New SweetPea3 (v.2.0) 4 GB MP3 Player for Kids (Blue)

I am setting this up for my son for Christmas so I will probably update this after he has started using it.First impression: this thing is HUGE! It is about the size of my hand (average size woman). It feels very durable, but light. I like the speaker size. At maximum volume I hear it fine when it is next to me on the couch plugged into the USB port and a quiet voice is reading the Jim Weiss story that was included. The music included is much louder. You can hear that across the room.I won't be giving my son headphones for it yet as he is 4 so no info on that.The menu is very straightforward to navigate, though slightly cumbersome with only three buttons. The middle button is "select" and the left and right buttons are up and down. You press the middle button for five seconds to access the menu. It really is a full five seconds, not just a five count so it is unlikely that a child would do that by accident.UPDATE 3/15/2014This product stopped working due to the firmware issues that seem to be universal with this product. It did take a bit of time for CS to get back to me about it, for which they were very apologetic. CS called me and used a remote desktop application to fix the issue for me. It took about 20 minutes, but would have been faster if the connection had been faster or if I had already downloaded the needed files. In my case, the fix that was emailed to me in my first support ticket did not work because my computer was on its last leg. When I replied to that email, that was when there was a delay. I am using a different computer now and hadn't tried the fix on it but think it might have worked- just didn't make the connection between the computer issues and the fix not working.I say give this product a chance- it worked beautifully initially and now it is working great again!!!

I love everything about this product, unfortunately, it is electronically defective. I have ordered 2 and they both failed. The first one was charged for over 2 hours. I easily loaded 150 toddler songs, tested it, changed some settings and it worked just great. I then wrapped it up since it was a Christmas present for my special needs son. The very next day, it wouldn't completely turn on and made little clicking noises. It appeared to be locked up on the first screen that says "SweetPea3". I tried recharging it, resetting it as instructed , letting the battery run down and recharging it again, everything I could think of including goggling more info. Nothing worked, It never played again. Since I thought this product was so perfect for him, I ordered a second unit and returned the first one as "defective". I had better luck with the second unit, however, it is now doing the same thing the first unit was doing. So, I'm going to send it back as "defective" as well.If this product was more reliable, I would give it 5 stars because it's very simple and when it was working, was great for my son. I actually used a big carabiner snap and a lanyard to hang the player around his neck (he's 18, not a toddler). He would then walk around holding the player to his ear and let it hang down when he wanted to do something else. Neither unit was ever dropped on the floor, so there is no practical reason for either of them to stop working.Another reason for the 1 star rating.... I opened a problem ticket on the manufacturers web site almost 2 months ago and I haven't received any correspondence from them.

I remember being a kid and being in control of my own music. I had a tape deck and a couple of cassette tapes with Sesame Street songs, and I could listen by myself for hours. Fast forward to today. No more tape decks. No more cassette tapes (and pretty much no more CD's either). But there are still kids. And there is still music. The trick is putting the two together. I'm not about to give my 2-year-old kid an iPod or something that always requires headphones, but I wanted her to be able to be in control of her own music somehow. The SweetPea3 gives her that power. My daughter loves being able to flip through her songs. I love the volume controls and auto-off timer.My only quibble (which dropped this review to 4 stars): it seems like the battery ought to last a bit longer. I haven't tried to measure the battery life precisely, but I think that 2-3 hours seems to be the max. That's not a deal breaker, because a 2-year-old's attention span lasts about 20 minutes, so I only end up having to recharge once a week or so.I did a lot of research before making my purchase, and I have no regrets. Nothing on the market seems to come close to the combination of good design and features in this device.PROS:- durability (rubberized case can take some good drops)- speaker (no headphones needed; speaker quality is fine)- kid-operability (easy to push the buttons; very simple navigation)- parental control features (volume control and off timer are key; haven't used the alarm clock or nap functions yet)CONS:- iffy battery (shouldn't be an issue unless your kid listens to more than 2 hours of music per day)