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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.
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.
Griffin Intros PowerBlock Travel, International USB Power Adapter
Griffin Technology has introduced PowerBlock Travel, a package designed to simplify charging your USB devices (including iPods) while traveling.
Tiger's tunes: Apology lives online in mashups
(AP)
AP - Tiger Woods may not know it, but he's singing a new tune.
Timeline: ITunes Store at 10 Billion
(PC World)
PC World - On Wednesday Apple's iTunes Store served its 10 billionth music download, according to the company. Here's a look at notable moments in its history:
Microchip Tech raises bid for Silicon Storage
(AP)
AP - Microchip Technology Inc. on Tuesday raised its purchase price for Silicon Storage Inc., aiming to thwart a competing offer for the maker of flash memory cards used in digital cameras and MP3 players.
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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Free Music Downloads This Week The free MP3 downloads in our music discovery spotlight this week are: Artist/Band: Rich Hil Artist/Band: Groove Armada Artist/Band: Yes Giantess Related Articles:
Genre: Hip Hop / Rock
Free Music Download: Lady in The Hall (3:40)
Extras: More information and additional free MP3s from the official Rich Hil Website
Genre: Electronic
Free Music Download: Shameless (feat. Bryan Ferry) (4:47)
Extras: Free additional Groove Armada track (Pull Up (Crank It Up) (Mad Decent Remix)) via RCRD LBL
Album: Black Light (OM Records), slated for release March 2, 2010
Genre: Pop / Electronic
Free Music Download: The Ruins (3:04)
Extras: More free MP3 tracks (published previously) via our free music downloads blog
Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 06:48:04.
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OpenTablet 7: New iPad Competitor Throws in Flash, Extra Features Much has been made about the Apple iPad's lack of support for Flash. OpenPeak Inc. has apparently taken note, making sure to highlight Flash capability in its press release for the new OpenTablet 7 slate. As its name implies, the OpenTablet 7 features a 7-inch multi-touch, LED backlit touchscreen that's nearly three inches smaller than the iPad. Like the iPad, it offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and "cellular connectivity." Unlike the iPad, however, the OpenTablet 7 features an HDMI output, two cameras for capturing high-definition video and photos, USB connectivity and a MicroSD slot. The OpenTablet 7 also has phone capabilities, allowing users to give iPad lovers a dose of their own superiority complex by placing a phone call right next to them and telling the person on the other line all the things their device can do that the iPad can't. Naturally, the OpenTablet 7 features all sorts of applications including YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. Serving as the brains of the device is Intel's Moorestown platform, which is designed for handhelds and tablets. Unfortunately, the release doesn't say anything about pricing, which would be the million-dollar question. Some say keeping the price down was likely a key reason why Apple passed on some of the missing features in the first-generation iPad. Unless OpenPeak goes for a smaller profit margin than Apple (who apparently will make quite a nice profit with the iPad according to folks who have looked at the device's components), all those added features must come at a price. Still, competition is always good. Photo © OpenPeak OpenTablet 7: New iPad Competitor Throws in Flash, Extra Features originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 02:26:12.
Nintendo Gets on eReader Bandwagon Some people scoffed when Nintendo first announced its ginormous DSi XL. But all that extra real estate apparently comes with at least one benefit: better readability. This, um, "power up" apparently isn't lost on Nintendo, which will be releasing a DS eBook title on June 14, according to BusinessWeek. Called "100 Classic Books," the title will retail for $19.99 and put content in your DS that even your grandmother will love — or at least recognize. The eBooks should be especially fitting with the larger DSi XL, which will be released in the U.S. on March 28 for $189.99. Still, it's important to note that while the DSi XL screen looks particularly hulking compared to the old DS "phat," DS Lite and DSi, it's still relatively piddly compared to even the smaller dedicated eReaders. But hey, if people actually use an iPhone as an eReader, then there should be no reason why the same thing can be done with the DS, right? Anywho, get ready to start squinting in about four months. (For more info about the Nintendo DS, check out About.com's DS site.) Photo © Nintendo Nintendo Gets on eReader Bandwagon originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 00:01:28.
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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Free Music Downloads This Week The free music downloads in our spotlight this week are: Artist/Band: Erik Hassle Artist/Band: Groove Armada Artist/Band: Scanners Related Articles:
Genre: Pop / Rock / Soul
Free Music Download: Hurtful (Penguin Prison Remix) (4:36)
Music Video: Hurtful (2010 Version)
Album: Hurtful single available from the iTunes Store.
Genre: Electronic
Free Music Download: Paper Romance (Clasixx Remix) (4:51)
Music Video: Paper Romance
Extras: More free Groove Armada tracks via our previous music download blog.
Album: Black Light due for release March 2010 (Om Records).
Genre: Alternative / Pop / Indie
Free Music Download: We Never Close Our Eyes (3:28)
Album: Submarine (Dim Mak Records) available now digitally from iTunes and other digital music services.
Free Music Downloads This Week originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 11:03:10.
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Apple to Sell iPad at Best Buy, Other Locations Looks like Apple isn't planning to fly solo when it comes to iPad sales. Like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer in Top Gun, Apple has apparently told Best Buy that it can be its wingman anytime when it comes to selling the iPad. As long as they don't start playing volleyball with shortened nets at the beach, then everything's still kosher... The comments were made by Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook at the Goldman Sachs annual tech conference in San Francisco, according to media outlets such as Computerworld and AppleInsider. Cook also said that Apple plans to expand to more retailers in the future. For more info, check out our article on iPad availability and pricing. Photo © Apple Apple to Sell iPad at Best Buy, Other Locations originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 01:41:17.
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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