Gigabeat
The Gigabeat was a line of digital media players by Toshiba.
The Gigabeat was first called the MobilPhile and later renamed to Gigabeat. It contained a monochrome LCD with blue backlighting, and a 5 GB removable PCMCIA hard drive. Its case was made of aluminum, and battery life is specified at 18 hours. It required music to be converted using the Toshiba Audio Application to an encrypted format. It has a circular dpad surrounding a smaller circular play/pause button, 2 menu buttons, side-mounted volume up/down buttons and a lock switch.
The Gigabeat G was first introduced during the Japanese WPC Expo in September 2003. The hard drive player features capacities from 5 GB to 40 GB, support for MP3, WMA and WAV sound files, USB 2.0, and integration with Windows Media Player. The device has a 160x86-pixel monochromic screen with blue backlighting. Battery life is specified at 11 hours. It is only available in Japan.
The Gigabeat G was updated and branded as the G21. This version offered some new features such as LAN addressing.
The Gigabeat F was released in September 2004. The hard drive player is available in capacities from 10 to 60 GB, and has a 2.2" 16-bit TFT LCD screen with a QVGA resolution. Battery life lasts up to 16 hours, and reportedly 19 hours if the backlight is set to 5 seconds. The Gigabeat F introduced a new controller called "Plustouch" which is a touch sensitive control system on a plus-shaped pad. Like the Gigabeat G, the player supports MP3, WMA (as well as protected WMA format), and WAV, but encrypts all uploaded files to a special SAT format.
In November 2005, Toshiba released simultaneous upgrades to the Gigabeat F's firmware and the Gigabeat Room software. An English version was released in March 2006. Problems with image transferring and distortion were solved, and an equalizer was added to the player.
The Gigabeat F is a popular candidate for alternative firmware with its rich screen, strong processor, ample storage capacities and simple hardware customisation capabilities. It shares hardware with the first generation of the Zune, is compatible with all Toshiba 1.8" hard drives (up to 80gb with the original firmware, more with third party firmware) and can take iPod replacement batteries with little or no modification.
The Gigabeat X was an update to the F series; changes included the dropping of the 40 GB version for a 30 GB version, and a 16-hour battery life. The X-series has a larger 2.4" 16-bit TFT LCD display, which enables it to display images. It also has a smaller body (similar to the future Gigabeat S) and raised Plustouch pad. It was sold primarily in Australia and various Asian countries.
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