Very Good, but Two Features Short of Great
929701
It's nice, but there are two features I wish it had: the app functionality, and the extra USB port in the back for charging phones/ipads that have cases.  other than that, great clock.
1634752
Pros:
Much to my surprise, I really like the projection feature.  I kind of thought it would be gimmicky, but I love it.
USB charging is great.
Being able to turn off the display is nice, but I wish the one indicator light wasn't so bright, it may get taped as another reviewer suggested

Cons:
The interface for programming the alarms is really unintuitive.  There are other interfaces other than buttons.  The combinations of hold this button for 3 seconds to do this thing and then push these buttons is silly, switches would be nicer.
Would be nice to have more than one buzzer option
The radio antenna being external is annoying
3274042
First of all, this receiver sounds great.  It has features like MHL and ARC that let it integrate with the most recent products.  Its on screen menu system is easy to use.  I really like that you can name the inputs, so the display says "Roku" and "Xbox" instead of "set top box" or "game" or something equally generic.

It's only missing some polish to keep it from 5 stars.  The sound the ez-balance makes shut down my&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rocketfish-Universal-Wireless-Rear-Speaker-Kit/dp/B000VEP3XO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rocketfish Universal Wireless Rear Speaker Kit</a>, but only for the rear left speaker.  I was hoping I could just ez-balance it for the other 5 speakers and manually adjust the one, but it was all or nothing. It does have a good set of manual adjustments, though.

The remote is full-featured, but what operation do you use your receiver remote for 98% of the time?  For me, it's adjusting the volume, which is only given two tiny inconspicuous buttons on this remote.  I've had it set up for a couple weeks and still have to look at the remote to adjust the volume.

The last bit of missing polish is that the on screen menu has graphics that look like something you'd expect to find on a 90's VCR.  It's a high definition display, make some use of it.
2017541
I just got an Iriver T60 to replace my aging Iriver IFP-799.  There are many reasons to like the T60, but it leaves me wishing it had more of the qualities of the IFP-799.

I love that the T60 cost half as much as the IFP-799 did several years ago -- and it has four times the memory!  That's great.

The T60 is smaller and lighter.  That's great, too.

On the downside, the controls are not so great.  The joystick really is imprecise.  Actually, "imprecise" is a nice way of saying it takes 2 or 3 tries to actually select what you want.  For example, you want to go to the next file, but you change the volume instead.  (It's almost a cause to cheer when you use the joystick and get what you want on the first try.)

Sheesh!  When the battery dies, it takes me to the beginning of the next file.  Why not start where it stopped?  That's what my IFP-799 did.  Maybe this isn't a big deal with music, but it's not too nice when you are in the middle of a 30-minute podcast.

Deleting files is a long wait (with a fairly full player) as it, I guess, re-indexes the remaining files.

