Category: MP3 players
Why was the Apple launch so pants? The top 8 conspiracy theories
I thought it was underwhelming, the US financial community declared it pants and pulled a few % off Apple shares to show its displeasure and even the fan boys had trouble getting excited.
Yep, Apple's Rock and Roll, event on Wednesday turned out to be a as fluffy as a cotton wool factory.
GEAR4 announces range of cases for new nano
Ipod accessories company GEAR4 certainly doesn’t mess around. Just hours after Steve Jobs’ announcement of a new iPod nano, it’s unveiled a new iPod nano case range
The new GEAR4 range for the updated iPod nano includes silicon skins, hard plastic shells, leather cases and a sports armband, all accommodating the new larger screen and including a hole for the all-important new video camera feature. One of the highlights of the 2009 range is the JumpSuit Pro, a tough, shock resistant rubber case.
Apple's new iPods (touch, nano video, classic and shuffle) – UK details and pics
Here's a quick gallery of the new iPods along with details and prices. Click on the pic to kick start the gallery…
New 8 and 16 Gig iPod nano complete with video camera
Steve Jobs – complete with new liver from 20-something car crash victim – announced several new iPod models at Apple launch in San Francisco this afternoon. Of most interest is the new iPod Nano which now comes with video camera, mic and speaker as well as several new colours (it is now available in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver and black). It is available in two versions – 8 Gig for $159 and 16 Gig for $179.
Are these the iPod Touch G3 and nano G5?
However CNET Australia's editors have since back tracked a little and wonders that they might be fake. Well we'll know soon enough. Whoever is responsible hasn't forgotten to add the cameras…
Top five Apple iPod/iPhone Rock and Roll event rumours
You can bet Apple's press announcement tonight is much more about technology, product evolution and branding than hairy blokes with guitars. Still nevertheless with a few hours to go the jury is out on whether tonight will be like The Smiths reforming and playing Wembley or a Chas and Dave reunion gig in your local pub.
Beatles on iTunes – are you really that bothered?
I am guessing that anyone who has an iPod probably likes music and viz a viz probably has at least a few of The Beatles albums in their collection on CD. Ok, so iTunes might be good for grabbing a few of the good tracks from the weaker albums like Beatles for Sale, but really is this big event – don't think so.
Sony Walkman x2! B Series & E Series MP3 players
The Sony Walkman B140 is very nearly a true MP3 player, except it plays WMA files as well. There’s no poncey video screen on this 26g device, just a 3-line LCD that tells you what music’s playing. What it does do, though, it appears to do very well.
It takes just 3 minutes of USB charging to get 90 minutes of listening time but, if you’re not in any hurry, it’ll offer 18 hours of playback after a 70 min’s wait. They come in 2GB and 4GB models, in pink, orange, red and black, and even with an FM radio too.
Features-wise there’s a very early 90s sounding Bass Boost but, best of all, I’m just glad to see small MP3 players sticking to the USB roots for both charging and music transfers. Cables are so two Tuesday’s ago.
The Sony Walkman E440 is a slightly larger creature with much more to play with and back. It comes in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB sizes and adds H.264, MPEG-4 and WMV video codecs to the party which you can watch on the 2-inch QVGA LCD. A full recharge takes 2 hours and offers 30 back in music or 6 in video. There is a 45 minute 80% quick charge but, frankly, that’s not that quick.
Black and red are the colour choices, as you can see in the rather nice image below, and this 54g player has a five-band EQ along with a volume normaliser which makes sure your tracks are all at the same level. There’s also some sound technologies in the shape of Clear Stereo and Clear Bass to control sound leakage and low-end frequency distortion respectively.
Sadly, I can’t tell you how much they’ll cost. For some legal reasons, to which I’m not sure I wish to hear the explanation, Sony is no longer allowed to give out its RRPs. However, I’m expecting around the £69 mark for the B160 and maybe £80/90 for the E series. Just a guess. We’ll find out when they pop up in stores in the next couple of weeks.
Sony Press Release
Radiopaq Sound Jacket to dress up your old MP3s
The “MP3s are a bit rubbish” spiel is almost getting as tired as the “megapixels do not a camera make” lecture but all the same it’s nice to see a gadget that’s doing its best to iron out the kinks in your crushed up music tracks. That’s the job of the Radiopaq Sound Jacket which is a rather swish, brushed metal looking add-on for the 4th gen iPod Nano.
It works as a dynamic graphics equalizer, reacting automatically to the music played from the mini-pod in order to bolster and enrich the sound in all the right places and with any luck should make them sound good. A lot of players – like the Philips GoGears – have these kind of features built-in, so you’d hope Radiopaq has got something really special going on here or I’m likely to pan the hell out of when I get to try one out for review.
There’s all sorts of graphs explaining how you get more frequencies through it and that it improves the quality of sound by 60% but it rather smells like nonsense to me. Not saying it doesn’t work, just that quantifying an audio sensory experience by numbers is utter tosh.
The jacket powers off the pod which is both good and bad. No annoying batteries or charge time but your Nano is going to go flat quicker; 12 hours listening time is what they say.
It’s yours for £69.99 as soon as they get it on the Amazon shelves and, with any luck, it’ll actually be worth it.
Radiopaq
Archos launches three portable media players
Not content with unleashing their latest mini-PC range, Archos also used today’s launch event to announce the arrival of three PMPs to add to their line-up.
The vision range’s flagship PMP is the touch-screen Archos 3 vision. It’s just 9mm thick and it only weighs 56g. The touchscreen is 3-inches with a resolution of 400×240.
It has 8GB of storage and supports multiple media formats including…deep breath…MP3, WMA (non protected files), WAV, OGG, FLAC, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV (non protected files), FLV, AVI, RM, RMVB, JPEG, BMP and GIF. It ships with a cable for TV playback and it also plays FM radio.
Playback time is 14 hours for audio and four for video. A cool feature is the FM transmitter which allows you play back your audio via any radio you can sync with it – iTrip stylee.
The real good news with regards to the Archos 3 vision is the price. £89.99 is very reasonable for a touch-screen PMP.
One step down from the 3 vision is the 2 vision. It has a 2-inch screen – not touch screen though. It uses a surface slider control for navigation.
It supports MP3, WMA and WAV as well as photo viewing. It has 8GB of storage although this can be upgraded using the micro-SD slot. It’s only £49.99 – another very fair price from Archos.
Finally, the Archos Clipper is a gym/jog friendly, shuffle-style mp3 player. It’s nearly twice as heavy as the latest iPod shuffle at 20g – but it’s hardly going to weigh you down. It’s 2GB and will only set you back £19.99.
Archos also mentioned the 4 and 7 visions which should be released by the end of the year although they didn’t supply and specific details. I’m not Mystic Meg but I’m guessing a 4-inch screen and a 7-inch screen – I think that’s a given.
The three PMPs mentioned all go on sale next month. Go direct to Archos if you fancy getting yourself one.
