pha model of any electronic gear is a thankless task. It's rare that I've taken a risk and been a first-adopter and received gear -- hardware, software, manuals and interfaces -- that didn't need a lot of tweaking to work properly. Waiting a few months for the manufacturer to introduce the improved version is usually worth the wait in avoiding hair-pulling, head-banging frustration.I created RuggedReviews.com specifically to review products that have at least had their initial shakedown to ensure a level of quality before I even engage. I don't like wasting my time, anymore than you do. What truly sets RuggedReviews.com apart is that after I purchase gear, I use it for at least three months in real-world applications before issuing a verdict.
I'm breaking the rules with this blog entry. I'm reviewing the i-Tab -- described by the manufacturer as "the world's first electronic songbook" -- to illustrate how difficult it is to review new technology. I do want to say from the outset, however, that although the i-Tab has many frustrating issues, I am rooting for the manufacturer to fix the problems to produce an A-list product. And, despite the faults you're about to read, I'm keeping my unit for reasons I'll explain in the final paragraphs. The basic premise is fantastic. It's the execution that's lacking.
Loitering in the music gear department on Amazon.com June 11, 2010, I stumbled onto the i-Tab, a PDA like gadget that allows guitar players to download chords and lyrics to their favorite songs from the i-Tab website and then play them while the device scrolls through the song. I get pretty tired of lugging around a bunch of sheet music and have always dreamed of such a device. I fought the urge to order one for about two minutes, then I clicked buy -- with next day delivery.
The i-Tab arrived a day later. I pulled it out of the box and thought I'd be off and playing in sweet bliss in minutes. But, as with all alpha versions -- the i-Tab only began shipping about two months ago -- there were roadblocks, serious roadblocks, immediately thrown in my path.
The i-Tab arrive
s loaded with 25 songs -- most of them I didn't like. I went to i-Tab.com to order a bunch of songs at 44-cents each. Over an hour or two, I clicked my way through the entire library of great song titles and found that 99 percent of the tunes listed have not yet been tabbed and uploaded. Grrrrr. How can you load the promised thousands of songs on your unit, if there are only dozens actually available? I emailed a service rep and he responded -- quickly, to his credit -- that they will tab a song upon request. It would have been a cooler experience if the library was fuller from the start. (There's a feature I haven't tried yet that lets you tab your own songs.)Again, after spending another hour going through the alphabetical list of songs -- they really need to separate the list in
to established tabs and those to come -- and choosing about forty to purchase, I entered in all my credit card information and pressed purchase. I immediately received an error message stating that the ordering system for the company located in Ireland doesn't accept U.S. credit cards. Again, Grrrrrr. The service rep gave me a ten dollar credit and said they are working on the ordering system.I loaded about twenty songs I liked and sat down to play. The unit has a five inch touchscreen that's easy to see indoors. I powered it up. More challenges. The basic settings choices allow you to turn the metronome sound on/off, pick the beat countdown to the beginning of a song, and select the font size and color and background color. (There's no screen brightness or metronome volume control.) Pretty basic. Unfortunately, you have to make these choices every time you power up the unit. Apparently, it has no user memory at all. You also have to reset the metronome beat count -- which also controls how fast the song scrolls -- ev
ery time you bring up a song. This is kind of shocking in the Electronic Age, when everyone is looking for gear that's instantly at their service and tailored to their needs.The next major irritant occurred when I was done with a song and I wanted to play it again. There is no repeat button. You have to drag your finger on the touchscreen to move the scroll bar on the bottom of the unit all the way to the left to bring the song to the beginning. The problem with my unit is the scrollbar doesn't move all the way over to the left, which means the top line or more of a song is not visible. This means to repeat a song, I have to go back to the library, select the song, and reset the metronome (that also forgets your preferences every time you leave the song). That's not convenient at all.
Quickly, other irritants were: 1) Some of the chords in the tabs don't seem lined up to the right words -- I've seen this in songbooks, too. 2) I tried the TV Out feature to show the tabs on my TV -- wouldn't it be cool to have more than one musician playing along karaoke style -- and it didn't work. I wonder if it's in the European PAL format instead of the NTSC format we have in the states. There's no discussion of this in the brief guide, and I'll have to take it up with the company when I have a chance.
Now here's where this review gets interesting. There's absolutely a lot not to like about the i-Tab, but I can't stop using it. I was actually tempted to send it back to Amazon.com, but I can't.
As it exists right now, the i-Tab (at about $200) is an expensive electronic songbook that won't appear on RuggedReviews.com until (and if) the problems are addressed. That said, it's addictive to have hours worth of music at my fingertips without having to thumb through a pile of books. Working with the metronome and scrolling function are increasing my accuracy and consistency -- especially on the majority of songs that appear to be properly tabbed. And I find increasing the beats per minute on the metronome is a great way to challenge my ability to maintain control under pressure -- which will only improve my playing ability. If only I didn't have the knot in my gut at all the hoops I have to go through to get it to work right.
If there are any other i-Tab users out there, I look forward to reading your experiences.
