If you find yourself dazzled by the Web, video, and music capabilities of Apple’s iPhone but can’t stomach the contract commitment, the iPod Touch might be just what you’re looking for. Offered in 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399) capacities, the iPod Touch is a premium-priced device with an attractive set of features for a midsize portable video player (PVP). Still, the Touch’s limited storage capacity makes it a difficult choice when held up to higher capacity products like the iPod Classic or Archos 605 WiFi.

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Battery life of MP3 players has been greatly increased the last years, with companies such as Cowon and Sony leading the way with up to 60 hours of music playback. The record is now broken, as Panasonic intros an MP3 player with a whopping 100 hours of music playback.

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Iriver showed off many new devices at CES 2008 and from what I was told they actually plan on playing a bit more in the US market. An interesting device they showed off was the W7, with a 3” 260k color, 480 x 272 pixel touch screen. The player is flash based in 4GB and 8GB capacities with the option to add miniSD memory.

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As promised, we are going to dive deeper in all kinds of audio players, not only portable, so it is time to review one of newest CD/MP3 DJ players - Pioneer cdj-400. Unmistakably Pioneer, the CDJ-400 is a design hybrid between the lower end CDJ-200 and the 800/1000 top end, bridging the gap into which it fits perfectly. It’s predominantly plastic, with just the odd splash of metal - but that doesn’t mean it feels cheap. Sure, it’s lightweight and the new smaller 135mm/5.25” jog wheel has the same eversoslightly rattling but familiar feel to it, but all the controls have a reassuring smoothness when you use them. Even the pitch control, which is often added as a flimsy afterthought on other units, slides nicely with a gentle but needed centre click.

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Light and comfortable, stylish in design, with slim, silver ear-cups and a black head-band. The headband seems a little flimsy. Speaker cups are small, but still comfortable. Good length of cable, 2m or so and they have full-size and miniature jack plugs connections. They sound good and cope well with the bass and when the volume is turned up.

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When the new line of Zunes was announced, the addition of a flash-based model stole the show, but the new hard-drive-based Zune is a huge improvement on its 30GB predecessor with a better user interface, faster controls, and more features—including wireless syncing.

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