US Gets New Sony DAPs And Pricing

Those Bluetooth enabled DAP’s we saw a few days ago, are now being priced for the US market. They are priced competitively, with the 8GB (NWZ-A828K and comes with DR-BT21G Bluetooth wireless headphones) going for $US270 and the 16GB (NWZ-A829) going for $US320. Isn’t so bad, with it being $US80 cheaper then similar iPod Touch, but without a touch screen it is so last generation.

For more info, click over to Engadget.

Sony’s New Bluetooth DAPs Are Hawt

It surprises me that companies haven’t made Bluetooth a standard feature in their ranges of portable entertainment devices (PMP, DAPs, MP3 players)? Sony haven’t added it to their whole range of players, but they have added it to two spunky (yes, I said spunky) new DAP’s. The two offending players are the 16GB NW-A829 and 8GB NW-A828.
The players also feature 2.4-inch display, FM radio and video playing capabilities. It can play MP3, WMA, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, SONY PCM, AAC, HE-AAC audio files plus MPEG4 and AVC video files. The battery is up to Sony’s impressive standards, and gives you 36 hours with Bluetooth off and 15 hours with Bluetooth on.
Look wise the players are clean and small, at only 9mm thick.  The players will be priced $US354 for the bigger and $US260 for the smaller. They are in Japan only at the moment, but you can expect them to spread like wild fire.

For more info, click over to Sony. (it is in Japanese)

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iRiver E100, Yet Another iRiver DAP

The CES was a big show for iRiver, releasing many products, and surprising a lot of people. The latest surprise is the E100. Built in speakers, large 2.4-inch screen and a interesting control system that takes up around a 3rd of the devices face make up the E100.
The disappointing parts are the storage size of a measly 4GB and the inability to play video files. That could all be changed in later revisions of the device and with firmware upgrades but why skimp on the initial release? Simple design, easy controls and clean design could make it a interesting device to look out for in the coming months.

For more info, click over to the PMPToday Blog.

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Digital Audio On A Budget

Not everyone can afford iPods and ZEN’s. For those people who eat cat food just to survive and sleep in old newspapers, there is the Delstar DS2209. It doesn’t have an impressive name or a impressive design, but it does have the features and price to back it up.
It hits at $US30, which is ok, but then there are a few things you have to take into account. The first being the inbuilt 1GB of store, the second the SD expansion slot. On top of the ability to store a lot of music with a few SD cards, it also has a FM radio and voice recorder. One nice little feature a lot of players have removed, is the fold out USB adapter, making it a great thumb drive as well.
It isn’t going to dethrone any  of the big players in the game of digital audio (and even more considering the introduction of playing video in pretty much every new player), but for 30 bucks you won’t mind so much when you stack and smash it into a million plastic pieces. To bad it is as ugly as sin!

For more info, click over to the Crave Blog.

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Review Round Up Day At Technie

I like to give you guys a heads up on reviews, especially seeing I recommend reading even the worst of reviews before buying any new toy. Below is a list of all the reviews I have stock piled this week, with a exert from each.

- First up we have the Samsung YP-T10 Review by the guys over at AnythingButiPod. They believed “the T10 is a good player with a really nice line up of features” and “may not be for everyone”. Not bad for a Nano clone.

- Mobility Site did a massive, gigantic, monstrous review of the interesting HTC Advantage X7501. There are a ton of images and the conclusion they came to was “for business users wanting a powerful mobile device for staying connected with the office and still be able to maintain phone connectivity, or mobile tech enthusiasts wanting a top-of-the-line Windows Mobile device, this would be an excellent unit”. I still prefer a true UMPC.

- Pocketables have done a great review on the new OQO Model 02, which is a tiny little UMPC. They said “the Model 02 is an amazing upgrade to previous models and definitely steps up and delivers on all of its pre-release promises” and only really didn’t like the fact that there was no stylus included in the non Windows XP Tablet edition models and the crappy battery life. The article may contain trace amounts of poetry.

- AnythingButiPod did it again with a great review of the Archos 605 Wi-Fi. They said “605 could be ‘the ultimate PMP’, but it needs a complete overhaul of the interface, making it more usable to the average consumer” and “definitely much less user friendly than what is on the market, but that said, it will make a very nice match for the portable video enthusiast”. Sounds like I’m waiting for the next generation.

- AnythingButiPod have too much time on their hands and have reviewed the SanDisk Clip, which is like a Shuffle, but with a little screen. They liked it saying “its price of $40 and $60 MSRP I can easily recommend this to beginners as well as seasoned MP3 player users as a spare” and “the Clip has found a permanent home in my gearbag”. What happened to the all rounder?

- Lastly we have a review of the Fujifilm’s FinePix S8000FD digital camera by the grand people at Photography Blog. They said “the Finepix S8000fd represents Fujifilm’s best attempt yet to fuse the advantages of compact and DSLR cameras together, rivaling the latest entry-level DSLRs” and “the Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd is therefore both our current ultra-zoom camera of choice, and a viable alternative to a DSLR camera”. Fujifilm have done it again.

Remember to thank these guys for taking their time to write these amazing reviews for you guys and girls.

Lower Prices For Zen

Not the spiritual Zen (thats already free young padawan), but the Creative Zen has had a price drop already (considering it hasn’t been around that long yet). Prices are now $US130 for 4GB (down $20) and $US250 for 16GB (down $50). The 8GB is yet to budge on price, still being at $US200.

For more info, click over to the Anything But iPod Site.