PMP Today

Archos has announced the release of the Archos 404 Camcorder portable media player which is Mac and Windows compatible. Features of the Archos 404 include the ability to record 80 hours of video on a 30 GB hard drive, 3.5-inch LCD screen, and read all standard video formats in full DVD resolution. Read the rest »

KFE Japan ltd knows how much you love your TV and how heartbreaking it is for you to leave it every morning! So they came up with the ISDB-T Portable TV EXEMODE i35 equipped with 1SEG technology.
With a 3.5 inches liquid crystals display (that is a 320×240 resolution), the video quality should be good, for the audio part the mono speaker visible on the front will be just fine while the antenna could very well save your life when going through a tunnel at a crucial moment !

Thanks to its super light (110g) lithium-ion battery, the EXEMODE i35’s autonomy reaches 5 hours, enough not to ever miss your favourite show!

This new portable TV will come out in march 2007 at a price of more or less 20,000 Yen (~ $165 Dollars).

[via akihabara]

Singapore-based Shiro looks set to bust out a trio of new portable media players for those that prefer their devices slightly less soccer ball-shaped, with CNET reporting the company will introduce its MK, ME, and VE PMPs at CeBIT next month. The purple-accented Shiro VE is the top-end model of the bunch, with a 2.4-inch display, 4GB of flash memory, and a microSD slot for additional storage. A notch below that is the Shiro ME, which packs the same microSD slot and 4GB of storage but shrinks things down with a 1.8-inch screen. Rounding out the line-up, the 2GB Shiro MK opts for an SD/MMC slot instead of a microSD one and gives up a few millimeters in thickness in favor of a built-in speaker. All three models also pack a built-in FM radio and voice recording capabilities. While there’s no word on price or availability for any of them just yet, if Shiro’s other players are any indication, we wouldn’t hold out much hope of them finding their way to our shores anytime soon.

[via CNET Asia]

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — <Visual News> Freesat is rolling out its DMB navigation ‘Celrun FDN-3700′ in Korea market. It features Intel CPU, 4GB SD memory and additional 16GB CF memory slot. So, the company claims that it can save about 13 movies without converting process. It supports TPEG(Transport Protocol Expert Group) for real-time traffic information, games, karaoke, and other supplementary functions including something that protects drivers from falling asleep during a long drive. It will be available in March and price is not known yet.

[source: aving]

Korean manufacturer HyOn looks to be doing its best to stand out from the multitude of other distraction-happy GPS/DMB/PMP devices out there, cramming all the usual suspects and a few more into its new MyWi T10 unit. Up front and center is the unit’s relatively large 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen display, which should accommodate your DMB TV viewing nicely, even when you decide to up the driving difficulty level by viewing it on top of your maps with the picture-in-picture setting. For safer viewing, you can also sit back and control the unit with the included remote control. Otherwise, the device will give you all the usual GPS and PMP functions, with an SD card slot providing your primary storage, and two USB ports expanding your in-car accessory options. While there doesn’t appear to be any word on price, as you can no doubt guess, it won’t be making its way onto North American roads anytime soon.

iRiver introduces in Korea a new thin version of the iRiver Clix.

When the first version of the iRiver Clix appeared in Korea in 2005 it was called iRiver U10. In the United States iRiver started to market this small digital media player under the Clix name. The Clix actually is technically different, because it supports Microsoft’s MTP. Microsoft asked iRiver to make a U10 with MTP to support for instance the music download site URGE. Now iRiver adopts the Clix product name for a new thin (12.8/8.2mm) version of the U10 in Korea. Mistic River moderator Tai Ming Sow pointed out that the new Clix has iriverclix2 written on the back label. Additionally iRiver technicians refer to the new Clix as U20 clix, which is also reflected on the firmware filename. Tai Ming Sow also points out that the clix2 is not MTP specific and can be switched between UMS(MSC) and MTP with in the firmware by formatting the player.
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The hard disk-based iPod seems to have stagnated, having not really changed in design or features for the past two years.

However, iPod accessories have not stopped evolving.

The iLuv i1055WHT ($149.99) finds itself challenging two markets of portable video players - those made for the road and those found in cars.

The iLuv is basically a portable DVD player which happens to have a dock for the video-capable iPod at the rear.

Just pop in your iPod (only video-capable versions) and you can watch all the videos stored on your portable players on the 7-inch screen.

Read the rest »

There is no shortage of options when you’re in the market for an adequately sized portable media player, especially when you want more than 30GB worth of internal memory. Where the Wolverine ESP beats the competition, however, is that it comes equipped with a super beefy 160GB HDD as well as a 7-in-1 memory card reader.

The Gizmodo editors note, though, that the Wolverine ESP is “a bit portly for our taste.” The footprint on the 3.6-inch QVGA device is about the same as a deck of cards, measuring less than an inch thick, and tipping the scales at 10.2 ounces. It’s a “great dumping ground for your digital photos“, as well as an adequately equipped video player, accepting DivX and AC3 files with the best of them.Other niceties include an FM radio, USB port, and a music player. The 3.6-inch display isn’t widescreen unfortunately, and if you need PVR functionality, you’ll need to invest in a $70 optional cradle. The Wolverine ESP PMP is available now for $549.99.

Brace yourself: corporate speak ahead. We normally aren’t in for all this “cost synergies” and “roadmap” hogwash that all the suits seem to get so hot for, but when it comes to a merger of two cutthroat competitors like this, we couldn’t help but take a peek. Other than the technology improvements we mentioned, there isn’t much talk about consumer benefits in here, and there’s absolutely no mention of creating some sort of single satellite radio provider, just the power of combined resources. Most of the talk is directed at shareholders and those “synergies” that help out the bottom line — to the tune of an estimated $3-7 billion in savings, though a $4 billion “flex” does seem to cast a bit of doubt on those numbers. The rest of the slides deal with plans for getting regulatory approval, which basically amount to arguing the case of intense competition from radio, iPods and other emerging wireless standards (see above). That said, XM and Sirius seem quite confident of success on the regulatory end of things, and look to have put a quite a bit of thought into it. Pending approval from the feds, along with respective shareholder go-ahead, XM and Sirius plan on sealing the deal by the end of 2007.

Quantum and AvMap are teaming up to produce what they dub the “world’s first” DVB-H capable Pocket TV with SAT NAV functionality, and while we’ve seen a touch of DVB-H in handheld devices before, it’s good to see yet another creation joining the do-it-all fray. Announced at 3GSM, the Linux-based QTM 1000 Nav boasts a 4.3-inch WQVGA widescreen display, 400:1 contrast ratio, 80-degree viewing angle, DVR functionality, 128MB of Flash memory, 64MB of onboard RAM, an SD card slot, dual stereo speakers, a four-hour rechargeable battery, SiRF Star III receiver, Tele Atlas maps, and USB 2.0 connectivity. Aside from playing back DVB-H signals at 25 frames-per-second, it also allows viewing / purchasing of Pay TV channels, and it plays nice with H.264, MPEG4, AAC, MP3, JPEG / GIF / PNG, M4V, and AVI files when not tuning in to a broadcast. Unfortunately, there weren’t any details regarding price or future availability, but those kicking around in Europe should give this one some serious consideration if you’re looking to consolidate.