Go Play AV: Portable Audio, Video, Media and Game Players

From cNet Asia comes a first look at Panasonic’s latest offering, the SV-SD750V MP3 player

Even though warning bells have been ringing in the MP3 market with the demise of Rio and Olympus withdrawing its m:robe brand of MP3 players, Japanese electronics behemoth, Panasonic apparently sees a future in the still currently Apple-dominated domain.

Upside: Our prototype unit for the SV-SD750 came in a sleek silver finish with a classy mirrored front that’s reminiscent of the Sony E-500 series. It’s certainly good enough to function as an emergency mirror, and while scratches will be extremely visible a la the iPod nano, we like how the screen mysteriously materializes when the unit is switched on. Sort of like a mythical “mirror, mirror on the wall” routine.

Outlook: Certainly one of Panasonic’s best MP3 efforts so far, we can’t wait for the company to iron out the glitches in this prototype for the full retail version.

Read source article: Panasonic SV-SD750V - Review : Portable A/V - CNET Asia

Technorati Tags: digital audio player, mp3 player, Panasonic, portable audio, portable entertainment

From Gizmodo:

Here’s a novel idea: an MP3 player with wireless headphones that can switch you from listening to your tunes to a phone mode to answer cellphone calls via a bluetooth link—all using a digital audio System on Chip (SoC) solution from SigmaTel. The FunTwist C-Chord800 supports MP3, WMA and WAV formats as well as EQ modes, ID3 tag display, synchronous lyrics for Karaoke.

The product is flash-based and comes in 256MB, 512MB and 1GB models.

Now that’s a step in the right direction, although, from other reports, Bluetooth headsets don’t have the audio quality aficionados desire. It’s not a bad looking device though.

Read source article: MP3 Player With Wireless Switching - Gizmodo

Technorati Tags: digital audio player, mp3 player, portable audio, portable entertainment

TrustedReviews put the Creative Zen Nano and iRiver T20 flash based MP3 players up against each other:

I really wanted to like the Creative Zen Nano. The critical factor - its sound quality- is excellent, it is generally easy to use and on top of this it has a decent pair of headphones in the box. It is also light, rugged and very small.But despite all of this, its looks, the irritating lack of a browse feature and the absence of rechargeability out of the box undermines all of the good work. And at £65 I’m afraid to say it isn’t exactly the best value 512MB player around either.

Despite the iRiver T20’s tiny size and good looks, iriver is going to have to try a lot harder than this if it is to make any kind of impact on Apple’s increasingly dominant hold on the MP3 player market.

As it is it’s just about on a par with Creative’s Zen Nano – better in some ways, not as good in others. But even if the T20 was improved, and iriver made it easier to use, cheaper than the £72.99 it is listed at at the moment, and ironed all of the kinks out, it would still struggle to be a serious iPod nano contender.

Read source article: TrustedReviews - The UK’s Premier Source for IT Reviews & News
Lookup on Amazon: “Creative Zen Nano 512 MB MP3 Player White” (Creative Labs)

Lookup on Amazon: “iRiver T20 512 MB MP3 Player” (iRiver)

portable audio, portable entertainment

MobileWhack report the availability of a super battery for the iPod. Not necessarily one you’d want to lug around in your pocket, but great for any extended trips where you’re seated.

Although the Apple iPod battery has consistently improved through every new iteration, you’re still going to run into a scenario where you wished you had more power. That’s where the iCel Portable Power Supply comes in. Connect the iCel to your iPod and you can enjoy between 50 to 200 hours of extra battery life. (of course there’s no guarantee that you’ll enjoy the music like the woman is in the picture).

The iCel is available in three models, the iCel 201 is available for $99, the 202 for $149 and the 205 for $199.

Read source article: iCel - portable power for the Apple iPod : MobileWhack.com

Technorati Tags: icel, ipod battery, ipod portable power supply

MobileWhack alert us to a new portable DVD player from Toshiba.

Toshiba Japan has announced the introduction of the new SP-P2800 portable DVD player - a truly decked out DVD player. The player has a display capable of 800 x 480 resolutions and a viewing angle of 170 degrees all around.

The SP-P2800 supports DVD-Video, and DVD-R/RW in VR mode. You’ll also be able to play back MP3, DivX, and WMA files stored on CD/CDRW discs. The device includes a 14 bit/108MHz video DAC for high quality picture conversions.

One final tidbit - the SP-P2800 has a built in 4 in 1 card reader (supporting SD< MMC, Memory Stick, and XD picture cards). MP3, WMA, JPEG, and DivX files can be played back directly from these memory cards onto the player. There’s also tuners for television, CATV, and FM Radio.

It’s that last paragraph that is most interesting. Will we see a merger of devices so that portable DVD players will also sport hard disks? This suits us fine as sometimes you don’t have the time to rip a DVD to watch on a HDD based player. But you’d still have the ability to load the player up with the kid’s favorite movies for that long road trip.