Finally, I just wish the T60 felt as durable as the old IFP-799.  Time will tell.
815991
This Sony portable has excellent sensitivity and selectivity. With about a 7 foot long wire at ground level, sitting on a patio, it picks up a lot of hams. The other basic specs are probably just as good. Well built, with good controls layout and feel. It's nice listenig to AM in the SSB mode, probably better then the sync detector. BUT----IT HAS FLAWS. 100 memories are provided, but you can only scan 10 at a time!! (it has ten banks), and after it scans the 10 channels, IT STOPS SCANNING! (I may be wrong, but when I hit scan it cycles once only.) They designed it so you can enter the frequencies of ten world broadcast stations, each in its own memory bank, and then scan it to see what channel is stronger. But then you can only enter 10 stations, right? If you listen to utility, you can do the same, as well as maybe hams on different bands. Being able to scan ALL 100 channels is best! However, moving the frequencies around, like from VFO to memory, scanning up and down from each memory, or entering a memory, or VFO setting, into the two very clever holding channels, is very good. Another flaw is that the SSB pitch control is on the side of the radio, like most radios. (I have an old Sangean that has the pitch control on the front.) Also, you can't plug in an external antenna in the jack because it supplies a DC current. It was designed for some Sony products. You are forced to clip the supplied roll up wire to the radio's whip. The audio quality on SSB is outstanding, almost as good as the old high fidelity McKay Dymek receivers. But the audio warbles-a little unstable. I hear that the older model 7600G was more stable. Of course you should get this set, especially if you like single sideband like me. A budget model would be the Kaito 1102, a little smaller, with decent sideband. The Eton 1 is the best, but it's very large and expensive.
1488892
I bought this unit in a hurry, as a replacement for my mother's vehicle. Though it is fully featured and on par with other models in its price range, I feel that Sony falls short in the menu layout and controls department. Honestly, I feel like I should have bought a Kenwood or a Pioneer because (in my opinion) the menus are designed instinctively, from a user standpoint. It seems that the user manual was referenced more on this unit than on my Kenwood DVD Navigation unit. I'm not saying that the Sony unit is not usable but I just feel that there are more user friendly options. I will say that the hands free option works flawlessly, the sound quality is excellent and there are an abundance of inputs and outputs.
721818
The device is excellent and does what it says it will do. It's very easy to set up. I do wish I could set it up to take us on different types of routes: no highways, scenic, no dirt roads, etc. It is set up with only two options: Fastest route and Shortest Distance. We prefer shortest distance because if we deviate from the charted route it will readjust to follow our course and will then direct us on the next shortest distance. However, it is very difficult to get a large overview of how the Garmin is actually planning on taking you to your destination. Also, I wish you could save destination words that you frequently type in. You can save favorite destinations, say a specific address or a specific business in a specific location. But we use the Garmin to sniff out Starbucks, Targets, Home Depots, Kinkos, etc, all across the country (it works beautifully for this.) However, I can't just save the word Starbucks. I have to retype it in every time I want to find a new Starbucks in a new area.  Also there is no way to ask the Garmin to take you to a certain town or a certain intersection. For example, if you know you want to head toward Charleston, you can't just type in Charleston. It needs a specific address (including street #) in Charleston. I find myself typing in Charleston and then from the list that the Garmin offers selecting Charleston Honda or Charleston Baptist Church or Charleston Bar & Grill. Whatever comes up that sounds like it probably would be in the center of town. This can sometimes lead you on wild goose chases too because it will then direct you to that specific business which may or may not be in the center of town. The same goes for requesting an intersection or a highway name. At one point we were lost in Queens NY and needed to find the Van Wyck Expressway. We were very close to it but couldn't find how to get onto it. I wanted to ask the Garmin to find the Van Wyck but there was no way to do it.

So in summary I would say it is extremely helpful. We love putting it on the general map setting and just watch where we are going when we are just out exploring. We like being able to know exactly what direction we are heading. Very helpful when it is getting to be dusk and we want to vaguely head toward home...without really going home.

If we need to arrive somewhere quickly, the Garmin is excellent. If you don't like to meander, you'll love it. But it tends to like to put you on highways (especially when set on Fastest Route) even for short distances with easy alternatives. But it always gets you to your destination which is a huge asset over manually reading a map.

When we really are roadtripping though, we find we still need the morning examination of the road atlas with our coffee, just to get our bearings. To know where we are heading and generally how to get there. Then the Garmin can take us there more specifically and the map can spend the whole day in the backseat...enjoying the ride.
1460504
This automatic feeder is great, but there are a few things I'd like to mention... I'll start with the two noticeable cons.
1. The camera freezes up every once in a while. I'll be watching it prior to feeding time so I don't miss my cat as he runs to the food dish, but I've noticed that as I'm watching, the time in the corner will stop and the entire camera is frozen. Because there is no movement in the shot, it's hard to tell when it's frozen until it happens as you're actually watching your pet. You can simply go back to the main screen and load it again and it works fine, but it does happen quite frequently.
2. The measurements for the food is wrong. It requires you to decide on measurements by grams in increments of 10, but when I chose the accurate measurements by gram that my veterinarian suggested, it put out wayyyy too much food. I've scaled it back to the least amount it requires you to dispense (1 portion = 10 grams) and that was plenty for my cat per feeding.

