Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

While iTunes has made the process of legally acquiring MP3s a lot easier than it used to be, there are still plenty of people who have no idea how to even boot up a computer, let alone load music onto an MP3 player. And that’s pretty much the target market for the REDI. It’s a basic 1GB MP3 player that comes preloaded with about 250 tracks, which is equal to about 6 hours of music. Since everyone has different tastes, the REDI comes in a variety of different ‘themes’ depending on what you like. If you intend to use it for running or jogging you can go for the ‘Ultimate Workout Mix’ but if you’d prefer to relax you can choose the ‘Golden Classics’ version instead.

At the moment there appear to be about 8 different versions of the REDI, but it also features a USB mini jack allowing you to upload your own MP3 (or WMA) files at a later time. Other features include an FM radio tuner, a simple LCD display and playback controls and of course a pair of earbud headphones that you’ll probably want to immediately replace. Best Buy currently has 4 versions of the REDI for sale, including the Ultimate Workout Mix, the Ultimate Rock N’ Roll Collection, the R&B Soul Collection and Golden Classics for $39.99 each.

[ REDI MP3 Player ] VIA [ The Gadgeteer ]

By Luke Anderson

There are a lot of people that have been an inspiration throughout the course of my life, one of which is MacGyver. Thanks to this incredible hero, I can get myself out of almost any sticky situation using only a paperclip, some thread, three rubber bands and a stick of gum. Naturally I carry each of these items on my person at all times, because you never know when you’ll need them.

After pouring over hundreds of hours of old episodes, I’ve yet to find a single reference to the mullet-sporting hero ever needing a gig of music located in his watch. Surely I’ve missed something, because Skullcandy is offering a watch that does exactly that, and are calling it MacGyver. I really don’t understand the reference.

What gets me is that they are selling this for $199.95. MacGyver would never pay for something like this. He could build one using an ordinary watch, two bottle caps, seven nose hairs and a pack of Twizzlers.

[ Skullcandy ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Luke Anderson

It always fascinates me that you can take something, make it look old and it’s suddenly cool because it’s “retro.” Aside from the ability to create mix tapes, there wasn’t anything cool about the cassette tape that I ever saw. This Cassette MP3 player would probably be the closest thing to cool that the cassette tape will ever get.

What makes this device cool is that it can act as both a stand-alone MP3 player and as a cassette tape. If you actually still have a stereo that takes the old tapes, you can put this in and it will play just the same. It’ll set you back $40, which is a bit steep considering the fact that you’ll need to supply your own SD card to store the music.

[ ThinkGeek ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Evan Ackerman

The Yamaha BodiBeat (it’s actually BODiBEAT, but I’m not going to do that) is an MP3 player designed to make exercise a little bit more palatable by automatically playing music that matches the pace of your movement. You can load it with 512mb of music, and using an internal accelerometer, the BodiBeat will pick a song that has a tempo as close to your bouncing up and down speed as possible. When you change your pace, the BodiBeat will change the music. You can also set it to play music at your optimum running or walking speed, which it figures out with a pulse monitor that clips onto your ear. If you get really ambitious, the included software allows you to design entire music-based fitness routines. It has some other neat features like tracking distance, keeping exercise records, and learning what types of music you like. The 9hr battery life isn’t bad, but the half gig of memory makes it almost useless, since the whole point of this thing is to have enough music at different tempos to take advantage of the adaptive hardware. Oh, and it won’t play anything with any sort of DRM on it, including iTunes music. Concept: good. Execution: horrible.

BTW, if you click through to the BodiBeat website, you can get a flash tour from either hunky Brad or svelte Stacy. Brad is 6′0″, 185 lbs, and 28 years old. He’s a scorpio, and his favorite foods include seafood, steak, and taffy. Stacy is 5′9″, 120 lbs, and 26 years old. She’s a pisces, and her favorite foods include pasta, fruit, and licorice. Both Brad and Stacy are single, too! Thanks Yamaha!!!

The BodiBeat should be available this spring or winter (depending on what part of the website you believe) for about $300.

[ Yamaha BodiBeat ] VIA [ Shiny Shiny ]

By David Ponce

On paper, I suppose it makes sense:

1. StealGet inspired by the iPod nano’s look.
2. Shove a 2MP camera on the back.
3. Profit!

That’s the kind of ballsy capitalist innovation we like to see, and we’re certain that BTL International is going to ride its creative streak to fame and fortune in no time. Heck, their M2406 even has a couple specs that we wouldn’t mind seeing in the original:

It can play AVI videos, and MP3, WMA, WMV and WAV audio files. It has a 2.4-inch TFT screen (220×176 pixels, 262,000 colors), a built-in speaker and six EQ settings. Internal memory ranges from 128MB to 4GB, all flash, and can be supplemented with miniSD cards.

Of course, by now you’ve probably realized this company is based in China (official Home Of The Knockoff), and that we’re not entirely sure how to get shipment on this, nor how much we’d expect to pay for one. Still, the device is out there somewhere.

[ Link To Similar Model, Without Camera ] VIA [ Coolest-Gadgets ]

By Shane McGlaun

Bang & Olufsen, the purveyor of high priced audio products, announced its latest MP3 player today called the BeoSound 6. I guess the 6 in the product name refers to the price, which is a cool $600. What do you get for that much coin? Bang & Olufsen provides a “premium” leather case with the player and says it has enough memory to store 1000 songs, though the exact amount of storage isn’t specified.

The LCD is a 128 x 160 pixel unit that lacks video display capability. The battery life sounds good at a claimed 40 hours. The player is encased in stainless steel and uses a black soft-touch lacquered surface and black scratch-resistant glass. All I know is that it had better sound good since you can get a really cool MP3 player that does video like the iPod touch for much less money.

VIA [ Bang & Olufsen ]