Here’s a new portable MiniDisc recorder from Panasonic, which has distinguishing characteristic of featuring an integrated stereo microphone and monaural speaker. To be released November 25th in Japan, Panasonic alleges the “SJ-MR50” is the “world’s smallest and lightest” portable MiniDisc recorder with both integrated microphone and speaker.
And yes, they do still make these things. As successful as MP3 is, there is still quite a market for MiniDisc devices in not just Japan, but throughout Asia. A couple other oddball features on the recorder are the “Voice Operation System,” which will automatically start recording when it detects a voice, and stop when the voice stops (as seen on tape-based recorders for about 30 years). Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any Hi-MD (Sony’s new 1GB MiniDisc) support, but you’ll still get about 5 hours and 20 minutes of recording time thanks to LP4 recording mode.
Press Release [Panasonic via TechJapan]