Pros:
1. It works. I haven't had it glitch out or mess up when it comes to feeding my cat at the appropriate times, which is the most important thing. I was worried about trusting a machine to feed my pet when I'm out of town, but I tested it for a few weeks and kept close tabs on it to make sure food was dispensing without any issues before I went out of town. It worked while I was gone without any problems and I knew when it would dispense, so I could turn on the camera and listen to it to make sure -- as well as watch my cat run to his dish.
2. It makes a pretty loud noise, echoing into the bowl provided, so my cat knows when it's feeding time, which is a lot of fun. He could be in a deep sleep across the house and the second the first bit of food hits the dish, he's up and running toward it. I think he likes hearing and watching it more than he even likes eating it.
3. Despite the freezing issues I've had with the camera, I still love having it. To fix the freezing issue, you simply go back to the main page in the app, then reload the camera. Paying attention to the clock to make sure it's still running is key. The second that freezes, you'll need to refresh. I mainly use the camera to check on the cat when I'm out of town to make sure he's OK, and that's really it. So, the camera serves its purpose for me.
4. The app is very easy to use and the automatic feeder is super easy to get set up. All you need is a WiFi connection and a plug-in nearby where you'd like to put the dish. Piece of cake!
419322
What I like:
- Bluetooth enabled
-- Bluetooth is always on and you can start playing music to it without actually touching it
-- More than 1 device can be paired (very useful)
- Different "snooze" volume vs normal playing volume.
- Interesting color changing features
- Display is off when the color is off
-- I've seen reviews saying that this is a bad thing, but having your room completely dark when you sleep is a good thing and I used to cover my alarm clock up before I got this one.
- USB charging (more on this later)
-- Can charge both an iPhone and iPad (sometimes these things aren't powerful enough to charge an iPad)
- Digital radio dial
- "Dawn" setting when the alarm turns on (it's an orange/yellow color that is static in the morning.

Things I don't like:
- Bluetooth volume is a bit low compared to the radio volume (I always have to raise the BT volume to match the radio level and then have to lower it again when I change it to radio)
- Non-intuitive buttons (when reaching and slapping the buttons in the dark, the only really obvious one is the Snooze/dimmer)
- USB Charging ONLY (you can't play music though the USB. Not really an issue, since there's BT and AUX, but I thought that it would be able to)
-- USB plug is on the upper-back of the device rather than the lower-side or lower-front (either would have been preferred. If you're going to have the clock-side face you, then the charger is away from you. If you have the clock side face to your left/right, then a side USB would face you). Bottom-line is that the phone that you're charging should be on your side.
- Everything is a button rather than a dial (especially the volume)
-- I'll update you if/when the buttons stop working
1023318
Pros:
- Easy installation (printed Manual lists steps and wiring instructions)
- Very good sound even on plain vanilla speakers
- Front AUX in
- Tuner has great reception
- Can show good info while playing (Artist or Album/Title or Title or Clock, ...)
- Supports any kind of CD I tried
- Can browse by folders
- Easy navigation
- LOTS of presets for FM
- I don't have an amplifier so I haven't tried the preamp output, but it is good to know it is there
- Solid construction, it feels very well built
- Of course the PRICE :-)

Cons
- Can't browse MP3's by file name or title, just folder then track number, even that is not the track number in the ID3 tag it is the number of the file in the folder.
- Can't cycle between info shown at playback, you select one kind of info and you are stuck with it :-)
- Doesn't support playlists (or I couldn't find a way)
- Screen not readable in direct sunlight (expected)
- It would be nice if it had a pouch for the frontplate, but that is asking too much for the price

Note: Though the manual says that only 138 and 238 has the ability to switch between US tuning (step=0.2 and range till 107.9) and European tuning (step=0.05 and range till 108) the same trick works for the 208.
To switch between tuning mode:
1- turn off the player
2- Press 1 & 5 (Tuner presets)
3- At the same time press SRC
Voila (Note all presets are removed when you do this)
408655
Bought one for my wife a few months ago. She's loved it, and now I've got one as well.

My requirements are:
  - must sound great
  - support easy drag-and-drop (USB Mass Storage interface), ideally including GNU/Linux systems like Ubuntu
  - should be easy to use, easy to find and play a particular song.

This device fills all those needs. True, it's not _as_ easy to use as would be an iPod (which, however makes up for its ease-of-play by making it retardedly cumbersome to transfer the files, requiring you to use their proprietary iTunes software). But since you can choose how to arrange the directory hierarchy, you choose how the songs are organized.

As another reviewer has noted, traversing the directories can be a little painful, given that you have to scroll up through the titles to reach the parent directory link. Also I've noticed that it can be difficult to tell which song you've selected when you are including the artist and album name info in the display: you have to hover the cursor on the track before it displays the whole name, and it scrolls slowly enough that it will actually snap back to the player screen before it's finished displaying the rest of the title - and then you have to scroll back to where you were. I imagine both the time to snap back, and the information displayed for tracks are potentially adjustable; I haven't gotten to investigate yet.

