The word is out, kids. Adobe has apparently gone against old Jobsy's wishes, and it's planning a Flash player made all special for the iPhone (ala Windows Mobile) despite Apple's concerns that the technology -- in its current incarnation, anyway -- isn't cut out for mobile duty. During a conference call today, Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen said, "We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone," adding, "We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves." We wouldn't be surprised if Adobe were to be given a pass on all those pesky SDK rules that would likely prevent a proper browser-based Flash component to be coded for the device, though those Apple dudes can be real sticklers for rules.

SmartQ has another flash based portable media player for us from China with the release of the SmartQ T5. Coming in 2 and 4GB variations, the T5 plays a variety of file formats including 640x480, 30 fps XVID DivX, and features a 3.0-inch screen -- 320x240, a shame considering its VGA quality playback potential -- with a battery that can last up to 7 hours playing video, and 22 hours playing audio. No word on shipping dates or prices, but you know how it goes with these flash playing gadgets that never seem to make it stateside.

[Thanks, nick]

With the big boys like Apple, SanDisk and iriver putting so much TLC into this particular market segment of mini flash DAPs, it can be bit hard to even get noticed, much less succeed. All the same, Transcend manages to squeeze a little bit of innovative functionality into its new T.sonic 820 player to keep it from being relegated to the flash heap of history. There's not a whole lot interesting about the 12mm thickness (about twice as thick as the nano), or the 2GB (white) and 4GB (black) capacities, but the inclusion of a A-B track section repeat, along with track speed control makes this a boon to guitarist trying to learn a lead part without going nutso. Otherwise, the 1.5-inch 128 x 128 display, WMA-DRM10 support and recording capabilities are nice but par for the course, and 15 hours of battery is nothing special for a flash player anymore. No word on price or availability.

[Via MP3 Player Guide]

With the (official) launch of Samsung's Yepp K3 presumably just weeks away, who could blame you for taking your eyes off the T9? Until January's CES, the T9 reigns supreme in Samsung's lineup of flash media players. It even sports its own "series" of third party accessories like the big boys... albeit, from just a single vendor so far. So today, Sammy announced an 8GB capacity bump to keep the Yepp competitive with all the other 8 giggers out there. The T9, however, delivers one notable exception: stereo Bluetooth. No details, but you can expect it to be priced to compete.

In the states, fifty dollars won't get you much in the way of a portable media player, so try not to feel too envious when you see the 1GB, 399 Chinese Yuan (approx. $50) Yoto T-21, a Chinese PMP that has a similar feature set to the iRiver Clix, but at a quarter of the price. Featuring a 2-inch QVGA screen, the T-21 is even capable of AVI playback at up to 30fps, which bests both the Clix and its real fake counterpart. It'll also let you play your MP3s, Flash movies, browse photos and text, and has a built-in FM tuner. As usual, there's no word on whether the device will be available outside of Asia, but we'd advise that you don't get your hopes up: these kind of unbelievably great value players have a habit of sitting just across the Pacific, perpetually taunting us with their low price tags.

So it's starting to look like those leaked pictures we saw last month supposedly depicting an unannounced 8GB flash player from SanDisk are the real deal. You'll recall that an Anything But iPod forum member claiming to be a SanDisk tester posted a shot of what's generally referred to as the Sansa e280, and now the eagle-eyed editors over at ABi have discovered even more tantalizing clues on the company's website. The most telling bit of evidence comes when you launch the 360-degree demos for either the 4GB e260 or 2GB e250, which instead of featuring the players' respective capacities on the backside, show a model clearly adorned with an "8GB"  label -- see the screenshot, right. Furthermore, the entire Sansa lineup is being hit with price cuts, which could be an indication that a product launch is imminent. If SanDisk is in fact able to get this model to market before Apple breaks us off with an 8GB nano -- aluminum enclosure and all -- it would seem to do more for the company's market share than a negative advertising campaign ever could.

[Via Anything But iPod]

They say that you shouldn't fix what's not broken, which is probably why we see so many MP3 players on the market taking "design cues" from the iPod family, and now LG has introduced two more models that bear a striking resemblance to Apple's flash-based Shuffle (except for the color, obviously, although the original UP3 did indeed come in white). Both the UP3 Sharp and UP3 Flat pack either 512MB or 1GB of storage into that familiar looking package, with each unit supporting MP3, WMA, OGG, and ASF file formats. The differences here lie in the devices' displays (or lack thereof) and their battery life: the OLED-equipped Sharp (pictured above) gets two less hours of juice than the screen-less, 10-hour-rated Flat (pictured after the break). Expect to see both models in stores before the end of the month, but probably only in Korea.

Read- UP3 Sharp
Read- UP3 Flat
[Via The MP3 Players]

Philips finished off another relatively low-end flash portable audio player line for ya, and you can call it the SA1200. These tiny low end flash devices aren't ever really anything to write home about, but they still have a leg up over Apple's randomizing stick of chewing gum with a 32 x 128 display; otherwise you've got the usual MP3 and WMA support (no indication of PlaysForSure, though) and a replaceable AAA cell. You can snag yours in 512MB (SA1200/02, right) or 1GB (SA1210/02). If you're German, anyway, since so far as we can tell these are only for European release.

[Via DAPReview]

It might have been a little more appropriate if their T2 came fashioned in Liquidmetal (sorry, had to), but Cowon's latest iAudio player comes in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB sizes, and features MP3, OGG, WMA (sorry, doesn't look to be PlaysForSure), FLAC, WAV, and ASF, and your usual OLED color display, 12 hour battery, FM receiver / recorder, and voice recorder; all in a diminutive 0.5-inch thick shell that smacks more of an old school Walkman than an anti-iPod, if you ask us.

[Via iAudiophile]

Yep, just your usual, run of the mill 2GB audio player in Korea -- with DMB video. LG's new sleek plasticy hotness, the FM35, obviously emulates the aesthetic success of their Chocolate Phone, and sheds its namesake to go straight for broadcast video; it'll play four hours of DMB, or supposedly 55 hours of MP3, WMA, OGG, AVI, or ASF. You know the story about launch price, and date -- even if we knew, it wouldn't matter much since unless you're reading this in Korea, you're probably never gonna own one.

iRiver Japan is Reigncom's only region we've seen make the announcement today, but they've got a 2GB version of their lime green T10 due out there for ¥19,980 (about $170 US). Doesn't look too different than the MP3, WMA, OGG, ASF playing, FM tuning, voice recording device we're well used to otherwise, and it's still got that same damned single-cell AAA battery, making it one of the more capacious players to take said cells. Expect these to go on sale the 26th of this month over yonder in the land of the rising sun -- who knows (if and) when, elsewhere.

Not that we really had any doubt at this point, but those new Sony E-series flash players from last week? Yeah, they're real. No new info on Sony's official site though, not so far as we can tell: same 512MB / 1 / 2GB capacities as before with optional FM tuner, MP3 and WMA playback, and a 28 hour battery (using ATRAC, of course) with a 3 minute quick charge for 3 hours playback (again, probably using ATRAC), and black, violet, pink, blue, silver, and the "very exclusive lime green." Yeah, whatever. So where are our CE-Ps, Sony?

[Thanks, Colin]