Wi-Fi music player cuts out the PC

What if you need to grab some new tunes between classes or on the way to a meeting? For you impatient and forward-looking types, there's the MusicGremlin, which uses a direct wireless link to a music store to cut out the middleman--your PC--from the music-gathering equation.

	Built-in Wi-Fi means no need for PCs.

We've seen a few Wi-Fi-enabled music players before--remember SoniqCast and Tao?--but never one that works with a music subscription service. (However, Zing, another Wi-Fi portable, is in the works.)

A US$14.99 monthly fee lets you grab all the music you want--or, at least, all that will fit on the 8GB MusicGremlin device--from the MusicGremlin Direct online store. Clever community features let you browse other Gremlin owners' downloads and swap songs with friends.

There are some healthy restrictions in place, though, such as weak battery life, small storage capacity, and the fact that you can trade songs only with friends who have subscriptions.

We like the product and applaud the innovation, but we doubt that this first-generation offering provides enough value to attract a large number of users.

Design
About the same size as the first-generation Apple Computer iPod, the MusicGremlin measures 104.1 by 60.9 by 20.3mm and offers a 2-inch, 220 x 176-pixel color screen. The front and back are glossy black, while the contoured sides and the selection pad have a matte finish and a rubbery feel. It's deceptively lightweight, and the unit feels remarkably like a thick piece of foam.

	Big but still pocketable.

Hardly a sleek and sexy player, its looks are just a bit goofy. But we grew to like them, particularly because of the simple array of buttons.

The rubbery center selection pad lets you move between menus and choose songs and options, while the on/off/hold switch is on the left side. The volume, play/pause, and forward/reverse controls are on the right. We desperately wanted to relocate them to the front, so that we could use the player with just a thumb. Still, we appreciated the dedicated volume and player controls. The headphone jack is on the top, while the bottom has line-in, mini-USB, reset and power ports.

The player uses a side-scrolling interface, like the iPod's, where you move through menus to the right. Some options, such as those for downloading or sending a song, appear in small pop-up windows that can, at first, be confusing to select. Icons along the bottom let you know the battery level, how many songs are in your download queue, and if you're connected to a Wi-Fi or ad-hoc network.

While the menus are simple and utilitarian, the playback screen has a little more character, with album art, and red and blue highlights.

A small light on the upper left of the player also shows your connection status, glowing green for Wi-Fi and blue for ad-hoc. Both the display and Wi-Fi connection lights are easy to see during the day. When the green connection light is on, you get a certain satisfaction knowing that others can "see" you and that you're downloading songs.

The MusicGremlin has a small internal speaker that plays music faintly when headphones aren't connected. We're told that a sleep timer will be added in the next few months, so that you can fall asleep to your MusicGremlin.

The MusicGremlin comes with a pair of matching black stereo headphones (with a tangle-prone rubbery texture) but no belt clip or case. It's too bad, because the glossy finish is a fingerprint magnet.