Advancing the market for in-car digital music, Sony Electronics today announced an AM/FM CD/MP3 receiver capable of storing up to 500 of your favorite tracks and receiving music directly from your computer to your car stereo.

The new receiver has 1GB of flash memory and a USB port engineered into the faceplate. When the faceplate is removed from the receiver and connected to a Windows(R) enabled PC, it is recognized as an external drive. With the provided USB cable, users can quickly transfer and save MP3 and WMA files to the faceplate.

The Xplod MEX-1GP (Giga Panel) model also supports playback of CD-R/RW discs, including those recorded with content purchased from Sony's CONNECT(TM) online music store. Due to the unique ATRAC3/3plus playback capability of this receiver, it can play compressed music files burned onto a CD.

The new receiver is finished in high-gloss black with a 13-segment LCD display for simple navigation of track and title information. The screen displays album, artist and track name when playing downloaded music files. Users can shuffle or repeat tracks, albums or personalized groups through controls on the faceplate or with the supplied remote control.

The MEX-1GP unit has a built-in 208-watt power amplifier and a three-band equalizer enabling clear, rich sound. The selectable rear/subwoofer preamp outputs, controls the frequency and output level of an external amplifier.

It comes supplied with a wireless remote control and will be available in February for about $350.