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Lyra Slider: The first PMP to use sliding technology

admin — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:57:14 +0000

Mobile phones have been using the concept of sliding for a long time but it has never caught on in the portable media player arena before. Well this is about to change with the new Lyra Slider, a basic PMP which has used the concept of a sliding front to shrink in size without having to sacrifice controls.
RCA

New PMP with touchscreen that pushes back

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:10:38 +0000

Mental Media: iRiver's Mickey player

admin — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:32:14 +0000

iRiver are a little like Nintendo in the way they like to push the envelope on user interfaces and methods of interaction. The iRiver Spinn is a good example of iRiver going down a different route to everyone else and coming up with a truly outstanding PMP; the iRiver Mickey player is not another example I am afraid.

This tiny player measuring a mere 3cm across and weighing only 18g is not going to revolutionise anything, but styled after the famous high pitched cartoon mouse this is going to appeal to kids. iRiver are well known for making solid, robust products but I do wonder how well those ears will stay on with children fiddling with them to change the track of alter the volume.

The iRiver Mickey Mouse mp3 player is, as you can tell from the first image, official endorsed by Disney and was originally only available in their theme parks, then it was available in Asia and now Britain can get its hands on this cute little MP3 player from iRiver.

There is around 9 hours of playback and you get 1GB of internal memory to store all your favourite songs on, there is no screen, but you do get a LED to let you know when it is on and stuff.

You can pick one up for just

Kenwood compete with Apple iPod

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:14:23 +0000

Kenwood are on the attack with 2 new digital audio players (DAP); these little critters pack 2GB or 4GB internal memory depending on the model you go for. Both versions have something the iPod nano doesn’t, a Micro SD slot. This small addition adds up to a big difference, with a Micro SD card you are able to expand the memory of these DAPs and more than double their capacity.

Kenwood have worked hard on these new DAPs and their hard work has paid off, their improved DAC really enhances the sound quality and means listening to your music, whether it is in MP3, WMA or ACC, is a real pleasure.

The use of a 1.5-inch OLED rather than a LCD means these DAPs are able to squeeze a massive 54 hours of continuous play out of a single charge . Not sure if there is enough to give Apple a real challenge but Kenwood is definitely giving it a go.

[Source: Akibahara News]

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

The 16 next-gen gadgets you'll want to buy in 2009

Mike Evans — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:17:25 +0000

Its been a great year already for home entertainment gadgets, but what’s in store for next year? You might think it too soon to ask, but with with the IFA consumer electronics show in full swing, all the major gadget manufacturers are showing off their wares and setting out their stalls for next year.

So, in no particular order, here’s a list of the 16 next-gen gadgets you’ll want to buy in 2009.

Super-thin and super-smooth HDTVs

HDTVs have suddenly dropped in price and look set to go mainstream by the end of 2008. For 2009, expect the newer models to come super-slim. How slim? How about slimmer than your mobile phone? Amongst the exhibitors were the following tiny TVs:

Sharp XS1 LCD TV. 65″ viewing screen, just 23mm thick (see pic). Due in 2009, with a huge 131″ screen coming out the year after.
Sony ZX1 LCD TV. 40″ viewing screen,super crisp picture, and an incredible 9.9mm thin. Available in the next few months, but for a whopping $4,000!
Philips 32″ LCD TV – just 8mm thin! Only a prototype at the moment, but expected to go into production early next year.

To give you a sense of scale, the first generation Motorola RAZR was 13mm thin!

In addition, new advances in picture quality mean the next-gen of HDTV will look better than ever before:

Toshiba Regza ZF – uses the same Cell processor found in the PS3 to upscale an existing TV signal to near-HD quality. The TV plays at 24fps, has a contrast ratio of 30,000:1, and will also play full HD (1080p) if you a suitable high def input. Toshiba would rather you didn’t use BluRay, and so their new TVs aim to provide BluRay-esque quality without the need for a BluRay player.
LG Scarlet LG7000 – with super clear picture quality, the LG7000 features a response time of just 2.7ms,full-HD, and the ability to tweak its parameters to a “professional level”. Better still, it’ll come with Bluetooth, so you can listen to your programmes through Bluetooth headsets, or display photos on the TV from your phone or camera.

