Rating: 
Summary: Quite nice
Review: I received the Nomad Jukebox for Christmas (a whole two days ago) and am ready to render my opinion. Stated simply: This thing kicks A$$. Now, I'm not about to give it 5 stars, because as incredibly cool as the thing is there are some problems. However, one thing people seem to miss is that it has the ability to be updated for free, which should really just squash most of those lower ratings. Anyway, let's break this down:Pros: 1) As you may have heard, it has 6 GIGS! of music. I mean, come on. Oooh, I'm going to buy this 64 Meg Mp3 player that's 3/4 the price of a 6 GIG player. What kinda flipped out logic is that? 2) The transfer speed is pretty fast, though with the amount of information you're moving, it's still going to take some time. 3) It does have a pause button. Hit Stop once for it to pause, twice to stop. It worked this way before the first firmware update. 4) After the update it does have a scan, though it's not wonderful, but it exists. 5) There is a random play for playlists, go to the active queue list and hit details, but there isn't for the every song on the player, though you could create a playlist from everything and randomize that. 6) I've not had any volume problems using a pair of cheap earbuds, but I'm no audiophile. 7) Also, after the update, you can upload non-write protected mp3's from the Jukebox to your computer. Cons: 1) The playcenter bundeled software isn't very good. It crashes quit a bit on my system. Also, there's no randomize playlist option on the software. It would be really nice to be able to just select a list and randomize it for later listening. It doesn't have a drag and drop option only select and transfer. Would be nice to just choose a directory and everything under it was transferred. 2) Battery life. 4 Hours is pretty not cool. I realize that this is an energy hog, but still.... That's really it for either. In my opinion it's a very high quality device that will be able to stay current for some time to come as Creative updates the firmware. It does, however, have some software problems that should be fixed to make this as perfect as anything can be.
Rating: 
Summary: Great product, but get the updates.
Review: I received the Jukebox a few days ago as a gift, and I am so far extremely impressed with the product. Sound quality is excellent, and the capacity is adequate for carrying around several segments of my music library at a time (for example, I can fit all of rock, and part of folk, but can't fit all of my classical CD's on unless I ditch almost everything else). Since I make extensive use of playlists, this works out really well. A few points; First, download the new software for Playcenter as soon as possible. The version that shipped with the player had serious problems with CDDB. Also, download the firmware and upgrade the player before doing a lot of file transfers. Do make sure that the player works and is functional before you upgrade, though. The sound quality is awesome, as good as CD quality. The included headphones are pretty comfortable, and I found them adequately loud. The included case is cheap, and as others have mentioned it doesn't allow you to have the headphones attached to the player while it is in this case. Dumb design, but I guess it drives revenue for Creative. Also, Creative has mentioned that the IR port will support future applications, and has mentioned "IR file transfer" and "remote control". Since D-link just come out with a similarly priced product with the remote included, Creative should get on the stick and get the remote out _soon_. It would make an already excellent product even better. Lastly, a pet gripe; the manual is just too darn thin, and there are too many features that are not adequate documented (disc-cleanup, HD reformat, etc.) Creative should have put the time and effort into a better manual, though given that some of these features have changed in the last several firmware revisions, I can see why they didn't. If you have oodles of CD's and use music to keep yourself sane in the office, studying, etc., this is the right product for you.
