By Shane McGlaun

The iPod is the most successful and popular digital music player by a huge margin. With the raging popularity of the iPod a world of accessories are available from speaker systems to car chargers and all sorts of gear in between. iLuv is one of the makers of many accessories for the players.

iLuv has announced its latest iPod alarm clock that is compatible with all dockable iPods and with any other DAP using a 3.5mm headphone jack. The clock is called the iMM153 desktop alarm clock with bed shaker. The clock is offered in black, white, blue, and pink colors.

With the iPod docked users can wake to FM radio, iPod music, a buzzer, or the included bed shaker. The FM tuner uses PLL digital tuning technology and has ten programmable presets for your favorite stations. The clock LCD can also be dimmed through ten steps for comfort.

[ iLuv ]

By Ian Chiu

Samsung’s P2 from 2007 has been universally praised as the most successful MP3 player in the history of the Yepp series. One can only expect a follow up to the formidable flagship touch-screen player. Well, the wait is over. The YP P3 has arrived with a number of improvements over its predecessor. The most notable addition is the Immersion’s TouchSense haptic technology (a.k.a. rumble vibration). When you touch the screen, the P3 will rumble a faux “click” as if you’re actually depressing the button and feeling it spring back. The P3, however, isn’t multi-touch so it won’t let you pinch to zoom in and out. It will detect single finger gestures like circle and flick. Missing from the P3 are built-in Wi-Fi and accelerometer, which were probably taken out by Samsung for the rumble feature.

Everything USB has taken an in-depth look into the P3 with mostly good things to say. The reviewer really likes the sound quality (praises to DNSe), audio format support (FLAC lossless, OGG Vorbis), intuitive UI (custom themes, widgets), native DivX / MP4 support, haptic technology, and the metal body as well as Bluetooth stereo streaming. Last but not least, the P3 also got a Recommended badge from the USB fan site.

[Samsung YP P3 Review @ Everything USB]

By Shane McGlaun

There are tons of bicyclists riding around my town. Typically, you see them in big groups clad in spandex and weaving in and out of traffic. Sometimes you see them in singles though and they are often wearing earphones. I always wonder how they will evade some wanker out to prove the point that the road is for cars if they can’t hear them coming with earphones on.

A new MP3 player from a Taiwanese firm allows bicyclists and other users to listen to music from a compact digital player that doesn’t require earphones or headphones. The device is called Podio and it crams the speaker, amp, and storage into a metal tube 88mm long that can connect to a bike’s handlebars.

Podio gets power from an internal rechargeable lithium-ion battery good for 20 hours of use. The device weighs 139 grams and has 2GB of internal storage for music. Supported file formats include WMA and MP3. Pricing and availability are unannounced.

[ Mini-Speaker ]

By Shane McGlaun

Spring has sprung and in many parts of the country and before you know it the heat will be sweltering and many of us will be heading to the pool to hand out and have fun. One key ingredient of a pool party is music (and babes in bikinis), the catch is that water and most electronic devices don’t get along.

Grace Digital Audio has announced a new floating wireless speaker called the Aqua sounders retailing for $149.99. The speaker floats around the pool or hot tub and has a pair of mood lights integrated for nighttime fun.

The submersible speaker is only part of the kit; a transmitter is included that sends music from any audio source with a 3.5mm jack to the speaker. Range is 150 feet from the transmitter and the battery inside the speaker is good for six hours. One transmitter can support up to ten speakers. You will need a really big pool for that many speakers though.

[ Grace Digital ]

Chinavision, a wholesale electronics dealer famous for its startlingly worthless products (Skype Mouse-Phone, Handheld USB Paper Shredder, Laptop Cooling Pad), has decided to bring us a wonderful cross-shaped digital music player. Boasting 1, 2 or 4GBs of internal memory, a two-color LCD, a built-in speaker, a FM tuner, an integrated mic, seven equalizer modes and a multi-language menus, the crucifixion inspired MP3 is promised to make a “fashion statement.” Oddly enough, it was apparently designed to be given away at youth groups or while on a mission. It costs between $22.47 to $48.14, but you can save (zing!) even more by buying in bulk.

