Thanko might not be known for their practicality, but I think they might be on to something for once. Their Micro Sports MP3 Player looks more like a Bluetooth headset. The device fits right into your ear with a built-in earbud. It’s that tiny.
Available in 2GB and 4GB flavors, the Micro Sports MP3 Player looks a little chintzy, but seems to be even tinier than Apple’s iPod Shuffle.
An ingenious DIYer noticed that the second generation iPod Shuffle and the Apple Remote have a similar shape. So similar that the two devices could be merged together with some crafty electronic finagling.
When headphones are connected to the Shuffle / Remote mash-up device, the gadget works as the music player. Without headphones, the device carries the features of an Apple Remote. You won’t be saving too much room by eliminating one or the other, but you will have one less toy to worry about losing. That damn Apple Remote has a way of disappearing.
So over the weekend, one of the bigger topics floating about the Internet involved Apple’s new iPod Shuffle. After dissecting the new set of headphones it comes with, Boing Boing Gadgets discovered a very small chip on the inside of the headphones that was overlooked by nearly everyone. BBG speculates that the chip is some kind of proprietary DRM chip that Apple will use to force third-party manufacturers to pay Apple a fee for making headphones. While it makes sense, I don’t think that’s the case here. If you look at the chip, it’s really too small for any kind of DRM nonsense. I’m thinking it has to do with the new control scheme for the Shuffle. What do you think?
If you want to call it an update, that is. For $49, you can score a 1GB iPod Shuffle in one of four new colors: blue, green, red and pink. Your old pal silver is still available, just in case you read too many Ziggy cartoons as a child. Apple has a 2GB version available as well for only $69, making it the better deal. Are you as excited as I am for these brand-fucking-new colors? Glad to hear it.
It’s the holiday season and you know what that means: toys! That’s why Toys ‘R’ Us is expanding its tech side by adding Apple iPods and Asus Eee PC netbooks to its inventory. The iPods will be sold within specially designed “iPod boutique” wall displays. iPod Shuffle, Nano and Touch will all be available come next month, but for how long is anyone’s guess.
The netbooks will be available in Linux and Windows XP versions which are priced at $269 and $299, respectively. Has your kid been bugging you lately for a laptop computer? Netbooks are the affordable solution which provide all the basic necessities of computing without the superb specs. Even better, most kids will never know the difference.
Shuffle Cam is a design concept by William Boulier, which takes photos at a specific user set time interval, depending on the events nature, to document where you have been. Shuffle Cam has modes for event, classic, and daily, each bearing a different time difference between shots. These options can be chosen from the side of the device.
Shuffle Cam then allows the user to upload the photos to their computer as a reel, and delete and edit them as they please. The concept is a pretty cool idea if you are into those 365 day photo projects (which we have never been able to stick to). It could give you a way to get unique and interesting shots that you wouldn’t of even thought about before. — Andrew Dobrow
When we want music, we want music everywhere, some of us even want it underwater, so somebody created the underwater MP3 player. The problem of listening to music underwater is that the earphone lines are going to tangle, let alone the fact that your ears would feel uncomfortable because of the super tight earbuds; another danger would actually be not knowing what’s going on underwater because you can’t hear. Thanko has solved all these problems today.
Similar to their original bone-conduction headphone, instead of placing the buds into your ears, you would be pressing them against your skull close to your ears, you would be listening to the music via bone conduction and not air conduction. One more thing, since the headphone is water-proof and shaped like a headband, Thanko also added a little pouch where you can slide your iPod Shuffle in. So you can listen to your iPod Shuffle underwater without worrying about the chords, or what’s going on underwater (you still have your ears to hear). Pretty neat eh? The waterproof headband bone-conduction headphones will be available starting today at $85 in Japan. –Sam Chan
Apple has released a new improvement on the line of the iPod Shuffles: colors! Instead of the plain, boring silver, you now can choose between pink, green, blue, orange, and silver. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any specs have been changed, it’s still only a gig, still $79. So if your children (or you) have been asking for a Nano because they like the pretty colors, you now have a reason to buy something that costs $100 less. Lucky you! — Nik Gomez
iPod Suffle colors [Apple]
As you probably know, the iRiver is a direct competitor to the Apple shuffle. Coming in both black and white high gloss finishes, the iRiver is just about the same size as the shuffle and adds many features to what the shuffle lacks in nearly every department. The S10 has a 1.15″ color OLED screen which goes easy on the battery (which must be small considering how small the S10 is). It currently comes in 1 and 2GB sizes compared to the 1GB shuffle. And now iRiver is introducing a new watch-type accessory for the S10. One very interesting observation that has been made on this new accessory is that it completely covers up the headphone jack. So what does this mean? Maybe a Bluetooth wireless headset? Maybe no listening to music while it’s on your wrist? Let’s hope for the first. iRiver has been doing an amazing job with their massive product launch this year at CES, and this is just one small part of their overall look on things. — Nik Gomez
Transform the iriver S10 into a … Watch? [dapreview]
Don’t like the fact that Apple has us by the balls with iTunes, the iPod, and every other product they have? So much of what they make requires proprietary software. Break free from the Man with the LG UP3Flat Chocolate MP3 player. LG has figured out that the style of design created with the Chocolate phone is the rage nowadays and is running with it. This MP3 player is in the same style of the first generation iPod Shuffle, the candy bar with simple controls without a display. The battery life is rated at about ten hours, and it will be sold in three storage amounts of flash memory: 512MB, 1&2GB. It connects to your PC via USB, and one really smart design feature is that it has a retractable USB cord at the bottom of the player. Don’t forget your USB cable ever again. The two very simple up and down arrows perform different tasks and the little arrows above and below the main arrows signify which task is being performed. Yet another sleek gadget from LG, and it looks like it will sell well, as long as they keep everything as simple as it looks. — Nik Gomez
LG UP3Flat Chocolate MP3 Player [NewLaunches]
