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Trial by music By Barr Hayoun Tags: consumer affairs, Israel  Portable music players are getting smaller and smaller, until the only thing you can see is the earphone wire attached to the listener's ears and barely the player itself. The big companies have good reason to brand tiny players as sporty and designed for running and other athletic activities. Some companies have even added features aimed at athletes: from stopwatches in Creative players to joint ventures between Apple and Nike for functions that track running speed and the duration of a training session. TheMarker visited WiseBuy to compare the leading small, lightweight players available in Israel, and came back with some interesting insights. This model may not win any beauty contests, but still made the top of the list with ease, thanks to its high audio quality, extensive personal settings options and useful additions such as recording and recordable radio. Advertisement Convenience: The F2 is like a miniature cellular telephone - with many control buttons, navigation with back lighting and high-quality 1.3-inch screen. People with big fingers will probably complain about all the buttons being too close together. Also, quick, easy operation requires learning all the buttons, despite the option for personal configuration and a super-detailed settings menu. Still, users who want more than the manufacturer's settings and love doing their own thing will find the F2 generous and comfortable in that respect. The F2 has plenty of advanced options: quality audio formats that include OGG and FLAC, FM radio with excellent reception, radio and voice recording and video display. Cowon's designers even considered the USB cable and realized that carrying it could be cumbersome, so the player has a tiny USB connection that can be stored in one's wallet. Luckily, and unlike most players, the F2 also supports Hebrew files, although WiseBuy's staff say you can forget about displaying Hebrew text files. Battery: Cowon promises 22 hours of continuous music playing, but in tests the battery lasted only 19 hours. Not bad, but there are similar-sized players available with longer operating times. Pro: High sound quality and volume; extensive personal settings; generates immediate play lists; excellent FM radio, including recording option. Con: Overcrowded buttons, poor quality video and photo display and complicated operation. Price: About NIS 350 for 2Gb. Score: 8.5 No different from earlier Zen Stone models, which offered high quality sound. This player's internal speaker is a nice bonus, but the main improvement is the battery life and the addition of a display screen. Convenience: Light and small enough to slip into a narrow pocket or wear on an armband, which can be purchased separately. Sprinters can take advantage of its built-in stopwatch. The buttons do not include back lighting like Cowon's F2. They are comfortable to use, but it takes time to learn their functions well enough to operate them without looking, while jogging at night, for example. The screen, a three-quarters-of-an inch circle has a blue background that is clearly visible at night, but is pale and dim in bright daylight. Zen Stone's display of song names is not impressive: It does not support Hebrew files and does not display the songs in each folder. Apart from playing music files, the Creative has an FM radio and a microphone. Battery: Promises 20 hours between recharges, but actually played for 25.5 hours, using the earphones. Pro: Small and light; good quality sound and volume; internal loudspeaker; file deletion straight from the player; microphone; radio and excellent battery. Con: Does not support Hebrew, no lighting for buttons, cannot generate an immediate playlist and does not display files in a folder. Price:About NIS 650 for 2 Gb. Score: 8.3 The first recommendation for Sansa Clip users is to replace the included earphones with decent ones. Roi Gordon, of WiseBuy, says that the fact that the listening experience is far more enjoyable with better earphones is no small matter for a player from the makers of Sandisk, which is known for its mediocre sound quality. Convenience: Tiny. Attaches to a lapel with a clip or slips into any pocket; is easily operated using sensitive, lit buttons. The one-inch screen provides a clear display, even in daylight. Despite the comfortable navigation of this device, transferring music from a computer to the player is a bit awkward. You cannot, for example, transfer files when the player is recognized as an external drive, but rather only by switching it to MTP status (via a software program) and synchronizing it using Windows Media Player version 10 or higher. At least you can delete songs directly from the player, a function that did not exist in previous Sansa models. Another nice feature is the ability to download an update that facilitates clear display in Hebrew. This player also has a microphone, but reasonable recording is possible only up close to the source. Battery: Promises 15 hours of continuous play, but operated for