The SPO MP3 player from Korean company SAFA features a sporty look with a rubberized case and short lanyard giving it a good grip for using during running or other outdoor activities. It’s powered by one AAA battery which gives is 10 hours of continuous playback time.

It comes in a 1GB capacity with a standard set of features including a color OLED display, FM radio tuner and voice recording through a built-in microphone. It also connects to your computer via USB to transfer files or to simply act as a portable storage device. The SAFA SPO MP3 player retails in Korea for 49,000 won, or about $54. Even if you’re not interested in the MP3 player you should at least check out SAFA’s interesting website.

via Aving

These little MP3 players from Greenhouse Japan have a very familiar, iPod Shuffle-like look and feel to them with dimensions only slightly larger and a price tag that’s slightly smaller.

The Kansa SD MP3 player is about 2.2 inches at it’s widest point compared to the 1.62 inch width of the Shuffle. It has no display and has a similar circle-shaped navigation control on the front to run play, pause, volume and to go forward and back in tracks.

The player’s price tag is only $18 which is a great price for an MP3 player of this size but the catch is that it comes with no internal memory. In order to load and save any files you will need to get your own SD/SDHC card (up to 8GB) to keep all your media. This might be perceived as kind of a pain …

Sony has announced the Walkman NWD-B100 series of MP3 players that feature a direct USB connection to your computer to transfer music and files without the need for any cables. The stick-style MP3 player comes in sized of 1GB and 2GB adn has software that can scan through your directories looking for music files to grab, and monitors folders for new files added in.

The new Walkman can also connect directly to an audio system with a USB connection to record and encode music directly to the player. It also includes a built-in FM tuner and supports voice recording which are both are becoming very commonplace in MP3 players these days.

The NWD-B100 series Walkman’s come in colors of black or white with an LCD display that allows for navigation and song search by folder navigation or by the album, artist or song …

HandHeld Entertainment, despite making portable media player after portable media player over the years, continues to not be a name rolling off the tongue when one thinks of PMPs. HandHeld looks to be at it again though, announcing the beginning of sales today for its new Zvue 260.

The Zvue 260, like many other Zvue players, lacks internal memory. It instead uses external SD memory cards for storage of media content. This particular player, priced at less than $100, comes with a 1GB SD card out of the box. This card is enough to hold up to six hours of video or 500 MP3 songs.

No, you’re not looking at the latest Tamagotchi or Transformers toy; this is a portable audio player called Digital Olive and from Sofmap. It’s hard to get an idea of how small this one is from the photo but the Digital Olive measures 80mm x 140mm and weighs 275 grams, so it’s lightweight enough to pack around in your pocket. You can separate the two speakers if you like from the center unit where the main controls are located. The back of the center unit flips open and that’s where your SD card slides into (it also accepts USB connections too.) It takes 4 AA batteries to power up, supports MP3/WMA files and comes in pink, black, silver and blue color choices.

You’ll need to import this one from Japan when it starts to go on sale July 24th for 5,980 Yen (~$50 bucks.)

via …

Remember last month we told you all about Cowan’s cool little iAudio 7 music player? Well, we’ve got good news guys and gals: the iAudio is now shipping to customers from its Korean point of origin.

The silver highlighted 4 GB unit goes for $169.99 while the red one goes for $219.99, about $30 less than Cowan originally thought that they would go for. This little number can give you a whopping 60 hours of playback time, supports a whackload of audio formats (AAC, FLAC, OGG, MP3, WMA and WAV) and can even play XviD videos too on its 1.3-inch screen. And along with the built-in FM tuner, get this, it even acts as a voice recorder. Factor in the gadget’s nice look and this is an audio player that can grab an iUser’s eyeballs.

Release

Maybe they’re trying to go along with the open source movement or maybe they just ran out of creative ideas, but the folks that made this DAP decided to keep the situation simple and leave it up to the owners to put the player in whatever they want.

The Motz Music Box actual comes in a small stiff paper box with the player inside and has a controller and port protruding through some well-placed holes. On the bottom is a standard headphone jack that doubles as a USB connection adapter to transfer files onto the flimsy-looking device. On the back is a joystick type controller that moves the tracks forward and back and controls the volume by pressing up or down.

The music box houses 256MB of internal memory and supports MP3, OGG and WMA files. It measures a mere, not quite square 28mm x …

Remember those fuzzy little monitors/alarm clocks/WiFi widgets called Chumbys that we told you about oh so long ago? Well now we know when you can get your hands on one of these digital darlings: if you’re one of a privileged group of insiders you will be the owner of a Chumby this August but if you’re like us it will have to wait until the fall.