[ Chinavision ] VIA [ Engadget ]

While probably not “the real bleeding edge,” this MP3/digital cassette has managed to awe me, at least slightly. Chinavasion has created an MP3 Cassette Player, accepting songs from SD/MMC cards while still allowing the owner to play it over a standard tape deck. Yes, it is both an MP3 player and a cassette. This has many ramifications: has the cassette player, like Jesus or Kurt Cobain, risen from the dead? Will the Blu-Ray vs. HD wars be rendered irrelevant due to 8-tracks, vinyl and cassettes? Probably not, but its still nice to have something to play in my ‘65 Pony Mustang. [You do mean your pimping '88 Ford Escort, right? -Ed.]

The revenge of the 80’s is available in the future, from Chinavasion wholesale electronics, for an unknown price.

[ Chinavasion ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By Ryan Nill

This concept MP3/CD player, by Yong-Seong Kim, was apparently inspired by a butterfly knife. And an overwhelming need to have a CD player that is not the actual size of a CD. You just extend the “legs” of the MP3 player, pop in your CD, and you’re golden.

Also, this is merely a concept project and will probably never ever make it to real life. Which sucks because it looks so dangerously cool. And dangerously useful! Did I mention dangerous? I can totally see myself losing a finger with this thing.

VIA [ techeblog ]

There’s a bewildering array of choices in the digital music player market, yet everyone seems to pick the iPod nano. We think the iriver clix gen 2 is a great alternative, one that has finally caught up to and in some areas surpassed the market leader. To sum it up, the Clix has has a truly original minimalistic design, starting eith an effective D-Click navigation and not some iPod wheel knock off. It supports both MTP and UMS, plus the ability to rebuild ID3 DB from files – something that is extremely handy for those who prefer to drag and drop their music into the player. With Flash lite support, you’re guaranteed there will be a decent selection of free games. The downsides are the lack of AAC, line-in recording and slow music transfer. If the iRiver still doesn’t impress at least you’ve still got other nice choices, like the Meizu M6 SE. From the review:

Simple navigation, killer sound quality, smooth video, vibrant photos and the brightest, most vivid display I’ve ever seen on an MP3 player put the new iRiver Clix 2 ahead of the competition in most regards. Free games, FM radio and text capabilities sweeten the deal, but what really sets the Clix apart is its ability to operate in either MTP or USB Mass Storage modes with automated database rebuilding. At last, the freedom to switch between Rhapsody, Windows Media Player, WinAmp, iTunes, Mac and Linux without hassle. The only things that could really use improvement are the transfer speeds for music and the bundled headphones. Still, the Clix gen 2 is highly recommended, and finally succeeds in stealing the limelight away from the current market leader.

[iRiver Clix gen 2 4GB Review @ Everything USB]

Gear4 is selling a new set of stereo bluetooth headphones, which offer many of the same features as other sets of stereo bluetooth headphones (works as a headset, pauses for calls, has buttons that do stuff, mediocre battery life), albeit in a relatively cheap (at £49.99) and relatively foldable package. It’s the foldability that especially interests me. The BluPhones have a bendable piece of memory wire across the back, which lets you wad them up and messily stuff them away while not in use.

I have to say that the on/in-ear bits don’t exactly look comfortable in the picture, but then, I’m a fan of around-ear headphones, because they help me all the more legitimately ignore the rest of the world. And while having to have battery powered headphones is never a good thing, the lack of wires more than makes up for it.