Rating: 
Summary: First Generation Jukebox, functional but has quirks
Review: I bought this jukebox about a year ago before the version 2 came out. And boy did I get buyer's remorse when a few months later Creative introduced the Jukebox 2 with lithium batteries. I could not get more than 1-1/2 hrs with the enclosed batteries, and the Jukebox would reboot sometimes when going over a bump in the car. However I do enjoy the 6 GB of storage (now they have Jukeboxes with 40Gigs!), and since my CD collection isn't so large, I get to have it all with me. I bought a car adaptor, [it was out of stock in the Creative online store for months, and I did not get it until 6 months later]. In the meantime, I could only use it for getting to sleep hooked to the AC adaptor. One more thing, to the person who said that his jukebox would not even turn on with and without the batteries. You need to stick a pin or paper clip into the reset hole in the back while turning it on or off [if it is hung in the off position]. I read how you bought all those accessories and feel for you.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I've had this Jukebox for about a month and have been enjoying it thouroughly! It was very easy to set up, easy to learn how to navigate on it, and is easy to configure and re-configure. It's greatest quality is obviously the storage capacity...I've ripped most of my CDs and a ton of MP3s to it and still have about 1 Gig left. Sound quality is good, and the EAX options are fun to play around with. There are a lot of great things I could say about this product. My only qualms are: -The earphones included are "cool" looking but cheaply made. -The included carrying case has no openings for the earphone plug, nor does it have an opening to work the controls through. -The manual wasn't too clear about this, but I suspect that the built in remote control window is only there for looks for now, and only later versions of the Jukebox will have the remote option. -There is no car kit available yet for it. You need a 12V DC adapter for your cigarette lighter if you want to power it while driving. But any simple cassette device included in portable CD player car kits will work to listen to the Jukebox in the car (I also use it to hear my MP3s on my stero system). -The Creativeware computer program insists on alphebetizing your MP3 files, so song tracks on a single album can end up out of order. -The 20 hours of music and audio that come with the Jukebox are write-protected, so you can't combine them into other directories, or edit (or even see, due to the non-scrolling display screen) some of the long title names. There are a couple other minor inconveniences like these...but it's pretty easy to discover ways to work around them. Perhaps future versions of the updatable software will fix these bugs (I can't seem to get the latest version I downloaded to install on the computer...weird.) All in all though, I'm very, very happy with the Jukebox. I can drive to the music during my weekly two hour commute and I never have to push a button or hear the same song twice! I highly recommend this item.
Rating:
Summary: NOMAD JUKEBOX - best MP3 player as of now...
Review: I've been waiting for something like this for forever. I've gone through my share of MP3 players, minidisc players, walkmans and discmans, but so far nothing has had the versatility that the Nomad Jukebox has. My problem is that whenever I travel I insist that I can't survive without bringing my entire CD collection, and it's annoying (and risky) to lug around that many CDs. Minidiscs provided a solution for a while, but it was to much hassle to spend so much time recording & editing the minidiscs manually without the help of a computer program. MP3 players like the Rio 500 & Nomad II are great for day use & jogging, but most of the time 1 hour just doesn't cut it. MP3-CD players don't seem worth it to me because you still have to buy a CD burner & carry around CDs. The Nomad Jukebox is for people who want a MASSIVE amount of music (6 GIGs, 100+ hours, which is 100x more than most Mp3 players, at around the same price) for use over a long period of time or at home. The Jukebox comes bundled with software for PlayCenter 2 (for the PC) or SoundJam (for Macs) to use for ripping CDs & Mp3s from your computer to the Jukebox. It also comes with decent headphones (loudness is NOT a problem) & a carrying case, plus all the necessary equipment for setting it up. Setup is pretty easy, and using the software is a lot more intuitive than I though it would be. It takes me around 5 minutes to rip a CD from my computer the the Nomad. The best feature by far is the OMD description searcher-- if you're online while your ripping CDs, the OMD finds the album name, year released, genre, artist, & ALL the track names, so you don't have to type anything in. You can also rip Mp3s from the Nomad back to your computer. The songs in the Nomad can be categorized under Albums, Artists, Genres or Play Lists to make it easier to navigate. It supports data, MP3, WMA, and WAV files (plus many others). You can download updates from the Nomad website for better software or firmware for the player, so even if something isn't perfect now, in the future improvements will be available. The player also has an infrared port on the front for future additions (like a remote control). It comes with 2 hours of free music (mostly classical) and some Audio Books. It includes jacks for line-in recording from radios, microphones or stereos, and line-out hookup to stereos or speakers. Of course, the Nomad Jukebox is a very new kind of Mp3 player, so it has a few MAJOR flaws: 1) BATTERY POWER- Hard Drives tend to suck up an endless amount of power, and that's exactly what the Jukebox is-- a Hard Drive disguised as an Mp3 player. You can ONLY use the 4 rechargeable batteries that Nomad gives you (AA size) to run it without the AC adapter, and those only last around 3-4 hours by themselves. Nomad includes an extra set of 4 to replace them, but you always have to make sure they are fully charged. Maybe in the future there will be more options (battery pack?) 2) WEIGHT - It's around the size of a first-generation CD player, and it weighs around 2 lbs with batteries. This isn't really a problem for me, but it depends what you want to use it for. It's not meant for use while jogging or biking, etc-- it's more for use over a long period of time away from home, on the bus/plane/dorm/in the car, or at home, plugged into the AC adapter and a pair of speakers. Besides the weight, in my opinion, it looks VERY nice- it has unique, smooth design, coloring and shape (and the LCD screen is easy to read). The Nomad Jukebox is the best in its category of high-capacity Mp3 players-- It holds 100 times more music than a normal Mp3 player, and its price has been drastically reduced, making it a lot more affordable than it was before. Overall, I am very satisfied with it. It has its flaws, but in the future there will be improvements & upgrades available. It is the best option for anyone who's ever wished they could bring all their CDs with them without actually having to CARRY them... and I think that I will be using it for a long, long time from now.
