Maximum sound in minimum package

By PETER GRIFFIN

No, it's not the much talked about mini iPod. God knows when that little number is going to appear in these parts - the "worldwide" launch is set for July 24. But it is about the same size and weight. It's the Philips mp3 Jukebox, and it serves one main purpose - providing you with a healthy back catalogue of music while you're on the move.

Just how much music? As much as the miniature 1.5 gigabyte hard drive will hold - around 375 songs on average.

That's a far cry from slightly larger players such as the original iPods and Philips own full-sized jukebox which boasts a 15GB hard drive - you'll need an impressive digital music collection to fill that up.

The dimensions and weight are pared back in this version to give you a more mobile and cheaper device.

Digital ID tags allow the song and artist labels on your music files to transfer across to the mp3 player, letting you scroll through songlists which you can create on your computer with the supplied software.

The jukebox conveniently doubles as a USB hard drive, so you can ferry all sorts of files around. There's a well-known story about a production hand working on The Lord of the Rings trilogy who had to ferry across London to director Peter Jackson a digital rough cut of one of the movies stored on an iPod. Halfway through his journey he realised he was being stalked by would-be muggers. He had to run for his life and to preserve that cut of the film.

The 1.5 gigabytes Philips offer will give you a good bit of mobile storage in these days where hard drives can quickly fill up with digital bric-a-brac. The device itself is well designed and fits nicely into a pocket.

Battery life is good - up to 10 hours if you're not constantly playing around with the digital menu features. Sound quality is great and Philips supplies earphones. A simple equaliser allows you to tweak the sound range.You can feed your home theatre system from this little box by plugging a lead in through its headphones jack - great for parties.

The jukebox plugs in to your computer via USB, which is nice and convenient. But that's about where the convenience stops.

As with many mp3 players, you're forced to use the supplied software to transfer songs to the jukebox. In Philips' case, the Digital Media Manager isn't as slick as most music managers out there, and you'll begrudge it for pulling you away from more familiar software.

Philips has also used the older USB 1.1 standard for the first generation of the jukebox which leads to lower file transfer feeds than rival music players that have included the faster USB 2.0.

At the moment the Philips jukebox adequately fills a hole in the market. The question is whether its worth buying the Philips player now or holding on to see what price the mini iPod, a more stylishly designed device, sells for locally. The iPod will go an sale in Britain this month for £179, which would suggest its price here will be around $500. The four-gigabyte Creative Nomad MuVo2 is already selling here, but will set you back close to $500.

You can always bank on Philips for quality products, and 375 songs is more than adequate for commuting or long road trips.

Philips will also release the HDD070, a 2GB jukebox, at the end of next month. Expect to see the price of the HDD060 fall to clear stock. At $300 it would be a great buy.

MP3 JUKEBOX HDD-060

* Price: $399

* Herald Rating: 6/10

* Pros: Nice design, sound and battery life

* Cons: Supplied software poor

* Philips