The other day I blogged about listening to audiobooks. I do all my listening -- music and audiobooks -- on a Zen V from Creative. Pound for pound, I think it gives me more bang than an iPod or Microsoft's Zune. The sound is good and I like the small size, even though it's not as thin as the iPod. (Hell, I'm not as thin as I'd like to be, either.)
Zen V Plus
The controls are easy enough to manage and unlike most MP3 players, I can set a bookmark so I'm able to get back to where I left off in a book. Unfortunately, setting a bookmark isn't easy; it takes way too many steps. What I wish they'd do, but I know it'll never happen, is add another button to the player for setting bookmarks. I'd also like a way to skip forward in specific time ranges, say, one-, five, - and ten-minute jumps. That would come in handy when listening to podcasts.
I'm not tickled with Creative's software -- I think it's kludgy, confusing, and unintuitive. So I bypass it. When I attach it with the super-short USB cable (which also serves to charge the Zen), I either use Windows Media Player to do my synching -- or plain, old Windows Explorer. It works just fine.
A 2GB model (the Plus version has a built-in FM receiver), runs about $100. Read Eric Dahl's in-depth review of the product. You might also want to see what people who purchased the Zen V Plus have to say. Those reviews are here.
