Take the Xiro internals, pop them in a groovy egg-shaped casing, lose the dodgy controls, put one-touch buttons where they are needed, add a quality pair of headphones with built in volume control and what do you have? The Apacer BP300.
Its full name is the Audio Steno BP300, but that's a bit optimistic even if you have a voice recognition program to hand. You can download voice recordings as WAV files but actual steno? Don't think so. . .
The BP300 not only looks like a rave party accessory when 'round your neck on its strap, it comes with three different accessory caps to cover the USB plug. Match your mood with your music indeed. The unit comes with a really good pair of 'ear muff' style headphones which give good tonal range and beat the opposition hands down when it comes to volume – leading to better battery life from the single AAA disposable. The 'phones also have a usefully long lead, and feature an inline volume control which is handy if the unit is inside your shirt or in a pocket.
The LCD is small, with a particularly dim backlight, but it does have a readout with recognisable icons, and offers a good menu system operated by a tiny two-way joystick on the side of the casing. This stick doubles as a fast forward/back control. Other buttons include volume, play/pause, one touch record and a hold button. The only control gripe is the ease with which you can hit the voice record button when picking the player up.
The supplied software comes on a CD, and installs a USB driver. A driver for direct connection to MusicMatch is bundled, but not mentioned in the extremely brief manual. Other bundled extras are a USB extension cable and neck strap. The AAA battery supplied was dead on arrival, and like the Xiro, a fresh one only delivered a few hours playing before it karked it.
Sound quality from the Apacer was good, and made the best of by the headphones. Voice quality was surprisingly accurate given the tiny mic, and no problems at all were encountered on installation. All round, an excellent product. Think of it as a USB drive with brains and looks, and you have it sussed.