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MP3 Player News & Headlines
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.
Hey Microsoft, 250 GB for the Xbox 360 Won't Cut it
(PC World)
PC World - Swollen with thousands of save games, MP3s, videos, and full-game installs to counteract nettlesome DVD-drive noise, my Xbox 360 officially feels like a walk-in closet trying to squeeze into a shoe box.
Apple Tries To Bury Stock Options Controversy
Based on an analysis of the findings of the independent investigation, Apple has recognized additional non-cash stock-based compensation expenses of $84 million.
iTunes Hits Two Billion Sold Milestone
Apple today announced that more than two billion songs, 50 million television episodes and over 1.3 million feature-length films have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store.
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
Does The New Apple iPad Make a Great Portable Music Player? Since the official iPad announcement from Apple last Wednesday (Jan. 27), there's been a lot of talk in the blogsphere and gadget world about its features. According to an article from AppleInsider, the Apple iPad can play music for up to 6 days if you turn the screen off -- not ideal when browsing your music library! So, how about its other features? Does it have the potential for being a portable device that you can use for your digital music collection? An article from CNET, highlights deficiencies in the iPad that impact on its capabilities for being a great portable music player. For one, the iPad runs a version of the iPhone OS and not Mac OS, so it isn't capable of running the full version of iTunes. Instead, it acts just like an iPod or iPhone which you have to connect to your computer. CNET's article points out that wireless sync should have been a 'no brainer' when dealing with music files stored on your home network. Another downside according to the article was poor music playback via the built-in speakers. So, in light of these reported deficiencies, you might want to hold on to your portable music player a while longer before trading it in for a shiny new iPad. Image Courtesy of Apple. Related Articles:
Many have pointed out the advantages that the iPad has to offer when performing visual tasks such as: surfing the Web; reading e-books; writing email; and watching videos, but is it any good for listening to digital music?
Does The New Apple iPad Make a Great Portable Music Player? originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 09:00:17.
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Student to Challenge $675,000 Illegal Music Download Fine Boston PhD student, Joel Tenenbaum, who was found guilty of illegally downloading music in August 2009, is to challenge his $675,000 fine. The announcement which was made via his blog, details the new motion -- there's also a PDF file of the actual submitted document. In essence, the new motion is asking for a re-trial and for the fine to be reduced. Joel Tenenbaum's attorney, Charles R. Nesson, is arguing that in the original case ruling by Massachusetts district judge, Nancy Gertner, the issue of 'fair use' was wrongly decided. It is also argued in the new motion that the jury's damage ward for the 30 illegally downloaded songs is grossly excessive; this equates to $22,500 per song. It will be interesting to see if Judge Nancy Gertner deems the arguments worthy of a new trial. If not, Joel's only other argument reading the official document is to show that the $675,000 fine is grossly excessive and that it should be lowered to a 'reasonable amount' -- what ever that is? Related Articles:
Student to Challenge $675,000 Illegal Music Download Fine originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 08:54:48.
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iPad Tweets Hit 7,400 Per Minute; Plus iPad Accessories Regardless of whether you think the iPad is the best thing ever or slated for disappointment (Get it? Slated? As in iSla... never mind) one thing is true: It was certainly buzzworthy. According to the Retrevo "Buzzmeter" pictured above, the iPad reveal was a smashing success Twitterwise, averaging between 500 to 600 tweets per minute. At one point, Twitter activity actually peaked at 7,400 tweets per minute! This is not to be confused with twits per minute, though I'm sure Microsoft fanboys don't see a distinction at this point. In comparison, celebrity topics such as "Britney Spears" typically get 10 to 20 tweets per minute. I'm not saying that Britney is a passe example, but maybe they should've gone with someone like Lady Gaga (Quick Trivia: Did you know that "gaga" is Filipino for "foolish woman" while "gago" is the male version? In short, make sure you don't sing "Gaga, ooh la la" from "Bad Romance" in a Filipino store, especially around older women. Consider yourself warned.) Anyway, it looks like activity peaked at 10:30 a.m. when El Steve-o was going through specs. The Buzzmeter also hit 5,400 TPM when the device was announced in 10:10 a.m. and 4,900 at 11:30 as the event wrapped up. Other high points include the New York Times demo and the iBook store demo, proof that reading truly is fundamental. (Somewhere out there, the newspaper industry is crossing its downsized fingers.) In other news, iLuv just unveiled a who line of iPad accessories. Was that fast or what? It's almost like the commercials you see after the Superbowl congratulating fans of the winning team and saying commemorative shirts are available. The announcement was for a line of iLuv leather and fabric cases plus three kinds of screen protectors. Like I said in my blog of the iPad reveal, third-party manufacturers are likely squealing with joy right now. Photos © Retrevo; iLuv iPad Tweets Hit 7,400 Per Minute; Plus iPad Accessories originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 19:07:07.
Nook Availability Update and v1.2 Software Update Hey, remember the Nook? Leading up to Christmas, the Barnes & Noble eReader was the hottest thing, and appeared poised to give Amazon's Kindle a run for its money. But a slew of bugs, along with the impending arrival of Apple's mighty iPad relegated the Nook to the backburner. Despite the Nook's launch woes, Barnes & Noble still managed to sell a ton of the devices, which has been practically sold out. Until, now that is. An announcement at the Nook blog states that Nook availability is finally looking up. The device is now in stock online and is also supposed to be arriving in Barnes & Noble stores by the middle of the week, according to B&N. Apparently, the ladies love to read as B&N was extra-motivated to make the Nook extra-available right before Valentine's Day. B&N is also throwing in a few deals this month, including a short story from bestselling author Adriana Trigiani and a Valentine's Day recipe for red velvet cupcakes from Anne Byrn. Yes, guys, you can now start running for the hills. (One married co-worker of mine, actually got super-depressed after seeing Wal-Mart's Valentine's commercial during the Superbowl. Nothing against Wal-Mart, though. Dude's just flat out traumatized from past experience.) Speaking of the aforementioned bugs, B&N also released its second update for the Nook, and this appears to be a major one. Cosmetically, the most noticeable difference involves the new icons. But B&N says the update also includes: Meanwhile, a look at the comments on the blog, reveal that some people are still having problems after the update. While page swipe now appears to be working every time for some folks, some are apparently still having issues with it. Other problems reported by people include dictionary issues, lost page numbers and progress bars (for books being read prior to the update), lost libraries and freezing. Not sure, though, if this is actually widespread or simply a case of squeaky wheels getting the most attention. On the plus side, at least the device is now as available as a bachelor — warts and all. Photo © Barnes & Noble Nook Availability Update and v1.2 Software Update originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 00:01:08.
iPad Debut Disappoints Potential Buyers Apple's self-described "magical" and "revolutionary" device apparently wasn't magical and revolutionary enough for would-be buyers, according to a new survey. A followup survey by Retrevo found that interest in the iPad actually fell significantly after Apple unveiled the device as many consumers felt underwhelmed by its features. According to the survey, the number of respondents who said they were not interested in the device shot up from 26 percent prior to the official announcement to 52 percent. Likewise, the number of people who said they did not need an iPad jumped from 49 percent to 61 percent. The change in opinion is significant given the buzz leading to the iPad unveiling, which generated as many as 7,400 tweets per minute on Twitter at one point. Not only did the unveiling fail to convince new buyers about getting an iPad, it actually caused some buyers originally interested in the device to change their minds about buying one. Some of the device's shortcomings were addressed in our Apple iPad First Look article, along with other articles in our iPad Central page. In contrast, analysts actually were bullish on the iPad, with some predicting anywhere from 1 million to 5 million sales for the device in its first year. So who's right and who's wrong? I guess we'll start to find out after March. Photo © Apple iPad Debut Disappoints Potential Buyers originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 00:01:27.
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