Girls get the chance to shake their groove thing – the Samsung Tic Toc mp3 player

Portable Media & MP3 — By Naomi Mackay on July 17, 2010 9:00 AM

Here’s one for the girls – a cute little MP3 player with an unusual control system.

Samsung’s Tic Toc has only one button, which can be clicked to change the volume, and clicked three times to skip to the next album. A nifty motion control features allows other controls to be undertaken by shaking this palm-sized gadget (rather like the shake to shuffle feature on the iPod nano and Shuffle). Skip and pause tracks by holding the palm-sized gadget horizontally and shaking it to the right or left.

The pocket wonder measures just 35.9mm (so small enough to pop in a pocket or clip to clothes) and comes in a choice of pink, blue and black. The special ‘Hello Kitty’ version gives you a clue as to its target market (in fact I’m amazed there isn’t a sparkly option) – this is going to be one on many a young teenage girl’s Christmas list (sorry to mention that word so early in the year, but this player is due out in September, so it’s good timing for the festive season).

And that’s definitely where Samsung see it, as Georgina Franklin, head of Channel Marketing says: “The Samsung Tic Toc is perfect for young women who want the latest fashion gadgets. With so many features on such a small MP3 player, it really is the latest must-have colourful and fun accessory for music fans.”

So what about the other features? Well, it has four play modes and a voice guide (there’s no display). There’s a fast and slow play mode, which allows the user to select the right kind of songs for their mood or activity: fast if you’re going out for a run, slow for chilling out at home, doing your homework.

The player itself is white, with a coloured end, and comes with a patterned case with clip (which makes it look a bit like a cute lipstick) and matching earphones.

The voice guide (like the iPod Shuffle’s VoiceOver feature) tells the user the name of the artist and title of the song being played. For best sound quality, the Tic Toc features Samsung’s DNSe 3.0 (Digital Natural Sound Engine).

The player can handle MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg, FLAC and WAV files and offers a playback life of around 12 hours.

With a 2GB version at £39.99 and a 4GB option also available, the Tic Toc is set firmly at the iPod Shuffle crowd, coming in a few quid cheaper than Apple’s offering, but its candy colours and cute design (plus its novel control system) will definitely help it appeal to a younger crowd – although actually I rather fancy one myself…

Tags: fashion gadgets, iPod Shuffle, MP3, Samsung, Tic Toc