Tag: mp3
Amazon MP3 goes live in the UK
Rejoice, DRM-haters. Amazon MP3 has quietly gone live in the UK this morning. You can find it here. It’s got some big big discounts on popular albums, with Take That’s new ‘Circus’ going for just £3, as is Elbow’s ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ and Seasick Steve’s ‘I Started Out With Nothin And I Still Got Most Of It Left’. Recent albums by Kings Of Leon, Coldplay and Girls Aloud are similarly cheaptastic.
Although the catalogue isn’t as ridiculously extensive as more established download services – yet – the user experience is great. I just downloaded Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ in just four clicks, plus a small one-off Amazon Downloader install, which downloads tracks in the background and adds them to your favourite media player.
Sansa rolls out 8GB version of its tiny 'Clip' MP3 player
I’m rather a fan of Sansa’s tiny ‘Clip’ range of MP3 players. Although their album-on-a-microSD-card concept is idiotic, their MP3 players are very good, and the miniscule Sansa Clip, with a (relatively) massive clip on the back, is one of the best. Good news then – Sansa has just launched an even bigger version, taking the size up to 8GB.
The player supports your regular MP3, WMA and WAV files, and it’ll work happily with music from most DRMed subscription services. It comes with a built-in microphone, and FM radio, and features a dinky-but-very-bright OLED screen. It only weighs 0.9 ounces. If you’re dying to get your hands on one then you can – for just £45. It’s a decent player, with a decent capacity, for a decent price. You can’t go wrong with that.
Related posts: SlotMusic – albums on SD cards from SanDisk | Sandisk takes on the shuffle with Sansa Clip MP3 player
iRiver Wave – a mp3 player/phone hybrid device. It'll never catch on.
In the lovely Korean girl’s hand above is the iRiver Wave. It’s a *gasp* phone made by an MP3 player manufacturer. The world is imploding. Silliness aside, it’s beautiful, has specs to die for, and the wonderful embedded £2-a-month, all-you-can-stream Bugs Music Service embedded. However, I’m forced to add the phrase that makes any Western techie weep – “Only available in Korea”. Full specs over the jump.
MySpace co-founder considering portable music device
In an interview the other day, MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe said that he could see MySpace developing and launching a “device for listening to music” in the future, but that they’re currently just focusing on MySpace Music.
Earlier this year, MySpace launched a download store in conjunction with major labels. Building its own MP3 player which ties in to that service, and potentially allows users to stream tracks over wireless, would be an obvious next step for the social networking company. Especially if it starts offering Slacker-like features.
Related posts: MySpace Music | Oasis teasing new album ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ for free via MySpace
BeBook eBook rEader- now available in the UK
A new eBook reader has entered the UK market – the BeBook. Despite not being affiliated with the social networking site of the same name, it seems decent enough. There’s 512MB of flash memory (which should hold 1000 books or so) along with an SD card slot, a 6″ e-ink display, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a battery life of ‘7,000 page turns’.
The device will display pdf, mobi, lit, epub, html, doc, fb2, txt, ppt, prc, rtf, jpg, and mp3 files. It probably doesn’t need saying, but playing MP3s will eat up your battery life a lot quicker than just reading books and looking at documents.
If you want one, then they’re available direct from the distributor, Widget, for £230. Your BeBook will come with 150 eBooks pre-installed, and you can buy or download more from various places across the net.
BeBook (via SW)
Related posts: The Pony eReader – the inexpensive way to capture eBook experience | Google to start archiving 30 glorious years of Page 3 stunnas, with its Newspaper Search
Download retailers launch pointless "MP3 Compatible" logo
Well, this is a big waste of everyone’s time. The Entertainment Retailers Association has launched a new logo that purports to indicate to consumers whether or not a store sells MP3s, as opposed to DRM-ed WMA files. They’re calling it “MP3 Compatible”.
To start with, 7Digital, Play.com, HMV and a few other download stores will use the logo on their sites, but the ERA are hoping that makers of digital music players will start using it too. Except they won’t. Because almost every device that plays music already supports MP3, so it doesn’t really need to be labelled…
REVIEW: Datz Music Lounge
After my very wary preview of Datz Music Lounge, the other day, a review copy landed on my desk, so I thought you’d appreciate a full-on, honest look at the all-you-can-eat MP3 service.
Unboxing
It’s a big black box, with a Nietzche quote on the inside of the lid. It looks good, but ultimately 95% of the space in the box is taken up by foam – a bit of a waste. It only holds a manual, a gold installation CD, and a USB dongle. We’ll come back to the dongle in a minute. Click over the jump for info about installation, software and the available catalogue…
Datz Music Lounge – Unlimited, DRM-free MP3s for £100 a year. Too good to be true?
Let the record show that I’m very suspicious about this one. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been in touch with a company called Datz who claim that they’ve got a product, launching this weekend, which will give you unlimited MP3 downloads for a year, for a one-off price of £99…
Play.com joins 7digital in the DRM-free corner
Play.com has just become the second digital music retailer to join the DRM-free parade. The site, which previously sold CDs, DVDs and games, has added MP3s from Sony Music, Warner, and Universal. They join DRM-free tracks from EMI and a bunch of indie labels that were already on the site…
Vodafone extends entertainment portfolio with exciting new "books" option
Vodafone has teamed up with GoSpoken.com to sell books on your mobile, through Vodafone Books on Mobile. It will offer books for between £5 and £15, which seems quite a lot, to be honest, seeing as you’re basically paying to download an audio file.
Vodafone reckons that, if you’re using an HSDPA network, a three-hour audio book will download in three minutes. Then you’ll have £5 or £15 or maybe £7.99 added to your bill, as that’s what it’s all about…
