While fanboys fawn over iPods with their short feature list, Samsung brings the IP-T9B, the little MP3 player that could, stoked with stuff that everybody really wanted Steve Jobs to announce at Tuesday's love feast: video playback (although it's only 15 frames per second at 208 x 176 on a 1.8 inch screen), Bluetooth support for wireless headphones, FM radio with voice recording, a couple of 3D games thrown in for the fun of it, and a nice long 30-hour battery life (6 hours for video). Supported formats include MP3, WMA, OGG, ASF, AVI, RMVB and MPEG-4.
We're a little bit closer to knowing when the Samsung IP-T9B will be available, because it's just been spotted in China. These are the first high-quality pictures we've seen of this attractive little 4GB multimedia player, which is less than a half an inch thick and weighs just 1.7 ounces. It's so small it might be too small, especially for video playback. Also missing: Apple's unique user interface, click wheel, integration with iTunes, bla bla bla. Good luck with this one, Samsung. And Apple, start your copiers! Don't worry, you can settle up in court later.
Samsung YP-T9B: Bluetooth-enabled YP-T9 [c|net Asia]