The player is made by MobiBLU, best known for their tiny cube player a few years back, and while we don't have a price or even capacity yet, it's somehow set to come out this month. We can definitively tell you that the Miffy player will feature interchangeable clothes in various colors, which for a gadget like this is probably just as important as, you know, actual specs. [Akihabara News]

To complete the UFO effect, the undercarriage lights up and the whole thing can vibrate to simulate motion. As far as specs are concerned, the desktop player can handle ASF, MP3, OGG and WMA format files and run for 15 hours through headphones and 5 hours on speakers. Availability and pricing information has not been announced, but the UFO will run in 512MB to 8GB sizes with a red or black color scheme. That's all well and good, but the UFO would be infinitely cooler in a portable version. [mobiBLU via GenerationMP3 via Electronista]

Unfortunately it's a flash-based, coming in 1 to 4GB sizes, so you're not likely to fit more than a few videos on there at a time. T'is the price of portability. – Jason Chen

Mobiblu's Chocolate'esque D5 Video Player [Chip Chick]

Geared Toward: MP3 fans who love MobiBLU's small size. The screen was bright and video was smooth on the OLED display.

The Spin: Not only does this play music, it's got Skype. Plug it into your PC via USB, then you can use the headphones and built-in mic to talk. Kinda convenient to make calls in a buddy's house, a net cafe, or at CES.

Counterspin: Despite hearing about it back in August, we still don't know what the release date for this is.

Buy It If...: You love MobiBLU but want some video and even Skype. –Jason Chen

Product Page [Mobiblu]

Product Page [mobiblu via dapreview.net]

The MobiBLU Cube 2 is officially out in the US. The MP3 playback is improved with WOW HD sound enhancement technology from SRS Labs (for whatever that's worth). Also, the Cube 2 features a 65k color OLED screen that can playback WMA movies at a massive .5-inches and supports PlaysforSure.

The Cube 2 comes in 4 colors (collect them all). Sizes range from 1-2gb ($100-$120), while the battery life is still only rated for 10 hours audio playback (5 for video). Even with a better screen, we would like to see a longer lasting battery.

But the big surprise? The new version is available on the manufacturer's site, Amazon, and NOT Walmart. The original MobiBLU was Walmart exclusive, so this is shocking news. Guess we have absolutely no reason to visit that store again. – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via anythingbutipod]

MobiBlu BOXON [dapreview]

MobiBLU Q-Bling [Anything But iPod]

Q-Bling MP3 Player [Mobibluamerica]

Generation MP3 managed to their hands on the hard drive powered mobiBLU DHH-200 digital audio player. This player has been lingering around for quite some time now with little to no feedback about the actual unit itself, but it is good to see it finally hitting the hands of the reviewers. For a quick refresher, this player comes in 6GB or 8GB flavors and plays back your music. Easy enough.

French site, GenMP3 gave this player a full blown review, unfortunately, unless you know French or want to try and decipher the Google translation the written review won't do so well. Luckily the GenMP3 guys also put up a video here. Hooray for video! They gave this DAP a 3 out of 5, so it isn't anything too spectacular, but may be the right kind of player for all of you anti-iPoders out there. – Travis Hudson

Video Review [GenMP3 via dapreview]

This one's Korea only for now, but if you really want it, you'd better learn how they say MP3 and WMA in Korean. Oh, wait. – Jason Chen

Product Page (Korean) [Mobiblu via DAPReview]

Coming in at numero uno on T3's list is the Meizu miniPlayer, followed by the Creative Zen V Plus, iRiver T10, Sony Ericsson V630i and lastly the mobiBLU US2. From looks alone I would have liked to see the US2 higher up on the list and maybe swap out the Sony Ericsson V630i with the more U.S. friendly Sony NW-E505. We'd suggest going with one of these, only if you absolutely hate Apple, because they are obviously top dog. – Travis Hudson

T3's Top Five iPod Alternatives [T3]

Product Page [Via dapreview]

Other than that, the DAH-1900 has the same spec sheet as every other MP3 player out there: USB 2.0, FM radio, voice recorder, OLED display, WMA/MP3 support and it is available in 1GB and 2GB sizes with prices beginning at $200.

