Twenty-one months after your humble narrator first opined on the admirable resilience of faux Discmen, the Reaper has come for Low End Theory: as of today, this column will (in the not-so-immortal words of Charles Manson) cease to exist. Its biodegraded carcass shall nourish the gazelles, who in turn nourish the lions, making it an integral part of the Circle of Life...uh, okay, scratch that. But hopefully y'all were occasionally entertained by LET's voyage through the Electro-Dreck Realms.

And what a grand voyage it was. After the jump, a rundown of lessons learned while bringing y'all—week in, week out—the very best in As Seen on TV specials, prison-approved radios, five-buck pagers, and oh-so-much-more.

&*$&!@ Best Buy True cheapskates look for their gadgets not at the local electronics shop, but rather at retailers who operate on the margins: pawn shops, government auctions, and, of course, dollar stores. There's no question that low-end electronics will continue to become more widely available through such non-traditional channels; I greatly anticipate the day when my local C-Town offers Nokia handsets alongside issues of Soap Opera Digest. (Note to Alltel: hooking up such a partnership would be yet another great way to compete with the big boys.)

The Lords of Guangdong It's obviously impossible to do a low-end column without frequently considering China's role. To that end, I've taken occasion to ruminate on how Shenzhen factories connect with American entrepreneurs, and how China's lax intellectual property enforcement has impacted the RC helicopters industry. I'd always hoped that Gizmodo would fly me out to Guangdong for some on-the-scene reporting. No dice, but perhaps that's for the best— China's time may already be passing, as the likes of Vietnam and Bangladesh try (with mixed success) to become the next Workshops to the World.

Nascent Giants Despite Gizmodo's paltry—okay, non-existent—travel budget, I did manage to scope out low-end items abroad: once in India (where it's all about the art of negotiation), and once in Brazil (where government over-regulation keeps prices high). Final verdict? God bless America's abundance of $4.99 "Walkmen" and $19.99 DVD players. We are truly, truly spoiled.

Low-End Needn't Equal Low-Qual I'm certainly not alone in noticing that the cheapest electronics can be surprisingly durable. We're conditioned to assume otherwise, of course, and the likes of Gizmodo are partly to blame: How often do blogs or magazines lay hands on a low-end demo unit? In the future, I'd like to see more Coby and jWIN products get a fair shake on CNet, etc. A cheapskate can dream, can't he?

Rip-Offs Abound The hazard of being a low-ender is that you can be mesmerized by price alone. But this is often to a consumer's detriment: take the case of layaway plans, which invariably end up being a far worse deal than even the most cynical cheapskates can imagine. And don't even think about cashing in your credit-card miles for some off-brand portable DVD player; the Man has the game fixed against you, natch.

Industry Rule #4,080#4,081 There's obviously a big crossover between music lovers and geeks—the same part of the brain that's responsible for obsessing over RAM must also play a role in appreciating organized sound. Good thing there's so many sweet deals out there for aspiring musicians who a) aren't yet ready to quit their IT day jobs, and b) barely have a nickel to their name. Tomorrow's Marc Bolans and Al Greens can record their songs for a song, rock some Danelectro guitar effects for a Jackson, or tickle the (fake) ivories on some choice Radio Shack keyboards.

ChipCorder vs. the Axis! Sorry, no real lesson or halfway clever observation in this column. Just wanted to namecheck it, 'cause it's one of my favorites—a meditation on whether the Allies would have won the war, had the Axis somehow built a time machine and gotten hold of a musical greeting-card chip.

And with that, Low End Theory shall go gently into that good night, raging against nothing save the high price of HDTVs. Thanks a million to everyone who commented, emailed, or simply read the columns. Y'all shall be in my heart every time I purchase a ludicrously cheap 4-gig USB drive from Newegg.com, or come across a $5 "Discman" displayed next to a package of irregular tube socks. Farewell, and keep it cheap.

STARTING JUNE 14th: The return of Hype Sheet!

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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I was all set to write this week's column about how digitized kitchen appliances have paved the way for a more techno-savvy America. (Suggested, admittedly lame-o hed: "The Wisdom of Microwaves".) But I chucked that idea out the window upon reading my latest Visa bill, and noticing my annual $39 rewards-program fee—The Man's yearly reminder that nothing in life is truly free, save for the ham-cube samples at my local C-Town.

