News In Brief: Product Pipeline

Split Personality: Creative Technology's new Prodikeys PC-MIDI performs double duty as a standard 104-key QWERTY PC keyboard and a 37-key piano-style keyboard. The PC-MIDI features multimedia shortcuts, customizable hot-keys, and a detachable wrist rest to cover the music keys when not in use. The device plugs into your PC via a USB port and comes with software for learning to play the piano and record music. The PC-MIDI is due in January with a retail price of $50.

Sony's Flashy Car Stereo: Putting digital music on a car stereo gets easier with Sony's Xplod MEX-1GP AM/FM CD/MP3 car stereo receiver. The MEX-1GP's removable faceplate hooks to your PC via a USB cable and doubles as a 1GB flash memory drive for downloading and storing hundreds of MP3 and WMA music files. When in use, its LCD presents track information and lets you shuffle through songs and select playlists. The receiver will retail for $350 and should be on sale in February.