By Richard Menta 5/11/06

A few weeks back Sony SVP Takao Yuhura announced an upcoming iPod killer and a new service to replace its fading Connect music download site. Unfortunately, Yuhura gave no details as to how or why this Sony player would be any different? Now MobileMag has picked up on Sony's latest entry, an 8GB unit called Sony NW-A1200.

8GB of flash memory would certainly gives this unit a foot up from the iPod nano and would be the key compelling draw for higher end users. Unfortunately, this player turned out to be a hard drive unit, so it is less compelling. The unit is also the first Sony to use the AAC format over Sony's own ATRAC3 codec. This doesn't mean the player can handle tracks purchased by iTunes as those files, while AAC, have Apple's DRM to contend with. The NW-A1200 gets 20 hours of lif on the charge and is expected to ship in the US in June.