French company Archos are planning to launch three new model portable media players later this year: the 404, 504, and 604, all with 30 to 40GB of hard drive space.

The design is a substantial departure from the current Archos look and feel, and they'll play back video just like the earlier 402 models.

The attached pic from a French magazine gives little away apart from the design and pricing. Size of the 604 is stated as 10.9cm x 7.8cm x13cm with a thickness of 1.6cm. Weight is only 288g!

Expected launch should be around August or perhaps a little later here in Australia.

Sony Electronics has begun shipping its 25GB single layer Blu-ray Disc recording media with AccuCORE technology. In addition, a dual layer 50GB capacity disc is set to debut in June.

We also had the chance to play with this cool new box-of-tricks from NeoDigits. At first we thought it was another product we were told about, which is an $18,000 media server, which gives you some idea of he extraordinary build quality and finish of this unit. When we were told it would be around $800 our jaws dropped.

It will change the way you store, manage and enjoy all your multimedia. Now you can access your movies, music, photos and online content anywhere in your home - whenever you want, wherever you want.

• CONNECT your home theater to your PC via wired or wireless LAN
• STREAM movies, music, photos, and online radio, television and news from your PC to your HDTV via network
• SHARE files stored in your PC, digital camera, or portable storage device via USB port or network
• ACCESS the HELIOS Media Portal to link to NeoDigits' picks of online radio, television and news programs
• WATCH standard DVD titles, MP4, DIVX, VOB, XVID HD, DIVX HD, TS, WMV HD, and more in high-definition
• EXPERIENCE the future of networked home entertainment with HELIOS X-Line.

Features:
• Streams your video, music and photo collection from your computer to your HELIOS X3000 or X5000
• Supports Windows Media Connect and is Third Party UPnP compatible
• Share media files with Apple iTunes, Real Rhapsody and Napster.
• Supports Windows Media Player and WinAMP play lists
• Synchronizes bookmark and RSS feed link with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox

This week we had a play with a new product from Pixel magic, called the HD MediaBox. The HD MediaBox is a high definition HDD (hard disk drive) media player which gives instant access to your high definition video, digital music, digital photos and DVD files no matter where they are stored - on it's internal hard disk drive (HDD), on your personal computer*, USB HDD or Network Attached Storage box.

HD MediaBox supports output resolutions of up to 1080p so you can now set all your HD media free from the constraints of your monitor. Use any VGA, component video, DVI or HDMI equipped display device - Flat panel displays, projectors, HDTVs and more.

HD MediaBox is designed with high quality audio playback in mind. Equipped with 24-bit/192KHz audio DAC from Analog Devices Inc, low noise Op Amps from Burr-Brown® (famous for their clean output and ultra-low distortion characteristics) and our own specially developed timing circuitry, HD MediaBox™ can now be the centre of your hifi as a high end CD jukebox storing thousands of CDs!

Pricing has yet to be determined for Australia, but expect it to be around the $800 mark.

Claritas, the company who first brought us the monster 1.2TB Media Centre PC's has just released the new range of Media Centre's featuring Intel VIIV Technology, Upto 1.2 Terabytes of storage, upto 2 Gigabytes RAM, and Claritas Gold Support Package.