Sony has finally brought its Walkman range of portable audio devices into the "smart device" age with its latest Z-series music player running on Android 2.3. While manufacturers such as Samsung and Philips have already released portable media players running on Google's mobile operating system, Sony was a little late to the game.

Announced early this year at CES, the NWZ-Z1050 is Sony's first Android-powered portable media player and looks to be a promising music device from the company. This device comes with a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a 4.3-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) touchscreen and an S-Master MX digital amplifier. The amp is also found on the A-series media players from the company and is supposed to deliver less noise and distortion than previous versions.

While the Z-series Walkman looks like a worthy competitor to the latest iPod touch, this Android-powered music player comes with 16GB of storage and will retail at S$429. There isn't an equivalent Apple device for comparison, but a 32GB iPod touch is a dollar cheaper than the Walkman. Moreover, last-generation Android handsets with similar specifications, such as the Motorola Atrix, also don't cost much more.

However, if you're one of those who prefers to keep their smartphones and music players separate, the NWZ-Z1050 will be out in Singapore this Friday.

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Yamaha takes player power to new levels with the PDX-11 portable iPod/iPhone dock, designed to take the party with you and create the perfect blast outdoors as well as indoors.

Combining portability with a striking rugged design and mind-blowing sound quality, the skies the limit with the PDX-11 that’s built for life on the go with the awesome power to unleash your music from the desktop to the rooftop. Simply plug and play, or use batteries to take it anywhere and pump out your favourite sounds wherever you want, from the living room or bedroom to a party in the park, on the beach or barbecue in the garden.

Available in four eye-catching colours - white, black, dark blue and green the PDX-11 has a rugged-looking octagonal horn-shaped design with a perforated steel grill designed for overall toughness and sturdy roll bar chrome handle.

The iPod/iPhone dock is located on the top of the unit, and music is played back via an exceptionally powerful 4-inch woofer that drives extremely accurate, punchy bass and stunning midrange, while a separate tweeter provides crystal clear high frequencies.

Weighing in at just 3.3 pounds, 6 AA batteries can power the PDX-11, allowing an estimated 8 hours of sound on the move. It also comes with remote control for hassle free operation and can be connected to a PC, Mac or other digital audio player via a mini jack (3.5mm) on the back of the dock. Guaranteed to impress your friends anywhere and everywhere the PDX-11 is available now for just £99.

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There’s a gee-whiz factor that some consumer electronics have — it doesn’t necessarily make the product “better” but it certainly makes it attractive to the consumer. Take the Sony Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910 — after I had removed it from the packaging and plugged in the charger so that the internal battery could get juiced up — my wife passing it by asked “What is that?” I picked it up and showed it to her by raising the lid, then followed that with pressing the button that opened the disc over on the front where a keyboard would be on a laptop. It’s a portable DVD player with a built in hirez screen, I told her. She thought that was cool.

As do I. Now in this day of tablets and smartphones, screen size alone doesn’t convey portability as much so as resolution. And hi-def content isn’t being streamed or saved onto mobile devices for the most part. Add to that smartphones and tablets don’t have access to HD content as high as that found in a Blu-ray disc — and you could see where a portable Blu-ray player could prove useful.

This becomes even more so if you’re going somewhere and want to bring HD content along — for example, my Mom has a HDTV, as many do now, but there’s still a VCR sitting on the shelf next to it for recording her shows. If I want to watch on her big screen, I have the choice of viewing videocassette quality or only marginally better cable. But with the Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910 in hand, a movie like Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will be an easy play — once it comes out in the summer, that is. At least I’ve both Iron Man discs, Thor and a fav she’s always willing to see, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Since you’ll be up close and personal with the player, some might be surprised by the sounds the Blu-ray disc makes at first when it starts up. This is normal — although you’re usually not that close to a BD player to hear it. But since the Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910 works best on your lap — the 9-inch widescreen LCD display viewed from less than 2 feet away — it can be disconcerting at first.

The remote is similar in size to the newer Blu-ray player models from Sony/ But contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s better to use the touch-sensitive buttons mounted beneath the LCD panel in most cases. That’s because with the player on your lap, the front edge-mounted IR receiver is hard to catch. Of course that isn’t the case if you’re outputting from the player onto a HDTV or front projector, in which case you can forget about the LCD panel and use the remote more effectively.

The only ports to note are on the right side of the player. It’s here where the power plug goes in for charging/playing from the AC current and where you can insert a standard sized HDMI cable to transfer 1080p HD-quality video and multichannel audio. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone port and a USB socket. More on that in a bit.