MP3 Player Has 153 Hour Battery Life [TrustedReviews]

Looks like fun. Only problem is, even though this little speaker is cheap, we can't imagine it sounds all that great. It's available now for $29.95.

Product Page [MobiBLU via uber gizmo]

MobiBLU Cube 2 [dapreview]

We've told you loads about the MobiBlu DAH-1500i teeny, tiny Cube MP3 player in the past. Like that it's the smallest MP3 player in the world, and that it has WMA DRM, and USB 2.0. But now you can get this player in a 2GB version.

It still comes with OLED display, FM radio receiver and recorder, surround sound and of course, it's .9-inches per side. And still sold exclusively through Walmart for $160.

New Mobiblu DAH-1500i Cube MP3 Player with 2GB! [i4u]

MobiBlu 2GB cube priced at $159.99 [Amazon]

X9 XN-F3 [PMPInside (via sELECTROclash]

MobiBlu DHH-200 review (Korean, indeed) [DAPreview]

Specs and pricing for MobiBlu MP3 players [Amazon]

Colorware breaks out a colorized version of the new iPod. The Nano gets an armorshell.
Minivian reviews the iAudio U3., and the Mobiblu DVH-100 reappears.

The folks at Colorware always give the newest iPod their own special touch which usually consists of loads of different color schemes. The colorized new iPod from Colorware boasts a different new feature. Apparently, they applied a new scratch-resistant coating. Sounds great, but be prepared to be an extra 65 dollars for alternative color and scratch-resistance.

Everyone tries so hard to keep their precious Nano scratch and damage free, but the streak always comes to the end at some point when you carelessly place in your pocket with your keys or drop it onto the hard pavement. This new armorized
case for the Nano may prevent damage from these accidents. PDAir's case is built out of aluminum and has a padded interior, as well as a glass or plastic screen. It is currently priced at 25 dollars for the silver version and 27 dollars for the black.

Minivian had previously shown us some beautiful pictures of the lovely new iAudio U3 from Cowon, but they now have a full-fledged review. Of course, its written in korean, so only a few of you will be able to
comprehend its meaning, but the pictures of fun to look at nevertheless. Sadly, we see some of those dreaded pixels that ruin the X5's screen.

Oh, what a strage trip it has been. The Mobiblu dvh-100 has once again made a triumuphate return. So, first it was called the mobiblu dvh-100, then we saw the Maxian MP-2220, and now finally it's the Joystation MVP-1020. The name "Bluzen" also fits in there somehow, but we just don't know how. Anyway, EblueSun has some nice pictures of the Joystation/Bluzen version if you're in the market for this sort of dap/pmp hybrid.

In other news, users of Yahoo Music Unlimited will have deal with nearly doubled
prices. Ouch!

That's all for today, see ya next time!

We review the Creative Zen Micro Photo , while C|net previews said unit's bigger brother (the Zen Sleek Photo). Speaking of "creative" - two of our user members came up with something unique as well - a Meizu E3 review and... an "old" iPod turned into an ashtray. That's right. We'll wrap things with two snippets on MobiBlu's upcoming 8-gigger and a guy who wants us to pay 400 bucks so that he can smash an iPod to smithereens.

Creative's original Zen Micro has been doing pretty well, ever since it was first released (months and months ago). With everyone switching to color screens and all, the company figured that the time had come to equip the Micro with a - theoretically - tasty 262k color OLED-type screen, and so the "Zen Micro Photo" was born. This affordable thing comes with no less than 8GB worth of storage capacity, making it king of the hill within that particular section. The big question being: is it really that cool? Read our review and find out.

Didn't we just say "the time had come to equip the Micro with a color screen"? Well, we could have said "the time had come to fit the Zen Sleek with a color screen" just as easily. The regular, 20GB-heavy Creative Zen Sleek also got a slight make over - the result was dubbed "Zen Sleek Photo". C|net took it for a first spin, noticed some good features (viewing angle, seemingly decent controls, nice design) and some less-pleasant stuff (proprietary connector, no music photo browsing mode and whatnot).

