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MP3 Player News & Headlines
NAMM Update: Denon DJ Intros DN-S3500 Tabletop CD/MP3 Player
Denon DJ introduced the DN-S3500 tabletop CD/MP3 player, featuring a powerful 12-pole Direct Drive motor, 7 on-board effects and intuitive control.
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.
Tiger's tunes: Apology lives online in remixes
(AP)
AP - Tiger Woods may not know it, but he is singing a new tune.
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.
EMI files "Down Under" royalties appeal
(Reuters)
Reuters - Record company EMI will appeal against a court ruling that Australian Grammy-award winning band Men at Work stole a section of the famous 1980s hit, "Down Under," from a popular folk song.
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.
New free music sites learn from others' mistakes
(AP)
AP - Two new companies are giving consumers a way to download songs for free by watching a few ads. The idea has been tried before but this time it appears it might work, because the startups have found advertisers that are willing to pay around $2 to have a moment of your time.
MP3 Tech Commentary
Free Kindle Readers? Plus LG Joins eReader Fray People love free stuff. Which makes it no surprise that a report from TechCrunch about free Kindle eReaders is starting to gain some traction on the Intertubes. As part of its efforts to soften the potential blow of Apple's iPad, TechCrunch cites a "reliable source" who says that Amazon is mulling giving free Kindle Readers to members of its "Prime" service. That would be customers who pay $79 a year to get free two-day shipping for their orders. Amazon, meanwhile, declined to comment on the rumor. In other news, another major Korean electronics manufacturer is slated to release a new eReader this year. Samsung has already thrown its hat into the eReader arena, featuring several products at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. Now LG is also entering the fray with its own eReader in April, according to Electronista. Given LG's dabbling with e-paper displays, I guess it was only a matter of time. Photo © Amazon Free Kindle Readers? Plus LG Joins eReader Fray originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 05:13:22.
Alex eReader Delayed Until March; enTourage eDGe First Shipment The Alex eReader just can't seem to catch a break. First it gets blindsided by the appearance of the Nook e-reader from supposed partner Barnes & Noble. Now its launch is getting delayed just in time for the arrival of Apple's new 800-pound gorilla. Folks who were expecting the device to drop this week will be met with this message if they visit the official Alex Shop online: "Thanks for your patience. We're almost ready with our Alex store. Keep checking in and by the first week of March you'll be able to order your Alex online. — The Spring Design Team" The delay is not exactly good news for a device that likely wants to spread as much distance between itself and the iPad, which launches its Wi-Fi models sometime in March. Besides potentially being drowned by the glut of coverage that comes with an Apple product launch, the Alex faces the same issue I mention in an earlier post about IREX's $399 DR800SG: price and value comparison. At $359, the Alex is cheaper than the IREX and also offers a second color touchscreen in addition to the main E Ink display. But it's still close enough to the $499 price of the cheapest iPad, which still offers a lot more bells and whistles (not to mention brand-name recognition) despite its issues with Flash. What's more, the Alex's price is also about $100 more than a Kindle and Nook — the latter offering the same Android software and dual-screen layout that the Alex provides. Another high-profile eReader, meanwhile, appears on pace to make its February goal, at least for preorders. Shipments for the enTourage eDGe should be going out as we speak for folks who pre-ordered before Jan. 12. This according to a post on the official enTourage eDGe site on Feb. 19 (at 8:41 a.m. to be exact). There is also a note on the site that new eDGe orders will start shipping in March. At $499, the device lies smack within the iPad's entry-level price range. But the device does offer a full-size color touchscreen alongside its full-size E Ink display. For more on eReaders, check out our roundup of today's popular eReaders and the eReaders of CES. Photo © Spring Design Alex eReader Delayed Until March; enTourage eDGe First Shipment originally appeared on About.com Portable Entertainment on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 00:01:36.
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.
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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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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Will The New MusicDNA Format be MP3's Nemesis? A new music format called, MusicDNA, has been developed that could potentially replace the ageing MP3 format. Bach Technology, who co-developed MusicDNA with the Fraunhofer Institute of Digital Media Technologies (IDMT), say the new format will provide the user with a far richer media experience when compared to standard audio formats. The new technology makes use of an enhanced set of metadata tags to increase a user's interactive experience. Some examples of how these tags could benefit a consumer are: accessing the artist/band's latest videos; following links to related blogs; discovering related music on media-orientated services and social networks, etc. For a long time now, the music industry has been trying different methods to reduce online music piracy -- the most notable being (the almost defunct) DRM technology that prevents files from being copied, shared, etc. The problem with this however was it often restricted the user so much that even major music services like iTunes eventually phased it out. However, this new format potentially offers the consumer a great deal more entertainment for their money than just music. This could be just what the music industry needs to try to increase sales and reduce online piracy via file sharing networks. The big question now is, will the new MusicDNA format 'persuade' consumers to migrate from the trusted MP3 format with the promise of an enhanced multimedia experience? Related Articles:
Will The New MusicDNA Format be MP3's Nemesis? originally appeared on About.com Digital Music on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 09:00:30.
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