Audio Player Makes Fashion Statement

Panasonic's newest designer device is the first to use Secure Digital Format.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

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Weighing in at just under 2 ounces (55 grams), the SV-SD70 is light enough to be worn on the wrist, or as is the fashion with cell phones among teenagers in Japan, hung around the neck. The device will go on sale in Japan on June 30, with a price of $457 in U.S. currency. It should be available in North America and Europe sometime this summer or later in the year.

To promote this product, Panasonic is also marketing a range of wrist straps in black, white, green, yellow, orange, and pink. The device will snap into the straps, which are intended as fashion accessories.

A little smaller than a deck of cards, the player measures just 1.96 inches by 0.59 inches by 1.93 inches (49.8mm by 15mm by 49.2mm) and its LCD panel is large enough to display two lines of characters. Two AA batteries fit into the cylindrical ends of the player and will provide up to 4 hours continuous playing, according to Panasonic.

Keep Your Hands Free

For people who don't want to carry anything, Matsushita has also developed the SV-SD01. Not much larger than a conventional pair of headphones and weighing just 104 grams, the digital audio player is built in to a headset unit for totally portable audio.

This device will also carry the retail price of $457, and it will go on sale in Japan on July 10. It is expected to be available in North America in Europe sometime this summer or later in the year.

The players are also notable as the first on the market to support the Secure Digital (SD) memory card format--the result of a collaborative effort by Sandisk, Toshiba, and Matsushita to create a de facto memory card standard with support for the cross-industry SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative) copy protection system.

Matsushita says the initial 64MB SD cards are enough for between 46 and 129 minutes of music, depending on the quality selected and whether music is stored as MP3 AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) files. AAC is a high-quality audio compression system being employed in Japan for audio distribution and digital satellite broadcasting.

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