Another X-Clef 500 Review

Engadget informs us of new review of the DMC X-Clef 500 by the Gadgeteer, an iPod true believer. Also, don't miss the other recently mentioned X-Clef 500 review.

Pros:

• Reasonable pricing
• Functions as USB storage device
• Great sound quality
• Ability to update firmware and hardware

Cons:

• Bulky
• Start up time too long
• Charging requires you to turn the unit on
• Does not automatically turn off after charging

Commodore Throws Its New Vic-20 Into the Ring

This really came out of left field, but here it is: the Commodore eVic, a 20GB device that seems to resemble a two-tone eraser. If you're old like me, you remember Commodore's glory days with its popular Vic-20 computer. So they're back then? Actually, no. The Commodore brand was bought by Tulip Computers and they're capitalizing on all that 20+ year old Vic goodwill and brand awareness (circa 1982).

Interview with Creative CEO

The issues of USA Today lying outside hotel doors across America today have an interesting interview with the CEO of Creative, Sim Wong Hoo. It's an understatement to say that he's sold on the idea of portable video players.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is often asked about doing a video iPod, and says there's no market for it. Sim says he was a skeptic at first, too, but has come to realize that a handheld device that can store digital photos, music and eliminate the need to carry stacks of DVDs "offers a lot of convenience."

While pricey initially, he says, the costs of a full-featured video/music player will eventually be similar to a top-of-the-line MP3 player.

"Why not get the one with video then? cell phones with color screens aren't something that people need, but they sure buy them," he says.

Attack of the Common 1.5GB Player

The gang at Gizmodo has it right. MP3 players with a 1.5GB capacity are going to be coming out in droves as the major device makers abandon these drives for smaller, higher capacity and more expensive models. Like the Teac MP-1000 1.5GB player mentioned previously, now JNC has announced the SSF-M5 1.5GB MP3 player. Like their SSF-M3, which is a Cowon iAUDIO M3 OEM, the SSF-M5 is probably rebadged by JNC.

Oh yeah, features of the SSF-M5: USB 2.0, MP3 recording, FM radio and OGG playback. [Via DAP Review]

Weekly Price Guide

Player	Capacity	Brand	Price	Change	Vendor
iPod	15GB	Apple	$282	+$5	1ShopDirect
iPod	20GB	Apple	$379	+$10	Future Power PC
iPod	40GB	Apple	$464	-$5	Future Power PC
iPod Mini	4GB	Apple	$245	---	Buy.com
Nomad MuVo²	4GB	Creative	$195	-$24	Buy.com
Nomad Zen Xtra	30GB	Creative	$202	---	Comp-u-plus
Zen Touch	20GB	Creative	$270	---	Amazon
DJ-20	20GB	Dell	$279	+$28	Dell
H120	20GB	iRiver	$275	---	Comp-u-plus
H140	40GB	iRiver	$364	---	Comp-u-plus
Nitrus	1.5GB	Rio	$140	---	Comp-u-plus
Karma	20GB	Rio	$229	-$20	Comp-u-plus

X-Clef HD-500 Review

On the heel's of a review of the HD-800, DAP Review has justed posted a new review of the DMC X-Clef 500:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the HD-500. I love the 80gb worth of storage, the big screen, and simple GUI. It sounds excellent, and it's been running at least 12 hours per charge. FM radio and voice recording and useful features to have. The HD-500 has been valuable as an external hard drive as well, for backing up files and carrying them with me. I can hook it up to computers at work since I don't have to install software on them.

Of course, it's not all good. Compared to other DAPs, the HD-500 is big, heavy, and plain-looking. You can't search through music by iD3-tag catagories (Artist, Album, Title), and on-the-fly playlisting is limited. Recording quality is mediocre.

The HD-500 stands out the most for being a good value, if capacity is top on your list and you don't mind the size. The 40gb HD-500 ($230 at DigMind.com) costs about the same as the 30gb Nomad Zen, and the 80gb HD-500 ($380 at DigMind.com) is about the same price as the Zen Xtra 60gb, the iRiver iHP-140 (40gb), or a 20gb iPod.