I can't comment on the product life; some of the other reviews suggest trouble there. We've only had hours for a couple months/a few weeks respectively, but so far so good, and at this price I'm not terribly concerned about it.
4671199
The Zen V Plus is a nifty little device that accomplishes a lot of audio tasks. It is an audio player and recording, and also displays JPEG pictures and small video files.

  I found the usability of the Zen to be very good for it's size. You have to hold the "On" button for least one second to activate the player and this prevents it accidentally turning on by mistake in your pocket. The battery management is also well designed: the display dims a few seconds after you press any of the buttons. If the Zen isn't playing, it automatically turns itself after a few minutes. By virtue of these features, I found that I get hours of play before the unit needs recharging which is done by hooking up to a USB port on your computer.

  Sound quality is very good: I was surprised given the Zen's small size and very light weight. In fact, the unit is so small and light, you'll want to attach the strap to prevent yourself losing it. The display is bright and readable. One thing I especially like is that Zen only plays one folder of music at a time and then stops: it doesn't keeping playing one folder after another endlessly like other players do. It's like playing only one CD or record at a time. There also is a "set bookmark" function for going back to an exact spot in a recording.

  The included software works well for transferring and managing files on the Zen. While the unit is not straight Windows drag and drop, the Creative Media Explorer accomplishes the same thing. This software also rips music from CDs and is supposed to convert video files to play on the Zen but I couldn't get the latter function to work for my video clips.

  The buttons on the Zen are a little on the cheap side but work well enough. There is a "lock" button that is integrated with the "On" switch: this keeps you from accidentally pushing any buttons during recordig or playback. The Zen also acts as a line-in recorder at 128 or 160 kbps recording rate, and has a built-in microphone also. Sound quality is good with line-in and decent on the microphone. I think these features alone are worth the purchase price. The Zen plays FM radio, but you can't record from it with this unit.

  You can also display your favorite photos one at a time or in slide show format. The Zen also acts as a portable flash drive. To use this function you need to select from an internal menu to decide how much space to give the new data partition.

  As far as "freezing-up" is concerned, my unit froze once when I first used it, possibly due to an incompatible music file that I transferred, and I was a bit miffed. This is simple enough to correct but you need a very small pin to insert in the side of the unit. This causes it to rebuild the file list which takes a few minutes. After doing this once, my unit has worked fine ever since.

  The paper manual is a bit skimpy, as others have noted, but the online manual is sufficient. Holding down the "Back" button, the one with the little left-facing arrow, on the Zen shows you additional options for each function. One slightly amusing feature is that the Zen shows you messages like "shutting down" or "processing" in a separate DOS-like window superimposed on top of the main window. It's reminds you that the Zen is, in fact, a small computer. The Zen also contains a calendar and a nice-looking clock with alarm that, while not sounding a beep or buzz, turns on the audio player to a random track or the FM radio. It can do this from a completely shut-down state but you need to keep the headphones attached if you aren't looking at the display.

  Overall, I like the Zen V Plus and found that it has become a constant companion for air travel and around the house for a variety of line or microphone recording uses.

(Simeon Hein is the author of the OPENING MINDS softcover and audio books, and PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE: 101 Easy Steps to Energy, Well-Being, and Natural Insight.)
3713654
I was pleased to see that this is a solid, well-built unit that is sleek in design.  A little on the large side, it might take up a significant amount of space on a small nightstand.

The first thing I noticed is that the controls on the top of the unit are extremely touch sensitive.  For me, it made setting alarm times rather challenging.  There are a number of options to be selected when setting an alarm, and I found it slightly frustrating to have to keep cycling through the options because my hand touched something by mistake.  This is not an alarm to be easily set when tired.

I had an extremely difficult time trying to "pair" the wireless snooze remotes and after 5 tries, I gave up. You can turn the alarm off (or snooze) from the tiny wireless remote.  You can also turn the alarm off from the top of the unit, but again, if you aren't paying attention, you might hit the wrong controls.

The included wireless remote is tiny, and I fear it to be very easy to lose or misplace.  The remote is the only way to set and select radio pre-sets.  You cannot chose or set them from the unit itself.

The station controls are digital and touchy to select.

The clock display is very, very small to see from across the room. (Especially in the morning without my glasses.) The radio station and alarm times are minuscule on the display, though you can change the display to only show the time, or the radio station, etc.

The moonglow feature isn't important to me.  It's just ok as an added feature.

It's nice that the unit doesn't have an unsightly old fashioned telescoping radio antenna, but instead, a cord/wire antenna that can be left to dangle with the power cord.