Every twelve months, upon noticing that Visa has rendered me $39 poorer, I spend time perusing the rewards catalogue. Being the cheap bastard that I am, I have nowhere near enough points for those Continental vouchers, let alone the inflatable speedboat. But y'know what I can get for my piddling few thousand points? Lots and lots of low-end electronics. And though it's tempting to treat myself to a gadget on Visa, by way of my charging habits, I know deep down it's all a scam. There's gotta be a phalanx of actuaries who approve the rewards catalogue and assign all the points values, in order to stack the deck against Joe Q. Consumer. I mean, come on—16,000 points for an Initial DVD player (right) that goes for $129.99 at CVS?

Yes, I realize that I'm stunning none of y'all by revealing the Scroogeishness of credit-card companies. But I still think the way they mess with their customers' heads is worth expounding upon. The tricks of the reward-program trade, spun geekily, after the jump.

The Brand Tease The electronics rewards that cost the fewest points are invariably the low-end offerings from recognizable brand names—Sony is a particular favorite, especially its lineup of Discmen. My particular program offers this Sony PSYC MP3/ATRAC/CD player for 6,600 points. Anyone cashing in this relatively meager amount of points is profiled as an unsavvy consumer to start with, and so the rewards programs view them as easy marks for the classic "label" con—hook a consumer on inferior products branded with a recognizable name. If someone is really jonesing for a combo MP3/CD player, the smart move is to invest in a Coby or jWIN model, which offer ever bit the performance of a Sony in this space. (Um, except for the ATRAC compatibility, I guess, though this is a feature that 99.9999998 percent of the planet can live without.) Right off the bat, you'd save twenty bucks off the annual program fee—and that's assuming the person could rack up 6,600 points in a year.

Bottom of the Barrel When rewards programs buy their products in bulk, they obviously opt for the specials—particularly models that are about to be dinosaured, or those that have been remaindered due to poor sales. One of the most popular catalogue items is the 512 MB iPod Shuffle, which I believe Apple quit making almost as soon as it started. It can be yours for 10,000 points through my rewards program, and I'm sure it's a popular choice given the recognizable brand name (see above). The program's site definitely doesn't inform you that Apple is no longer supporting the player, which means that when the Shuffle's firmware invariably winks out, you're pretty much screwed. (Appeal to y'all: Has anyone tried getting their Shuffle reflashed at an Apple store? I'm curious.)

Clever Elisions Everyone and their dog wants to own an LCD TV nowadays, but they're generally out of reach for us low-enders. So when someone reads that they can cash in 13,000 points for a "Toshiba Flat-Panel Color TV", they just might start thinking that they're about to join the future to which they rightfully belong. There's even a bunch of hype-sheet jargon in catalogue description that makes you think that, yes, you're getting an LCD. ("Ah, the pleasures of state-of-the-art flat screen technology. Isn't it time for you to take advantage of great viewing from almost any angle and enjoy reduced glare for an all-around better viewing experience?") Except, um, you're just getting a slightly advanced tube model that Amazon is selling for $114.40. And, oh yeah, its diagonal measures a not-so-whopping 14-inches. Enjoy, sucker.

Make Research Impossible This is the part that really irks me: rewards programs don't cite specific model numbers, so you can't do any independent research on whether you're getting a quality gadget, or just something that fell off a truck outside a Visa calling center. (The latter being far more common than the former.) So an HP printer is advertised only as "Hewlett Packard All-in-One Color Printer", and a laughably outmoded Brother printer/scanner combo is breathlessly hyped as "Brother 5-in-1 Color Multi-function Center". (Tagline from the catalogue: "Space saver!") I still haven't figured out exactly which HP unit my credit card is peddling, but it's gotta be a rip-off given that its print resolution is cited as 4800 x 1200 dpi. A printer with those modest gifts goes for well under $150 at Newegg; at 25,000 points in my reward catalogue, that's gotta be the biggest rip-off out there.

