Hardware Layout
So here's the front. We've got a nice electroluminescent display (blue when lit). Depending on the mode, you can get some pretty tiny fonts in there, but it is extremely sharp and reasonably responsive.
Next is what
looks like an IBM laptop pointing stick but it isn't. It's a Riostick!
More importantly, the stick is really just a four way digital control
with a push in function. Laptop pointers offer variation in speed by pressing
harder etc., this isn't one of those. It has a little click you can feel
when you move the stick or push it in, and it works very well.
In playing mode, they've got the stick acting as the play/pause (up), rewind/fast forward(left/right) and stop(down). This works really well and is a layout I wouldn't have thought of. The stick is also recessed into a little cup as you may notice, and that adds to its ease of use. These little touches are what really make this player stand out, thought is put into a lot of detail like this.
Next to the stick is a silver menu button, which is easy to miss since it's just about case flush. Pushing it gets you the main menu, and holding it down a bit more gets you the play menu, but you can customize both of these functions if you wish.
Finally, you see in the upper right a scroll wheel. Like a mouse wheel, it turns and has little detents so you can feel each click a bit, and it can be pressed in. Many times you can use the wheel to navigate menus instead of the stick. When in play mode displaying the song info, it acts as a way to jump around the song, pretty nicely too.
Sides
 Left Side |
 Top |
 Bottom |
The left side has the volume up and down buttons, and lock control. The lock prevents accidental button pushes, including powering up.
The top has the power button, which is flush and a little hard to feel without looking. Next to that is the headphone jack with a slot next to it, the mystery jack. Well it's probably for a remote, which I've heard nothing either way about.
Finally, on the bottom we've got the usb connector, dock connector and power connector.
I didn't show the right side because nothing is there, just the rubber grip