alneo
Latest
JVC lets new Alneo XA-M series DAPs loose in Japan
It's just been a short little while since JVC let loose its Alneo XA-V series DAPs, but the company has already churned out another slightly different entry in the Alneo line, with its new XA-M series players shaving off just enough features to save you a few bucks. That includes a drop down to 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB variations, and a smaller black and white OLED display, which should help out with battery life but will put a end to any notions of watching video on one of these. Otherwise, you can expect the usual support for MP3, WMA, and WAV file formats, a built-in FM radio, a voice recorder, and your choice of five different colors. As with the XA-V series players, these will also apparently be confined to Japan, where they'll set you back the rough equivalent of $110, $130, or $150 depending on the capacity.[Via Akihabara News]
JVC Victor rolls out new Alneo XA-V series DAPs for Japan
It's been quite a while since we've seen one of JVC Victor's Aleno players, but it looks like the line is still going strong in Japan, where the company has just announced three new XA-V series models. Those include the XA-V80, XA-V40, and XA-V20, which come loaded with 8GB, 4GB, and 2GB of storage, respectively, and include a 2-inch, 220 x 176 display, JVC's proprietary "K2" audio-enhancing technology, and a promised 25 hours or so of battery life (or six doing video), among other fairly standard specs. Look for these to run you between $180 and $250 depending on the capacity, with each set to be available in your choice of blue, black, white or red when they land in early July.[Via Impress]
JVC Victor's Alneo flash players get gapless playback and USB streaming
JVC Victor is giving a slight nudge in functionality and an overdue name-change to their XA-C series of flash audio players this morning. The XA-C51, XA-C110 and XA-C210 models known collectively as the Alneo series, bring 2GB, 1GB, and 512MB of memory respectively in your choice of black, silver, and white. As things go with JVC DAPs, these portable players support "high sound quality" playback of your MP3/WMA/WMA-DRM10/WAV/AAC files through the use of their K2 audio technology. Now, they also feature gapless playback and ability to stream music over USB when connected to their UX-DM8 micro component system. Presumably, that little trick avoids any degradation in sound quality when hooked up to the ol' headphone jack. Otherwise, we're still looking at the same 1.3-inch OLED display, line-in recording including the ability to record in WMA stereo via an external mic, an FM tuner, and about 20 hours of music playback. Oh, and they sweetened up the design by acing the F1 and F2 keys in favor of spelling out the word "Functions." Fantastic. Why not just arbitrarily slap on icons of a goat, chicken... or both? Dropping like it's hot (in Japan) next month for ¥30,000 ($248) for the 2GB model on down to a ridiculous ¥20,000 ($166) for a skimpy 512MBs. [Via Impress]
JVC XA-F57, XA-F107 flash audio players
JVC is making another effort to stake out some turf in the digital audio player market with two new flash models, the 512MB XA-F57 and 1GB XA-F107 (which are, basically, US versions of the Alneo models the company showed in Japan a few months back). Both models support MP3, WMA and PlaysForSure, and also include a line-in for direct encoding. They also include everyone's favorite feature du jour, a lanyard with an integrated headphones (of course, that could get in the way if you don't want to wear the player around your neck, but then if that's the case, you're probably not JVC's kind of customer). The players also have a mono LCD display, come in pink, silver, white and black, and support mass-storage mode for non-DRM'd files. The F57 is expected to sell for $99, and the F107 should go for about $149.
