Innovage MP3 players

I wasn't the only one to get an MP3 player for Christmas. Our grandson Tim also got one. They're pictured above with my Apple iPod on the left and Tim's Innovage Shift3 on the right. As you can see, both have the capability of showing pictures. Both also have the capability of playing MP3 files of music or the spoken word. Neither came with a useful user's manual and neither is exactly what I would call "intuitive". It was only by studying a 200 page, independently produced user's manual for the iPod that I have become somewhat comfortable using the iPod. And half the iPod's functionality is the PC based program iTunes which handles the inputting, cataloging, and syncing of music between the PC and the player.

On the other hand, Tim's Innovage MP3 player was virtually untouched since he got it. I don't know if it came with a users manual or whether it just wasn't helpful. There doesn't appear to be a PC resident companion program to help in getting music from CDs or the Internet into the Innovage. More out of curiosity than anything else, I borrowed Tim's player and played around with it to see if I could "break the code" and make something of it.

First of all I tried to find a company website where I might be able to download a users manual. No luck. So after a lot of trial and error I have been able to load the Innovage with pictures, music, and Storyteller tapes. Although I was originally confused about how it handles folders, it does handle them well and it makes a big difference in finding photos and songs.

One thing the Innovage has that the iPod does not is a recorder that uses a built-in microphone. According to the screen, with about half the storage filled with files, there is still room for 16 hours of dictation. The dictation sessions are named with the date and time making each one unique. They are also recorded as wav files making them playable on a PC.

The street price on the Innovage Shift 3 is about $25 or half the price of the iPod Shuffle or about 1/15th the price of the iPod Classic 160 gb pictured above. But you still would think they could include an understandable manual. If you're interested in looking at what I've put together so far it is available as a pdf file here. I would welcome comments, additions, or corrections here at this blog.