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MP3 Player That Looks and Acts Like a Cassette

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If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, but sounds like Elvis Costello, it's probably from China


Chinavasion electronics is not the most reputable place to buy gadgets. It also has some hideous novelties screaming for attention, like the heart-shaped digital camera necklace. To be honest, much of the site reminds me of the Buy-From-Home catalogs I used to find on my doorstep when I was a kid. They were filled with trinkets and back-shed inventions claiming to fill a need I didn't know I had, like giant plastic bags to fit around a full leg cast to keep it dry while you bathe. Yet Chinavasion has one thing going for it: the Cassette MP3 player.


Where many MP3 players are trying to look and act like the iPod, this one looks and acts just like an analog cassette. You can play MP3s on it as you would expect, but get this: you can play it in a tape player, too. Just pop in the cassette, and it reads your MP3s. Neat! I would happily part with $22.95 just for the "check this out" privilege. $22.95 is way cheap. Too cheap, you ask? Probably. If you enlarge the photo on the product page, it looks a little like it was carved out of soap by one of America's many Ritalin-addicted kindergarteners. Still, I want one.

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