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Coby recalls 12,000 DVD boomboxes due to fire hazard
We've all broken down and done a little late-night discount pharmacy gadget shopping, so we promise not to judge -- but if you've got a Coby DVD boombox stashed away in your place, you might want to run and unplug it real quick. Coby's just issued a recall of 12,000 TF-DVD170 and TF-DVD176 DVD boomboxes sold between May 2006 and October 2007 because they have the unfortunate habit of overheating and starting fires. This isn't the first time we've mentioned the words "Coby," "overheat," "fire" and "recall" all in one post -- looks like 2006 was a bad year to be a Coby fanboy.
Memup's 30GB Orizon PMP looks oh-so-sleek
Mmm, nothing like a sleek, glossy black PMP to get your juices flowin'. If you tend to agree with that sentiment, Memup's Orizon should suit your fancy quite well, as the 30GB unit comes in an ebony outfit, sports a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 resolution display, and even includes an SD / MMC card slot to watch media clips stored on your flash memory. You'll also find a text viewer and built-in FM tuner to complement the obligatory MP3, WMA, MPEG4, JPEG, BMP, and GIF file support, but the ability to play nice with Motion JPEG and XviD are welcome extras. Unfortunately, you're going to have to love the looks some kind of fierce in order to find value in the purported $378 pricetag. [Warning: PDF read link][Via AnythingButiPod]UPDATE: Looks like this creature may actually be a straight up rip of another. Check out Coby's PMP4330 to see for yourself.
Coby recalls boomboxes due to potential fire hazard, crappiness
Coby's quest to become more than the de facto house brand of street vendors and pharmacies worldwide by shipping semi-respectable PMPs and DAPs has always been held back by the company's insistence on making chinzty little boomboxes and CD players, and now it looks like it's paying the price: Coby is being forced to recall nearly 15,000 MP-CD475 boomboxes because they sound like tin cans pose a fire hazard. You may remember the MP-CD475 as the legendary unit that redefined the dual-voltage AM/FM/CD/MP3/USB boombox market with its iconic design featuring the word DIGITAL on the top in huge letters. If you were desperate in a Walgreen's, um, we mean lucky enough to buy one of these between August and December of 2006, Coby says you should unplug it immediately and call them to arrange a refund. Hit up the read link for contact info and a list of affected serial numbers.
Coby highlights lanyard rings with its new pendant DAPs
The first thing you notice about Coby's new MP-C8xx and MP-C6xx series of flash-based DAPs is the big honkin' lanyard ring wrapping pronouncedly around the bottom of each model -- if nothing else, we bet your keys would stay attached to these things for like a million years. We actually have to give Coby credit for trying to pull off a bit of an unconventional and decidedly un-iPod-like look with these DAPs, although it's sort of a necessity as the company tries to move a little more upmarket. The devices themselves are nothing out of the ordinary, offering numerous configs with respect to capacity (256MB to 2GB) and screen (regular LCD or backlit, high-contrast one), along with the standard bells and whistles package of FM radio, voice recorder, SD slot, blah blah blah. The really important info -- pricing and availability -- isn't even clear yet, so we'll wait to see if we hear anything more before we get too attached to these scrappy young players.
Switched On: A tube for toting your tunes
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Here's to the frugal ones -- the discounters, the copycats, the bean counters, the followers who knock off established flagships, the ones who do things cheaply. They're not fond of design patents and they have no respect for the sine qua non. You can mock them, ridicule their brands, deride their usability or quality. But the only thing you can't do is lowball them. Because they sell things. They push the average price downward. And while some may see in them the parasitic blight of top-tier corporations, we see the efficiency of low overhead and outsourced manufacturing. Because the ones who are bold enough to try selling commoditized products for less are the ones who do.
