Announced at IFA earlier this month, Sony has announced their Android-based Walkman for the Japanese market. The NWZ-Z1000 Series portable media player will be available in Japan from December that will give the goodness of Android OS and audio quality you expect in a Walkman device.

The player boasts an Inflection Surface Form design that makes it easy for users to hold it with both hands and comes with a dedicated Walkman button. On the technical specs front, the Z1000 runs Android 2.3 OS and features 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 512MB RAM, 4.3-inch WVGA LCD display, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, access to Android Market, HDMI, Digital Noise cancelling that cuts up to 98 percent of ambient noise, DLNA, FM Radio and audio playback of up to 20 hours and video playback of 5 hours.

The player will come in capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

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While most companies look to increase the display size of successive products, Creative has done the opposite with their Zen X-Fi3. Third installment in the Zen X-Fi series, the X-Fi3 has got a smaller 2-inch display compared to X-Fi2′s 3-incher. However, the new media player has got few new and improved tricks to show like Creative’s proprietary X-Fi support and Bluetooth with apt-X codec. On the formats front, the Zen X-Fi3 can play MP3, FLAC, AAC, WMA, WAV, DivX,Xvid, WMV9, MPEG-4 out of the box and even comes with additional features like mic, voice recording, FM Radio and expandable memory via microSD.

Creative X-Fi3 will be available from next month in 8 and 16GB capacities for $99.99 and $139.99 respectively.

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[Via Engadget]

Sony has introduced a new set of Walkman players for the European region. First up is the NWZ-W260 aimed at consumers with active lifestyle. The wire-free music player is water resistant and employs fast charging feature that allows to play up to 60 minutes of music on just 3 minutes of charging. Additionally it has ZAPPIN search technology that plays a chorus of a song to identify the song quickly. It will launch by end of next month.

Moving up the ladder is NWZ-E460, which is similar to previous generation but is more colorful in design. E460 is ideal for first time PMP users that comes with video support and Clear Audio technology for excellent Walkman sound.

The NWZ-S760 cranks up a notch by offering wireless music with the help of an integrated Bluetooth. It bundles with EX series headphones but you can pair it and play with any other Bluetooth headset.

Finally the top end of the lot — NWZ-A860. It bears a more premium look and comes with a 2.8-inch touchscreen display. On the music front, the A860 is loaded with five Clear Audio technologies, S-Master MX Digital Amplifier to reduce noise levels and distortions.

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Korean PMP maker, Cowon is now selling its Android OS-based D3 Plenue phone in India. The Android 2.1-running D3 Plenue boasts the same superior playback qualities like other Cowon players along with a wide variety of format support.

As for its other features, the player comes with a 3.7-inch AMOLED WVGA display screen, full HD video playback, Wi-Fi, FM Radio, microSD card slot, 16 or 32GB internal storage, Bluetooth, HDMI-out, JetEffect 3.0 + BBE and NTFS file system support, thus allowing playback of files over 4GB.

The 16GB variant will cost Rs.18,000 and 32GB will go for Rs.20,000.

Samsung has announced its Android-based media players will soon be available in Russia and Switzerland. While the Russian market will first stock the 4-inch Galaxy S WiFi 4.0, Swiss consumers will be able to lay their hands on the bigger 5-inch Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 version.

Both players run Android 2.2 (upgradeable to Android 2.3) and features a 1GHz processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Social Hub support, VoIP, VGA front and 3.2MP back facing cameras, 8 or 16GB internal memory, HD video playback, SoundAlive and microSD card slot.

There’s no word on the price but it will be rolled out gradually in other countries in the coming months.

Cowon has expanded its V5 PMP lineup with a new player dubbed as V5S. V5S boasts similar features to previous V5 players but comes loaded with learning content like a built-in dictionary, e-learning app called Doo Tester, Wordup game to enhance English vocabulary and Alpha Brain.

As for its media player prowess, the V5S features a 4.8-inch WVGA touchscreen display, full HD playback support via HDMI-out, JetEffect 3.0, variety of multimedia codec support, RSS viewer, Flash support, 64GB internal memory, microSD card slot and capable of playing continuous music to up to 45 hours and video up to 10 hours.

V5S will be available next month.

Samsung has just announced a new Android powered portable multimedia player that will grace the show floor at the CES next week. The Galaxy Player (YP-GB1) is clearly inspired from Samsung’s hot-selling Galaxy S phone and aims to take on the iPod touch with Android 2.2 (Froyo) onboard.

The Galaxy Player is just 9.9mm thick and is spec’d similarly to the Galaxy S with few differences like a 4-inch Super Clear LCD (WVGA) screen instead of a Super AMOLED, smaller 1200mAh battery and 3.2MP camera.

Remaining features include a 1GHz CPU, T-DMB, SoundAlive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, front facing camera, GPS, microSD card slot and access to Android Market as well as Samsung Apps.

No word on the pricing or availability.

Cowon has announced its hard-drive based portable media player for Indian consumers. In addition to the excellent multimedia codec support Cowon gives, users will now be able to store heaps of content on X7’s 160GB integrated storage.

Promising a playback of up to 103 hours of music or 10 hours of video, the X7 features a 4.3-inch touchscreen display with a Smart Widget user interface, BBE+ and JetEffect 3.0 audio enhancing tech, integrated speakers, Bluetooth, FM Radio, TV-out and voice recorder.

The player will be available in Black or White for Rs.15,500.

At the wireless speakers’ launch, Creative shed some light on its future roadmap for the Indian market. Creative has confirmed that its recently launched Android tablets and Android-based PMP will hit the retail shelves in early 2011. How early is what we’re not really aware of but if we were to take a guess that could be by February.

Creative currently has two tablets running Android OS. Both the 7-inch and 10-inch tablets will come in different screen resolution and have features like Wi-Fi, HDMI-out, Bluetooth with apt-X codec support, X-Fi tech, microSD card slot and more.

On the PMP front, the Zen Touch 2 also runs Android OS and will come with a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, 2MP camera, GPS, FM Radio, microSD card slot and more.

Well, here it is. Cowon’s speculated 3D PMP has been unveiled and will hit the Korean shelves from December 10. The Cowon 3D looks pretty similar to its V5 media player but adds a 3D display that does not require a user to wear any special glasses.

The player features a 4.8-inch 800×480 LCD screen supporting 16m colors and supports full HD playback, HDMI-out, Wi-Fi, Opera browser, up to 64GB storage, SD card slot, integrated loudspeakers, Kyobo e-book service, Cowon’s JetEffect 3.0 & BBE and wide variety of multimedia codecs Cowon is known for.

Cowon claims Cowon 3D gives an audio playback of up to 45 hours and video playback of 10 hours.

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