Suhit Gupta
08-01-2006, 01:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.digitaltrends.com/article10984.html' target='_blank'>http://news.digitaltrends.com/article10984.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Seems like portable picture/video/music devices are launching fast and furious: Digital Foci has taken the wraps off its Picture Porter Elite, a portable image and video viewer with a 3.6-inch, 320 by 240 pixel LCD display, a memory card reader, video output, USB 2.0, a hard drive capacity of 40 or 80 GB, and PictBridge compatibility for printing images directly to PictBridge-compatible printers via USB without an intervening computer. The Picture Porter Elite memory card reader supports CompactFlash I/II, MD, MMC, SD Card, Memory Stick, MS PRO media (plus xD-Picture card, miniSD, RS-MMC, MS Duo, and MS PRO Duo with an adapter), making it easy to load and store media from a variety of digital cameras and camcorders. As a picture viewer, the unit supports JPEG, GIF, BMP, and RAW images, but can also plow its way through MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, and Motion JPEG video—and an NTSC/PAL output means you can put images or video on a TV."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/1154026696_PPE_frontview_gd.jpg" /><br /><br />Damn, does this device have any shortcomings? :) The Picture Porter Elite can also record video in MPEG-4 format directly from television or other video source. The Picture Porter Elite can also act as a music playback device (supporting MP3, WMA, AAC, and WAV audio) via either headphones or a built-in speaker, and sports an FM receiver and voice-recording capability. It will set you back around $449 which I think it quite reasonable, however, I wish it were slightly smaller in size because then it would be a perfect iRiver/iPod/whatever replacement. Still though, since I carry an Imate JASJAR, this actually might be pocketable.