Music players are evolving slowly but surely adding features here or there, miniturizing etc. This particularly small MP3 player has a good feature set for what it is. For musicians, this device would work perfectly as a scratch pad during the writing process with its built in voice recorder to name just one of the interesting features.

The 2 tone LCD is adequate for its purpose and the navigation screen is simple. The player includes a built in speaker for when you’d rather not be wearing headphones, and hosts a 7 mode EQ to adjust the output of your WMA or MP3 files and the WAV files recorded via the built in voice recorder.

San Francisco-based Olive Media Products is known for putting out high end, pricey audio gear. It’s no surprise than to find a $3,000 price tag on its new OPUS No5 networked audio system.

The Olive OPUS No5 is a hard drive based audio storage system which lets its owner store upwards of 2,200 CDs. It makes use of top-end digital and audio technologies to create what Olive feels is an “audiophile-quality sound” experience. This device features a minimalist design, streams Internet radio and offers audio features like a signal/noise ratio of 123dB.

This super-thin USB Flash Card MP3 player from Brando is about the size of a credit card or just slightly larger at 85.5 x 54 x 4.5 mm and can house 2GB of listening media. It can also work as mass storage (if you call 2GB mass storage anymore) by connecting via USB to your computer.

The device can play MP3 or WMA files and has buttons that are flush with the frame that control navigating the songs. It also has a red LED light that lets you know the internal battery is charged and the player is on. You can even make a special request to have your own graphics put on the player, making it a nice “business card” MP3 player to give away to clients and customers.

If you’re looking for something thin and …

MP4 Player is actually the model name for this media player with built in 2MP swivel camera. As ridiculously generic as the name is, at least it wasn’t called an iSomethingorother. The camera swivels 180 degrees and records 4MP interpolated video. Playback MPEG-4 files at 320×240 pixels and 30fps with the ability to convert your non compatible videos using software installed on the device. Load your MP3, WAV or WMA files up and start rockin’.

Illustrated right is a render of the Meizu M7 touch screen miniPlayer geared to compete directly with iPod Touch. The media player is targeted for a March 2008 release with a price tag that could draw business away from Apple for all but the most die-hard iPod users. The tentatively named M7 will sport a 2.8 inch touch screen with a 16:9 480×228 resolution and supports H.264 playback. At $100, $110 and $150 for 2GB, 4GB and 8GB models respectively, the M7 is likely to be a very popular iPod clone.

While a cheaper alternative to the Apple iPod MP3 player, its lower price likely indicates this Chinese manufactured Miezu clone will lack the quality and attention to detail that the Apple players have become known for. The design concept has only recently and hurriedly been announced so stay tuned for any updates.

When innovation is elusive try novelty, right? Available in an assortment of colors and certified “Made For iPod”, Mountain Network Solutions unleashes an iPod docking station that will call attention to itself.

Included are the necessary adapters to dock any iPod that is docking capable. The unit will synchronize with iTunes and is controllable via a small remote for navigating playlists and adjusting volume, bass and treble.

Zicplay touted this player at the IFA in Berlin as the smallest MP3 player currently available, measuring just 43mm long, 15mm wide and weighing 18 grams. It appears to have a very simple interface consisting of a couple buttons on the front that control moving tracks forward and back and also controls the volume.

The Microkey supports playback of MP3 and WMA files giving up to 6 hours of listening time on a single charge of the battery. It also connects to your PC via USB 2.0 for transferring files and reportedly has “touch screen interface capabilities”, although we’re not sure how that comes into play.

There was no pricing or dates of availability yet, but you can watch the Zicplay site for more info and we’ll let you know when we hear more.

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These colorful units are the newly announced ML-300 MP3 players by Korean-based MPIO. Less than the size of a credit card (28.2×19.3×65.9mm, for those that have their rulers handy) and weighing 23 grams, it supports MP3, WMA and WAV files and you get a nice-sized 10-12 hours of battery life from your single AAA battery. Also thrown in is voice recording, eight equalizer presets and a built-in FM radio.

While it’s only got a monochrome display it is backlit in a nice blue and the graphics are detailed, if a bit tiny. Two models are available in Japan, a 1GB ($43) and 2GB ($61), and in three color choices (pumpkin orange, lime green, dark grey.) Of course there’s no Bluetooth support (all your uploading is done via USB) but for this economical price point you shouldn’t care.

