Product Reviews

Designed for maximum portability, the Creative MuVo is about as small and simple as an MP3 player can get. In fact, it's really just a 64Mb USB memory module with an earphone socket and a battery pack attached.

The device comes in two parts. The USB module acts like a small USB hard disk, so you can plug it into a USB port on your Mac and it will mount on the Mac desktop. The software provided with the MuVo is designed for Windows only, but that doesn't matter as the USB software built-in to Mac OS X recognises the MuVo and displays it on your desktop automatically. Once that's done, you can copy files on to the MuVo simply by dragging and dropping them from your hard disk.

The same thing should happen with Mac OS 9, but we found that the MuVo wasn't recognised automatically when we plugged it into an OS 9 machine. We had to shut down the machine and restart it again to get it to connect to the MuVo properly. However, the problem didn't recur after that.

Using a USB interface means that it takes longer to copy music than if the device had a FireWire interface, like the iPod. It took around 10 seconds to transfer a three-minute MP3 file, 3.5Mb in size. But with a maximum capacity of just 64Mb, it won't take long to fill up the MuVo. And as the MuVo acts like a small hard disk, you can use it to store and transfer ordinary data files as well as MP3 files.

Once

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you've copied your songs on to it, you unplug the memory module and slot it into the little battery pack supplied with it. The pack contains a single AAA battery that provides the MuVo's power supply. It would have been better to include a rechargeable battery that could be charged from the Mac's USB interface, but that would have pushed the price beyond the all-important £99.99 point. The AAA battery should last for about 12 hours, and the 64Mb memory can store an hour of music.

The controls for the MuVo are situated on the memory module. On the front panel there's a Play/Pause button, along with buttons for skipping forward or backwards. You can fast-forward and back within individual tracks, but you can't listen to the track while doing this so these controls are mainly useful for moving between tracks. The volume control is tucked on the side of the unit, and there's also a little A-B Repeat button that allows you to repeat a particular track, or a particular section within a track. There's no shuffle button, though.

Creative includes a set of earphones with the MuVo and a short carrying cord. The whole point of the MuVo is that it's meant to be used while you're on the 'move-o', so it would have been better to have a clip on the unit to allow you to attach it to your clothing when you're jogging or dashing about.

Flying start

The big question, of course, is why you would want an MP3 player with a mere 64Mb capacity when you can buy rivals, such as Apple's iPod, that provide up to 20Gb. Well, the iPod may be gorgeous, but you wouldn't want one thumping up and down on your hip when you're jogging. The MuVo, however, is so small and light, weighing a mere 28g, that you can carry it around with you and barely notice it.

It's not intended to replace larger devices, such as the iPod, but the MuVo will come in handy if you're the active sort who likes to listen to music while you're jogging or working out in the gym.