Video, Home theatre and DVD

Naturally, BluRay was all the rage this year, particularly after Toshiba dropped the competing HD-DVD technology.

There were many firsts, with competing manufacturers battling it out to shove BluRay into virtually any device in order to secure their own personal firsts.

Among the more impressive gadgets this year were the following:

JVC NX-BD3 BluRay player with DLNA – the world’s first DLNA-equipped BluRay player,which means it’ll sync seamlessly with your PC and other DLNA-equipped devices such as cellphones and PMPs in order to share music, photos and videos. It also comes with an internal amp rated at 4x55W,and will pump out 200W of bass through its subwoofer.
Sony Bravia BDV-IT1000 Blu-Ray home theatre system – finger-thin speakers and a devastating 700W of power, this new Blu-Ray home theatre system looks gorgeous and should be capabale of seriously upsetting your neighbours.
Philips CinemaOne iPod speaker and DVD player (below) – combines a 1080p upscaling DivX-compatible DVD player iwth an iPod dock, so you can listen to yours tunes loudly without needing any extra gadgets.
The Loewe network media center is a 32″ or 42″ TV with a whole host of internal gubbins that’ll suck up your video wherever it’s stored. Each TV has a built-in USB port, Ethernet port, WiFi and HD tuner, and a new model will be out in 2009 with a hard disk drive as well.

Super-smart Camcorders

BluRay wasn’t just evident in DVD players, either. Take a look at these camcorders coming soon.

The Sanyo Xacti HD is the world’s camcorder that can record at 1080p (that’s full-HD)
Hitachi DZ-BD7H, the world’s first BluRay camcorder. With a 30GB hard disk and BluRay recorder, you can record four hours of full HD video, and can even copy from the hard disk to the BluRay recorder internally without using a computer.

Hi-Fi

The Philips Streamium MCi-500H is a new Wi-Fi Hi-Fi designed to stream music from your PC and to other wireless speakers around your home.

With 50Wper channel output, it also comes with a USB connection and a 160GB hard drive for ripping music from CDs.

There wasn’t much in the way of Hi-Fi news at IFA, but that’s because all the hi-fi manufacturers will be presenting at the CEDIA event in a few days’ time.

Portable Audio

Of course, there was a seemingly endless stream of MP3 players, iPod docks and the like, but here are some of the highlights:

Logitech Squeezebox Boom – the next-gen Squeezebox with its own wireless speakers that lets you stream your tunes to any music in the house. Comes with its own amp as well, so you don’t need to plug it into a HiFi.
Sony Walkman S series – a 7.5mm thin MP3 player with 2″ LCD screen that also lets you watch content from the BBC’s iPlayer. Top Gear on your Walkman? At last!

Random oddness

As well as the usual lust-worthy gadgets, there were one or two other gadgets that made you wonder what their inventors were smoking thinking when they designed them:

Compositor media streamer – Take a WiFi digital photo viewer. You know, the small LCD screens that wirelessly pull in pictures from your PC or from Flickr. Then give it the ability to play not just static photos like any old photo display, but er, movies as well! That’s what the Compositor Media Streamer will do for you! They want you to buy dozens and distribute them liberally around the house so you can have your very own set of unremitting attention hoovers wherever you look! Great guys, great idea!
Samsung UbiSync digital photo frames – not quite so mad as the Compositor frames, the new Samsung UbiSync frames are wireless 8″ and 10″ photo frames with 1GB of memory and the ability to act as a secondary PC monitor. Set one up in your home office with a picture of your girlfriend next to your PC, then use it as a second screen when you’re working. OK, so it is as mad as the Compositor!

Summary

So there you have it – 16 of the most drool-worthy home entertainment gadgets coming up for 2009. Hope you’ve got your chequebooks ready (or maybe even your second mortgages!)

