The boombox, despite ever popular MP3 players such as the Apple iPod, will continue to remain a favorite for at least some. That is why Sony continues to trickle new models out – the latest being the rather saucer shaped ZS-E5.

The ZS-E5, available next month for an undisclosed price, is said to be Sony's most personalized and least expensive boombox to date. It sports a compact body, four body color choices (pink, blue, red, aqua) and a rather unique design compared to more expensive devices in this category.

Features of the ZS-E5 include a built-in analog AM/FM tuner, an integrated CD player that supports CD-R/RW playback, and a line-in jack for digital music players. This is on top of the large LED display. More details, when available, can be found at the Sony Web site.

Photo Credit: Sony

What is your favorite portable electronics gadget? An iPod? That shiny new PlayStation Portable? How about the hot selling Amazon Kindle 2 ebook reader? I've opened up a forum discussion on this topic in the Portable Electronics forums and would love to hear your opinions. Feel free to join the conversation!

Portable media players are, by definition, MP3 players which do much more than just play your favorite digital audio files. These specialized devices also let you watch your favorite television or movie programming in a portable format as well as letting you view lots and lots of your favorite digital photos. There are a lot of portable media players on the market today, so it is important to consider the most important features when making your selection. To get you thinking about these critical functions...read more

Netbooks – smaller, inexpensive laptop computers primarily designed for light functions such as Web browsing and checking email – are becoming extremely popular, especially in this downtrodden economy. Innovation is something possible in this category at the moment, and a small company by the name of Always Innovating is attempting such a feat with its new Touch Book netbook computer.

The Touch Book is notable because it sports a detachable keyboard and 3D touchscreen user interface. This design choice, in effect, allows this netbook to become a touchscreen only device which can work as a standalone portable media player or handheld gaming machine. The screen size is 8.9-inches and it can run for up to 15 hours on its rechargeable battery.

Key features of this multi-form factor netbook include storage done by a micro SD memory card, built-in speakers, a headphone jack, multiple USB ports and open source software. It is said that the Touch Book will be available in late spring for a starting price of around $300. More details can be found on the Touch Book Web site.

Photo credit: Always Innovating

Ebook readers continue to draw interest in the news and among consumers, mostly because of Amazon's newest model now available for purchase. The Kindle 2, which was previewed here recently, is drawing some early praise from consumers and reviewers alike. It has highlighted this product category so much, in fact, that we now have a buying guide for related products and features to consider.

Now comes word today, via the magazine Fortune, that mega-publishing empire Hearst is planning to launch a wireless e-reader of its own. What is reportedly different about this reader from other ones already offered is that it will be around the size of a standard piece of paper and targeted towards publishers like Hearst. The end result? A specialized, larger screen format reader which lets you subscribe to magazines and newspapers for wireless delivery.

It is said this new ereader, perhaps available by the end of this year, will be able to serve up ads mixed amongst the print content you are reading on the display. This may help throw a lifeline to print publications, most of which are seeing sharply declining revenues in the changing economy as well as how people look for information today. A number of well known publications have already folded, or are close to folding, so any additional ways for them to reach readers might be worth consideration.

The Nextar T30 portable media player, despite its inexpensive price tag, is hard to recommend when put up against other devices similar to it. It has a few stand out qualities, but the overall experience it provides is marred by a small host of mostly minor issues. Were there but a handful of these it would be one thing, but it is hard to overlook so many challenges at the same time. Should you choose to purchase this player, it is best suited for those on a budget who want a portable media player which offers a wide range of mostly functional features...read more

Photo credit: Nextar

The age of the portable ebook reader is upon us. Though nothing will ever replace fully the beloved paperback, the idea of being able to take hundreds of digital paperbacks with you on the road has lots of appeal. A growing number of ebook readers are being released for your purchasing consideration. You should ask yourself first, however, which features are most important to you. Battery life? Screen size? How many books a reader can hold? Read Before You Buy a Portable Ebook Reader for must have ebook reader features.

The Philips line up of GoGear portable media players has churned out over the years a steady stream of quality devices known for their sleek looks and easy to use interfaces. These forward thinking products also tend to come with new audio enhancements from Philips, itself a major player in the larger consumer electronics market.

The upcoming Philips GoGear Opus digital audio/video player is certainly no exception to this rule of potential innovation. The company has tossed a number of useful functions into this device...read more

A problem some have with the look and feel of portable digital image viewers is that, as cold metal devices, they don't capture the warmth of the images they are displaying. Some hope instead a digital photo viewer could look a little more like photo albums of old. Digital Foci is trying to capture at least part of that sentiment in a new “digital photo album.”

The Digital Foci Photo Book is a portable digital album with an eight-inch, 800 x 600 LCD display set in a soft leather-like case. This case, described as a portable album, doesn't completely address the desires of a more traditional photo album in digital form, but its design is better suited for passing around while sitting in a living room or during a business presentation...read more

Image copyright: Digital Foci

Ultrasone, a maker of high end headphones, unveiled a couple of days ago some new special edition headphones which, considering the price compared to other Ultrasone models, may not actually be that different. It is called the Edition 8 and it prices for around $1,500.

The Ultrasone Edition 8 is a black and silver closed-back headphone which uses special acoustic technology to provide what Ultrasone feels is a very “spacious tonal perception.” Comfort on the interior ear cups is provided courtesy of Ethopian sheepskin.

Technical features of the Edition 8 headphones include an impedance of 30 Ohm, a frequency range of 6 – 42.000 Hz, 40mm drivers and a SPL of 96 dB. More details on these headphones, available now, can be found at the Ultrasone Web site.

(Note: Product mentions on the Portable Electronics blog do not certify endorsement of the product, but rather provide details on new products which might be of interest to consumers.)

(Photo Credit: Ultrasone)