Rating:
Summary: a god among mere mortal mp3 players
Review: Loading music onto your MP3 player used to be an exercise in patience, math and frustration, with a close eye monitoring bitrates and file sizes so as not to fill up the precious 32 or 64 MB of memory. Well, it's a different story today as we load up our brand-new Creative Nomad Jukebox, a 6GB portable audio player with enough memory to comfortably store about 150 CDs' worth of music. We are not packing a picnic basket here, we are bringing the whole kitchen. With a fully loaded Nomad Jukebox, you could listen to music eight hours a day, every day, for two weeks without repeating a song! And the unit's USB interface means you won't be teaspooning songs into the player, you'll be shoveling them in at up to 500k/s. It also means the Nomad Jukebox will communicate with both Windows machines and Macs right out of the box. To make sure the transfer runs smoothly, Creative bundles their reliable, user-friendly PlayCenter 2 software into the package (SoundJam MP for Macs). We hunted through MP3 folders and added tracks to the transfer cue with ease as the USB connection chugged away. One PlayCenter 2 feature we liked was the option of ripping CDs directly to the unit, preserving the computer's hard drive space. OK, so we've completed a mass loading of about 500 MP3s onto the player. How difficult is it going to be to find them? Very easy, in fact. The Jukebox lets you navigate through your library of songs filtered by artist, albums, genre, or playlists (based on the ID3 tags). Playlists are probably the best way to get a handle on the massive content. Playlists can be created on the unit itself, but to preserve battery life, we recommend building them through the software. Choose your orders wisely--missing from the Nomad functionality is a random/shuffle function. Now we are finally listening to the music and the sound quality is truly remarkable. In fact, some of these MP3s have never sounded better. It helps that Creative bundles the Nomad Jukebox with a decent pair of behind-the-head backphones instead of measly earbuds. But another key factor in sound quality is the implementation of Creative's EAX technology. This is a mix of features that do some really... well, "creative" things to the sound of your music. These extras range from useful (sensitive bass, treble and midrange EQ) to interesting (incredibly accurate time-scaling which will speed up or slow down your audio file without affecting the pitch, so you can hear a speed up lecture or song without it sounding like a chipmunk) to somewhat odd (environmental settings that simulate arenas, forests and cities, among others). This stuff is cool, but it seems extravagant considering the player doesn't feature basic seek-within-song functionality. The unit itself is lightweight at 14 ounces (without batteries) and can be held comfortably inside one hand. The large 132x64 pixel screen fits seven lines of text, and will remain backlit for the duration you specify (default is 10 seconds). In design, it resembles a portable CD player. But the Nomad Jukebox has two distinct advantages over MP3-CD players like the Genica and Philips eXpanium. First, you don't need to fumble with actual CDs--fumbling meaning everything from buying and installing a CD burner and successfully burning CDs to actually lugging them out on the road with you. The second: no more skips. The promise of skip-free performance is backed solidly by an 8MB DRAM buffer, which provides five minutes of shock protection. Once the hard drive is up and running, you can literally toss the unit in the air, shake it or drop it on the ground without a skip. This rugged performer begs to be taken in the car, so we brought our unit out for a test drive. Sure enough, drinks will spill and tires will pop before the Nomad Jukebox skips a beat. Another plus: Its rubber feet make the unit resistant to sliding around in the car. Jogging is possible, but not practical considering the unit's weight and bulk (jocks, don't throw away your 64MB player yet!). A lock switch prevents buttons from being accidentally pushed. You can expect batteries to last about four hours. The Nomad Jukebox requires 4 AAs and comes packaged with two sets of NiMH rechargeables. The batteries will recharge inside the unit when it is plugged into an outlet. The spare set of batteries is a nice touch. Running a 6GB hard drive is