Portables

If that Swarovski crystal-clad E010 was a bit too rich for your blood, why not take a gander at said unit's successor? The recently introduced NWD-E020F series sports that well-known USB stick style, and as you can tell, you can customize yours in (almost) any color you choose thanks to the bundled (and changeable) Style-Up panels. By juicing this one all the way up -- which takes just an hour, by the way -- users can expect a respectable 28 hours of continuous playback; as for file compatibili...

Not like we haven't seen Nintendo's DS used as a music maker before, but this variant may be the most amazing to date. yarglaaaafr's ProteinDS application is currently in demo mode, but judging by the demonstrative video waiting after the break, it's remarkably solid as-is. C'mon, it's a tool that enables users to scratch up tunes via the handheld's built-in touchscreen -- how could Mario not approve?Continue reading ProteinDS app enables DJ-style scratching on Nintendo's DS...

Just like we said, the Zune has made its first retail appearance in Canada. Come June 13th, our friends to the north will be able to get their hands on Microsoft's media players, starting at $139.99 (for the 4GB flash variety), up to $249.99 for the big-daddy 80GB version. Pre-orders are being taken now, but something tells us you'll be able to get one on launch day regardless....

Microsoft turned a few heads at its Advance '08 advertising conference by announcing a type of ads for its Zune platform, in addition to those web, TV and Xbox "branding experiences" it already delivers. The primary method described merely involved corporate sponsorships of celebrity playlists, with the "ad" being consigned to branding on that musician's Social card -- and you'd have to have friended the musician to see any of it at all. Apocalyptic stuff, eh? Microsoft also promises to keep th...

Now that we've got the white-knuckle excitement of the Yoto M300's Asian-only deut out of our systems, we're getting hit with a sequel, the M400. Basically the same codec-friendly non-touchscreen PMP as the M300, it looks like the M400 features slightly better build quality in addition to adding PlayFX and TV-out. Oh, and it's not a render, so that's another tick in the plus column. Still, we're not quite convinced we're willing to travel to China and drop our hard-earned yuan on this bad boy y...

We'd already heard that the Cowon A3 would be getting a bump to 80GB, and the company has now not only gotten official about a US release for it, but dropped word of new 80GB Q5W as well. You can look for the upgraded A3 to land in the US first on May 26th for $440 (a good deal less than the $691 Euro-to-dollar conversion we heard about initially), with the 80GB Q5W following in late June for $600. Both models are otherwise identical to their less capacious counterparts. ...

It looks like those wanting to churn out some high-definition media away from their computers now have a new option to consider courtesy of Hitachi, which has just introduced its DZ-WR90 Blu-ray burner designed to be used with hard drive-based camcorders equipped with an eSATA port (which Hitachi just happens to make). That combo will apparently let you burn three hours of full-res footage onto a Blu-ray disc in one and half hours flat or, if you prefer, you can also cram an hour of 720 x 480 ...

It took 'em a year, but iriver is finally ready to unleash its P10 touchscreen mega-PMP upon the world -- or at least Korea. The player rocks T-DMB, an 800 x 480 4.3-inch LCD, 33GB of storage and quite unique UI. There's also an included stylus and built-in handwriting recognition, with dictionaries for English, Chinese and Japanese. For about $312 US you can get a DMB-free unit, or spring for mobile TV at a $390-ish pricepoint, but again, those are both Korea only. If you're looking to spice u...

After careful deliberation, we can only assume Vosonic's VP5700 is some form of portable media player, but considering just how unsightly it is, the actual nomenclature is probably a non-issue. Nevertheless, this unit features a 3.5-inch display, way too much plastic, a bizarre looking control scheme, a multicard reader and support for a slew of image, audio and video files. Mum's the word on a price / release date (again, not like you care, right? Right.), but those flash cards sure look as if...

We'll admit, we had our suspicions that Teclast's capacitive multitouch-packing T50 would arrive with an eerily similar user interface to some other device out there, and a ten minute video review recently tossed up by MP4Nation thoroughly confirms those fears. In all seriousness, this thing may actually not be a half bad unit, but whether or not you're really interested in such an impostor, it's worth checking the video after the jump for laughs alone.Continue reading Teclast T50 PMP reviewed ...

If you've been holding off on getting an A3 for some strange reason, perhaps a bump in capacity will push you over the edge. That's right, Cowon's little performer just got more junk in the trunk -- 80GB of junk, to be exact. Sure, you'll have to drop €448 (or about $691) on this thing, but think of all the pics, music, and "movies" you'll be able to load up on it....

We thought the RAmos V8 was looking pretty sleek in render form, but now that some real pictures of the black PMP with the 4.3-inch screen and 16GB of storage have surfaced, we're really impressed -- with how much this thing looks like an iPod touch. (We'll be here all week, folks!) Of course, the V8's codec support is way better, but without pricing info and a look at that UI we're not ready to call this one a winner quite yet. Let us know if you hit China next month, okay?...

Just like that obscure Burt Bacharach album, some DAPs just need a little time to grow on you. Now that SanDisk's comparatively inexpensive Sansa Fuze has been out and about for a couple of months, we're imploring you dear readers to cast out your opinions on the minuscule device. Are you satisfied with the interface? Have you been disappointed by the sound quality? Was this thing just one feature away from being perfect? 'Tis a shame SanDisk didn't phone you up before mashing the green button ...

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable VideoWe'll make this brief. Orange spokesperson Therese Wenger told the SDA news agency that it has secured rights to release the iPhone (3G version, presumably) in Switzerland and more than 10 other countries -- take that Swisscom! Other countries include Austria, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, and Romania. And France of course where it's already on sale. See, that was quick and leaves room for a dozen or so other iPhone related announcements today....

Though we're breaking slightly from our typical Screen Grabs format (movies, TV), we could never live with ourselves if we didn't share these shocking gadget appearances from Metal Gear Solid 4. That's right, despite being on some kind of deadly spy mission, Solid Snake will find time to bro down with a fifth-generation iPod (above), while some lovely cohort of his dials up for pizza on a Sony Ericsson W62S clamshell. More pics after the break.Continue reading Screen Grabs: Metal Gear Solid 4 g...

Move over Mvix, there's a new vaquero in town, and it goes by Movie Cowboy. Comically titled as such by manufacturer Digital Cowboy, this portable HD multimedia hard drive comes ready to accept whatever 2.5-inch SATA drive you want to toss within, and after you've loaded it up with material via the USB port, you can slam it down in the bundled cradle for big screen enjoyment. Said dock boasts stereo / coaxial digital / Toslink audio outputs along with component / composite / HDMI video outs. Th...