Our editors have compiled a list of five iPod concepts that didn’t quite make the cut. Which ones are your favorites? Continue reading for the list.
At just 6.9mm thick, the Meizu Music Card manages to pack a 1.2-inch (?) TFT-LCD display, “scroll-strip” navigation, USB connectivity, and up to 8GB of built-in memory (?). Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.
Now that we’ve spotted this upcoming “Music Card” nano foe, who’s design was apparently inspired by a user submitted competition, it’s pretty clear where Meizu is getting its design ideas, but we’re not sure we’d have it any other way. With a shiny metal back, “reminiscent” of the original nano, along with that glossy plastic metal front and familiar screen size, the Apple references are hard to skip
[via Engadget]
This interesting documentary takes a look back at the “iPod Revolution”, which swept the world in 2001. What are your first memories of the iPod? Video after the jump.
Apple’s hardware engineering chief Jon Rubinstein assembled a team of engineers to design it, including Tony Fadell, Stan Ng and Jonathan Ive. They developed the product in less than a year and it was unveiled on 23 October 2001. CEO Steve Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1000 songs in your pocket.”
[via FreshCreation]
Unveiled at CES 2007, the SanDisk Sansa Connect is a tiny player that packs plenty of multimedia goodness, including a 2.2-inch TFT display, 4GB of built-in memory, a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, and USB 2.0 connectivity. Video preview (courtesy of Shiny Media) after the jump.
“It’s about accessing music of your choice wherever you are. If you’re listening to new songs from a music service and find ones you want to keep, you can bring them into your library and don’t have to wait until you get back to your PC. If you want to tell your friends about your discoveries, the Sansa Connect will also allow you to share music suggestions over the Web — anytime, anywhere — over an open wireless Internet network.”
[via MobilityToday]
AOL has unveiled their own Linux-powered iPod clone, called the “Smartscreen Media Device”. It features a 30GB hard drive, integrated Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Supported media formats include, MP3, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.
AOL is planning to release a truly ugly player that counters its ugliness with a varied and genuinely intriguing feature set: maybe our — non-corporate — parents were right, beauty really is only skin deep! According to PC Magazine, we should expect to see a retail release of the Smartscreen Media Device sometime around the second or third quarter of 2007
[via Engadget>/a>]
For a no-frills MP3 player, designed purely for listening to music, look no futhur than the Walletex. This screenless player boasts up to 2GB of storage and USB connectivity. Pricing has not yet been announced. One caveat:
Sure it is small, but where the hell is the headphone jack? We’ll see how well this turns out come June 2007 when it is slated for a release
Microsoft releases yet another strange “Zune” advertisement, titled “Birds”. It’s quite disturbing to say the least. What are your thoughts? Video after the jump.
Ok, we’ve seen strange “Zune” ads before — Monster and Pixel Dancers — but definitely nothing like this one, titled “Eyes”. What are your thoughts? Video after the jump.
Here’s a first: an MP3 player that displays its album art like a CD cover. The PLEIO is a digital audio player concept that sports 128MB of memory and an ultracompact design. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.
In Korea, you can purchase virtual albums with the music and art on board. This way, you’re fooling yourself into thinking you’re viewing the front of the CD as it’s spinning away in your player