Note: This post is taking part in the ProBlogger writing competition, so feel free to check out all the other entrants.

Mental Media: the Ten best Audio Gadgets you never knew they made

Mike Evans — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:41:24 +0000

Traditional music devices like HiFis, are so last century. Now all our videos and tunes have gone digital, there are thousands of gadgets that let you do all sorts of things to them, most of which you never knew you wanted to.

In the first of a regular series of Mental Media gadgets, here’s a run down of the ten best audio gadgets you’ve never thought of.

Stay tuned for more lists in the Mental Media series coming soon.

10). DIY iPod BoomBox

What is it?

Having an iPod is great for listening to your tunes, but have you seen the price of external iPod speakers? The DIY iPod Boombox solves that problem and adds a bit of nostalgic street-cred too. Looking like an old 80s boombox, you simply slot your iPod into it and voila – now everyone can hear your tunes (which may or may not be a good thing depending on your music collection!)

Why it’s mental

It’s made from cardboard.

No, seriously, it’s made from cardboard – you have to assemble it yourself, just like you used to with those old X-Wing fighter models you cut out from the back of cornflake packets when you were a nipper (ask your Dad if this sounds like Olde English to you!)

9). Wireless floating speakers

What is it?

“Wireless floating speakers”…now what could they be?

Well, firstly, they’re speakers, and they’ll play music from any MP3 player. Secondly, they’re wireless. They come with a transmitter, which you plug into your MP3 payer or stereo, and have a range of about 150 feet. And thirdly…

Why they’re mental

…they float! Whether you’re in the pool, the bath or even drowning in the park lake, the Wireless floating speakers will always be with you, belting out Stairway to Heaven as you slowly disappear beneath the surface of your chosen body of water.

8). Oono Transmitta

What is it?

Wireless HiFis are becoming more and more popular, but they’re expensive, particularly if you want to stream your tunes to more than one room in the house.

Fortunately Oono have a solution in the form of the appallingly-named Oono Transmitta VII. The Transmitta VII features a transmitter (hence the name), which you plug into any device’s 3.5mm headphone jack or USB port, and a receiver, which you attach to a speaker or amp of your choice via an auxiliary socket. Once complete, you can then transmit your tunes anywhere in the house (well, within a 50 foot range anyway). You can even pipe your TV’s output through to your hi-fi.

Better still, it’s a cheap solution at just

Tiny travel speakers with a whole lot of bass

admin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:19:54 +0000

Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand the X-Mini is set to revolutionise the world of portable audio. The X-Mini capsule is the first pocket sized speaker with bass support and a built in rechargeable battery. Neil over at Spoken Like a Geek brought one into the office and showed us it in action. I expected the usual tinny pathetic sound to come out of this tinny speaker but was stunned into silence when this uncompromising sound quality and volume was blasted out (not sure of his music choice but you can’t have everything).

The secret to the X-Mini’s volume and bass is in its innovative design. Give the unit a twist and the X-Mini can be extended up like an accordion. It is this extendable vacuum which mimics the characteristics of a subwoofer and gives speakers a crisp, meaty sound quality that you would normally except from much larger speakers.

Usually with external speakers like this they drain the battery of the device you plug them into and so reduce your playing time but the X-Mini are slightly different, with an internal battery that will last 8 hours you can enjoy your sounds for long.

These speakers are truly amazing and a must have accessory for anyone who likes their music, videos, or games on the move but don’t want to skimp on sound quality. If you are flying from the UK anytime soon, according to Neil the best place to pick one of these up is the Nokia store at Heathrow Terminal 5 but failing that there are some links at the bottom of this post.

So what’s the disadvantage? There is only one problem with the X-Mini and that is the lack of stereo. Never fear, XM-I, the creators of the X-Mini noticed this flaw and rushed to fix it with the X-Mini Max. Rather than getting one speaker, with the X-Mini Max you get two. Each has the patented Bass Xpansion System (BXS) so you still have that crisp, full bodied sounds and volume, but by pairing them up you get a substantial increase in volume without distortion and you can experience stereo sound.