only 14 hours. Pro: Small and light, easy to operate, better sound quality than previous Sandisk players. Con: Poor quality earphones; playlist transfer via Windows Media Player only. Price: NIS 200 for 2Gb. Score: 7.9 An interesting joint effort by Apple and Nike has produced an excellent device for joggers. For an additional NIS 170 you can buy a transmitter to place in your running shoe and a receiver that attaches to your iPod. Data on your jogging session (duration, distance, speed, and calories burned) are transmitted to the earphones and the display. Apple has put considerable effort into upgrading the 3G iPod nano: longer battery time, video capability and better ease of use, but the problems all the iPods share are here, too: one must use iTunes to transfer files to the player, there is no official Hebrew version, the memory cannot be expanded and some of the functions offered by other companies' players are available only via accessories, such as an external microphone, which must be purchased separately. The sound quality, as usual, is okay, but nothing exceptional. IPod lovers interested in a smaller, cheaper player, without a screen and with a clip for attaching the player to their clothing, can buy the iPod Shuffle for about NIS 300. Convenience: The 3G iPod Nano weighs about 50 grams more than it predecessor, but this is not noticeable, particularly when the player is strapped to one's arm. Like previous iPods, the buttons are not back-lit, but thanks to the player's famous control wheel, light is rarely needed for operating the player under any circumstances. All the other things that make operating the iPod a breeze are still here, of course, including navigating the menus and the cute option of browsing the album jackets. Like all the other Apple players, file management can only be handled by a computer equipped with iTunes software, which is annoying, as is the inability to delete files directly from the player. Furthermore, like other iPod models, to obtain a basic multimedia package - a standard feature in other players - you will have to buy additional accessories separately. If you want to listen to FM radio, for example, and for recording sound you will have to buy an external microphone. Battery: Should be good for 24 hours of music or about 5 hours of video. We achieved much better times, with over 30 hours of music and about 6.5 hours of video viewing. Pro: Small and light, excellent graphic interface, great battery time, documentation station for running and walking sessions. Con: No official Hebrew version; expanded multimedia options only via additional accessories; file management only via iTunes and no memory expansion option Price: About NIS 1,100 for 8G Score: 8.1 This player has a very attractive design and is available in a range of bright colors, but the technology inside is just standard. Convenience: One-inch, easy-to-read display and touch-sensitive screen that is very nice once you get used to it, but a few problems make it awkward to use. There are no sub-menus, for example, so you can choose files according to the name of the album, artist or music style. Also, the volume and play functions can only be controlled via the menu that displays the details of the song currently playing. It is a shame, too, that Samsung did not go all the way with Hebrew compatibility. Hebrew files are displayed from left to right. This player has a built-in microphone, but the quality is mediocre, and it works best when placed as close as possible to the sound source being recorded. Battery: Quite disappointing. It lasted just 10.5 hours, despite the manufacturer's promise of 15 hours. Pro: Very light, original and meticulous design. Memory can be expanded and radio reception is excellent. Con: No lighting for control surface; control of music currently playing only via its specific menu and an underperforming battery. Price: About NIS 190 for 1Gb Score: 7.4 Our testing and scoring methods: TheMarker asked the leading companies about their smallest and lightest players that would be suitable, among other things, for athletic activity. The testing was done by experts at the WiseBuy consumer affairs Web site, which offers shoppers guides to buying electronic devices, reviews products and maintains a large database of product specifications. The scores were adjusted for sound quality (40% of the total score); convenience, including design, size, weight, function operability, ease of use of the control buttons; file management capability including connections, downloading and transferring files and the screen's display in different light conditions (50%); battery life between charges (10%) with normal use, which was identical for all the players, and did not match the manufacturers' instructions, on which their estimated operating times were based. Bookmark to del.icio.us   'Material girl' turns 50 Pop icon and kabbalah enthusiast Madonna celebrates her 50th birthday. Barak vs. The Treasury Defense Minister says budget cuts foolish in light of the threats Israel facing.

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