The other day at a trade show I got some hands-on experience with the Archos 7 media tablet. You can see the results in the video above, but what I really wonder is who the market for these devices is. They're not easily controllable enough to have a good web experience. The streaming media is good, but if you're in wi-fi range of your server, then why would you need to stream?

BBC's iPlayer has been one of the runaway successes of the last few years, with viewers queuing around the block to download and re-watch, or catch up on, TV programs and radio shows from the past week.

The BBC has just announced, however, that programs downloaded from the iPlayer will now be viewable on any device which support Windows Media DRM, which will include the Sony Walkman E and S series, Archos 605 Wi-Fi and Internet Media Tablet, the Philips GoGear 52xx series, Samsung YP-P2 and YP-Q1 and Nokia N96. Phew. I'm exhausted after all that linking.

The BBC is building a list of compatible players, so if you're in doubt as to whether your device will be supported, you should check that first. There won't be any streaming malarky either - you'll need to download the programs from your PC and then sideload them to your PMP.

BBC iPlayer (via Broadband TV News)

Related posts: Now you can listen to iPM on iPlayer on iPhone, iirc | iPlayer marches on: catch-up TV service coming to Nokia N96

This is the Trekstor iBeat Cody, a portable media player with a 3.5" screen. Lucy used to hate Trekstor, but this is making her change her mind, so it's worth a look. It has a rather basic interface, but Lucy insists that's a good thing. Watch the video and see if you agree.

Trekstor

Related posts: TrekStor launches the i.Beat Move movie player in the UK | Shiny Video Review: Trekstor iBeat Sonix MP3 player

Aside mentioning the radio twice and entirely forgetting to talk about the A2DP Bluetooth functionality, I just about managed to get it all across about the lovely SPINN from iRiver. Oh, and the general sound quality is pretty damn excellent as well. One thing I would say is buy yourself some kind of cover for it or you'll scratch up the screen which is probably the best feature. I haven't even dared to take the cellophane off this one.

iRiver

Related posts: iRiver Aquabeat - music while you swim | iRiver's miniature T7 Volcano

If your ideal evening is installing something, realising it doesn't work very well, trying to reinstall it again then taking it all off and putting the original version back on before eventually getting to bed with very sore eyes at 3.47am, you're well within the target demographic of Rockbox and its custom MP3 player firmware.

Upgrading older iPods (up to fifth-gen, but not the Touch) and numerous models by Creative, Sandisk and the likes of Archos and iRiver, Rockbox 3.0's main boast is adding OGG and FLAC playback support to these common players, also opening up locked devices for easy use as an external HD...

Oh, so that's what happened to your previous phone. And your previous MP3 player. And your previous laptop. And your previous house keys, wallet, trainers, watch and coat.

A survey by security firm Credant Technologies asked London cabbies what devices they've found in the backs of their cabs recently, coming up with the amazing figure that more than 60,000 gadgets have been forgotten in taxis by people we would assume to have been massively intoxicated, over the last six months.

The survey did not ask the cabbies if they attempted to return the items to their owners, or just hacked them open, ripped the SIM cards out and flogged them on eBay in lieu of getting a tip.

Among all of the moderately large announcements made by his Holiness the Jobs at the Apple music conference, one that slipped by relatively unnoticed was the release of the new Apple headphones which, for a change, are not rubbish.

The new in-ear buds will sadly not come free with the pods, nanos and touches but can be yours for a teeth-gritting outlay of £55. Of course you can stick with the legendarily bad regular ones - these are compressed music files we're talking about after all - but there is the added advantage that the new ones will stay in your head.

So ladies and gents, here I am in London, England, in a functional, if unspectacular, business centre that Apple has hired out for the day to bring us their conference and vision for the near future. As we've all expected, the focus of the event looks to be the music side of their business and I'm sure I'd be very excited by the "Let's Rock" slide I can see on the screen at the front if Kevin Rose hadn't broken the news about iTunes 8 last week.

It's a rainy day outside and the hall is half full of journalist from all over Europe and half full of Apple's guests who will doubtless whoop and applaud at every announcement. To my right is Shiny Shiny's Susi Weaser complete with nasty cold and husky tones . Say hello, Susi. She says hi.

There's a general hubbub, the lights have gone down and typing is going to get tricky without an illuminated keyboard. Here we go.