AOL and Haier showcases Smartscreens Media Device by Haier

AOL and Chinese manufacturer Haier together showed a digital media player at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2007).

This player is a Wi-Fi-packing, hard-drive-based music and video player and it features a touch-pad interface. The device is called “Smartscreens Media Device by Haier” and it has text-based interface which the user can navigate by using their fingers on the touch pad below the gadget’s screen.

It support media purchased from the Windows Media supported stores like the Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo! It can also play MPEG4 and WMV videos over wired or Bluetooth wireless headphones.

The model showcased at the event featured a 30GB hard disk which is similar to the capacities provided by Zune and Apple iPod.

Joe DeAngelis, director of market development at AOL said that the owners of this product would be able to stream free Internet radio stations or download music from an online service through Wi-Fi 802.11g.

He added that the device will appear sometime in the second or third quarter of this year. No price points were revealed.