OK, to get started let's look at a subject dear to my heart. One of the last gadgets I bought and in this case sent back and then spent some time trying to get refunded.

Now please don't take this as a recommendation but here's a link to the product concerned. I just want you not to make the mistake I made.

http://www.pixmania.com/fr/fr/182659/art/irandom/radio-reveil-mp3-dsc2b-po.html?tag=mail_fr_fr_2006-02-01_7839&srcid=316

The product itself is OK if you know what you're buying, or in the case of Pixmania if they knew what they were selling. When you receive this baby one of the first things you see on the box is "Not an MP3 Player". Nice to see that the manufacturer of this interesting gadget is clued up.

So what's my point?

My point is that Pixmania UK sell this as an "IRANDOM DSC2B radio alarm MP3 player - USB 2.0 port" - notice that they say MP3 Player and both UK and French sites propose this item optionally bundled with a USB key (upto 2006-05-28 at least .. hopefully this will change).

Now, this is not an MP3 player, but could be described as a docking station for an MP3 player with USB port. It lets' you recharge your MP3 player via the USB port and listen to music from the player using a 3.5mm jack plug which dangles out of the box.

I've no problem with this concept, although it's not what I personally want to order. I have a problem with this being sold as an MP3 player, or it being bundled with an USB key which is totally useless (whence misleading) in this case!!

My take is that Pixmania have not understood what they're selling (and I see the price is dropping and there are no customer comments .... so I think they're not selling).
I have informed them on numerous occasions until I got tired of fighting with their web interface for sending them messages.

On a more constructive note if anyone knows of any radio-alarm MP3 players I'd be very interested to know about it.