Digital Trends

Music Gremlin MG-1000 June 20th, 2006 | by Rebecca Day

Setup and Use

Any product that hopes to compete in the iPod world has to be a no-brainer to operate. MusicGremlin got that part down. The player is a snap to set up and use. You register the device either from the website (easier) using the supplied USB cable or via the device itself which requires close proximity to a router. Menus are logical and confined to a single page.

Predictive logic keystroking shoots you through the alphabet in no time, which is essential when you're sifting through millions of tracks. You jump to say, Supertramp, by tapping through the alphabet and selecting S and then U, P, E using the directional keypad. The list of artists narrows as you eliminate possibilities. (You'd be surprised how many groups have Super in the name.) You also search for new music by genre, album and track.

To select new music on the device, you need to be within reach of a network—and in my case, close reach. MusicGremlin supplied me with two players for review so I could test out the sharing features. One player could pull in my home network from across the house, and the other had to be much closer to my router. The latter couldn't find the T-Mobile HotSpot connection in Starbucks either, while the other could. I tested the beaming and sharing features with the devices parked a cozy 2 feet from my home router, and they worked fine.

The MG player operates using 802.11b, not the faster 802.11g standard. MusicGremlin co-CEO Robert Khedouri says “g” wouldn't extend the range of the device. All I know is that my 802.11g laptop could connect to my home network from my outside deck about 50 feet from my router, while the Gremlins couldn't. Having your music come to you, rather than you having to go find music, is the primary appeal of the Gremlin concept, and if finding a network is challenging, that limits the appeal. I searched for networks on the residential upper West Side of Manhattan and came across only one network over an area of four blocks. And they were smart enough to secure the network so I couldn't hop on.

The good news is network setup was astonishingly smooth. My fingers tremble with anxiety whenever it's time to add on to my home network, but the MusicGremlin network setup process was painless and quick, simply requiring me to plug in my WEP security key and connect. 

The MG-1000 Display and Menu