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A Gadget Burns Hours of Music Onto Discs the Size of Quarters
By SARAH MILSTEIN


Slip a quarter into a slot, and you used to get a handful of peanuts or a three-minute phone call. Now iRiver is introducing a digital music player that both reads and burns discs no bigger than a quarter. Slip a disc into the iRiver iDP-100 player, and it's good for up to 11 hours of music.

The discs, made by DataPlay, can hold up to 500 megabytes of data, enough for about 150 songs in any of several formats, including MP3 and WMA. The tunes can be downloaded to the discs by using a U.S.B. cable. DataPlay also has deals to sell prerecorded discs by artists on several major labels, including Universal, EMI, BMG and Zomba. Blank discs will cost $5 (250 megabytes) to $10 (500MB); prerecorded ones will cost about as much as a regular CD.

The blank DataPlay discs can also be used to store MPEG-4 files, digital photographs, games and documents in any digital format. While the iDP-100 cannot read such files, it can be used to transfer them between computers with U.S.B. connections.

The iDP-100, which is expected to go on sale in mid-July for about $350, looks like a yo-yo in a green plastic frame and weighs 7.5 ounces. A standard-issue rechargeable battery affords 11 hours of play time, and an optional 20-hour rechargeable battery will be available.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/13/technology/circuits/13GEE5.html?ex=1024632000&en=2099e7e6b4004...
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