Read source article: Toshiba SD-P2800 Portable DVD player : MobileWhack.com

Technorati Tags: Portable DVD player, portable entertainment, toshiba

Ubergizmo report on iRiver’s entry into the portable game console, market currently dominated by season pros, Sony and Nintendo.

iRiver’s struggle against the mighty iPod has led the company to go up against Sony’s PSP with its upcoming portable gaming handheld. It will feature WiBro, the direct competitor to WiMax as the future standard of wireless connectivity. Korea-based ReignCom plans to unleash this handheld console in August next year and hopes to cannibalize on the PSP’s sales with a projected WiBro subscriber base of 9 million.

Honestly, after loosing a marketing battle with Apple, is it really a good idea to start a technology war with Sony? Good luck iRiver.

We couldn’t agree more.

No news on specs yet.
Read source article: iRiver takes PSP head on

Technorati Tags: iriver, portable entertainment, portable gaming, portable game console, Sony PSP

Apple Insider report that Motorola are releasing a new iTunes phone

Modelled after the Motorola RAZR V3, the RAZR V3i (previously dubbed the RAZR2) will be just the second mobile handset to feature Apple’s iTunes software. It includes an updated and streamlined brushed-metal design, offering a large internal color screen, a hot swappable TransFlash memory card, quad-band technology and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

The handset, which includes a dedicated iTunes key, also sports an integrated 1.23 megapixel digital camera with a full screen view-finder, 8x digital zoom, and video capture and playback.

Feature list from Motorola’s website:

• Updated and streamlined Motorola RAZR V3 design
• 1.23 megapixel digital camera with 8x digital zoom, video capture and full screen viewfinder
• iTunes® music software or Motorola’s Digital Audio Music Player** with mini-USB stereo headset
• Airplane mode
• Hot swappable MicroSD™ memory card
• 262K color wallpapers & screensavers on internal display
• 65K color support on external display
• Speaker independent name & digit dialing
• Dedicated browser and messaging keys***
• Integrated Class 1 Bluetooth technology with imaging, printing, peer to peer gaming profiles
• Motorola’s SCREEN3 technology* solution featuring zero-click access to news, sports, entertainment and other program content*
• Rich, pre-loaded or downloaded J2ME™ games, screen savers and MP3 ringtones

Let’s hope it’s better than the first, which was widely perceived as a flop.

Read source article: AppleInsider | Motorola introduces RAZR V3i handset with iTunes

Lookup on Amazon: “Motorola RAZR V3 Phone (Cingular)” (Motorola)

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An end user review of the Creative Zen Nano MP3 player is presented by Titus Barik. This makes a good change from the professional reviewers. What does the guy in the street think? Titus, who is the guy in the car in the street is enamored with his alternative Nano and tells us:

As a Linux user, my requirements are a little more stringent than most MP3 users. Any hardware purchase that I make must work in Linux. And by work, I don’t mean third-party hacks by volunteer developers, I mean actual, honest to god, standard support without any proprietary hooks or extensions.

The Zen Nano targets a different consumer market than the iPod Nano. But if you’re looking for a tiny, durable MP3 player that gets the job done without any fluff, look no further than this excellent purchase. (9/10)

Read source article: TB | November 3, 2005

Lookup on Amazon:

“Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 Player Red” (Creative Labs)

Technorati Tags: creative zen nano, digital audio player, mp3 player, portable audio, portable entertainment

Pocket-lint write that Creative are updating the Zen Sleek MP3 Player:

Creative has launched the a photo version of its Zen Sleek MP3 player dubbing it the Zen Sleek Photo. The 20GB MP3 player and photo viewer features a new 1.7 inch 262k colour OLED screen.

Aside from the addition of a new screen and support for images the player is identical to the previous model.

Photo? Nano? Where do these guys come up with such original monikers?

Read source article: Pocket-lint.co.uk Creative adds photo playback to Zen Sleek MP3 player news story

Lookup on Amazon:

“Creative Zen Sleek 20 GB MP3 Player” (Creative Labs)

Technorati Tags: digital audio player, mp3 player, portable audio, portable entertainment, creative zen sleek

Pocket-lint alert us to this interesting tidbit:

Nintendo has announced a Retro edition of its new Game Boy Micro in America.

The new mini handheld console will be available from the 28 November and is being launched to honour the 20th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System home console.

The new Game Boy Micro base unit will be maroon with a gold NES-inspired faceplate, and will cost $99.99 in the US. It also will come packed with a $10 coupon that can be used toward the purchase of select Nintendo-published Game Boy Advance games.

“The Special 20th Anniversary Edition Game Boy Micro is an anniversary present to millions of Nintendo fans, who 20 years ago single-handedly built this entire industry,” says George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications.

Read source article: Pocket-lint.co.uk Nintendo launch Retro edition Game Boy Micro news story

If you want a more tradition Game Boy Micro, lookup on Amazon:

“GBA Micro Black” (Nintendo)

Technorati Tags: nintendo, nintendo game boy