By Evan Ackerman

MP3 players don’t get much more barebones than this: the Kana Micro MP3 player has no integrated storage and only 3 buttons. You have to stick a micro SD card in to put anything on it (a 2 gig card is included), and it both syncs and charges its 2 hour battery via a USB port. Not bad for only $16 I guess, but I might be willing to splurge a little bit for something like, you know, a display. Or a bigger battery. Or more storage. Or better colors. I could go on… But I won’t, since the Kana Micro is currently only available in Japan.

[ Kana Micro ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Andrew Liszewski

You can basically think of the Beforme as an iPod with a built-in stethoscope that would allow an expectant mother to hear and monitor both her and her child’s heartbeat. Not only does this increase the bond between mother and child-to-be, but it also allows her to listen and detect any irregularities before they become a serious problem. In fact, not only would the Beforme allow a mother to listen to the heartbeats and see them graphed on the LCD display, but special software would also provide a more accurate and medical-based analysis of the rhythms, alerting the mother to possible issues.

And while the Beforme only exists as concept renders at this point, the designer has been working with Robert Majkut Design to refine the concept to the point where they’re actually ready to create a working prototype. So one day you might actually see this device on store shelves.

[ Beforme - Robert Majkut Design ] VIA [ Yatzer ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ll admit that I’ll listen to Journey every now and then. I only own a few of their songs and probably wouldn’t go as far as to call myself a fan. I definitely wouldn’t go out and buy an MP3 player that’s dedicated to the classic rock band.

This strange MP3 player features the band’s unmistakable scarab logo, and comes pre-loaded with the entire Revelation album. For those not in the know, half of the tracks are brand new, while the other half have been re-recorded with a new lead singer. You aren’t going to store much on here, as it only holds a whopping 1GB of music. At least it isn’t terribly expensive at $40.

[ Walmart ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Listen Vader, I don’t know how to break this to you, but your ‘Planet Destroying Moon-Sized Space Station’ division is doing a lot better than your ‘MP3 Player’ division. I mean seriously, this is the best they could come up with? I’m sure you’re flattered they decided to use your image on the front (when did your eyes start glowing red btw?) but the LCD display looks like it was taken from an Iomega HipZip and it only comes with a paltry 512MB of storage.

Currently the Amazon.co.uk website lists the Star Wars MP3 player as being out of stock (surprising, I know) and for some reason they don’t show the price as a result. But if it’s anything more than ‘free inside a box of Droids cereal’ (they still make that right?) then you’re getting ripped off.

[ Star Wars MP3 Player ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

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 ]