Recently in Portable Media Player Category

Joystiq reader Mat Brady sent in some interesting concept art he put together.

He calls it the iwish because "I wish Sony would get their act together and improve the PSP. So many people are doing such amazing and innovative things these days, and yet the only innovative thing to happen to the PSP since 2005 was that it got a little slimmer."

Mat then goes on to discuss convergence and the prerequisites for a converged device.

Personally I don't think we will have a true converged device until we have projected head-up displays (that don't look like dork glasses) along with virtual input devices - otherwise there is no way to fit a keyboard, a good sized high res touchscreen, and a game controller in a device small enough to carry in a pocket.

(mat's blog)

Digital Trends has reviewed the $450 Archos 705 WiFi 160GB portable media player.

Here's what they thought:

"We love the 705's huge hard drive and WiFi capabilities, but lacking physical control buttons, it should offer a better-feeling and -looking touchscreen, even if it adds cost. The device should also either come with wider support for various formats, and built-in recording (like the Cowon A3) would be nice too - we'd even be willing to pay a bit extra for it.

As far as replacing your laptop is concerned, however, the Archos 705 may boast an entirely different set of flaws than the Cowon Q5W, but neither is quite ready for that responsibility... yet."

(more at digitaltrends)

Digital Trends has reviewed the $26 Navigon 2100 Max GPS Navigation System.

Here's what they thought of it:

"The Navigon 2100 Max is a solid, well-performing GPS that's easy to recommend. At about $260 USD street price (as of April 2008), it proves well worth the investment for features such as the terrific Reality View option. By comparison, the new Garmin nuvi 205W with a similar 4.3-inch screen is due soon for $266 USD and lacks this feature, not to mention spoken turn commands. Since both use NAVTEQ maps, there really isn't that much difference in terms of day-to-day performance as well. Navigon also has traffic alerts for $99 lifetime versus MSN Direct at $129 lifetime (or $49.95 annually) on the Garmin. However, MSN Direct gives more info such as movie times and stock quotes, so this is pretty much a wash. All told though, the Navigon 2100 Max takes the prize. And, better still, we love the fact it doesn't nag us..."

(full review at digitaltrends)

Now this is a nice looking portable media player, too bad it appears that it will only be available in Korea.

The TG Sambo has an 800 x 480 pixel 4.8" touchscreen display, 801.11b/g WiFi and lots more features that make the most of it's alchemy AU1250 700MHz processor.

Lets hope it gets released in the US.

(more at aving)

Creative have brought out two new colored versions of their ZEM portable media player.

The new red and pink versions are otherwise identical to the existing versions with 2.5" 320 x 240 pixel screen, 4 to 32GB storage capacities and SD expansion slot.

The red version is available at buy.com and the pink is a walmart exclusive.

If you are just looking for the black version there are good deals available directly through Creative's refurbished store.

(Via slashgear)

Yes it has a very unfortunate name, so the Ainol S100 will probably be the butt of many rearend-related jokes, however for the price it seems to be a pretty good PMP.

For 599 Yuan ($86) you get a 8GB portable media player, with a 3-inch 400x240 pixel screen, support for many popular video and audio file formats (RM, RMVB, AVI, DAT, ASP, MP4, WMV, 3GP, MPG, FLV, MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC) and a touch sensitive keypad, plus you get a choice of colors: red, blue, purple, black, and silver.

It is just another basic PMP? yes, will it ever make it to the US? probably not, so is this whole post just thinly veiled toilet humor? no comment.

(via pmptoday)

We love the Archos 605 WiFi Portable Media Player and Archos has just made it even better with a cool new accessory that crosses the barrier into GPS navigation system territory.

The Archos 605 GPS in-car holder adds GPS functionality to your 605 with Tele Atlas maps for either Europe, the US and Canada, or China. Functionality includes traffic assistance, route planning, and speed control assistance (in some countries).

The new holder will retails for $129.99 or will be available in a bundle with a 30GB 605 for $399.99.

Why should you consider this instead of a "real" GPS navigation system? because the 605 has a great touchscreen display (4.3" 800 x 480 pixels), up to 160GB of storage space for movies music and photos, plus you can take it anywhere.

(full press release after the jump)

LiveDigitally got the scoop on the Ovideon Portable Media Player, which is one of the first devices by a US manufacturer to use an OLED screen.

The Ovideon Portable Media Player has a wierd sized screen, 512 by 218 pixels, and boasts a built-in cable TV tuner, audio/video inputs, 1 inch hard drive (presumably 4 or 5gb), video recording, and playback of MP3, AVI, WMA, WMV, DIVx, and JPEG.

The MP3, AVI, WMA, WMV, DIVx, and JPEG weighs just over 5oz and will cost $599.

More at LiveDigitally

Got to run out the door now to get to the Digital Life show.

