The cradle was a pearl white color and very lightweight. It was nicely designed having a proper balance as you held it in your hand. The back had a power connector and a PC I/F connector for synching the m:robe with my PC. Inserting the m:robe, I felt that it was a “sloppy” fit with a possibility of eventual damage to the connector if care was taken. Actually I was quite surprised that the fit was not better.
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As I attached the power, the screen lit up showing that the battery was being charged. A battery indicator displayed on the screen and the Scroll Key LED lights were flashing on and off as the charging was going on. After the charging is completed, the LED will stop blinking and the battery display will disappear.
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While the charging was going on, I inserted the software CD and found the install to be very easy. Two install features appeared, m:trip and Digicam Print. I chose to install the m:trip first and wait until later to install the Digicam print program if I decided I needed it. My intention was to play music not use this device for storage of other files so the Digicam print was really not something I thought I would want or even use. My guess is that if I had the m:robe 500i, it would be a program I would want.
The m:trip software placed a launcher icon in the system tray to automatically launch the program when the m:robe is connected and another option to automatically launch m:trip if an audio CD was inserted. Of course the option to disable those features is there if you choose not to use them.
OK, I can’t wait — I have the need to try this baby but I’ll just wait a little longer and take a look at the software while it is still charging. I am sure I can use it but I want a full charge before I give it a try — wow, do I hate waiting!
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I thought I’d insert an audio CD while I was waiting to see if the software was easy to use. The m:robe software started automatically and I was quickly looking at the m:trip program. I was impressed how fast the CD contents appeared on the screen and I was even more impressed with the speed to bring the music over to my computer. 9 songs totaling 47 minutes of music took slightly over 3 minutes to download to my computer. How fast will it move the music to the m:robe?
The documentation indicates that it takes three hours to get a full charge but it took much less than that. I can only assume it was because of the amount of charge that was already in the battery. The charge indicator is off so I can start the process of bringing music over to the m:robe and I will find out just how fast it will bring my music over.
After I had transferred the contents of my CD over, I closed the m:trip software. As soon as I attached the m:robe to my PC with the USB cable, the software started again and I was now able to begin the process of synching music files. Transferring the CD I had already copied was easy and fast. As a matter of fact, it took slightly over a minute. The speed caught me by surprise but clearly the transfer is better than I ever expected.
I had to try another CD just to check the time. Bruce Hornsby’s Harbor Lights is an old favorite of mine so that was my next test. 10 songs with 52 minutes 32 seconds of music took 3 minutes 46 seconds. Synching with the m:robe took 1 minute 5 seconds. How do they do that? — Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect speed like this. I am very pleased! OK, one more — Paul Simon’s Graceland. 11 songs – BAM, it’s done! Just an incredible process, SIMPLE, EASY, and FAST!