Mp4 -- Engadget

Sonix7 Media Pro tangles with the PMP giants

by Darren Murph, posted May 15th 2009 at 4:12AM

We'll be honest -- there's a decent chance you'll never experience the joy of handling a Sonix7 Media Pro in your time here on Earth, but it's still worth looking at just to show that the Apples, Microsofts and Meizus of the world haven't scared us all away just yet. This so-called MP4 player packs a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, 30 hours of audio playback (20 hours on video) and a built-in camera and speaker. Unlike the hordes of alternatives, this one's actually not built in China; rather, it's born and bred in Britain. It's available now in 8GB and 16GB flavors for £89.99 ($136) and £104.99 ($159), respectively, and you check out the company's self-assembled showdown with the iPod nano just after the break.

Continue reading Sonix7 Media Pro tangles with the PMP giants

Chuwi M70's 7-inch PMP reviewed, said to be large and in charge

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 30th 2009 at 7:59AM

Many PMPs are svelte, portable things that feel good in the hand and not too bad in a pocket. The same cannot be said for the 8GB Chuwi M70, a PMP packing a 7-inch, 700 x 480 widescreen LCD and not much else. In a review at MP4 Nation Blog that screen gets high marks, as does the ability to play video up to 1280 x 720 smoothly, but build quality is apparently a disappointment, and those dimensions make it something less than totally portable. The device hasn't officially been released in the US, but if you've got room in your heart for a PMP with a little extra to love they can be found online for under $120. Get hunting.

[Thanks, Tom]

RAmos T9 iMovie 2 PMP: 800 x 480, 16GB, $132

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Feb 18th 2009 at 4:04PM

Yes, the kids at RAmos have arrived with that 800 x 480 PMP we first espied sometime in December. As you might have guessed, the T9 iMovie 2 is the followup to the smash hit T8 iMovie, sporting a polished aluminum alloy frame, 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display, and 16GB storage. No further details at the moment, but if you can track this guy down he'll run you about $132.

[Via PMP Today]

Caption Contest: unofficial Obama MP4 player is officially awesome

by Paul Miller, posted Jan 13th 2009 at 3:29PM

Friendly tipster and man about town Ben spotted this Obama-branded MP4 player ("with built-in speaker!") in Washington D.C. recently.

Paul: "Yes we can buy cheap Chinese iPod knockoffs!"
Chris: "Introducing the iPod hussein."
Tim: "Sadly the John McCain gramophone was deemed too risky for today's economic conditions."
Laura: "There's not a Zune America and an iPod America. There's a United States of generic Obama MP4 player America."
Nilay: "They would give it an African name, DIGITAL MP4 PLAYER, believing that in a tolerant America a terrible interface and weird format support are no barrier to success."
Joe: The Audacity of KIRF
Richard: "Whew, for a second people thought he was using a Zune again"
Josh: "On Obama's Digital MP4 Player, it's not shuffle. It's change."
Ross: "Next on the O'Reilly Factor: is president-elect Barack Obama funneling funds through a Shenzhen, China-based shell company?"
Sean: "Who is that black bald guy anyway?"*

*Sean is Canadian, we can't take responsibility for him or his silly little country.

Chinavasion's plug-in MP3 player / FM transmitter / etcetera seems surprisingly useful

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 4th 2009 at 8:59AM

Chinavasion's latest piece of steaming trash is actually very un-trash-like, as it thoughtfully meshes a number of in-car technologies into one single cigarette adapter doodad. The Plug-In Car MP4 Player with LCD Display manages to bundle an MP4 / MP3 player, 1.5-inch LCD and 4GB of memory into a device that plugs neatly into your car's cigarette adapter, and the inclusion of an FM transmitter means that you won't even need to bring your own DAP to get tunes flowing in the car. Moreover, the SD card slot enables even more jams to be loaded on if you're embarking on a serious road trip, and the USB socket makes PC-to-whatchamacallit transfers a cinch. We're truly impressed with just how awe-inspiring this thing is for €21.57 ($29); too bad we don't trust the quality one bit.

[Via Slashgear]

Gemei and RAmos to offer 800 x 480 PMPs

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Dec 16th 2008 at 3:53PM

Remember the Ainol V3000 we saw a while back? It looks like Gemei and RAmos are playing catch-up with some 800 x 480 PMPs of their own. It's been speculated that like the Ainol handheld, Gemei's X690HD will be rocking an Ingenic chipset, while the RAmos T9 could follow up its iMovie with either an Ingenic or a Rockchip. Hopefully this bombshell makes your day, because there really are no other specs to report. We assume you'll see these guys with FM tuners, TV outs, batteries, and storage at some unspecified point in the future. The usual. Keep your eyes peeled, Mainland China!

Thanko's latest MP4 watch boasts 1.8-inch display, video camera

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 14th 2008 at 2:11AM

Thanko's last MP4 watch was, um, less than gorgeous, but this one can actually be worn in public without automatic public humiliation. Sure, it's still a bit stocky, but we're confident that fashion-forward nerds could still pull it off. In between the two (p)leather straps sits a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution color display, a multimedia player with MP3 / WMA / AVI / JPEG support and a video camera capable of logging VGA-quality clips. You'll also find a mini-USB port and an internal speaker, and there's 4GB of internal memory to go along with about 3.5 hours of music playback time. All yours (if you live in Japan) for ¥14,800 ($163).

