China-made PMP holds key to unlocking ancient prophecy

Been looking for a PMP that really snaps out of the mold and lightly dances into the realm of the truly daring... and your heart? Feast your eyes on the Shenzhen Shibang New Age Technology S1808 (no kidding), a brand new player that comes across like some retro-future, steampunk-meets-Gundam sidearm from the year 4000. The PMP is housed in a leather-esque casing with an ornate, shielded speaker -- which certainly wins it a few points for originality. In reality, the player is nothing special, featuring a 1.8-inch, 160 x 120 screen, storage capacities ranging from 128MB to 2GB, an optional FM radio, and playback of a few of your favorite formats, like WAV, ASF, MP3, and WMA. Oh, yeah -- it also has a place to attach a lanyard. No word on price or availability, or what kind of alien robot it transforms into.

[Via PMPToday]

[justlikejsh @ Oct 31st 2007 3:11PM]

::sigh::

[joe @ Oct 31st 2007 3:26PM]

i bought a phone like that from china that uses that same software. unfortunately, the software keeps getting attacked by my Norton Anti-virus software. As I saw my $40 going down the drain i went on to read forum after forum that had people having the same issues as me. but the saying always go "you get what you pay for"...

[shuyin198x @ Oct 31st 2007 3:33PM]

So true! You do get what you pay for, especially that piece of sh** Norton.

[telepheedian @ Oct 31st 2007 3:51PM]

Just use AVG.

[Scooter @ Oct 31st 2007 5:03PM]

I don't use antivirus and haven't suffered any problems. XP firewall works fine, augmented by spybot and adaware now and then.

[trevor @ Oct 31st 2007 7:05PM]

Scooter, that's like saying "I don't use protection. Pulling out works just fine, augmented with Plan B now and then."

Relying only on XP firewall is a gamble; I'm guessing it's the firewall most targeted by hackers due to its distribution, and updates for it are less frequent compared to more reliable firewalls created by dedicated companies. But that's just a guess.

My recommendation: Zone Alarm Pro (firewall only), NOD32 antivirus. Silent. Effective. Sexy.

[Sam @ Oct 31st 2007 3:27PM]

That thing is freekin sexy.

Mewants

[Alexander @ Oct 31st 2007 3:27PM]

I think i'd be willing to buy this POC rather than any of the other POC players I find out there. At least this one looks big enough to see the damn screen.

[spock3 @ Oct 31st 2007 3:28PM]

Get the whole 'shibang'.
(badoomsha)

[Jo-mo @ Oct 31st 2007 4:03PM]

Looks pretty enough on the outside, but the software GUI is hideous... A string indicator of cheap tat, i reckon

[nih @ Oct 31st 2007 6:46PM]

I dunno, I'm pretty hot for nintendo-esque stylings.

[paul34 @ Oct 31st 2007 4:24PM]

First original Chinese product, interesting.

Well, sort of. The fake FCC logo kind of destroys what it had going for it LOL

[David @ Oct 31st 2007 4:52PM]

China has plenty of original products. Western media (like *cough* Engadget *cough*) just gives a distorted viewpoint by only covering (and harping on) the non-original ones (perceived or otherwise).

[Trail-OfDead @ Oct 31st 2007 6:03PM]

Shibang
Shibang
oh baby
when shimove
shimove

Looks a bit clunky as far as actually navigating controls.

[aaron @ Oct 31st 2007 6:19PM]

Trail of Dead rocks!

[nih @ Oct 31st 2007 6:43PM]

That's really cute. And 2GB is still plenty of space. I mean, what else do you want your mp3 player to do?

[grjohnston @ Oct 31st 2007 6:56PM]

I want my mp3 player to be a phone and a wifi internet browser, with a touch screen.

[nih @ Oct 31st 2007 7:26PM]

It's not really an MP3 player then, is it. And neither would it be priced like one. Apples and oranges.

[mini.mac.albertu @ Oct 31st 2007 7:03PM]

I don't really think they send this thing to FCC for approval, how come there's a FCC & CE mark on it.

[midhel @ Oct 31st 2007 7:28PM]

If the factory also produces products for overseas, they often get inspection and certification on the factory and not on the particular products.

[skhawaja @ Nov 1st 2007 12:01AM]

does that say mp4 on the speaker shield?

I think the factories are screaming for some industrial design help

It MUST be ridiculously time consuming to wade through the number mp3/mp4 products washing up on the internet to find ones to point out as turds.

This one actually skips ahead of the accessory makers by giving you that leatheresque texture - but the software they have available for the chipsets must be made in some damn short timelines - functionally bloated at that.

Even the Samsung SPH-M620 has a reset button on it's side with a vampire clip add-on battery - that was definitely a rushed design - they must have been feeling the heat by not having a PMP Phone or something totally different?

[Js29 @ Nov 1st 2007 1:15AM]

Yawn
Once again we have engadget posting about totally worthless crap!!