Wanted to finish with some photos of the iRiver PMC-120 20GB portable video player.

The iRiver PMC-120 has a 3.5" LCD screen and a 20gb hard drive, is 3.3 by 5.6 by 1.2 inches and weighs 0.6 pounds.

Battery life is supposed to be 5hrs for video and 14hrs for audio, and the price is $549.99.

More new to follow later today from both Digital Focus and Digital Life.

Another day, another new Portable Media Player.

Today's offering is the Arlink PMP-400, featuring a wide-screen 5.8" TFT LCD screen, 20gb hard drive, compactflash slot, and support for WMA, WMV, MPEG-4, and JPG.

It's not clear if the PMP-400 will be picked up by a distributor and sold in the US.

The Archos AV400 is one of the first personal/portable video players available in the US and Extremetech has one they have reviewed.

The Archos AV400 comes with a variety of hard drive sizes, from 20gb to 100gb (allowing the storage of up to 400 hours of programs on the largest model). Size, weight and battery life vary but the largest model is 4.9 x 3.1 x 1 inches and weighs 11 ounces with a battery life of 16 hours of music or 4.5 hours of video.

The Archos AV400 has a 3.8" LCD screen, connects via USB2, accepts compactflash storage cards, and comes with a cradle/charger that you can connect to your TV/VCD or cable/satellite receiver to record programs.

The cradle records in MPEG-4 format, and other formats supported by the Archos AV400 are XviD and DivX for video, MP3, WMA and WAV for audio, and JPEG/BMP for pictures.

The 20gb version of the AV400 can be purchased from Archos for $550

The rimax HDDivX is an interesting twist on the portable video player concept.

The HDDivX is a small box (5.2 x 3.1 x 0.7 inches and 7.5 ounces) that contains a 20gb hard drive (user upgradable to 40, 60 or 80gb).

It doesn't have a screen, and this is the twist, instead it has a audio/video output allowing you to connect to any TV with standard component (3 cable) inputs or to a PC with USB2.

It comes with a small remote control so all you do is connect it to the tv and use the remote control to choose the movie to watch (supported format are MPEG4 (DivX), DVD (MPEG2), VCD (MPEG1), MP3 and JPEG.

The rimax HDDivX is currently only available in Europe.

The iRiver PMP-120 portable video player will be available from August 23rd for $499.

The iRiver PMP-120 has a 3.5" LCD screen and a 20gb hard drive. Video and audio formats supported include MP3, WMA, ASF, Ogg Vorbis, JPEG, BMP, AVI, MP4, DivX, XviD, MPEG4 SP, Advanced SP and, MPEG1.

Battery life is supposed to be 5hrs for video and 16hrs for audio, and a 40gb version is expected to follow later this year.

The MobiNote DVX-POD 7010 is now on sale in Taiwan for just under $600, expect to see it in the stores in the US soon (we hope).

The MobiNote DVX-POD 7010 is a great looking portable media player. Especially interesting is the clean front with all the controls on the sides.

It features a 7-inch color LCD (720x480), 20gb 1.8" hard drive (expect to see 60gb hard drives in media players next year), and weighs 21oz. Battery life playing Mpeg-4 movies is expected to be around 3 hours.

The Mobinote supports most standard formats: MPEG-4, DivX, Quicktime and WMV for video, WMA and MP3 for audio.

We mentioned the Archos Gmini 400 a while ago.

Archos has now released the full specs for the device and it is interesting: A good solution if you want a combination portable MP3 player, video player, and photo viewer and don't mind a small screen.

Full specs below.

Samsung have released a picture of their new 2.6 inch, 300 dot per inch, 640 by 480 pixel VGA screen (by comparison a PC screen usually has 72 dots per inch, which means this screen can display a lot more in a small space, or make the same amount of information a lot clearer/smoother).

The screen also has a 200:1 contrast ratio and 150cd/m2 brightness which means it should look better than current small screens in direct sunlight.

This will be going into full production in December of this year and should show up next year in small Pocket PCs (current VGA Pocket PCs have a much larger and poorer quality 4 inch screen), smart phones, and high end mobile phones.

Also interesting but not announced yet is that the same 300 dots per inch would allow a 4.2 inch 1024x768 screen on a larger pocket pc or a 7.3" Wide-XGA 1080p HDTV screen combined with the new 60gb 1.8" hard drive for an uber personal video player or portable DVD player.

press release

Update 8/15: More on the Archos Gmini 400 here.

Archos is planning to release a new MP3 player that will also play video. I am classing this mostly as a MP3 player as the screen is 2.2".

The Archos Gmini 400 could be just what you need if you are looking for a MP3 player the same size as a regular ipod, with a color screen, a 20gb hard drive, CF slot, MP3 and WMA support.

(thanks PVP4U)