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LG has released a new portable media player in Europe called LG T80. Being a touchscreen PMP, you would expect LG to make the T80 to come up with an iPhone clone again with the T80. Thankfully, the PMP is nowhere near the iPhone in terms of looks or design.

The LG T80 boasts of a 3-inch 420 x 240 touchscreen display with 260k colors. Since it’s a PMP, it is but natural that the LG T80 supports various media formats, and it actually does – MPEG, MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, ASF, JPEG, and TXT. It also has an FM Tuner, a mic and a DVD-T (TNT) tuner. Most importantly, the LG T80 plays 5.5 hours of video and 2 hours of live TV viewing.

The LG T80 is available now in Europe for around $473. No word yet whether the LG T80 will see the light of day in the U.S. market. We do hope so.

Via [PMP Today]

We snapped some pics of Samsung’s new mobile lineup back at the Consumer Electronics Show.  The “Mini MP3 Phone” AKA SGH-X830 is their new tiny MP3 phone that is similar to the “nano” of the bunch.  The phone weighs in at just 75 grams and measures 84x30x19.9 mm.  It also sports sports a 128 x 220 display, 1GB interal memory, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, and is quite an audio player supporting the following formats: MP3, WMA, OGG, DCF, and SMP.  It comes in a slew of colors: black, pure white, oasis blue, candy pink, orange and lemon green.

Video [YouTube] Via [TechEBlog]

With an MSRP of $99.95, it comes equipped with a 2.5-inch active matrix backlit screen and supports videos running at up to 30 frames per second (fps). The ZVUE 250 also features a secure digital (SD) slot (and ships with a 128MB “starter” SD card), a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and is compatible with Windows Media Player 10 with Microsoft’s secure Digital Rights Management (DRM) and supports both Windows Media Video (WMV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats with DRM for music and video download services. In fact, the ZVUE 250 is the only PMP priced at under $200 that supports WMV with DRM.

The ZVUE 250 utilizes a more compact and sleek design than the previous ZVUE model. Additional specifications include:

• Up to six hours of battery life on a single full charge


• An AC adapter to charge the device


• Two earphone jacks to allow sharing with a friend


• A USB port for easy uploading of digital content


• A 90-day limited Manufacturer Warranty


• Audio support for the following file formats for audio playback: MP3, WMV, WMA (with DRM), OGG and MP2


• Picture support for the following file formats for image playback: JPG, BMP


• Video support for the following file formats for video playback: AVI, ASF, Xvid, MPEG4, WMV (with DRM)


• Measurements: 4.33- x 2.91-inches x 0.8-inches


• Weight: Approximately 5.2 ounces

Read [ZVUE]

Delphi has officially announced the Delphi SkyFi3 XM satellite radio receiver/MP3 player. Here’s a rundown of the official details:

• 65% smaller than previous SkyFi units


• 30-minutes of Pause-Replay functionality


• 10-hours of XM content recording on non-removable flash memory


• Micro SD card support for MP3/WMA/WAV storage


• Car dock included with the ability for horizontal or vertical orientation


• Car dock also includes a AUX outlet for external audio


• Included earphones


• Internal 8 hour rechargable battery


• Two Live Wearable Kits will be available:

• Standard Live Wearable Kit (SA10252) - 90 Minutes of live XM


• Premium Live Wearable Kit (SA10228) - 7 hours of live XM, 40 hours of stored playback

The Delphi SkyFi3 will be available December 1st

SkyFi3 will MSRP is $229

Some retailers will be offering the Live Wearable Kit ($49 value) for free

Read [Orbitcast]

Mix, scratch, juggle and sample with the newest DJ software to hit the streets your PC. Play audio and video files at the same time including: DVD, MP3, WMA, ACC, OGG, VOB, WMV, DIVX, MPG, WAV, AVI, Karaoke (CDG) files and more. Via a computer and headphones, a multi-channel ASIO sound card, external DJ mixer, a Numark USB mixer, or a combination of hardware, CUE can perform to it’s limits. It comes with a “Rhythm Window” (a.k.a. WAV visualizer to help you see the highs and lows in the tracks), sort by title, artist, or BPM, works with the Numark iCDX, has built-in effects, plug-ins, scratch and pitch bend with your mouse, samples, and loops.

Finally, if you think your hot sh!t, get wild and record or broadcast your mix to the world to judge directly from your PC.

Read [Numark] Trial [Numark]

If you didn’t catch it back on the 8th, Sony’s slowly revealing plans to change how we communicate with eachother...well teenie-bopers anyways.  Sony mylo is the new WiFi personal communicator that will help you stay connected to your friends via Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo IM, and email.  As you can see in the “official screenshot” above, friends will be identified by their picture (or avatar for you forum junkies).  When you click on a friend, their picture goes where the picture of the mylo is and I would assume their name goes on top of that.  Pretty vague details at this point, but expect a whole lot more from Sony in weeks to come.