Neuros II Coming Out Shortly

An updated version of the quirky Neuros backpack player system will be coming out shortly. The Neuros II will be a lot like its predecessor: a small 128MB flash-based player that fits into a harddrive "backpack". The Neuros II will offer improvements to its built-in FM transmitter, backpacks of 20GB, 30GB, 40GB, 60GB and 80GB, USB 2.0 and on-the-fly playlisting. Also it will get a color change to black.

Coming up for the Neuros II, but not available yet, will be a 256MB option for the small flash player.

Gear @ IGN: Philips HDD060 Redux

Gear @ IGN has expanded their preview of the Philips HDD060 a bit. No sir, they didnt like it:

I have a feeling that Philips will want to forget about the HDD060 after something else comes out. I've been using it for about one week and I want to forget about it already. The company makes some damn fine products, so many in fact that I am surprised that the HDD060 made it through whatever system of checks and balances Philips has in place. The device has a lot going for it, but ultimately a few outlandishly annoying characteristics crash the boat.

Apex to Launch A/V Player

eHomeUpgrade told us that TWICE magazine has the story on Apex's plans to enter the A/V player in the very near future. Apex is known worldwide for their low cost DVD players and other home video electronics, but the new MP-2000 will be a portable audio/video device with a 20GB capacity and 3.5" color screen. With a retail price said to be $399, the MP-2000 will support MP3, WAV and unprotected-WMA audio and MPEG-4, DivX, motion JPEG and WMV9 video.

More bits at Gizmodo, Engadget and DAP Review.

Teac MP-1000 1.5GB MP3 Player

DAP Review brings word of the Teac MP-1000 MP3 player. Like Polaroid, Teac is another vendor not known for MP3 players that is getting into the market. The MP-1000 only has a 1.5GB capacity compared with the 4GB of the iPod Mini and Creative MuVo2. However, the MP-1000 is around the same size as the Mini at 3.4"x1.9"x0.67", compared with the Mini at 3.6"x2.0"x0.5". Also, the MP-1000 has OGG playback and a reported 18 hours of battery life. More bits at Gizmodo.

Search Added (Finally)

Thanks to some nifty Google-fu, we've finally added a search feature to the site. It looks as if Google crawls the site at least once a day, so results should be quite current.

The search box should be at the top of every page. If you notice a page that doesn't have a search box or anything else on the site that is broken or behaving strangely, please let us know at feedback@playerblog.com.

AnandTech Review of the Dell DJ

The AnandTech crew have a new review of the Dell DJ. They really seemed to like it:

For those shopping for an alternative budget buy, we would highly recommend a Dell DJ, probably the 15GB model more so than the 20GB due to the price (the bundle for the 15GB is leaner - no remote or case). This is assuming that the performance is in line with the numbers that we are getting with the 20GB in our labs. Everything else is the same according to the specs.

Overall, we would rank the Dell DJ within the highest tiers of the MP3 players.

Nomaedia: Access Creative MP3 Players Under Linux

The Nomaedia project is an attempt to build an open-source media manager for the Creative Nomad line that runs under Linux. It's still under significant development, but if you need to get your Zen under Linux, this is what you need.

A bit more project info and screenshots are here. Download the current version of Nomaedia here.

Polaroid Juke Jam PDP-600 Review

CNet has a review of the Polaroid Juke Jam PDP-600 20GB player. Polaroid? The camera and film company has an MP3 player? Looks like they do, but maybe they didn't do the best design job. CNet gives a 6.0/10.0 and had this to say:

Polaroid, best known for its contributions to photography and Outkast lyrics, presents the 20GB Juke Jam as one of its first forays into the MP3 scene. The $300 hard drive player looks like it could be the iPod's obese sibling, and its spacious LCD and joystick are almost as easy to use as the iPod's. Unfortunately, a few significant flaws prevent the Juke Jam from being a true top-shelf competitor.

New Mini-Sized Player from Sony?

Gizmodo has reported that Sony will be making another harddrive-based MP3 player to go along with the VGF-AP1 and the HMP-A1 A/V player. The twist with this 3rd player is that it will, reportedly, be close in size to the iPod Mini:

Yes, I work for Sony and have had the opportunity to play with this device. It is very cool and the styling is fantastic. I was playing with the 40GB version (I am not sure if the actual unit will ship with the same amount of storage). It is slightly wider than an iPod mini but at the same time slightly thinner and sleeker looking to me.

