UK digital music player specialist Advanced MP3 Players (AMP3) has launched a compact music and movie device fitted with Bluetooth technology not only for wireless stereo audio but also to allow the gadget to interact with a mobile phone.

The StormBlue A9+ looks a bit like a phone with its handset-size 2in, 220x x 176, 262,144-colour display and slider-phone line five-way control. The unit plays back MP3, Ogg, WMA and WMA DRM music files. Microsoft DRM's currently limited to pre-Plays for Sure version 9, but version 10 is coming soon with a firmware upgrade, AMP3 pledged.

On the video side, the A9+ works with MPEG 4, but it bundles software to convert WMV, AVI, ASF and other formats over. The player's rechargeable battery can drive the machine for 11 hours when it's playing video files, or 39 hours for music.

The A9+ has an on-board FM tuner, but the Bluetooth radio is more interesting. Pair it with Bluetooth headphones - not included, alas - and you can listen without getting cords tangled. You can also link in a mobile phone so you can take calls with your headset too.

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Available with either 2GB or 4GB of on-board Flash memory, the A9+ also has a SD card slot to add more media storage capacity. Available now, the 2GB version costs £109, while the 4GB A9+ costs £149, both from AMP3. ®

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