The Dellpod is great!
 

I got my new Dellpod (the new Dell hard drive music player) last week and put some songs on it prior to my first mileage run. I was on flights for about 13 or 14 hours and played music almost the entire time. The battery bar went from 3 (maximum) to 2. This battery life is great for long distance flying or even if you dont want to take the charger with you on a trip. The on device software is very good although it took a while for me to figure out how to make playlists on the device (might have been easier if I had looked at any of the instructions). The sound is very good also. It is bigger and heavier than an IPOD but is still not vey big or heavy, I think it is a nice size. I played both mp3s and wma files. It comes with Music Match and I bought music from the Music Match store and transfered it to the Dellpod with no problems. Great companion for a long trip. Trying to burn some operas from CD and put them on it before I leave for PVG on Tuesday. The battery life will be great for that trip.

Just an update. Back from PVG and the thing worked great. Used it almost constantly from JFK-SFO and from SFO-PVG. Didnt use it during layover in SFO but just the flying time is about 19 hours. I had it off for a bit here and there but it was on almost the entire way and had battery power to spare. This thing is great!

Are you using an NR headset? I find that I really don't enjoy any portable music players or DVDs on my laptop unless I am using a NR headset on the plane...

what kind of batteries? Good, AA or AAA batteries? Or bad, proprietary ones? http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

Sony over the ear noise reduction headphones and sealed battery chamber. I dont, in general, disagree with the comments about prefering non-proprietary batteries however.

Not! According to this rather amusing review of the DJ vis-a-vis the iPod... from Fortune magazine!

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/techn...548314,00.html

Actually, most of the things they like better about the IPOD are things like cooler orange lighting. Ill take double the battery life, and try as I may I still have 16 gigs left out of my 20 so Im not really sorry I dont have a 40. In the three weeks I have had it I have been on 3 trips past the battery life of an IPOD. Cool orange lights that arent lit and another empty 20 gigs dont help me out much. The song selection on iTunes is better though. I thought the reviewer was a trying a bit too hard to be funny rather than compare what they are good and bad at. Clearly if I was looking for something to listen to during a 1 hour commute each way on the train I would have gotten an IPOD. But for long distance travelling I think the Dell is fantastic

[This message has been edited by GadgetFreak (edited Nov 30, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by GadgetFreak (edited Nov 30, 2003).]

I agree, it was VERY poorly written. There were many aspects he didn't look at. Plus, not everyone will be using the itunes music store, a lot of people will prefer using their own CD's. Filling a 40Gb device with purchased music from the ITMS is ludicrous.

ITunes SUCKS at ripping CD's so for people with a personal music collection it wouldn't be the best solution. The ipod has more add-ons but then it's also been on the market for longer...