The Hindu : Front Page : The `must-have' gadget of 2007

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Monday, Dec 25, 2006
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The `must-have' gadget of 2007

Anand Parthasarathy

MPL 1003 has an FM Radio receiver, functions as a voice recorder-player too

— PHOTO: HANDOUT

MOBILE ENTERTAINER: The palm-sized Mitashi MP4 player.

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Bangalore: Smaller, is not always more beautiful. In the consumer electronics business, buyers are willing to carry a slightly bigger device — if they get more functionalities. The year-end holiday season, is seeing the emergence of what tech-watchers are already calling the `must-have' mass market gadget of 2007: loosely called the MP4 player.

To be accurate it is an MP3-MP4 player. MP3 (MP is short for Motion Picture Expert Group, the body that created this standard) is the compressed music format that allows one to squeeze over a thousand songs into a tiny player that, these days, is small enough to carry in a keychain.

But popular music is part and parcel of music video these days — which is why the MP3 player has morphed into the MP4 player — which stores and plays music, as well as video clips defined by the MP4 format.

The Mumbai-based Mitashi Edutainment Limited has just launched one of the first MP4 players to become available in India — and provided The Hindu with a unit to try out.

The MPL 1003, fits comfortably in any youngster's palm and features a bright 1.8 inch diagonal liquid crystal screen.

Four controls

There are just four controls on the face and a start-stop on the side, which makes it easy to operate. There are built-in speakers, but the sound is much better through the earpieces.

Music tracks can easily be downloaded from a PC or player using the USB cable provided and the player is comfortable with most formats including MP3, WMA and WAV.

However if you want to play video files usually available in AVI or MP4 formats, you have to load the software on the provided CD to your PC and use it to convert to the video standard that the player understands — AMV (Anime Music Video). I could convert a two-minute movie clip from AVI to AMV, download and view it on the Mitashi player without any degradation. In fact the file size was compressed by about 40 per cent.

The MPL 1003 includes an FM Radio receiver, with 20 preset table channels. And it also functions as a voice recorder-player. Its storage of one gigabyte can be used as a simple USB memory stick.

Priced at Rs.4,390

With a mains charge unit thrown in, the Mitashi MP4 player packs in a lot of functionality for the asking price of Rs.4,390. Its multiple modes and extremely small size may find many creative users beyond hard core music fans on the move.

Mitashi executives said they have sourced the MP4 player from China. In addition to Maharashtra, they have appointed distributors in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad and hope to expand their network very soon.

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