The sound on the unit is fine, though some audiophiles might disagree.  Turn it up to about 75% of it's volume, and it starts to break up.  There are no controls to change the bass/treble - but you can change the EQ settings on your iPod to get a different sound.

I have an older "Photo" iPod and I was able to connect it without the use of an included adapter.  You can use the remote, or the controls on the unit to move through the songs. (Forward, back, pause, etc.)

For now, I'm simply using the unit as an external set of speakers and as a charger for my iPod. Because of the rather complicated and sensitive nature of setting the alarms, I will probably never use it as an alarm clock.
446346
For the price, this is a great little system, but it does certainly have drawbacks, my praises and complaints are largely the same as in many previous reviews.  The sound is good, but not great, although it performs very well at lower volumes making it ideal for a bedroom/small apartment/dorm room.  The base is very clear and well defined, but I could see this being a problem for downstairs neighbors.

One of the best features for my purposes is the ipod integration.  When the ipod is plugged in, you have full control of the ipod, including going in and out of menus.  I wish though, that it would display the track information on the screen instead of just on the ipod itself (I have an ipod nano and the screen is quite small). I also wish there was video support so I could watch movies and video podcasts.

The absolute worst feature, is the inability to memorize audio settings for the individual inputs.  This is the only true design flaw, but it's a big one. The audio settings that make the MP3s on my ipod sound good are not the same settings you would want for a surround sound DVD and it's a cumbersome process switching between audio settings.
1478115
Chose this unit for two main reasons: The USB media port -- a nice feature, not widely enough available in this price range -- and a good track record for our previously owned Pioneer DVD player. This unit plays nicely with our (non-HDTV) home theater setup, and its controls and interface are satisfyingly intuitive. Just two shortcomings -- neither a dealkiller: I wish it had come with either an optical-out audio port or a coaxial audio cable (which I'll probably get at some point, but RCA-out is OK for our purposes for now). And I wish it weren't so fussy about the format of video files via USB; it really plays only DivX files, not MP4s, Quicktime, etc.
2147500
For a price point under $10, it's hard to complain, but the digital playback would be vastly improved by the addition of a "shuffle" feature.

Also, it'd be nice if it could remember the state of the lights on/off setting when it's shut down.  Having to turn it off of "disco" mode every time it's turned on is a minor annoyance, but seems like it should be an avoidable one; if the radio can remember presets, it seems like it should be possible to set aside literally one bit of memory for that setting.

Otherwise, it's a nice little unit.  Sound quality is good, and the FM radio reception is impressive for such a small antenna.
1376982
I decided to try this unit despite the few bad reviews because there are very few combination back-up cameras/GPS on the market, particularly with a 5 inch screen (I have a Smart Car - didn't want a GPS monitor bigger than the car...).  I don't know why other reviewers had so many problems, but after a few days of use mine seems to be working fine both as GPS and as backup camera.

It has a lot of nice features, including a color screen, easy to navigate in GPS mode while driving  and good resolution in camera mode.  Maybe the image is a little bit stretched horizontally but everything is sharp and easy to see, even under limited light conditions, and it has a good, wide angle of coverage.  The GPS is easy to use and has a lot of good options including clear navigation directions, including the "landscape" feature.  Unlike other reviewers I haven't noticed a problem finding satellites--so far, the unit has always found them within 5-15 seconds, which seems reasonable.  Maybe there's some geographic variation in this?  (I live on the East coast...).  The warning about red light cameras and speed cameras is pretty handy -- not that I make a habit of speeding or running red lights but it's a good "heads up" to be particularly careful.  Sometimes the route it plots out seems a bit strange, using a lot of small back roads, but you can also choose the "mostly freeways" option and it also re-calculates the route quickly if you decide to go another way.  The cradle seems pretty well designed--suctions securely to the windshield but is also easy to remove and allows for sufficient adjustment of the angle.

I'm giving it a 4 instead of a 5 only because it is a bit slow booting up and can sometimes also be a bit slow switching from GPS to camera mode when I put the car in reverse (only 2--3 seconds, but that can seem like a long time when you're eager to get going).  Also, there is the minor annoyance that it opens up a safety warning screen every time it starts up (telling you to keep eyes on the road, etc.).  I'm also a bit concerned that the mechanism used to connect the monitor to the cradle doesn't seem very strong, so I'm being very careful not to put too much stress on it when removing the monitor.  But all in all I'm very satisfied with it so far. .