More review goodness is on its way, as one of our users reviewed the Meizu E3 - a cute little flash player from China. Verdict:

"With its slim figure, radiant OLED display, decent building quality and sound quality and even its stylish accessories, E3 sure makes itself a good buy among all its competitors far and near."

Hey buddy, got a smoke? Thanks man. Hey, wait a minute - have you got a lighter on you as well? Aight dude, much appreciated. Oh, sorry to bother you once more but it seems like there's no ashtray to be found here. You wouldn't happend to have one lying about, now would you? Oh, you would? No man, I don't want your freaking iPod - I asked for an ashtray. What you say? Your iPod is your ashtray? Now that's bizarre, mate. Quite bizarre.

Also quite extraordinary is this one: SmashMyiPod.com. Their sole intention seems to be the complete and utter destruction of a freshly-purchased Apple iPod - right in front of everyone who happens to be in that particular Apple Store. Sure enough, some film will be shot during the whole procedure too. Only thing is, the people running said website need resources (400 bucks) to achieve their divine objective. And, believe it or not - they're actually halfway there already.

Last snippet of the day is about Mobiblu's DHH-200. We've mentioned it in here before, but now the word is out: this thing will also include an 8GB micro-hdd, bringing it up-par with Creative's Zen Micro Photo and Mpio's HDD400 (to be released outside of South-Korea). Yay for competition!

That's about it for today—see you again tomorrow!

There's a more in-depth look at the brick-like iUbi 2010 ("Portable" video recorder), the confirmation of some new MobiBlu stuff, a detailed review of Safa's cute little Q100 and the usual redesigned shuffle clone by LuxPro.

We've discussed the iUbi PMP-2010 a couple of days ago, and it had spectacularly little going for it. By now, we understand what the fuzz is all about, though - this is one mighty cheap video playing brick. Sure enough, it's pretty much the biggest and heaviest next-gen video recording unit out there (7-inch screened devices aside). It doesn't exactly overwhelm us with unique features either - although the 4.3-inch, 16.7 million color screen (provided by Samsung) seems to be capable of providing a reasonable amount of eye candy. Anyway, this thing is amazingly cheap compared to what the competition has brought into play. Price levels of 260 euro for a 40GB edition and a mere 350 euro for the 100GB version will certainly appeal to quite a few cash-strapped guys and gals out there.

With a relatively safe amount of American soil below their feet, the South-Korean cubists of MobiBlu decided to move on and design some new funky DAP-gadgetry. As a result, two new devices (dubbed DAH-1800 and DHH-200) have seen the light of day. There's your basic, oblong-shaped DAH-1800 flash player with a metal front plate and some sleek buttons to go with that. If you prefer something more "spacious", then the DHH-200 with its 6GB capacity and a nice-looking color screen might eventually suit your needs. Too bad the actual specifications still haven't been announced, but MobiBlu's "acknowledgement of existince" is a step into the right direction.

Once every while, we come up with some in-depth review on some weird little DAP - hence the name "DAPreview", get it? This time, it was Safa's turn, as we took on their flash-based Q100. Despite being small in appearance, this bugger held out very, very well and it is hereby rewarded the Distinguished DAP cross-of-coolness.

Meanwhile, the guys over at LuxPro can't seem to make up their minds. Yes: they really, really want to come up with some sort of iPod shuffle clone... but all those options, all those possibilities! So many colors to choose from, so many vaporware-like product pages that need redesigning; a man would easily go insane. Still, they've managed to come up with yet another slightly-different version of their original EZ/Top tangent series: say hello to the "EZ/Top Elegant".

Well, that's it for today. See you again tomorrow.

