Tiny MP3 players have become ubiquitous, but MiJam thinks you’ll want to use pocket-able toy-like music gadgets that make music. At about US$20 each (according to Technabob, these odd little devices purport to behave as musical instruments, down to what looks like either membrane or very slim buttons for keys:
miJamm Mini Lixx is supposed to be a guitar, with buttons for frets.
miniJamm Mini Drums has miniscule pads for drums.
Mini Keys is a faux-synth, with what looks like eight keys.
Mini Mixer pumps out a beat, digital effects of some kind, “scratch”, and whatever “voice” means, with tempo and volume controls.
miJam minis, via the handheld music making blog Palm Sounds
The idea with all of them is to plug your iPod through the devices, then jam along to tunes. For $20, it seems all they give you is headphone in and/or out and some sampled sounds. But I find myself strangely fascinated by how bizarre the whole concept is … and I wonder if it might be possible to create a device this small that actually was useful (albeit for more than $20).
All that’s missing: the world’s tiniest violin.
Stuff them in your pocket with last week’s pocketable device, the Pacemaker DJ MP3 player
This isn’t the first weird device idea to come from miJam. In December, they unveiled a $30 “scratch mixer” which also turned out to be just a device with some sampled sounds. iLounge reviewed the mixer, drum sticks, and “guitar.” Most were instruments in shape only, and the gizmos are intended as toys, but the ideas are still interesting. Of course, none is as surreal as the interactive iPod-compatible flower:
