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MP3 Player News & Headlines
Spotify iPhone App Approved: Is Apple Relaxing its Rules?
(PC World)
PC World - Monday appears to mark an important Apple App Store milestone with the introduction of a European digital music service app called Spotify Mobile that competes squarely with iTunes. In the past Apple has barred programs from its App Store it viewed as offering features that duplicate functionality already available on the iPhone such as Google Voice.
Rhapsody streaming app approved for iPhones
(AP)
AP - RealNetworks Inc.'s subscription music service Rhapsody has been approved for use on iPhones and iPod Touches, the first time Apple Inc. has allowed an on-demand music streaming program on its devices in the United States.
iPod Nano to come with video camera
(AFP)
AFP - Apple announced on Wednesday that it was adding a video camera to its iPod Nano and cutting prices of its wildly popular music players.
SpeckTone Retro Stereo Speaker System for iPod
The SpeckTone Retro is one of the few iPod accessories that has caught our eyes recently. The fifties look of the all-wood speaker cabinet is finished with a high-gloss lacquered piano finish, and is a surprisingly nice complement to the modern look of iPods.
NAMM Update: Numark Announces HDX HD/CD/MP3 player
Numark announced the HDX, a tabletop HD/CD/MP3 player with an high torque, motorized 12-inch platter.
MP3 Tech Commentary
How Safe is Your Digital Music Collection? If you're looking for an external hard drive to backup your music and other media files, then you might be interested in a disaster-proof USB hard drive from Iosafe. If you've got an expensive music collection sitting on your computers' hard drive, then you probably know that given time your data store will eventually fail. If you're not content with a standard USB external hard drive to archive your important files, then Iosafe's Solo USB drive provides protection from both water (10 feet for 3 days) and fire (up to 1550 degs F for 30 mins). Prices start from $149.99 for 500GB, $229.99 for 1TB, and $299.99 for a 1.5TB drive. Image © Iosafe. Related Articles:
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.
Buying Guide: Before You Buy a Portable Media Player
Portable media players are, by definition, MP3 players which do much more than just play your favorite digital audio files. These specialized devices also let you watch your favorite television or movie programming in a portable format as well as letting you view lots and lots of your favorite digital photos. There are a lot of portable media players on the market today, so it is important to consider the most important features when making your selection. To get you thinking about these critical functions...read more
Free Music Downloads This Week In our music discovery mission this week, we showcase another selection of free promotional tracks that cover a wide range of genres designed to broaden your musical horizons. The free music downloads are:
The free promo song, The Foxes, by Erin McKeown is an interesting fusion of rock, pop, and an element of Jazz. Her newest album, Hundreds of Lions is due for release Oct. 13 (Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records).
- Skin Orders (2:53)
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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
Free Music Downloads This Week Here is another selection of free promotional tracks that you can download for free. These full songs will hopefully give you a good taster before purchasing the band/artist's music. The free music downloads this week are:
Superteen is a garage rock song from Care Bears on Fire which is featured on their new album, Get Over it! (S-Curve Records), available now.
- MySpace Transmissions Session (15:19)
- Do It Again (Blogula Remix) (3:42)
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Forum Question: What is your favorite portables gadget?
What is your favorite portable electronics gadget? An iPod? That shiny new PlayStation Portable? How about the hot selling Amazon Kindle 2 ebook reader? I've opened up a forum discussion on this topic in the Portable Electronics forums and would love to hear your opinions. Feel free to join the conversation!
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.
Product Preview: Philips GoGear Opus - A New Portable Media Player The upcoming Philips GoGear Opus digital audio/video player is certainly no exception to this rule of potential innovation. The company has tossed a number of useful functions into this device...read more
The Philips line up of GoGear portable media players has churned out over the years a steady stream of quality devices known for their sleek looks and easy to use interfaces. These forward thinking products also tend to come with new audio enhancements from Philips, itself a major player in the larger consumer electronics market.
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