Toshiba has launched an Ipod-style player called a Gigabeat that can hook into Napster's subscription based music download service. It is about the size of a ten-pack of cigarettes, coloured white like the original Ipod, and comes in 10GB, 20Gb, 40GB and 60Gb versions at prices ranging from £200 to £300.

It has a bright polysilicon 2.2in full-colour QVGA screen and comes with a USB 2.0 cradle that can also be used for charging. There are two buttons on the cradle: one synchronises files with a PC (no Mac version is yet available) and the other rips tracks from a CD.

The device supports USB On-the-Go, which means that it can download pictures directly from a camera. There is one rather odd drawback: you can't view the pictures without first uploading them to a PC and then transferring them back using supplied management software that translates them into a format the Gigabeat can read.

It supports WMA, MP3, WAV formats and DRM9 and DRM10 digital rights management. Toshiba claims a 16-hour battery life and it seems that you have to return the Gigabeat for a replacement if the battery dies completely - one feature shared with the Ipod that is not likely to be popular with users