Here’s something for all you sweaty joggers and gym regulars – a “wearable” Walkman MP3 player that is not just water-resistant and but also washable.

The latest Sony Walkman W, launched today, also comes without a long wire dangling down the side. The S$129 device appears like a one-piece construction that wraps around the back of your head and is secured onto the ears with ear buds that remind one of Bluetooth headsets.

This means no more getting tangled with an irritating wire either running to your iPod hooked up on your arm or stored in your shorts pocket.

For my evening jogs, I’m currently using the Sennheiser/adidas CX680, which has an excellent “ear fin” to keep the ear buds steady and not moving inside your ears. The earphones are solidly built too – the cable is Dupont-Kevlar reinforced, says Sennheiser, and feels solid.

But the biggest problem is the unwieldy extended cable for the CX680, which you have to use to hook up an MP3 player in your shorts pocket (the original cable length is for runners who place an MP3 player on the arm). Plus, my silver iPod is getting dirtier by the day, thanks to sweat and grime collected when I hold it after each run.

So, Sony’s new 43-gram Walkman W would seem to be the answer, since it’s washable and doesn’t have irritating cables. It’s also foldable, making it easy to carry around. The only downside is that it won’t support the Nike+ system I’m grown used to.

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Philips GoGear Opus

Philips may not be on many portable gear head’s shortlists of brands when it comes to buying a new portable music player, but its new model’s support for FLAC could swing a few votes its way.

The GoGear Opus is one of a slew of new releases by the Dutch electronics giant in Singapore today, and the only one in that bunch – as well as one of the few in the market – to supprt Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), an open source lossless compression standard that more than a few discerning listeners have told me is sonically a tad better than rival codecs like Apple Lossless and WMA lossless (although I can’t really discern those differences – all lossless codecs sound as good to me).

A rival to Apple’s Nano in terms of features and price, the decidedly chunkier Opus has a larger screen real estate compared to the Nano (2.8 diagonal inches vs 2.0-inch) but also costs slightly more ($339 vs $328 for the 16GB version; $299 vs $248 for an 8GB version).

The Opus comes with a built-in audio recording function, which is lacking in the Nano, but it lacks Nano’s motion-sensing feature that automatically flip-flops screen displays from portrait to landscape. The Opus arguably offers better sound off the bat, thanks to its sound-sealing earphones, which appear to have a sonic edge over Apple’s bundled conventional ear buds.

But it is the Opus’ support for FLAC that will excite open-source software inclined audiophiles – although its 16GB flash memory capacity means you can only carry 50 or so albums’ worth of lossless music at any one time.

Alongside the Opus, the other new Philips music and video portable players launched are the Aria ($229 for 8GB and $189 for 4GB); ViBE ($169 for 8GB and $149 for 4GB); the diminutive Spark ($129 for 4GB and $109 for 2GB); and the Shuffle-lookalike Mix ($119 for 4GB and $79 for 2GB).

There are 4GB worth of reasons to love Apple’s new and very small iPod Shuffle. But there is one reason why I don’t – lack of controls on the player.

In making the new Shuffle so small, Apple’s designers decided to ship some of the heft to the earphones – smart, really. The new Shuffle relegates crucial controls like volume, song selection and play functions to a captive control strip attached to Apple’s earphones.

So you are pretty much stuck, unless other earphone makers start making earphones with Shuffle controls (Monster has already said it will roll out a series).

I don’t know about you, but having owned at least half a dozen iPods since shelling out for the original 5GB mechanical scroll wheel grandfather back in 2001, I’ve never found Apple’s bundled headphones to be as good as what’s out there, and have always promptly replaced them as soon as I got the iPod.

I’ve not yet try the new headphones on this Shuffle, so they could well surprise me, but Apple’s track record doesn’t give me confidence.

I’ve owned two Shuffles so far and the first generation model is still my favourite.

I love the way it plugs into the USB port sans cable, and its garage cool look. The lack of polished bling is just dandy with me. The song navigation controls, because they sit at the end of a long stick, makes activating them very easy, as your fingers have a hand-hold to grip firmly, much like using a remote control.

To me, this model is still the most ergonomic iPod that’s ever made by Apple for exercise nuts, especially if you, like me, am an inveterate track changer. It is simply a great runner’s iPod.

So Apple, how about refreshing the form factor of the first-generation iPod – with an 8GB capacity, perhaps? After all, it is only twice as big as the new Shuffle.