While this is very interesting if true, what immediately raises a red flag with us is that the Sony employee says it has a 40GB harddrive, but is smaller than an iPod Mini. Unless Sony has drive technology that no one else has, it seems really unlikely that Sony could cram 40GB into a Mini-sized space. It's our guess that it's really a 4GB drive, rather than a 40GB.

In-Depth X-Clef HD-800 Review

It's a DAP Review two-fer today with the publishing of their massive review of the new X-Clef HD-800, the successor to the HD-500. Robert gave it a 76/100. He's a tough judge though and this is still a passing grade in his book:,

Because I (Robert, the_Omniscient, whatever) tend to maintain a very strict scoring mechanism, the X-Clef HD-800 actually shows much potential. I hardly ever hand out 80-100% scores; there are enough of them on the internet. DAPreview was established as an objective site, meant to deliver correct information to its visitors and useful feedback to the actual manufacturers + retailers. Therefore, scoring in between 75-80% in my normal review system requires some serious strain and the HD-800 seems up to the task. Here's an indication of what others popular 1.8-inch DAPs might score, according to my reviewing style:

• Rio Audio Karma: 86% (just an *indication* for now)
• Dell DJ: 81%
• iRiver H1xx-series: 78%
• Apple iPod v1/2: 75%
• Philips hdd100: 72%

RCA RD2850 Mini-Review

To complement the photo gallery of the recently mentioned RCA RD2850 player, DAP Review has completed a mini-review of the device:

Recommended?
Well, it's a tough call. It's not the most exciting player to look at or use, but it has some great features. Unfortunately the controller is poorly designed and can be frustrating when you have to press it several times to get it to register your command. Some firmware bugs exist that may or may not ever get fixed, since RCA isn't known for frequent (if any) firmware updates. Price is equal or higher than Rio Karma which feels a lot more polished, though lacks some key features offered here, in addition to a case. Price is also close to the iRiver iHP which has an impressive remote, but is less user-friendly overall. I would say that the RD2850 is a good alternative for people who want a player with Mass Storage Comlience and file/folder browsing, but don't need features like iHP's line-in recording, OGG support, or in-line remote.

Plush MP3 Players Now Available in the US

Remember the plush toy MP3 players we ran across a few months back? At the time, several people asked where they could buy them, but they weren't available in the US until now. Pinky PC now has them on sale for $85 and $89. Each player has a 128MB capacity and 8 hours of battery life.

Normally, 128MB wouldn't be enough space to keep an adult entertained for very long. But for keeping a kid's favorite songs, it might be enough.

Another Early Review of the iRiver H320

The Akihabara gang has a new photo-filled review of the upcoming iRiver H320 color MP3 player. Most of the review is in French, but some (towards the end) is in English. A machine translation into English of the whole review is here. Also, here are more bits on the review at Gizmodo.

As Gizmodo notes, the USB Host capability is a Really Big Deal. Consequently, I really hope that this functionality makes it into the less-expensive (ie non-color LCD) players and doesn't only appear in the high-end, battery-eating color devices.

Hacking an Extra 20GB into the Rio Karma

A user at the Riovolution forums has successfully hacked his way through installing a 40GB hardrive into his Rio Karma. Photos of the hack are here. However, the operation wasn't simple. It involved quite a bit of Dremeling to get the slightly larger 40GB drive into the space occupied by the original 20GB. Fortunately though once you've got the drive in, you only need to format it and it's ready to rock.

At least one other Karma has decided to take the plunge, but maybe this hack isn't for everyone:

Well i have decided to tempt my fate by doing the 40gb upgrade...Ive broken my scroll wheel, snapped off the headphone jack, broken the lead for the battery, broken the socket for the lcd display, and finally broken the plastic clip thingy that holds the lcd in place, so it cant be much worse than that...

[Via DAP Review]

A Pair of Philips HDD060 Reviews

Here are two reviews of the apparently little-known 1.5GB Philips HDD060. The first is a preview from Gear @ IGN and the second, in Dutch, is from Tweakers.Net. An English machine translation is here. Tweakers gave the HDD060 a 66/100 and Gear had this to say, but will have a full review later:

My first impression is that the HDD060 is a straightforward minidrive player for folks in search of a cool looking portable.

