Previously available only in Asian markets, the slim new Gigabeat player will feature a large display and 4GB of flash memory
Toshiba's new Gigabeat player, the T400, has magically appeared on Sam's Club's retail site, available for preorder until the product begins shipping. Devices should go out in the mail tomorrow, September 25, according to the discount club store. The player will feature audio playback for MP3, WMA and WAV files, and video playback for WMV videos at QVGA resolution. If that seems like too many acronyms to you, we'd still like to see a few more, like AAC for music, or possible DiVX for movies, but Toshiba is keeping things simple with this player.
The display seems to be the standout feature. At 2.4-inches, the QVGA screen is larger than most displays on players this size, and it is almost a half-inch larger than Apple's diminutive new iPod nano. The site also claims battery life of about 16 hours for audio, or 5 hours for video, which seems right on the video side, and a bit low for what we'd expect from music playback.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Gigabeat players is their relationship to Microsoft's Zune player. It was no secret that the Zune was taken directly from Toshiba's hardware, though we have no idea if the relationship will continue into future Zune devices, or if this Toshiba T400 player could some day end up with Microsoft branding.
|
 |
|
|
|
_it00.jpg)
|
Archive