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MP3 Player News & Headlines
Sensory Speech Chip, Listens, Talks, Plays Music
(PC Magazine)
PC Magazine - Sensory, which manufactures speech recognition chips for consumer electronics, on Tuesday announced the NLP-5X, a next-generation chip that recognizes and plays back speech, sound samples, and MIDI files, all for as little as $2.
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.
Apple Intros 8GB iPod nano Red
Apple today announced a new 8GB model of the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition. The new 8GB iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED Special Edition holds up to 2,000 songs and is available for $249, joining the 4GB model priced at $199.
Man Destroys iPod In A Blender
Blendtec, a company that makes heavy duty blenders, is destroying iPods to help sell $400 blenders.
Afrikaans rappers takes Internet by storm
(Reuters)
Reuters - A South African Afrikaans rap group has taken the Internet by storm with explicit in-your-face lyrics, provocative performances and using cyberspace to promote their music.
MP3 Tech Commentary
Omniphone to Use Dolby Laboratories' Cloud Music Format Omniphone, which provides cloud-based music services for major consumer electronics vendors, has annouced that it has struck a deal with Dolby Laboratories to use its new Dolby Pulse audio format. Boasting up to 4 times more bandwidth and data rate efficiency compared to other file formats, Dolby Pulse is a multi-platform file format especially suited for music delivery from the 'cloud'. If you're not familiar with this buzzword, then it's simply just another term to describe Internet-based solutions. In the case of Dolby Pulse, this file format is particularly suited for delivering streaming music to mobile devices, and other consumer electronics that use streaming audio -- home computers, in-home or in-car devices that use digital music services are examples.
Omniphone intend to use the software that Dolby Laboratories supply (Dolby Media Generator) to encode their entire music catalog that currently contains over 6.5 million tracks. Looking at the inner-workings of Dolby Pulse, the file format is basically the same as the HE-AAC (High Efficiency AAC) format, but differs by the integration of Dolby metadata -- this ensures the quality and consistency of the broadcast is maintained. Kevin Yeaman, who is the president and CEO of Dolby Laboratories said, "As digital content services and networked devices become part of our day-to-day lives, the ability to deliver digital content in the most efficient file format becomes increasingly important." So far this is the second article this year concerning new music formats --will this year see the largest change in how digital music services deliver audio? Related Articles:
Omniphone to Use Dolby Laboratories' Cloud Music Format originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 07:36:14.
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Bear Hands Celebrate New Single With Free Music Downloads Brooklyn-based indie band, Bear Hands, are celebrating the imminent release of their new single, What a Drag, by giving it away as a free download on their Website. Until it's officially released (16 Feb. 2010 / Cantora Records), you can download it and another 2 free songs (Can't Stick Em, What a Drag (Cale Parks Mix)) simply by providing your email address and following the link sent to your inbox. As well as the new song, Bear Hands have also got a limited edition 7" vinyl that is being released at the same time. For more information, visit their Website. Related Articles:
Bear Hands Celebrate New Single With Free Music Downloads originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 07:25:33.
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HP Slate Tablet Sets Sights on iPad One of the more curious things that occurred at this year's Consumer Electronics Show was the fact that Hewlett-Packard seemed to pull its punches with its Slate tablet. Outside of what was essentially a forgettable demonstration by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, HP was surprisingly muted about what should be a much hyped product from its end. Well, turns out HP was playing possum and simply waiting to see Apple's cards. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), HP will be holding meetings in the U.S. and Taiwan to "tweak features and prices" for its Slate tablet. Apparently, HP is setting its sights specifically at the $629 version of the iPad, which comes with 16GB of storage and both Wi-Fi and 3G. In HP's case, it looks like it wants to offer a similarly featured device but at a lower price. Of course, for any rope-a-dope strategy to succeed, you better be Muhammad Ali. I guess we'll soon find out if HP's Slate has what it takes to rumble in the tablet jungle. Photo © HP HP Slate Tablet Sets Sights on iPad originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 00:01:04.
