Back in our day, the only round thing that kids had in their pockets were marbles, conkers and gobstoppers, but German MP3 player maker Maxfield wants kids to shell out for their Max-Joy digital music player.
Targeted at pocket-money-rich young ‘uns between six and twelve years old, the Max-Joy offers comes in a playground tough, water-resistant shell.
Resplendent in two-tone red and yellow, the 50g, 8 x 5.6 x 2.6cm device sports chunky operation buttons and an “extra-luminous” two-colour OLED screen.
To protect the delicate ears of schoolkids from repeated plays of Sludgefeast, the Max-Joy limits the audio output to 60dB through the supplied Koss-designed earphones.
There’s 256MB of on-board storage, with the option to add more song space via a SD memory card slot.
In line with its kid-friendly aspirations, Maxfield is lobbing in a free 128MB MMC along with some music and audio books (which will no doubt be promptly deleted and replaced by death metal favourites like Decapitated, Devourment, Vomit Remnants, Cannibal Corpse and Gorguts).
The player supports MP3, WMA and WMA DRM with six EQ pre-sets allowing for some sonic adjustments.
The Max-Joy runs off a single AAA battery, which the makers claim will give up to 19 hours’ playback time, offering plenty of potential for parents to get a bit of peace.
The only thing that worries us is that the unit’s pebble shape just asks, nay begs, for it to be launched skywards. Or maybe that’s just us.
The Max-Joy is expected to appear on Amazon.co.uk soon for around sixty quid (~$105, ~€87).
It has to be said that our last experience with an Onkyo hi-fi product wasn’t exactly favourable (see our 
Attractively clad in a silver finish with a large LCD panel, the X-N7UWX also comes with a USB dongle and separate Wi-Fi unit, letting you wirelessly connect the stereo up to your PC and listen to MP3s on your hard drive – or stream content from your desktop. 
There’s also an AM/FM receiver in there too, and possibly a DAB radio. 
No pricing or availability yet for either of the units, but even if this unit doesn’t make it to our shores, you can guarantee that we’ll be seeing a lot more Wi-Fi hi-fi units on the horizon. 
Like Dr Strangelove with a modem, Google has made another stride in its plans to take over the virtual world, with a new Google Finance service announced today. 
There’ll also be a broad range of company news and information, an interactive chart correlating news and other events with stock price spikes and falls, delivered in a “clean, uncluttered user interface.” 
Google Finance also provides a personalised area for keeping track of stock quotes for selected companies along with any related news. 
All-weather, lantern-jaw outdoor types and motorbike fiends should warm to the “ruggedized” version of the Pocket Loox N520 which has just been announced by the German based Andres-Industries. 
Motored by an Intel XScale PXA270 312 MHz CPU, the LOOX offers integrated wireless LAN 802.11g Wi-Fi, SD/MMC slot (with support for SDIO) and a large, 240×320 pixels 3.5″ screen supported by 64Mb RAM and 128Mb flash memory 
“Now that Macs have PC chips in them, they can run PC software.” Obvious, isn’t it. Except that someone recently managed to make the new Intel-based Mac run PC software, and it’s a big, big surprise, and it’s something many said would never happen. 
So Colin Nederkoorn 
French outfit Archos has launched what they claim is the first portable digital TV receiver/ recorder combining portable video recorder (PVR) functionality and two DTT (Digtial Terrestrail Television) tuners. 
The built-in DVR records digital TV directly to the hard disk in MPEG2 TS format, and there’s an onboard Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) for scheduled recordings (so long as you can get reception, natch). 
An optional 100GB version offers even more storage, which equates to, err, lots more videos, songs and stuff. 
We reckon that someone whipping out a large, expensive multimedia device on a London train would soon have no trouble imagining filling in an insurance claim, but with no UK launch announced, perhaps the muggers will have to wait for now. 
Slimmer than a stick insect with the runs, the new world’s thinnest phone comes in the shape of the EV-K100 handset, an ultra-thin gizmo made by Korean cell phone makers KTF Technologies. 
“We substantially cut down the thickness of the antenna incorporated into the EV-K100 and instead extended its length to secure all the necessary functions,” said a KTF spokesman. 
The company intend to market the bar-type EV-K100, codenamed “No. 7,” from next week via its parent firm KTF for around 400,000 won ($412). 
Microsoft appear to be trying the doors of the lucrative movie download business for the Xbox360 with the announcement of a video content deal with music label Epic Records. 
Videos and “exclusive artist content” will also be made available for download from the Xbox site. 
Epic has already dished out music videos for the Xbox 360 from the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Audioslave, and their catalogue also includes acts like Shakira, Matisyahu, Jennifer Lopez and Antipodean dandruff shakers, AC/DC. 
WorldMate 2006 Professional Edition v4.1 
Travellers can get real-time information about their flights – including the inevitable delays, gate and terminal information – with global forecasts letting them know whether to pack the Goretex or the suntan lotion. 
Essentially the same program minus the live flight and subscription services, this is an essential Pocket PC installation even for occasional travellers, with the updating weather and currency converters almost worth the price alone. 
These minor quibbles aside, both programs offer a compelling suite of utilities for travel and come highly recommended for perambulating Pocket PC users. 
You’ll probably remember that we broke the story back in September about the 
BT’s also confirming that the box that will do all of these things is to be call the BT Hub. Its will use a software platform powered by Microsoft and that the set-top box is to be made by Philips.