At the front right edge is the power switch. It behaves a lot like the first-generation PlayStation Portable does in that you push the tab away from you to power up the player (a second push shuts it off).

Opening the lid, the disc cover is where a keyboard would be on a laptop, accessed by a largish button at the right. The Blu-ray disc is popped onto the spindle and the cover manually closed. Opening the cover automatically stops the motor spinning any disc that’s in position — but the best bet is always to wait for the disc to cease movement first.

The touch-sensitive buttons are, as noted earlier, mounted below the LCD panel and register on the screen when accessed. To the left are the disc controls like Play and Pause, with the volume +/- in the center. To the right is where you’ll find modification controls such as Options and Display and the “Home” button to take you to the initial menu screen. A direction pad is next, with Sound to the right. Just to note, you can output simulated multichannel audio from a 2-channel audio source, and also from music, using the appropriate audio settings.

A word about the audio — the stereo speakers provide reasonably good volume, although there is not much separation between them for a stereo effect. However, activating the pseudo surround sound field enhances this. Should you have a decent pair of headphones, you’ll find this the best option to use — the Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910 is a personal player first and foremost, after all.

The ”Home screen” contains a subset of what you’d find on most Blu-ray players. Besides being able to change various settings, including those regarding the player’s use with an external display, you can cycle horizontally through Photos, Music and Video — each displaying the expected type of content. Other than a Blu-ray disc, it’s the USB drive that is providing that content — being able to take the JPEG photos, MP3 music and MP4 videos and display them on the screen (or transmit them through the output). The resolution of the video can be up to 1080p — same as what a Blu-ray disc can show.  The USB drive can be inserted into the socket even when the player is on — being recognized and displayed as a folder in the various categories. But on a personal note, I don’t recommend puling it out without shutting the player off first as that way leads to possible corruption.

Playing a number of live action and animated Blu-ray films, I can safely say that the “view” of the LCD screen is spot on as far as color clarity and sharpness goes. You can’t really angle yourself much from the front of the screen if you want the best presentation, but that’s not an issue with what is really a one-person display. However the lid containing the display is designed to be angled. It’s a useful addition, but one that should always be used carefully so as to prevent damaging the hinge.

Now if you use the Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910 player to drive the image onto a HDTV,  the video and audio becomes indistinguishable from one of Sony’s “larger” Blu-ray  players.

Sony Bravia TV-specific functionality is also included, for example, one that will turn the Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910  off when the Bravia HDTV is turned off. Of course these functions aren’t used if you don’t have a Bravia, but they’re a nice addition should you have one.

The player also works with DVDs and music CDs — the quality of video and audio are indistinguishable from that of being played on a larger BD player. But again the LCD panel gets a thumbs up here, as it seems to promote a more intense looking image as regards contrast for DVDs , especially when playing black and white films.

Now don’t worry or wonder about how to store any BD-Live content you might find on a disc — there’s no Internet access at all. So that means there’s no online apps as you’d find on other Sony Blu-ray players. Or any online updates to the system either. This one factor makes the Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910 unsuitable for use as the main Blu-ray player for a home theater — but then it’s designed for being on the move (why do you think Sony includes a car cigarette lighter charger with it?). And let’s not forget that there’s that 9-inch 16:9 aspect ratio high-resolution screen attached  — you don’t have that on the other Blu-ray players.

Bottom line: Bottom line: At a retail of $249, the Sony Portable Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player BDP-SX910 provides a 4+ hour battery powered portable that’s lightweight enough at about 4 pounds to carry around and keep on your lap for extended viewing. The clamshell shape and lack of extruding buttons make it simple to use, and the quality results of Blu-ray high definition viewing on the LCD panel compares more than just favorably with mobile tablets and laptop screens.

Pros

Touch-sensitive controlsPlays USB stored contentSupports a wide variety of video/audio formats
Cons

No Internet accessNo 3D playing capabilities

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As any parent knows, there are only so many times you can listen to your child's favorite song on repeat before you want to pull your hair out and stuff it in your ears ... and listening to The Wheels on the Bus on your highly specced hi-fi can feel like overkill, can't it? Well the hörbert – a wooden MP3 player aimed at kids – promises to give you your stereo back.

The portable device from German manufacturer WINZKI GmbH & Co. KG – which has more in common with the walnut-shelled Colorfly Pocket Hi-Fi C4 pro we saw last year than a Fisher Price record player – is a fully functional MP3 player which can be used to store your little one's music or audio books, and is designed for them to operate.