Product Page [Q-Be]

Today's DAP headlines:

We've reviewed everyone's favorite (and pretty much the only) cube-shaped DAP, the MobiBlu DAH-1500i. Next to that, there's a photo gallery containing some of Rio Audio's former works-in-progress. In regular news, MSI puts its Mega View 588 on the market and Creative went out shopping for their latest unit, the Creative MuVo Vidz.

Although it has been reviewed by several others before, we thought that adding another (in-depth) article on the MobiBlu DAH-1500i wouldn't hurt anybody. Our verdict:

Nothing really too much to complain about. Sure its not perfect, the buttons are a little bit cheap, the cube shape isn't ideal, and the battery life kinda sucks, but, all in all, I really like this product. Mobiblu truly has a winner on their hands with the DAH-1500i. It is incredibly unique, ridiculously small, and just so damn cool!

A steady flow of revelations has swooped across the planes of DAP land, ever since Rio had officially been declared "down and out". We've gathered the most interesting visual materials and combined them into a photo gallery that's filled with all kinds of former beta equipment.

Dark clouds have gathered over the once sleepy business of Portable Video Players (PMPs, PVRs - whatever you want to call it). Other companies are trying to keep up with the key players - next to Archos' solid new line-up there's the recently announced iStation v43, the Zen Vision by Creative and also this Mega View 588. Taiwan-based MSI has combined a lot of useful features into a reasonably compact package: there's your basic video recording, TV-out, voice recorder, SD card slot and a QVGA color screen. Should come available soon enough (in Europe, that is) at some 439 Euro.

Finally, Creative came up with yet another new flash memory DAP - the Vidz. Strangely enough, we actually recognized this MPEG4/DivX-compatible unit as something called "Sorell SF-3500". Said player, made by a relatively small South-Korean company, seems to have undergone a minor cosmetic update so it could all add up in the end. Is Creative losing it's touch already?

That's it's for today, folks!

Gear & Gadgets... [Rainy Day Magazine]

MobiBLU DAH-1500i
Price: $99 for 512 Mb; $130 for 1GB
Availability: Now, only at Wal-Mart

this gadget weighs in at less than one ounce and uses a dongle to handle charging and USB data. It plays MP3, WMA and protected WMA files. Plus, it is "actually the second generation in this line; [adding] Windows DRM support, but only for purchased downloads, not subscription-based services." And though it's tiny, we are glad to report that it even comes with a four-line OLED display. "Very bright and easy to read in most situations," this display is definitely, well, small and can be harder to read in direct sunlight. We like the interface, with the play, FF/REW and volume buttons on the right face and "arranged in the same way as those on Apple's players." The menu and hold buttons are located on the left face. The headphone jack "is unique among players we've seen" because it cleverly doubles as a USB 2.0 port as well as using the headphone wires as a radio antenna. Nicely done. We think it's a winner so far, offering "a boatload more features than the iPod Shuffle." Our one complaint? It's the small size that makes it so cool, but while the buttons are usable, "they are pretty stiff and will pose a problem for those with large fingers."

[Gizmodo]
[ExtremeMhz]
[PC Mag]
[CNET]

Canon EOS 5D
Price: $3299
Availability: October 2005

[Gizmodo]
[DPReview]
[ZDNet]
[Let's Go Digital]

New MobiBlu DAH-1800 Color OLED MP3 Player [I4U]

Overall, we're amazed that a package so small contains so many features—and well-implemented ones, to boot—at the same price as the iPod shuffle ($129). Sure, the DAH-1500i doesn't have a cute name or quite the sonic power and accuracy of the shuffle. But it's more than adequate for its intended market, and all the extra features (not to mention a screen and freedom from proprietary software) make this the most compelling choice among the current crop of flash players.

Better than the Shuffle? Blasphemy!

Related
MobiBLU DAH-1500 MP3 Player

MobiBLU DAH-1500i [PCMag]

Related
MobiBlu DAH-1500: 1-Inch MP3 Cube
MobiBLU DAH-1500 MP3 Player
But Those Earrings Have Got To Go

MobiBLU DAH-1500 [MobiBLU America]
Official Statement from MobiBlu Regarding DAH-1500 and DAH-1500i [I4U]