PSA Play 120 by Nike, $300 This futuristic, egg-shaped device from the shoe manufacturer was designed with athletes in mind. Powered by Rio components, the player isn’t submersible, but its rubber-encased button controls should keep the sweat and grime out of your digital music.
RaveMP 2200 by Sensory Science, $279 This tiny player is not Mac-compatible, but the company says it will be by November. It also does not play Windows Media files, which are Microsoft’s own digital-audio format. But, these shortcomings aside, you’re not likely to find another player that packs both an FM radio and built-in voice recording into as stylish or as slim a profile.
HipZip by Iomega, $299 Iomega is better known as the maker of Zip and Jaz drive storage peripherals for the PC. The company developed a tiny disk called the clik! and has since designed a portable music player to go with it. Now renamed PocketZip, these disks can store 40 megabytes of digital music at about a fourth the cost of SmartMedia cards, which is currently the storage medium of choice for these devices. Sensory Science and Iomega are the first to come out with players that use this new storage format, and six other manufacturers are coming out with theirs. This will come as a relief to consumers, as a single 32MB SmartMedia card can cost $80, compared with just $15 per PocketZip disk. The HipZip has no on-board memory except for a 2MB buffer but comes with two PocketZip disks in the box.
MP3 Wrist Audio Player by Casio, $249 It’s gimmicky–but how cool is it to plug headphones into your watch? OK, maybe it’s more geeky than cool. But Casio gets points for bringing Dick Tracy-style gizmos to the nearest Bloomingdale’s. The watch stores up to 33 minutes of near-CD-quality music and requires 70 seconds to download a four-minute song (translation: slow). Works with Windows 98 computers only.
Rio 600 by S3 Inc., $170 Rio was the first brand of portable MP3 player, and this model represents the company’s third generation. The Rio 600 is cheaper than other players. The company thinks the low price and the changeable snap-on faceplate will appeal to college students and teenagers. Interesting feature: the “backpack” system for adding memory and battery life. Slide on a special component to the back of the device, and you’ve not only added memory ($99 for 32MB, $199 for 64MB) but you’ve now got a rechargeable battery to boot.
SoundsGood Audio Player for the Handspring Visor by Good Technology, $269 PDAs are increasingly able to serve as digital-audio players. Newer Microsoft CE-based handheld organizers can play music, as can Handspring Visors with MP3 Springboard modules–just the ticket for those of us loath to add yet another single-use gadget to our clattering bag of stuff. Available at retail stores in November (and offered now online at good.com), the SoundsGood Audio Player for the Visor can hold about 20 songs, or an hour’s worth of audio in the MP3 format only. Next month Good Technology will also unleash the EnergyClip, which is a $39 battery pack that will let you use the module without having to plug it into the Visor.
InnoGear of Morgan Hill, Calif., also makes an MP3 module for the Visor called the MiniJam. The 64MB version is $259; the 32MB version is $199.
Uproar MP3 phone by Samsung, $399 Available to Sprint PCS customers only, this phone by Samsung lets you listen to MP3 songs once you’ve transferred them from your PC through a cable. To listen, you can’t just put your ear to the phone and hear music instead of a voice con-versation; the music is audible through headphones only. Nor can you download music wirelessly through the mobile-phone network.
Nomad II MG by Creative Labs, $399 An update to Creative Labs’ popular Nomad II, this time with a magnesium casing. Sturdier, and can record directly from an FM station to the on-board memory.