The stylish wooden chassis – the designers are clearly going for the design-conscious audiophile kiddie market – houses a portable MP3 player and built-in loudspeaker, along with an SD memory card which comes holding 140 minutes of music and audio books. It is powered by four AA batteries which are said to last for up to 45 hours of playback at an average volume.

Designed with little fingers in mind, playlists can be selected by nine brightly colored buttons on the front of the hörbert – pressing the same button repeatedly advances playback to the next tracks linked to that button. There are also two buttons which allow for fast forward and jumping back. At the top of the unit is a metal on/off switch, volume knob and a beechwood handle for carrying.

The sturdy build is said to keep vibrations or shaking from impacting playback ... you know, should it take the occasional knock as children dance around it. The speaker also delivers a full sound which is a good thing, as the designers intentionally omitted a headphone jack, worrying that children might not be able to hear and interact with their parents.

The makers say they decided on a wooden finish because many parents like the long-lasting and warm-to-the-touch feel. The child-friendly design also sees the colored buttons made from phthalate-free ABS plastics, plus the box has a sweat- and saliva-proof soft wax coating. The metals used are stainless and the speaker grill is made of anodized aluminum.

Using software (Windows and Mac) which comes with the player, parents can load files onto the SD card and select which tracks will be available in what order on each of hörbert's colored buttons. The SD card is housed within the unit and accessed by unscrewing a flush-mounted screw that can be opened with the help of a coin.

Weighing 950 grams (33.5 oz), the hörbert sells for €239.00 (about US$314), and is light enough that children can carry it around with them and put it away easily.

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Samsung isn’t content with dominating the world of Android smartphones and tablets: they want the nebulous portable media player market as well. And more power to them, since they seem to be the only ones who do want it. Their Galaxy Player series is now in its third generation, and while the Galaxy Player 3.6 isn’t anywhere near as capacious as the 5-inch version we reviews late last year, it’s still got its fair share of charms. How does Samsung’s latest phone-without-a-phone stack up? Let’s find out.

Hardware
Comparing the Galaxy Player to the Galaxy S II, or even the original Galaxy S, will lead to disappointment. The hardware just isn’t designed to stack up to superphones: this is a compact, portable media player with an emphasis on music, that can handle web surfing and video over WiFi in a pinch. The 3.6-inch screen has a somewhat disappointing 480×320 resolution – think first-generation Android phones, and you’ve just about got it. The 1GHz processor is more than enough for basic Android tasks and music, but high-end games and flash are out of the question.

Construction is typical of Samsung’s products as of late: heavy on the plastic, but noticeably light and with a finish that’s admirable. While the device itself isn’t going to win any beauty contests, it’s exactly what it needs to be to get the job done. Samsung’s standard three buttons (all capacitive, strangely) are present, as is the power and volume control both on the right side. 8GB of storage on the base model isn’t a lot, but you can boost it cheaply with a MicroSD card. Samsung’s basic headphone/headset combo is included in the box.

Sound quality is typically good. The pack-in earbuds aren’t going to give you a symphonic experience, but connecting your more high-quality speakers or headphones produces solid sound in all registers. Video is obviously pretty small and low-resolution, but for simple YouTube-style web videos it’s serviceable. Don’t expect a great Netflix experience here, but if you’re just catching up on the Colbert Report, it’ll do.

After months of using gigantic 4.5-inch and larger smartphones, the Galaxy Player 3.6 is almost refreshing. The smaller size makes managing media quick and easy, and it won’t slow you down while jogging or hitting the gym – at least, not nearly as much as a Galaxy Nexus would. For the $149.99 asking price you’d be hard-pressed to do better if you want Android, and you could spend a lot more if you want that other OS.

Software
By now I’m so familiar with Samsung’s TouchWiz-tinted version of Gingerbread that I could navigate it in my sleep. While the Android fanboy in me is disappointed that Ice Cream Sandwich doesn’t make an appearance (and almost certainly never will) the utilitarian must admit that it really doesn’t need it. Gingerbread does well on the hardware. Samsung’s spent so much time working with TouchWiz that it seems like it could do well on a Palm Pilot.

The included apps will be familiar to anyone who’s messed with a Galaxy phone, but there are some additions to the apps that are actually appreciated in this form factor. An FM radio is a major bonus when you get tired of listening to your all-Eagles mix, and the voice recorder gives the Galaxy Player 3.6 yet another useful function. Pre-installed Angry Birds should thrill fans of the aggravated avians, without being controversial for anyone else.

