Philips Cam, Muse and Ariaz mark a renaissance for the boring PMP

This is soon enough to market that it's hard to blame the iPod nano specifically for its appearance, but either way it seems that the Philips Cam is the newest member to the oh-so-small club of MP3 / camera combos. The new player is joined in its life of crime by the new Muse and Ariaz, which at last offer a higher-end aspect to Philips' long-lackluster PMP lineup. The Cam does up a 1.8-inch screen, 8GB of storage and a 2 megapixel camera for $100, but the Muse has a full 3.2-inches of touchscreen, 16GB of flash, SD expansion and HDMI out for a mere $50 more. The Ariaz finds a simpler calling, with a 2.4-inch LCD, HDMI, 8GB and an $80 tag. We'll have to play with these to see if they're worth taking home from Walmart, but we're glad to see Philips is trying to stay in the game -- we can't all be lucky enough to be Zune HD owners.