Off-Grid Media Players

David Pogue starts off with the typical New York Times attempt at green humor :"Yeah, yeah, O.K., so the glaciers are melting, polar bears are becoming extinct and oceanfront property will soon open up in Philadelphia. But c’mon, people, try to look at the bright side." and then reviews two off-the-grid music players. One, the Media Street eMotion, runs for nine hours after 12 to 15 hours of charging; in direct sunlight it can play all day.

The Eco-Player cranks out 40 minutes of playing after one minute of cranking. However they are no iPods in the design department- "All right, let’s just admit it: next to the highly refined software and hardware design of the iPod and the Zune, these players look positively Neanderthal. The menus are crude and claustrophobic; on both players, messages appear in the Courier-ish font of an I.B.M. Selectric; and there’s no scroll wheel or touch pad for navigation. You walk through lists by pressing up/down arrow buttons." ::New York Times