If you live in a Samsung world, the inclusion of the SmartView remove viewer application and AllShare (DLNA) will be useful – assuming that you don’t have your music or video hooked up to a Samsung screen somewhere else. These are appreciated if you get the urge to watch something on a bigger, better video device, but given the small amount of space, you won’t be saving much video anyway. It might be more useful if you could see the screen on your Samsung TV on the Galaxy Player itself – if you’re working in the kitchen, for example. Other additions include Kies air, a free version of QuickOffice, and Samsung’s solid if bland skinned version of Android’s default media apps.

Camera
The Galaxy Player 3.6 comes with a 2 megapixel rear camera in the back and a VGA front-facing cam. You can take them or leave them – and most will opt for the latter. There’s nothing wrong with the shots and video that these cameras produce, all things considered, but if you’ve got a later smartphone or point-and-shoot around anywhere, you have better options. On the plus side, the front-facing cam is at least useful if you intend to do some web video chatting. Hey, it’s a hundred and fifty bucks – what did you expect?

Battery
Like most WiFi-only devices, the Galaxy Player 3.6 seems to have a pretty awesome battery life when compared with its smartphone counterparts. You don’t need much to keep this little guy going all day. All the power and battery advances that Samsung has made get dialed up to the may when there’s no constant cellular data connection to worry about, and the small low-res screen actually helps in that department.

Wrap-Up
If you want something that’s going to replace your high-powered Android smartphone minus a data connection, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a cheap alternative to the latest iPod Touch, you’re not going to get the same high-res screen or gaming performance. But if you want a simple media player that uses Android to become considerably more useful, the Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 might be right up your alley. Five years ago $150 wouldn’t get you anything more than a lot of storage and some really frustrating video options – but now that Android’s come into its own, you get a lot more.

For the price and the expectation, the Galaxy Player 3.6 is a solid choice. If you love Android and want to keep a familiar interface in a small media player gadget, this is it. The expandable storage, great battery life and the connectivity and software options make for a rich experience on this little device. If you want something bigger, track down the last-generation Galaxy Player 5.0, or wait for the newer 4.2 version that’ll be available in May.

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Either the company knows or the God knows why they have ludicrously dubbed their new portable media player as ‘Tomato U7.’ Though U7 is so small (that’s good for sure), it comes packing a good stuff at a mere 25 grams. I was not expecting a display but luckily it has got a 1.8 inch CSTN screen also. The U7 will be available in 512MB, 1GB or 2GB sizes and is compatible with most of the formats including the MP3, MP4, WAV, WMA, and JPEG. Other than that, there is an FM tuner, e-book reader, games, and equalizer with a claimed battery life of 10 hours. Unfortunately, we don’t have the pricing for this little stuffed media player. Via: Ohgizmo

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I’ve never been the sort of person who needs some background noise going — radio, TV, music — so I skipped the first generation of iPods and never really felt like I was missing anything by not carrying my music in my pocket. As a stay-at-home dad, particularly when the kids were tiny and needed a lot of attention, there’s just simply no way I would walk around the house with earbuds in; I needed to be able to hear what was going on. If anything, I’d pop a CD in the CD player, and I rarely turned on the radio except when I was driving somewhere and didn’t feel like messing with CDs. And at some point we sold our little stereo, which meant that I really didn’t have any good way to listen to the radio at all apart from my alarm clock, which is kind of limiting.

So I’ve been curious about internet radio devices: the stations I’d listen to most frequently all have online streams, but I also like listening to podcasts when I’m able to. I got to try out the Mondo Wi-Fi Music Player from Grace Digital Audio, and it’s been pretty handy — although my kids seem to get more use out of it than I do.

At first glance, the Mondo looks a bit like the Logitech Squeezebox which Ken wrote about back in November (although in his current home audio setup I don’t know if he’s still using it). There are a few differences, though: for one, the screen is larger. Not entirely necessary, perhaps, but it does make it easier to read from a distance and means that when you’re entering passwords and names with the dial you can display a few more things at a time. It has 10 preset buttons and an included remote (although I found the spin dial generally easier to use than the remote).

Like the Squeezebox, you can get a free remote control app for iOS or Android — as long as your device is on the same wi-fi network as the Mondo, you can control everything without having line-of-sight like the physical remote. If you want to go portable, there’s an optional lithium battery — but since the device requires a wi-fi connection I’m not sure that’s a huge bonus.

