More TREO mention from PCWorld.com/
Combo Devices Let You Communicate With Music
One of the most innovative MP3 players on display here is the Uproar mobile phone from Samsung and Sprint. The $400 device is a cell phone that plays and stores digital audio files on its 64MB of internal CompactFlash memory.
In This Story Pushing the Portable MP3 Player EnvelopeCombo Devices Let You Communicate With Music
Also on the communications front, Zidtech is showcasing a two-way wireless pager, Messenger (pictured at left), that can send and receive e-mail and voice mail and function as an MP3 player. Pricing and availability information have not yet been disclosed.
On the PDA front, Good Technology showed off Handspring add-on module called the SoundsGood AudioPlayer. The $270 module snaps nicely onto the back of the Visor and includes 64MB of built-in memory.
CompactFlash Alternatives
When you buy an MP3 player, a lot of the purchase price goes to flash memory storage. Today 32MB (just under an hour of play time for music) costs about $80. That has some companies turning to cheaper alternatives.
Take TreoPlayer's Digital Music Jukebox, a $400 6.4GB MP3 player that relies on the same hard drive that notebook computers use. By comparison, SonicBlue's $260 Rio 500 ships with only 64MB of flash memory. The TreoPlayer hard disk can hold 150 music CDs, but the trade-off is the Digital Music Jukebox weighs in at a hefty 8 ounces. Creative has its own beefy MP3 player, the $500 Nomad Jukebox, which holds 6GB of music.
At Comdex, Gigastorage is offering a lighter and smaller alternative. Its Cursor player uses mini-CD-ROMs that store up to 200MB of digital music. To use it, you have to save your MP3s onto burnable CDs--which requires a PC with a CD-RW. Mini Disks cost about $3 each.
But if you're the sedentary type, Adam Electronics has a $300 DVD player that plays MP3s.
Still, if you're rushing to take advantage of these newest tune machines, be aware that many will probably suffer first-generation quirks, not to mention prices that seem as high as manufacturers' ambitions. Stay tuned. |
