No, I still don't own an iPod! But I am looking around for a portable music player than can do more than just blast out a few songs. I want something I can use for extra storage, namely for the fact that my 1GB Kingston Data Traveller II thumb drive seems just a little small when I have multiple gigabytes of files to carry about. Playing music is a must, as is the colour screen for any pictures I might want to share. Video playback would be cool, and the ability to run some small games or apps would be killer.

If I lived in Japan, I might start saving up for a Wizpy. Not only is it an MP3 player for MP#, Ogg, AAC, DivX and JPEG, but there's a radio receiver built right in. A text viewer too.

The Wizpy comes with a 60GB hard drive and measures in at 8.4 x 4.2 x 1.2cm. A re-worked version of Linux acts as the primary operating system, allowing for browser, email, and office applications. Of course, there'll probably be a host of games for it too. But perhaps the most unique aspect of the Wizpy is its PC abilities. Simply plug the Wizpy into the USB port of any PC, restart the desktop machine, and It will boot into the Wizpy Linux operating system. "Hey, you just turned my PC into a Linux box!!!" Handy if you want to surf the web from a friends computer whilst remaining in complete digital secrecy. Oooh, how devilishly clandestine.

Unfortunately, the Wizpy is only due out for a Japanese launch, and there's no word or even the hinting of a North American debut as of yet. It should start going on sale in Japan around February of 2007. Lucky Japanese people, they always get the cool toys! 

UPDATE!!!

Wow! I got in to Neoseeker this morning and saw the 14 comments on the Wizpy article, a new record for one of my news posts. But just to answer a few questions.

First, the Wizpy should retail for about $250 USD. Don't quote me on that exact price, we'll have to wait until February to see what happens. But for 250 clams, I'd defiantly buy one, or two, or three. It comes with a voice recorder too, and preinstalled with FireFox, ThunderBird, Scype, and probably a zillion other open source apps. Some confusion with the storage capacity however. Originally, the source I had referenced for this article claimed that the Wizpy came with a 60GB hard drive. Other sources say 4 gigs of flash memory, while others say 1.5 gigs of flash. But judging by the 10 hour battery life, the Wizpy is probably flash memory based rather than HDD based. But a single 5 GB micro drive could be used. Or why not use two or three.

Yes, it looks like the new 'must have' geek toy. It may not be the iPod killer as so many MP3 players have claimed to be, but it does have some potential. Here's a new picture, just to show how small the Wizpy really is. And a couple links for your viewing enjoyment.

Link 1

Link 2