Creative Japan has a new portable media player out called the Creative ZEN Mosaic. One half of the ZEN Mosaic is covered by the 1.8 inch LCD display while the other half is covered by a patchwork of square and rectangular patterns (which also double as control and navigational buttons).  Spec wise, this is a flash based media player with storage options ranging from 2GB,4GB, and 8GB. Other specs include:

• Measures 79.5 x 40 x 12.8mm
• Weighs 43 grams
• Supports MP3, WMA, WAV, JPG
• Built-in speakers
• FM tuner

The ZEN Mosaic will be due out in August.

[Check it out via Akihabara News]

Technorati Tags: Creative ZEN Mosaic, Portable Media Player

Prices are set for the new Creative Technology ZEN X-Fi media player here in the U.S. The 32GB model has an MSRP of $279.99, the 16GB an MSRP of $199.99, and the 8GB goes for $149.99. Not familiar with the new ZEN X-Fi? It’s the first Creative media player to feature their X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity Audio technology designed to help restore the quality of compressed music. There are basically two models - one with wireless LAN and one without. The 16GB and 32GB models feature Wi-Fi while the 8GB lacks it. Here are the major specs to the player:

• Measures 3.3. x 2.2 x 0.5 inches and weighs 2.4 oz
• 2.5 inch TFT display with a resolution of 320 x 240
• Video support includes MJPEG, WMV, MPEG-4, DivX, and XviD
• Audio support includes MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, Audible 2,3,4
• Picture support includes JPEG support
• 802.11 b/g for 16GB and 32GB models
• FM radio with 32 preset stations
• Equalizer with 8 presets and 5 band custom EQ
• Calendar, Contact, Task List
• USB 2.0

[Check out the ZEN X-Fi with wireless LAN]

[Check out the ZEN Xi-Fi]

via SlashGear

Technorati Tags: Creative ZEN X-Fi, Prices

Sony announced that the mylo COM-2 Personal Communicator has a new video upload tool that allows users to capture and upload MPEG-4 videos without the need of a PC. Videos can be recorded using the built-in 1.3 megapixel camera and then uploaded using the built-in Wi-Fi support.

With the mylo, users can listen to digital music, video videos, and play games. However, when they’re near wireless hotspots, they can also view multimedia content online, chat with others using Skype, IM with users using AIM, Yahoo!, Google, and Skype, and read/write email through AOL Mail, Google Gmail, and Yahoo! mail.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sony mylo COM-2 Personal Communicator, video upload

Sony brings noise-canceling and Bluetooth technologies to three new Walkman video MP3 models here in the US with the new NWZ-S710F, NWZ-A720 and NWZ-A820. All three of these players feature Sony’s EX series in-ear buds with 13.5 mm drivers which passively block out ambient noise. Common features include:

• Sony clear audio technology are included which improve sound quality when playing back digital music files
• QVGA LCD displays that show video at 30fps
• Support for WMA, AAC, Linear PCM, MP3, JPEG, AVC(H.264/AVC) Baseline profile and MPEG-4 files

NWZ-S710F

• 33 hours of battery life for music playback
• 9.5 hours of battery life for video playback
• Built in noise canceling system which can reduce 75 percent of ambient noise
• Five clear audio technology built into device
• 1.8 inch QVGA (320×240) LCD screen
• FM tuner with 30 presets
• Comes in two different capacities and three colors:
• The NWZ-S716F player has approximately 4GB of internal storage; comes in silver, red and black and will cost about $150.
• The NWZ-S718F player has approximately 8GB of internal storage; comes in black and will cost about $200.

NWZ-A720

• 36  hours of battery life for music playback
• 10 hours of battery life for video playback
• 2.4 inch QVGA display
• Slim body
• Comes in three different capacities and two colors
• The NWZ-A726 player has approximately 4GB of internal storage; comes in black and pink; and costs about $150.
• The NWZ-A728 player has approximately 8GB of internal storage; comes in black and pink and costs about $200.
• The NWZ-A729 player has approximately 16GB of internal storage, comes in black, and costs about $300.

