Korea's PlayTomato Takes a Cue from iPod Touch

One look at PlayTomato's Video Touch music and video player might leave you thinking you've seen it before. The device, which debuted in South Korea on Friday, is the latest in a line of products from portable gadget makers that take design cues from Apple's successful iPod and iPhone products.

But that's where the similarities end. The Video Touch has a 2.5-inch touchscreen QVGA (240 pixels by 320 pixels) resolution screen with 260,000 colors that, with the exception of the touchscreen, is similar to those found on many current cell phones. Two versions of the player are available, one with 2GB of memory and the other with 4GB.

Through a Windows PC users can load in MP3, Windows Media Audio, WAV, FLAC and the Monkey Audio APE format audio files and it will also play MPEG4 and AVI videos.

In comparison the iPod Touch has a 3.5-inch touchscreen with a better 480 pixels by 320 pixels resolution. It supports Apple's AAC audio format in addition to MP3, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV formats. On the video side the iPod Touch will play MPEG4 and H.264 video.

So it's no surprise that the Video Touch is considerably cheaper. The 2GB version costs 59,900 won (US$63) and the 4GB version has a US$84 price tag. That compares to $344 in Korea for the 8GB version of the iPod Touch.