Retail price for HDD060 is $200, a bit high for only 1.5GB of space, but J&R has it for just $170.

Cowon iAUDIO M3 Review

Michael Wieczorek has written up a review of the Cowon iAUDIO M3. Even though I think he lays the superlatives on a little thick, if you're interested in the M3, don't pass this up. [Via DAP Review]

All in all, the iAUDIO M3 is an amazing feat of engineering and design. It looks great, sounds great, feels great and is great in almost every way.

Bunch O' Pics of the RCA Lyra RD2850

Austin at DAP Review has taken a bunch of pictures of the RCA Lyra RD2850. The RD2850 is an interesting little beastie that has many of today's standard features: 20GB capacity, USB 2.0, FM radio and recording.

However it also has a few things that set it apart from the pack: you can browse tracks by MP3 ID3 tags, it can rebuild its tag database by itself (the RD2850 is the only device that doesn't need outside software to do this) and on-the-fly playlisting.

Retail price for the RD2850 is $350, but DigitalGiftStore has it for $260.

Bunch O' Pics of the iRiver H320

AV Watch of Japan of has a bunch of pictures of the new iRiver H320. A Babelfish translation into English is here. From the screenshots, it appears that the user interface is a lot like the its predecessors (except that it's in color now).

Also, note that the LCD on the remote is gone. For me personally, this is a big deal. I've gotten very used to being able to operate my iRiver player completely from the remote while keeping the body snug in its case. I do hope that iRiver at least offers a LCD remote option.

Weekly Price Guide

Player	Capacity	Brand	Price	Change	Vendor
iPod	15GB	Apple	$277	---	Amazon
iPod	20GB	Apple	$369	---	Comp-u-plus
iPod	40GB	Apple	$469	---	1ShopDirect
iPod Mini	4GB	Apple	$245	---	Buy.com
Nomad MuVo²	4GB	Creative	$219	+$10	Comp-u-plus
Nomad Zen Xtra	30GB	Creative	$202	-$2	Buy.com
Zen Touch	20GB	Creative	$270	---	Amazon
DJ-20	20GB	Dell	$251	---	Dell
H120	20GB	iRiver	$275	-$4	Comp-u-plus
H140	40GB	iRiver	$364	+$4	Comp-u-plus
Nitrus	1.5GB	Rio	$140	---	Comp-u-plus
Karma	20GB	Rio	$249	---	Computers4SURE

Kevin Kelly Cool Tools: The iPAL

The latest edition of Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools is out and one of the items is the iPAL, a portable, cordless way of playing tunes from your MP3 player. Granted, it's not rocket science: the iPAL is an iPod rubber-banded to the Henry Koss-designed, Tivoli PAL, a weatherized portable radio. But the PAL is supposed to have great sound in a miniscule package, perfect for hoisting on your shoulder as you "share your musical tastes" with your neighbors.

Gizmodo Gets the Goods on the BMW/iPod Connection

Gizmodo has all the details on BMW's method for connecting an iPod to your car stereo. It only works with 2002 or later 3 Series, X3 SAVs and Z4s and will reportedly cost around $235. (Of course everything in a car's price is up for negotiation.) It sounds, though, that the amount of control you have over the iPod is fairly limited:

The iPod slips inside a dock in the glove box and controls are on the steering wheel, and they look to be pretty basic, with only an track up/track down selection and what looks to be a mute button. BMW asks that you create five selectable BMW-specific playlists ... on your iPod which are controlled by the 1 through 5 button on the dash, while selecting 6 will play through your entire iPod library. This implies you won't have as much control over your iPod as you would with its native interface. If that's the case, that will be a serious ding against the usefulness of the kit.

Free MP3 Player from Napster 2.0

In a bid to increase subscriptions, Napster is giving away a 128MB Rio Chiba MP3 player to anyone who subscribes to their music download service for a year. A year's subscription at $9.95 per month works out to be $119.40 and for an extra $80 you can upgrade to a 1.5GB Rio Nitrus. In terms of just getting the player, this isn't that great of a deal. However, if you were already planning on subscribing this is at least some extra incentive.

Probably more important than the promotion itself, is what this says about the state of the resurrected Napster 2.0 business. They simply aren't doing well.

