CES 2006 Profile: HandHeld Entertainment

Makers of the low cost Zvue portable media player unveil two new horizontal PMPs - one of which offers wireless connectivity.

Handheld Entertainment, makers of the Zvue portable media player, unveiled several new devices at CES 2006. The most interesting of their announcements centered on two Zvue players, both of which sport a horizontal screen and one which has wireless capabilities.

The new Zvue 400 is priced around $225 and should be available in the first quarter of this year. Features of this portable media player include the 3.5” horizontal LCD screen, video playback support of 30fps, 512MB of internal memory, CF and SD memory card slots, a rechargeable battery, measurements of 3.5” x 5.5” x 0.5”, two earphone jacks, USB 2.0 support and compatibility with Microsoft’s DRM program playing copy protected WMA and WMV media files.

The WiFi Zvue meanwhile, priced at around $300, is nearly identical to the Zvue 400 except for 1GB of on board flash memory, wireless 802.11a/b/g connectivity and a phone style button pad on the front of it.