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MP3 Player News & Headlines
Lala Could Help Apple Redefine 'Ownership' of Content
(NewsFactor)
NewsFactor - Having transformed the music business once with iTunes and iPods, Apple is getting ready to do so again with a web-based service, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. If so, the influential online music store could again change the industry by changing what it means to own a song.
France Telecom follows Apple's lead, launches applications
(Reuters)
Reuters - Taking a page out of Apple's book, France Telecom's mobile phone unit Orange launched its own shop to sell downloadable videos, games, music and other content to its 130 million mobile phone subscribers.
iPods Pose Risk of Hearing Damage
Listening to iPods for as little as 5 minutes a day can cause hearing loss.
Apple iPod Classic 160GB
(PC World)
PC World - If space is your primary concern when it comes to an MP3 player, this Apple-certified refurbished 160GB iPod Classic (previous generation) may be for you. Capable of storing up to 40,000 songs, it costs exactly as much as an 8GB iPod Touch (which holds only 1750 songs) and $50 less than a new iPod Classic. Better yet, it comes with Apple's one-year limited warranty, as well as a new battery, outer shell, and headphones.
Nokia to launch new music phone model
(Reuters)
Reuters - The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia is preparing to launch a new music-bundled phone, photos from the firm's website showed on Friday.
Griffin Intros 2007 Line Up
Griffin Technology today announced their 2007 lineup that will debut next week at the MacWorld Conference & Expo.
NAMM Update: iKey Plus Turns Audio Into MP3s
iKEY-Audio introduced the iKEY PLUS – a device that records live audio and converts it into high quality MP3 and WAV files and saves them directly to an iPod or another USB compatible storage device.
MP3 Tech Commentary
'7 Habits' Author Shifts eBook Rights to Amazon Traditional book publishers suffered another blow in the eBook arena as a popular business author moved the rights to electronic versions of two of his works to a company that will sell them exclusively at Amazon. Stephen R. Covey, author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," has shifted the eBook rights of the aforementioned work and a book yet to be published to RosettaBooks, the New York Times reports. The eBook rights used to be held by Simon & Schuster — the same company that recently announced it would delay eBook versions of 35 big titles in 2010 by four months after the hardcover release. One of the big winners in the deal is Amazon, which will have exclusive rights to selling the eBook versions of the two titles for one year. Upping monetary gains for authors is apparently one habit of highly successful eBook publishers when it comes to getting rights. Covey is set to earn "more than half of the net proceeds" that RosettaBooks rakes in from the Amazon deal. In contrast, the normal digital rate from traditional publishers is 25 percent. Even Covey's son said the higher royalty rate was a factor in the switch. With eBook readers gaining even more popularity, it would be interesting to see how traditional publishers respond. One thing's for sure: Those contracts they write up now are definitely going to include "eBooks" and "digital distribution" in them. Photo © Amazon '7 Habits' Author Shifts eBook Rights to Amazon originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 00:58:48.
So How's That Kindle 2.3 Update Treating You? Is the third time of the second time a charm? With Amazon dropping its Kindle 2.3 update around Thanksgiving, Kindle owners have had plenty of time taking it out for a spin. So is it everything you hoped it would be? Or was the update weighed, measured and found wanting? Personally, I think native support for more file formats would've been nice. But that's just me. If you happen to have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the quick lowdown on the Kindle 2.3 update. So How's That Kindle 2.3 Update Treating You? originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 00:07:49.
Timing the Weather Recently, the portables site featured a talking clock in this very space. Certainly, a voice-enabled clock is nice and all. But if you equate the ability to talk with nagging, then perhaps you prefer the strong, silent type. Enter, the Ambient Flurry clock. While this clock doesn't talk, it does offer a pretty neat feature — the ability to tell you the weather. Hey, isn't that how small talk usually starts? On that note, feel free to check out my Ambient Flurry review. Timing the Weather originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 00:01:52.
