Archos Inc. on Wednesday announced a new line of portable MP3 players that offer a variety of customization options. The GMINI 220 and GMINI 120 players are compatible with Mac OS X (10.2.4 or higher) and Mac OS 9.2.
The GMINI 120 is available now; the GMINI 220 will ship next month. Both are 20GB players and can store 5,000 songs, or 500 full-length CDs or 300 hours of audio, according to Hyder Rabbani, Archos’ U.S. president.
The differences in the two devices are the form factor and screen size. The GMINI 220 is smaller and has a 2.5 inch LCD screen. The GMINI 220 screen is grayscale with a blue backlight for easier viewing of photos and icons. Both players offer MP3 and WMA recording and playback, an icon-based interface, and Archos ARCLibrary software.
Archos is offering four personalized add-on accessories for the GMINI series. A US$19.95 audio recorder/voice recorder has a built-in microphone for recording music from any audio source. It holds up to 700 hours of voice recording. The $29.95 Photo Wallet is a compact flash memory card that can be used to store, organize and view JPEG photos on the GMINI’s built-in screen. Adaptors for other memory cards are also available.
MadWaves Interactive Music Composer, which costs US$9.95, is interactive software that lets you compose your own music by interacting with pre-loaded, copyright-free digital music samples. Finally, the $39.95 FM Remote Control turns a GMINI player into an FM radio with MP3 recording capabilities.
The GMINI 120 and 220 have suggested retail prices of $249.95 and $349.95, respectively. They’re sold with a USB 2.0 cable, AC adapter, batteries and stereo headphones. For the GMINI 220, all of the add-on accessories are available on a promotional basis at no additional cost.