iPod For The Not So Yuppy: Transcend T.Sonic 620

I spent the last month scouring various e-malls, electronic stores and grey markets looking for a good mp3 player. I had wanted to buy an iPod but I just could not justify paying its cost considering the fact that once its battery dies you need to get it replaced. So I decided to have a look at the various iPod imitations available in the market. Sadly enough, not only are they awful to look at but they are also really dodgy when it comes to reliability.

I had almost given up on finding a good, reasonably priced mp3 player when I came across Transcend T.Sonic 620 MP3 player listed on eBay. Its cool looks immediately caught my attention. Moreover, Transcend is a world famous company when it comes to flash drives. I could not have asked for anything better. One, I get a branded mp3 player. Two, it looks great. Three, it does not cost an arm and a leg. Last but not the least; the sound quality is comparable to that of an iPod! Sweet!

The one that I have is blue in colour and can store up to 512 MB of data. The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. Sound quality, like I said before is awesome. Volume level can smoothly go up to 100 decibels. The ear phones provided with the player are top quality. It has a voice recorder and an FM tuner with 20 configurable stations. It is a nifty little plug and play device. That means you don’t need to install drivers in order to make it communicate with your PC (unless you are using Win 98).

The only thing that I do not like about this player is the fact that you can not charge it using your computer’s USB port. It uses a single AAA battery which needs to be replaced after (approx.) 13-14 hours of usage. That is not necessarily a drawback. It means that the player is usable even if there is no PC or a laptop available to recharge it.

To sum it all up, Transcend T.Sonic 620 is a great mp3 player and definitely a great buy! Honestly, I don’t see how it is different from an iPod, disregarding the obvious factors such as glam value and price. As long as an mp3 player sounds great and works fine I am a very happy girl!

Music Review: Sam Roberts Band Chemical City

Pleasant weather is a drug and it works almost immediately. This time around it has pleasantly affected the music review of this one album called The Chemical City. After a really long time I’ve been influenced by an album so much that it has made me sit down and picture stuff, such as, knee high beautiful yellow grass, mountains and nice breezy weather. Yeah, I pretty much tend to get into the Alice in Wonderland mode sometimes (I almost typed Wonderwall instead of Wonderland). The only difference is that my imagination is less perverted than her.

Back to the topic, Sam Robert band’s third album, Chemical City, has the effect of a great coffee on a rainy day. With A Bullet, my favourite song from this album, is a song for people who like to dream, not just because of it’s romantic wordings that tend to stay in the air for a while (You move like the moonshine/ Straight to my head/This is a storyline we write from the same bed) but because of the painfully beautiful music as well. The song does get a little cheesy at times (If you were marked with a bullet/ I’d jump in front of it/ I’d rather die for love than die for the want of it) but who cares? Hey, it sounds good, doesn’t it? Mystified, Heavy has a soft, mellow and melodious tune and that is what makes this song worth listening to, over and over again. Put the record on, lay back and relax. Umm don’t wander away just yet; the guitar tempo scales up a little in Bride to Nowhere. Full tempo is reached when you play The Gate, one of the most raved about songs of the album. Mind Flood has this psychedelic quality to it.

This album may not be wall of fame material but it definitely is worth a listen!

Rating: *****