Digital Jukebox

MP3 Goggles

US-based Finis just unveiled its answer to an MP3 player for swimmers. Whereas the Orgegon Scientific MP120, which is already available in the UK, relies on a traditional earphone design, the SwiMP3 uses bone conduction technology to transfer sound to the inner ear via the cheekbone. According to Finis, this dramatically improves the sound quality underwater. A special pair of goggles is supplied to house the SwiMP3. The player is Windows and Mac compatible and has 128MB of storage space. In the US it costs $250, but there's no news of a UK launch at the moment.

Finis

Sony 1GB flash player with MP3 support

Sony is releasing its first digital music players that are compatible with MP3 files in the UK next month. From November, you'll be able to buy Network Walkmans NW-E99 for around £160, and NW-E95 for £120. The flash-based players have 1GB and 512MB of memory respectively. Using Sony's Atrac music file compression, the NW-E99 will be able to squeeze in over 40 CDs worth of music. The players should provide around 70 hours of battery life and weigh around 40g.

Sony

Black U2 iPod

Not content with making themselves look foolish on the current iPod ads, U2 has collaborated with Apple to produce a black Special Edition iPod. The player has been rumoured for some time, and Apple has finally released the official announcement along with pics. The 20GB iPod is apparently inspired by the design of the band's latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb . Whatever, the bright red scroll wheel seems a tad unnecessary to us - what was wrong with having it all totally black? Plus, the earbuds are white, so it's all a bit of a mish-mash. We haven't actually seen one yet, though, so maybe it's more dazzling in the flesh.

U2 fans will be delighted to hear that the iPod comes with the signatures of the boys laser-engraved onto the back. There's also a free poster of the band and £40 off the band's music on iTunes. It will cost £248.99 (since the normal 20GB version is £219, we're guessing you do have to pay for those free extras after all).

Read

Apple's iPod Photo in 40 and 60GB versions

Typical. We desert our post for a couple of hours to chomp on pizza and chuckle at Little Britain and Apple goes and makes it biggest announcement of the year so far.

Yes, that iPod Photo that has been rumoured for the past month or so isn't just vapourware but a real world product that goes on sale in the UK today.

The basic details are that it is available in 40 (£359, £90 more than an ordinary 40 Gigabyte iPod) and 60 Gigabyte (£429) versions, it sports a 65K colour 65k-color screen with 220 by 176 pixel resolution, has the same click wheel as it predecessor and has - in theory - 15 hours of battery life.

The screen can be used to view your own JPEGs, which you transfer via iTunes, or to see album artwork. It comes with a TV out too so you can view the images on your TV screen. The Photo iPod is exactly the same size as an ordinary iPod.

Buy Apple iPod Photo 40GB for £354 here[M9585]
Buy Apple iPod Photo 60GB for £424 here [M9586]

100 Gig MP3 player

How much storage space do you need on your hard disk digital jukebox. 20 Gigabytes? 40? 80? Well Xclef has once again upped the ante by delivering a version of its Xclef 500 player that sports a monstrously large 100 Gigabyte jukebox.

Can there really be that many people in the world who need a 100 Gig player? Probably not, but it does mean that chances are you need never worry about the player's hard disk ever being completely full.

Not surprisingly the Xclef 500 is a bit of a chunky beast, but it does boast plenty of features including a very respectable 20 hours battery life, an integrated FM radio and direct encoding of MP3s via its optical line in connector. No news yet on price or UK availability, but we reckon it will land here soon probably via www.advancedmp3players.co.uk and will retail for around the £400 mark

Archos taks on iPod mini with 20 Gig player

How do you fancy an iPod mini size digital music player with a full iPod sized storage capacity of 20 Gigabytes? Well Sony got close with its NW-HD1, and now it appears that French manufacturer Archos has actually pulled off this marvel of miniaturisation with its upcoming Gmini XS200.