[ Gear4 BluePhones ] VIA [ Tech Digest ]

Playaway, makers of a single-serving digital audiobook player, kindly sent us a review unit last week. Being a fan of audio and books (and free stuff), I volunteered to write it up. The particular audiobook that I’m listening to for this review is The Worst Case Scenario Handbook, read by Penn Jillette and Burt Reynolds. It retails from the Playawaydigital.com website for $34.99. Click on through for a brutally in-depth review.

First Impressions: It’s not in a heat shrink plastic package, that’s a +1 for usability right there. The package includes the player, some generic looking earbuds, a lanyard, and a small manual. My particular player is dressed in yellow and red, emulating the cover of the book I chose. The cover decoration on the front is complemented by some details about the book on the back. The player itself is about the size of a credit card and only a few centimeters deep. It’s also not a rectangle, which is faintly stunning and I have to turn it over three times to verify this… It’s shaped like a little wedge of pie. This means that when you set the player on a flat surface, it’s interface is tilted slightly toward you, and that brings me to:

The Interface: The back of the player has eight rubberized buttons and a teeny tiny calculator-style LCD that amazingly has room for 5 characters and a battery level indicator. The player won’t turn on until you remove the plastic tab that has been thoughtfully inserted into the battery compartment to prevent battery drain during shipping. It takes one AAA that should last about 12 hours. There are large power and play/pause buttons, as well as skip forward and back, volume up and down, a speed button (more on that later) and, for what it’s worth, an equalizer button. When the player is turned on, the display alternates between the chapter number and the time remaining on the chapter, which moves us on to operation.

Operation: The player starts up promptly, and there’s very little preamble before the audiobook starts. The vocal quality sounds compressed, which I’m sure it is, but it doesn’t matter much since you’re just listening to speech. At least there is no pervasive background hiss that you often get with compressed audio. Part of the quality is almost certainly the earbuds, which sound (and feel) about as generic as they look. Changing the equalizer settings doesn’t seem to make an appreciable difference to quality, although that may just be a characteristic of Burt Reynolds’ voice. The volume goes from 0 to 25 on what seems to be a linear (as opposed to exponential) scale, with 25 being not nearly loud enough… I’m currently in my fairly quiet back yard listening to Burt explain how to fend off a shark (go for the gills, not the nose), and I have the volume set at 18. I was most impressed with the “SP” button, which changes the playback speed between normal, fast, and fastest. It speeds up the audio while proportionally lowering the frequency, so it really does sound just like faster speech. Fastest mode is pretty quick, but still understandable.

The last feature which makes the Playaway worth considering is their RePlay Rewards program. As long as you haven’t caused any permanent damage, you can mail your Playaway audiobook player back to it’s birthplace in Ohio and get a 50% discount, and free shipping, on the next title you order. Currently they offer some 385 titles, with more on the way.

The Good: The controls are great, everything you want to be able to do involves one button push. The audio quality, while not stellar, is perfectly adequate for spoken audio. The speed function is nifty, and useful. It’s nice that (most of the time) it remembers my place. The battery life is good, and the unit runs off of one single AAA battery that’s simple to replace. It’s small enough to slip into your pocket, and the buttons don’t push themselves. It’s also, I’ve discovered, droppable.

The Bad: The included earphones suck (although honestly, what do you expect from included earphones), and the volume doesn’t go high enough. The player won’t remember your place unless you pause it first, and then let it auto power off. The equalizer is more or less pointless. There is no book index; I’m not sure where they’d fit it, but it would be more useful than the description that’s currently taking up space on the player.

The Ugly: It’s ugly. Or if you prefer, it’s utilitarian and functional. No design frills here, and it seems bigger than might be necessary. Also, it’s expensive: Audible.com sells the same book that I listened to for about $25, and I can keep the audio files.

The Nutshell: It’s almost exactly what you’d expect from a single serving audiobook player, but costs too much for what you get, unless you take advantage of the RePlay program, which makes it much more affordable.

You can buy Playaway audiobooks from their online store, or find select titles at some Barns & Noble, Borders, Brookstone, and Hudson Booksellers locations.