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Microsoft finally brings the Zune HD to the UK

Ian McGurren — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 22:38:21 +0000

It’s certainly an announcement many didn’t expect but Microsoft has finally decided to bring to the UK its (admittedly rather good) portable jukebox, Zune HD.

Microsoft made the strange decision a while ago to keep the Zune family stateside, but now, after being on sale in the US for over a year, the Zune is finally on its way to the UK.

Zunes have always faired well in the area that counts for mobile music devices – sound quality – and the Zune HD adds some lush hardware to this with a 480×272 16:9 3.3″ OLED screen powered by a Nvidia Tegra processor, WiFi, accelerometer and 720p output via a HDMI dock, all wrapped in a shell Apple would be proud of.

Is the Zune HD an iPod killer?

Indeed the Zune could now be seen as Microsoft’s iPod Touch to Windows Phone 7′s iPhone, more so with Zune forming the media playing arm of WP7. The Zune tagline – “Welcome to the Social” – rings true with its ability to run apps from Facebook, Twitter, MSN and even a web browser, plus Zune games like Xbox favourites Project Gotham and Hexic.

The Zune HD is a great device, the rare embodiment of Microsoft getting things right for once, and offers excellent integration with that other rare MS home run, Windows 7. It’s really attractive from the hardware to the software and will certainly turn heads, so keep an eye out for it before Xmas going up against the likes of the new iPod Touch and the cute Archos 28 mini Android tablet.

[Source: The Inquirer]

CES 2009: SanDisk Sansa slotRadio

admin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:27:05 +0000

SanDisk showcased a rather usual mp3 player at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. It is called the Sansa slotRadio, priced at around $100 and doesn’t have its own internal memory to store the music. Instead it relies on a partner in crime, the slotRadio music card that was specifically designed for the casual music connoisseur. The slotRadio cards hold all the music for the player, and to wet your appetites SanDisk gives you a card preloaded with

Samsung's interface from hell

admin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:05:16 +0000

This weekend I had the unhappy misfortune of using Samsung’s YP-U4 mp3 player; code named Litmus due to its colour graduation. First looks were good: it

Sub aquatic listening with Speedo AquaBeat

admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:55:26 +0000

Any exercise can get a little dull without your favourite bit of music to keep you going, so a small MP3 player has become a common site in gyms. It is all well and good to strap a MP3 player to your arm and go for a job but there are a few problems if you do this when swimming.

Waterproof MP3 players are generally on the pricey side and retro fitting a waterproof case to a standard MP3 player can be a little nerve wrecking, so it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to the Speedo AquaBeat MP3 player.

Let

Twinned MP3 player forces James Blunt on you

Mike Evans — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:52:57 +0000

If your significant other is just as much a gadget freak as you are, then you might want to think about the Twinned MP3 player. As you can see from the pic, the Twinned is actually two MP3 players in one,and can snap apart so that you both get one half of the device. Each half can play tunes, but the twist comes with the playlist – you can only update it when the two halves are snapped together.

This means that once you’ve downloaded the tunes you want, the playlist is locked and you’ll end up listening to what your boyfriend or girlfriend is listening to.

All very nice and twee, you might think, but there’s a good reason boys don’t listen to James Blunt – he’s crap! Try and remove him from the ‘shared’ playlist, though, and I guarantee you’ll get an earful for the rest of eternity!

You’ll therefore be left with a choice: listen to your partner’s playlist until deafness ends your millennial misery, or split up now!

Nice romantic idea, I’m sure, but somehow I think the Twinned Mp3 player will actually break up more couples!

Fortunately, it’s just a concept at the moment. For the sake of humanity (or at least, future couples!), let’s hope it stays that way!

SlashGear]

Sony have upped the bar

admin — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:55:57 +0000

I thought the Creative Zen Mozaic was bad enough but Sony have managed to raise the level of ugly with their PMX-U55 personal media player. I am not sure which bit of the above image I dislike the most, the picture of the dog or the media player itself. I just hope that the device looks better in real life than the computer generated version of it. Thankfully I won’t need to look upon it again for a while as it is currently only available in China but I am sure it won’t be long before it invades the shops over here.

There is not even anything in its specifications to redeem it:

2GB flash memory
2.4″(320×240) display
Mpeg4, H.264/AVC video formats
MP3, WMA, AAC audio formats
68.3

Video: TuneWiki for Android phones, an MP3 player unlike any other

Mike Evans — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:07:56 +0000

TuneWiki MP3 Player software

TuneWiki is a new type of MP3 player originally designed for the Apple iPhone that has now been ported to the new Google Android range of phones. To say it’s a new type of MP3 player, though, is a gross understatement. TuneWiki is so radical in its approach, so innovative and so feature-rich, it makes all other MP3 players to date look like they were knocked up by some first year Computer Science student!

