5. HiSi

Great songs can be found all along the FM dial. Suppose, however, that a station plays a great song that you have never heard before: how do you figure out the artist and title? Neuros tries takes the mystery out of song identification with their HiSi feature.

If you are listening to the FM radio on the Neuros and hear a song that you like but don't recognize, simply press the Hand symbol on the player. The Neuros will take a 30-second fingerprint of the song. Later, when you synchronize the Neuros player to your PC, this fingerprint will be compared to an online database provide by Relatable . With luck, a match will be found and the unit will tell you the names of the artist and song. (It should be noted that registration is required before you can use the HiSi database.)

HiSi can take the 30-second fingerprint from the internal FM radio, line input or even the microphone. The accuracy of the identification process depends on how clear a signal you get on the audio input. In a quick-and-dirty test using songs played on KIIS FM 102.7 here in Los Angeles, Neuros determined the correct song information three out of seven times.

Battery Life

The Neuros is powered by a non-removable internal battery rather than regular alkaline batteries. For regular music playback, it lasted around 8 hours and 45 minutes. Use of the MiFi transmitter cuts the battery life in half, however: you only get three to four hours of playing time.

Open Source

Neuros has done something special for the Open Source community by releasing the firmware and Synchronization Manager code to the public. This means everyone is able to modify the software as they see fit, and I'm sure the Open Source community will come up with some interesting modifications and applications.

You can take a look at the developers site here .

Conclusion

The Neuros MP3 player is an interesting departure from the cookie-cutter portable audio player world. The modular design lets you upgrade the hard drive quickly, and Linux users will appreciate the Open Source synching software and operating system.

If you are looking for a portable MP3 player that you can jog or exercise with, the Neuros is not for you. The player is much bigger and heavier than the small Ipod or iRiver MP3 players. Of course, if you do jog with the Neuros, at least you can use the Neuros player as a self defense bludgeoning weapon!

For car use, the Neuros will work very well, provided that you take the time to find open frequencies in your area. In this application the Neuros's features shine, while the size and weight become irrelevant assuming that you stash the player in a convenient place.