Via [Gizmodo]

It appears that Sony has launched one of their first well thought out products in a long time. As part of their restructure the company is aiming to offer products that consumers are looking for and their is a current market. We know that people want to be connected, use VoIP, are often in internet hotspots, and are already buying the Nokia 770 and other internet devices. Now enter the Sony mylo short and trendy for, “my life online.” It is designed for people who use instant messaging as a primary form of communication and networking for their social life.

Read the specs and my take on whether the Sony mylo will turn the company around or just be another flop.

The mylo personal communicator uses 802.11b wireless to instant message, browse the Internet, listen to music, send emails and view photos concurrently. It has a 2.4 inch color LCD screen, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, hosts JiWire’s 20,000 hotspot directory, is loaded with VoIP programs (Google Talk, Skype, and Yahoo Messenger), has a HTML browser, 1 Gb of internal flash memory, plays MP3, ATRAC, secure/unsecure WMA music files, can play MPEG-4 videos, is a JPEG viewer, has speakers, and can be used in ad-hoc to stream music and communicate mode when there is no Wi-Fi hotspot but it detects other mylo units.

The mylo personal communicator boots up in seconds and can scan for available wireless networks right away. A “What’s Up” screen stores up to 90 of your friends’ avatars so you can quickly see who’s online as well as letting you choose between nine online identities--can anyone say MySpace problems all over again.

A lithium-ion battery that offers up to 45 hours of music playback, around seven hours of chatting and web surfing and more than three hours of continuous Skype talk time. It comes with a microphone, stereo headphones, a USB cable and a neoprene case.

mylo will be available in black or white for $350 in September.

Will it sell?
Sony tries to get with the times and everyone crashes their party saying it won’t work. It is true that though there are a lot of hotspots, they are not everywhere yet. Until that happens it will be hard to make this as prevalent as the RAZR. I am neither here nor there on whether this should have been sold as a Sidekick competitor via Sony Ericsson. Many homes, colleges, coffeeshops, airports are already wireless and the number is increasing. Though you can’t do much with this when in a car (unlike the cellular capabilities of the SK3) it can still be used as a music player. If Sony can drop the price to $299 or even $199, then you will see mylo everywhere.

Via [JKontherun]

Who doesn’t love Chocolate? Why not head over to Verizon and purchase the long awaited LG VX8500, Chocolate phone. This is one part MP3 player, one part phone, and 100% sweetness. The models final specs include the black lacquer finish (see our hands-on Peep Show here), 1.3 megapixel camera, 210 min talk time, 38 hours standby, 3.53 oz, Bluetooth stereo capable, V-Cast, music player with support for MP3 and WMA files, VZ Navigator capable, touch sensitive navigation keys, voice recognition, EVDO Broadband Access connect (use the handset as a modem for your laptop), a microSD or TransFlash memory card slot, and a video camera with up to a 1 hour recording.

The phone will see with a new 2 ear contract for $149.99 (and $100 more for a 1 year contract). You can also pay $199.99 and get the music bundle kit (necessary to copy your own tunes to the phone), a leather case, and car charger or for $249.99 you get everything listed plus a 2 GB microSD card--a great deal!

So don’t wait, go indulge yourself in chocolate.

Besides our Peep Show, read on to see a pic of the RAZR and Chocolate phone compared.

I believe this may be the first time in the history of the world that a Sony product is less expensive than its competitors. The long awaited NW-A1200 Walkman will be released here in the US on July 20th. The big deal is that this player offers 8 GB of flash memory for the same price as the 2 GB iPod nano, it’s direct competition. The Network Walkman A1200 plays back MP3, ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus, and WMA audio files. It also has a white 1.5” OLED display, and comes in two feminine colors (violet and pink).

Is this the player that can get Sony back in the game? I doubt it but at least it is one step in the right direction, until Apple decides to make an announcement where they are increasing their nano’s to some absurd flash memory size and sell them for less than a pack of gum.

Product Page [Sony]
Via [Engadget]

The Pioneer VSX-516 is a 6.1 surround sound amplifier that supports WMA Pro. It offers 6x100W speaker outputs, a USB port to connect to a PC, and supports WMA, WMA9 Pro lossless, MP3 and AAC files. It also incorporates the Auto MCACC (Multi Channel Acoustic Calibration System) helping calibrate the sound levels and sharpness for your room and is Dolby and DTS with a a 48bit DSP.

According to Engadget this new model got a decent price drop: from Pioneer’s equal 2003 amp selling for about $4,400 while this new model will sell for around $440 (unless someone just forgot a 0).

Read [Akihabara]