Technabob » avi

Atree J2 Media Player Stares at Us With Its Evil Red Eye

Technabob — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:20:02 +0000

This new media player from Korea has a unique design punctuated by a bright red LED eye on its face. Why? I don’t know. Maybe so bloggers like me would write about it rather than ignore it amongst the vast sea of PMPs out there.

At the center of its colorful face plate, the Atree J2 media player has a dome-shaped controller called the “Red Eye” that you use to navigate the system’s menu system. But don’t get your hopes up that it’s as deft as the iPod’s scroll wheel. You actually move around the menus by clicking up, down, left and right on the flat plastic surface around the red eye – or clicking right in the middle to activate your selection.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

In addition to playing audio files in MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, APE and FLAC formats, the video playback can handle AVI, MPEG4 and WMV formats at a solid 30fps. The screen has a bright TFT 320 x 240 display and is designed to play video in landscape mode for the optimal viewing experience.

And with 38 hours of audio or 8 hour of video on a single charge, it’s no slouch on battery performance, either. In comparison, the similarly-priced iPod Nano can only handle 24 hours of audio or 4 hours of video per charge.

Perfect for listening to movies through headphones, the J2 has a 5.1 virtual surround sound mode. There’s even an FM tuner for listening to radio broadcasts, and a handy Korean-to-English dictionary app. But my favorite feature is the Adobe Flash Lite 3.04 implementation that lets you play a wide variety of SWF format games on the portable’s screen.

Available in either 4GB (115,000 KRW/$93 USD) or 8GB (138,000 KRW/$112 USD) versions, there’s also a microSD card slot for adding up to 8GB of additional storage. Unfortunately, there’s no word on a release outside of Korea at this point, but you might be able to find one over on eBay if you keep an (red) eye out.

[Atree via Early Adopter]

Tiny Video Players Make Me Squint

Technabob — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:46:19 +0000

Don’t you find it odd that on one hand, our LCD and Plasma TV screens can never be big enough, but on the other hand, gadgets are getting smaller screens all the time.

This new pair of video players are about the size of a credit card, and offer up video on teeny tiny screens. The $99.99 players come in either a black (Neon M3) version with heat-sensitive backlit buttons and a 2.4-inch screen, and a stainless (ICE) model with a slightly larger 2.8-inch screen, but none of the schmancy button tech. In addition to video playback, each one has an FM tuner, photo viewer and a “game” mode.

They can play videos for 3 to 4 hours on a charge, while audio only mode will give you 6 to 8 hours. There’s 2GB of memory on board each model, but they’re expandable using T-Flash/MicroSD memory cards.

Both players are now available from ThinkGeek for $99.99 each.

Pmp Plays Music, Video, Games, Even Reads Books Aloud

Technabob — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:59:40 +0000

Here’s another cheapie media player that manages to cram everything but the kitchen sink into a single device.

Chinavasion’s latest media player not only handles your music and videos with aplomb, it can also emulate a variety of classic gaming consoles. There’s emulation support for the NES, Gameboy, Gameboy Color and Sega Genesis so you can play your favorites from the past. In addition, the device also integrates an E-book capability that actually uses text-to-speech to read books to you in either Chinese or English.

The player has a 3-inch TFT widescreen, and comes with a snap-on gaming pad accessory so you can get your game on. The device has 2GB of on-board memory and can be expanded up to 6GB total, with the addition of a 4GB SD card. Chinavasion hasn’t announced a price yet, but based on their past bargain-basement releases, it’s almost a sure bet that it’ll be inexpensive.

Philips Gogear Video Players Now Available

Technabob — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:41:38 +0000

Philips has released their new line of GoGear mobile media players with video playback capabilities.

The GoGear SA6000 series features a 2.2-inch color LCD screen (320×240 resolution,) and can play back WMV vid clips. Philips also throws in a software converter for AVI, QuickTime and DVD (VOB) format files. Audio playback includes MP3, WAV and WMA audio file formats as well as an FM tuner. Battery life is rated at 4 hours for video playback, and 15 hours for audio.

I was able to find the 2GB model (SA6025) for about $105 and the 4GB model (SA6045) for about $132 over on Amazon.

[via Electronista]

Epoq Media Player is the Size of a Matchbook

Technabob — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:03:07 +0000

This tiny media player from Epoq is just a hair larger than a typical book of matches, yet packs a rich set of features into its diminutive package.

For starters, the minuscule player features a high-resolution, scratch-resistant 2.4-inch color (320×240) display which dominates the face of the device. Epoq’s clever design moves all of the controls to the perimeter of the device, maximizing screen real-estate.

It supports playback of video files in MP4 and AVI formats at up to 25 frames per second, as well as audio playback in MP3 and WMA formats. The player even has an FM tuner, voice recorder with microphone, and a tiny loudspeaker built in. The whole thing runs on a rechargeable lithium battery which provides up to 3 hours of video playback or 8 hours of audio.

It’s available with either 1GB ($99) or 2GB ($129) of on-board flash memory and memory can be expanded through the built-in Mini SD card slot.

[via Electronista]