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Amongst all the millions of other things that our little monster has given santa (us) to get him for x-mas an MP 3 player was one of them.

Now you have to understand something here. Our little boy is to say the very least hard on his toys. I swear to god that toy makers need to hire him to test their products, we get him something and usually within the hour its broken or "it fell apart".

So when we saw he wanted an MP 3 player we went on the hunt for something built by the people that build safes maybe brinks, unfortunately they dont make MP 3 players, really they should though.

We have a now out dated Apple Ipod, you know those old ones from last year. The 2 gb apple ipod nano. I’m thinking about upgrading as a gift to myself to the ipod touch, not that I need 5 million songs but I like shiny objects, so I figure what  the hell huh.

I know what you’re thinking getting a 7 year old boy an ipod nano is probably way overkill, and I agree so whats a parent to do?.

Actually this mp3 plyer when we get it for him will be the 2nd maybe the third if you include the cheap ass radios we have gotten for him.

What do you expect when you spend 5-6 bux on a piece of crap walkman style radio.

I thought of getting him an ipod shuffle.

Why? well because like I mentioned we already have an ipod, so we have the itunes to upload the music he already has on numerous cd’s we’ve burned for him. So that’s a very definite plus point and well they’re not really all that expensive as far as an x-mas gift goes. 80 bux I know sounds like alot, but its a one off thing, you know "the big gift"

But when I look at it … really look at all those buttons on it, not that he could break them or screw them up some how, I should really watch what Im saying because if it could be done he would find a way. But I personally think it might be too complicated and frustrating.

Hey he’s 7 he wants what he wants and wants it now !! no time for fooling about with buttons. Though I suppose he could figure it out easily enough.

So lets look at some specs for this puppy and see if or what are the selling points to consider.

The shuffle switch:Flip the shuffle switch to mix up iPod shuffle’s contents.

Flip it
again to play your handpicked playlists and albums in the order you
synced them from iTunes. Very cool feature, would he know how or remember how to do this, or would he "lose a song" get all freaked out and toss it on the floor in a hissy fit?, hmmm maybe.

Controls

iPod shuffle pays respect to its bigger
siblings with a circular control pad that puts the “go” in ergonomic.
Click the center button to play and pause. Click the outer buttons to
move back, skip forward, and adjust volume. Maybe a bit complicated, the volume control probably not a big concern he likes it loud anyways

Never mind the battery indicator. He’d probably obsess that it was dead or didnt like the green light on it anyways.

The clip?, hmm definately see him breaking that.

What about battery life then, 12 hours when fully chargeddefinate upside to that one there.

The storage isnt really a big concern at this point 

Another one we looked at was the Creative. Zen Stone mp3 player. Comparable to the ipod shuffle.
What I like about the Zen stone is it looks more like a kids toy and not so much a techy thingy. I dont know I’m just weird I have this idea that if I get him an ipod it’ll be too techy for him We wanted something more kids toy looking. So this is more up his alley.

We dont care about bragging rights or peer pressure at this point, he’ll be just pleased as a pig in slop that he has an mp3 player.

This one is almost half the price as the ipod nano 39.99, the nano is like 79.99 So theres a definate bonus there I tell you.

But what else, before I scrooge out and get him this one.

It again has the same interface as the ipod nano, I guess we cant escape that. So ok I’ll concede on that point. But like I said I’m sure he could figure it out. Another cool thing is theres no clip to break But and this is the coolest thing about about and I would buy just because of it, the one we looked at in zellers had a key chain feature to it. So we could literally hook it up to his belt loop and not worry that he’d lose it. Which is a major concern.

Plus the color is a bit better. The ipod nano have some nice colours but not really kid friendly colours you know, instead theyre all hippy soft colours. YES I know they have a red one, but they’re all sold out at Future shop.

Is it robust, well it appears to be, looks robust. And i know this is a weird statement, but the ipod nano just looks delicate. I know its a weird thing to say and probably isnt true but thats how it comes across to me, where as the Zen stone by creatiev just looks more robust and durable, like its made by Tonka or something.

So to compare the both:

they both have 1 gb or 250 songs worth of storage.

They have similar battery life, the ipod shuffle has 2 hrs more life to it, than does the Creative zen stone. Not a biggy

Price range is way different!!

The Ipod shuffle is 80 bux

The Creative zen stone is like 40 bux

And the Zen stone just looks more durable.

So the winner is!!!

The creative Zen Stone!!!

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