NWZ-A820

• 36  hours of battery life for music playback
• 10 hours of battery life for video playback
• Same look and feel as the A720
• Bluetooth technology
• 2.4 inch QVGA LCD display
• Users can manually delete videos directly from the device’s internal memory without connecting to PC
• The NWZ-A820K comes with EX-Series earbuds and the DR-BT21G Bluetooth headphones
• The NWZ-A828K comes in black, has approximately 8GB of internal storage, and costs about $270.
• The NWZ-A829 comes in black has approximately 16GB of internal storage, and costs about $320.

The new models will come out in March with presales beginning now.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sony Walkman, NWZ-S710F, NWZ-A720, NWZ-A820

Cowon had a small booth located along the side wall of the South Hall of the LVCC. The following are pictures as well as descriptions of the portable media players that they had on display there. Quite honestly - nothing really stood out at Cowon but enjoy the pics anyhow!

First up is the Premium PMP Cowon Q5W. This high end portable media player has the following specs:

• 5 inch 16.7 million color TFT LCD with 800 x 480 touch screen display
• Supports WLAN and Bluetooth wireless connectivity
• Alchemy ALU1250 600MHz processor
• Windows CE 5.0 OS
• TV out with Component, S-Video, Composite outputs
• Supports AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, OGM
• Supports DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV 7/8/9
• Supports MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC
• Supports JPG, BMP, PNG, RAW
• Photo and text viewer
• Adobe Flash Player
• FM radio
• Voice recorder
• Supports MS DRM 10
• USB 2.0
• Built-in stereo speaker
• 7 hour video playback and 13 hour audio playback
• 40GB or 60GB HDD

Here is the Extreme PMP Cowon A3 media player. The specs are as follows:

• New TI DaVinci chipset
• 1280 x 720 HD video playback support
• 800 x 480 resolution, 16.7 million colors, and a 4 inch TFT LCD display
• TV Out - Component, S-Video, Composite
• Supports AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MATROSKA, MPG, VOB, DAT, MTV, OGM
• Supports DivX 3.11 and up, XviD, MPEG4 SP/ASP,WMV 9/8/7, H.264 MP, M-JPEG, MPEG1
• Supports MP3/2/1, ASF, WMA, FLAC, OGG, M4A, TTA, APE, MPC, WV, WAV, AC3
• Video recording from TV, VCR, or camcorder
• Voice recording and line-in audio recording
• Supports JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIF, RAW
• Document viewer
• FM radio and recording
• JetEffect powered by BBE and EQ filter
• User adjustable 10 band EQ
• Built in stereo speaker
• USB 2.0 support
• Alarm scheduled playback or recording
• 7 hours of video playback and 9 hours of audio playback
• 30GB/60GB of HDD storage
• Optional mobile TV package supporting DVB-T, T-DMB, 1 SEG

This is the Premium MP3 Cowon D2 media player. The specs are as follows:

• 2.5 inch 16.7 million color TFT LCD with a resolution of 320 x 240
• Touch screen capable
• Video, music, photo and text playback
• Flash Contents player
• Calculator and Notepad
• FM radio and recording
• Voice and line-in recording
• USB storage
• Easy to use interface via Virtual Click and Virtual Motion
• 74mW output
• Supports full scale 30fps QVGA video and TV out
• SD/MMC card support with SDHC support
• Up to 52 hours of music playback, 10 hours of movie playback
• Dynamic playlists
• USB 2.0
• Supports APE, MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, FLAC, Moving Picture, JPG, BMP
• Supports MS DRM 10
• JetEffect powered by BBE and EQ filter
• Available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB flash memory
• D2 DAB Digital Radio Edition and D2 1 SEG Edition

Above is the Cowon Extreme MP3 iAudio 7 portable media player. Specs are as follows:

• Swing-Touch interface
• Up to a whopping 60 hours of playback
• Choose from 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB flash memory
• Support for music, video, photo, and text playback
• FM radio and recording
• Voice and line-in recording
• USB storage support
• 1.3 inch color TFT display with 160 x 128 resolution and support for 260K colors
• Supports MP3, OGG, WMA, ASF, FLAC, WAV, Moving Picture, JPEG
• Supports Microsoft DRM 10
• Dynamic playlists
• USB 2.0
• JetEffect powered by BBE and EQ filter
• User adjustable 5 band EQ

