Out of the Sonicblue
Sonicblue, the company behind the Diamond Rio range of MP3 players, is now moving in on the CD personal market. Its debut player, the £170 Rio Volt PSX100, spins CD-roms loaded with MP3 files, as well as standard CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs.
Its unique feature, however, is that it is the first to go on sale in the UK to playback Windows Media Audio (WMA) files stored on a CD-rom. The format's efficient compression system means a CD-rom can store at least 17 hours of near-CD quality WMA music - seven hours more than the 10 hours of MP3 files it can archive.
The player is also the first on sale to feature the ID3 tagging system which flashes up the name of the artist and the track on the player's backlit LCD screen.
Coming at the end of the month is the Rio 800, Sonic blue's newest addition to its MP3 player range. The model shares its styling and many of its features with the existing Rio 600 model. It will play back WMA files, and Apple fans should note that it is one of only a handful of MP3 players that is Mac-friendly.
The Rio 800 also comes with a voice recorder and 64MB storage - twice that in the 600. It is expected to cost around £250.
Pretty pictures
Philips is targeting gadget-grabbers with a new range of PC peripherals.
Due at the end of March is the latest in its series of webcams, the £100 PCVC750K. This oval-shaped camera sits atop a PC screen and takes both moving and still images.
Its unique facility is its built in-scanner which provides real-time transfer of text, images and 3D objects to the PC. Gadget-lovers will also enjoy using its voice recognition system that instructs the camera to automatically take a picture when the user says "cheese."
Philips also plans to offer an LCD monitor with an integrated TV tuner. Due to hit the shops in October, the 17-inch screen includes Teletext. Its picture-in-picture technology gives the user the option of surfing the net while watching a TV programme simultaneously.
The company has also unveiled the Fisio 610, a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) mobile phone that is more akin to current GSM models than it is the handheld PC type GPRS prototypes paraded by other makers. There's no colour screen or HTML-ready web browser - rather the Fisio offers always-on, fast downloading of Wap sites. Like other mobiles in Philips' range it offers voice activated dialling and control. Expect to see it in the stores when GPRS networks are fully up and running in the summer. An entire range of Fisio phones is slated to reach the market in June.
Other accessories Philips is promising this year include a trio of LCD projectors priced at £2,000-£2,900, new LCD and CRT monitors and a range of flat speakers.
Mobile music
Sony has become the latest manufacturer (after Samsung and Siemens) to offer a mobile phone that doubles as a music player. However, its CMD-MZ5 boasts a unique feature - an integrated ATRAC 3 converter. Using its accompanying analogue/ optical cable, music can be transferred to the mobile's Memory Stick storage card from any hi-fi device, not just from a PC. The phone also comes with a 64MB Memory Stick that the maker claims stores up to two hours of near-CD quality tunes. Rival models only have 32MB of storage.
The phone also has a long battery life. Sony claims that after listening to two hour's worth of music, the phone has 60 minutes of talk time left. Music can be listened to either via a pair of earphones or through attachable powered speakers.
Other facilities include a Wap browser, the ability to send and receive email from an existing account, a 500-space phonebook, a calendar and four games.
The phone goes on sale in May priced at around £300-350.
