Drum Magazine Issue 3 | Page 47

Drum: TECH Gadgets The Sony PSP is the most immediately desirable piece of electronic hardware since the debut of the iPod. Finished in gloss black, with silver highlights, the PSP does for hand-held gaming what the iPod did for portable music players - It’s a triumph of design. The fascia of the PSP is dominated by the 4.3in TFT screen which has a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio - ideal for watching movies as well as playing games, with a resolution of 480 x 272 and a full 24-bit colour depth. The image produced by the PSP display is simply breathtaking. The Sony PSP arrives in the UK in the Spring/ Summer. Olympus, best known for its photographic products, announced its entry into the portable hard disk music player business with the introduction of two m:robe brand products. The m:robe MR 500i can accomodate MP3, WMA and other digital formats and photos of holidays and friends. The player has a 3.7in, 640 x 480 touch screen, 1.3 megapixel digital camera and 20GB hard drive, which can store close to 20,000 digital snaps, as well as music. The MR-100 looks very much like the iPod, and has an equally appealing design. The MR-100, which targets users of the iPod mini, provides a USB 2.0 port and features 5GB storage capacity for around 1,200 songs and plays both WMA and MP3 file formats. 45