Although the article sort of tromps all over the place, taking the whole 'gadgets as fashion' angle, the leader in this NYTimes bit is a new line of MP3 players from Damon Dash, the man behind hip-hop syndicate Roc-A-Fella Records. Called 'Roc Digital,' one of these first products will be the 'Rocbox,' a black (or chrome) hard disk-based MP3 player designed to take on the iPod (there will also be a flash player). The interface looks downright primitive to me, with just four buttons to control the whole shebang, but perhaps the cachet of the brand will help sell the players to those already invested in the Roc-A-Fella product line.

After talking about all the differences in MP3 player designs, though, there's an interesting quote from a Virgin exec, describing the tendancy for devices to tend to look very similar:

"More people want to look like a Gap ad than a Prada ad."

Battle of Form (and Function) in MP3 Players [NYTimes]

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