If you’re interested in either PMPs, you can go to the Samsung site and have a look around.

“Samsung is keeping the portable media player experience fresh with these two new offerings. We’ve combined high quality movie and video capability with a superior audio experience all in two compact designs,” said Reid Sullivan, senior vice president of the Mobile Entertainment Group at Samsung Electronics America. “The R1 and R0 are a great fit for anyone who wants easy access to all of their favorite music, movies, video and photos.”

Offered in black and silver, the R1 offers a responsive, clear 2.4-inch TFT LCD touch screen with a “drag and drop” feature that allows you to easily enjoy audio/video files and libraries with the swipe of a finger. Keeping pace with your busy life, it has video, music and photo playback for up to 50 hours of audio and four hours of video enjoyment. Small in size, the R1 still offers plenty of space for video content and is ideal for popping in your pocket when you’re on the go. Within its tiny package, it includes an FM Radio and Recorder as well as voice recording and can also be paired with a Bluetooth TM enabled headset.

The R0 comes in a compact package as well, with a bright 2.6-inch LCD display making the experience of what you watch as bright as what you hear. Navigation is also easy with the addition of tactile keys. Offered in black, silver and pink, it is well suited for those on the run, playing up to six hours of video and 30 hours of audio. For fans who can’t get enough of their favorite music, movies and videos, it also offers an option for expanded memory space with the inclusion of a Micro SD slot.

For the complete press release, go here.

[via engadget]

It’s official at last, the Apple Tablet, officially the Apple iPad, a 9.7-inch IPS (screen professional graphic artists like) touchscreen that is only half an inch thick and weighs 1.5 pounds. Priced at $499, $599 and $699 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB and powered by Apple’s own P.A. Semi 1GHz chip also dubbed as “Apple A4.” You can have a 3G version for another $130 and an AT&T plan starting at $14.99 and $29.99 for the unlimited. Are there two cameras: one in the back and one in front?… Well, a big NO to iConferencing. They already have an SDK to be released as soon as today for the iPad, but it can already run all iPhone Apps without modification. The Apple iPad will be available in 2 months and the 3G version in 90 days.

Apple iBook is an eReader App for the iPad. Though the iPad obviously isn’t in the same league as E-Ink readers like the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook, Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan and Hachette are already on board. Prices begin at $12.99 for a book.

The Apple iPad battery lasts 10 hours. The design is squarish for a reason as you can hold it anywhere, the display will follow with the built-in accelerometer. It has WiFi n, Bluetooth, speaker, mic, 30-pin connector and a compass. It’s very fast, includes Google maps and supports 1080p videos and a new iTunes music player will be featured on the device. The New York Times has an iPad-ready version already available. The virtual keyboard is supposed to be very user-friendly though I only see photos of one-hand, one-finger typists.

Well, I’m a little bit disappointed as the Apple iPad is obviously a little too difficult to carry along with you everywhere. The iBookstore looks fantastic but for book prices are only a little cheaper than hard cover books and pricier than paperbacks. But I’m amazed at Apple’s boldness in taking on the Kindle et. al. market. I’m interested in seeing how the Apple iPad makes it in this non-existent market Steve Jobs dropped it in. Any ideas?

[sources: engadget, mashable]

Google’s mobile OS managed to crop up on a variety of devices this year including MIDs and netbooks, but touchscreen phones is undeniably still its niche and most lucrative market. With the exception of Nokia, all of the top handset makers - Samsung, LG, Motorola, and HTC – have made headlines with their Android phone offerings, and even newbies Acer and Dell have chosen to release Android phones of their own. We’ve also got Android to thank for our 2009 gadget of the year - Motorola Droid. Not only was it a great pick-up for the Verizon, but more importantly, the Droid, which we also consider as the best smartphone for 2009, helped bring Motorola back into the thick of things.

Looking forward, 2010 will be the year when the mobile OS wars heats up. Android will certainly be all grown up by then. However, Windows Mobile 7 and the new Symbian OS will both be making a big splash next year as well. Of course, we can’t forget iPhone OS 4.0, Palm’s webOS, and Samsung’s first homebrew OS called Bada which all look to be very capable and competent operating systems. It will be an interesting showdown between these mobile platforms as the OS, now more than ever, plays a key role in the success or failure of a particular device.

1. Microsoft’s Zune HD
2. Motorola Droid

With all honesty, the devices above live in the shadow of the iPhone and iPod (e.g. Touch). The ZuneHD is the most remarkable PMP in the market. Sleek, and equipped with an OLED screen, all it really lacks in our opinion is proper distribution and a competitive content marketplace. The Motorola Droid, on the other hand, has the Android App Store already paying dividends to its faithful and active community. The Droid isn’t a bad portable entertainment device either: it’s fast and powerful and blessed with a user interface not far from the usability of the iPhone UI. We even called it the best smartphone this year, and have found several established publications agreeing with us.