"While Roxio has forecast up to $40m in Napster revenue this year, we believe that they really have to reach close to $300m to break even, and reaching that goal will likely not happen in the next 12 months," said McNealy.

More bits at Gizmodo, Engadget, DAP Review and BBC News.

iPod Definitely In the Beemer

More or less confirming yesterday's post about BMW integrating iPod controls into new vehicles, MacMinute got their hands on the ad and posted a scan of it.

"The first seamless integration of iPod and automobile. Connect with your music like never before. With the installation of an integrated adapter developed by BMW and Apple -- now available for the BMW 3 Series, X3 and Z4 -- you can control your iPod through the existing audio system and multi-function steering wheel. Which means no loss of power. No loss of sound quality. And no loss of control."

More bits at Engadget and Gizmodo.

Review of Sony HMP-A1 A/V Player

The brand-spanking-new French A/V player site Portable Media World has a new review of Sony's upcoming A/V player, the HMP-A1. The review is in French, but Gizmodo has an English summary as well.

Anarchy on the Freeway: iPod Pirate Radio Starter Kit

These days FM transmitters are a popular way to connect MP3 players to car stereos. Typically these are low power devices with ranges of just a few tens of feet. However, except for the FCC, broadcast spectrum law and voided warranties, there's nothing stopping you from upping the range on your transmitter and starting your own travelling pirate radio station. If you own an iPod and a Griffin iTrip, start with Engadget's how-to. Next, prepare your marketing materials ([Via BoingBoing]). And finally, solder yourself an antenna amplifier (also [Via BoingBoing]) for the iTrip and you're ready to go.

Cowon Expands iAUDIO M3 Line

Cowon is planning on expanding its iAUDIO M3 series of players. A new model with a 40GB capacity (in addition to the original 20GB) will be released. Also there will be a second case color option. However, the iPod Mini has nothing to fear. In addition to the original grey, the new color choice is brown.

There is a small price to pay for the larger capacity though. Like the 40GB iRiver H140 and iPod, they are slightly larger than their lower-capacity brethren. Consequently the 40GB M3 will 0.16" deeper and half an ounce heavier.[Via DAP Review]

Gear: RipDrive Preview

Gear @ IGN has just posted a mini-review of the PoGo RipDrive, previously covered here. The RipDrive is one of the many devices on the fringe of a market that is dominated by much larger players. But depending on your needs, something like the RipDrive might still be right for you. Capacity ranges from 30Gb to 80GB and it has a generously sized LCD:

One of the nice things about the RipDrive is the enormous screen. As you can see, it takes up a good part of the front panel. The 160 x 105 resolution makes it the same as the one on the Nomad Zen Xtra. Nice and big.

Updated Rio Karma and Nitrus in Q4 (Maybe)

The DAP Review gang stumbled upon on a PowerPoint slide (in Japanese) on Rio's product roadmap and it looks as if a new versions of the Rio Karma and the Nitrus are planned for Q4 of this year. The Karma 2 was previously mentioned here:

I can tell you that the Karma 2 is very small. If it keeps the form factor it had at the show it will be the most compact on the market. It will also have a color LCD and an SD expansion slot. You don't need an expansion slot for content, but it will allow swapping files on the drive. You can assume it will have a USB 2.0 interface, at least a 20GB drive, and the excellent Rio menu system, which rivals the iPod's for ease of use and clean design.

Dension ICELink Connecting iPods to Your Car

In case you don't drive a late-model BMW, another option for connecting an iPod to a car is the Dension ICELink. Through a set of modular components, the ICELink will be able to connect 1st/2nd generation iPods, 3rd generation iPods and even iPod Minis to a wide variety of stock and after-market car stereos. Unfortunately availability seems to be an issue a number of modules are sold out or not yet released. iPodlounge has a review of one ICELink install.

iRiver H300 Photo Fiesta

A Korean iRiver forum user has posted a lengthy series of photos of the upcoming iRiver H300 A/V player. If you're in the mode for an awful machine translation of the text, try Babelfish. [Via DAP Review]

iPod Mini Remotes & BMWs to Become iPod Compatible

AppleInsider reports that Apple will be releasing color-coordinated remote controls for the iPod Mini later this month. Unlike the monochromatic iPod, remotes will be available in each of the iPod Mini colors.