By having two speakers rather than one it does make the X-Mini Max a less portable option, but the cleaver people at XM-I, have thought of that and made it so the speakers can be separated and used independently of each other. Essentially they become two X-Mini speakers. Each speaker has a rechargeable battery like the X-Mini but the battery life has been extended to 10 hours, so even more time to listen to your favourite songs before it starts using power from your device.

Capable of producing volume and bass over ten times its physical size this is a sweet little speaker that packs a hell of a punch.

X-Mini and X-Mini Max on the web

If you like the look of these and you are not flying from Heathrow Terminal 5 in the near future then check out the links below. If you have used these speakers or know of others just as good let us know and leave a comment below.

Amazon have the X-Mini and Max as well as some others
Advanced MP3 have both
Pixmania have just the X-Mini

[Source: Spoken Like a Geek]

Mumu iPearl: a touch of pink from RAmos

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:59:56 +0000

The Mumu iPearl by RAmos is, as you might guess, aimed at the female half of the word. It is not often that you get a device designed from scratch to be for ladies, the companies normally just dunk a current player in pink paint a declare it fit for a female.

RAmos is trying very hard at the moment to penetrate the market dominated by the Apple iPod Touch. The Mumu iPearl is the latest touch screen PMP to come out of RAmos, earlier this year they announced the very nice looking iMovie T8 and now they have this pink beauty, the Mumu iPearl. At least I assume it is a touch screen, one thing RAmos forgot to include was any specifications. So it is a bit of a guessing game at the moment, but one thing RAmos did say is, you should be able to get your hands on one of these mysterious pink objects by the end of August.

[Source: PMP Today]

Want a Bluetooth MP3 player? Here are dozens…

admin — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:28:06 +0000

A Bluetooth MP3 player transforms the way you listen to your tunes, but finding a good one from the thousands of ordinary MP3 players on the market can take days of tedious research.

So we’ve done the hard work for you and compiled a list of the top Bluetooth MP3 players on the market today, together with links to the all the Bluetooth MP3 players from the major online stores.

Yes, we’re very very good to you people!

Why buy a Bluetooth MP3 player?

A Bluetooth MP3 player is a must-have couch potato gadget who prefers listening to their tunes without moving, rather than having to fiddle about with wires to hear their tunes. A Bluetooth MP3 player will let you do some or more of the following:

listen to your tunes wirelessly, either through a Bluetooth headset or an external Bluetooth speaker. No wires, no fuss, just stream your music from the MP3 player to the speaker, no matter where it is in your lounge.
stream your tunes to your car stereo wirelessly – a number of car radios now also come with Bluetooth, meaning you can listen to your tunes from your MP3 player in your car without having to use headphones (dangerous and, er, illegal!) or one of those annoying FM transmitters.
take calls from your mobile phone via your MP3 player – never get up to answer the phone again!
wirelessly copy your tunes to and from your PC – no more fiddling about with USB cables.

Wired MP3 players are so lost year, while Wi-Fi ones are still a bit pricey. If it’s a decent MP3 player you’re after, you might as well throw Bluetooth into the mix as well – you won’t regret it.

We’ve come up with the following list showing five of the best Bluetooth MP3 players on the market today. If these don’t tempt you, check out our links to the Bluetooth MP3 players from the major online stores.

1). The Samsung YP-T10 Bluetooth MP3 player

Looking not unlike a mobile phone, the Samsung YP-T10 lets you stream your music from the device to a Bluetooth earpiece or a Bluetooth wireless speaker using Bluetooth A2DP technology.

Nothing flash or fancy, the Samsung simply lets you play MP3 tunes with or without wires. It comes in several variants, from 2GB up to 16GB, and also features an intriguing “character animation” user interface, to stop you getting bored from looking at a dull list of tunes! Good value too, with prices starting from just