Olympus unrobes m:robe MP3 players

After yesterday's fluury of portable entertainment related product announcements, things are back to just one or two press releases a day. One interesting one from today's items is from digital camera manufacturer Olympus, who has apparently decided to get into the digital audio players market with the unveiling of their m:robe line of players. Two models make up this line to start: the MR-500i and MR-100.

The MR-500i ($499.99) combines a 20GB digital music player with a 1.22-megapixel digital camera. It uses a 3.7-inch color VGA LCD display to view the pictures which have been taken and also control the fuctions of the device through a touch screen interface. It's shaped in a 4.3" x 2.9" x 0.8" rectangle and weighs 7.4 oz. It can store up to 5,000 MP3 or WMA music files, which can be mixed with just shot digital photos to create an animated slideshow. The MR-500i delivers about 8 hours of playback on a full charge, and can be recharged through a USB connection.

Olympus's other offering, the MR-100 ($249.99), is a more standard 5GB MP3 player. It comes in at a small 3.5" x 2.0" by 0.6" and weighs 3.5 oz. Like the MR-500i, it uses a touch screen interface, which is displayed on a monochrome display with red LEDs, for all control features. Estimated playback time of WMA and MP3 files is 12 hours on the rechargeable battery.

Both players, Olympus said, are due out in stores in January 2005. Just in time to miss Christmas - go figure.