• Item was shifted in box upon opening, bad 1st impression (not professional)

The Good

• nice clean and solid look
• stands on edge nicely to watch pictures/videos
• LCD has good quality
• Case is good quality, doesn’t naturally fall out with nice support
  • could be reinforced with strap/snap - will fall out with forceful shake
• page scan at a time is nice with right arrow key
• auto turning off display (when playing audio) is nice
  • could switch to lower colors, b/w, lower intensity. 0.5?
  • nice to have Manual turn off display (think digital cameras) TV/LOCK button does that, very nice

The Bad

• NO CF Reader, while even shown on box back cover. Mine and most high end cameras use CF I+II.
  • THIS is a MAJOR drawback for me - I want to view/store the photos from my camera
• Line IN/OUT NON-standard - this should accept a normal headphone plug connection, not just the RCA-to-whatever_size this is cables that came with the 442. I want to be able to take any standard Line-OUT and connect it straight into my 442 to record the audio. I CAN’T do that with this box.
  • THIS is a MAJOR drawback for me, the hardware is a useless $400-500 brick
• 4-way button hard to use, too tiny in a way
  • harder with case cover on, cant roll thumb over edge to click
  • ON/OFF arrow slightly non-intuitive. show ON OFF with one highlighted?
• can’t play videos or see files when hookedup via usb
• no USB Host support, to plug in supporting mass storage drives to it (needs bigger usb)
• Case not suitable to clip on/wear on belt
• font cleanup at all? feels like an old 1980s font display at times
• Battery Timer countdown? 2/3 cells is some info, how about say 20min, 5min of juice left?

The Good

• Startup and main menu looks good
• auto power down/screen off and resumes at same location!

The Bad

• When move into new directory, should default to 1st file, not “<..>”
• Do we need the main menu? Select Photo|Video|Audio
  • browse dirs, and “view/show” just the vidz or pics
  • annoying to have all my files in 1 dir with sub dirs, and examining a photo... then wanting to see a video in the same directory.. I must:
    • - click ‘back’ ‘back’ ‘back’ ‘back’ to get to main menu
    • - click navigate to ‘video player’
    • - click click click (and remember!) to subdir where my video file is
  • Video files not shown while in ‘audio’ mode/etc
    • allow user to decide: ‘show me all files’, ‘show me X-type files’, ‘sort files’, change ‘view’
• Slow and Dogged interaction at times, with hard drive sleeping then spinning back up
• Would NOT Power Off when in Audio Player mode (may have been SW bug)
  • also would not play audio. This was after ‘trying’ to record audio/voice. Finally went to main menu, was able to power down and back up, and it started to play music again.

• I constantly push “Menu” intending to go to the top level menu, not ‘context menu’ of where I am
• Main Menu need complexity of O(1) to get back to main menu, or redesign functionality
  • so that I can “switch” (why switch? can’t I access audio/pics simultaneous?) to another function of 442. Hitting “back/exit” N times for ever how deep into a function I am is frustrating. “back back back back...”
  • suggest providing transparency of function. just give me a file list to see my files, and details about them (changeable view?). if I select them, “Do SOMETHING” with it, where SOMETHING is {play video, play audio, show image, etc)
    • enable auto preview? (as in KDE, mouse over to hear clip of sound/thumbnail of image, etc)
  • I can see functionality separated into “Reading” and “Recording”, and doing both at the same time would be great too!
    • Setup, Play/View: (audio, video, photos), Record: (audio, video)
    • Instead of: Photo, Video, Audio, Setup, Video Rec, Voice Rec, Files mgmt
  • OR, I envision this main menu scolling (just as it does) but vertically and smaller (adjust: pics, key words, pics and words) along the right edge (near buttons).
    • So, 1) menu button 2) scroll to any one of the main functions of the system
  • Views of files, should have several features
    • basic file browser feel: list, details (title, format, duration..), icons - and all variable sizes
    • selected viewing: show ‘video|audio|photo|all’ (hard to decide by ‘extensions’ though... which extensions are video?
• Programmable buttons - heard about in neuros I, nice to program a button for “audio player” etc, so I could have my 1-click access to something, yet keeping the hw interface consistent.
• bookmarks - it’s a file system on a handheld, need bookmarks to some locations
  • delete/hide bookmark if location does not exist? prompt to delete bookmarks?

