LEGO-Style Homade MP3 i-Player from Brando

You know, in a world that puts so much emphasis on iPods, the "Homade" MP3 i-Player from Brando almost has the potential to steal some of Apple's thunder away from them. With the addition (and success) of their iPod Shuffle, Apple proved to the world that you didn't need a display screen to enjoy your music. While most people agree that a display is nice to have, the economical gadget addict is fine without a way to see what audio track is playing. This has given gadget makers on the lower-end of the price/quality spectrum to get creative with their MP3 player designs and this is where Brando's little device comes in.

The Homade MP3 i-Player from the Hong Kong-based company best known in the electronics world for its fairly bizarre and bizarrely cheap USB products, has come up with a product that could be tempting lawsuits from a number of different places. Designed to look like a LEGO-brand building block, this "i-Player" is so similar, pictures not providing scale to a real 8-studded Lego piece might lead one to believe this is a licensed product--which it is not. In fact, if you buy two or more of these you can't even stack them.

LAME.

But, still, there are some merits to this diminutive little guy.

For starters, it's small. The 28x58x17mm dimensions make it a size-competitor to Apple's iPod Shuffle. A real LEGO brick, by the way, is 15x30x10mm while a Shuffle comes in at 25x40x10mm. Another nice thing about Barndo's player is that, while it has no on-board memory, it can read microSD (Transflash) cards of up to 2GB capacity. The most adorable aspect of this player is that to control playback, you press the studs. Isn't that the cutest?

An unfortunate aspect of the Homade MP3 i-Player is that it's "Homade."

Really, Brando? Your player is made by a ho? That's just mean.

Sorry--tough one to resist. Regardless, you've got to love that language barrier. Sometimes it's almost porous, other times it's a big old brick wall.

The other concern in picking up one of these would be battery-life. On something this small from a company like Brando, it's a little scary dropping the $45 cost (plus shipping from Hong Kong) without the Homade's product page listing battery life. They do explain that the i-Player supports MP3 and WMA, Windows 2000/XP/Vista (though odds are, it'll mount on a Mac, too) and that it's available in five colors, red, blue, yellow, white and green. So, order at your own risk.