Rating: 
Summary: A suprisingly good player...
Review: I've been looking for an MP3 player for quite some time, but was turned off by the price of extra memory. Now, iomega releases a player that takes that problem and chucks it right out the window.It's a little bigger and heavier than other conventional MP3 players, but (as stated above) it's also a clik drive. It wont' skip no matter how hard I shake it, and the controls are simple and streamlined. Do you want the smallest, lightest player out there? Go buy a Sony "mp3" (snicker) player. But if you want a product that's solid, reliable, and affordable to upgrade, the Hip Zip is the one for you.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: This was one of the best audio players i've ever used. It is convenient and the disks are cheap and store 40MB of memory.
Rating:
Summary: Great job Iomega!
Review: I've owned a HipZip for about a month now and am extremely pleased with it. I bought it because 96MB of memory in my Rio500 was not enough anymore and additional 64MB memory cards were too expensive. For a bit more than a new memory card, I got a HipZip plus 80MB of memory on PocketZip disks. A pack of 10 more disks (400MB of memory) runs around ($) on the web. The first thing to note about the HipZip is that it's both a portable MP3 player AND a portable USB PocketZip drive. Not only can you download and play MP3, WMA, and (promised) Audible formats, but you can move any type of file from PC to PC with it. That's a bonus. The best things about the HipZip are: 1) Sound quality is stunning through the right headphones. The sound through studio quality Sony headphones is just phenomenal. I didn't know MP3 could sound this good. It's not near-CD quality, it's CD quality at 128 KB/s encoding rate. Wow, I didn't expect this. 2) Cheap 40MB media ($-$) hold 40-80 min of music depending on whether you use MP3 or WMA format. 3) 12 hour battery life 4) Doesn't skip. I can jog with it. 5) Durable. I've dropped it several times and it still works. The case pads the player. 6) Player shows up in Windows as just another disk drive. Files can be moved, added, and deleted FAST using Windows Explorer. USB transfers are just seconds per song.) 7) The player seamlessly plays MP3 and WMA format files in any order on the disk. 8) Dadio operating system is extremely stable for a first generation product. One crash in a month. I reset the player once with a paper clip. 9) Great display. Backlit. Song titles scroll by making it easy to find songs and skip around. 10) Free case...and it's a good one. I never take it off. You can operate the player right through a clear window on the front of the case. 11) Musicmatch jukebox is bundled with it. That's another ($) you don't have to spend. HipZip is integrated as a "send to" device right from Musicmatch. 12) It's plenty loud with the right headphones. 13) Firmware upgrade at ... was really slick. Wait...there must be something wrong with it. Nothing does everything right, so here are the reasons not to buy this. 1) The tiny earbud headphones that come with the player don't do justice to the sound. I threw the headphones away and use the best sounding headphones leftover from years of walkmans. 2) The battery is not replaceable. It's Li-Ion which means it holds a 12 hour charge and will probably last for years, but it bothers some people that they cannot replace it. I expect that the players are going to be cheap enough in 1-2 years that buying a new player will be a better deal than replacing the battery. 3) I had to read the "manual" to understand some of the finer points of using this. Gasp! This unit is for people comfortable with computers, RIOs, Nomads, etc. The disk adds one more layer of complexity over a flash-based player. My HipZip started skipping and Iomega customer support said the disk was probably bad. They were right. I read the "manual," and learned how to reformat the disk and everything is fine now. 4) The current firmware version does not play Audible files and it doesn't have "bookmarks" so you can start up where you left off. This makes it a bit clumsy for listening to audiobooks. I'm waiting for Audible compliance, which I hope will add bookmark capability also. 5) Check ... for other complaints. 6) Do not buy one if you are a parent and have kids or teenagers in the house. They will each want one and you will have figure out how to come up with ($) for a HipZip for each kid. That's my biggest problem right now.
Rating: 
Summary: Hip RULES
Review: I have had this player for over a year now and it has worked great, but it did stop for no reason a few times, I thought my battery was going till I opened it up and had a look inside. The data cable had slipped out of the drive unit, it has worked well ever since! It is over a year old and alive and kicking I love it and I hope it lives longer I love the 4 disks I have. I will go on using this MP3 till the sad day of it's death!... Later Dayz people
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