Here is the Cowon Optimal Slim iAudio U5 portable media player. Specs are as follows:

• Slim design
• 1.8 inch TFT Color LCD display with a resolution of 128 x 160
• FM radio and recording
• Voice recorder
• USB Storage support
• 64 mW output
• Supports MS DRM 10
• Supports MP3, WMA, WAV file formats
• Choose from 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB flash memory
• Multi Language Support
• Up to 24 hours playback
• Dynamic playlists
• USB 2.0
• JetEffect powered by BBE and EQ Filter
• User adjustable 5 band equalizer

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Cowon, CES 2008, iAudio U5, iAudio 7, Cowon D2, Cowon A3, Cowon Q5W

It looks like the 32GB version of the Creative Zen will be coming out a bit sooner than expected - at least in Japan! Akihabara News is reporting that Creative Japan will begin selling the 32GB Creative Zen (model ZN-Z32G-BK) by the middle of December. Price? How about 250 Eur. Spec wise, the Zen is basically still the same except for the memory boost to 32GB. Features include:

• 2.5 inch QVGA (320 x 240) LCD display
• Audio support for MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV file formats
• Video support for WMV/MPEG-SP/DivX/XviD/Motion-JPEG file formats
• SD card slot with support for SDHC cards
• FM tuner built-in
• Measures 83 x 55 x 11.3 mm and weighs 65 grams
• Signal to Noise Ratio of 97dB
• Frequency Response of 20Hz - 20kHz
• USB 2.0 support

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Creative, Creative Zen, 32GB

COWON is now shipping it’s next generation portable multimedia player in the form of the COWON Q5W. The Q5W combines three major capabilities into a single device - a portable multimedia player (PMP), a Windows Mobile device, and a GPS navigation system (assuming you get the optional GPS navigation package). At a high level, the Q5W comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a high resolution 5 inch widescreen display, a touch-sensitive interface, Windows CE 5.0 Professional, and an AMD Alchemy Au1250 600MHz processor. Here are the major features and specifications:

• 5 inch, 800 x 480 display with support for 16,700,000 colors
• 500:1 contrast ratio
• 200cd/m2 brightness
• AMD Alchemy Au1250 processor running at 600MHz
• 64MB NOR Flash, 128MB SDRAM
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0
• 1.8 inch 40GB or 60GB HDD
• Windows CE 5.0 Professional
• Music and movie player
• Voice recorder, photo viewer, and text viewer
• 95 dB signal to noise ratio
• 20Hz to 20KHz frequency range
• 1W + 1W integrated speakers
• 5.5 hour charge time
• Measures 5.46 x 3.48 x 0.79 inches and weighs 13.4 oz
• 13 hour battery life for audio playback
• 7 hour battery life for video playback
• Supports MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC Audio formats
• Supports MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, Wave, FLAC, APE, MusePack audio codecs
• Supports AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, OGM Movie formats
• Supports DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV7/8/9 video codecs
• Max video resolution of 720 x 480 at 30fps
• Component, S-Video, and Composite TV out
• Internal microphone
• Supports JPG, BMP, PNG, and RAW
• Supports TXT
• MSN Messenger with Voice Chat support

Oh yes - the Q5W supports GPS navigation through the addition of the GPS navigation package. The package comes with  a COWON Navigator cradle equipped with GPS receiver antenna (SiRF III internal), FM transmitter switch for audio playback on vehicle radio, Tele Atlas premium digital maps data and NavMate navigation software.

The COWON Q5W 50GB is selling for $549.99 while the 60GB version goes for $599.99. The optional GPS Navigation package goes for $199.99.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: COWON, Q5W

Wolverine Data, Inc. is now shipping a portable media player that practically puts all other PMP devices to shame. It’s called the Wolverine ESP Model 5250 portable multimedia player and you can get it with a whopping 250GB hard drive inside. Yes sir.. 250GB of storage space on this PMP device. Now you’re probably wondering - how much would you need to pay for this much disk space on a PMP? How about $649.99 - yup.. practically the lowest cost per gigabyte in the industry for a portable media player.

