OTHER TECH

If the current trend continues, companies will offer music implants at next year's CES. This year merely tiny had to suffice. Ever-smaller flash-memory chips enable some amazing compressed-music playback devices that make the hard-disk-based Apple iPod Mini look elephantine. For example, the JVC XA-A50CL ear-clip headphones contain their own) MP3/WMA music player with a 128-megabyte (MB) memory capacity. A single small wire that runs behind your head joins the two earpieces, which can run for 20 hours on one AAA battery. And they aren't merely small but exceptionally attractive, too. Available in March for $165. Sony trades MiniDisc for a hard drive in the new NW-HD3 Network Walkman (photo by Rich Warren).

Sony finally offers a non-MiniDisc compact portable music recorder/player. The NW-HD3 Network Walkman uses a 20-gigabyte hard drive and permits music storage in MP3 as well as Sony's proprietary ATRAC format. It'll be available in five colors in February for $350.

You can buy Samsung's new YP-MT6, the size of a pack of chewing gum, with up to 1 GB of memory. It plays up to 45 hours on one AA battery. Available now, if you select the 256-MB model it costs only $100, a veritable bargain.

Rio's pint-size ce-100, featuring a 2.5-GB hard drive, will be available early this year for $199.

Satellite Radio PortablesIf you don't want to take the time to download music to a portable player but do want to take along digital music in a package smaller than a portable CD player, XM satellite radio's XM2go system lets you carry more than 130 channels in your shirt pocket, with an antenna in the earphone cord. The Delphi MyFi portable XM2go receiver arrived last month and is reviewed in the February/March S&V. Similar-sized units from Pioneer and Giant joined it at CES.

Giant's Tao looks nearly identical to the MyFi, while the more angular Pioneer appears distinctly different. Pricing can depend upon your XM subscription, but a stand at CES was selling a MyFi for $200. Neither Pioneer nor Giant announced pricing or availability. All three XM2go models will record 5 hours of music from the satellite for those times when you can't receive a signal, and the rechargeable batteries are said to last the same amount of time. A built-in FM transmitter beams the signal to any radio. Each complete package includes adapter kits to use the portable receiver in a home system or in a car, plus a remote control and earphones.