Virgin unveils 5GB mini music player

GristyMcFisty used our news submit to tell us that Virgin has announced that it will be shipping its own 5GB hard drive based digital music player this month. The device has been developed by virgin electectronics a subsidiary of the virgin group.  The unit plays both Mp3 and Wma formats and supports windows media 10's Janus DRM technology which is braned Plays for sure by microsoft. That means not just virgins digital service but napster and msn music wil work on the player.

Along with audio playing capabilities the Virgin player supports an FM radio and for some strange reason has two earphone sockets to allow users to share their music.  The player weighs about 87.9g and measures 9.5 x 5.5 x 15cm.  The drive can be compared in size to the devices such as the iPod mini and Creative zen micro.  The player supposidly also includes 32 megabytes of ram that make sure the player has 25 minutes of anti skip protection.

The Virgin player is based on the portalplayers 5020 system on a chip which uses dual Arm 7 cores to run the show. Another interesting piece of information is that portalplayer is the chip partner to apple when it comes to the iPod. The hard drive used in the Virgin player is one seagate's new 1in drives.  The player will ship in a few weeks time and will reatil for around 250 US dollars.

Virgin will ship an own-brand 5GB HDD-based mini digital music player later this month.The device, the Virgin Player, comes from the group"s US-based Virgin Electronics subsidiary. The unit plays MP3 and WMA files, and includes support for Windows Media 10"s "Janus" DRM technology, branded "Plays for Sure", by Microsoft. That means not just Virgin"s own Virgin Digital service, but Napster and MSN Music. In addition to digital audio playback, the VP sports an FM radio, and uniquely, we think, it has two earphone sockets, to allow users to "share" their music. But don"t tell the RIAA, OK?The VP weighs 87.9g and measures 9.5 x 5.5 x 1.5cm, so it"s roughly the same size as the iPod Mini, Creative Zen Micro and others. The display is a 96 x 80 blue-backlit unit. According to Virgin, the player contains 32MB of RAM for 25 minutes" anti-skip protections Interestingly, the VP is based on PortalPlayer"s 5020 system-on-a-chip. PortalPlayer is, of course, Apple"s iPod chip partner. The 5020 is based on dual ARM7 cores. The hard drive, by the way, is Seagate"s new 1in unit, which is also believed to provide the Zen Micro"s storage. The VP is due to ship in the US in a couple of weeks' time, Virgin said, priced at 0

Full story at The Register. Still doesnt look as good as an ipod if you ask me but will make an interesting addition to the digital music player market.  Lets just hope the batteries arent proprietary like the ipod and can be replaced easily.

Source: The Register