My two cents: First off, I've been using my RH910 for a year and a half now. It makes GREAT recordings. I use it usually for straight-off-the-board recordings (wav) to see how my band(s) played that night. I've also used it infrequently during band rehearsals. Please keep in mind... that this is my opinion... not fact (!)... Here's what I think needs improving: Interface: How many people buy MDs these days for music listening? I feel that most people that use MDs for listening to music already have their awesome, reliable player. So who buys MDs these days? People who need cheap, reliable recorders. On campus, the ONLY time anyone mentions MDs, are in relation to, "Oh yeah, my friend has one that he uses to record concerts," etc. Therefore, I should be able to press REC + pause, set the input level, and go. While this is a little thing, it's really annoying to have to dive into menus to always set the recording level to manual; could a setting be saved? While menu diving, when I make a selection, it automatically returns me to the main play screen. What if I want to make another selection? What if I chose the wrong option? Now I need to go back into the menu, which means holding down the search button. Speaking of which, that button is useless to me, as I use it for recording. If I used it for music playback, it might be useful then. But even so, you don't really need a stop button, you can just use the play button as a pause. That would free up room for a dedicated menu button, and still have the search feature. For the longest time, I hated ipods. I still think they're over-priced, and it really blows that there is so much status associated with them. But you know what? They work really well. But you have to use itunes. I have a 4th gen (before the photo), and i really can't complain, aside from having to use a third party program to get music OFF the ipod (that's a whole other rant). The point of all of this, is that the ipod has a very good user interface, using LESS buttons than an MD. Obviously it's great to have a lot of buttons and not be menu diving... But considering how small everything is, and how often I am menu diving, it would be much easier if the OS were simplified and grouped. Have one main menu, with a settings entry, album, artist, track, etc. No need for two separate button gestures. Use the jog-wheel as a volume control when just playing. Change the pause button to a pause/play button. Use the click of the jog to be the menu/search. Left and right still seek. Communication: There have been great advances made regarding computer to MD communications. I lucked out in that when I went to look at MDs, the HI-MD had just come out. Awesome. And now, Sony has finally loosened up on the transferring and conversion processes. However, SonicStage is completely unnecessary. After making a recording, I should be able to access my MD from Explorer (the audio files, not the disk usage part), and drag files off in whatever format I recorded them. Right now, I have to transfer the files to my computer (which usually involves installing SS because I never use it; my computer gets reformatted frequently), THEN SS has to convert them. This entire process takes a good amount of time, time I feel could be shortened if I were just allowed to "do it" without Sony's guiding hand. I'm not an impatient guy, it's just that sometimes another band wants that recording soon, and if I don't have about two hours to devote to waiting for SS to be done.... well... To Close: ipods are not the perfect portable music player. Let's just get that out here. Please don't think I'm some Apple fanboy. I really think that the HI-MD concept is great, and that MDs are cool; there are times when I miss putting a physical piece of hardware into something else to play music. BUT. I don't want to manage more than one digital library (for me, itunes right now). With SS I have to do that. Considering that I paid around $240 US for this thing, there are some serious issues: OS/User interaction, the battery-life, physical usability, and computer communication. The biggest one is the OS/User interaction. Sony, while getting better, needs to realize that they need to be the consumer's friend. Not their master. I have a Sony Vaio computer. It is awesome. Until you try to do anything unrelated to Sony with it. Like install Linux. Or a non-Sony version of Windows (seriously... it doesn't even install). Sony, if you make a great product, people will buy it! You haven't made a great product. Get some people in the shop, get some opinions I believe almost all of this is moot, considering that it seems Sony is ditching MD. However, maybe someone knows of a way to rewrite the Sony firmware? Anybody? Eh? Maybe Sony wants to release the public specs and let other programs interact with the HI-MD? Eh?