My bottom line on rewards programs is this: if you truly feel an irresistible compulsion to spend your hard-earned points on electronics, don't go for any of the options. The wisest choice is to instead opt for one of the Best Buy or Circuit City gift cards that are catalogue staples, and sort through the bargain bins. A $50 Best Buy card costs 4,000 points in my program—several thousand points less than that Discman that can be had for $50 (or less at the local mall). Face it, the catalogue is just trying to tease you with all them pretty pictures of craptacular gear. Better to take the faux money, run, and think seriously about whether you want to keep on forking over $39 every year. Rewards programs may be great if you're putting your kid's college tuition on your Visa; much less so if your biggest purchase since 1999 was the the complete first season of She Spies.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Coby vs. jWIN: The Reckoning

The Coke and Pepsi of the low-end electronics universe, Coby and jWIN have become simply unavoidable as of late. Both have aggressively wheedled their way into myriad drugstores, discount warehouses, and shady depots that peddle both tube socks and faux Discmen. Lord knows that half the gadget shops in and around New York's Garment District would lose half their inventories should these two titans of cheap ever cease to exist.

So ubiquitous are these two skinflint faves that no one's bothered to ask the elephant-in-the-room question: Which one's better? Try as I might, I could find no head-to-head comparisons of equally spec'd Coby and jWIN products—tech journos, it seems, regard the brands in much the same way that Marie Antoinette regarded unkempt peasants. But Low End Theory feels no compunctions about dirtying its hands with cheap merchandise—heck, that's our whole reason for existing, is it not?

Therefore, after the jump, we're gonna offer up the scoop on three low-end deathmatches. Will it be Coby or jWIN that experiences the thrill of victory? Only those with the temerity to click the "MORE" link will know for sure.

As a quick prelude, let me head off potential objections from Coby and jWIN employees/fans by granting this: Both brands have been doing their darndest to make forays into pricier electronics. On the rare occasions that one of the companies' executives pops up in the trade press, it's usually to brag about the phat-yet-inexpensive LCD TVs they're rocking nowadays. And, hey, I can understand that—everyone wants to be seen as cutting edge rather than dowdy. But the fact remains that the low-end meccas of the world—starting with my beloved Gem Gem Gem Value Store on 125th Street—don't sell LCD TVs. They make their gadget cream off alarm clocks and cordless phones, and they sure do love them some Coby and jWIN.

Besides, this column is, and always will be, about products that us short-armed-but-deep-pocketed types can afford without feeling the pangs of buyer's remorse. So I kept the focus tight on gizmos that can be had for less than the price of a set of shock-inducing RC tanks. I feel your cheapness, yo:

Alarm Clocks I selected two projection clocks, the Coby CR-A78 versus the jWIN JL-705. The Coby certainly wins on price, selling for an average of $6 less than its opponent. The specs are almost identical, and the design is really a matter of taste—Coby's designers (okay, the dudes who work at their contract factory somewhere in Guangdong) seem to favor cleaner lines and less ornamentation, while jWIN is all about the blue and shiny metallic dials. It's a close call, but I'm going to hand this one to Coby, based mostly on the compactness of the projection unit—the jWIN clock is too eerily reminiscent of one of those droids who gets tortured on Jabba the Hutt's barge in Return of the Jedi. (Note: Please, no hate mail. Yes, I know that RotJ sucked, and that the Ewoks deserve a special place in Hell.)

MP3 Players A face-off between two 256 MB Flash players here—Coby's MP-C841 against the jWIN JX-MP130FM. The former unit can be had for a good $20 less if you snoop around online, but the jWIN clearly wins out on features this time around, starting with the addition of an FM tuner. The jWIN also has line-in recording and USB 2.0 compatibility; the Coby may have the latter, but the spec sheet sure doesn't mention it. Hands down a winner for jWIN, despite the steeper price tag. Even in the low-end realm, sometimes it's worth the extra scratch to ensure that you won't end up kicking yourself for being such a miserable miser.

Portable B&W TVs Ai'ight, the tiebreaker: the Coby CX-TV1 goes up against its nemesis, the jWIN JV-TV1010. The Coby averages about $5 cheaper to start, though you're also losing half-an-inch of screen size—let's call it a draw on that score, then. The specs are basically identical, right down to the three power-source options; heck, their web folks even used matching simulated pictures featuring fake football players. The controls, meanwhile, as so similar to make me suspect these TVs rolled off the same exact Far East assembly line. It comes down, then, to maneuverability, and the jWIN noses ahead in this regard. It appears to have the capacity for a little up-and-down swivel, and it's also got slightly more manageable dimensions—a godsend if you're taking this out on the lake. I'm thus gonna call this a point for jWIN, though the contest could scarcely be closer, and I admit that I wasn't able to get test units into the lab for hands-on experimentation. Anyone own both these TVs? If so, drop me a line and lemme know if I misjudged this.