So Droid it is for 2009!

If you follow site metric systems provided by Alexa.com and Technorati.com, and follow this site, you’d know we have been on a steady growth phase for a few months now. Technically, traffic is growing every week, slowly but steadily, and we have our eyes set on expansion. PMP Today will no more concentrate on portable media players. Though we will retain our url and site name, we have plans to cover other devices in earnest. Hence our new motto: Watch, Listen, Read and Play. This will be our new guideline beginning probably early this year. Oh, we will have a new design ready by then. The new design, a modest one, will not be the biggest physical changes at PMP Today. We will be implementing more coverage and, yes, even reviews. That’s why we wish to inform interested writers, gadget reviewers and bloggers out there. We are looking for more talent to add to our editorial roster. We pay of course, so if this interests you, kindly go here and email us.

Mind you, the above is not an urgent requirement, but we will definitely get back to you if you catch our attention.

Well, today that’s finally changed. The Amazon Kindle is now also available for Canadians and will feature some local content such as The Globe and Mail and The National Post apart from their wide selection of international newspapers. Amazon was a little bit late in offering up the Kindle to those residing in Canada, but as they say, it’s better late than never. The Kindle is retailing for $259 or $275 in Canadian Dollars. Of course, feature-wise, it’s no match for the newer Barnes & Noble Nook e-ink reader, but with the Nook still on a pre-order status, the Kindle has the edge especially for customers who just can’t wait to get their hands on one.

[via bgr]

First the official Motorola Droid price: It’s $199 with a two-year contract and a $100 rebate in the mail.

Droid specs: Android 2.0 eclair OS, CDMA 1X 800/1900, EVDO rev. A, WiFi 802.11 b,g, 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash

The biggies: 3.7-inch (854 x 480) touchscreen with three-paneled customizable home screen, physical QWERTY keyboard (Droid is the world’s thinnest full QWERTY slider), Arm® Cortex™ A8 processor 550 MHz processor, real GPS with Google Maps support and turn-by-turn voice guidance–and we’ve included an Engadget video demoing the GPS and other features on Droid after the break.

The introductory video explains pretty much everything (and making a pretty good case about the Droid being an iPhone killer):

[source]

[source]

Honestly, I don’t remember the exact date I began writing for PMP Today, but after almost three years and 4,000 posts, we can look back and tell ourselves that we have come so far. We started as a couple of part-time bloggers and even now we remain just a little more than one. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop us from the little successes every dedicated and hard working tech blogger deserves. And yet we have been one of the very few lucky ones. We also had a lot of help. Thanks to all our friends from other Gadget blogs. Because of the generous link love of sites like Engadget and Gizmodo, Dap Review, Uber Gizmo, Crunch Gear, Boy Genius Report and Slashgear and Crave, not to mention the two hottest European sites on MP3 and portable media players–Journal du Geek and Generation MP3–we have become one of the more popularly linked sites in our niche. Much thanks also to our advertising partners. Even after all our modest successes we have never departed from our original purpose: to write the hottest news (along with a little iPhone news) on portable multimedia devices without prejudice, neither favoring the pricey nor the merely pretty relying solely on the understanding that every human needs to be entertained wherever the wind may bring him.–Editor

source

It’s also $259! Priced on the same level as the Kindle but offering more features. We all know this is coming, a Barnes and Noble ebook reader, officially Nook, but we didn’t know they’re going to make it a color reader. Just imagine the potential: e-books, e-newspapers and now e-magazines. The B&N Nook boasts two screen–a 6-inch diagonal e-ink screen and a 3.5-inch below for navigation. Unlike the Amazon Kindle, the Nook has WiFi, besides AT&T’s 3G antenna. On a full charge, the battery will give you reading time of up to ten days, though we’re not sure if this means it’s turned on a continuous 24 hours x 10. Storage is 2GB with the inclusion of a microSD slot. Definitely a more complete e-reader than its famous rival.

More information: Nook allows you to read where you left off with your markings and highlights on your your phone (Engadget mentions iPhone and BlackBerry) with the Barnes and Noble free e-reader. You can lend e-books to friends using the Nook, sample ebooks and Nook settings allow you to customize the Nook, and there’s a screensaver. You can have magazine and newspaper subscription and this goes to your “inbox.” Video at Engadget.

[barnesandnoble via gizmodo]

Meant for the Korean market with little hope of getting outside the country, The Samsung YP-VX1 is a voice recorder MP3 player combo that is as useful as it looks. The professional looking device. Will have music playback and ID3 tagging and even DNSe 3.0. There is not much else information available.

[via gmp3]