For those wanting to steer clear of the legion of iPods, there are several alternatives, from names such as SanDisk Corp, Creative Technology and Microsoft. Styles and colours abound in these digital media players.
Let me take you through some options beyond the almost all pervasive iPod.
Creative Zen Vision M
Here's Creative's rival to video iPod, a video player with 2.5-inch colour screen.
Available in five colours, the Creative Zen Vision M features a customisable shortcut button, and supports a wide range of online music stores and subscription services.
The player which comes with a rechargeable battery delivers playtimes up to four hours with video and up to 14 hours with music and can store up to 15,000 songs or up to 120 hours of video on its hard disk.
Also packs an FM radio and voice recorder. The player can also be connected to the TV to share images and videos. The 30 GB Zen Vision M supports JPEG, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, DivX, and XviD formats with an estimated 4.5 hours of showtime.
Microsoft Zune
For the brand conscious, Microsoft Zune can be an ideal choice. Software giant's 30GB, wi-fi-equipped music and video player comes with an FM tuner and supports MP3 and WMA music files, as well as WMV, MPEG-4 and H.264 video files.
With bright 3" LCD screen, the player lets users browse the Zune Marketplace to access millions of songs. Users can also wirelessly share selected full-length sample tracks, playlists and pictures.
Measuring 4.4 X 2.4 X .6-inches, the player can run up to 14 hours on a single charge. The player is equipped with a circular navigational pad that allows users to both 'flick' through options like on a touch screen or flip through choices.
Zune is available in 4, 8, 16, 30, and 80 GB storage capacity.
Philips SA6185
Here's one from the traditional consumer electronics player. Philips SA6185 8GB features a 3.5 inch LCD display with QVGA resolution of 320 x 240 pixels in 65,000 colours, a built-in microphone and an FM radio.
With 8GB memory, the player supports up to 20 hours of music playback or 5 hours of video playback with built-in rechargeable battery.
The 153 gram player supports all popular formats including MP3, wav, WMA for audio and WMV for video and can be charged directly from your PC via USB.
