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MP3 Player News & Headlines
Lawyer: Song swapper on trial doing `what kids do'
(AP)
AP - A Boston University graduate student was "a kid who did what kids do" when he swapped songs through file-sharing networks like Kazaa, his lawyer said Tuesday as his copyright-infringement trial began.
Two New iPod Games Announced
Electronic Arts today announced the availability of two new games for the fifth generation iPod – EA Sudoku and Royal Solitaire.
Apple Intros New Mac minis; More Expensive, More Powerful
Apple today unveiled two new Mac mini computers with the Intel Core Duo processor. The new models are more powerful, and at $599 and $799, more expensive than ever.
Spotify Readies iPhone App for Its Streaming Music Service
(PC World)
PC World - On-demand music streaming company Spotify is readying an iPhone client for its service, and expects to release it in a matter of weeks.
Apple Pumps Down the Volume
Apple today announced a software update for the iPod nano and fifth generation iPod, that lets customers set their own personal maximum volume limit.
Otafuku Rex; Mix Them, Mash Them Up
The new band Otafuku Rex has debuted their music video, Do Me, I'm the Best, and is inviting fans to get in on the action and create their own remixes by mashing up the groups video and music, adding in their own music and video, and sending the results to friends.
AP sources: Apple, labels work on album `Cocktail'
(AP)
AP - Apple Inc. and the four major recording labels are working on launching in the fall a music offering code-named "Cocktail" that aims to add value to digital albums sold on the online iTunes Store, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.
MP3 Tech Commentary
Free Music Downloads This Week In the music spotlight this week, we bring you another selection of promotional tracks that cover a wide spectrum of genres. The free music downloads this week are:
Repeaterbeater is an indie/progressive rock track from Danish band, Mew. Their forthcoming album, No More Stories is due for release in the U.S. on Aug. 25 (Columbia Records).
- Almost Never (3:23)
- Butter EP Version (4:33)
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New netbook can double as touchscreen portable media player The Touch Book is notable because it sports a detachable keyboard and 3D touchscreen user interface. This design choice, in effect, allows this netbook to become a touchscreen only device which can work as a standalone portable media player or handheld gaming machine. The screen size is 8.9-inches and it can run for up to 15 hours on its rechargeable battery.
Key features of this multi-form factor netbook include storage done by a micro SD memory card, built-in speakers, a headphone jack, multiple USB ports and open source software. It is said that the Touch Book will be available in late spring for a starting price of around $300. More details can be found on the Touch Book Web site.
Photo credit: Always Innovating
Netbooks – smaller, inexpensive laptop computers primarily designed for light functions such as Web browsing and checking email – are becoming extremely popular, especially in this downtrodden economy. Innovation is something possible in this category at the moment, and a small company by the name of Always Innovating is attempting such a feat with its new Touch Book netbook computer.
Free Music Downloads This Week Starting this week, we're planning to bring you cutting edge digital music by providing links to free promotional music tracks. As well as showcasing forthcoming releases from major bands and artists, we'll also be highlighting new and up-and-coming talent that offer free music in order to gain that much needed exposure. One of the great benefits of using free music discovery resources is being able to 'try before you buy' without the financial risk of a blind purchase. The promotional tracks that we're going to showcase every week will hopefully give you a wide variety of styles and sounds to experience. Here are the tracks in our spotlight this week:
This 17 minute monster mix showcases DJ Paul Oakenfold's new 21-track album, Perfecto Vegas, which will be released by Thrive records on July 7 - available in stores nationwide and via digital download.
- Little Wildcat (3:48)
- Sleepwalking (3:40)
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- Top 5 streaming music sites
- Free music download services
- How to use iTunes to listen to thousands of free radio stations
Michael Jackson Song Downloads Top 1.9 Million In a Week Following on from Michael Jackson's death almost 3 weeks ago, digital sales of his music continue to be buoyant. According to the latest sales figures by Nielsen SoundScan, over 1.9 million songs were downloaded in the U.S. this past week. Overall, global digital sales have exceeded 8.1 million tracks since Michael Jackson's passing. Another interesting analysis of Nielsen SoundScan's sales figures is how quickly sales of his digital albums eclipsed physical ones shortly after his demise; 57 percent of albums purchased were in the digital form. However, this has now shifted back this past week to 90 percent physical sales versus 10 percent digital. These figures highlight the important role that digital music services play when consumers want to instantly own music. Even though physical sales remain strong there is a growing trend for music fans to turn to digital tracks for their on-demand needs. Data Source © Nielsen SoundScan Related Articles:
Publisher Hearst said to be preparing "periodicals" ebook reader Now comes word today, via the magazine Fortune, that mega-publishing empire Hearst is planning to launch a wireless e-reader of its own. What is reportedly different about this reader from other ones already offered is that it will be around the size of a standard piece of paper and targeted towards publishers like Hearst. The end result? A specialized, larger screen format reader which lets you subscribe to magazines and newspapers for wireless delivery.
It is said this new ereader, perhaps available by the end of this year, will be able to serve up ads mixed amongst the print content you are reading on the display. This may help throw a lifeline to print publications, most of which are seeing sharply declining revenues in the changing economy as well as how people look for information today. A number of well known publications have already folded, or are close to folding, so any additional ways for them to reach readers might be worth consideration.
Ebook readers continue to draw interest in the news and among consumers, mostly because of Amazon's newest model now available for purchase. The Kindle 2, which was previewed here recently, is drawing some early praise from consumers and reviewers alike. It has highlighted this product category so much, in fact, that we now have a buying guide for related products and features to consider.
Voice Removal Software: Eliminate Vocals from Your Songs Have you ever listened to a song and thought, "love the music, hate the singing". In this situation, you can use a software audio tool that specializes in trying to filter out the frequencies of the human voice. Vocal removal can be a time consuming process that involves experimentation with various audio sources, but satisfactory results are achievable. The biggest stumbling block with voice removal is the nature of the music source. If you have a highly compressed song for example that has low quality audio data, then the chances of removing the vocals are poor. On the other hand, if you are working on a high quality audio file that has a good stereo image with vocals that are center-panned, then your chances of vocal removal are much higher. Overall, it really depends on how the song has been mixed and the frequencies involved.
There's a lot of fun to be had experimenting with the songs in your music library, and with an investment in time (and a little luck), you can produce some great results. For more information on removing vocals from songs, why not read our guide on Free Software for Removing Vocals. Related Articles:
Product Preview: Digital Foci Photo Book - A New Portable Digital Photo Viewer The Digital Foci Photo Book is a portable digital album with an eight-inch, 800 x 600 LCD display set in a soft leather-like case. This case, described as a portable album, doesn't completely address the desires of a more traditional photo album in digital form, but its design is better suited for passing around while sitting in a living room or during a business presentation...read more
Image copyright: Digital Foci
A problem some have with the look and feel of portable digital image viewers is that, as cold metal devices, they don't capture the warmth of the images they are displaying. Some hope instead a digital photo viewer could look a little more like photo albums of old. Digital Foci is trying to capture at least part of that sentiment in a new “digital photo album.”
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