OK, I admit it, I'm slightly infatuated with the Archos brand, as I've never found another PMP designer that has managed to combine everything a user might want into such a sleek shell. The latest Archos news to whet my appetite (and cause my bank manager sleepless nights ) is that of the Archos 9. Following on from the adored Archos 7 and Archos netbook announcement is the rather stylish looking Archos 9, which tried to be the best of both the PMP AND the netbook world.

As a huge fan of PMP's I eagerly look at new releases, and wonder whether they'll live up to my rigorous standards. I expect a 7 inch screen, a heap of internal memory, oh and touchscreen capabilities and internal wireless is always a bonus.

Well step up to the platform, SmartQ7, and let's take a look inside.

Ok, are we just making gadgets for the sake of it now? My first impressions were, WTF is this? Following an actual reading of its specs as opposed to just trying to hazard a guess, it turns out it's an MP3 player with built-in speakers! *And* get this... it's supposed to be a dog! Other than having a fluffy head and four legs (which incidentally look more like a stand than actual legs) there is no indication that this thing is emulating a dog. In fact it doesn't look like anything... other than a fluffy head on a stand!

It's a credit card... no wait; it's a super thin Bluetooth emitting MP3 player disguised as a credit card, numbers and all. Whether it's be wise to wear it around your neck like this headless model would be completely down to personal preference and how comfortable you are with constant stares of bewilderment from passers or relentlessly getting asked why you have a credit card around your neck (or being a target of thieves)! Like the majority of cool gadgets that grace the pages of Shiny Shiny, it's sadly just a concept - but what a great concept eh?

Other than that, there's little else information about this flat four sided player, other than that it's a great way to get mugged and have your personal items ripped from your neck.

[via Engadget]

More MP3 players here

iPod owners are about to experience what it's like to feel envious of another portable media player. And it'll be Samsung's YP-CP3 PMP that'll be responsible for triggering that condition otherwise known as the green eyed monster. As well as being a great piece of multimedia eye candy, with a sizeable 400 x 240 3-inch touchscreen, it comes bundled with that crucial, all important SD card slot to expand its storage (and this is about the time when iPod owners should begin to feel those pangs of jealousy).

As well as MP3, WMV, MPEG4 and FLAC support, Samsung's PMP packs FM radio, a voice recorder and features an easy to use joystick which should provide a better navigational experience than the diamond shaped touch sensitive interface of the YP-Q1 and YP-Q2. To make it even more covetable, circulating rumours say there will be a camera on board too.

Sony has finally realised that as long as this ominous recession cloud is looming, people are less likely to spend a substantial amount of their wages on music equipment, so it's decided to reduce the X series' un-pocket friendly prices to less un-pocket friendly prices. It's not a mammoth price drop, but it's still a price drop nonetheless. The 16GB model will now cost £200 (down from £214) and the 32GB model will now go for £250 (£283 before).

Amazon must have missed the memo though, as it's still offering the media player at those original and costly prices. There's more good news - it'll now be available from Play.com as of the 30th April with its new price drop, beating Amazon's 10th May release date (and price tags). If you want to find out more about what the X Series has to offer, check it out here.

[via Stuff]

More MP3 players here

It may be small but Philips' GoGear Spark sure packs a lot into its compact frame. Philips even describes it as "compact in size but big on style and sound quality". Sure, it's not as pretty as the members of the iPod family, but it puts up a good fight. On its pretty 1.46-inch OLED colour screen you'll be able to view album art and display pictures, it also comes with the ability to make voice recordings and play and record radio (depending on what model you get). As well as that, Philips has loaded its mini MP3 player with its proprietary FullSound audio refinement system, which aims to improve the quality of low-bitrate/ songs and prevent them from venturing down the tinny path.