understandably demanding on a power source, but the four hours' life span sure seems to fly by. High-bitrate MP3s and excessive button operation will burn through battery power even more rapidly. You may find your Nomad Jukebox most at home plugged into your stereo, where you can serve up a virtually limitless amount of music, using the included AC adapter. There are SurroundSound outputs right out the back, and an infrared sensor for as-yet-unavaliable remote controls. Another useful feature worth noting is line-in recording. The Nomad can record speeches, lectures, concerts or other live events and will store it as a WAV file in your library under "Recordings" in the Genre menu. The Nomad Jukebox comes pre-stocked with 20 hours of audio book and music content. Avid digital-audio bookworms might be disappointed to find no bookmarking feature. The package includes a detailed manual, a quick-start guide and a carrying case, in addition to the sturdy USB cable, CD installation disc, AC power cord, eight batteries, the headphones (with extra-long cable) and the unit itself. While the Nomad Jukebox is not the first massive storage hard-drive based portable, it is the first done right. Comparisons to the brick-shaped HanGo PJB-100 and its copycats are simple: Nomad has them beat in design, functionality, price and availability. The Nomad Jukebox's staunch SDMI compliance means that MP3s loaded onto the player cannot be uploaded back to your (or a friend's) computer, but WAV files can. We liked that the unit has reprogrammable firmware for any future manufacturer updates, including things like support of other audio formats and enhancements like searching within tracks. When you consider that the price of most MP3 portables is based on memory, and that some 64MB players run between $200 and $300, the cost efficiency of the Nomad Jukebox becomes more evident. Where $200 once got you an hour, does $500 get you two hours? Nope, try 100 hours--basically $5 for an hour of memory.
Rating: 
Summary: Serious QC Problems
Review: Do not buy Creative lab products. After contacting customer service multiple times about a warranty item, I talked to one of their techs, who said that they estimate 10% product failure on their products. My options were to pay to have it fixed, with another 10% chance that the repair could fail, or get the broken part back. They do not stand up behind their products. Don't throw your money away.
Rating:
Summary: All problems have solutions
Review: ... I'm using WindowsXP with a 6gb model, and after converting my MP3s to WMAs(they take up half the size without noticeable quality loss) with "Plus! Audio Converter", I can fit nearly 3500 songs on the thing. There is also a great new Firmwear version that is better than the one in the newest "Jukebox 3." Simply go to Yahoo.com and search for "Nomad Jukebox" and you'll soon find Firmware v4.0. This new firmware converts the volume control into a scrolly-wheely thing that makes finding songs SO easy, and the UI is very intuitive and simple to figure out and use, the only thing that's difficult about it is that it's so different from the last crappy ones that it's hard to get the hang of. As for battery life--I've got 2 sets of the Creative batteries and the AC adaptor that collect dust in the drawer. I went down to RadioShack and bought a pair of hi-cap NiMH batteries for $$$ and a charger for $$$, and I get nearly 5 hours of playback. There is absolutely no problem with this jukebox if you do a few non-warranty-voiding altercations to it.
Rating:
Summary: I love my Jukebox
Review: This thing is great. I bought it about 5 months ago and I love it. The usual stuff is true: the batteries don't last long, and the headphones that come with it are terrible, but... Even with that, this mp3 player was worth the money. It is REALLY easy to use, manage, and set up. The software is super easy. And this thing holds so many mp3's. I think I have about 1500 songs on there, and I still have about 2gb left.
Rating:
Summary: its great
Review: this thing is great
i love it !! it so sleak and nice.. It holds so many songs...
The only problem with it is the batteries.. but.... you can live with it... just buy and extra set so u have a total of 3 sets and it will last you a good 10 hours.... but this is defenatly the best mp3 i have ever had... and its beautiful too
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