WeWa Stanchion
WMP-6606FM
FORMATS: MP3, WMA, WAV
BATTERY LIFE: 14 hours continuous
CAPACITY: 256MB
Here comes another irrepressible MP3
player that dares to stand out from the
crowd by naming itself after a framework
for confining cattle! The implications are
disturbing, but at least the quality of the
sound pouring forth from this barrel-
shaped MP3 player placed it in a three-
way tie with the Rio Karma and the iRiver
iFP-880. That’s a pleasant surprise from a
relatively obscure manufacturer. There are
hints of design genius here, too: The head-
phone jack, for example, triples as a line-in
jack and as a USB connector.
For a flash memory–based player of
its size, the Stanchion packs an unusual
number of features, including an FM tuner,
voice recorder with a built-in mic, and a
small but impressive high-resolution dis-
play that can be backlit with your choice of
seven Vegas-on-acid colors.
While we appreciate the Stanchion’s
small size, we firmly believe that whoever
came up with the control scheme should
be beaten mercilessly with a stick. To turn
on the unit, for example, you press the EQ
button. Alright, OK. But to turn off the unit,
you have to depress the navigation joystick
for several seconds. With its cryptic icons
and weird button assignments, digging
into the menu system is more confounding
than wandering around Paris drunk trying
to find your hotel after dark. Sadly, while
the audio quality was high, the Stanchion’s
highest volume level was among the low-
est of the entire roundup.
We like the tiny size and rich sound, and
if the controls had been given some extra
work this might have been love at first
sight. One thing Apple Computers taught
us (besides how to laugh), is that small
MP3 players don’t have to sacrifice usabil-
ity. Maybe WeWa will get it right the next
time around.
MA XIMUMPC VERDICT:
SITAR: Excellent sound quality and generous
features.
BAGPIPES:^ Scary menu system, and even worse
controls.
$170, http://www.cirago.com.
WEWA 3TANCHION W-P
&-SEPTEMBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC 49
Microsoft’s
PMC is a
specification
that allows
hardware
vendors like
Samsung and
Creative to
build players
of different
sizes and
shapes, yet still provide users with a
consistent interface to listen to music
and view movies, TV shows,
and photographs.With three
times the battery life
and its own patented
interface, the Zen
Touch hopes to trash
the iPod in a decidedly
un-Zenlike manner.With its proprietary music format,
will Sony’s hard drive–based
Walkman meet
the same
fate as the
Dark Lord
of the Sith?1 “3 “TOMORROW’S
PLAYERS TODAY
Portable video, smaller players,
and humongous storage are a
threat to piggy banks all over
the worldMICROSOFT PORTABLE MEDIA CENTER
In a few short months, Microsoft hopes to land
on the MP3 and media player category like a
747 with the Portable Media Center (PMC)—a
standard upon which the company expects
manufacturers to build an ever-evolving array
of devices. Microsoft’s spec requires USB 2.0
support, A6 out, the presence of the green
“Media Center” button, and the WinXP
Embedded /S, but allows manufacturers to
incorporate additional functionality like pro-
grammable buttons and FM tuners.
We recently got our hands on Creative’s Zen
version of the PMC, and found ourselves duly
impressed with its potential. A 3.5-inch LCD
screen displayed a bright, colorful interface that
allowed us to quickly browse and select not just
music, but videos, photographs, and even mov-
ies in full color. /ne nice touch we appreciated:
When we sorted through our music collection,
the Portable Media Center contained album art
for each CD that had been ripped.
/ne of PMC’s tangible strengths is its ability to
synchronize easily with Media Center-based PCs.
Using this combination, users will be able to
quickly transfer recorded movies and T6 shows,
as well as their photos and music. (As an exam-
ple, we transferred a one-hour episode of Band of
Brothers to the device in less than three minutes.)
Microsoft tells us that users of Snapstream’s
Beyond TV will also be able to move files onto
their PMCs, and that content providers like Major
League Baseball’s MLB.com will allow users to
download telecasts in their entirety.The initial wave of Portable Media Centers—
released by Creative, Samsung, and iRiver, will be
available in /ctober for between 400 and 600.SONY NW-HD1
The first hard drivenbased player to bear
the legendary Walkman name, Sony’s 20GB
Network Walkman (NW-HD1) boasts a profile
so slim it makes the iPod look like it needs a
low-carb diet. At slightly more than a half-
inch thick and three and half inches wide, the
Network Walkman is the smallest digital music
player to use a 1.8-inch internal hard drive. But
will it inspire the same cult-like frenzy charac-
teristic of English football fans and iPod users?
Information we’ve received from Sony cheer-
fully boasts that the Network Walkman “Plays
back ATRAC3 Audio” and “supports MP3, WMA,
and WA6.” By “supports,” we fear this means
Sony’s software will recompress our MP3s
into its own ATRAC3 format, much like the MZ-
NH600D MiniDisc player reviewed on page 46. If
that’s the case, well, size really won’t matter.
The Network Walkman should be available
by the end of the summer “for less than 200.”CREATIVE LABS ZEN TOUCH
The original iPod got its nose bloodied over fail-
ing batteries now, just as the bones set, here
comes another punch from Creative Labs. The
company offers its own take on a fancy interface
with the 40GB Zen Touch, and also claims three
times the battery life of the iPod (at an estimat-
ed—and quite astonishing—24 hours).
Like the classic iPod and the Network
Walkman, the Zen Touch is based on a 1.8-inch
hard drive. But the centerpiece of the design is
the Touch Pad control in the center of the
device that scrolls through playlists and tracks
with just a light touch of the thumb.
The Zen Touch should be available by the
time you read this, with an iPod-squishing
price of 270. ■