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Just in case the recently announced Journey branded DAP was not enough for you, ZVUE has once again come up with another uniquely branded player. This time its an Elvis Presley branded portable media player.

The Kings player will feature 1GB of onboard storage, and FM radio, voice recorder, photo and text viewer and a 2.4-inch display. The PMP will also come pre-loaded with 10 music video clips which are taken from the “68 Special” and “Aloha From Hawaii” concert specials.

Similar to the other ZVUE products, the Kings branded player can be purchased at Wal-Mart, that is assuming you are willing to part with the $49.88 that it costs, however it will not be available until August 12.

Product [ZVUE] Read [Business Wire]

Those who are into not so expensive and not so complicated MP3 players would be glad to know that Samsung has updated its budget-friendly Yepp U3 with the new Yepp U4 MP3 player. Like it’s predecessor, the YP-U4 is an ultra-compact media device that works right out of the box with simple features such as a 4-line OLED display, DNSe 2.0 and a USB port.

The YP-U4 mp3 player will be available in glossy black case with either crystal rose, purple navy or blue ocean color variants. As this was announced by Samsung Korea, no word yet as to when, or if this player will be available internationally. Likewise, pricing information is still unavailable but basing on the price of the Yepp U3, we’re expecting a price of not more than $200 for the YP-U4.

Via [I4U] Read [Samsung Korea

Google is trying to increase it’s poor market share in China by offering free legal downloads of licensed songs.  According to the Reuters report, Google’s main Chinese competitor, Baidu, is facing lawsuits for allowing copyright infringement through downloading unlicensed songs.

The new service from Google will allow Chinese internet users to search thousands of Chinese artists and songs, which can then be downloaded from Top100.cn. 

Estimates from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (think international RIAA) estimate that pirated files are currently more than 99-percent of all files downloaded in China.  In a country that recently released numbers putting it at the highest number of internet users in the world, that’s pretty big.

It’s cool that Google is trying to raise its market share by offering free music downloads, but it would be cool if they could do it in the U.S. as well.  Sure, we’re not behind the Great Firewall, but doesn’t the rest of the world deserve free music downloads? Of course, as you would expect, Google will also place ads on the service which will have the revenue shared between Top100.cn and its music partners.

Read [Reuters]

Epson is adding two new multimedia photo viewers to its product line with the release of the P-6000 and P-7000. Featuring 4-inch 640x480 VGA resolution LCD screens that can display up to 16.7 million colors both, photo viewers offer a high-speed USB 2.0 connection and a built-in CF that supports UDMA and SD card slot.

Both photo viewers can display photos in up to 94 percent Adobe RGB color space, support JPEG and RAW photo file formats and MPEG-4, Motion JPEG and H.264/AVC SVGA video formats. Epson even throws in a 3.5mm headphone jacks for connecting external speakers or headphones.

In addition, the P-7000 comes packed with a travel pack that includes a dual batter charger, car adapter and case. While both photo viewers yields three long hours of usage which makes them perfect for traveling photographers.

The P-6000 and P-7000 photo viewers will both be available sometime in September with retail prices of $600 and $800 respectively.

Product [P-6000] Product [P-7000] Via [electronista]

Motorola has added three new music phones to its MOTOROKR lineup, the EM30 candybar, the EM28 clamshell and EM25 slider phone. All three are geared for music lovers who can’t live without their mobile phones. Here’s a quick rundown of the specs and features of each of these new ROKR handsets.

First up we the ROKR EM30 candybar, which is equipped with Motorola’s ModeShift technology for illuminating the phone’s keyboards when shifting from phone to music mode. Aside from these, it also features an FM Radio in addition to its media player functionality, a 2-megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, text-to-speech recognition, support for Microsoft music ecosystem, airplane mode, CrystalTalk technology, a microSD storage card slot and Windows Media Player 11 support. The ROKR EM30 is a quad band GPRS/EDGE class 12 phone which can give out 360 minutes of talktime and 300 hours of standby time.

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eMusic, as we have previously learned is the number two digital music provider in terms of catalog size, has once again reached another milestone. Their most recent announcement puts them at the 4 million mark, which is now made up of music from more than 40,000 record labels. Some most recent additions include music from Nine Inch Nails, Liz Phair and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

eMusic currently offers music in the MP3 format, of which are all DRM-free. Much of the collection are independent titles, which coincidentally also places eMusic as the number 1 independent music site. In addition to the music tracks, eMusic also offers a complete range of ebooks in a variety of genres.

Read [eMusic]

At CES last January, I dropped by the iriver booth to see some of their newest products.  That is where I first saw the Spinn MP4 Player, and when I say saw, I mean, just saw.  They did not give me the opportunity to try it out, even though they were very excited about one of their latest portable media players.  It was completely under glass, and I had doubts whether the model even worked. 

Well, the Spinn has recently been caught on video in action, and it is everything iriver said it would be.  See that cylindrical thing on the right side of the unit?  That is the controller for the Spinn, which allow you “spin” it like an old school radio dial. 

However, if you don’t want to “touch that dial”, so to speak, you can always use the 3.2-inch touch sensitive screen which is demonstrated in this video after the jump. 

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Like we said, it was just a matter of time before Creative would make its new media player, the artsy-looking Zen Mozaic available in the US market. Creative now has two models of the Zen Mozaic on its website with a notation that says “In Stock (Available for Shipment).” These are the 2GB and 4GB Zen Mozaic media players with retail prices of $59.99 and $79.99 respectively.

If you’re eyeing the oddly-designed media player, here’s what you’ll get for your bucks; a 1.8-inch TFT color display, 36 hours of continuous audio playback, 5 hours of continuous video playback, an FM radio, 8 preset equalizer settings, voice recording feature, USB 2.0 connectivity and support for album art. 

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Its been quite a while since Nokia had first announced 5610 XpressMusic phone, almost a year to be exact, but some good news for T-Mobile users it looks like they will soon be able to grab one.

The handset was originally expected to be available back in June, but was then pushed back to July and now August 11 seems to be the availability date.

The handset is expected to be available for $100, but that comes after a $50 mail in rebate and along with a two-year agreement. The Nokia 5610 will also be available in two color options, a red/black model and a black/silver model.

In addition to the hopeful availability of the Nokia 5610, T-Mobile is also expected to get the 5310 is a black/silver option as well.

Via [CellPhoneSignal]

Sony has recently began to venture into the Chinese market, and they did this by announcing the new, fancy, and pretty expensive PMX-M80 portable media player.

One of the key features of this PMP is that it comes with preloaded maps, similar to Google Maps, which could be found on the iPhone. These maps also come with POI’s. In addition, it comes with a GPSesque 4.3-inch screen with a 480 x 272 resolution, 16GB hard drive, voice recorder, up to 6 hours of video playback, expandable memory via memory stick, and a lot of format support including SRS 3D audio, MP4, AVI, WMA, MP3, and AAC.

As on now, Sony is retailing the device for 2,260 Yuan, or about $331 US.

Via [PMP Today]