Valhalla Island

Things like this make me mad. Sharp has released a new mp3 player. It’s hideous. They have a little “Vol” printed above and below the + and -. What else could + and - mean on a music player? What else could they possibly represent? The “Vol” is unecessary, over instruction and just plain stupid.

iPod’s don’t even have a little “Vol” to tell you where the volume controls are, hell, they don’t even have + or - icons and believe it or not, people are still able to change the volume on their iPods.

I’m so sick of new mp3 players coming out, trying to compete with the iPod, going in a completly opposite direction and wondering why they’re failing. I understand that they aren’t allowed to completly copy the iPod but please start competing with simplicity, not with more features, not with more buttons.

More buttons is not better, more labels on buttons do not help with recognition, more buttons will not make an mp3 easier to use, more features with less attention to detail is the wrong way to be competing with the iPod.

Creative are getting there, slowly. Five colour options is still four too many but I don’t like the entire word “MENU” on the iPod, Creative has one up there.