I was really excited to purchase this product for my son, but was really disappointed in the product. The seal for one end never closed correctly, the size of the product is tiny, and I could not easily use the product. The forward and backward buttons are useless and you are suppose to be able to shake it forward the song, and this never worked.

If it is at all targeted for kids it should have the screw on the battery cover that is on every kids toy these days. --The included music is 4 kids songs and 4 classical songs, nothing too spectactular, but ok demo music until you can get to a computer to delete them. --The CD included is a waste, PDF version of the 8 page user manual.

My son's lasted 1 day before shutting down. The replacement lasted a whole 2 days. Now my daughter's shut down but it's after the return time frame so it looks like we're stuck.

It bothers the heck out of me but he doesn't notice. In general it seems like a design flaw, having the bottom cover twist off in the same motion that skips to the next song, but I can't believe that it is this bad on all of them. I'm taking it back to exchange it for another.

Some of the signs of low batteries: will not turn off, shake mechanism no longer works, or shuts off unexpectedly. Two weeks after Christmas, and I've already recharged the battery twice (Duracell NiMH 1xAAA). It doesn't help that my kids put it in pause mode instead of turning it off, but still.

Though I find it not to be a problem, my biggest time-consumer was downloading a free converter to convert my wma files to mp3, as this player only recognizes mp3 format. But even that is not a detraction to this great little player. I've read other reviews that the bottom falls off, etc., but I really don't see how that could happen unless it was forcibly pulled apart instead of the little `twist/click' it takes to remove it and replace it.

It only downloads mp3 type files, but it is easy to work with. The sound is ok, not even as good as an iPod, but good enough for a young child to fool around with.

It takes a dozen shuffles beofore even moving to the next album, not what anyone with a grown-up media player would put up with. PS: the playlist appears to be determined by the order which windows copied the files, not by any sensible order. --The MP3 decoding is buggy.

It gets plenty loud for them all to hear, even over their chatter, but not so loud as to be annoying to us folks. The speaker sound is quite good for what it is and considering the audience. (Don't expect it to sound exceptional to the trained ear.) She also isn't able to turn the volume up too loud with headphones --a nice plus for the young age group.

The only down side is the lack of a shuffle play, the random function does jump somewhere in your list of songs, but then continues sequentially from there. Memory card size is not a problem.

My only real problem is the bottom twist off where the battery and card are inserted does not stay tight. Luckily the bottom lid is held on by a cord, but it is rather irritating to have it always fall open. Overall, a good buy for the money.

Occasionally (maybe 1 in 20 tracks) it will play a track vveerryy sslloowwllyy. At first I thought it was due to the sampling rate of the track (it only supports the standard CD rate), but upon skipping ahead and then re-winding, the track is back to playing normal so it is an intermittant bug. This happens even on brand new batteries, so it isn't in the below list.

The button is a little difficult to push, and must be held down for a couple seconds to do anything but pause the playing (leaving the device on and consuming batteries of course). Try as I might, I cannot convince him to hold the button long enough while shaking to shuffle tracks, he just says it doesn't work. --Shuffle (hold button and shake) doesn't actually choose a random track, it just skips a few (1-3?) tracks in the playlist.

In two weeks, it only fell off once, and that was when I was using it not my son. But it shouldn't fall off at all, or the little brother has access to both a AAA battery and a memory card for chewing on.

Price---very reasonable for 1GB Cons: No menu means finding a particular song becomes tedious as number of tunes increases. Overall: Good choice for you kids but unsatisfactory for tweens and up.

I bought this for her in hopes that mommy and daddy wouldn't have to hear her music as much, but as soon as she realized there was the "convenient" internal speaker, that idea went out the window.

The only (not even bad) thing about it is the batteries. It only takes one but if your child is like mine you will go through a few!

--Has support for two headphones (not included). I didn't try this, but with my two boys, this may come in handy for car trips when they're older. Cons:

If you buy a name brand 8-12 pack of batteries, it should last for a month at least. She likes to dance and on her birthday brought it to school and it was an instant hit.

The only flaw is the bottom cover constantly falls off. So much so that he leaves it hanging.

Some of the signs of low batteries: will not turn off, shake mechanism no longer works, or shuts off unexpectedly. Two weeks after Christmas, and I've already recharged the battery twice (Duracell NiMH 1xAAA). It doesn't help that my kids put it in pause mode instead of turning it off, but still.

Occasionally (maybe 1 in 20 tracks) it will play a track vveerryy sslloowwllyy. At first I thought it was due to the sampling rate of the track (it only supports the standard CD rate), but upon skipping ahead and then re-winding, the track is back to playing normal so it is an intermittant bug. This happens even on brand new batteries, so it isn't in the below list.

The button is a little difficult to push, and must be held down for a couple seconds to do anything but pause the playing (leaving the device on and consuming batteries of course). Try as I might, I cannot convince him to hold the button long enough while shaking to shuffle tracks, he just says it doesn't work. --Shuffle (hold button and shake) doesn't actually choose a random track, it just skips a few (1-3?) tracks in the playlist.

The only (not even bad) thing about it is the batteries. It only takes one but if your child is like mine you will go through a few!

If you buy a name brand 8-12 pack of batteries, it should last for a month at least. She likes to dance and on her birthday brought it to school and it was an instant hit.