If it’s MP3 playing, karaoke singing, wireless syncing, location-based music mashup software you’re after, then just look what what Andoid users can look forward to when TuneWiki launches on the platform later this year.

TuneWiki is software developed by an Israeli company that was originally designed for use on the Apple iPhone. Since Google’s Android is an entirely open mobile phone platform that gives programmatic access to the entire device, they decided to port TuneWiki onto it. After looking at the specs of Android, they then realized that they could do something special with Android that they couldn’t do on any other phone – something very special indeed.

TuneWiki overview

TuneWiki, at its heart, is an MP3 player, so it can playback MP3 tunes and also provides playlists and the usual control options you’d expect from an MP3 player. It’s also a karaoke machine, as it’ll automatically sync any song with lyrics stored in its huge database. This is where the term TuneWiki comes from, as the database of lyrics is supplied by users, meaning there’s a huge inventory of lyrics for it to draw upon.

Better still, we’re not just talking about lyrics in English – we’re talking lyrics in virtually any language, as TuneWiki users come from all over the world and have happily supplied translations to the tunes of their favourite artists. The lyrics are perfectly synced with the song using some kind of algorithmic magic.

TuneWiki on the iPhone would let you search for songs on the iPhone itself or on iTunes. With new TuneWiki for Android, though, you can do all of this, plus search for songs on Windows Media Player on your PC, or on Songbird, synchronizing the tunes via Bluetooth or WiFi. If the tune you wasn’t isn’t available on either of those services, it’ll direct you to YouTube and play the video directly, complete with the lyrics from its own lyrics database overlaid on top of the YouTube video. Fantastic!

TuneWiki wizardry – mashing up GPS and music

And now for the special sauce in the TuneWiki magic. The software mashes up music and location providing a visual map of the music people are listening to all across the world.

If you’re wondering what’s so special about this, just check out the video above. Suppose you’re playing “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick-rolling uber-celeb Rick Astley. TuneWiki will be able to show you all the other people that are listening to the tune at that exact moment, overlaid on a Google map. If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to provide a sense of community, it’s music, and being able to see the location of other people listening to the same tune as you while you listen to it really does make the world seem very small indeed.

Just imagine listening to your favourite break-up tune seeing on a map where everyone else is listening to it. Suddenly, you don’t feel so lonely any more as you can see at a glance just how many other people are feeling similar emotions to you. You’re not alone, after all..unless “Never Gonna Give You Up” is your break-up tune, in which case you probably are!

In addition, TuneWiki collates the music that people are playing and provides a list of the top tunes by geographical area. So now you can see what the top tunes are in the UK, or Dubai or China or anywhere in the world, for each day. Not just by country, either – TuneWiki breaks it down by area as well, so you can see the top tunes that are being played in a radius around you (Android phoens all have GPS in them, which is where this bit of magic comes from). If you’re a student, you can therefore see the top tunes that your campus likes, and compare it with other campuses across – well, the world!

TuneWiki has to be one of the most impressive pieces of software I’ve ever seen. It’s a truly innovative use of the Android platform, making full use of its GPS abilities and the openness of the platform, together with the Web 2.0 concept of the Wiki. MP3 players have become pretty same-old same-old of late, with each new variant simply adding new skins to the same functionality as any other MP3 player; TuneWiki has shown that it doesn’t have to be like that. They might just have created the world’s best MP3 player!

[Source: TechCrunch]

Bird Electron launches EZ16YG: peanut shaped portable speakers

admin — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:18:59 +0000

The largest peanuts in the world can soon be yours to plug into an mp3 player and listen to stereo quality sound. The Bird Electron EZ16YG are the ultimate portable speakers, not only are they super light: weighs only 25g. They are also only 50mm thick so unlike many other potable speakers which claim to be pocket size, but in fact make you walk like a cowboy if you actually put them in your pocket because they are chunky and have sharp corners, the Bird Electron peanut shaped speakers, with their leather effect finish, will fit nicely into your pocket. They are so small you could even use them as a bookmark if the urge takes you.
The new stereo speakers have two 30mm Driver and costs around 25

Nextar's speakers float above the rest

admin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:09:39 +0000

Nextar’s Bluetooth floating speakers will play continuously for 4 hours and are ideal for using in your pool, but I am sure there are many more people without pools than there are with (me included), so what use is this gadget to us, we may as well just buy the sentry water proof speakers? Well the Nextar’s speakers aren’t limited to just pools, for example you could stick them in the pond with your gold fish, or (and this is what I want to try) have the speaker floating around in the bubbles in your bath.

The dock is equipped with Bluetooth so you can connect most modern MP3 players, you could even hook up your mobile phone to it.

Floating, waterproof speakers are a good idea but I don’t like the design of these speakers (they remind me of a floating robot head) and at $119 they are not cheap, so I agree with Slash Gear and would go with this cheaper alternative instead.

[Source: Tech Digest, Slash Gear]