Smack my MP3 player up: The Ministry gets edgy

Rave may be dead, but the Ministry lives on. As cautious as ever about over-commercialising its club, the dance borg has launched a range of branded MP3 players. The 20GB Edge Jukebox (pictured, back) pays homage to Apple's U2 iPod. Clearly not shy about their appropriation of the jet-black livery of the special-edition iPod, the Ministry have even referenced the U2 guitarist's irritating name, 'The Edge'. The Edge sells for £199 and features a colour screen.

The Ministry's second offering is an integrated headphone and MP3 player system. The idea is an intriguing one -- it was only yesterday we were discussing the concept of in-ear MP3 players over the Crave dinner table. These headphones, the MOSMP119s (pictured, front), include a built-in 256MB MP3 player. There's no annoying trailing lead. This is the ultimate evolution of the MP3 player, and we expect all systems to end up using the same principle.

For now, the integrated headphone/MP3 player unit is quite a bulky-looking thing -- not heavy enough to rip your ears off, but they'll give them a workout. As Microdrives get smaller, we suspect it won't be long before the stand-alone MP3 player as we know it vanishes from the the face of the planet and these hybrid designs stalk the earth alone. - CS.