Archos 405 Gets Fatter

Have been waiting for a small media player, with a decent amount of space for your legitimate downloads? Archos has announced a brand spanking upgrade for the 405, which gives it a much nicer 30GB of space. It is going to set you back a measly $US293, but unfortunately uses a HDD instead of flash. The 605, with all its web browsing goodness, is still the better deal.

For more info, click over to Engadget.

Sharp Release Ugly New PMP

It looks more like an old Nokia then a new portable media player. The new SP600 by Sharp can do all the things you would expect a PMP to do, plus also features an e-dictionary. It features a 4.3″ touchscreen, 30GB HDD, expansion through SD/MMC and can play DIVX, MPEG1/2/4, WMV7/8/9, H.264BP, ASF in video and MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AAC in audio.
Nothing really else to it other then it runs Windows CE 5.0, which means you can probably hack it to do slightly more (no point installing a web browser without WiFi). It isn’t to badly priced at around $US430 (and raising), but would much prefer the Archos 605 at that cost.

For more info, click over to Akihabara News.

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The Maxian E900T Looks Great, If You’re In Korea

It seems to be that all portable electronic companies are trying to make the perfect all-in-one media device. You want to be able to play movies and music, read ebooks, get direction via GPS, watch TV and backup information off memory cards (like photo’s and things). The upcoming Maxian E900T will be able to do everything listed above (and probably a lot more).
It runs the Windows CE operating environment and features a 4.3″ touch screen with an 800 x 480 resolution, 720p high-def video and DTS surround sound output (via a Burr-Brown processing circuitry) plus a DMB television receiver (which handles Korea’s digital over-the-air television signals). For storage you have the choice of either a 30GB or 60GB (get with the times, its now 80 or 160) plus both feature a SD/MMC card slot. There is also the option to get a docking station that adds a attachment arm and GPS for navigating yourself around on the road.
If it had wireless and a web browser, it would be a UMPC. Seeing it will probably be focused more at the PMP market, it will blow away any of its current competitors. Unfortunately you will never see it leave the sandy shores of Korea (unless you get someone to export you one).
For more info, click over to the PMPToday Blog.
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iRiver Throws Out The W7

God knows why you would want a touch screen PMP. I’m sure it looks cool, but have you ever navigated your media library with your finger? The new iRiver jumps on that bandwagon with its newly released W7. The W7 is a dictionary among other things, so don’t expect to see it outside of Korea.
What else can it do? It seems it can also be a CSD viewer, flash player (games), an E-book reader and of course the whole video and audio thing. If you are in Korea, it is available now and will set you back $US310 for the 8GB and $US260 for the 4GB.

For more info, jump over to the Akihabara Website.

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The Awesome But Unusual Samsung P2 Dock

Samsung have surprised me with the recently announced docking station for there infamous P2 PMP. The little station adds 4 new abilities to the player which include Wi-Fi, MicroSD, FM transmitter, and even a built in speaker. Not much else is known, but expect more when CES comes our way. If the WiFi and MicroSD are implemented properly, this could make the P2 a very kick arse product.

More info at AnythingButiPod.

Update: The Dock is so damn fake, and people keep reminding me. It would have been nice, but it seems a no go.

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Microsoft Zune 2.0 8GB Gets Reviewed (They Like it)

If you didn’t know, and you wouldn’t if your only source of technology information was my site, the Zunes 2.0 have now been released into the wild. So it is expected that there are 1million reviews done by every walk of life. This particular review was done by the good fellows over at Digital Trends, and they have some good things to say about it, giving it a very good 7.5 out of 10. Not to take thunder away from them, they said “The new 8GB Zune Red is a sexy little MP3 player – certainly better than many competitive players on the market.” If Microsoft can’t win with quality, it can always just drop the price to a ridiculous low and get customers that way.

For the whole review, click over to the Digital Trends Website.

Artamys Intros Sleek PMP

You have probably never heard of Artamys, that is because they are a french company, and I don’t recall any french people reading my site (they have taste). They have recently released a sexy little player titled R-RM 850 PMP (very unsexy name).
The things that set this player apart from the rest is its very clean design and LG Chocolate like touch sensitive controls. It also features a 2.8-inch 320 x 240-pixel TFT screen, FM radio and USB 2.0. It can playback AVI, XVID, WMV, RM, RMVB, DAT, FLV, MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, APE and view JPG, BMP, GIF, TXT. One let down is the average battery life, with a 15 hours of audio and 4 hours for video.
The player is available soon (if you are in France), and will set you back around the $US146 mark. If you can be bothered to check out the Artamys Website, you will notice it needs a little work, otherwise if the player can include enough memory it could be a contender.

For more info, click over to the PMP Today Website.

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Cowon A3 Coming Soon

The Cowon A3 has been talked about for a while, with people getting a sneak peak of it back at the CES in January. If you don’t remember, the thing that make it stand out is the use of the DaVinci Chipset, which should give it the ability to punch out some pretty hot graphics.
Other then the cool chipset, the A3 will be able to playback DivX, FLAC, OGG, and a wide variety of lossless audio formats. It will feature HD TV-Out with an impressive resolution of 1280 x 720. It will be able to play and record FM stations, plus use the USB-Host to copy the photo’s off your camera. The screen on the player is also impressive with it being a sweet 4-inch widescreen with a resolution of 800 x 480.
I am impressed with the A3 information all round, and though it can’t surf the internet like the Archos players, it does do multimedia damn well. It is set for a November 14th release with a 30GB for $US387 and a 60GB for $US465. Can’t wait to see what the reviews have to say about this one.

For more info, click over to the Engadget Blog.

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Update: Zune Battery Life Any Good?

To answer the header, I would have to say it is pretty good. It isn’t amazing like the Cowon that can play audio for 60 hrs, but at least it can play audio for up to 30 hrs. It seems though that the video is kind of lacking  on all the new Zune’s with only a maximum of 4 hours. It isn’t bad, but on the other hand it isn’t ground breaking. Engadget has more info after the jump.

To jump, go to the Engadget Blog.

Creative ZEN Gets Reviewed

I’m a big fan of the way Creative have gone their new ZEN player. It is still one of the only 16GB players with a expandable slot, and a good one at that (SD, not those silly minimicronano cards). The guys over at Generation MP3 have done a lengthy review on the little guy and had some good things to say. They liked overall quality, ergonomics, usability and price, but disliked small hiss at low volumes, videos must be encoded and battery life not as long as advertised among other things. The review is in french but the guys over a epiZENter have got a nice translation linked up for us English speaking types.

For more info, click over to the epiZENter Website (for English translation), or GenerationMP3 for french.