I'll have to do a podcast later. Right now I can just give you some first
impressions.
I loved the sound, and was pretty excited taking it out of the box. Comes with
a nice wall adapter, the three triple a backup batteries, and has an MP3 player
input jack that would also work for the Stream or book sense. Note: no cable
for this is included. Sound is bassy through two full range speakers, so you
would think stereo, but no where is this stated in the manual, so probably not.
AM and FM reception is surprisingly good. Controls suck. An upside down U of
7 buttons on the top, all the same size, no distinguishing marks, and maybe 8
on the back. 4th button over is source, tap for A.M., F.M, and auxiliary, and
hold down to turn the radio on and off.
You tap the bar on the front edge for snooze, or to wake up the microphone.
Guess I'll try to do a little better. left to right on top, record for naming
stations
volume down
volume up
source
tune down
tune up
and preset.
The snooze/sleep/voice command bar goes all the way across the front edge,
making it easy to hit. I was hoping you could just say snooze or alarm off,
but no such luck.
Programming presets is a little tricky. You tap preset, then tap record and it
asks for the station name twice. Then says station named successful. When I
tried to set a second one it replaced the first preset, so you have to tap it
multiple times for the preset you want, then tap record. I confirmed this in
the manual. You can also scroll through your presets by tapping the pre-set
button. Need to play with this.
When you say voice command, then radio, it will ask you A.M. or F.M? You tell
it, then it asks for the station name. That part is pretty slick. I just wish
you could say radio off without having to physically go over and push the
button, but I understand why that is. It would confuse the voice command.
You say voice command before issuing commands. Nice sexy female voice. You
can say help and get the list of commands. They include sleep for the sleep
timer, radio and station name to have it go to a preset. Time, set time, set
alarm, alarm 1 or alarm 2, and cancel. there's no calendar. You have to push
the button to snooze. I read a lot of reviews that give it 1 star and say it
locks up after a week and you have to pull back up batteries out and unplug to
reset. For now it's pretty fun. Think making presets will be accessible, and
it's cool to be able to name stations by voice. You have to hold the source
button to turn radio off before it will respond to commands.
Okay, Saved the best for last. I did find it on Amazon for the same $7.50
price, so if you don't mind spending $25 for free shipping, or paying for
shipping, you can avoid that horrible Cowboom site. I did download the user
guide and can send it to anyone who needs it.
Reginald George
Adaptive Technology Specialist
Kansas City Missouri
816-200-1064
[email protected]
_______________________________________________
ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
