Pontis, a German company, was one of the first companies to produce an mp3 player with Mac support when it debuted the MPlayer3 some months ago. The unit features all of the standard mp3 player features in a pocket sized case.
Using the included Pontis L.E.D. software, you can set up a playlist with mp3s on your hard drive and download them to a multimedia flash card in the player. While "L.E.D." stands for "Load", "Encode" and "Download," the Mac version only does the latter. While there are a handful of encoders for the Mac, none are available free of charge.
Many advantages are inherent to all mp3 players, including the MPlayer3, with battery life being one of the most important. While the two AA batteries in the MPlayer3 are documented to last up to 10 hours, we were consistently getting up to 18-20 hours of use. The lack of any moving parts not only attributes to energy efficiency, but also makes it virtually shock proof. In fact, we were unable to make the MPlayer3 miss a beat, regardless as to how hard or long we shook it.
While the MPlayer3 ships with 32 MB of memory, a current shortage of 32 MB multimedia flash card modules in the industry is forcing Pontis to ship the MPlayer3 with two 16 MB multimedia flash card instead. Fortunately, the player features two card slots, meaning that you won't have to swap cards until you purchase additional ones.
The MPlayer3's most glaring flaw is the omission of a USB connection. It's amazing that with almost 3 million USB Macs out there and support in the Wintel world, that Pontis would decide to ship a unit with only a serial interface. With a theoretical transfer speed of 28.75 k/sec through a serial port and real-world performance far below that, transferring songs to the MPlayer3 takes almost as long as downloading them off the internet with a regular modem. A USB card station is scheduled to be available before the year's end for an additional $65.
By the time you factor in an extra 32 MB Multimedia Flash card ($90 from Pontis, when it's in stock), which is generally required for anyone who desires 45-60 minutes of playback, the forthcoming USB station, and the $25 belt clip you will have invested almost $350. And you'll still have only enough storage for about 12 average length songs.
The Last Word
Portable mp3 players are still in their infancy. Multimedia Flash cards are expensive and don't offer much storage, considering an average song weighs in at between 4-5 MB. Until we see reasonable priced players with at least 100 MB of storage, mp3 players remain an intriguing gadget only suited for die-hard fans of the mp3 format with money to spare. At $270, Diamond's Rio 500 is a more compelling choice for Mac users, offering twice the memory, a USB connection, and SoundJam , a full-featured encoder and player.
