New Crop of Portable Music Devices at CES

Is it possible to be sick of MP3 devices already? It seemed thatpractically every new product or release at last week's ConsumerElectronics Show in Las Vegas was related to MP3 and digital music.

All of the major manufacturers were there: Sony, Creative, Casio,Microsoft, etc. Herewith are some of the most notable news:

Creative (http://www.soundblaster.com) announced that it was expandingits NOMAD product line, with the NOMAD Jukebox andNOMAD II MG which will be available in the Q2 this year. The NOMADJukebox holds a mighty 6GB in built-in storage which translates intoover 150 albums. It also has a line-in and line-out connections. TheNOMAD II MG will have an FM tuner with preset support and voice-recordcapabilities. Both new devices include support for USB which speeds upsfile transfers (compared to the slow and clunky serial ports) and willcontinue to support both MP3 and Windows Media. Creative also pushed itsportal NomadWorld.com (http://www.nomadworld.com) to find music andupdate their software.

Not to be outdone, Sony (http://www.sel.sony.com) unveiled its NetworkWalkman player which boasts fast music transfers. It comes with 64MB offlash memory and is one of the smallest music devices around. Sony'sline of devices come bundled with Sony's OpenMG Jukebox music managementsoftware to organize music and to allow secure SDMI-compliant transfers.The Network Walkman will be available in the U.S. in April 2000 forabout $300.

New company I-Jam Multimedia (http://www.ijamworld.com) introduced aportable CD player that can play music from CDs, as well as MP3 andother downloaded audio. It reads CD-R and CD-RW media with MP3 musicrecorded on them. "Since CD-R and CD-RW media have more storagecapacity, by burning their own tunes in either format of these newdigital formats, users can store and listen to hours and hours of musicon one disc," said Doug Marrison, President and CEO of I-Jam Multimedia.Essentially it's a do-it-yourself solution for those that want to recordtheir MP3s onto CD-R or CD-RW discs--except you don't need to lug aroundyour laptop to play them. It will be available in early 2Q for about$129.

Casio (http://www.casio.com) meanwhile unveiled a Dick Tracy-likewearable MP3 player: the "WMP-1V Wrist Audio Player". You use yourcomputer to downloaded music to the Wrist Audio Player for listeningover the included stereo earphones. The players can store about 33minutes of CD-quality music, has a character display to show song andtitle, comes with a USB interface and even includes playful motioncharacters that move along with the music. It even tells time. And,yes, it's water resistant, too.

Sanyo Fisher has been slow to get on the music device bandwagon, but itdid show off its new headphone/player that supports SDMI. It can hold30 minutes of MP3 music, has an LCD display, and even is compatible withLiquid Audio and Audible format audio. It didn't reveal pricing oravailability, however.

Unsurprisingly there was also a MP3 device for your car. DelphiAutomotive Systems (http://www.delphiauto.com) demoed its product whichcontains a CD-ROM that looks like a standard CD player. It also showeda version of the player using compact flash memory cards that areinserted in a small console unit. "We're getting a great deal ofinterest from automakers on our MP3 playback application development,"said Dave Wohleen, president of Delphi Delco Electronics Systems.

Meanwhile, Destiny Media Technologies wants to take MP3 to NintendoGameboy systems. It announced a deal with SongBoy, Inc. to licenseDestiny's secure MP3 format to use as a cartridge plug-in for theGameboy. Songs will be downloadable from Songboy's website (http://www.songboy.com)and will feature free and pay music. This is abig market; 80 million GameBoys have been sold so far.

Finally, Microsoft got into the act too, previewing theirnext-generation Windows CE-based Palm-size PC software. They even gavethem a new name, Pocket PCs, sidestepping the "Palm" moniker completely.Hardware makers like Casio, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard says they'llsupport Pocket PC software. In his CES keynote address, Bill Gatesdemonstrated the Microsoft Windows Media Player on one of these devices.Starting February 2000, the Windows Media Player will be available fordownload to existing Palm-size PCs and will ship preinstalled on PocketPCs when they become available later this year.