JVC XA-AW33: Digital replacement for the rubber duck

By Nate Lanxon on 06 April 2007, 10:00am

Crave jumped with joy last week at the discovery of a submersible MP3 player; today we are psyched to learn about a very special new device from JVC. This floating MP3 player is the logical evolution of our old friend the rubber duck. It was all well and good in the 20th century to have a useless inanimate object accompany you in the tub, but 21st century bathers demand more from their splash companions.

The oh-so-elegantly-named XA-AW33 DAP has 256MB of internal memory and an SD card slot, providing up to 2GB of additional storage. It'll play MP3, WMA and WMA DRM format music for 15 hours off four AA batteries. It's also a cute-looking thing, resembling a flying saucer.

Until we get our hands on it we can't tell you how good it actually sounds, but it's a nice idea and we'll bring you a review as soon as they hit our British shores (later this year as far as we can tell). No word on the price, but we'd expect it to hover around the £50 mark. Fifty of your English quid for a 21st century digital rubber duck? Sign us up! -NL