[Via AkihabaraNews]

RAmos T8 iMovie PMP: 32GB, .4 inch thick, $219

by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 6th 2008 at 6:04PM

RAmos tends to tease us with slick product photos / renders all the time and then pump out shoddy, derivative crap, so we're not going to get too excited about the new T8 iMovie (sigh, terrible name), but here it is looking pretty slick on video -- and the specs are solid for $219. That's a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 touchscreen in a 10mm (.4 inch) thick case, with 32GB of storage and decent codec support, TV-out, and micro speakers. Too bad we don't know if it's coming Stateside, but if you're headed to the Olympics, it's probably worth checking out. Video after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

Continue reading RAmos T8 iMovie PMP: 32GB, .4 inch thick, $219

Ainol introduces display-dominated V3000 PMP

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 2:30PM

Some serious time has passed since Ainol rolled out its abominable V1000, and while we reckon the V2000 was lost somewhere in the mix, the V3000 is pretty enough to note -- if but for a moment. Details are pretty slim on this one, but we are told that the widescreen unit packs an expansive 4.3-inch LTPS display with an 800 x 480 native resolution. Seriously though, you aren't about to fly to China to claim one of these as your own, so just be satisfied with seeing Spidey behind all sorts of weirdly applied reflections.

[Via MP4Nation]

Teclast M26 gets priced: $73 too much

by Nilay Patel, posted Jul 12th 2008 at 8:06PM

Hey you -- you looking for a quarter of the iPod touch experience for a little less than a quarter of the price? Yeah? Well, how does dropping $73 on the depressingly derivative Teclast M26 grab you? Seriously, this thing looked like it had a glimmer of potential when it was first announced, so it's kind of sad to see it getting priced like the throwaway crap it turned out to be -- we should definitely know better by now.

[Via PMP Today]

Yoto M400: like the M300, but for real this time

by Nilay Patel, posted May 22nd 2008 at 9:02AM

Now that we've got the white-knuckle excitement of the Yoto M300's Asian-only deut out of our systems, we're getting hit with a sequel, the M400. Basically the same codec-friendly non-touchscreen PMP as the M300, it looks like the M400 features slightly better build quality in addition to adding PlayFX and TV-out. Oh, and it's not a render, so that's another tick in the plus column. Still, we're not quite convinced we're willing to travel to China and drop our hard-earned yuan on this bad boy yet -- let's see what the inevitable M500 has to offer.

[Via PMP Today]

RAmos V8 appears in the flesh

by Nilay Patel, posted May 17th 2008 at 10:14AM

We thought the RAmos V8 was looking pretty sleek in render form, but now that some real pictures of the black PMP with the 4.3-inch screen and 16GB of storage have surfaced, we're really impressed -- with how much this thing looks like an iPod touch. (We'll be here all week, folks!) Of course, the V8's codec support is way better, but without pricing info and a look at that UI we're not ready to call this one a winner quite yet. Let us know if you hit China next month, okay?

[Via MP4nation]

Tongfang PMC-M880 MP4 player kicks out the PAL jams

by Nilay Patel, posted Apr 30th 2008 at 12:37AM

Tsinghua Tongfang has managed to produce at least one mildly interesting MP4 PMP in the past, so we're not too surprised at the company's new PMC-M880, which features ~~semi-high-def~~ nice-looking PAL video out at 720 X 576 resolution in addition to the usual array of MP4 features. On the go, you'll be looking at a 400 X 240 3-inch screen, which is decent, and we're sort of digging on that funky red / black industrial design. Too bad we'll never see this one leave China, eh? A shot of the video output after the break.

[Via MP4 Nation, thanks Yuipsj]

Continue reading Tongfang PMC-M880 MP4 player kicks out the PAL jams

Keepin' it real fake, part CXIII: the Blade Runner MP4 player doesn't make calls, retire Replicants

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Mar 11th 2008 at 10:59AM

Like peanut butter and jelly, oil and vinegar, and Benny and Joon, some things just go together. If you thought the words "Blade Runner" and the industrial design of the RAZR were always "meant to be," your day has finally come. Enter the Blade Runner MP4 player -- the PMP that looks like a phone, but acts like far, far, far less. The device has lots of familiar media player features, but let's be honest: all the information you need about this baby is up in that photo above. Own the magic today for $49.99.

[Via Crave]

Soda can "MP4" player will leave you thirsty... for dignity

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Feb 25th 2008 at 7:09PM

Finally, an MP4 player that suits our lifestyle. When we're out on the street, feeling the hot rays of the sun, hustling to stay afloat, and generally just jamming, the Neux Corp. Ltd. NXMP324 is what we want. Sure, you can't actually crack this puppy open and gulp it down like a real soda, but you can take a sip of the funky combination of 128MB to 4GB capacities, MP3, WMA, WMV, WAV and ASF file support, built-in USB 2.0 jack, and bonus FM radio. Seriously though, the can comes in red or blue, but there isn't a color in the rainbow that would convince us to buy this thing.

[Via PMP Today]