Battery usage is as described - though given it's popularity still means that we are chewing through batteries. Get rechargable batteries...

It bothers the heck out of me but he doesn't notice. In general it seems like a design flaw, having the bottom cover twist off in the same motion that skips to the next song, but I can't believe that it is this bad on all of them. I'm taking it back to exchange it for another.

Though I find it not to be a problem, my biggest time-consumer was downloading a free converter to convert my wma files to mp3, as this player only recognizes mp3 format. But even that is not a detraction to this great little player. I've read other reviews that the bottom falls off, etc., but I really don't see how that could happen unless it was forcibly pulled apart instead of the little `twist/click' it takes to remove it and replace it.

My only real problem is the bottom twist off where the battery and card are inserted does not stay tight. Luckily the bottom lid is held on by a cord, but it is rather irritating to have it always fall open. Overall, a good buy for the money.

The only flaw is the bottom cover constantly falls off. So much so that he leaves it hanging.

If it is at all targeted for kids it should have the screw on the battery cover that is on every kids toy these days. --The included music is 4 kids songs and 4 classical songs, nothing too spectactular, but ok demo music until you can get to a computer to delete them. --The CD included is a waste, PDF version of the 8 page user manual.

Some of the signs of low batteries: will not turn off, shake mechanism no longer works, or shuts off unexpectedly. Two weeks after Christmas, and I've already recharged the battery twice (Duracell NiMH 1xAAA). It doesn't help that my kids put it in pause mode instead of turning it off, but still.

My only real problem is the bottom twist off where the battery and card are inserted does not stay tight. Luckily the bottom lid is held on by a cord, but it is rather irritating to have it always fall open. Overall, a good buy for the money.

In two weeks, it only fell off once, and that was when I was using it not my son. But it shouldn't fall off at all, or the little brother has access to both a AAA battery and a memory card for chewing on.

battery usage is as described - though given it's popularity still means that we are chewing through batteries. Get rechargable batteries...

Though I find it not to be a problem, my biggest time-consumer was downloading a free converter to convert my wma files to mp3, as this player only recognizes mp3 format. But even that is not a detraction to this great little player. I've read other reviews that the bottom falls off, etc., but I really don't see how that could happen unless it was forcibly pulled apart instead of the little `twist/click' it takes to remove it and replace it.

It only downloads mp3 type files, but it is easy to work with. The sound is ok, not even as good as an iPod, but good enough for a young child to fool around with.

It takes a dozen shuffles beofore even moving to the next album, not what anyone with a grown-up media player would put up with. PS: the playlist appears to be determined by the order which windows copied the files, not by any sensible order. --The MP3 decoding is buggy.

I was really excited to purchase this product for my son, but was really disappointed in the product. The seal for one end never closed correctly, the size of the product is tiny, and I could not easily use the product. The forward and backward buttons are useless and you are suppose to be able to shake it forward the song, and this never worked.

It bothers the heck out of me but he doesn't notice. In general it seems like a design flaw, having the bottom cover twist off in the same motion that skips to the next song, but I can't believe that it is this bad on all of them. I'm taking it back to exchange it for another.

Price---very reasonable for 1GB Cons: No menu means finding a particular song becomes tedious as number of tunes increases. Overall: Good choice for you kids but unsatisfactory for tweens and up.

It only downloads mp3 type files, but it is easy to work with. The sound is ok, not even as good as an iPod, but good enough for a young child to fool around with.

It gets plenty loud for them all to hear, even over their chatter, but not so loud as to be annoying to us folks. The speaker sound is quite good for what it is and considering the audience. (Don't expect it to sound exceptional to the trained ear.) She also isn't able to turn the volume up too loud with headphones --a nice plus for the young age group.

Very easy to use (not for me, but im not a kid), and she has fun listening to the sound effects when skiping tracks. I bought the 512MB version cuz I dont think a kid knows that many songs, and it seems to be enough.

I was really excited to purchase this product for my son, but was really disappointed in the product. The seal for one end never closed correctly, the size of the product is tiny, and I could not easily use the product. The forward and backward buttons are useless and you are suppose to be able to shake it forward the song, and this never worked.

Everyone has talked about the end not staying on, but you can actually lock it in so it doesn't come off.

If it is at all targeted for kids it should have the screw on the battery cover that is on every kids toy these days. --The included music is 4 kids songs and 4 classical songs, nothing too spectactular, but ok demo music until you can get to a computer to delete them. --The cd included is a waste, PDF version of the 8 page user manual.

Occasionally (maybe 1 in 20 tracks) it will play a track vveerryy sslloowwllyy. At first I thought it was due to the sampling rate of the track (it only supports the standard cd rate), but upon skipping ahead and then re-winding, the track is back to playing normal so it is an intermittant bug. This happens even on brand new batteries, so it isn't in the below list.

If it is at all targeted for kids it should have the screw on the battery cover that is on every kids toy these days. --The included music is 4 kids songs and 4 classical songs, nothing too spectactular, but ok demo music until you can get to a computer to delete them. --The CD included is a waste, PDF version of the 8 page user manual.

--Has support for two headphones (not included). I didn't try this, but with my two boys, this may come in handy for car trips when they're older. Cons:

The only down side is the lack of a shuffle play, the random function does jump somewhere in your list of songs, but then continues sequentially from there. Memory card size is not a problem.

My only gripe is the lack of WMA support, but that's minor.