Hotwired: The new band of players

Top-Bottom: Pilot's MP08; Oakley Thump; Rio Forge

First there was the iPod. Then came the iPod mini, closely followed by the iPod Photo and to round out the family, the iPod Shuffle.

Whether you want an entry-level product in which to dabble your toes or a device capable of carrying every song you've ever bought, or indeed heard, Apple has an iPod for you. Its dominance is total and exclusive and every other MP3 player is dogmeat.

Well, not so much. There's still life in the rest of the market and while it's taken its time recovering from the body blows Apple meted out, there's plenty of life in the old girl yet.

Some companies, like Sony, are finally confessing their sins and announcing they blew the digital music thing by making it too complicated. Sony's offshoot, Sony Ericsson, has announced it will build a cellphone crossed with an MP3 player that will tackle the iPod head-on, but we'll believe it when we see it.

CONTENDER ONE: Pilot Electronic's MP08

In the red corner, out of Hong Kong in the People's Republic, comes Pilot Electronic. Only seven years old, Pilot has already made a name for itself in the heady, exciting world of optical mice (no, really) and has launched itself into the MP3 player market with gusto. When your design is this cool, you can put up with a stupid name like the MP08. The company claims the MP08 is the world's lightest MP3 player and at only 12g that's fair enough, but the wee beastie has memory for only eight hours of music, or 512 megabytes (MB).

That's the same as the entry-level iPod Shuffle. Still, it does look cool and without needing a screen to suck up all your juice (it has a small LED readout but frankly, who cares?) its battery life is supposed to be up to 11 hours long.

www.pilotelectronic.com

Price: to be announced

CONTENDER TWO: Rio Forge

Rio used to be number one in the MP3 player market till Apple showed them how it's done. Poor Rio - it would have been tempting just to curl up in a ball and suck its blanket for a while.

Instead, the US company has hit back with a range of funky beasts that try to match Apple for ease of use and product range.

 

Actually, the Rio Forge is pretty nice. This 512 MB player looks like it was designed by some guy on a snowboard and given its rubber grips and stainless steel finish, you could probably do worse this winter. Sports clip earphones (whatever they are) and a sporty arm band come as standard but what really sells the Forge is its built-in FM radio. Apple doesn't have one of those. Very cool.

www.rioaudio.com

Price: US$199 ($282) from Amazon.com

CONTENDER THREE: Oakley Thump

Forget all you know, or think you know, about MP3 players. Oakley's not out to compete with Apple - players you carry are so last century.

Oakley's out to build a new market and by golly it might just do it. Enter the Oakley Thump - an MP3 player built in to your shades. No more lugging an extra device around, just slide your face into the nastiest goggles you've ever seen and drop down the Mission Impossible 2 earpieces to banish the world outside. On the right stem we have controls for play, pause, forward and back. On the left, volume (presumably loud and louder but you never know).

The biggest problem with the Thump is the lack of storage space - the bigger version maxes out at a measly 256 MB of storage, but that's enough for four hours of music, according to the blurb.

www.oakley.com.au

Price: A$679 ($736).