SanDisk announced the release of the final version of the Sansa View today, apparently dumping the original View design the company had unveiled earlier this year. This new design however may make a serious challenger for the latest iPod Nano from Apple with a larger 2.4″ display, up to 16GB of storage and more.

The View supports playback of MP3, protected and unprotected WMA, WAV, audio along with MPEG4, WMV, H.264 and DivX video playback at a nice 30 frames per second. It will also show JPEG photos and play Audible files. In addition to just playing your stored media, this player also packs in an FM tuner with the ability to remember up to 20 preset stations, and also houses a voice recorder with a built-in microphone. And, the storage can even expanded from that already impressive 16GB of storage with a microSD/SDHC slot. The 2.4-inch TFT color display has a 320×240 resolution and the rechargeable battery promises 35 hours of continuous audio playback, or 7 hours of video.

Along with quietly rolling out the Insignia Pilot, Best Buy also took the wraps off of the Insignia Sport “sporting” a similar but scaled down feature set with a scaled down price. Coming with an internal memory capacity of 2GB or 4GB, the Sport is also Bluetooth compatible letting you listen with your wireless Bluetooth headset. It supports playback of MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM and OGG music formats along with slightly choppy (15fps) MPEG4 video and JPEG still images.

The player has 1.7″ color LCD screen and an FM tuner with RDS so you can see the artist and song names from participating stations, and lets you save the RDS data of songs you like for later when you want to get online and download them. Speaking of saving song related information, this player also lets you rates songs that you play from your media with a dedicated ratings button.

Last weekend Best Buy made a quiet release of their latest line of the budget-minded Insignia media players, one of which being the 4GB Insignia Pilot. The Insignia players have always been somewhat in the background, offering decent “Best-Buy brand” players at affordable prices, but this latest release has some competitive features at a very competitive price which should give a lot of more popular brands a run for their money.

The player supports playback of MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, OGG, WAV and Audible audio files along with MPEG4 (30 fps) and WMV (30 fps) for video. It will also support viewing JPEG still images. Users can watch video and view images on a nice-sized 2.4″ widescreen LCD and it offers up to 25 hours of audio playback on a single charge.

Cowon introduced the iAudio U5 media player at IFA this week and while it has a slimmer and simpler design than the iAudio 7 that Cowon released in June, we don’t find the looks of the U5 quite as appealing.

The player is an audio player only, sporting a 1.8″ TFT LCD with 128×160 resolution and uses an on board equalizer to fine tune MP3 and WMA files. You can also use it to record the FM radio through a built-in tuner or do direct voice recording to the player through its microphone. The iAudio U5 has a rechargeable battery with as much as 20 hours of playback and comes in capacities of 2GB, 4GB and 8GB and can double as mass storage through a USB 2.0 connection.

iRiver has announced the launch of the DP250, its first MP3 player through recently acquired Siren. The player is branded as a Siren product but definitely has taken on the iRiver look. The Siren DP250 is a somewhat smaller MP3 player measuring 102mm x 30.5mm x 12.7mm. The DAP will launch in Japan September 7 in 1GB and 2GB capacities for $85 and $120, respectively.

Archos, maker of a number of cool, higher-end media players, is now bringing its smaller 5th generation Archos 105 to the U.S. adding to the already-high competition present in this mini media player market.

It comes in colors of black, red and silver and in only a single capacity configuration of 2GB. Inside the super-slim 0.3″ frame the player supports playback of MP3, WMA and WAV audio files. What really makes this player is the fact that it also takes advantage of a 1.8” OLED display at 160 x 128 dpi with 262,000 colors to play WMV files so you can take your recorded TV episodes with you. And of course you can view still JPEG’s with it, too.

Along with yesterday’s release of the new video Walkman’s from Sony, they also released a smaller, non-video line of Walkmans which were somewhat overshadowed in the announcement. Although the new NWZ-B100 series do not have video, they do have a 3-line color LCD display to show functions and tracks playing.

The small Walkman supports playing MP3 and WMA audio files and is compatible with Microsoft’s PlayForSure music service. It also has a FM tuner with the ability to set as many as 30 preset stations, and it can record the radio broadcast directly to the player as MP3’s. It also has a microphone built-in should you want to record your own, personally sung songs to the player for future easy-listening.