Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I would file this under "interesting/ nearly compelling", and actually deserving of five stars despite the 512Mb limit (other flash players go to 1Gb today). The keys to the Rio Forge's success are a very functional user-interface, nice "other-than-music" goodies, and support for SD/MMC cards. The user interface uses the LCD real estate quite well. Songs have full ID3 tags displayed, scrolling when necessary. Title, artist, album info is stacked, so scrolling is minimal unless you have long info in all fields. The navigational system is intuitive, and while it isn't a clickwheel, the tiny joystick/ button combination works well once you adapt to it. The music output is more than acceptable, but not quite equal to Creative's quality or level. It handles MP3s, WMAs, and iTunes AACs without incident. This makes compatibility fairly broad. The best points illustrate the marked evolution of the Forge from its earlier Chiba/Cali roots. The device no longer requires proprietary software in order to copy files; the device is recongized as an external drive with all rights and privileges afforded to them via USB. A nice feature is the aggregation of the optional flash card into the removeable drive storage total. This allows you to copy a full 1.5Gb of music over to the device, assuming you have a 1Gb MMC or SD card inserted. You can also format/copy/delete the aggregate; this might be a bit of a problem because you lack the ability to segregate, say, device content from flashcard content. I would tend to say it's not that much of an issue. Smart use of folders on either will help identify which content is removeable. The device uses a single AAA battery and will go twelve hours easily at mid-volume. You can also specify the kind of battery (Alkaline or NiMH) and it adjusts the battery meter accordingly. This is actually a pretty good idea, considering the ubiquity of AAA batteries. Some things I like are the FM tuner and stopwatch. It is designed to be a workout companion, and these two features make it especially appealing for big club members; televisions broadcast over locally-based FM, so your cardio workout is now accompanied by sound to go with the visual. The stopwatch is, well, a stopwatch. It also handles splits, so it's decent for running, not at all useless. The usual expectations (presets for FM, inline recording, ID3 tag support, multilingual) all apply. It has a very good case with armband, and reflects its workout partner design philosophy throughout. Earbuds are decent, but if you're like me, you have a favorite pair already. No suprises on the input, as it takes the standard miniplug. In all, it truly owns its niche for flash-based players. Hard drive based players cannot withstand the rigors of active running or quick movements for very long; any electronic device might break when dropped but the likelihood of inoperability is much, much less with the Forge. It certainly isn'g coming out of its armband holder without 20g of force. The ability to accept SD and MMC cards makes it more expandable than any other flash-based player as well. iRiver and Creative can't match it in this regard. Finally, it's the intangibles that cement its primacy. It sits in your hand very well, and it looks pretty sharp. The cool blue backlighting only enhances its looks, and the outer cover is a big improvement over the Army Green of the 256Mb Cali. For a workout, this is my MP3 pick. Fred