The tiny player measures just 7.6 x 5.9 x 1.9cm and weighs 120g which is roughly the same size as Apple’s, unbelievably hard to find the UK at least, iPod mini. Yet the XS200 has five times as much storage as the mini offering 20 rather than four Gigabytes. It also trumps its Apple rival on battery life, offering ten hours as opposed to the mini’s eight, and it will play WMA files, though not AAC ones.

One rather cool innovation in that it sports a virtual keyboard that enables users to name tracks and playlists on the fly.

The Register, which got a sneak preview, reckons though that it is not much of a looker and that its LED screen is a tad tricky to use.

Can’t imagine that Apple will launch any more iPods until its next Expo in San Fran in January. Then we’d be amazed if we didn’t see the iPod form factor splintering all over the place with larger capacity iPods with colour screens rubbing shoulders with smaller ones offering at least 20 Gigabytes of storage but featuring more basic facilities.

Aigo's MP3 players

The E808 and the F186 are the two latest music players released by the relatively unknown Aigo. The E808 is being pitched as the most affordable MP3 player on the market, with pricing starting at £39.99 for the 128MB version. There's also a 256MB version for £49.99 and a 512MB variety at £89.99. The player comes with an FM radio with 10 presets and users can record straight from the radio into MP3 and WMA formats via the ADPCM recording feature.

Meanwhile the F186 comes with a few more features, including a voice recording facility and a line-in for recording from other devices onto the player. Any analogue files are converted automatically into digital MP3s. There's also an FM radio with 20 preset stations and FM recording. The F186 starts at £69.99 for the 128MB version, £89.99 for the 256MB version and £109.99 for the 512MB version.

Aigo

Philips makes life better for the joggers

One of the main problems with hard disk music players is that you can't run with them (well, that's not actually a problem for us, but it is for sporty types who prefer jogging to blogging). The solution to this has traditionally been to use the Flash memory-based players instead. But their problem is that they've usually only got enough memory to get you round the park once, obliging you to update the tracklist constantly, or put up with the same songs day in day out. Well, now Philips reckons it's come up with a solution to both these problems. Instead of relying on Flash-based systems, the company is working on a hard disk player that won't jump. Todd Selwyn, market manager for Philips audio, explains: "it will work by using a buffer system. The player will sample an hour's worth of music and store it in the buffer." The actual hard disk itself will then shut down and stop spinning, which means it won't be able to jump.

Although there's no definite details on when will be available, Philips has indicated that it's likely to be sometime next year. We're guessing it will be around 2-5GB rather than a larger 20GB player. Philips has already shown its concern for the jogging section of society by teaming up with Nike to make a Bluetooth MP3 Pedometer (pictured), and it looks as though the hard drive player will be in conjunction with Nike as well.

First Bluetooth headphones

We were over at Photokina last week and we found some great little products to report back on. We've been holding out for pics, though, and now we've managed to get hold some. NHJ, a Japanese company that supplies a lot of products to the UK gadgets shops has managed to come up with what looks set to be the first set of Bluetooth headphones to reach these shores. The VHD-5500 is a 5GB hard disk player that will be on sale here in January. Retailing at around £250, the player transmits music to the dedicated headset via Bluetooth. We had a quick go and there were no problems with the music cutting out even when we took a little stroll away from the player. We weren't too sure about the actual sound quality, but that may have been more due to the fact that we were at a noisy exhibition, so we're witholding judgement until we get a proper go. One thing we will say is that they're not the most attractive headphones in the world. The player itself is slightly larger than the iPod mini, plays MP3 and WMA files and will directly encode MP3 from a CD player/hi-fi.

NHJ

BenQ adds hard disk MP3 player

After releasing a slew of flash based music players under the Joybee banner BenQ has bowed to the inevitable and made its first hard disk model.

Set to debut in January the as yet un-named player spins both MP3 and WMA files and features a four Gigabyte hard disk.

Its USP is that it is the first relatively small, in both size and storage capacity, jukebox to sport a colour screen. It also features an SD card slot so users can easily port their JPEG images on the hard drive and check them out on the player’s screen.

If BenQ can sell it for under 200 quid it might just tempt a few potential iPod mini buyers.

[Photo via Sorobangeeks]