The unit will retail for $179.99 and be built with a 350 MHz ARM processor, 64 MB of RAM, a 320 x 240 3-inch screen, two USB slots, 2W speakers, a built-in microphone and accelerometer and come with a cleaner case. You will be able to customize your Chumby to perform a bunch of tasks like play videos, share photos or other fun things that you can download from the website and you will be able to modify …

In only less than two months after Creative released the Zen Stone MP3 player, they’ve now come out with an updated version called the Zen Stone Plus with some nice upgrades that could just as well have been on the first version they released in May.

The Zen Stone Plus player doubles the memory capacity from 1 to 2GB, adds a simple but much appreciated blue 64×64 OLED display, a stopwatch, voice recording, a built-in FM tuner with up to 32 presets, support for MP3, WMA, and Audible and 9.5 hours of continuous playback. I guess that last one is a .5 hour downgrade from the first Zen Stone but that’s probably to be expected with the added display.

It comes in a variety of colors including black, white, pink, blue, red and green. Pricing runs a little over $99 which is also an upgrade …

The new iRiver NV will be available for the Korean market soon and has just about everything you could want in a PMP. It sports a 7 inch LED display at 840 x 480, T-DMB television, GPS, FM transmitter, 1.3 megapixel camera, 2 SD card slots, a sexy remote control and supports playback of MP3, WMA, OGG, ASF, WMV, MPG, Xvid and H.264 file formats. The device doesn’t look to shabby, either.

The multiple SD card slots could possibly be for both storing media and storing map data separately, and there’s no reason the on-board digital camera could not geo-tag your photos, either. No word on price or if the iRiver NV is coming anyone’s way outside of Korea but this is certainly one to watch for.

via Akihibara News

Here’s an MP3 player that breaks from the mainstream mold with a retro-look and analog-like controls. The design of the MPIO FL500 was inspired by the looks of an electric guitar which gives it the triangle design and big silver metal knobs.

Volume is controlled with a large dial at the top, the mode is changed with a large selector switch and there’s a metal screw that can be removed to use with a necklace or replaced to attach a metal belt clip. The player supports MP3, WMA, and ASF file playback along with an FM tuner and voice recording. Tracks and stations are displayed in a 3-line LCD display that fades to black to blend into the players frame and shows itself when powered up.

The MPIO FL500 comes in sizes of 512MB, 1GB and 2GB and connects to a PC or Mac …

ARCHOS recently announced the launch of their new Gen 5 lineup of personal media players leading out with the ARCHOS 605 WiFi as an upgrade to the 604 WiFi model featuring higher quality screen resolution and easier access media content. It features a higher resolution 800 x 480 4.3 inch touch screen, WiFi connectivity and comes in sizes of 4GB flash with an SD card slot or drive capacities of 30GB, 80GB or 160GB.

ARCHOS takes more advantage of the WiFi capabilities with the Gen 5 versions through a couple of new services. On the 605 WiFi users can access the ARCHOS TV Program Guide to view show times and set the device to act as a DVR and record programs with a single touch. The DVR capabilities still unfortunately require a separate base station to make it all possible.

Also new to …

The Becker Vision Pro 7985 media player boasts a touchscreen interface along with DVD playback claimed by Becker to be the first of its kind in portable media players. The 7″ 16:9 TFT display will show up to four hours of continuous DVD playback, static images and MPEG-1 to MPEG-4, DIV-X, XVID, AVI and SVCD video which all can be played on your big screen as well with some A/V out jacks. A/V in lets you also watch and listen from other output devices such as a camcorder.

MP3 audio and the videos can be played back through media on an SD card, Memory Stick or a USB thumb drive along with a DVD or CD. The Vision Pro can also pick up DVB TV and radio stations with a built in tuner, and it also sports some built in speakers and a …

Cowan has launched a new media player with some features not unlike many of the other MP3 players on the market, but the 60 hours of continuous music playback helps the iAudio 7 stand out from the crowd.

The sleek glossy look and inset buttons on the face don’t hurt, either. For all that music playback time it supports an array of formats which consist of AAC, FLAC, OGG, MP3, WMA and WAV. It will also play videos (XviD) that can be viewed on the 1.3″ LCD, which alternatively will show navigation, current track, mode, time, etc. Like many other players it also houses an FM tuner and supports voice recording.

The iAudio 7 storage has been upgraded from its predecessor to Flash-based memory instead of a hard drive and comes in capacities of 4GB ($182) and 8GB ($246). …

Samsung launched the T9+ media player named the “Third Story” which is the 3rd generation of the T9 media player. The previous “stories” of the T9 brought Bluetooth connectivity for wireless headsets and Bluetooth enabled mobile phones but this version adds to the multi-device interaction with multi-player gaming.

The T9+ is available only in Korea for now and has five games already available that T9+ owners can play against each other from up to 30 feet away. It also holds to its original functionality by playing MP3 and WMA music files, MPEG4 video, static images and houses an FM tuner and recorder. The T9+ comes in capacities of 2GB, 4GB and 8GB.

Press Release (Korean) via MobileWhack