them feels cheap. There are also various people who damaged their Rio 600 players by static electricity which shows hardware weakness of Rio players. 6. Good ergonomics of buttons and display - Nomad II MG fails miserably here. The buttons on the side simply do not offer usable ergonomics. Too many accidental pushes of deleting or switching tracks. 7. Doubles as a USB backup drive for files between work and home - No other player offers this. Get a PC Card drive and you get almost instant file transfers if you have a laptop. Some people complain about 40MB capacity (carry a few more disks), delays between songs (Hipzip is still faster than a normal CD which we are all used to), no voice recording (get a tape recorder!), no FM tuner (get a walkman! Nomad II tuner is a lot worse than an average walkman), no clock (get a watch!), etc., but these are minor points for buying an MP3 player. Think about why you want a MP3 player: Good sound, Fast file transfers, and Expandability. Hipzip gives you all these and more! Go out, Buy one, and Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Have You heard of a mini-disc player?
Review: Have You heard of a mini-disc player?
Rating:
Summary: A well-designed little machine
Review: I got my HipZip a month ago, and I love it. The reasons: 1) First & foremost, the PocketZip disc concept is a quantum leap forward for the MP3 market. I would have been very unlikely to buy any MP3 player if I had to shell out [$] for each new memory card. These guys cost [$] apiece. 2) Transfers from computer to player are a breeze; on my Mac it's just drag-and-drop, and it takes about 5 seconds per song. 3) Despite the fact that it has moving parts, it is completely skip-proof. The number one reason I bought this player is for workouts. I leave it on my hip while I run, and it never misses a beat.I've tried shaking it hard while it's loading, and I still can't get it to skip. 4) Iomega thought of all the little things: nice case (you never have to take it out!), belt clip, slick-looking design, one-handed controls, nice display screen, equalizer options, lock switch to prevent accidental button-pushing, rechargable battery, auto-off feature. 5) If that's not enough, it even acts as a little PocketZip drive! Store word processor or spreadsheet files or anything else you want, even on the same disc with a bunch of songs. Good for transfering files between work & home. 6) Sound quality is extremely good (with good headphones). Only complaint is that I wish the discs held a little more. However, I've found that if you rip your CDs at 96K (considered "near-CD-quality", but to my ears, the difference from 128K is very slight) you can get about 53 minutes of music on a disc -- enough for most albums (especially if you cut out the inevitable couple of bad songs). As to size, this is one of the larger player on the market, but hey, it still weighs less than 6 ounces -- not a problem even for exercising. It's still about 30% smaller than my tape Walkman. In the end, which player you buy should depend on what you're going to do with it & how you use it. For me, it was vital to be able to change music rapidly; with the HipZip, I just pull out a new disc every time I go to the gym, and I have fresh tunes! For most uses, this thing should take over the MP3 market.
Rating:
Summary: top of the line
Review: this is the best mp3 player ever it is so easy to use(it even tells you when you are doing something wrong) and the software is so easy to install and execute it is already second nature the sound is superb complete with a customized equalizer setting and has a million functions to keep the fidgeter happy the memory is very cheap, much cheaper than flash memory this player is smaller and lighter then the rave mp 2300 and is a bit more sleek looking
Rating:
Summary: a little bit of info
Review: Iomega _is_ working on an 80 MB version of the click disk. It should be compatible with the current HipZip player.
Rating:
Summary: A Teen approves!
Review: I just recieved an Iomega HipZip for Christmas, and I find it one of the best gifts I got ever. It's so easy to use, and unlike many things, it tells you whether you have it hooked up right or not. I love that. The software is great, MusicMatch JukeBox not only downloads the songs to the device, but you can listen to your songs and such as you do it. I love the free leather carrying case that came with it. The sound quality is awesome! It sounds better than my walkman. Another great thing about the HipZip is that it has its own equalizer where you have pre-set sound sets and where you can set your own bass and treble and for us teens we like a lot of bass! All of my friends got these for Christmas and we love them. Also, the backlight, for people operating in a dark area, plane, road trip at night, there is an option for a back light, major plus! The only thing we complain about ate the Koss headphones that came with them. They are kinda scratchy...and flimsy. So we provide our own! Overall its worth the money!
Rating:
Summary: Muy Bueno. Me gusta Iomega Hipzip.