So,when all's said and done, jWIN wins this one by the barest of margins. I think the basic rule of thumb is that Coby generally wins on price, but that jWIN's designers add just enough zazz to justify their products' higher costs. Then again, if I went back and looked at another three head-to-heads, I might come up with entirely different results. Of course, no one likes wishy-washy journalism of that nature, now, do they? I will, then, shout this decisively from the rooftops: jWIN is emperor of the low-end universe.

Let that be a challenge unto you, Coby. Not to mention Sungale, Anergé, or whoever else dreams of donning the championship belt and earning my everlasting love. You know you want it.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Is there any low-end gadget more ubiquitous than the clock radio? There's nary a fleabag motel room in the world, from Oklahoma City to Ouagadougou, that doesn't have one of these slumber-piercing marvels of digital technology perched upon the nightstand. How, exactly, did mankind awake before the clock radio's invention? Did folks actually have to forego the screechy pleasures of Mike and Mike in the Morning at 6:30 a.m.? The mind boggles.

Most clock radios, alas, are pretty straightforward affairs—your basic molded plastic boxes with dials and snooze bars. Fortunately, some budget-conscious product designers have rolled the ball ever-so-slightly forward in the clock-radio realm. This week, Low End Theory went in search of the most innovative clock radios on the market, provided they were priced under the magic $20 barrier. Because, honestly, who has more than $20 to spend on a frickin' clock radio? Certainly not a motel proprietor in Burkina Faso.

The full rundown of affordable, semi-marvelous clock radios comes after the jump. PLUS: Who's got the skinny on Supersonic?

Before I get to the bargains, first let me drop a little wisdom regarding the clock radio's glorious history. Luxury vendor Bulova claims to have invented the gadget back in 1928, but the good folks at Smithsonian magazine say it ain't so. This 1997 snippet depicts a 1921 handwound version, which I'm sure did an excellent job of picking up the one or two radio stations in existence at the time. (Super-geek bit of trivia, courtesy of Wikipedia: the world's first radio news program was broadcast out of Detroit in 1920.)

Of course, clock radios didn't start getting seriously low-end until the advent of foreign manufacturing and digital displays. Nowadays, you can pick up a perfectly serviceable model for under $10, provided you don't care a whit about style and reception quality.

Now, reception quality I can do without: I need a little fuzzed-out blather to get me up, and I've got my laptop-stereo-WEFUNK combo to satisfy my musical needs. But no way I'm giving up on style, even with a light wallet. And so the Conairphone TCR200 (picture above) is like manna from heaven. Totally a chocolate-and-peanut-butter combination, except with an "oversized snooze button" and (get this spec) "AM/FM tuning." You mean they have FM now? Sweet. And yours for only $14.02.

My snooping around revealed that the biggest recent innovation in the clock-radio space is projection—that is, the clocks will cast the time on the wall opposite your bed, so you needn't twist your head toward the nightstand at 3 a.m. The best-looking model I could dredge up comes from jWin, a Low End Theory favorite. For some reason, it totally reminds me of Twiki from the 1979-1981 TV version of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Given my fascination with geography, I'm also crushing on the SPEGLOBE, which is shaped like the planet and provides a reading lamp, to boot. The caveat here is that it comes from the realm of "business supplies," an industry not known for its high-quality gadgetry. Don't spin that globe too hard, or you'll end up cracking the LCD.

If you're more vintage-minded than the typical shopper, though, none of the current clock radios will do you right. Best, then, to turn to the virtual pages of eBay, for a throwback unit that can double as a doorstop: this gargantuan (22 inches long) model from Yorx. There is nothing in the seller's hype sheet about audio quality, but I'm willing to bet it's pretty good; this clock radio's so big and unwieldy, you'd almost think it had a tube preamp stashed in the rear. The winning bid of one Canadian dollar was already submitted, but you might still be able to wrest it away from the seller. Ask politely, offer another loonie, and prepare for many pleasant mornings of borderline white noise.

