And you’d be right. Now all Mickey fans can rejoice because the iriver Mplayer shown back in February is finally on sale in South Korea. Designed in conjunction with the Magic Kingdom, this pong sized mp3 sports the famous Mickey head silhouette. The ears act as your basic player controls with simple twists. Between the ears is a standard headphone jack and on the bottom is a mini USB port for syncing. Although screenless it more than makes up for it in cuteness factor.

The Mplayer comes with 1GB of memory and barely weighs 18 grams. MP3, WMA, and ASF formats are supported as long as they’re unprotected. No word yet on when or if ever the rest of the world will see the player in stores. For now, it’s South Korea only selling for $60.

Pics galore after the jump. (more…)

Seriously does it get any sexier than this? The iriver Life Unit designed by the famed Niro Nakamichi has got to be one of the sexiest gadgets I’ve seen this year. It speaks volumes about a company that can make a hot product without looking like other “apples”.

The updated teaser site doesn’t reveal stuff we really want to know like price and release date but it does give a glimpse into what the Life Unit will do. In a nutshell - EVERYTHING.

We’re talkin’ center of your home entertainment hub here. Slot load CD/DVD player, LCD screen that’s detachable and turns into a PMP device! It’s got wireless capability for streaming, a port that charges and syncs with iriver players, a sic touchscreen remote control that unfolds into a 78-key QWERTY keyboard, a radio, a TV tuner, and last but not least; custom designed Nakamichi audio system.
Hell, they should have made it into a phone too. Many more pictures after the jump. (more…)

Ghetto blasters never really made a comeback because audio sources have moved to external devices, not to mention how ungodly they looked. So an industrial designer name Dirk Winkel (love his name) envisaged a new ghetto blaster, comfortable to wear and compatible with any iPod-like device called the Nu Blaster.

The head of the blaster provides space for a large bass speaker while the long narrow end serves as a bass reflux tube. The curved shape makes it ergonomic to sport on your shoulder while the strap makes transport easy.

Too bad it’s concept only. Hit the jump for another picture.

via Yanko Design

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Media centers seem to be all the rage nowadays, as high definition movies and television shows, as well as higher quality picture and music have started to invade the market. While some recent additions to the media center families, like AppleTV and distinguished models from several startup companies have been impressive, none have really captured the idea of replacing a Tivo, computer, amplifier, receiver, Netflix deliveries, media players, DVD player, and catch-all computer … until now.

As Alienware describes it, the Hangar 18 can do just about anything:

* Watch - Watch, pause, and record your movies, TV shows, photos, and internet videos on your widescreen TV in high definition
* Listen - Listen to all your favorite songs and artists with Hangar18’s onboard 5.1 surround sound amplifier
* Share - Wirelessly stream all your media to other PCs, mobile devices, and media extenders throughout your home.
* Download - Download content from all over the internet to one secure location to store and share with your home and others.

Full details and more pictures inside!
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For the iPod shufflers who hate dangling cables from their ears, give the Monster iFreePlay (seriously did they have to do use the ‘i’ prefix?) a looksee. You simple jack your Shuffle into the side dock of the headphones which are those wrap around the head types. The headphones have a recessed cutout so you’ll still have access to all controls. Priced at $50 which is a little steep in my opinion but then again, this is Monster we’re talking about.

If you have ever dual-booted Linux and Windows like I have, you would know that Amarok for KDE (a GUI for Linux) is far superior to Winamp and iTunes. Since it was only found within Linux, every time I used Winamp I would always wish that I could have Amarok instead because of great features like:

* Excellent support for scripts (plugins)
* Doesn’t support any audio formats (all formats are installed through engines)
* Has a better album display:

More info inside
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In one fell swoop, Sony has decided to informally admit the utter failure of their ATRAC audio format and hideous SonicStage software. This realization comes in the form of a new Walkman dubbed B100. The B100 mounts like a flash drive and songs can be dragged right onto it. No need to launch any software or convert audio files. Sony plans 1, 2 and 4GB flavors each sporting a single line OLED display, FM radio and support for MP3, WMA and AAC formats

No price yet but expect availability sometime next month. Make it a slider USB nub instead of an easily misplaced cap and they might have a winner here.

[Via ATRACLife]

Have a Zune? If you join ZuneReactor, you can get an unlimited supply of media for an annual fee of $39.96, or even pay the current introductory price of $29.46! As always, don’t jump aboard this site of lecherous pirates without doing some research, unless you love throwing money at people (send me some).

As if this site didn’t already seem illegitimate, all of the links that should lead to the list of artists, shows, and movies that they have to offer just direct the browser towards the “buy it now!” page. As a matter of fact, the site kind of resembles the misleading nature of gym memberships, porn web sites, and school.

Even if I did have a Zune, I probably wouldn’t trust this site without seeing a list of available media and first-hand hearsay from satisfied customers. But seriously, this site sounds great, no doubt a product of smart advertising from money-hungry web-hooligans:

Download as many songs, HD-quality movies, and tv shows as you want for your Zune MP3/Video Player, plus get unlimited access to all the latest Zune downloads as soon as they are released. With ZReactor, all the best content for your Zune is just a click away. Get an unlimited access pass and start downloading your favorite videos, music, themes, pictures, and more for your Zune in just a few minutes.

Sounds scandalous. At the very least, if the site is legit but has a subpar selection of media, you get a copy of Zune Converter Pro for free. Can anyone attest to this site’s quality?

It’s the DXG 589V, the world’s first digital camera that records videos and plays games. Similar in design to the lauded Sanyo Xacti, its compact design is held in your hand vertically with a twist up screen. The lens snaps pics compliments of a 5 megapixel CMOS sensor and records 640 x 480 MPEG-4 video at 30 frames per second.

Perhaps its most unique feature is gaming. Turn the unit sideways and the screen orients itself resembling a Gameboy. There’s a d-pad that rests on the side of the lens barrel and action buttons on the right which by the way look eerily similar to someone else’s design. Gameboy-like or not, it doesn’t play Gameboy games. Instead, the 589V comes with 20 built in games.

If you’re still unsure about it, how about video recording direct from any video source (TV, DVD, VCR) to take on the go? SD card storage and hey, it even works as a digital music player so if you look at the big picture - it’s the convergence device everybody wants right?

$199.99 available now at your local Best Buy and Circuit City.

Music executives gathered for the Digital Music Forum East conference on Tuesday in New York to whine, cry and collectively slap Apple CEO Steve Jobs for his recent comments on digital rights management (DRM). Jobs bent the music industry over and inflicted massive damage three weeks ago when he proclaimed Apple would support an end to DRM. Still sore, execs took the opportunity at the “State of the Digital Union” panel to publicly berate Jobs and label his comments “insincere.” Of course, none of the music bigwigs said they were going to pull their support for Apple, probably because iTunes makes them bundles of money.

The doom and gloom speak is not entirely without merit, as CD sales are down 23 percent from over the last six years. Still, blasting your biggest source of legal downloading income … not such a good idea. Right now, to consumers, iPod means music. What do you think will happen if there’s a rift between the music industry and Apple? Without iTunes, music revenues would probably drop faster than a drunk sorority girl’s panties and the execs would be left holding the bag. Battle lines are being drawn over DRM. Could music civil war be far behind?

[Via cnet]