Review: Si. I've heard the HipZip criticized quite frequently about everything from its media, wonderfully small zip disks and the easy comparisson they draw to a disputably better product, the minidisk, to it's size, which despite the blatant exaggerations I've seen in review after review is not the size of a soda can. I bought this player as a skeptic, this being my first foray in the world of portable digital music. That's not to say I haven't been downloading mp3s as long, and possibly longer, then the every day person. But I had always listened to it on my computer. The first thing apparant about this player is it's style, which is really quite slick when you get your hands on the thing. The entire thing is sleek with rubber grips on the side. The included carrying pouch thingy is also great with a clear front and effective belt clip. It's apparantly larger then most players, but still quite small, much smaller then a portable CD player. I'm sure you could take this thing jogging, but I don't jog. The interface is also very simple. On the front are a total of four buttons controlling simple playing functions and turning the thing on and off and a nice big LCD screen. The three buttons on the left side control volume and the navigation of the menus, which, being the newbie I am, really excited me with all the stuff you could do, from playlist managing (which it must be noted is all good, though once you turn the player off, you lose your organization of the songs on your disc) to basic equalization (vastly simplified for the many like me who have no clue what they're doing and usually go for the preset options), and since I have no comparrison to prove myself wrong, I'll say the menu system was great, very easy to get around. In terms of sound quality, I'll agree with most reviewers in saying dump the included earphones or save them as backups since frankly, they blow big time. They're these little earbuds that supposedly fit around your ears but just slip around and the speakers hover just outside of range so you have to crank it up. Get some stylish street style earphones from Sony or if your a real hardcore music fan, I'm sure you know what to look for. Once I got my favorite pair of earphones plugged in, and had messed with the bass and treble a bit I was pleasantly surprised. The sound is great and the player goes plenty loud, way to loud for me and I like it pretty loud. The quality was also quite smooth at the almost CD quality level of 128 bits or whatever. At 96, it still sounded quite nice. Ok, the actual player is all good, but what about the computer interface part. Well, I'm not one to glance over the manual before hand and if I do look at it, I really do glance, in the most literal sense of the word. Needless to say it took me a little while to figure everything out, but once I did it was logical. A few things that frustrated me are mostly due to the fact that I own a Mac. The Music Match Jukebox Plus software that is included in the package isn't directly compatible with this player, and as applauded as this new WMA format is, I couldn't use it, since Mac's media player can't translate CDs into it. Basically this means that Mac owners can't utilize the extra space WMA gives you and really load these little discs full of your favorite music. This also means that Mac owners can't organize their music into nice neat playlists before they load it onto the disks. Thus, tedium results as those anal enough to put their music in a specific order, like me, have to reorganize the same mix every time they turn the player on. Other then those nitpicky things, it couldn't be easier to put music on this thing. You just drag your mp3 files onto the disk, which appears on your desktop for Mac users, or as a whole new drive for Windows users. The transfer rate of songs is incredible fast and thus we come to the destroyer of the Hipzips comparisson to Minidisk players. If you want to put an mp3 on a minidisk, you have to transfer it in realtime. This means you have to listen to the entire song and wait for it all to play. For seventy minutes of music on minidisks this means a very long time. Thus, you can't do it before you leave in the morning. With the Hipzip, the typical time it takes to send a file into the player is about five seconds. This means I can do it before I head out to my first class in the morning. And when you walk, it won't skip. I've also dropped mine about forty times (slight exaggeration) from about waist height and it still works fine. It's a durable little thing. The disks the Hipzip uses are called Clik disks I think and they're great. They're about the size of two quarters, perhaps smaller, hold about 80 minutes of music in WMA format, and 40 minutes 128 bit MP3, and are durable too. The player comes with two, which is more than enough. These disks, while hard to find in a physical location, though very easy to get online, are also incredibly cheap: only 10 dollars for one. So for those of us with negative cash flow can still occasionally pick up a new disk. Finally it can be used as a disk drive as well. So those of us who are disk drive impaired are saved in storing our files, or bringing them to class or work, and also have all the music we could possibly want at the same time. In conclusion, this player is wonderful. And I am not dissapointed in the slightest by it, as naive as I am about portable mp3 players. Anyone who complains about it, saying it's terrible has either had a freakishly bad experience with it or is simply going too far. Sure, the Hipzip has its problems, but what doesn't. The only thing anyone needs to know is that you'll need some basic computer knowledge to work the thing. For Mac users, take note that you do not get many of the advanatages that this player claims to provide (WMA format, easy use with Music Match Plus), though don't let that turn you off. In the end it's just another technological distraction you don't have to worry about. Wonderful little player.
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