iPan: Bill Gates Unimpressed by Apple iPad Count Bill Gates (gasp!) among the throngs of iPad nonbelievers. According to an article by Brent Schlender of BNET.com, Gates still believes that the netbooks Steve Jobs (gasp!) panned at the iPad unveil are still the devices to beat when it comes to whatever Apple is trying to accomplish with its magical and revolutionary tablet. In other news, the sun is hot. Gates offered his assessment about Apple's iPad thusly: "You know, I'm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard — in other words a netbook — will be the mainstream on that. So, it's not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough.' It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'" Although comments such as this are oftentimes brushed aside as competitive sour grapes, there's been enough criticism about the iPad to give Gates a bit of covering fire for his statement. At the same time, Apple has successfully pulled off enough iPods and iPhones for every one of its Apple TV's and Cubes to get some benefit of the doubt. So who's going to be right? That, my friends, is why I don't get paid the big bucks (i.e. I don't know) Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that Apple has made agreements with some content providers to provide TV shows at the iTunes store for $1. No word on whether that's just for standard content or if HD video is included. The new low price is apparently part of an upcoming test to see whether the increased affordability will be enough to tempt digital cheapskates to drive up demand for paid video. Are $1 videos enough to stave off BitTorrent downloads? That, my friends, is why — well, you know the drill. Photo © Microsoft iPan: Bill Gates Unimpressed by Apple iPad originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 00:01:16.
Free Music Downloads This Week The free music downloads in our spotlight this week are: Artist/Band: Stacy B Artist/Band: Motor Artist/Band: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour Related Articles:
Genre: Pop / R&B / Club
Free Music Download: Do It Now (download Code: 1688).
Genre: Techno / Alternative / Electro
Free Music Download: Kick It (4:46)
Additional MP3(s): Kick It (Malente Remix) (4:25) via RCRD RBL
Album: Hyper Machine (Dim Mak Records) available from top digital music services.
Genre: Electronic / Pop
Free Music Download: The Sun Ain't Shinning No More (33 Hz Remix) (5:55)
Additional MP3(s): 2 more versions via RCRD RBL
Album: Fruit (Small Giants Records Ltd.) now available digitally
Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 09:00:40.
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Free Music Album: Download to Donate For Haiti The non-profit organization, Music Relief, which helps victims of natural disasters is offering a free 9-track music album for download. As part of the Haitian relief effort, Music Relief has released the album, Download to Donate For Haiti which contains previously unreleased tracks from major artists and bands such as: Linkin Park, Alanis Morissette, Enrique Iglesias, Slash, and others. Founded in 2005 by the music band Linkin Park, Music Relief is currently providing aid to victims of the Haiti disaster. If you do decide to download this free music album, please remember to be kind and donate whatever you can afford. Thank you. Related Articles:
Free Music Album: Download to Donate For Haiti originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 09:30:14.
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IREX DR800SG Now Available at Best Buy The eReader hot tub got a bit more crowded this week as IREX's DR800SG finally became available at BestBuy.com. According to a release sent out by the company, the IREX DR800SG wades in with an 8.1-inch E Ink screen, 3G connectivity via Verizon, and a touchscreen. For reading material, the DR800SG includes access to more than 750,000 books via Barnes & Noble's eBookstore plus access to newspapers and magazines via NewspaperDirect and LibreDigital. Formats supported are PDF and EPUB for eBooks and JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF and TIFF for images. So what's all this going to cost you? That would be $399, which pegs the DR800SG at the higher end of the eReader market. To put that in perspective, that's about $140 more than a Nook and only $100 less than the Apple iPad. Which begs the question: Will people be OK with paying $399 for what is essentially a one-trick pony or would they rather fork an extra C-note for an iPad, which — despite the justifiable criticism — can do a lot more than IREX's device? In IREX's case, they appear to be quite bullish about their prospects so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Photo © IREX IREX DR800SG Now Available at Best Buy originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 03:16:03.
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