Moving with the trend seen at the electronics trade fair in the U.S. this year, Haier and AOL have teamed up to release a new brand of the Wi-Fi player. This player, currently named the Smartscreens Media Device, will include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 30GB hard drive and support MPEG4 and WMV for video on its Linux-based operating system.

The Chinese giant manufacturer of home appliances and the U.S. global Web services company displayed the hard-drive based music and video player in the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the United State on January 15, 2007. In addition to WMV and MPEG4 videos, the wittingly-named device plays music and works with music stores supporting Windows Media, but the real special feature is that the player supports WiFi and Bluetooth connections. The WiFi enables it to directly download music from an open WiFi network through the Linux OS that it runs on, as well as streaming internet radio. Audio can be then listened to through wireless Bluetooth headphones.

The Linux OS framework that runs this audio and video gadget was designed in such a way that allows individual software developers and prospective partners, to be able to write and add their own applications to run on the device. The device itself is not much to look at, having a touchpad and 4 buttons below the screen for navigation. If nothing else the Smartscreens Media Device looks sturdy and even potentially bullet proof if it weren't for a broken button on the display model. And best of all, it appears that this player has a stainless steel look to it. Hopefully there are some plans for some type of skins to add some personality to this otherwise interesting gadget.

Viewed as a landmark of the promising partnership of Haier and AOL , this player is just in the initial phases. Availability is expected towards the middle or end of this year, and there is no word on price at the moment.

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