What does a goalie do as he prepares to step up to a penalty shootout at the end of a gruelling 120-minute cup final? Turn on his iPod.

That’s what Manchester United goalie Ben Foster did yesterday, as the Carling Cup final between the Red Devils and Tottenham Hotspurs moved to the lottery of a penalty shootout after a 0-0 stalemate.

According to Soccernet, he checked out how his opponents would take their kicks by watching past videos of them on an iPod just before taking his place between the posts.

Soon after, he saved two of the three spot kicks that Spurs took, allowing Man Utd to win 4-1 on penalties eventually.

He said on Soccernet: “We have had things to look at over the last couple of days and before the shootout you can see me looking at an iPod with (goalkeeping coach) Eric Steele. It had actual video on it and showed where players put things.”

In a season when the Red Devils may win an unprecented five titles, the iPod could have just helped the Premier League champions (and current leaders) onto yet another trophy. (Sorry, if you’re not a Man Utd fan)

So, there you go. Don’t forget your little gizmo if you’re going to penalties!

One tempting deal comes from Samsung, which is selling its new 14.7-megapixel NV100HD camera for S$599, with loads of freebies thrown in. 3 x 4GB SD card, card reader, 5-in-1 cleaning kit, extra lithium battery, tripod, etc and etc, anyone?

This nifty little number (see below) also shoots HD videos and has a nice 28mm wide-angle lens. And it also has a handy 3-inch touch-screen as well. Besides the wide-angle option, this is a worthy update over and seems a better buy than Samsung’s own S$549 NV24HD, which comes with an older 10-meg lens but better 24mm wide-angle.

Also found at one of the few Samsung booths, this nice YP-U4 stick MP3 player with a four-line OLED display. 2GB for S$89 and 4GB for S$129. Great for those long jogs if you don’t want your sweaty palms on your precious iPod.

As expected, netbooks were out on force from Lenovo, Toshiba and of course, Asus, which started all the craze for these tiny, affordable portables last year.

Do note though that Asus’ top model (Eee PC S101, see below) running Windows XP and with a pretty, glossy finish to match most ultraportables is going for a hefty S$1,098, possibly more than what you’d pay for a regular laptop.

All the attention on netbooks, however, does not take the gloss away from the “real” ultraportables out there. Sony’s “carbon-fibred”, 13-inch, Vaio Z for professionals (see below) was snapped up in no time, especially the S$3,199 base model with Intel Centrino 2, Core2 Duo P9500, and 3GB of RAM.

Damn, I had just bought my Fujitsu S6520 at the last show at the same price and this fella looks so much sharper.

If looks and portability don’t matter so much to you, then the bargain of the show in terms of laptops could be the S$899 Compaq Presario V3703AU. Sporting the regular Compaq Presario look, this 14-incher has a modest 1GB of RAM and runs on AMD’s TK57 Turion chip.

If you want a bit more power, and I’d suggest it since you’ll be running Windows Vista, there is the Presario V3844TU with Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 and 1GB of RAM going for S$100 more at S$999. Both are good deals for those looking for no-frills notebooks.

On the face of it – a rather “thin” face of it – Creative seems to have finally come up with a solid MP3 player with its Zen X-Fi.

This little gizmo is slim at just 12.8mm (a few credit cards thick) and should fit into the pocket well. Yet it has most of what the pricier – and longer – Apple iPod Touch has and more.

Wi-Fi? Check. Video playback (including DivX and WMV)? Check. SD card slot for additional expansion? Check.

Wait, there’s also built-in FM and a microphone, so it should come in handy for recording meetings and, for us reporters, for recording what interviewees say (and later deny!).

Best of all, the price is right. Creative’s online store is selling the 32GB version for S$399 – that’s less than the S$848 what Apple asks for its 32GB iPod Touch.

With such capacities, there’s finally enough capacity for the whopping 20+GB of music that is quickly expanding on my PC, thanks mainly to my encoding stuff in WAV instead of MP3 these days.

I’ve always said MP3 players, unlike computers, are lifestyle products and Apple’s done a better job with them than a “PC” company like Creative. But would you pay twice as much for a player with less stuff just to look cool?

I know I didn’t buy a Sony Walkman or Discman just because it’s Sony in the past – I bought an Aiwa or Panasonic that played (mostly) just as well. Now, after two iPods, maybe it’s time for me to consider Creative seriously.