Toshiba gigabeat MEGF60 60GB MP3 Digital Audio Player

The music side is very good - all of the menus are laid out well and can even be customised á la "Pimp My Ride" to form many different combinations, you can even create your own wallpapers from photos you upload to your gigabeat.
The player allows you to navigate through artists and albums, but unlike the iPod, does not have a "most played" feature - this is something that Toshiba may look into in the future through sofware upgrades. The player also allows you to display cover artwork for each album that can be viewed at almost all stages of finding and playing a song - this is particulary made easier if use Windows Media Player, as this automatically downloads artwork from the web for you if you use it to rip your cds and have net access. Importing the songs across is made simple with the "gigabeat room" software - you can also do it with WMP 10, which is included in the bundle, but does not feel as intuitive.
The player handles the files beautifully, and the sound quality is very clear, even through the included headphones - though you may find them hard fitting - they fall out quite easily. A new pair of earphones can still be connected through the inline remote included in both the F40 and F60 packages.

Photos can also be viewed on this unit - you can view the album artwork from your albums if they are uploaded without having to listen to the album itself. The screen quality is ultra sharp, and the navigation is quite intuitive, and is very similar to the iPod Photo's system. The unit comes with music files on the system showcasing the high resolution of the screen. You can also create slideshows to play while listening to your music which is quite nifty.

The gigabeat can also be used as a portable harddrive, and once connected through USB 1.1/2, is automatically recognised by most computer - be aware though; music can be placed on the gigabeat through windows explorer, but the gigabeat will not recognise to play it - this is a pity as the "drag-and-drop" system would have made uploading music to the gigabeat even easier.

The controls are quite unusual, and can take some time to get used to - the "plus" icon can be used for scrolling if you drag your finger across horizontally or vertically, and can also be uased as buttons if you press in the centre or four tips of the plus icon. If you've got "burly" fingers you may find it hard to operate at the start.

All in all, I find this to be a very completant player, and would thoroughly recommend it to others, with further updates this could be a cool gadget

Although photos look great on the colour screen, I'm not too impressed with the picture viewing software. It can't handle pictures in sub directories, which means having to store all pictures at one level (5000 pictures in one directory?).

Also long filenames leads to photos being overwritten silently when synchronising - for example, a batch of photos called "christmas 2002 001.jpg", "christmas 2002 002.jpg" and so on ended up being given the same name on the Gigabeat, which meant that I only ended up with one photo out of 30. Very frustrating. Toshiba states that the workaround is to rename the files!

Lastly, it doesn't appear to handle dragging a directory of photos onto the Gigabeat, which contradicts what the manual states - unless anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong! You can drag stuff from Windows explorer but the Gigabeat doesn't appear to recognise this...

I have a call outstanding with Toshiba to see if I am being completely stupid about this!

4 stars for the music side
2 stars for the photo handling

Come on Toshiba - update the software!! This could be a really cool gadget!!

The Gigabeat is the non-ipod MP3 player I have been waiting for. I have a huge CD collection, and it is all in WMA format. This rules out Apple products, and left me with the disheartening choice of I-River and Creative. But now Toshiba's Gigabeat combines incredible storage size in a sleek, small and exceptionally well designed case.

The naviagtion system is intuitive, and the enclosed software is easy to use. I take on board the criticisms posted, but overall I think they do not distract from the overall performance of the device. It is reasonably priced, packs a huge amount of bang for the buck and will (hopefully) come with Toshiba's history of good customer service.

So far I have had no problems with the sound quality, I have found the CD ripping software a joy to use, especially on my large, legally purchased CD collection, and am overall exceptionally satisfied.

Apple has witnessed several potential 'i-pod' beaters. None has so far managed to topple the white giant. The Gigabeat, however, is a true contender for the most intelligent MP3 player on the market.

Now if only they can get the same advertising agency ...