GreenHouse releases shuffle-like KanaSD

The Japanese company GreenHouse has released a new audio player, the KanaSD. Although limited to MP3 and WMA files, there are two key features to the Kana: the first is size, strongly comparable to Apple's iPod shuffle, which also deliberately omits a screen. But the most crucial may be storage capacity, since rather than use internal flash, the Kana relies on SD, MMC and SDHC cards. This drops the price of the actual player, and gives owners the option of memory between 32MB and 8GB, and possibly more as SDHC cards grow closer to 32GB.

Also differentiating the player is a more conventional USB 2.0 port, instead of the headphone dock employed by the shuffle. A Windows XP, 2000 or Vista PC is required; rakuda-net is selling black and silver Kanas for 2,280 yen ($19). [via Akihabara News]