The Apple Insider article also mentions that BMW has plans to integrate iPod controls into their recent vehicles:

The device will reportedly allow users to control their iPod or iPod mini through a auxiliary headset unit or cruise-control-like controls mounted on the steering wheel. The device will also allow users to view playlists or song tracks, and charge their iPod.

PC Magazine's Love Letter to the iPod Mini

In these ironic times, an article entitled "A Love Letter to an iPod Mini" would likely turn out to be anything but. Well, Lance Ulanoff at PC Magazine has proven us wrong with an earnest and approving review of the iPod Mini.

OD2 Preempts the Party for iTunes in Europe

The day before Apple will launch a Europe-compatible iTunes Music Store, On Demand Distribution (OD2), Europe's largest music-download service, announced SonicSelector. Via a Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 plugin, SonicSelector offers streaming downloads at a penny a song and full downloads for 75p each. It doesn't seem to be available in the US, but at least the Europen non-iPod owners have a place to get tunes as well.

SonicSelector is presumably based on Microsoft's WMA DRM technology. This means that it is compatible with most recent MP3 players except for the iPod.[Via DAP Review]

Apple Works on 60GB iPod, Toshiba Manager Works on Resume

Still catching up with news here. Last week several sources reported that Toshiba had plans for a 60GB drive in the same form-factor as the 40GB presently filling iPods. Furthermore, a manager at Toshiba confirmed that Apple is customer #1 for the product and will release a 60GB iPod. Apple, traditionally a very tight-lipped organization, didn't take the news of this leak lightly.

"Somebody opened their big mouth and either it was taken out of context or was 'off-the-record' or this person really did just confirm it all," said a hard drive industry analyst familiar with how technology companies work business relationships. "There is no good way to handle this now. Toshiba screwed up and it could have major consequences, depending on how upset Steve Jobs is."

Ladies and gentlemen, start updating your resumes.

More bits at MacRumors, Engadget, Gizmodo and Slashdot.

Belkin TuneDok Car Holder for iPod Review

WhiningDog.net has just published an exhaustive review of the Belkin TuneDok. The TuneDok is a car holder for your full-size iPod (the iPod Mini doesn't fit) that rests in your vehicle's cupholder. Retail on the TuneDok is a rather steep $40, but Buy.com has it for only $12.79. [Via Gizmodo]

Review of the iTrip Mini FM Transmitter

The Engadget gang got their hands on pre-release Griffin iTrip Mini and wrote up a review:

Simply stated, the iTrip mini takes the sound from your iPod mini and broadcasts it so any FM radio and receive it. This is very handy for the car, in home stereo, boom boxes, wireless headphones and anything else that can play FM. We have a shower radio and use the iTrip to broadcast our tunes while in the show too. It’s pretty cool not have to plug in a bunch of wires, the iTrip mini doesn’t require batteries (it uses the iPod’s) and that’s why we really like it. That and unlike a lot of gadgets, this one looks great and works as described.

iTunes Music Store to Open European Front

The Independent has reported that Apple will launch a European version of its popular iTunes Music Store on Tuesday, June 15th. Until now iTMS has only been available in the US.

Individual songs are likely to cost 99p and albums less than £10, to encourage "impulse" sales. Payment currently requires a credit card, though parents can buy their children vouchers to redeem online. Once the details are entered, a song or an entire album can be bought with one click: it then downloads at once to the buyer's computer, and can be transferred to an iPod, or four other computers, or burnt to a CD to listen to in a car.

More bits at Gizmodo, the Motley Fool and MacRumors.

iRiver PMP-100 Available for Pre-Order

New product season is in full swing now as J&R has the new iRiver PMP-100 A/V player available for pre-sale. The price is a not-inconsequential $500 for a 3.5" color LCD screen and a 20GB capacity.

VNU Net: MP3 players on test

VNU Net has just published a brief roundup of six common MP3 players. Unfortunately it's mostly a day late and a dollar short. Except for the Cowon iAUDIO M3, most of these devices have been around for a while and like the Nomad Zen Xtra, are already being replaced by newer models. In any case, it's noted here for the sake of completeness.

iRiver PMP-120 Preview

Infosync World has a new preview of the upcoming iRiver PMP-120, previously reported here. What sticks out in our minds about the PMP line is that it shows iRiver playing both sides of the fence. The upcoming PMC line runs on Microsoft technology while the PMP shown here runs on Linux, the open-source operating system that is very much a competitor to MS.

