Crave

Quick quiz: Which is the better buy, a $199 iPod Nano or a $99.99 Creative Zen Mozaic? No, it's not a trick question: The answer is the Zen Mosaic.

Both models play music and movies, of course, and both offer 16GB of storage at their respective price points.

But that's where the similarities end, mostly in favor of the Mozaic. Creative's player features an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and a built-in speaker, among other features. (Find out more in CNET's review.)

It's kind of sweet looking, too. That mosaic design definitely scores points in my aesthetics book.

However, although the player is compatible with Audible content and should work with Amazon's video-download service, Creative offers nothing as easy or seamless as iTunes for stocking the Mozaic with content.

But a 16GB player with so many worthwhile features for just $99.99 out the door? And not even a refurbished model? That's a mighty sweet deal, peeps.

Thanks to the anonymous tipster who sent this my way!

(Credit: Buy.com)

If you hold it at arm's length and squint a bit, you might mistake the V-Bop media player for a third-generation iPod Nano. They're definitely kissing cousins, at least in the looks department. But where features are concerned, the V-Bop blows the iPod out of the water.

Buy.com has the 8GB V-Bop media player for $39.99 shipped. That's a rebate-free price on a new, not refurbished, unit.

So what does the V-Bop offer that the Nano doesn't? For starters, a microSD slot--pop in an 8GB card, and you double your available storage. (Newegg has an 8GB microSD card for $16 shipped.)

The V-Bop also sports a built-in speaker, an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and a 1.8-inch screen (which is a hair smaller than the Nano's 2-incher).

Now, does it have the iPod's excellent interface and controls? Access to a content-rich online store? A huge base of third-party accessories? No, no, and no. But if you're looking for a feature-packed, Nano-like player for a fraction of the price, this looks like a winner.

Prefer to stick with a known brand? Buy.com also has the 6GB Sansa e270 (refurbished) for $39.99 shipped. It offers most of the V-Bop's features (FM tuner, voice recorder, microSD slot, etc.) and the support of a handful of accessory makers.

Whichever model you choose, you're getting an awful lot of portable-media goodness for your 40 bucks.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

I empathize with the folks who are peeved that the remote control and microphone included on these headphones won't work on older iPods. I also get the frustration about the in-line volume rocker switch not working with the first two generations of iPhones (the iPhone 3GS is fully supported). That said, these are still a great set of headphones, and anyone who owns a new iPod should grab these without hesitation. If you own a first- or second-generation iPhone, in all seriousness, spend an extra minute to sand off those + and - symbols and you've got the best fully-functional headset for under $100.

Don't miss the forest for the trees, folks. Apple is offering a whole lot of headphone for the money, regardless of the clicker and mic compatibility.

Read the full review of Apple's In-Ear headphones.

Click for a slide show of the Apple In-Ear headphones w/ microphone.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

I've only been listening for a few minutes, but so far, it looks like Apple has delivered a worthwhile pair of headphones. They don't quite have the crisp, high frequency detail of the Etymotic HF2 headphones I had at my desk, but they blow away Apple's stock earbuds (not too difficult a feat) with a buttery low end and pleasant mids and highs.

We're happy to see that the headphones work just fine with the iPhone, despite the fact that Apple's online store doesn't advertise the product as iPhone-compatible. More specifically, we found that the headphones and microphone are compatible with the iPhone 3G (we'll have to dig up a first-gen model), but the clicker and volume controls don't seem to cooperate.

(Update: On the iPhone 3G and first-generation iPhone, the headphone clicker seems to work fine for playing, pausing, and skipping tracks, as well as answering/ending calls, however, the headphone volume control clicker is unresponsive. For the first-gen iPod Touch, the headphone's clicker, mic, and volume controls are useless, but the headphones themselves work just fine. The Apple iPhone 3GS is capable of supporting both the remote clicker and volume controls.)

We'll update this post after more testing and have our full review up by the end of the day. In the meantime, check out our Apple In-Ear Headphone photo gallery.