Got any leads on other fab clock radios under $20? I know that space constraints forced me to drop a few gems, like this unit partly inspired by the Weeble Wobbles. Tips and leads appreciated, as always; send 'em my way.

SUPERSONIC SKINNY?: I'm thinking about launching a semi-regular "Brand of the Moment" feature, to focus on mysterious low-end vendors whose wares you see everywhere. I'd like to start the series with an in-depth look at the Supersonic brand, but I'm sorta running into a brick wall on these blokes. Anyone know where they manufacture, and how they're able to offer such ridiculously low prices? One hunch I had is that they're merely rebranding jWin stuff, but I don't have much evidence to support that contention. Who's got the inside scoop? Drop me a line and let the sunshine filter through.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appear every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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V CAST? We Don't Need No Stinkin' V CAST!

You know those folks who drive around in Vanagons with bumper stickers that read "Kill Your Television"? Well, with the way things are going at present, they can't be too happy. The proliferation of in-seat screens for automobiles was bad enough. Now with the way broadband video's progressing, it shouldn't be too long before every Nextel subscriber in the world can watch Walker, Texas Ranger reruns whenever they darn well please.

The anti-TV crowd can take temporary heart, though, in the fact that a) cellphone video's still in its infancy, so customers must make do with Shakira videos and AccuWeather forecasts at present, and b) the prices will be mad steep for the foreseeable future. Sorry, Chuck Norris, but don't expect another royalties stream until 2011 or so.

In the meantime, us poor-yet-mobile TV fans will have to settle for clunkier gadgets. A Sony Watchman? Nah, chews up batteries like a fat guy at a buffet, plus the picture gets all hinky when viewed from different angles. A better and cheaper option is one of my favorite low-end gadgets in recent memory: the TV boombox. After the jump, three units that'll save you from the ignominy of missing Judge Joe Brown. PLUS: Where my Eastern Europeans at?

As longtime readers are already aware, Low End Theory is all about looking for gadgets in the places you'd least expect. For this week's column, I journeyed down to New York's fabled East Village, ostensibly to grab a bowl of ramen at the highly recommended Minca. (Tip: ask for extra pork and hot sauce.) But there was an ulterior motive that I didn't reveal to my girlfriend: I also wanted to stop by the East Village Pharmacy, a primo junk shop that has the hookup on cheap electronics.

They seem especially hooked into Coby Electronics, a company best known for its cheap, portable DVD players, like the TF-DVD500. Of course, Gizmodo has previously inveighed against going too low-end on DVD players, so caveat emptor.

Coby's been trying to position itself as a budget supplier of LCDs, but that's not Low End Theory's purview; we're still all about the cathode-ray tubes, man. And the EV Pharmacy had just the product to make us squeal with unfettered delight: the Coby CD-TV152, aka "the TV boombox" (picture at the column's top). Five-inch black-and-white screen? Check. UHF capability? Check. Molded plastic handle? Check! "Rotary volume control" (i.e. a volume knob)? Oh, baby, check! Check! Check!

All of this for $34.99, plus a top-loading CD player to boot. Still not sold? The spec sheet also mentions a "Quick Start Picture Tube." Because, y'know, if there's one thing that I always complain about, it's my TV taking too long to warm up.

If the Coby unit isn't quite your style, for reasons I can't possibly fathom, there's another worthwhile option that I stumbled across: the VocoStar Orange-300 Carry-oke Boombox. It'll run you a few clams more—the best online price I could find was $99 from dynadirect.com—but there are some nice bonuses. Like the dual microphone inputs, in case you want to belt out "Close to You" with your sweetheart. And a remote control, so you needn't bother with a rotary volume knob. (Note to all budding product designers: Isn't it time we bid the rotary knob farewell, once and for all? Take a cue from your mates in the phone design world.)

At this point, you may be griping: "$34.99 for a black-and-white TV? What am I, made of money?" If you're really seeking a portable TV bargain, and can do without the karaoke or CD features, then jWin has your back with the aptly dubbed JV-TV1010. It's as plain as its binary-code name suggests, though there is an AM/FM tuner described as "sensitive." Just like Chuck Norris in Walker-mode, as he offers a meaty, calloused hand to a child in need of help...