Having opted for Linux to power its first product, the PMP-120 offers support for the vast majority of popular audio and video formats, except for Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV). This, however, will be supported in the company's Windows CE powered PMC-100, to be introduced later this year.

Microsoft is known as an intensively competitive company so it would seem reasonable that they would want their hardware partners such as iRiver and Creative to use MS technology exclusively. However the PMP-120 shows pretty clearly that right now MS just doesn't have the market-share versus iPod/iTunes and Linux to set those terms.

Weekly Price Guide

For this week we welcome the new Creative Zen Touch to the guide. Don't forget that it's only available for pre-order now though.

Also, we'd like to say a bit about how we select vendors for this guide. Obviously the lowest price is important, but we do try to pick established, reputable vendors. You can still get ripped off buying electronics from sites that have unrealistically low prices. So if you've had a bad experience with a vendor we list, please let us know. Also, we try to only list vendors that have product in stock, but this doesn't always work out. Inventory is always in flux, especially with a high-demand item such as the iPod Mini, but we do our best.

Player	Capacity	Brand	Price	Change	Vendor
iPod	15GB	Apple	$277	-$7	Amazon
iPod	40GB	Apple	$469	---	1ShopDirect
iPod Mini	4GB	Apple	$245	+$9	Buy.com
Nomad MuVo²	4GB	Creative	$209	+$9	Comp-u-plus
Nomad Zen Xtra	30GB	Creative	$204	+$2	Comp-u-plus
Zen Touch	20GB	Creative	$270	---	Amazon
DJ-20	20GB	Dell	$251	---	Dell
H120	20GB	iRiver	$279	-$6	Comp-u-plus
H140	40GB	iRiver	$360	-$9	Amazon
Nitrus	1.5GB	Rio	$140	-$12	Comp-u-plus
Karma	20GB	Rio	$249	---	Computers4SURE

Also note that the iRiver H140 price is after rebate from Amazon.

iTrip Mini Announced

Griffin Technology has announced a new version of its FM transmitter for the iPod Mini, the iTrip Mini. Like its predecessor for the original iPod, the iTrip, it's a snug-fitting attachment for broadcasting tunes to a nearby FM receiver, such as your car stereo. The iTrip Mini will retail for $40 and should be available in July.[Via Gizmodo]

Dell DJ Case Cracking

Speaking of cracking the case on players, Austin at DAP Review recently documented the deconstruction of his own Dell DJ.

More Rio Hacking in Pictures

To go along with our previous entry on cracking the case on your Rio Karma, DAP Review informs us that another Karma owner has taken the plunge and posted high-res photos of his adventure. More info in the original Riovolution forum post.

Gizmodo to Apple: Give Me Ogg

While I was away last week an amazing sequence of events occured over at Gizmodo. I'm a week late to the party, but if you hadn't heard already, this is what transpired.

It all started April 28th with a question for Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, regarding iPod support for the open-source Ogg Vorbis audio format. Jobs replied that "We're certainly not getting any requests from customers for it."

Well the Gizmodo gang took it upon themselves to make sure that Apple started getting requests. The immediate result was the Open Letter to Apple.

Then things started to get really interesting. An engineer on the Rio design team speculated that the iPod might not be powerful enough to support Ogg. However, an Ogg developer responded with an explanation of how even current iPods could support the format.

As of yet, there's been no response from Apple.

If you're wondering why some people get all worked up about Ogg support, let me give you a few reasons why Ogg is so desirable. First is sound quality. Ogg has won numerous codec sound quality competitions. Second is that Ogg is free. The patents surrounding the MP3 format drive up costs, but with Ogg anyone can use the Ogg code for any purpose. More information on why Ogg is a good thing is in the Ogg Vorbis General FAQ.

Creative Zen Touch Available Sooner Than Expected

Gizmodo has alerted us to the news that the Creative Zen Touch will hit the streets a bit faster than was intially thought. According to the Creative press release, pre-orders at Amazon and at the Creative Store will ship before the end of the month. Pre-order price is $270 for the 20GB device.

