After briefly perusing portable MP3 players, I was stunned at the specs of one unit in particular: the FL100 from MPIO/DigitalWay (MPIO is the Korean name of the company, which is called DigitalWay in the US).
MPIO is the OEM producer of devices for Samsung (the Yepp series) and a couple other brands, so it has some experience in this product area. Its latest offering, the FL100, was introduced at CES, where it won a Best in Show award.
In nutshell, the FL100 is about the size of a large pack of gum (think 20 sticks of Juicy Fruit) and weighs under 42g (1.5 oz.) without the 1 'AAA' battery that powers it. In that diminutive package is an MP3/WMA player AND an FM tuner AND a slot for SD/MMC memory cards. You can get either 128 MB or 256 MB versions, making the possible memory on the thing a whopping half-Gig! For less than $200 for the 256 MB model, it sounds like a pretty sweet deal, as well.
The downsides I've noticed are USB1.1 (as Mike pointed out, a bit slow for moving 250MB of MP3 files) and the reliance on proprietary desktop software for RAM management. Other than that, this tasty little device looks pretty yummy. If you like, check out this detailed review at IGN Gear or buy one directly from DigitalWay.
I received an FL100 MP3 player as a gift and all is fine exept I cannot download music to the player. That part of the software (the lower right quadrant for downloading) never reacts to my mouse. The other information is fine.
Is my software defective? I am using a Dell Dimension XPX R400 computer with Windows 98, version 6.0.
You give a phone number in your user's guide but none of the numbers ever answers. I have called you several times and the messages are the same circular route to avoid the call. The same lines are always busy, not available, no one is there. Impossible over a three week period!!
Um, C, you _do_ realize that this site -- GearBits -- isn't the same as the makers of your MP3 player, right?
If you're having trouble with the software, try downloading Real One Player (www.real.com) as that will recognize the FL100 as a device (assuming it's attached and on) and you can move music to/from the device using Real's player app. HTH.