The A820 series is Sony’s latest and flagship in the Walkman line up. As the head honcho of the family, the A820 is the first to sport Bluetooth audio. Unlike recent Samsung players which support extended Bluetooth features, this Sony only supports Bluetooth audio transfer and control. If you have used any of the more recent Sony Walkmans you will get a near identical experience since the interface and the features are the same. The only new thing here is the addition of Bluetooth, larger screen, and different form factor.

With that said, this review will be slightly abridged since have pretty much covered the majority of the A820 in the A810 and S610 reviews. This review will focus mainly on what makes this player stand out from the other Sony Walkmans.

About a month ago we speculated on whether or not a 16GB Cowon D2 was in the works. The player has now shown up on jetmall.net which is Cowon's official US reseller, so it's safe to say this is for real.

The biggest surprise has to be the price - and by that I don't mean it's high. The 16GB D2 sells for only $240 with free shipping, which isn't the cheapest 16GB option around but also far from the most expensive. Add $70 bucks and you'll get a 16GB SDHC card that will make it a total of 32GB for $310.

To take a quick look at the rest of the 16GB club, the current prices are: Creative Zen 16GB $180 (Amazon), Sansa View 16GB $150 (Amazon), Sony NWZ-A729 16GB $290 (Amazon) and Sony NWZ-A829 16GB $320 (Amazon). The Samsung P2 16GB has just been released in Europe and is expected to arrive in the US soon for about $300.

[Jetmall via GenerationMP3]

With every new player on the market there are a lot of hardware changes and new features to tempt the users. The same can not be said about user interfaces, as these are often half done and doesn't work as well as they should have. For some this is a minor annoyance, while others rely on the player to be user friendly and easy to control in different situations.

If you have a Nokia Internet Tablet, that problem has been a thing of the past for a while now. A development project called Canola done by several Brazilian tablet users has risen up from the sea of media players for the platform and provided it with perhaps the best interface I have seen on any device. Hit the jump for the full story on how the Indt development team have done what many PMP manufactures have more or less failed to do for years.

I know, I know, Zune games was on my list of 8 things I don’t want to see on the Zune, however, I have slightly warmed up to the idea. A few weeks ago I played games on the Zune for the first time and while the controls can be a bit awkward there still is some potential for some decent games especially if you are talking about more simple and “low action” games.

There are two key aspects to Zune game play that these games can focus on: Zune to Zune wi-fi and its ability to tap into your music library. With the recent firmware release games can now available to anyone though the XNA developer's kit. This would be the best time to rally behind your favorite games for the Zune. Here is a list of top 5 must have games for the Zune. What other must have games are on your list?

The Zune team has been hard at work in the Zune headquarters (cleverly disguised as a library) lately and is now going live with the next milestone, version 2.5. It is a fairly substantial update adding to the social aspect, implementation of auto playlists, better meta data editing, and even a video section where TV shows can now be downloaded. The most interesting I find to be the Gapless playback, since it has always been such an elusive appearing only on a hand full of devices over the years. It may go unnoticed by some, but for the live music listener and or electronic mix fan it’s a feature we longed for.

For the details on all of the latest changes in software/firmware version 2.5 check below for a quick look list and screen shots of the software that should be live in a few hours.

About a month ago we started running a contest urging readers to send in pictures of themselves and their portable (and sometimes not so portable) setups. The contest was a lot of fun with around 100 participants showing off a few hundred photos. The winners of each category have been chosen and the winner of the random drawing is shown below.

Thank you all that participated, we had a lot of fun with this one and it really showed off the creativity of our forum members. There were so many great entries, so please be sure to check out all of them in the contest forum.

Not quite the typical “portable media center” you see here at abi>>, but more of a compact version of the Mvix MX-780HD I recently reviewed. This condensed media player handles all the same codecs of the larger 780 including MPEG 1-4, XviD/DivX, and my favorite DVD ISOs (with 1080i upscaling).

The small unit houses a 2.5” hard drive and sports component outs for HD video along with digital optical out for 5.1 audio. It is on sale now for $150 sans hard drive. If you would like to get a better feel for this unit, please check out the 780HD review.

[Product Page]

Ok... before you laugh at the brand names ridiculous prefix, hear me out. I have listened to the iHome stuff for the iPod- a few of the clock radios and they sound fantastic for the price, so I’m pretty hyped to see one for the Zune. I have a few Zunes laying around that need a home (yeah what a terrible problem to have).

Cesar over at Zune Insider reports that this is the first clock radio (ZN9) for the Zune that will features a gradual wake or sleep to your favorite crunchy tunes. Additionally, you have the ability to set the alarm for weekends and weekdays. The table radio (sorry not pic available) is housed in a “retro-classic” wooded speaker cabinet with a line in for other non-Zune gadgets.

I will definitely pick one up, but I really wish they would change the brand name- it kind of creeps me out.