CoCoPod Available in the US

A while back we reported on the S-Media CoCoPod, a quirky looking 20GB player. At the time, it wasn't available in the US, but now NewEgg is carrying it for $280. It look as if New Egg's are white instead of the flashy red previously seen. Looks aside though, one feature that does separate it from the pack is a slot for the SD/MMC flash memory cards used in some digital cameras. Thus, you can move photos off the smaller capacity flash cards to the CoCoPod's 20GB disk. [Via DAP Review]

iTunes v4.6 Released

Apple has released a new version of iTunes (v4.6) for both OS X and Windows. You can download it here.

iTunes 4.6 includes support for playing your music wirelessly using AirPort Express with AirTunes. It also includes a number of other minor enhancements.

No word on what the "minor enhancements" are as of yet. [Via Mac Rumors]

First Looks at the Cowon iAUDIO M3

The recently released Cowon iAUDIO M3 took an interesting design path to cram a 20GB capacity into a package smaller and lighter than an iPod: they took the LCD off the body and moved it to a remote. The M3 measures 4.1"x2.4"x0.56" (compared with the iPod at 4.1"x2.4"x0.62") and weighs only 4.8oz (the iPod is 5.6oz). Finally, the actual players are getting into people's hands and here are two first-look reviews. The first is from Gear @ IGN:

One of the difficulties for companies trying to enter this market is that there are so many good players. I don't mean acceptable players; I mean really solid ones. You really have to offer something special to even get noticed, let alone sell any units. Cowon took an interesting approach by simply making the smallest possible player it could. The result is an HDD portable that is smaller and lighter than an iPod. However, as you'll soon learn, Cowon didn't skimp on any features.

Second is a Head-Fi thread with thoughts (and lots of photos) from a number of forum users [Via DAP Review]:

Everyone is probably wondering about how "not having a screen on the main body of the player" works out. Well, it's not really a trouble once you get used to it. If you own some of the higher-end iMP series (I have the iMP-350), then you'd already know that. However, this really doesn't mean as much for a HD-DAP as for a CD player, since you can fit a HD-DAP in your pocket, while you cannot do the same for a CD-mp3 player. With a CD-mp3 player, it's clear that you don't want to take the player out of its carrying case/backpack/beltstrap every time you want change playlists, etc, but for a HD-DAP which you can fit in a pocket and can easily take out...only having a screen on the remote, IMO, actually has a negative effect on ease of use.

Another Creative MuVo² Review

Even though the Zen Xtra and NX are going to be superceded by the new Zen Touch, the MuVo² is still Creative's top dog in the mini-player category. AnandTech has a new review:

For those on the go, the Muvo2 is a nice mix between "what you get" and "what you pay for." It has a rugged feel to it and its use of a MicroDrive based storage device shouldn't discourage those who lead an active lifestyle (unless you are one who is prone to drop your MP3 player).

New Creative Zen Touch Available for Pre-Order

The newly announced Creative Zen Touch is available for pre-order from Amazon. Initially it was reported that retail price would $320, but actually it's only $270! This is a great deal for a 20GB capacity next-generation player and 24 hours of battery life.

4GB Minis to Be 25% Maxier?

One for the gearheads: InfoWorld is reporting that Seagate has unveiled a new 1" harddrive line that will compete with the tiny Hitachi and Cornice drives that fill current mini-sized MP3 players. The new Seagates will come in 2.5GB and 5GB sizes, 25% larger than Hitachi's 4GB drive.

Cyclef Explorer for the Xclef

OK I'm finally back in the saddle, but it's going to take a while to collect and post all the goings-on in the last two weeks. Bear with me...

First off, Red Chair Software has added support for the DMC Xclef line with Cyclef Explorer:

Cyclef Explorer includes complete library management and transfer capabilities, advanced playlist management, PDA-like functionality with Outlook synchronization, sophisticated search and reporting, and much more.

Creative Zen Touch First Look

Got to keep it quick for now as my dial-up connection is incredibly trying... In any case Gear @ IGN has a first look at Creative's new generation of player, the Zen Touch. Totally redesigned compared the previous Zens, all the controls on are the face and include an iPod-inspired touch pad. Starting at 20GB, the Touch is even a touch smaller than its predecessors: 4.1"x2.7"x0.86" compared with the iPod at 4.1"x2.4"x0.62". Retail price will be $329. [Via Desgin Technica]