Rating: 
Summary: Great Device - Terrible Drivers
Review: I recently started working out, and decided it'd be time to restart my habit of compulsively listening to music. I decided, after lots of hair-pulling, to buy the Nomad IIc 128mb, as it seemed to have the highest memory and most features for the lowest price.I'll seperate this review into three parts: windows xp experience, macintosh experience, and the device itself. Windows XP: I use windows xp pro with service pack 1. I'm not sure if this is true for absolutely everyone, but the IIc scores a big fat 0 out of 5 stars for windows XP drivers and support. I'm not talking about Creative PlayCenter, I'm talking about the ability to connect the IIc to the computer and transfer data to it. After installing, reinstalling, uninstalling, over-installing the drivers, I basically was fuming and willing to send it back. On a whim, I tried Notmad Explorer, a cutely-named third-party (it costs 15 dollars for the nomad II specific version) program by Red Chair Software. It worked, flawlessly, and even enabled me to transfer data to the device with other software. Having to buy third-party software to use a device is unacceptable. Macintosh: I give the Nomad IIc a 5 out of 5 stars on Mac OS X (no, I didn't test it in OS 9, no I'm not going to, I like OS 9 as much as win9x, which would be expressable in imaginary negative numbers). I plugged it in, started iTunes, and the Nomad's internal memory was listed in the Source view. Drag some files to it from anywhere (finder, itunes, etc) and they transfer to the device. No driver installing, (I do have the latest version of itunes, however, which most mac users should have since it's part of automatic updating), no hassle, no nothing. Please, creative, make your product work this flawlessly under windows XP. Device: 4 stars out of 5. It's light, fairly small, has a nice big display with a backlight, takes only 1 AA battery (and runs quite long on it; I work out for at least an hour every single day and often walk a few miles going to classes, and the battery that came with it lasted a week. I don't want to give hour figures, because people do not live in terms of hours, they live in terms of "I just changed my battery yesterday, wtf!"), and sounds pretty good. It plays MP3 files and WMA files, including the new WMA 9 format, although it doesn't handle mp3pro. you can only do one thing at once; you can't see what time of day it is while you're listening to a song, something I find obnoxious only because I have no watch anymore. You also cannot browse through songs while listening to a song, which is slightly more annoying. There's no alternate play mode that I've found, which means you listen to songs in the order that you put them on the player. The equalizer is preset, and features the typical pop/rock/jazz settings, as well as a 'user' mode where you adjust the bass and treble. No word as to whether or not there's more eq going on than just bass/treble in the presets; I use user mode. It sounds fine to me, and I'm picky. in fact, it sounds quite good, even with the default headphones. The decoding seems quite good, on par with my computer, and there are only occasional glitches from badly-encoded files. I sadly haven't tried the voice recording, something that probably works great if you need it and is usless to everyone else. The player is quite loud; I usually leave mine on 16-20 on the volume scale, which looks like it goes quite higher. It has a belt clip, which seems to be thought of as bad by other people. Mine works fine, attaching the player to my pants and keeping it from bouncing back off. It's pretty rugged; according to creative, dropping it or pushing very very hard on the unit will make the sound distort, but I haven't done either. It looks like it could survive a drop fine, although I wouldn't expect the battery to stay in. My best advice for something you spent 130 dollars for is to not drop it, irregardless of how rugged it is. All in all, I give the nomad IIc a 3 out of 5. The player itself is great, but the windows xp support is absolutely terrible in my experience. If you have xp, do not be surprised if this player just doesn't work right.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised
Review: This is the best portable sound device I have ever purchased.....easy to setup, easy to add SmartMedia and easy to use. Additionally, the user documentation / instructions is easy to print out and follow. I was able to load 33 mp3 songs onto the internal memory and another 27 (still have 40 mgb avaiable)onto the 128 mgb SmartMedia card ($51.00 including shipping and handling) One other point, it is very durable. I accidently dropped the device while attepting to clip it to my belt. The Nomad hit our limestone patio and the battery case flew off. Holding my breath, I reinstalled the battery and battery cover, connected the headphones, powered on the unit and it has worked beautifully ever since. Believe me when I say, Creative Labs is not paying me to write this recommendation. Try it and I promise, you will be as satisfied as I have been with this product.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I bought this for my wife for Xmas and she loves it. Holds a bunch of songs and is upgradeable. Easy to use, sounds great and is perfect when she goes to the gym or for a run. I based my purchase on the reviews here and they did not dissapoint. So far, its great!
Rating: 
Summary: The player is wonderful, the software isn't.
Review: I agree with the other reviews written for this player that it is durable with excellent sound quality. The case is plastic, but that is probably to make it lighter. However, the software was down right impossible. After several re-installs, I finally had to turn somewhere else. The Music match player has works just great with it. It is easy to use and the basic player is free to download. With that and a plug-in, I was uploading in minutes after spending hours trying to get the other software to even recognize the player was even attached. A patch is definitely needed.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely easy to use
Review: This is one of the best. If you are running Windows XP this player automatically integrates with Windows Media Player. Just install the driver (don't install the jukebox that comes with it, you don't need it) and plug it into a USB port. Windows detects it, Windows media Player opens automatically, and away you go. Very easy to use.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: I bought this dedicated for my SUV. The truck has no CD player. I tell you this, I am glad i didn't buy a CD player with the truck. The sound is AWESOME. All I need is a spare battery in the glove comnpartment. One AA battery lasts for for more than a week anyway, I play this this thing everytime I'm driving. It's great.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Use Player with great Sound
Review: I bought this product for my 13 year old daughter. She is quite a music buff and has hundreds of MP3's. This player has been very easy for her to use. Only took her 10mins from installation of the software to our computer to listening to the great sound from the headphones! It has functioned perfectly since then. This product is great for exercising because you can make your own pace with whatever music you choose and no skipping! I would recommend this to anyone!
Rating:
Summary: Great for the money
Review: I just got mine a few days ago. I was impressed with the design and size of the player. The headphones sound great, but aren't adjustable and don't fit all that well. The best thing about the player is the sound quality! This player can hang up there with the expensive players when it comes to that. It puts my old Rio One to shame. The software isn't all that bad, but if you don't want to use it this player will work with just about everything. Even Windows Media Player. The belt clip is not as good as it should be, but it's removable so you can install a different one or use a mp3 player case. I have only had it a few days so I can't say how the durability is, but so far I'm happy I purchased this model. It has good features and doesn't cost a fortune.
Rating:
Summary: I just bought three more as gifts!
Review: I love this player. It's skip-free (no moving parts), durable (I keep dropping it and it refuses to quit) and tiny (about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and almost as light). My only complaint was that my son kept using it, so I finally had to buy him one of his own. This model comes with 128 Mb of onboard memory, which will hold about 35 MP3 files. That may be plenty for most users, but there is a slot in the battery compartment that can accept up to 128 Mb of additional SmartMedia memory. (Look around for a good deal. I just bought a 128 Mb card for $... after rebate!) I looked at a bunch of players before I bought this one, and it is the best value I have found.
Rating:
Summary: Plenty of music
Review: This is my third Nomad. I have a 6GB Jukebox and a 128 MB Nomad II. I bought IIc for my wife and I think I will have to "operate" it for a while just to make sure it's functioning properly. So far it is. The 256 MB storage capability with 128 on board and 128 "extra" is really great. At a 96 download rate I would guess that you wuold get over 100 songs. I am using 128 and get 60 + which is great for commuting and the gym etc. I highly reccommend this product.
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