Phillips Electronics announced that the company was planning to offer 'Active Crystal' in collaboration with Swarovski, a specialized company for Cristal. The 'Active Crystal' is comprised of 8 electronic devices including earphone and USB memory.

According to C. H. Chan, the head of the Home Entertainment Peripheral and Accessory Business Group at Phillips, "we have put our heart and soul into 'Active Crystal' in order to improve pragmatic aspects such as password protection, noise removal, and 1 GB capacity, as well as aesthetic aspects. It will take a unique position in the Masstige accessory market."

The price will be around 100$ for earphone and 200$ for USB, two or three times higher than existing devices and accessories. It will be sold at department stores, retail stores specialized for consumer electronics, and Swarovski shops by the next month.

Despite its splendid design, however, there are some needs to improve. For instance, because Bluetooth does not support the earphone, an earphone line is needed to connect MP3 player with it, which looks like cumbersome. The capacity of USB memory (1GB) needs to increase as well, considering that 2GB USB has been popularized.

The main characters of 'Active Cristal'

figure of Amazone(credit : Phillips)

'AMAZON' is a built-in earphone with a shiny stainless steel body and silvery fiber cable

figure of HEART BEAT(credit : Phillips)

figure of HEART WARE(credit : Phillips)

'HEART BEAT USB memory key' and 'HEART WARE USB memory key' are designed with a sensitive perceptivity typical of jack-a-dandies. They could be used as a pendant. They have the function of password protection and provide 1 GB capacity that can store about 250 MP3 music files and 1,000 JPEG pictures. They are contrived to easily attach to a ring of key or wallet. The picture is 'Heart Beat USB memory key.'

figure of ICON(credit : Phillips)

'ICON' is a built-in earphone with a shiny stainless steel body and silvery fiber cable. A well-carved Cristal dome makes it to look better. Its weight is under 20g, and a comfortable rubber pad is equipped.