Mutant MP3 players: Digital music goes all superhero
MP3 superheros are mutating, and they're pushing the limits of endurance and sheer raw power. Step forward two music X-Men: the MobiBlu B153 and the MVP Wolverine. It's time to get weird
Someone's switched on the Batlight and not one superhero but two have sped through the Gotham night sky and landed on the top of this skyscraper. The first is known for his endurance, the MobiBlu B153. This muscular little punk can play music continuously for 153 hours. If you listened to music for two hours every day, you wouldn't need to charge the MobiBlu for at least two months. The MobiBlu player comes in 1GB (£119) and 2GB (£149) versions. Set Doc Octopus on Mobi and see who comes off the worse!
The second superhero is the Wolverine by MVP. This is a striking red monster (pictured) that can store a ludicrous 100GB of songs. Call us deluded idiots, but isn't that a slightly insane capacity for an MP3 player? Admittedly, MVP bill this as a music, video and photo storage-viewer, but the sudden jump from the 60GB iPod to this is making us nervous.
The MVP Wolverine includes a 7-in-1 memory card reader/writer, so you can plug in a whole range of curious sizes and shapes of digital camera memory card, including CF, MD, SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, SM and XD. The LCD is 64mm (2.5 inches) across and the photo viewer is happy to exhibit JPEG, TIFF, BMP, TXT and -- brilliantly -- RAW.
RAW is the format of choice for professional digital photographers. The Wolverine supports AV-out to a television set, so you can get some idea of what you've captured on your digital SLR without using a full-blown computer. This is perfect for travel photographers. The Wolverine is not yet available for sale.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. A terabyte MP3 player? A billion-megapixel camera? Things are certainly getting freaky here on the front line of consumer tech journalism. -CS