We noticed that one of our affiliates, JR.com, has the Toshiba (Gigabeat) F-series listed for pre-sale. They've been around for some time in Japan - 6 months or so - but only Japan. To get one outside of Japan you have to go through an export specialist like AudioCubes.com, and it's quite expensive. However, we spoke to some Toshiba reps at CES, back in January, and they assured us it was coming to America in just a few months. We've heard nothing about it since so it was starting to look doubtful, but with the appearance on J&R's website we should see them arriving here within the next month or so. It's a guess, but a reasonable one judging from past experience with J&R.

There's more good news. It seems that the F-series players will retail for less than what Toshiba quoted us a few months ago. It's probably in response to Apple's price reduction on the iPod Photo, but whatever the case, it's good for us consumers. F10 (10gb): MSRP $ 280F20 (20gb): MSRP $ 330F40 (40gb): MSRP $ 350F60 (60gb): MSRP $ 450 Available colors include Blue, Black, and Silver. The 40-gig version looks like the best deal, with a price that matches the iPod Photo 30gb. Not only do you get get an additional 10gb but a bigger and better screen as well. Also, it looks like the player-dock will be included in the retail package, while extras like this were stripped from the new iPod Photo.

Some notes about the F-series from CES:
The color LCD on this player is one of the best we've ever seen, very bright and sharp with 320x240 resolution. The GUI makes good use of it too, with beautiful screen design and animated backgrounds. The main controller is a bit unconvential, that cross-like thing on the front. It's touch-sensitive but you tap at the tips like you would for normal buttons. In other words, it's not a "touch-strip" like the Zen Micro or iRiver H10. The only reservation we have is about Toshiba's music manager, a PC app that's required to load tracks into the player's database. We're hoping it's more like iTunes and less like Sony's SonicStage.

More details and pictures from CES