It must suck to have invented the Walkman only to have someone like Apple come along with the ipod and completely destroy your credibility with one product. Hello iPod, bye-bye Sony.

Sony are fighting back this Christmas with the release of a new range of mini MP3 players, aimed squarely at the young, hip female audience, even going as far as to make it look like a lipstick.

The new range will be released in Japan this December and will cross to the US if demand warrants. I want a pink one already and I haven’t even seen one in the flesh, but how sexy are these?

A few pundits have complained about the lack of drag and drop functionality in the NW-E013, but I don’t see that as a major problem. The sound quality is excellent as with most Sony products and you get three hours play time from a three minute USB charge. What more could you want?

I expect them to arrive mid 2008 and if Sony have any sense, they will sell for less than a hundred dollars. A few entrepreneurial types are already selling them on Ebay for about $130 but I would wait until they are an official import. The official site is here.

Check these Sony & MP3 products :

Sharp’s DK-AP2 speaker system for the iPod range looks like something that would live on a cylon’s bedside table. Assuming cylon’s have beds that is. One look at it convinced me it was going to sound awful, but a few minutes later I was pleasantly surprised to discover it doesn’t sound half bad.

I hesitate to call it HiFi, or even stereo with the speakers this close together, but I will say it sounds better than it looks, although the ridiculously small remote control could almost be considered “pre-lost” and will almost certainly fail the Knowles destructotest™. I wonder why they even bothered including one.

In this highly competitive sector of the market, it’s going to be hard to beat some of the established iPod speaker systems, so I imagine Sharp are going for the “if you can’t beat them, out outlandish them,” approach. Just about the only places this is going to look at home is the aforementioned cylon’s sleeping pod, or a particularly un-hip NY bachelor pad complete with wall to wall chrome and glass Ikea shelving systems. The daily maid is not going to be too impressed with how hard it is to dust though. At least there are no flashing disco lights on this one.

[update] This contest is expired, for our latest contests and giveaways go to http://theTechBrief.com/giveaways

To celebrate the one month anniversary of The Tech Brief, we are going to start a tradition – a monthly giveaway. The November prize is an iPod Nano. So, how do you get one? All you have to do is subscribe to our email newsletter. To subscribe click here. (Remember to verify your email!)

Who can win? Anyone who subscribes to the newsletter and verifies their email.

How will I know that I won? We will send you an email informing you that you have won. NOTE: if you don’t respond within 3 days – we will select another winner.

When will I get my iPod? Within approximately 2 weeks of responding to your winner’s notification email. (If you live outside the US, you will have to pay for shipping.)

When will The Tech Brief select a winner? December 1, 2007.

Alpine electronics, the in-car audio manufacturer won two awards at the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) this year. The iDA-X001 and CDA-9887R both received EISA Awards this August.

The prestigious EISA Awards are given to the best electronic audio/video/image devices sold during the year in a variety of categories—selected and judged by EISA, which is made up of 50 different special-interest audio, home theater and mobile electronics magazines in 18 different European countries.

European In Car Innovation 2007-2008
Digital Media Receiver : iDA-X001

With its stylish face plate, high resolution display and ergonomic controls, Alpine’s iDA-X001 provides a glimpse of what a head unit might evolve into in the near future. Though it lacks its own disc drive, the iDA-X001 is optimized to connect with all portable sources of digital media, via iPod direct connection, USB or Bluetooth. Inside the unit are found the highest quality components, including a 24bit D/A converter that can be fully controlled with a wide range of options. The iDA-X001 is a highly innovative and courageous development.

European In Car Audio Head Unit 2007-2008
CD/MP3/WMA/AAC Receiver : CDA-9887R

CDA-9887R is a technologically advanced, well featured, high quality but inexpensive audio head-unit. Its Advanced Audyssey MultEQ XT equalizer has 500 correction points, uses IMPRINT technology, and can optimize sound reproduction to specific vehicle listening environments. It includes a 24bit DAC, digital 6-channel time correction and adjustable 2- or 3-way crossover. Parameters can either be adjusted automatically or fine-tuned manually. Other features include full-speed iPod and Bluetooth connections, 4 Volt preamp outputs and a Biolite display.

Alpine always comes across as a European company, but their head office is in Tokyo and their CEO is Japanese. I have owned several of their systems over the years, and if I was going to recommend an in-car audio system, Alpine is the first brand I would think of.

I have heard some crazy stories, and this happens to be one of them. Many people want iPod these days, so it comes as no surprise that a 14 year old girl would ask for one for her birthday. Apparently, the parents wanted to get this iPod for her upcoming birthday and rushed out to get her an iPod at Target. The girls birthday rolls around and everyone is sitting around watching her open her gift, excited to so how ecstatic she will be when she sees her new iPod. She opens the gift and…silence; A neatly wrapped pile of rocks looks her in the face.

According to the article, it turns out that this iPod was replaced with rocks somewhere before the sale. Like any other consumer would do, the mother takes the neatly packaged iRocks back to target and asks for a refund. Target’s return policy for customers using their Target cards is to issue store credit only. There weren’t any other iPods in stock, so an employee called around to check out some other stores for her. They found one store 20 miles away that had an iPod in stock. Good news, right? Wrong…

Of course weary of buying another and having the same thing happen when she got home, she wanted to open it before she bought it. Another one of Target’s policies got in the way, so she had to purchase the iPod and she proceeded to open the box in front of store employees and –GASP — more iRocks! The woman once again asked for her money back, but was denied again. She then had her daughter pick out other items in order to use the store credit.

It is very sad that this had to happen and Target is very apologetic. I’d be one upset person and probably would not stop climbing the latter until I spoke with the CEO of Target–if that is what it took. Someone back at the distribution center is enjoying a brand new iPod, which is probably where Target needs to look.

What would you do in this situation?