I have just discovered this very accessible MP3 player from Samsung. It's called the Pebble and the model number is YP-S2. There is no screen, so there are no frustrating menus to be memorized. And get this, you're not limited to just playing MP3 files. This player supports MP3, non-DRM WMA, and best of all OGG! It handles OGG files very well indeed. I got quite a kick just transferring an audiobook encoded in OGG to my new player and playing it without having to transcode it beforehand.
This player is shaped like a round pebble, and the controls are all found in one of those familiar circular button arrangements and are very easy to operate. If you haven't used one of these circular controls previously, it won't take you but a few seconds to get used to it.
The Pebble comes with ear buds designed like a necklace so you can wear the player conveniently as a pendant around your neck, or you can just use your favorite headphones and keep it in your pocket, which is what I prefer to do myself. I tend to stay away from ear buds anyway as they make my ears hurt.
The battery life is up to 13 hours of music playback and takes about 2 hours to charge from a USB port.
It has 1 gb of storage, has USB 2.0 capability, and comes up as a regular flash drive so you can transfer files to and from it without needing to use the proprietary media manager program from Samsung, which leaves a lot to be desired as far as accessibility is concerned.
It has a feature called DNSe™ (Digital Natural Sound engine), which provides 3 sound settings to enhance what you're listening to. Each time you press the "smart button" while playing a track, the sound effect switches to Normal, Studio, and Concert Hall in sequence.
Here is a short description of the sound effect options;
1. Normal: Provides a sharp and clear sound.
2. Studio: Offers natural sound and is appropriate to most music genres.
3. Concert Hall: Simulates the sound of a concert hall.
I compared the sound to the Creative Zen Stone I had been using and to my ears, the sound that this player provides is just as good if not better. It's clear and has the right amount of clarity to enable one to understand audiobooks that have been encoded at very low bit rates and also enjoy your favorite music. The sound effect options are a plus but even without them, the player provides sharp, clear sound with the right amount of bass, midrange, and treble.
The only aspects of this player that I found to be inaccessible were 1. the LED light, which is used to indicate when the battery is running low, the play mode, status of file transfer, etc. It apparently also does some kind of flashing light show using different colors while you're listening to your favorite tracks. It isn't really necessary to have this LED light turned on and there is an option to turn it off, which I successfully did, but you may need sighted assistance to verify that it's turned off. 2. The media manager program which is provided on a small CD. I found the installation to be somewhat inaccessible but I was able to get through it somehow… However, the program itself was not accessible at all. Good thing it's not absolutely necessary for the operation of the player.
My Verdict
This is a very good player which is very accessible for the blind or visually impaired. It has very good sound and plays the usual MP3 and WMA file formats, with the added bonus that really makes this a very special player, in that it offers OGG playback as well! There are not a lot of portable media players out there that offer OGG playback and which are also accessible, and this MP3 player does a great job of it.
Whether you use it as your primary player or as a backup, this is a very good player which happens to be accessible right out of the box.
