Livin in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in south detroit
He took the midnight train goin anywhere
A singer in a smokey room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night
(more…)
I never really thought about implementing an idea like this but thankfully, Speedo and iRiver have already done the hard work for us. The Aquabeat Waterproof MP3 player has both an appropriate name and look. It can go up to three meters underwater and has a mind-blowing 1GB of storage. Then again, how much music are you gonna need underwater?
With everything being waterproof, I tried to think of how you could possibly use this thing while swimming in the ocean. Then it hit me that this is the perfect MP3 player for your boat or jet ski unless you have an Otter Box or something similar. Oh, and it floats like a turd in case you lose it. Seems like a sure win for $145.
Valentine’s Day affects even the techlogy market. You wouldn’t think that companies would put too much effort into having special products for this holiday, but you’d be wrong. Samsung has just released their nice PMP, the K3, in Red (looks kinda pink). Samsung has changed no features for this new red edition. None. The casing is just red. So as a rundown of the features already on the black K3s, you get a 1.8″ OLED display, an FM tuner, touch-sensitive controls, and multiple audio format compatability including MP3 and WAV.Just so you don’t get confused, you won’t be helping any African children if you buy this, it isn’t associated with the PRODUCT(RED) campaign. It’s just red. –Nik Gomez
Samsung K3 now out in Red [via Gadgetell]
Can points be given for near perfect replication of a super-star media player? Probably not, but Ramos still did a very nice job with the Q13 and making the closest thing to a Nano close we’ve seen. It has the rounded sides, the 1.5-inch LCD (with a resolution of 176×132), video support, and the 1GB flash drive to boot. Unfortunately, this Q13 is a player destined for China. It will be available in two colors: black and light grey (very close to white). While there probably won’t be a scroll wheel (damn patents and laws), many other portable media players have gotten along just fine without it. –Nik Gomez
Ramos develops iPod nano clone [via Electronista]
WiFi, the latest and greatest feature addition that seems to ensure heavy press if you integrate it, right or wrong doesn’t matter. Here we have the Blu:sens G14 that has integrated the WiFi in a way that makes you wonder what Microsoft was thinking. Blu:sens will allow users so share songs with others wirelessly, and the recipients will be able to keep the data for good. DRM is out the window in this situation. Another killer feature is that you will be able to connect it to your computer without the problem of wires. It has Bluetooth to complement the WiFi . Finally, the G14 will support DivX no problem, MP3, WMA, and OGG. And now the problem, it will only come in 1 and 2GB capacities. Skimping on the amount of data users can stores cripples the great features implemented here. — Nik Gomez
Blu:sens G14 [via OhGizmo!]
Have you ever felt the desire to mess around with a Rubiks Cube while messing around on your MP3 player’s menus? No? Same here. While this concept for an MP3 player looks very simple and clean, actually thinking about it presents problems. If you first think about what a Rubiks cube is, you’ll realize that it’s puzzle. That is all a Rubiks Cube is. Why would you want to make any part of any portable media device a kind of puzzle? Menus and functions are supposed to be straightforward. As proven by the iPod, a two concentric circles sells the best. The idea here is that by turning the upper and lower sections (or maybe just the middle), you lock and unlock the buttons and fucntions of the media player. What is wrong with a hold button? This concept should stay that, just a concept. While the pictures are pretty and the blue on white probably made Apple balk for a second, there is no reason to have to think hard about your menu system. Working any portable device should be easy as pie. — Nik Gomez
If you haven’t already bought an iPod or any other MP3 player, you are pretty far behind the times, but don’t fret, all is not lost. Sansa has released its Express MP3 player that is designed specifically for those who don’t want to spend a large amount of money. It comes with 1GB of built-in flash storage, but if a gig isn’t quite enough for you, it also has a microSD slot so that you can expand to whatever you feel you need. It is scheduled to be released in the US and Europe March 2007 for $59.99. Even though it is probably one of the cheapest extra small form factor MP3 players on the market right now (it is about the size of a pack of gum), Sansa has been able to pack in the features. The Express plugs directly into your USB 2.0 port and is able to charge and transfer data straight through that. It also has a 1.1â€? bright OLED screen which is perfect for saving precious battery life (currently rated at around 16 hours). It has a built in digital FM tuner with recording ability, and it can recording your voice with a built-in microphone. As far as supported file formats go the Express supports MP3, WMA, protected WMA, WAV, and Audible files. It is hard to believe that Sansa is making any money from this, but because of the constanly dropping prices in manufacturing goods, we should be able to see many more MP3 players at this price with this level of quality. — Nik Gomez
So now that the Zune has come out, everyone is griping about how big it is compared to the iPod. Then take the Nano compared to the iPod. Then take the Shuffle compared to the Nano. Once you get to the Walletex compared to the Shuffle, that’s where we stop. The Walletex is currently the slimmest/thinnest MP3 player, and its intended purpose is not to find a place in your pocket; it is aiming for your wallet. So how thin is it? It is so thin that your headphones can’t be plugged directly into the little device. You need to connect a USB adapter to it, which then allows you to go to your headphones with their humongous 1/8-inch plug. The Walletex is both water and dust proof, but swimming with it probably isn’t recommended. The players are set to go on the market in June of ‘07 and range in capacities from the lowly 128MB to an entire 2GB.
Why does China get all of the pretty devices when we are stuck with the leftovers? The Teclast C260 is just another such device that won’t appear here, but if you happen to go to China, you might find one of these. The C260 features a full touch screen as well as navigation buttons on the right side of the device. The 2.4-inch QVGA TFT LCD touchscreen displays 260,000 colors, which plays into its name of C260. It is understandable that, due its extremely small size (near a credit card), the battery life falls behind the rest at about 12 hours. In addition to its great size, the C260 has a whole line up of nice features. It has an FM radio with 20 preset stations, a voice recorder, it plays games, views photos, and plays e-books. While no word on internal storage, it does support microSD cards. If you want a small player, there are some sacrifices you must be willing to make. All in all, forgetting its too intentionally clever name, this tiny player packs a punch… in China. — Nik Gomez
Teclast Says Touch Me [CrunchGear]
Maybe it isn’t a piece of amazing design work, but it is certainly a great deal. The ZVUE 250 personal media player is priced at $99.95. That’s under a hundred dollars! If you were to just read the features you’d think that it would be at least $200. It has a 2.5-inch active matrix backlit screen; it plays WMA, WMV, MP3, OGG, MP2, AVI, Xvid, MPEG4, ASF, JPG, and BMP file formats; and it measures 4.33â€?x2.91â€?x .8â€?.That’s right, it supports five different video formats that playback at up to 30 fps. It is compatible with Windows Media Player 10 and works with DRMed WMAs and WMVs. The main drawbacks of this product are that it doesn’t come with any internal storage, everything is done via its SD card slot (it does come with a starter 128MB card). The battery life also suffers due to its budget design. The battery only lasts up to six hours on a single charge. If someone on your Christmas list wants an MP3 player and you don’t feel like dishing out for an iPod, this is definitely your PMP on a budget.
