It’s hard for anybody with an iPod or iPhone to get excited about other brands of MP3 / media players (yes, there are still other brands). But truth be told there are still plenty of people without Apple’s golden child and plenty who won’t buy one because it’s Apple. For those folks, this forthcoming Walkman may be a good choice. In addition to direct encoding from CD and a nice overall look with what seems to be a pretty sharp 2″ LCD, the NW-S730F seems to have a hard case built-in (or at least included), saving you the $35 you’d have to spend on a similar hunk of plastic for your iPod Touch or iPhone. No word yet on pricing or availability in the U.S., but it goes on sale in Japan in October.

T3