Cover HolidayM.indd

W

hen talk turns to digital media

players, Apple’s iPod and Micro-

soft’s second-generation Zune

(with its third-gen firmware) dominate

the conversation. But if you’re a Rhap-

sody-to-Go subscriber ($15 per month),

there’s only one media player you should

consider: Haier’s Rhapsody Ibiza.

The Ibiza is available in three con-

figurations: flash memory models with

4GB and 8GB capacities (priced at $200

and $230, respectively) and the 30GB

hard-drive model ($300) reviewed here.

All three play videos and display digital

photos as well as play music; they also

support Bluetooth headphones.

The Ibiza can connect to 802.11g Wi-Fi

networks, which means you can stream

and download songs from Rhapsody (and

listen to Rhapsody’s Internet radio chan-

nels) without plugging the player into

your PC. Synchronizing the Ibiza to your

PC, on the other hand, requires a hard-

wired connection.

This device leverages everything that

we like about the Rhapsody service. If

you’re online while listening to a song,

for instance, a menu displayed next to the

album art gives you the choice of down-

loading the track (or the entire album) to

the player, purchasing and downloading

the song or album to the player, sampling

other tracks from the album, or calling up

a biography of the artist. Choose “more

by this artist” and the player will open

a submenu with choices that include an

artist sampler, a list of all the albums the

artist has recorded, a “top tracks” list, and

a list of similar artists.

The Ibiza’s software is excellent—in

stark contrast to Rhapsody’s absolutely

dreadful PC software—but we do have

one complaint: Drill deep down into its

nested menus and the only way to get

back to the home screen is to repeatedly

stab the back button.

“Tethered” tracks, of course, remain

available only as long as you maintain

your subscription, but we’re disappointed

that the player doesn’t inform you wheth-

er the tracks you purchase are infested

with DRM (Rhapsody sells both encrypted

and DRM-free tracks).

The Ibiza is close to being the perfect

portable companion for Rhapsody cus-

tomers, but there’s very little to recom-

mend to folks outside that circle. Its total

lack of support for lossless audio codecs,

meanwhile, is a major disappointment.

- M I C H A E L B R O W N

IN THE LAB^

REVIEWS OF THE LATEST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

Haier

Rhapsody

Ibiza

Got Rhapsody? This is

the media player for you

94 | MAXIMUMPC | HOLIDAY 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

+ -

VERDICT

$300, http://www.haier.com

8

Awesome integration with

Rhapsody’s subscription

music service; built-in

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

No support for

lossless codecs.

IGGY POP

HAIER RHAPSODY IBIZA

IGGY KOOPA

SPECIFICATIONS

WI-FI SUPPORT 802.11b/g

STORAGE CAPACITY 30GB

DISPLAY 2.5-inch, 320x420 pixels

WEIGHT 4.9 ounces

AUDIO FORMATS AAC, MP3, VBR, WMA, WAV

VIDEO FORMATS H.264, MPEG-4, WMV

PHOTO FORMATS JPEG, PNG

You navigate the Ibiza’s nested menus using a touch pad and four buttons at compass points

surrounding the pad.