Beyond the Music: Apple iPod Photo Photo by James Worrell

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Slideshow:


The Assistant
The Polymath
The Photographer
The MusicianWhat are you going to do with the rest of those 40 gigs of storage on your digital jukebox? Load it up with photos! This fleet of portable hard-drive music machines features color screens that flash the album cover of whatever’s playing. But that’s where the similarities end.


The Assistant: Apple iPod Photo
Getting organized is easy with the iPod Photo. You can import photo albums created in Adobe Photoshop Album or Elements, or iPhoto. The backlit LCD displays 25 thumbnail images, making it easy to scroll through them.
†40GB
†2-inch 220x176-pixel LCD
†4.1 x 2.4 x 0.75 inches
†15-hour battery
†$500
†apple.com

The Polymath: Archos Gmini400
The Gmini400 knows no limits. It handles audio, video, photos and games. A CompactFlash card reader downloads pictures directly from your camera. Once they’re in, you can pan, zoom, and rotate them.
†20GB †2.2-inch 220x176-pixel LCD
†2.4 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
†10-hour battery
†$400
†archos.com

The Photographer: Olympus m:robe MR-500i
A built-in 1.22-megapixel camera allows the MR-500i to
take photos as well as exhibit them. It can combine music and
images into an animated montage for impromptu slide shows.
In music mode, the screen can display lyrics.
†20GB
†3.7-inch VGA touchscreen
†2.9 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
†8-hour battery
†$500
†olympusamerica.com

The Musician: iRiver H320
An FM tuner, real-time MP3 encoding, and support
for subscription content such as Napster make this the
most versatile unit here. It’ll even create audio mixes
based on tempo.
†20GB
†2-inch 220x165-pixel LCD
†4 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches
†16-hour battery
†$330
†iriver.com