Sony have just released their snappily named NWZ-W202 wearable MP3 player in the UK.  They’re available in 5 funky colour options from pink through to white. The Sony’s are in ear type headphones looking for all the world like a pair of Bluetooth phone headsets joined by a neck band.

Zappin is Sony’s solution to finding music when you don’t have a screen.  Essentially the headphones play either a long or short section of the chorus of each song and when you get to the song you want you select it.  There seems to be mixed opinions on the net as to quite how well this system works in practice though. 

The headphones have a multi-function jog dial, shuffle slide switch and volume rocker switch for music control.  At a price point of £59 the Sony’s seem to be aimed fairly and squarely at the new Apple iPod Shuffle however they only have 2GB of storage rather than the Apple’s 4GB. 

Rather neatly the headphones are magnetic and turn off when joined together.  When on their USB charging stand a 3 minute quick charge gives you 90 minutes of play time while a 90 minutes charge gives you 12 hours of non stop music. 

Supported file types are MP3, AAC and WMA (non DRM) with files being transferred using drag and drop.