[iHome via ZuneThoughts]

Most people who have ever had a MP3 player have come across the 1000 vs 1024 problem. Basically, manufacturers of MP3 players, hard drives etc tend to use 1000 byte as the standard for 1 KB, 1000 KB per MB etc. The computer uses 1024, and so you get less capacity than you actually thought because 1000x1000x1000/1024/1024/1024 = 0.93. That means 1 GB on a MP3 player using the 1000 system is really only 0.93 GB. It's the use of the 1000 system to "fool" consumers that is now coming back to haunt Creative.

If the settlement becomes reality, anyone who bought a Creative mp3 player after May 5 2001 may be entitled to a payback bonus from Creative. Update: For some reason this only applies to HDD players while as far as I know the same thing applies for flash memory. Anyone who apply for the payback will get either a 50% discount on a 1GB MP3 player or 20% discount on any Creative product from their online store - if court rule against Creative. Not too bad and most people have owned a Creative player at least once, so the potential economic consequences for Creative aren't small. It can still go both ways, but personally I hope Creative do lose so there will be better info about what they mean by a gigabyte in the future. With capacities getting as high as they are you will definitely notice that you're getting 7% less storage capacity than you bargained for. On a 32GB Zen, 7% is more than 2GB.

[Creative HDD settlement via Engadget]

Since the first MP3 players came on the market there's been a constant question of what connection method the player should use. Proprietary cables have more potential, but standard USB is easier and more accessible.

For some this might mean the difference between buying a player or not while others don't care, but what is really the difference between the two? Read on for the connection cable showdown between the two.

I got a brand new 4GB silver Sansa Clip just hanging out here at abi>>headquarters, so I thought it would be best to find it a happy home. It has been one of my favorite players for ultra portable on the go use since it pair so nice with my Shure SE530s- it’s crisp sound in a small package.

So here is your chance to add something shiny to your on-the-go audio ensemble, but first we would love to see what you are using now. There will be several judged categories including, so no matter what you are carrying around, even a stock setup, you have chance of winning. Head over to the contest forum to check out the categories, examples, and official rules. Here is a chance to show off you gear!

The contest is now closed, and new entries will not be accepted

The Swedish rock band "Europe" has been on my CD shelf since I was little even though it's not among my top favorite bands anymore. Still, the initial joy was there when I received a newsletter from them a few days ago. During the last tour they had a photographer with them documenting the trip and this was now available as a 95 page PDF download described to have "135 high-resolution, printable images, documenting the band as they roll from city to city". The e-mail didn't say anything about price, so as I clicked the link I wasn't sure if I'd find a free download or if I had to pay a little for the pleasure of this tour book.

As the page loaded my jaw dropped to the floor. 50 Euro was the price they asked for this download, which translates to about $80 USD. I figured it had to be some sort of a joke, but it soon hit me they were serious. Another thing that really made me wonder what they were thinking was the description on the download store: "IN: EUROPE is a collector's keepsake offered exclusively for download from the band's MP3 store, and is not something you will want to miss!". Can you really say that a PDF file is a keepsake? Is there any real value in having a book that you either need to print or sit by the screen to enjoy?

WWTRD...? Read on to find out

The third BlueWave update has been out for a while, but only as a beta. A few days ago the final version was finally released to the masses and like it's predecessors it adds a lot of new features.

The new features include new themes, a calculator, a full screen mode for music playback and brightness and speed controls for video playback. As we wrap up the third BlueWave release the countdown for the fourth has already been going on for a while. It's said to bring new games, subway maps and voice recording and will hopefully see daylight in about a month.

[Samsung Download Center via ABi>> Forums]

I have some strong words for the iriver E100 and to sum up my review in two blunt words: epic fail. By any other means it would have been just a mediocre MP3 player, but I use these harsh words because I expect much more from iriver.

It seems they realized their mistake to cheap out on the E100 and are revamping the player with an aluminum case and a better LCD screen. Additionally, they are getting rid of the external speakers- this being good news since they may make for a slimmer design and really the speakers were pretty weak by standards to begin with. So all in all it should be a very nice upgrade to be released sometime at the end of summer.

[Crave]

Electronics come in pretty much any material you can imagine, from standard plastic to stainless steel and NASA approved Kryptonite. The oldest material of them all is however the one that looks most awesome when used in every day gadgetry - wood. I myself have some experience in that area so the new special edition Cowon N3 due for release in Korea soon is most definitely a hit in my book.

The N3 itself is old(ish) news and being a Asia only device it's not too well known in other parts of the world. It's somewhere between a GPS and the Cowon Q5W, with a 7" 800x480 touchscreen, dual SDHC slots for memory, navigation kit and a DMB tuner. The wood-covered version will have identical features and the difference is a slightly higher price and the awesome looking Burl Walnut frame. I don't know about the rest of you, but one of these, a couple of 32GB SDHC cards and a nice pair of Darth Beyers and I'd be set for life.

[Akihabara News]