The Philips GoGear ViBE Portable AV Player is both an excellent MP3 player and video player. Small and very light, this audio video player offers an impressive performance for a very convenient price.

Summary of the Philips GoGear ViBE features

The GoGear ViBE player features a 1.5” full color display that uses the SMV to play videos. The player can also be used specifically for MP3’s and WMA’s, and offers song title, artist, and album information. As far as storage capacity, the GoGear ViBE offers 4 GB of NAND Flash, for roughly around 900 tracks of music.

No Separate Charger or Headset Required

Included with the player is a pair of earbuds, as well as a mini CD-ROM offering device manager software and a Media Converter for Philips, if for example the user needs to convert MP4 files to a different format for the GoGear.

The player does not have a charger, or require a separate charger, but rather plugs directly into the USB port of a PC for recharging.

The Controls on the Player

The controls are fairly easy to work with, and after some initial experimentation with the player I was able to easily find music, recorded audio, and video on the player.

The only oddity I noticed was the absence of a specific power ‘on/off’ button, but after following the quick-start instructions I see how the system works, and I figure that buttons were simplified as much as possible considering the small dimensions of this player.

However, others have reported that the buttons are a bit stiff and general operation is a bit non-intuitive so may frustrate non-techies.

Video Review of the The Philips GoGear ViBE

For someone looking for a simplistic and very lightweight player that offers a decent amount of capacity for a very reasonable price, the Philips GoGear is a reasonable product.

The downsides are that video playback is more of a fun bonus than for serious use since the quality is quite low, and those that require their gadgets to be idiot proof may have trouble working with this player. However, these let-downs are relatively trivial given the price.

Philips GoGear ViBE Marketplace: Discounts & Prices

On Amazon
Available to buy at Amazon

On eBay:

You may also be interested in:

• Other portable audio/video players on WebTvWire
• The 5th Gen iPod Nano, a feature rich and lightweightalternative AV player from Apple.
• More portable audio/video players on eBay

The iPod Touch got a serious hardware upgrade, as Apple looks to be drooling over the mobile gaming pie.

The Touch is now faster and supports OpenGL|ES, which should improve game performance.

Two new features are voice-controlled music playback and voice memos; the earphones have been updated with a microphone.

There is no video camera for the iPod Touch, perhaps because this would create competition with the iPhone.

Overview of Features

• Control music playback with spoken commands.
• Audio recorder
• Genius Mixes
• Buy or rent movies and TV shows
• App Store
• Shop on iTunes
• Safari Web Browser, Mail, Maps and YouTube
• Nike+ support

Hands-on with Features & Specs of New iPod

What Others are Saying

CrunchGear speculates on the lack of video camera, wondering if hardware changes were just to difficult to incorporate for this model. They’re really excited about some of the new games coming out for the Touch, including Assassin’s Creed, Riddim Ribbon Nova and Madden.

Speculation about the Touch’s camera might be supported by iFixit’s teardown of the hardware:

It appears that Apple left in room for a camera in the top of the device. There is a 6mm x 6mm x 3mm space between the Broadcom chip and the wireless antenna. There isn’t enough depth for an iPhone-style autofocus still camera, but just enough room for the camera that Apple used in the 5th generation iPod nano.

The Touch sells at 8GB for $199, 16GB for $229, 32GB for $299, and the brand new 64GB for $399.

iPod Nano 5th Gen Marketplace – Prices, Deals & Discounts

On Amazon:
Buy a 3rd Gen iPod Touch from Amazon

On eBay:

You may also be interested in:

• The New 5th Gen iPod Nano Review
• More about Apple on WebTVWire
• Searching for more Portable Video/Music Players on eBay

New product announcements from Apple highlight the addition of a video camera to the iPod Nano.

The new camera is capable of shooting VGA (640×480) quality footage at 30fps, which is fine for YouTube, but does not measure up to the specifications of newer portable HD video cameras like the Flip Mino HD.

The iPod Nano now sports a microphone and built-in speaker. Software updates include Cover Flow, Genius Mix, and Voice Over, which allows you to read out the names of songs as they’re played. The Nano also has a built-in pedometer and FM player.

Overview of all features

• Better design with aluminum finish and a larger display screen
• Genius mixes
• FM tuner with Live Pause and iTunes Tagging
• VoiceOver reads the names of songs and artists, so you can navigate your music without looking at the screen.
• Pedometer and Nike+ integration
• Voice Memos with new built-in mic
• Video camera with audio and special effects

The iPod Nano Unboxed

What Others are Saying

Crunchgear have been relatively positive about the Nano’s new features being particularly impressed with the new FM radio player. As gizmodo pointed out Apple has been putting off adding a radio player for some time, most likely due to Apple wanting users to stick to iTunes.

Apple Insider did spotlight a rare flaw in the design. The position of the camera tends to be where your fingers would get in the way, further adding to the fact that the iPod Nano camera is really just for fun, and not for making any serious decent quality videos.

Overall the 5th Gen iPod Nano delivers what you’d expect from Apple and magically packs a host of features into a tiny player. If you like iTunes and want a small portable mp3 player packed with features then the new Nano is a good choice.

However, if you are just looking for a tiny device to store and play your music then the iPod Nano is too overloaded with features and a bit on the expensive side. Gizmodo sums it up:

“Should you buy the Nano? Yes, if you want an easy-to-use, slick, full-featured and small PMP. No, if you just want an 8GB vessel for your MP3s.”

The Nanos come in red, pink, orange, silver, black, purple, blue, green, and yellow. They will retail at $179 for 16GB and $149 for the 8GB.

iPod Nano 5th Gen Marketplace – Prices, Deals & Discounts

On Amazon:
Buy a 5th Gen iPod Nano from Amazon

On eBay:

You may also be interested in:

• More about Apple on WebTVWire
• Portable Rechargeable Speakers for 5th Gen Nano
• Searching for more 5th Generation iPods on eBay