Sony A-Series Is the Thinnest Walkman Yet, Has OLED Screen [PMPs]

The pretty player has a 2.8-inch OLED screen (240x400), FM radio, TV-out, noise canceling, and is beautifully thin at 7.2mm. Oh, and it only weighs 2.2 ounces. But unlike the failed X-Series, the A has no touch screen or Wi-Fi.
Along with standard codec support, there's also new drag and drop feature that auto-transcodes video from your computer. And in Japan at least, the player comes with premium MDR-EX300SL earphones. Battery life is listed as 29 hours for music, and 9 hours for video.
No word on U.S. availability yet, but if the recent S and E series Walkmans are any gauge, the wait won't be long after it hits Japan on October 31. Pricing there will be: 16GB (Y24,000; $226), 32GB (Y30,000; $332), and (Y40,000; $443).
Enough to tempt you away from the more powerful $280 32GB Zune HD or $400 64GB iPod touch? I just don't know about those Mickey Mouse like controls myself... [Sony Japan (translated) via Akihabara News]

New iPod Nano Hands On [Apple]

Here's the new iPod Nano. The paint is less matte, more shiny. The corners seem less sharp (a previous complaint of mine). But physically, it's about the same. The differences are inside.
The camera hole is on the bottom left of the face, so you end up putting your fingers over the lens and mic a lot if you're right handed. Slightly annoying.
The video recording is a capable 640x480, and there are 16 or so video effects you can overlay in real time onto your video. There's no zooming or editing, so this is barebones, but for quick video that you can take when you need it, it's pretty decent.
Its pedometer functionality works as you'd expect. Same with the voice recorder—they're both straightforward, and the voice recorder is basically the same one you've seen on the iPhone.
The FM radio has the same problem that small devices have with radio in that you need to have your headphones in to get reception. Not a huge deal with the Nano, since you're going to always have your headphones in anyway. But we didn't get a chance to test FM reception since there were no headphones available.
All in all it feels exactly like the old Nano, except with new features—which is the point. So yeah, the polished/glossy finish looks very nice, and the new features like voiceover are useful if you're into that.

Creative Zen X-Fi 2 Trades Buttons for a Touchscreen, High Price for Low [PMPs]

It's a new model name, sure, and the distinctive button panel has been booted in favor of a touchscreen, but the most important part of the X-Fi update has nothing to do with hardware, and everything to do with dollars.
Aside from the slightly larger, ever-more-fingerable TFT screen, the X-Fi 2 supposedly adds improvements to sound quality, which are down to murky machinations inside Creative's X-Fi audio processing system, as well as TV-out, which is particularly useful considering the player's generous video codec support. The rest of the specs are more or less unchanged: There's an FM radio, built-in mic, a microSD expansion slot, and syncable calendar, task list, contacts and RSS reader apps. It actually looks like the player has lost a feature since v1 too, since the prior model's Wi-Fi access is nowhere to be found. Not that it ever did much, but still.

Anyway, price! It's pretty low, considering what you get: It's 230 for the 32GB model, $180 for the 16GB and $130 for the 8GB. The highest price point seems like a dig at the iPod Touch, and it could be a clever one: The two players offer completely different things, and if you want to do more than play music and videos, the iPod is the clear choice. On the other hand, if that's all you want to do, a 32GB touchscreen PMP makes a case, if not a particularly strong one. It's available for preorder now, and should ship within a few weeks. [Creative]