Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

When it comes to spending my paycheck, next to paying off student loans and other debt accrued during college, most of my money goes towards the latest DVDs and gadgets. So when my portable DVD player broke on a recent trip to Paris, I wasn't saddened as you might assume. In fact, I took this as an omen that it was past time for me to upgrade.

I decided to use this as a time to streamline my devices and thought I’d try upgrading to the newest iPod, as I was still using one of the bulky, first generation mini iPods (if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, right?). After spending more than $300 on the iPod, only to find out that my Mac operating system was too old to accommodate, I spent another $200 for an upgrade disc, and then another $250 on an external hard drive that I needed in order to backup all my music before I could upgrade. More than $750 later, my iPod finally works, but I’m left with little money to purchase movies from iTunes. And let’s hope that I don’t get the urge to watch them on my television at home, as Apple TV would cost me another $299-$399. I love gadgets, but I don’t like spending so much money to get all the functions to work.

You can imagine my excitement when I received my daily email update from Men.Style.com with a number of the hottest new Personal Media Players. Among those featured were the PSP, Palm Lifedrive, Creative PVP and iRiver PMC-120. However, the coolest one in the bunch was the Archos AV700.

Boasting just as many features as the iPod, and then some, the Archos media players, available in a number of options, allows users to transfer up to 40,000 songs, 800,000 photos or 100 feature length films. It doesn’t stop there though.

Using the WiFi connection, users can stream media from their home computer or surf the web directly from the device. And if you think the seven-inch, touch screen is too small to watch with friends – I promise everyone is going to be looking over your shoulder at this system – simply connect it to your home TV for big screen viewing (popcorn not provided).

If that’s still not enough, try purchasing the Archos DVR Station. Just connect it to your TV and you’re ready to record up to 400 hours of MPEG-4-quality video. With units starting at around $400, with another $99 for the DVR Station, you’ll have plenty of money left over for any one of Archos accessories, like the handy Helmet Camcorder. Looks like someone just took a big bite out of the Apple.