mp3 players

I've always had a soft spot for the iPod Shuffle. Tiny, simple, elegant, and able to clip just about anywhere on your person, it's arguably the best MP3 player ever for the gym, the treadmill, or the open road.

It's also $49. If you don't mind a knockoff, MidnightBox has an iPod Shuffle-like clip-on MP3 player (2GB) for $7.95, plus $3.99 for shipping. That deal is good today only, and while supplies last.

Details about this no-brand, no-name player are slim, to say the least. It's available in your choice of eight colors, … Read more

iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches get all the attention, but let us not forget the humble iPod Shuffle, the tiny clip-on MP3 player that's hard to beat for hiking, biking, running, and the gym.

Apple sells the Shuffle for $49, but for a limited time, Walmart has the fourth-generation iPod Shuffle 2GB and accessory kit for $39, plus sales tax where applicable. Shipping adds about $3, but you can avoid that charge by choosing store pickup or padding your cart to at least $45.

I should note that three of the seven available color choices are already out of … Read more

Samsung's latest Galaxy announcement, the pebblelike Galaxy Muse, is a stylish $50 media player that attempts to divert some of the iPod zeitgeist to Samsung's flagship phones.

Plug it into the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the Galaxy S3, and the Galaxy Muse syncs with the smartphone, so you can access just your music without bringing the entire phone with you on a jog.

Available in the familiar Pebble Blue and Marble White options, the Galaxy Muse offers 4GB of storage and delivers up to 6 hours of music playback. While it might be easy to dismiss it … Read more

With Apple's new round of iPods comes a fresh round of questions about the usefulness of dedicated MP3 players. Smartphones these days can all hold a decent amount of MP3s and we carry them with us wherever we go. Do we need a portable device just for music?

The excitement surrounding new iPods is a fraction of that surrounding new iPhones, but Apple keeps dutifully updating the line with new colors, shapes, and capabilities. There are still plenty of other MP3 players from other brands available, too.

I have an old-generation iPod Touch that sits in an alarm clock … Read more

Like clockwork, Apple never fails to refresh its iPod lineup every fall. In recent years, though, one can't help but notice that the ritualized iPod unveiling has lost some of its gusto compared with the fanfare surrounding the iPhone and iPad.

Still, Apple remains the top manufacturer of portable media players. Those of us old enough to remember the "iPod wars" that occurred nearly a decade ago can attest to the fact that Apple's tenacity in making the world's most popular MP3 player laid the groundwork for the success of the iPhone (pour one out for the Zune, friends). Apple may have moved on to bigger, better products, but maintaining its dominance in the diminishing world of MP3 players is just good housekeeping.

And so, the 2012 Apple iPod lineup offers a mix of new and old.… Read more

MakerBot is best known for its 3D printers. Would you have predicted an MP3 player for its newest product?

The MixTape is available in two iterations. The $25 MixTape Kit, aimed at those who already own a 3D printer, includes the guts of a basic MP3 player. Simply print out the enclosure using the plans on MakerBot's Thingiverse site, plug in the electronics, and you're ready to upload your music.

For those without a 3D printer, MakerBot will sell you a pre-assembled MixTape for $39.

The actual specs of the MixTape MP3 player are modest. It has 2GB … Read more

Sony pulled off a surprise yesterday when it added the Android 4.0-powered F800 and E470 to its popular and long-running Walkman series of personal media players.

It isn't Sony's first Walkman to run Android (in January the company unveiled the Z series) nor is Sony the first company to use Android for media players. Samsung and Archos, for example, have used the OS, with the Galaxy Player 4.2 being Sammy's most recent example.

Yet, for all the success that Android smartphones have reaped, there are no top-selling media players running Google's OS at its … Read more

Bone conduction audio, retainers, and shiny hip-hop teeth grills aren't new inventions, but tech hacker Aisen Caro Chacin had the clever idea to put them all together.

The Play-A-Grill MP3 player prototype fits in your mouth like a retainer, shines on the outside like a precious metal rap grill, and plays music through bone conduction through your teeth.

Some of the hardware actually sits outside the mouth, so you have to deal with wires extending from your teeth. It's not all self-contained. To get the best sound, you have to plug your ears, but video of test subjects shows them bopping along to the beat only they can hear.… Read more

Sony is warning consumers in Japan that a defect may cause their Walkman music player to malfunction.

According to the warning, the 2GB Sony NW-E052 Walkman can simply stop turning on or remain stuck at the boot screen. The company warns that other unrelated issues may cause similar errors but is confirming an issue within the integrated circuit for several large ranges of serial numbers: 7120001 to 7160000, 7190001 to 7210000, 7250001 to 7350000, and 8150001 to 8220000.

While this Walkman is limited to Japan, it is worth noting that Sony produced a very similar Walkman, the NWZ-E460 series, in … Read more