Advice on Audio Player for Old Folks
Reply #6 – 2012-11-20 01:30:22
Maybe a (cheap) laptop? And the Boom audio player from fb2k developer Peter is designed for the demographic with masses of format support, gapless playback etc. Worth a look if you use a Windows machine. Also players like tablets aren't a bad option, and the reviews of the Mebook you mentioned sound good especially if it remains plugged in to a charger. With options of Vorbis and AAC-LC, you could squeeze quite a lot of good sounding audio on the supplied 4GB card at around 90-120 kbps sort of bitrate (40-55 MB per hour ->70-100 hours of music in 4GB), and have FM radio too. Not bad for £40, by the sound of it, unless you want an ebook reader. Items like cheapish Android tablets (from about £55 to £100) might offer more flexibility and (if they have WiFi) apps like Spotify or various podcatchers, but are a bit pricier. Many with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) also support apps like BBC iPlayer, which as you used Amazon UK and used the word 'Cheers' is presumably a potential selling point assuming they're on a UK IP address and allowed to view iPlayer content. (I'd guess this also means live BBC radio and TV over WiFi is an option) and any number of music player apps to suit them best. Some of them also have 3G data, GPS and the like, if any of those features could be useful. However, this might get in the way of a keep-it-simple approach. Also the iPad1 has good battery life, very good audio (via headphone) and fairly intuitive & responsive interface and I think 8GB of storage. AAC support gives options to cram a lot of 96-128 kbps good quality stereo audio in. Possibly worth considering accessibility support (e.g. large fonts / high contrast in the music player apps) for use with fading eyesight? My guess is Android might be a good option here.