PMP Today

The website FreeiPhoneForMoney has a proposal for anyone who can come up with a software that can release iPhone from AT&T’s clutches. The offer is $100,000 U.S. and it’s all perfectly legal because the site will be releasing the software as open source to the Web. Yes, the Internets. My take? Instead of open source, why not make it a straightout freeware. That way I can use it too.

[source via engadget]

Creative’s new player is simpmly called ZEN, and it looks like most other PMPs only with more, well, finesse. It’s a good successor to the chubby Zen V Plus. The wider 2.5-inch 320 x 240-pixel, 16.7m million-color screen, though nothing special, is still a step up for Creative. ZEN supports WMV, Divx, Xvid, MJPEG, and TIVO to Go, MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM), AAC and Audible. It has an FM tuner and voice recorder, plays 25 hours of audio, 5 hours of video. ZEN is available in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB versions for $149, $199, $299 respectively.

Don;t bother looking for this slim Creative PMP (that’s actually saying much) on Amazon. The link has apparently been removed.
[via epizenter] Read the rest »

Toshiba has thought it fit to offer us another set of very tempting PMPs. The New Gigabeat T-series consists of a Wifi-enabled player and a non-WiFi one. Both have similar specs otherwise. The T401 is the WiFi-enabled offering, while the T401S will have to make do with WMV playback at 320 x 240-pixel and 262k-colors on a 2.4-inch screen. Both players will run on Windows Mobile and will support MTP and MSC protocols. The layers with benefit on H2C sound technology when playing MP3 and WMA audio. Only 4GB players are available. Launch date is September 7 in Japan. No price yet.

[via anythingbutipod]

Taiwan-based Newtrend Electronics has released a device that receives DVB-T and has electronic program guide (EPG) and teletext functionality. In case you want to play your own stuff, it supports WAV, AAC, MP3 and WMA audio files, and M-JPEG, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 and DivX video formats. It does regular JPEGs too, in case you want to use it as a digital photo frame. Believe it or not, this thing really is portable (despite the size), as shown by the Li-Pol battery.

This mystery device has a 7-inch TFT LCD with a 480×234-pixel resolution and contrast of 300: 1. A big fan of expandability, it has a slot for CF and Microdrive (pretty old-school, actually) cards. Not enough for you? There’s also a 5-in-1 slot for SD, MMC, MS, xD, and SMC cards. Built-in 2W stereo speakers are standard, as is a remote control. Dimension are 200×143x20.7mm. Hey, you can always stick in your ride if you get tired (car power adaptor included).

[via b2bchinasources]

Chinese-manufacturer SmartQ’s new T5 PMP boasts a 3-inch screen 320 x 240-pixel screen and plays all sorts of video formats (AVI (Xvid), RM/RMVB, MPEG, 3GP, FLV at 30fps. It also supports MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, APE, WAV(PCM,ADPCM), AV, JPEG, GIF(including GIF89a), BMP, PNG, TXT so this player will not leave you high and dry without a new compatible media format to play. Form factor is a nice 112 × 58 × 13mm. No price yet, but it’s definitely another Chinese PMP to consider.

[via engadget]

Sorry to disappoint you guys, but the photos of what rumors say is the new iPod Nano is not actually a Nano. What you are looking at is the new line of iPods (iPod 6G, iPod WiFi, call it whatever you want), which will be slimmer, lighter, and have more memory capacity than originally anticipated. You’ll never have to worry about running out of space because the new iPod will be available in 40 GB (92g light and about 9mm wide) and 80 GB (121g light and 11m wide). It will not run on Mac OS system, but CoverFlow technology will be integrated into the iPods and the interface will be given a complete overhaul. The iPod’s reactivity has been improved and the mini-jack will be replaced by one made out of better quality. Besides this, the new iPod will have WiFi capabilities, allowing you to connect to AppleTV and distribute music. No news on whether or not this model has video playback features.

Hopefully this won’t be another false alarm, but rumors say that the new iPod should be hitting stores very soon. Stay tuned! We’ll definitely keep you updated.

[via mac4ever]

Sony is serious about reviving their standalone Walkman line. The NW-A800 Walkman was a fine player with video playback. Video playback is a crucial development for standalone Walkmans. Sony has proven itself in the convergence market by providing Sony Ericsson phones with top-of-the-line integrated MP3 player. It’s high time they go after iPod.

The NWZ-S615 and NWZ-A815 are 2GB players in the style of the NW-A800. They support WMA DRM music and offer 18 hours of video playback and 33 hours of music on one recharge. They should get an official announcement during the IFA.

[via engadget]

We’ve lauded the Wolverine ESP before for being a HDD PMP with a mother load of storage space, starting with 80GB and maxing out at 160GB. Now, even that maximum HDD capacity will look absolutely miniaturized beside the new offering: a 250GB PMP. Also known as Vosonic VP line, the ESP boasts a 3.6-inch viewing screen and multimedia playback support for WMV9, and Xvid, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC. The ESP also functions as a DVR and is equipped with an FM tuner and USB port. Price is $649.99.

[wolverine via engadget]

Ecolong has a battery life of 85 hours per recharge on an AAA Alkaline battery, making this MP3 player the most energy efficient player we’ve heard thus far and worthiest of the green color. Unfortunately it only comes in green camouflage, not the leafy type we expect from such an ecological and earth-friendly MP3 player. Another color variation that you might like is the clean-sheets white. We’re hoping you’ll buy this MP3/DAB for its eco-friendliness and its weight (34 grams) and not for its form factor, which is a rather fat 78 x 36.6 x18.5mm. Storage size is also a paltry 1GB. We have no idea how much it costs yet, but if it’s under $150, we’re sure enough people will support an MP3 player that plays non-stop for 85 hours, and may we suggest a PMP player with the same, or almost the same, battery life?

[via akihabaranews]

PMPs from Grundig have the unique trait of looking exactly like the name of their manufacturer. Rough, Teutonic PMPs that resemble mallets or blunt killing tools. Not this time. The MPixx 7000 and MPixx 4100 may not win any design awards but they are a big leap towards totally overhauling Grundig’s rough and tumble image (at least as far as PMP Today is concerned). The MPixx 7000, which is the player above) has a 2.4-inch QVGA 262K-color screen, plays MPEG4, MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, JPEG, BMP, has a built-in FM tuner and FM recorder, a mic and is available in 2GB ($200) and 4GB ($240) versions. Read the rest »