Odd news this is, but well, it looks like Motorola might be prepping to give the Nike+ SportWatch a run for its money. An intrepid tipster sent along a screenshot from a recent survey showing off what looks like a tricked out nano watch.

Described as an “all-in-one fitness and music personal fitness device” (redundant much?) that packs a GPS for “accurate performance tracking,” the as of yet unnamed gadget also sports a “smart music player” that compiles a list of songs based on the tunes that help you sweat your best. It also lets you wirelessly sync to your PC for workout analysis, and apparently does the same for Android devices.

Among the possible names listed in the survey is the MotoActive, hinting at, but certainly not pinning down, Motorola branding. Of course this is just an online survey, so take it with a pint a salt, or maybe a jar of em.

When Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone Mango last month, the company spent a lot of time walking us through some of the 500-plus changes to the OS — most notably, conversation threads, people groups, enhanced search functionality, Twitter and LinkedIn integration, IE9, and the instantly responsive Bing Vision. It’s no wonder, then, that Redmond didn’t have much time to talk multimedia. Well, the company just spilled the beans in a blog post, laying out a raft of new features that run the gamut from podcasts to improved playback controls.

First off, podcasts. Now it’s true, Windows Phone users can already listen to them, but this involves downloading episodes on a PC and then syncing them to their device. Now, says Microsoft, there will be a podcast option in the Music Hub, from which you can listen to programs on the spot. When it comes to listening, you can, indeed, stream them on the fly, but you can also subscribe to a series — and control how many episodes you have stored on your device at any given time. Alas, though, only US customers will get this feature at launch. Microsoft also imported Smart DJ from Zune HD, which, like Genius, crafts a playlist around a given artist, song, or album. You can expect to see it integrated throughout the Music Hub, and if ever you stumble on a particularly awesome playlist, you can pin that list of songs to the Start screen.

On the usability front, Microsoft added auto suggestions to Marketplace searches, which will be organized by content type (apps or games, music, and podcasts). The company also made a bunch of changes to both the Music and Video Hubs, making the playback controls more obvious; displaying your recent history in a vertical — not horizontal — pane and expanding the list to 25 items (up from eight); adding new lock-screen and wallpaper options; and slightly enlarging the mini-playback controls. Then there are a slew of tweaks to the music player itself, some of which include bigger playback controls, better artist images, a preview of what song is up next, a “Repeat Once” option, full-screen toggling for video, and the ability to build playlists manually on the device itself.

SOURCE via Microsoft

Alongside the iPod Shuffle, Apple has also announced their 6^th generation iPod Nano. From the picture above, it’s obvious that the buttons, or click wheels as Apple calls it, is not gone. Odd isn’t it. The Shuffle is getting its click wheels back, and yet the Nano is ditching it. But what’s gone, is replaced by a touchscreen panel. Obviously, you’ll be manoeuvring your new Nano with the touchscreen interface. This is obviously not an iOS interface, but merely a simple touch UI mod from the original Nano interface, to be ‘touch-friendly’.

“This is the biggest reinvention of the iPod nano since its debut in 2005, and we think users are going to love it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Replacing the click wheel with our Multi-Touch interface has enabled us to shrink the iPod nano into an amazingly small design that is instantly wearable with its built-in clip.”

An obvious fact from the new form factor is that the Nano is now 46-percent smaller and 42-percent lighter. Hard volume buttons on the side and a clip on the back provide the minimal hardware accoutrements to that new multitouch display, while the new power plant will let you party for 24-hours straight.

There are a total of seven colours for you to choose from, which includes a somewhat new ‘Product RED’ option. Prices start at $149 for the 8GB variant, to $179 for the 16GB, and Apple will happily take your pre-order today.

Order yours now at Apple

The Uplink Audio Strap System is a weird concept. Now why would I say it’s weird? Now for start, it gives those joggers another option to listen to music on the go, if they hate the plug-in ear buds. That means it’s a great stuff for nerdy joggers who love to show off their latest gadgets. But then, the concept from Adam Hammerman has a very high-tech ultrasound speakers, which can connect to nearly all your mobile devices and portable music players. It’s so high tech, that no matter how loud you blast the music, only you can hear the sounds. Others by-passers won’t be able to hear a single hum from this new toy. But if you’re going to show off this to the whole world, why restrict the sounds to only yourself? Totally redundant!

But of kush, the tech doesn’t stop there. This new concept is trying to make you go green with the integrated solar panel, which is flexible. Though it’s just a concept, but I wonder how long you can power up the player with such small solar panels.

[Eco Friend via Slashgear]

Sony in Japan released a new walkman the NWD-W253 [JP]. It is waterproof (IPX5), wearable under the rain or you can wash it under water. Recently Sony has released a Metal Gear Solid -Peace Walker version technically identical to the regular models. It comes in white, black, green, and pink with 4GB of internal memory, a USB mini port, and compatibility with ATRAC/MP3/WMA/AAC and Linear PCM (WAV) formats. The MGS edition is preloaded with six songs from the games’s official soundtrack. The NWD-W253 will be sold in Japan at $110 while the MGS limited edition will cost 20 bucks more. More pictures after the break.

[via CrunchGear]

The Sony NWZ-A840 series was announced in late 2009, a Sony Walkman MP3 player that comes with 2.8 inch WQVGA OLED screen, weight of only 62 grams and also the crown for the thinnest Walkman ever created only 7.2mm. The NWZ-A 845 is now announced to be launched in both Europe and Asia Pacific region starting February 2010 but only in black and only in 16 GB. The current Japan series comes in two colors – black / brown and capacities of 16/32/64GB (A845, A846, A847). More pictures after the break.

[via Akihabaranews]

Yinlips YDP308 is one of the affordable pmps. It looks more like a phone because they copy the design of LG Cookie. The Yinlips YDP308 comes a 3-inch display and a built-in 4GB of storage space, and supports AVI, RM, RMVB, FLV, MP3, WMA, WAV, APE and FLAC file formats. 7.5mm thick with 7-hours of music playback or 2-hours of video playback. More pictures after the break.

[via TechFresh]

iRiver has released its N20 PMOLED MP3 player today. The MP3 player comes with 120 x 56 PMOLED (passive matrix OLED) screen with four lines of data which is big to fit in the display text and simple icon. It supports the common and popular music files which include MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, OGG, and WAV. Available in 2GB and 4GB at at $95 and $110, respectively.

[via TechFresh]

Ahem! Teclast is introducing their latest me…dia.. pla…yer, erm it’s called… T51. Sorry was paying attention on the picture. Okay, Teclast T51 PMP comes with Rockchip’s RK2806 chipset, LINE-OUT signal output jack and supporting HD 720p video playback (AVI or MKV), paired with two Wolfson WM8740 audio chips for perfect audio quality. MORE PICTURES AFTER THE BREAK.

[via Akihabaranews]

The Music Chocolate is designed by Michi Jjung. It is a comfortable upholstered ottoman that comes with an integrated sound system for you MP3 player.

[via Like Cool]