After using the new 2.1 firmware for my Nomad Zen Micro for a couple of days, I can see why they haven’t upgraded all their players en masse quite yet. It still has a few rough edges. Red Chair Software, makers of the awesome Notmad Explorer that I use to manage my other Nomads, advises that you use the older 1.x firmware “you have a specific reason to switch”. Of course, I have a very good reason to switch. The 2.1 firmware is actually beta – something I think Creative should make a little more obvious on the website (not that I wouldn’t have downloaded it anyway). For the less adventurous, the 2.0 firmware also supports Napster to Go and isn’t in beta.

The place where I notice the rough edge the most during song transition. When I push next or previous song, sometimes it happens right away and sometimes it takes 4-5 seconds. It doesn’t happen when it’s playing back a set of songs – what ever the Nomad is doing (verifying licenses I’m assume) it must do it for the next song before the current song ends, so the lag only occurs when you’re jumping around manually.

That’s really my biggest complaint. Napster to Go works really well. They haven’t upgraded their help files to the new 3.x version of Napster – for example, all of their screenshots have a separate library function within Napster, but on my machine it just uses WMP’s library – but it’s pretty easy to figure out. I’ve configured NTG and WMP 10 to auto sync any Zen Micro with any songs I’ve downloaded from Napster (about 1GB in the first 24 hours I’ve used it!). The only complaint there is that autosync works by playlist. If you download a Napster compilation, autosync will transfer the music but not the playlist.

And that reminds me of a feature I’d like to see on the Nomad (all of them). I want to be able filter the list of album to exclude the ones that only have one or two songs. When you download a compilation, you get around 25 songs from different artists. Great for discovering new music, but it adds a bunch of noise to the list of albums. So why not exclude albums that only have a few songs downloaded?

I just got my hands on a Nomad Zen Micro. That makes four Nomad’s so far – I also have a IIc, Zen Xtra, and a MuVo NX. While I like my other Nomads, the Micro blows them all away.

First off, it’s tiny. It may only be 5GB compared to the Zen Xtra’s 40GB, but it’s also around a third the size. The touch pad is a little funky to get used to, but it sure looks nice. And unlike the Xtra, it pulls power from the USB connector. It doesn’t even have a separate power connector – the AC adapter that it comes with actually plugs into the mini USB slot. Cool

Haven’t had it long enough to talk about battery life or the interface, though the interface at first blush seems much better than the Zen Xtra. For example, if you’re listening to a song you can jump to that artist in the library. I’ve wished for that feature many times with the Zen Xtra.

Of course, the first thing I did was flash the device to the new 2.1 firmware. The 2.x firmware adds support for Plays for Sure subscription services like Napster To Go. And I signed up for my 14 day trial on Napster about 10 seconds after I updated the firmware. I’ve downloaded about 1GB of music from Napster – I figure that’s a good start.

(Note to Creative – the fact that I got a Zen Micro does not let you off the hook for updating the firmware of the Zen Xtra. I expect to be able to use that with Napster To Go as soon as possible.)

With their Super Bowl ad yesterday, I guess Napster to Go is out of the closet. They have some new compatible devices, including the iriver H10 that Jeff likes so much. Alas, my Nomad Zen Xtra is still out in the cold. So far, it looks like only portable media centers and a handful of 5GB players (the H10, Nomad Zen Micro, Dell Pocket DJ, Gateway Photo Jukebox) are supported.

I’m wondering if older devices will ever be supported? I mean, it’s a new protocol and technology, I wouldn’t be super suprised if the older devices just couldn’t be upgraded to support the subscription service. But if that’s the case, I wish they would simply announce it and move on rather than leaving it in limbo. This post on the Creative Europe forum makes it sounds like the firmware will get upgraded, but with no idea of a date. So, in other words, I don’t know when or if I’ll get to use Napster to Go to fill up the other half of my 40GB Zen.

I started reading The Nears after Sean linked to his comparison of Media Center Extenders. Today, there’s a great comparison of Media Center Extenders to Windows Media Connect devices. Very cool stuff. I’d love to have all my media on a central machine and then be able to listen to or watch it all over the house. The Nears linked to the Roku SoundBridge which plugs into your stereo system. Supports wired or 802.11b/g wireless in as well as analog, optical and coax audio out. Controllable via remote control or web app. Of course, what would be truly killer is web services support. Prices seem pretty reasonable. There are three different models with the same functionality – the only difference is the size and quality of the display. I think I need one or two of these…

Apparently Napster to Go is old news, having been launched in beta months ago. They don’t appear to be marketing it – the only mention of it I could find was on the page of compatible devices. I’m guessing the reason is the page only lists five devices compatible with the Napster to Go service and all of them are portable media centers. I wanted to search for other devices compatible with Windows Media Digital Rights Management 10 but the PlaysForSure advance search isn’t working. There’s new firmware for the Zen Micro that supports WMDRM 10, but nothing yet for the Zen Xtra. On the plus side, I discovered the Nomad SDK and FriendlyNomad C# wrapper for the SDK. Not sure what I would write that accessed my Nomad – I which I could customize the playback experience but Red Chair Software’s Notmad Explorer provides a great PC expereince.