POST-SOVIET ELECTRONICS SCENE: Y'know, I'm getting a little tired of flipping over every low-end gadget I come across and seeing a "Made in China" sticker. Okay, there are a few "Made in Taiwans" around too, and some "Made in Koreas." But what about the rest of the world? Where is Poland? To flip the president's infamous words from last year's presidential debate, did Poland forget about us? Or Bulgaria, for that matter? [My wife says Poland is Central Europe. You should be shouting out to the Ukraine and Moldova - Ed]

So, dear readers, I'm asking for a little help here: can anyone point me in the direction of a low-end brand that manufactures behind the former Iron Curtain? Much good karma, and a paean in this space, to anyone who can point us in the right direction. Drop some Slavic knowledge to brendan@gizmodo.com.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

One of the great puzzles of gadgetry goes thusly: Why are portable CD players outselling digital audio players three-to-one? No, that's not a misprint—for every American who bought an iPod or Dell Jukebox in 2004, three of their countrymen bought a descendant of the 21-year-old Discman. Oh, yeah, and you know what percentage of U.S. households own a digital audio player? Six, according to our pals at IDC. For portable CD players, it's an unholy 53 percent.

Okay, granted, this is also a country where 37 percent of the population want their kids taught creationism instead of evolution. We're obviously a wee bit slow on the uptake. But it's also a country that loves mega-bargains, and the economies of scale have made portable CD players crazy cheap. We'll turn to Exhibit A after the jump.

I set out to do a little comparison shopping on New York City's 125th Street, my local stretch of discount stores (as well as a fine place to purchase "Stop Snitching" t-shirts and jasmine incense). The goal was to put on my non-geek hat and sniff out the cheapest Discman relative I could find, then compare it to the cheapest MP3 player available.

The first step was easy enough: A shop called Kiss, whose main business appears to be selling used video games, had a bin of jWin CD313 players advertised for $9.99. (The package helpfully described the product as "Compact Personal CD Player with Headphone." Thanks for the word picture, jWin.) I actually thought $9.99 was a little pricey, seeing as how that's what Best Buy charges for a player bearing its in-house Insignia label, so I started to walk away. But a clerk in a "Fuck Milk, Got Pot?" t-shirt flagged me down and offered to knock four bucks off the price. So, if Gizmodo had an expense account, I could've strolled out of there with a $5.99 Discman knockoff.

There were no MP3 players to be found on 125th, so I turned to our pal Froogle when I got home. The absolute cheapest I could find was a 32MB Polaroid unit for $21.99—about 69 cents per megabyte, which may be one of the worst values in recorded history.

The other reason you have to factor into the CD player's continued reign, of course, is that digital audio remains too convoluted for the AOL demographic. Too few MP3 players feature direct encoding; given the inherent laziness of mankind, too few people are willing to use their computers as intermediaries, despite the obvious long-term benefits of having all your music in a single location. And here's the real kicker in the CD's favor: Since the latest generation of portable CD players can accomodate MP3- and WMA-encoded discs, too, folks can tote around 100 or so songs on a single sliver of media. (From personal experience, I recommend the iRiver SlimX line, if you don't mind strapping a disc-sized unit to your hand, brass-knuckles style.)

Seems like it would behoove the jWins of the world to focus their energies on manufacturing affordable MP3 players with direct encoding. Actually, jWin already has a couple of digital audio players on the market—the JUKEMAN line, as they call it—but they'll run you upwards of $40 for starters. There just has to be a way to tweak those Guangdong factories so as to produce cut-rate Flash units, and thus fill the bins at Kiss with 256MB digital units in the $10-$15 range.

There's no doubt that CDs will ease out of the picture someday—I've seen the future, and it's all about hard disks, natch. But we could get to that future a lot more quickly if someone had the cojones to target the vast swath of consumers who still freak when you mention phrases like "convert your files" or "that will be $149.99, sir."

Yes, I realize that he big challenge in lowering digital audio player prices is bringing down the cost of Flash memory, which is still way too pricey. Anyone have a clue as to how this could be done? Drop Low End Theory a line at brendan@gizmodo.com. Please don't recommend slave labor as a strategy, by the way. That ain't copacetic.

jWin Electronics Corporation

iRiver SlimX iMP-350 CD/MP3 Player [Amazon]

125th Street Business Improvement District