Software for managing portable devices
Each portable mp3 player comes with some type of software to help manage audio tracks and to download audio to the device. There are also several products that can work with multiple devices. Here are some of our favorites.
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RioPort Audio Manage
RAM, or Rioport Audio Manager, is the companion software for the popular RIO MP3 Players. In addition to being a required install for RIO users to get the needed drivers, it now claims support for several other portable players. The big problem with RAM is that it is totally music collection centric, meaning that you have to put audio tracks in a playlist before downloading them. This doesn't work very well with voice tracks that you listen to once and discard.
Siren Express
This free "lite" version of SonicFoundry's JukeBox is overkill for the simple job of dowload file to portable players, but it has one feature that makes it perfect for the typical 1 time download of disposable voice recordings. Siren has an "Explorer" mode, where you see the contents of a directory just like in Windows Explorer. You can then highlight a number of files, right-click, and choose "Send to Portable". Siren supports RIO's, Nomad's, and maybe a few others.
RealJukeBox Basic
From RealNetworks, the makers of RealPlayer, RealJukeBox is again overkill for this task, and is too PlayList centric to make it perfect for the job, but RealJukebox has support for RIO, Lyra, Nomad, and Phillips Rush Portable Players.
CreativeWare for Nomad
By Creative Labs for their popular Nomad line of portable players, CreativeWare promises to keep your upgradable nomads fresh with the latest firmware as well as brings ripping and encoding features.
If you have a favorite piece of software you think our visitors would find helpful, please let us know or even write a review and we'll probably post it.
