Accessories:

As with any piece of computer equipment or consumer electronics, there are various accessories included. Ultra Products has supplied everything but the music for the Hydra.


There is a pair of earbud headphones, a lariat, a USB data cable, one AAA battery, earbud covers, a mini CD, and a User's Manual. Ultra Products has included the mini CD so you can connect it to Windows 98 machines. The User's Manual will walk you through all operations of the Hydra with ease.


Menu and Options:

To turn on the player, simply hold down the Play/Pause button on the front of the player. When it starts, you are presented with the main menu, where the name of the first song on the player will be shown alphabetical). This menu is quite busy, with a good deal of information available. In the upper left corner there is the volume level which is presented as both volume bars and a numerical value (the maximun volume is listed as 31). Next we have a mode indicator which shows whether the device is in MP3, Voice, or FM tuning mode. This is followed by the EQ mode, the play mode, and finally the battery indicator. The second row of information gives the play mode (Play, Pause, etc), time elapsed, and finally the current/total track number. The last row shows the ID3 tag information.


Pressing and holding the menu button for about two seconds reveals the system's eight sub-menus. Each of these will provide more options for the specific selection. The below left image shows the first menu option, "Music". While I am calling it a menu, all it really does is allow you to play the MP3s installed onto the player. Using the Next/Previous button, you can scroll through the menus to the second option, which is for "Voice" recordings. A quick press of the Menu button will show any voice recordings on the device.