Note: Done while viewing photo (and listening to music playlist) and click “Menu” button

• Note: This context menu is nice to have as a “sub menu”, could be handled better
  • 60, 250, 1K, 4K Hz has no use for me when looking at photos! (except to adjust the audio I’m listening to while looking at the photos!) I think this should be hidden and only displayed when adjusting the EQ Preset (nice to see what is adjusted) or when selecting new “Manual” mode. Annoying to have to click down through 60hz.. settings to get to other settings.
    • EQ Preset: Rock, Jazz, Pop, Club, Manual
    • Move EQ preset to top?
• see: 60hz, 250hz.. Batt Show - Yes. Time Show - Yes. Sound Track? Subtitle Track?
• Suggest Dynamically adjust ‘default location’ on the context menu that the user is brought to depending on which ‘functional’ mode they are currently in when bringing up the menu
• i.e. “Viewing a photo” → click “Menu” and presented to “Photo” section of context menu
  • See options: zoom, slideshow
  • Scroll up/down for audio adjustments to playing music and default settings
    • Audio: prev/next track, rr/ff actually comes up “when in audio player mode” by clicking play/pause!
      • need access to this functionality when not only in ‘Play audio’ function mode. “play/pause” button not useful in that sense.
      • Sound Track, Subtitle Track ?? Are these broken menu buttons? don’t do or display anything. These should also be next to the “EQ Preset” in the Sound menu, NOT after the Setup/system-wide settings. (or perhaps they are at the bottom as ‘to-be-implemented-yet’ buttoms?)
      • add:
    • Setup: brightness, batt show (These are all good, should be labeled ‘setup’though.) Might as well take this off the ‘context’ menu and edit it in the system Settings function... not something to be changed or modified ‘in an instant’, or is it?

Use Case: Viewing Photo, NOT listenting to music, click “Menu”

• Still am presented with “60hz.. EQ Preset” menu which is not relevant
• Should still be presented with “Slideshow” and “Play audio” options

Use Case: Browsing Photos, click on “Menu” button

• Delete File | Slideshow (off, on) | Play audio (off, on)
  • change to Slideshow (off, 1s, 3s, 5s, 10s)

The Good

The Bad

The Good

The Bad

• LockUP on a few old videos, FBI warning came up. videos from 1997, no DRM.
  • couple 2min pr0ns and one avi divx ripped movie
• Could NOT play ANY video files
  • standard .avi’s from Canon camera
  • could not play high-speed videos in WMV1, MP43, ASF files

The Good

• plays audio
• when playing, ‘play/pause’ brings up “audio player controls” to rr/ff (should be available anytime)

The Bad

• no OGG support, can’t see my files!
• no way to edit Playlist!
• think XMMS/Winamp and mimic that interface and look/features for a start
• why should it play automatically just by moving cursor over song? I want to PUSH play
• no playlist creation? no replay? (pain in the ass to implement?) .m3u text format?
  • would like to “play files” while looking through other files on system, moving over to photos (edit: found ‘play music’ option when viewing photos, see oddities ) and such
  • will it only auto play files in sequence on filesystem?
• no scroll song/file names. why look at the file menu?
  • no track progress.. even when FF/RW through file! when am I at the end?
    • ok, found time counter... but this is tiny blue text on blue background and is hard to see. should “stand out”
    • no track time defined. how long is the song? or playlist?, % done, time countdown
    • only difference between Browsing and Playing = tiny time counter in bottom right
  • this should be in a 3rd menu, on the bottom. still show fs/details while browsing other songs. otherwise it is Very Boring to listen to music.. it’s just like listening to the radio without any clue what to expect or what is going on.

• no alarm clock? → would need built in speaker?

The Good

• Told to push the “play” button to record

The Bad

• SHOULD be labeled Audio recording. Can I not recored high quality audio from the line in?
• Cannot record with 2/3 battery charge, says “Low Battery!”
• USELESS out of the box! no built-in microphone, apparently need to attach a mic?! (not included)
• Presented with ‘Press play to start’ BUT
  • goes to blank screen w/o any information?! “Recording...”
  • “Recording timer” would be nice, as well as “Avail Recording Time” based on free space
  • not told how to “Stop” recording
• Would like “Rec” button on the case, w/o jumping through 4-5 click menu to jot a voice note
• No option to play back
• Not told how to stop recording!
• WHERE do the recorded files end up at?
• WAS NOT ABLE TO RECORD AUDIO, even going speaker/line-out jack of laptop and Line-IN to 442. Could not find any new files in <VOICE> dir

• Quick Viewer | Quality (high, med, low) | Audio (mp3, g726) | Rec Time (0.5hr +0.5n to 4hrs)
  • Quick Viewer does nothing?
  • Quality: should add “ogg” and “wav” formats
  • Rec Time - what is the purpose of this? record long song from line-in? (would be useful)

• Could not delete a directory. Had to select each file separately, then “Menu” → “Delete Files”

• Playing music suddenly while view photos? (discovered menu “Play audio” was ON)

I fell asleep listening to music from my 442 one night, until the battery died apparently. So, I plugged it back in and started examining photos... then my music playlist started back up again! I have no knowledge of this, except a “track time” clock in the bottom right of my screen... no controls/access to manage my playlist though.

• Suggest a ‘pop up’ (or shadowed/aside) notice that the playlist is starting: should it continue?
• Need a constant interface to see “XMMS/Winamp” style information for audio playing
• Good I can listen to my music simultaneously while looking at my photos!
  • enhance allow me to play my music while doing “anything” on the system, unless the audio resources are required for recording/playing video.
• Bad If I stop looking at my photos, the music stops as well! =( It starts up again on another track when I examine the photos once again. Hilarious!!