Features of the Wolverine ESP Model 5250 include the following:

• 3.6 inch TFT LCD display
• Measures 5.3 x 2.8 x 0.9 inches and weighs 10.2 oz
• Store music, videos, and photos
• Supports JPEG, Bitmap, TIFF, text and RAW images
• Supports MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC (MP4-audio), and CDA
• Supports MPEG-1, MPEG4, WMV9, and XviD video
• Integrated FM Radio - listen and record music
• Support for 18 FM presets
• Connect to TV or projector (NTSC or PAL)
• View slide shows
• Record video directly from a video source (requires the optional cradle)
• 80 to 250GB HDD
• Supports CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro,XD Card Adapter
• Built-in microphone
• USB 2.0 connection

You can purchase the Wolverine ESP Model 5250 online now. The optional ESP Cradle System is priced at $69.99.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Wolverine, ESP Model 5250, PMP

Cowon has two new portable media players out - the larger Cowon D2 and the flash based Cowon iAudio 7. The D2 looks like your traditional PMP device except it comes with a touch-screen based 2.5 inch display. The iAudio 7 is a smaller flash based portable media player with support for up to 16GB of flash memory coming soon. Here’s the lowdown for each of the players.

The Cowon D2 features a simple design, comes with a 2.5 inch touch-screen display, support for SD cards, 74mW of sound, “virtual click” user interface, and TV-out support. Specs include:

• Personalized wallpaper and zoom-in capability
• FM Radio
• Easy voice recording
• USB 2.0 and USB Storage support
• Music browser support
• Podcast support
• Lyrics support
• Customized playlist
• Line-in recording
• Support for Apple and Linux
• 2.5 inch 16 million color 24 bit TFT LCD display with QVGA resolution
• 52 hours of music playback or 10 hours of movie playback
• Support for MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV, AVI, MPEG, WMV, JPG, TXT
• 2GB to 4GB of memory

The Cowon iAudio 7 features up to 60 hours of battery life, JetEffect sound enhancer technology, Swing-Touch interface, 4 GB - 16GB of flash memory, Audio and Video playback support, FM tuner, Line-in recording, Voice recording, and text/photo viewer. The specs are as follows:

• MP3, OGG, WMA,, ASF, FLAC, WAV, MPEG4 (video) playback, FM Radio listening and recording, voice recording, Line-In recording
• TXT(Text), JPEG(Image) File Viewer (Image Zoom, Wallpaper)
• Internal flash memory 4GB, 8GB, (16GB)
• USB 2.0 Interface
• 1.3 inch 160×128 dot, 260,000 color TFT LCD
• Long Battery Time: Up to 60 hours (Based on company test result)
• Enhanced Integrated Navigator
• Various EQ and Sound Effects (JetEffect)
• Clock, Alarm, Scheduled Recording, Sleep Timer, Auto Power-Off
• Title Display with ID3Tag or File Name
• Display Product Info (Firmware version, Total Capacity, Total Usage)

[via AVING]

Technorati Tags: Cowon, iAudio 7, D2, Portable Media Player

Images of the upcoming Archos 105 portable media player are finally popping up on the net. Archos originally introduced their new Generation 5 lineup of portable media players back in June but little was known of the 105. All we really knew was that the 105 was going to be a Nano-like device. Now thanks to the folks at Archos Lounge, we have a picture and additional specs:

The Archos 105 will be coming out in September and will be available in several colors including Silver, Red, and Black. The player will sell for approximately $90 dollars and will support:

• 2GB of memory
• Plays back video, music, and digital images
• 1.8 inch OLED color display with 160 x 128 resolution and support for 262K colors
• Supports MP3 decoding from 30-320 kb/s at CBR and VBR
• Supports WMA, Protected WMA, and WAV formats
• Supports JPEG
• Measures 1.8 x 3.3 x 0.3 inches and weighs only 1.8 oz

[Check it out via I4U]

Technorati Tags: Archos, Archos 105