The Anydrive comes packaged in a simple hanging plastic shell that gives you a good look at the unit, the cables and other accessories are under the small "box" in the back. There is enough info on the insert to let you know what the Anydrive does.

The unit itself is made of plastic and honestly I wasn't that impressed with the build quality, it felt cheap and fragile. Part of the reason for this, aside from the plastic is the unit weighs next to nothing and gives you the impression you are holding an empty plastic shell, once you install the batteries and get some weight behind it, it doesn't feel as cheap.

Starting from the front of the unit and working our way around we first have the LCD, the LCD is approx. 2" wide and 3/4" tall and has a multi color backlight. The top of the unit is where the controls are, there are only 5 buttons so it is pretty easy to operate once you figure out the cryptic instructions provided.

The left side is where you will find the SD card slot, moving to the bottom of the unit is where you will find the rest of the connections, USB, audio in and DC power. On the right is a hold switch and finally the back where you'll find the battery compartment. (The unit requires 2 AAA batteries)

I mentioned that the instructions were pretty cryptic, but the unit really isn't that hard to operate. To turn it on or off you press and hold the center (Play/Stop) button. To cycle through the options like Volume, Random, EQ, FM frequency etc. you press the A button and press the Forward or Back buttons to cycle through the choices in each option. The B button cycles through the different colors of backlighting.

The LCD provides pretty basic info like drive number (1 is SD card 2 is USB) FM frequency etc. when nothing is playing. When it is playing it displays time the current track has been playing. It doesn't list track title, artist etc.

Using the Anydrive is pretty straight forward, when using an SD cord or USB device it auto detects the MP3 files on the media and starts playing from the 1st track, you can skip forwards or backwards using the respective buttons as well as pause/resume playback at any time. Although it CAN be used like a standard MP3 player (with headphones) where the unit really shines is using the built in FM transmitter. Using it with headphones doesn't provide the greatest audio quality, plus just the way it is designed makes it rather awkward to use if you were jogging, or working our for example. There is no belt clip to attach it to anything and at least when used with a USB device there's no way to carry it. The target market for this thing is definitely for use in a vehicle.

I have an old winter beater (those of you that live up north, or anywhere that has harsh winters will know what I'm talking about) Bronco 2 that still has a factory AM/FM cassette player in it and I use one of those old fashioned cassette adapters to play my MP3 player over the car stereo. If you have ever used one of these your aware of the loss in sound quality as well as some of the other problems associated with them. It took all of about 5 seconds to get the Anydrive playing over my car stereo and I was off for a long drive enjoying the music I wanted to hear and not the music some corporate yo-yo on the radio thinks I want to hear.

I also have an XM radio in my Bronco that plays over the stereo via FM transmitter and have always had a problem with the XM putting out a very weak signal with the Anydrive I had no problems with reception, even standing outside the car the Anydrive sent a clear signal to my FM radio. If you listened VERY closely there was a faint amount of background noise, but after all it is FM radio not digital high definition audio.

Final Thoughts:
My first impression of the Anydrive was that it is a cheaply made toy and that it was going to be an uphill battle for it to impress me. It looks and feels like a toy, but as we all know looks can be deceiving. As a stand alone MP3 player it leaves a lot to be desired, while it DOES work as a standalone player it is very feature limited and awkward. Audio quality was so-so and had very little volume adjustment. The Anydrive is definitely an Item meant to be used in an automobile, and for that purpose it works fantastic.

The only drawback is there are only 7 preset FM stations you can use it on luckily they are at the low end of the dial where you won't find many stations that will interfere with the signal. For use in the car the basic functions offered are more than enough, there's no need to take your eyes off the road while you fumble with the player to figure out which button does what.

The FM transmitter puts out a strong enough signal that you don't have to worry about it dropping out (unlike my XM) My only REAL complaint about the whole package is is the car adapter, the cord on it is VERY short, yes it is coiled but even stretched to it's limits it is still only about 2' long, if that. This resulted in the Anydrive usually dangling from the dash. Some kind of mounting option included with the unit would solve that, even if it was just a piece of Velcro. Of course, you can just run on battery power, but I'd rather use a dedicated power source when I can and save the batteries for back up.

If your looking for a stand alone MP3 player for the money there are much better choices out there than the Anydrive, But if you are looking for a way to transmit the music from your MP3 player to an FM receiver the Anydrive is a great choice. Sure there are a lot of FM transmitters on the market but the Anydrive also provides the ability to play MP3's from other media sources not just an MP3 player. Simple to use, supports multiple types of media, FM transmitter with great signal strength, what more could you ask for.

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