It was easy to miss, but during last Tuesday's flurry of iPod announcements Apple also introduced two new sets of headphones. The first headphones unveiled were a modest pair of $29 earbuds that include an in-line set of playback controls on the cable (play/pause/skip) along with a tiny microphone. Nothing particularly exciting about these except that they may be the cheapest way to activate the voice-recording feature included on the new iPod Nano, Touch, and Classic. When I asked the nearby Apple rep if these earbuds offered any sound improvement over the standard bundled pair, he shook his head and offered me these.

Apple's in-ear headphones look and feel very nice. I didn't have chance to hear them--but it would have been a lost cause in the din of the product demos taking place behind me. I can tell you this: they include two balanced-armature drivers in each earpiece; three pairs of differently-sized silicone ear tips; a screw-on metal grille covering the aperture; two extra replacement grilles; a plastic case with a cable wrap; and the same in-line controls and microphone included on the previously mentioned earbuds. They also cost $79.

The metal screen covering the aperture of Apple's new in-ear headphones screws off for easy cleaning.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple makes some amazing software and hardware, but I had doubts that they could (or would) devote internal resources to designing a pair of headphones as nice as the ones I was holding. I naively asked the Apple rep next to me who they had worked with to make these headphones. No comment.

I have a theory about who's cooking up Apple's high-end earphones (any guesses?), but in the end, it doesn't matter. I suspect Apple will sell a shedload of these things, especially to customers who've only ever heard their music through the tin-pan earbuds that come bundled with their iPod. The $79 price point puts the product below Shure's entry-level SE110 in-ear headphones, and level with offerings from V-Moda and Ultimate Ears. Plus, Apple's headphones offers users bonus features such as playback control and voice recording for the current generation of iPods.

Both pairs of Apple's new headphones will be available in October of this year. To see the Apple In-Ear headphones in action, you can take a look at my First Look video.

Update: the Apple iPhone 3GS is capable of supporting both the remote clicker and volume controls used on the in-ear headphones. Previous iPhone models still lack support for the headphones' remote volume control feature.

The Edirol R-09HR is one of the easiest and most portable ways to capture pristine stereo recordings.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

It's not the cheapest or the smallest way to go, but if you want the best-sounding pocket-size audio recorder on the market, you needn't look any further than the Edirol R-09HR. As an update to the original Edirol R-09 that debuted in 2006, the new HR edition addresses nearly every complaint we had of its predecessor, and even adds a few tricks we didn't know we wanted (like a remote control).

Curious to see how Edirol's extreme product makeover turned out? Take a look through our Edirol R-09HR photo gallery and then head over to our full review.

Need a sneaky way to record high-quality audio? The Yamaha Pocketrak 2G is the gadget for you. Click to see our Crave photo gallery.

(Credit: CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)

We've seen a fair share of high-end portable audio recorders pass through our door, but the Yamaha Pocketrak 2G is far and away the smallest we've ever seen.

Unfortunately, the Pocketrak 2G's shrunken size is reflected in its modest list of features and limited recording capacity. Still, this tiny thing is a dream come true for concert bootleggers and undercover agents.

Curious? Check out our full review of the Yamaha Pocketrak 2G along with our Crave photo gallery.

(Credit: Sony)

Well, that's one way to do it. After having lost so badly to Apple in the Walkman World it once dominated, Sony is at least making some music with alternative devices. But its latest player is one we never saw coming: a dictation recorder.

Tech Digest says it has only 1GB or 2GB of built-in storage, so you may still want to hang onto your regular MP3 player--after all, you'll presumably want to use some of that space for voice recording too. But it looks a lot better than other attempts by Sony, most notably the "Walkman Bean." Besides, if you really want to relive Sony's glory days in music, there's always this gold-plated cassette version.

(Credit: Aving)

Under normal circumstances we wouldn't get too worked up over a voice recorder, but we can't resist anything that even remotely looks like a puzzle. Olympus' "Voice Trek V-41," which goes for about $140 in Japan, reveals its USB plug when pulled apart. But it's got only 512MB of memory, which SlashGear notes isn't much for the price. If you're really that bored at work, you might be better off buying a recorder with more storage and bringing your Transformer toys to the office separately.