Triangles are the future, according to Wintek, Beond & Wistar (Chinese version of RCA/Thomson, so it seems). Forget about simplistic, serene designing - you want your player to double as half a ninja-star. It should at least look like some weird piano-like batarang slash mountaineering equipment thingy.

Well, you're lucky. Wistar (what's in a name) presents to you their MP-209. It's the piano-like one - yes, we've got great imaginations over here. Next to the odd design job, there's support for MP3/WMA/WMV/ASF/WAV, a built-in FM radio, voice recorder and USB2.0 compatibility. And it comes with an actual (super-boring) LCD screen. Woohoo! LINK

Right, so basically the same thing, but looking... less-weird... is Wintek's "406". Yeah, just "406" - I'll take my order to-go, please. Oh, and it only supports MP3 & WMA. Looks like there's a color screen in there too. Wonder if that type of navigation, with the buttons in each corner, is going to work well. Design looks ok to me, though. LINK

Enter Beond BO-F17. Yes, also shaped like a triangle. Sailing in between the Wistar's dull monochrome LCD and the bright color screen of the Wintek 406, this unit comes with an OLED display. Supports MP3, WMA, WAV and also has a built-in FM tuner. Furthermore, there's a txt-viewer and a line-in encoder. Unlike the Wintek 406, Beond's device runs on a simple AAA battery. LINK

Funny thing - we don't get to hear how much memory there is in either of these things. We'll just assume it's all flash-based stuff, ranging from 256MB up to 1GB or whatever.

Availability? Hm, the Beond could make it to somewhere, originating from Hong Kong and all. The Wistar MP-209 could also pop up sooner or later, since it carries the "Lyra" product name, known from RCA's product lines. And finally, that Wintek thingy will probably be showcased at random events like CeBIT or IFA. We've seen this company at the last CeBIT anyway.

No, no information on pricing either! It's what we Dutch folks tend to call "Cucumber season" - little interesting news to report on, lately.