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PalmOneMP3 Audio Kit

PalmOneMP3 Audio Kit

List Price: $99.99
Your Price: $69.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not Needed To Listen to Music on your Palm Using SD Card
Review: This kit contains a lot of components with very little usefulness for it's price. When I first purchased my Palm Tungsten T, I didn't have any experience with expansion cards and MP3 players, so shame on me for wasting my money!

The kit includes the following items:

1. RealOne Player software which is available from the realone website FREE OF CHARGE. This is the only item from the kit that I use because it's easy to manage all my CDs on my PC.
2. A generic pair of earbuds that seem to be the cheapest ones you can buy at any store. They're uncomfortable with poor audio quality.
3. A 64 MB expansion card. I wasn't even able to copy an entire CD onto the card at CD quality. (Using the RealOne software I was able to reduce the audio quality by increasing the compression to fit an entire CD on this card.)
4. A USB card reader for SD and MMC expansion cards only. I used this when I first got the kit, but found it to be useless if I have my Palm connected to my PC and use the RealOne software. (The card reader is currently tucked in a drawer if I ever find a need for it.)
5. 20-Page User Manual.

I later made a better investment when I purchased the Lexar 256MB SD expansion card; this sells for about the same price (the prices are still dropping) as the complete Palm MP3 Audio Kit but it's storage capacity is worth the price. Since I arrange or delete songs using my Palm, I really don't need the card reader, but other card readers can be purchased at half the price with the ability to read a larger variety of expansion cards.

*** If you're considering purchasing this kit for music listening, try my method before you make your final decision -- Download the RealOne software, purchase an expansion card, and connect your Palm to your PC. Rip your CDs into the RealOne library; insert the expansion card into your Palm; select the transfer option and soon after your card is loaded and ready to play through your Palm.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not a value-minded product, too expensive for only 64MB
Review: This product is only useful if you know very little about mp3's, card readers, flash memory cards, and how they all relate to pda's. If you are very comfortable with all of the aforementioned, then you would already know that prices for 256 MB Secure Digital cards have dropped significantly, and that coupled with a dirt-cheap SD card reader, you can basically get your mp3 'kit' for slightly more than this palm accessory kit, except 4 times more space, since this kit only gives you 64MB. That would barely fit a CD-quality level album. ONE album. Basically, when it comes to mp3 players, 64MB worth of space is nearly worthless. The kit also includes headphones, but people generally have a bunch of these lying around anyway.

In summary, this kit is only worthwhile if the thought of purchasing all of these items separately (a memory card, a card reader, and a set of headphones) is too bewildering for you. Otherwise, save your money and buy a memory card that is no smaller than 256 MB capacity and get yourself a card reader, and you are set.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not a value-minded product, too expensive for only 64MB
Review: This product is only useful if you know very little about mp3's, card readers, flash memory cards, and how they all relate to pda's. If you are very comfortable with all of the aforementioned, then you would already know that prices for 256 MB Secure Digital cards have dropped significantly, and that coupled with a dirt-cheap SD card reader, you can basically get your mp3 'kit' for slightly more than this palm accessory kit, except 4 times more space, since this kit only gives you 64MB. That would barely fit a CD-quality level album. ONE album. Basically, when it comes to mp3 players, 64MB worth of space is nearly worthless. The kit also includes headphones, but people generally have a bunch of these lying around anyway.

In summary, this kit is only worthwhile if the thought of purchasing all of these items separately (a memory card, a card reader, and a set of headphones) is too bewildering for you. Otherwise, save your money and buy a memory card that is no smaller than 256 MB capacity and get yourself a card reader, and you are set.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: You do not need it. All Capabilities Pre-Existing in Zire71
Review: Using the RealOne Player which comes bundled free with your Palm Zire71, your Zire71 has the ability to play mp3s. For the money that you would have spent on this audio kit, you could go buy a 256MB or 512MB SD memory card. Using that card and the free RealOne Player, you can store and play 4-8 times as many mp3s as you could with this expensive kit. So, do not waste your money on this unnecessary add-on. Instead, buy an SD expansion card, install RealOne player, transfer the songs to the card (using a memory card reader/writer, your cradle, or the builtin infrared sync device on the Zire71), and let the mp3-enjoyment begin. I have used my Zire71 in this way for six months now and I love it.


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