It was just a week ago that we brought you the rumors surrounding the iRiver Clix 3 and its potential delay in release. Rumors are again streaming around the net except this time the rumors have nothing to do with the release date but instead surround pictures of the device.

It was September 19th that iRiver gave a presentation of their upcoming PMPs of the fourth quarter and beyond, but it appears that individuals have been analyzing the presentation for potential deeper meaning. iRiver were evidently throwing around subtle hints about their upcoming iRiver Clix 3 according to some iRiver fans. The rumors stem from one of the beginning images in the presentation as shown below:

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Staples.com has the 1GB Creative ZEN Stone for $35, which includes free shipping.

Not too shabby if you need a MP3 player for working out. Might make a good gift idea too. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is good for 10 hours worth of music and the player also includes support for Audible.com’s audio book format.

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Hot on the heels of its Zune refresh, Microsoft is changing leadership at its portable digital music player division. The company has appointed Rick Thompson to corporate vice president, who will replace most of the biz dev duties previously performed by J Allard, according to Microsoft spokesman Brian Eskridge. Allard is a corporate vice president with Microsoft’s entertainment and devices unit, and will reportedly continue to oversee design aspects of the Zune. According to MarketWatch, Lee had been tasked with attracting music companies to provide content for the Zune, "a challenge, given that the Zune has so far garnered a relatively small number of users."

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A relatively unknown Chinese company, Ocean Leader Development, has devised an unusual design approach to its OL-18H media player. Similarly to the external display on the Sony Ericsson z610i, the 1.8-inch screen on the 18H uses a "magic mirror" design, seemingly vanishing when not in use. The player is otherwise fairly unremarkable: it plays MP3 and WMA audio files, as well as MPV, MPEG-1/2 and AMV video — the last being a format typically limited to China.

The player also has a built-in speaker and FM radio tuning, as well as voice recording. Red, blue, black and silver colors are mentioned, but oddly, storage capacity is not. No prices are publicly available.

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LG Electronics has just introduced in South Korea its new home theater all-in-one, the HT972TR, which comes loaded with a integrated CD/DVD player and has a total power of 1000W, distributed in 5 speakers with 155W and a subwoofer with 255 W. The vertical design is original and stands out from every other home theater system out there, but the main appeal of the HT972TR is the touchscreen buttons on the front, that are inspired and look just like the navigation buttons on the LG Chocolate cellphone.

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The latest in Yamaha’s series of “Digital Sound Projectors” takes the critically-acclaimed virtual surround technology found in their larger YSP series and shrinks it down to a box that’s just 24-inches wide. (The full-sized models are around 40-inches wide).

The YSP-500 reflects sound from 18 individual sound drivers to deliver truly immersive surround with only a single box. Just like it’s bigger siblings, the box has all the requisite digital and analog inputs for DVD players and other audio sources.

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JVC has used its time spent at Japan’s CEATEC technology show to demonstrate what it says is the first LCD panel with a 180Hz refresh rate. The 32-inch sample display uses a custom algorithm that can successfully interpolate a typical HDTV feed, which runs at 60Hz, and insert two frames of its own. This improvement cancels out much of the blur in fast movement, even when compared to today’s premium 120Hz sets. Images often appear sharper even if the TV runs at a lower resolution, according to JVC.

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Capilano Audio’s new Tyee dipolar speaker brings together Aurum Cantus and Supravox drivers in a very interesting design. The tweeter is an Aurum Cantus G2 aluminum ribbon with response reaching to 40kHz. Midrange frequencies are handled by a Supravox 215 field coil driver, while the bass is produced by either a Supravox 400 field coil woofer or Capilano’s new proprietary woofer with a 96dB efficiency rating. The speakers are biamplified and power is supplied to the woofers by a proprietary solid state 50 watt Marchand Electronics amplifier. The low-pass crossover is adjustable from 50 – 150Hz, and up to 6dB of boost can be added to compensate for the woofer’s natural low frequency roll-off for flat response down to 23Hz.

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The new Tensor line from Germany’s Adam Audio consists of three floor standing speakers featuring their HexaCone woofers, ART (advanced ribbon technology) folded ribbon midranges, and extended range ART folded ribbon tweeters. Adam Audio claims the ART tweeters provide more open and natural highs with better dispersion than conventional ribbon or dome tweeters. The baby of the range is the 79lb. Gamma ($8199), which stands 43.3" high and utilizes a single X-ART tweeter, ART midrange, and two 8" HexaCone woofers powered by individual 100 watt amplifiers mounted in a frontrear bipolar configuration.

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