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SWISSMEMORY s.beat MP3 1GB Including USB Charger with World Travel Adaptor DAP-101T
 T h is p r o d u c t g r a b b e d my interest as soon as I read the E-mail from the company. Sure I wanted to try it out. I use a Creative Movo for audio book listening. Unfortunately that product does not have quality music capability. The S.Beat player does! It also has sex appeal. I have carried a small Swiss Army Knife on my key chain for some years and, even though I treated it badly, it has held up well.
I was given one of these while attending Showstoppers during CES. I have used the product and accessories several times to check it out.
The product is very well built. The sound is great. Some hissing if you have the volume too high. They warn you against that due to the possibility of hearing loss. At normal to above normal volume the stereo sound is tops. The remote control works well so you do not have to pull the unit out of your pocket or off your belt to change volume or move to the next song. A romantic feature that may or may not work for some couples is the ability to plug in a second set of ear phones (not provided) so you can share.
The manual states it can play audio books but I saw nothing in the documentation to say it can bookmark your stopping point so as to continue where you left off last time.
What’s in the box?
- MP3 body
- Metal shells (Tools or Flight Version) with clip to attach the unit to the belt
- High quality earphones with adjustable neck strap and anti dangling mechanism for great wearing comfort
- Remote control with 3.5 and 2.5mm earphone plug
- Cap to protect the USB plug, if shells are not used
- Adjustable rubber arm strap for jogging and other extensive sports activities
- USB extension cable
- Printed quick install guide (in several languages)
- Mini CD with drivers for Win98SE/ME on CD & Multilanguage manuals
- A World Connect Power adaptor that converts to a USB charger.
 The Power adaptor/converter can be configured to connect in over 150 countries. If using the USB mode converter and the correct accessories, you can charge your cell phone, power USB travel speakers, Ipods, PDAs, and many more USB chargeable devices. It is fused to protect your equipment. I am not sure you can use the included charger/adaptor to operate non USB chargeable products. If it can only be used as a plug converter you will need to attach an electrical converter as well to go from 110 to 220 and back or other current options. I was unable to find support info on this issue. This is worth its weight in gold to most travelers. Check out details at www.swisstravelproducts.com
Sorry, I got side tracked there!
Battery charging is a breeze while connected to your computer USB port using the included USB cable. The charger/adaptor will also charge the player when plugged in to electrical outlets. The manual says it takes 2.5 hours to charge the player.
No drivers are needed unless you are using win 98se or ME. You will need to download drivers from their site for those. Once the player is connected to your computer it will be recognized as an external storage device. At that point adding music can be done easily by copying and pasting MP3 and other files.
You can use the MP3 player as a thumb drive and copy. Move, and delete your files in a separate folder from your music or audio books. The s.beat player has a file system that should be followed to allow the player to find the different types:
FILES - any kind of data like PDFs, text documents, PPTs, etc.
MUSIC - files MP3 /WMA /WAV
BOOK - AUDIO books in MP3 /WMA /WAV format files
RECORD - FILES recorded from radio, external source or microphone in WAV format
If you follow this file structure and copy data into the appropriate folder the
MP3 player will easily integrate the new files into its operating system and accessing them will be easy.
The s.beat will automatically be recognized as a MP3 player by your system so synchronizing music files and playlists can be automated. The data synchronization with Windows ® Media Player (Release 9) worked fine for me as did copy/paste.
Use the usual disconnect plan when finished adding or deleting files on the player. Click on the “safely remove Hardware” icon on the right side of your taskbar, chose s.beat in the list and complete the actions to close it. Files can be lost if this procedure is not followed.
Much is made of the ability to remove this Player from the knife and pack the knife in your luggage while carrying the player and accessories on board the plane. I guess that depends on Homeland Security keeping to current plans to allow knives in luggage. Either way there is a cover for the business end of the MP3 player so it is protected if you decide to separate the knife from the player.
It does function as a Voice recorder and does a better job at that then my Creative product but no as good as a dedicated voice recording device.
I am very impressed by the easy of use that comes with this product. The Swiss seem to have thought of everything. It is a finely engineered piece of equipment.
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