MiniJam,
InnoGear's flagship product, is finally here. Has it been worth the
wait for the first MP3 Springboard module for the Visor? In a word,
yes.
Physical Specifications
When you open your MiniJam box, don't throw anything away -- there's
a lot of stuff in there. The MiniJam itself has an LED, buttons for
volume, play/pause, forward, back, Sound Control, and MiniJam Control.
There are also jacks for power and headphones. There are two slots
for Multimedia Cards (MMCs). The A slot (with the MiniJam logo) has
a spring that lets you click the MMC in securely. The B slot on the
back is recessed, and MMC is inserted similar to how traditional RAM is
installed into a computer. 2MB of Flash RAM is also included in the
module, which comes in either graphite or ice with a 32MB or 64MB MMC.
Other
included accessories are 16 ohm earbud style headphones with a reel-up
case, either 32 or 64MB MMC, a soft pouch for carrying your Visor with
the MiniJam, and desktop software. Don't lose the Welcome letter
as the registration code for MusicMatch is
on it. Peanut Reader and AlbumToGo are
also included.
InnoGear also obtained some songs for your listening pleasure.
These songs are preloaded onto the MMC and are also on the installation CD if you need them again:
InnoGear - Intro
Marillion - Rich
Eddie Harris - Lake Futon
Eric Burdon - House of the Rising Sun
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Tony Adams
Millencolin - No Cigar
Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers - El Nino Mambo
The Damage Manual - Sunset Gun
The Get Up Kids - Red Letter Day
The Giraffes - Kill The Cake
Violent Femmes - All I Want
MJLoader
MJLoader
is the basic software that is used to upload files from the desktop to
the Visor. One nice thing is that it completely bypasses HotSync,
making the uploading of songs faster. Uploading files is easy.
-
Run MJLoader on the PC.
-
Put the Visor in its cradle and run MiniLoader
on the Visor.
-
Once a connection is made, a list of MP3 files will appear for each card
slot. You can delete songs from the MMC at this point.
-
Drag-and-drop files from a folder on your computer to the appropriate MMC.
-
Click Commit to begin transferring files to
the MiniJam.
In my testing, it took 1:54 to transfer a 4039KB file, for a transfer
speed of 2.08MB/min when using MJLoader
to transfer songs to the MiniJam. Deleting a track took only a few seconds. This is under Windows 98.
Feel free to give me a Cube so I can do future Mac testing. 
MusicMatch >>
