Planex MZK-WDPR Rugby Router/touchscreen Media Player

Remember the unusually rugby-ball shaped Qisda router that was spotted leaping through the FCC back in early December?  The touchscreen media-player-cum-router has now been spotted – on sale – in Japan, as the Planex MZK-WDPR "Rugby" wireless network router.  As the Qisda manual suggested, the wireless networking device supports WiFi b/g/n, has a 3.5-inch color touchscreen and can play YouTube videos, locally stored media and internet radio stations.

There are stereo 1.5W speakers and 2GB of onboard memory; a miniUSB port is used to hook the MZK-WDPR up to a computer to transfer MP3s over.  Meanwhile a USB Host port will play nicely with a 3G modem.  You only get a single ethernet port, however, so you'd better be happy with wirelessly-connecting your clients.

While we still don't know when the router might arrive in the US – we're assuming that's the plan, given the FCC approval – Planex are already selling it in Japan.  It retails there for 24,800 yen ($275) which strikes us as simply too much for what you're getting; we'd rather set up a regular router (with more ethernet ports) and throw a Chumby One into the equation too.

[via Krunker]