There’s the expected headphone jack and RCA line out, but there are also aux in and USB ports. The USB port can be used for an Ethernet dongle, or you can just plug a USB drive into the back with MP3s on it. I actually found this last feature to be useful because my daughter is now learning violin and her teacher sends me MP3s with recordings that she can practice with. I don’t have to put them into my iTunes library; I can just stick them on a USB drive and my daughter can plug it in and play along.

Once you’ve got your Mondo connected to your wi-fi network, you’ll be able to access a huge list of internet radio stations. If you’ve got accounts for Pandora, Rhapsody, iHeartRadio, or SiriusXM, you can link those to the device as well. My wife was especially pleased that the Mondo has “thumbs-up” and “thumbs-down” buttons for Pandora, so you can continue to modify your stations through the Mondo. (The remote also has these buttons included.)

Using Grace’s online interface, you can find podcast feeds to add to the “My Stuff” folder, and then access those directly from the Mondo. However, the downside to this is that there’s no way to pause, fast-forward, or rewind while you listen to podcasts. Plus it doesn’t mark them as “listened to” in my iTunes library. So for podcasts like “This American Life” or “The State of Games,” I still prefer to listen to those on my iPod, but music-based podcasts (GeekDad HipTrax, for instance) work fine.

You can also set up UPnP to stream your music library to the Mondo, though I haven’t tried that out myself yet because I hadn’t really messed with UPnP yet. (That, and I have a huge stack of CDs that I should probably just rip to iTunes so they can stop taking up space in the living room.)

It’s been fun finding international stations for my kids to listen to — one weekend they spent an entire afternoon blasting some traditional Chinese instrumental tunes and dancing to them, and another day they found a children’s station in French — and I like being able to tune in to OPB while I’m away from my computer (or not in my car). I think your own listening habits will largely determine whether something like the Mondo is worth it to you: if you like having a stereo that sits on a shelf somewhere, it’s great. If you do most of your listening through a portable player or your laptop, then it may be somewhat redundant. You can visit Grace Digital Audio’s website for more details about the Mondo, which retails for $179.99.

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The iPod Touch reigns supreme in the baseband-less world of portable media players, but that hasn’t stopped other companies from trying to eat into that market share. Samsung has released a number of its Galaxy Player devices over the years, which run Android and provide access to hundreds of thousands of apps in Google Play.

HTC filed a patent in early 2011 which was granted this week, outlining plans for a similar such portable media player, this time with a few interesting twists. Though we can’t tell the screen size from this vague outline, the design points to two very interesting features that would make it perfect for the avid traveler.

First, there are stereo speakers on either side of the wide screen (the aspect ratio looks to be around 16:9 or even 16:10) and, around back, there is a nice vertical-facing stand.

Whether HTC will follow through with the patent and bring something like this to market remains to be seen. Its initial attempts at such a device, the HTC Surround Windows Phone, which launched in October 2010, was not entirely successful. Would you buy a device like this, running Android, if the price was right?

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When it comes to the world of high fashion, you know for sure that there are some names which you simply cannot ignore – and Louis Vuitton is definitely one of them. The Louis Vuitton PLAYBUTTON MP3 player hails from a Spring/Summer 2012 project, where menswear designer Kim Jones joins forces with Ambush Designs co-founder and Reebok Asia creative director VERBAL, resulting in a portable audio player that is tiny enough to be pinned onto the sleeve.

Needless to say, just to make sure that everyone knows you are loaded enough to be able to purchase something from Louis Vuitton, this MP3 player will sport a Louis Vuitton-inspired motif, in addition to featuring custom brushed metal headphone buds and stripped-down, back-to-basics functionality. I guess you can call this the world’s most expensive iPod shuffle, since the only buttons it has are play, pause, and skip. There are only 30 Ambush-marked players in circulation, so be quick or miss out on this potential tech investment. Louis Vuitton or not, my eyes do not agree with the  color combination above.

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If you’re always on the go and you’re looking for a portable media player and don’t want to drain your smartphone’s batteries watching videos you might want to check out Ematic’s eSport Clip. Launching today, the eSport Clip features a 1.8″ color display for playing your videos, images or even eBooks and text files that you might want to read. It may be a bit tiny when compared to your smartphone, but I guess it’s better than having no entertainment at all.

Other features include the ability to play music when you’re not in the mood for reading or watching shows, and a 5-megapixel digital camera for taking photographs or shooting videos. It features a USB 2.0 connection for connecting to your computer, and has 4GB of internal memory which translates to about 2,300 songs or 20 hours of video (of course that depends on the quality of the files). It is available now and carries a price tag of $22.00.

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