Free Music Downloads This Week Here's another round up of free music downloads from artists and bands that you might not have come across. Our aim every week is to bring you musical talent covering various genres that will hopefully broaden your musical tastes. The free promotional tracks this week are: Artist/Band: Nneka Hip Hop artist Nneka has teamed up with Brooklyn-based DJ/Producer J. Period and are due to release a new mixtape album entitled, The Madness (Onye-Ala) -- due out Dec. 15th. As a bonus, there's also a second free track Changes (J.Period Remix) ft. M-1 & General Steele) that you can download from J. Period's website. Artist/Band: You Say Party! We Say Die! This free promotional song from Canadian band, You Say Party! We Say Die!, or more frequently referred to as YSP!WSD!, is taken from their latest album, XXXX, (Paper Bag Records) and is now available digitally on the iTunes Store . Artist/Band: Findlay Brown As a Christmas gift for his fans, Findlay Brown is giving away his cover version of Wham's Christmas classic, Last Christmas; you can either stream this song or download it. Related Articles:
Genre(s): Hip Hop / Soul
Free Music Download: Walking (J. Period Remix) Feat. Jay Electronica (3:52)
Genre(s): Dance Punk / New Wave
Free Music Download: Dark Days (4:47)
Genre(s): 60s/70s
Free Music Download: Last Christmas (3:38)
Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 15:23:46.
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Free Music Downloads This Week This week we bring you another selection of free tracks for your listening pleasure. As always, the free MP3 music is full-length and will hopefully give you a good idea about the sound that the artist/band produces before you purchase their music. This blog is also about trying to bring you new music that you might not have otherwise discovered; listening to the following free music will hopefully broaden your musical tastes and introduce you to some new undiscovered genres. The free music downloads this week are:
- Apple Jelly (4:17)
- Salvation (3:23)
Related Articles:
- Top 5 streaming music sites
- How to use iTunes to get free radio and TV shows
- Jamendo music service review
Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 09:00:53.
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Hercules XPS 2.140 'Slim' is No Lightweight Back in the day when mullets and acid-wash jeans didn't cause people to point and laugh, boomboxes were the hot thing when it came to moving your music from room to room. My, how times have changed. With the advent of digital music, yours truly has since switched to listening to music via a laptop or MP3 player connected to portable speakers. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Which brings us to our featured review for the day, the Hercules XPS 2.140 Slim (I dare you to say that really fast 10 times). Yeah, the "Slim" feature for the left and right satellite speakers is nice and all. But being the typical guy that I am, it's that subwoofer that really has my testosterone flowing. So did the speaker set fulfill my oh-so manly, Herculean expectations? Find out in my (take a deep breath) Hercules XPS 2.140 Slim review. (Boy, that's quite a mouthful to say.) Photo © Guillemot Corporation S.A. Hercules XPS 2.140 'Slim' is No Lightweight originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 01:52:25.
Two Publishers Delay eBook Versions of Books If you like to exclusively get your new books via their "e" version, be prepared to wait, at least if they're coming from these two publishers. According to the Wall Street Journal, Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group will be delaying their eBook version releases — 35 big titles for Simon & Schuster in early 2010 and a "vast majority of titles" for Hachette. Lead times for hardcover books will be four months for Simon & Schuster and about three to four months for Hachette. The news comes at a time when the eBook reader industry is experiencing huge sales growth. Simon & Schuster says the delay is a move that must be done now before the eReader install base reaches a level that would make implementing a delay impossible (I guess it's kind of like how newspapers now are having a hard time charging for online content after offering it for free for so long. I'm specifically talking about changing the consumer mind set, of course). The CEO of Hachette sounded even more dire, calling the move necessary for the preservation of the industry while describing the $9.99 typically charged for eBooks as "bargain-basement" pricing. In short, they're not making as much money off eBooks as they do with real books. 'Kind of reminds me of the ruckus raised by the music industry when digital music downloads first started to take off. So what do you think of the move? Regardless, it would be interesting to see if more publishers follow suit. Photo © Barnes & Noble Two Publishers Delay eBook Versions of Books originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 02:37:25.
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