Zen Stone Plus
At the end of the day it’s all about making money, and that is why companies release the poorer version of their products first when, at the end of the day, they had the better one ready at the same time. Release the lesser version first, people will snap it up and when the better version comes along they’ll want that too because it’s slightly more shiny. We see it over and over again, and in this case, we see it with the Zen Stone.
The Stone is Creative’s late answer to the iPod shuffle, […]
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The line between hi-tech devices continues to blur with the iRiver NV. With phones and MP3 players almost becoming one the iRiver NV has taken a different approach and seems to have incorporated most of the common player accessories into itself. The first thing that strikes you about the NV is the gigantic 7″ WVGA screen that takes up pretty much the whole device. Navigation is handled via the big round button on the right of the screen.
These days all players seem to be moving away from HDD as their storage media and onto flash, mainly due to the speed at which information can be recovered from it. However HDDs still offer the advantage that the players based on them have a much large storage capacity than flash (at the moment). The M669 from Chinese company Newman is sticking to HDD for now and offering an unimpressive (for HDD players anyway) 20GB storage space. Given that flash players are rapidly 
Controlling everything in you home from a single device is becoming more of a reality with the Voiis mini Pocket Messenger. Whilst it won’t control your cooker or let the dog out, it will play your music and allow you to make and receive calls. The Voiis mini Pocket Messenger is a class 1 Bluetooth gizmo that will operate at a distance of up to about 100m from its base station, so all around the house and well down the garden.
The difference between a USB memory stick and your MP3 player is basically a headphone socket. There isn’t really a great deal of difference between the two. But until that day “when all are one” (Transformers, if you were wondering) music files on your memory stick won’t do you much good. Unless, of course, you have Kinyo’s DS-350 dick type thingy.
When it comes to Disney and electronic items, you expect multiple bright colours, cheap looking products and poor quality. So it comes as a nice change that Disney have gotten someone professional to do the job and they have asked those nice people at iRiver to design them a player based on their famous mouse. The result is a nice looking and innovative little player that the kids are going to enjoy.
For all those people out there that love their iPod Nano a little too much, comes a protective case that will turn your iPod into an impenetrable fortress. The Re-nano from FACTRON is made out of solid titanium and will protect your Nano from pretty much everything (expect possibly water and Wolverine’s claws). The case does add quite a considerable bulk to the tiny Nano, so getting the case may very well defeat the purpose of having a Nano.
Following the news yesterday that Europe will have no Zune until 2008, comes more news that will no doubt get those Europeans wanting a Zune complaining that Microsoft are treating them like second class customers (in much the same way the European Sony fans did with the PS3). Those damn Americans that already have the Zune are getting a new coloured Zune. They can now snap it up in a fancy Watermelon Red colour.
It looks like Microsoft lovers in Europe are going to have to wait even longer for the Zune to reach their shores. Released in late 2006 in the US, it is rumoured that Microsoft bigwig Steve Ballmer told a German publication that the Zune launch has been pushed back until 2008. Microsoft were hoping to release the Zune in Europe in time for Christmas 2007, exactly one year after the Zune’s US release (which received a very mixed reception and had no noticeable impact on Apple). 
Grundig is hardly a name that’s synonymous with MP3 players, however they aim to increase their presence in this very lucrative market with the launch of two new players. Whilst the players are refreshing and certainly worthy players, Grundig may have shot themselves in the foot somewhat with the names they have chosen. The two players they are releasing are called the MPixx2001 and the MPixx2002. People these days are always in a rush and glancing at the name of the player could make you believe that they are over 5 years old. This is a bit of a shame because the players themselves are rather nice.