The Sony Walkman X series was without a doubt, one of the hotter gadgets to come out of CES this year. And now we hear it's up on Amazon UK for pre-order. Pre-ordering will get you your new personal media player within two to five weeks, which should give you just enough time to get over their un-pocket friendly prices. Available in 16 and 32GB offerings, the 16GB model (NWZ-X1050B) will set you back £214 and the 32GB version (NWZ-X1060B) £283.

There's me thinking Crayola only stuck to brightly coloured stationary and unnecessary amounts of crayons, and here it is with its very own MP3 player. There's no room for swank with this - it's about as basic (and childlike) as you can get. Forget luxuriously hi-tech gadgetry, this reaches out to your inner child and your love of the plain, the straightforward and the multicoloured technological device.

So, other than looking like it opens up to reveal a full set of crayons, the Crayola MP3 player comes with 2GB of storage, five jumbo-sized buttons and mass amounts of letter stickers so you can feel every bit the child, allowing you to regress back to a time when (much to the annoyance of your parents) stickers went on absolutely everything. Just slap an AAA battery in its behind and you're good to go.

Anybody who reads Shiny will know how highly I rate Archos products, so the news that they may have a mobile lurking on the horizon is very exciting. And it's not just a PMP enabled mobile device, no it's going to utilise Google Android capabilities, potentially making the G1 seem redundant and outdated.

At first glance the Kana Micro Digital audio players look like a bunch of run of the mill USB drives. Upon closer inspection, they still look like a bunch of USB sticks. But as you've probably construed from the title (and the first sentence), they are in fact MP3 players assuming the guise of USB drives. This multi-coloured assortment of MP3 players from Green House aren't going to wow the audiophiles or change any lives, but less discerning MP3 users may want to pocket this affordable musical device.

When Dan took the iRiver SPINN for a test drive, the results were impressive. But as with any notable devices (and un-notable for that matter) there's always room for improvement. Design-wise there are no changes, but its sleek and sexy design didn't really need a design overhaul did it? It's the software that's had a bit of a re-vamp. Not everyone was huge fans of the user interface and general SPINN activity, so iRiver's implemented some 2.0 changes to its insides.

It's a rare occurrence for the words 'personal media player' and 'sexy' to be used in the same sentence, but the RM2300 PMP is one of the sexiest PMP I've ever seen (although this could be down to the accompanying image which has probably spent some time in Photoshop). But there can't be that much image exaggeration going on - it must really look like this *drool*. Here's the magical bit. In a similar style to the LG Shine, the screen sits behind a mirror in a subtlety beautiful polished titanium design. Switch it on and the screen appears from underneath the surface, making you the coolest PMP owner on the block.

See more pics after the jump...

Now here's a name you don't hear very often - MCH Media. But it's not a name to be ignored. I know how easy it is to sweep less well-known brands under the carpet, in favour of media players that feature the words 'iPod', 'Walkman' or 'Zune' in them. But the CS-one Media Box Touch deserved as much admiration as the aforementioned players. Why? Well, it's a touchscreen media player with touch sense buttons for a start and there's 18 hours of continuous video playback on the cards from a full charge, which means even longer playback when you switch from MP4 to MP3 files.

An accelerometer in place means switching from portrait to landscape will be a doddle - combine that with a fully animated menu and eBook capabilities and it turns out the CS-one Media Box Touch is as good a contender as the rest.

It's easy to leave CES feeling jaded, cynical and knackered. It's products like the MoveIt Mini, from GiiNii, though, that make it all worth while. We might be slightly hysterical from lack of sleep and too much roulette, but we think it's awesome.

On the face of it, it's a WiFi enabled media player. With rubbish memory - just 256MB onboard. However, look under the hood and you'll find a MicroSD slot, so you can expand it to your hearts content. And even better, you'll find Android.

Lucy is evangelical about Sony's Walkman range, I'm more... meh. Having said that, I'm a new fan of a couple of the products they released this week. The W Series is less an MP3 player, and more a headband, whilst the X Series boasts a pretty bloody amazing screen. Take a look, why doncha'.

For more CES news, click here.