Category: MP3 players
Embiggen your iPod to 240GB and 48,000 tracks
A company in Kalamazoo called Rapid Repair has started running an iPod upgrading service. Currently, the largest pod that Apple supplies is the 120GB classic which’ll only bag you 24,000 tracks at the most – not really enough for any true file junkies out there.
What RR does is to remove the old, small Apple HDD and, unfortunately, the guarantee with it, and replace it with a much more advanced but same sized 1.8″ Toshiba 240GB storage unit. Hey presto, a doubly big MP3 player.
It’ll cost you $300 plus whatever the postage might be to Michigan and back. With any luck someone this side of the Pond will clue up to the business which is turning a very tidy 25% profit incidentally. In the mean time, Rapid Repairs are looking into Zunes and other MP3 machines. Doubtless, the original manufacturers will be thrilled.
(via Small Business)
Microsoft "Pink": ad agencies fighting over Zune phone account
Word has it that Microsoft is preparing for the launch of a Zune phone. Yes, we’ve heard these kinds of rumours and seen all sorts of mock ups before but this time it’s slightly different.
Microsoft has apparently put the cat amongst agency pigeons by searching for an advertising team to work on something known as “Pink”. Now on the one hand this could just be the colour scheme for Stevie B’s next bathroom suite but sources say that it’s most likely software for mobile phones.
Now it sits rather odd that The Soft would undermine Windows Mobile like that, despite what many consumers think about the platform, so it’s not out of the question that Pink could in fact be a Zune phone unto itself.
What we do know for sure is that the ad agencies are in a frenzy trying to get the account and in one shape or another, it looks like decent gaming might just be coming to mobile phones by CES 2010.
(via PMP today)
Sony W Series Walkman launches at £59.00 today
One in 10 people have accidents at the gym involving the wires of their music players. So says Sony as the launch their W Series Walkman, sans cables of course.
The head wearable set holds 2GB-worth of MP3s, AACs and WMAs and will play them back for a 90-minute stretch through the 13.5mm EX headphones – and all after just a three minute quick charge. A full charge buys you 12 whole hours of playback and if you chose to spend the £59 at the Sony store you can take your pick from either black,
white, pink, green or violet. Gallacher not included.
Top five male exercise tracks
1. Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now (17%)
2. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run (11%)
3. Snap! – The Power (8%)
4. The Killers – Mr Brightside (8%)
5. Bodyrockers – I Like The Way (7%)
Top five female exercise tracks
1. Girls Aloud – Jump (16%)
2. Lady Gaga – Just Dance (11%)
3. Duffy – Mercy (8%)
4. Salt ‘n’ Pepa – Push It (8%)
5. James Brown – I Feel Good (8%)
CES 2009 Sony Walkman Preview:
Obama gives the Queen an iPod
On Barack Obama’s official visit to Buckingham Palace last night, he handed over an iPod to the Queen as a gift, stuffed with video of her 2007 visit to the U.S. and a bunch of tracks from Broadway musicals including “Cats”, “South Pacific” and “Oklahoma!”.
Not that impressive, really, is it? It wasn’t even engraved with the Royal Seal. She’s already got one, too – a 6GB iPod Mini, which Prince Andrew suggested she buy in 2005. Her Maj was a little more classy – giving Obama her traditional gift of a framed photograph of herself and Prince Phillip.
(via Telegraph)
Napster unleashes free service for Philips GoGear
All Philips GoGear customers who’ve been laughed at by their mates with big shiny iPod Touches can now have the last giggle, or at least the latest one anyway. Philips has announced a deal with Napster such that all GoGear users will now have access to Napster’s PC service and full list of 640,000 albums from 540,000 artists for absolutely zip.
Additionally, if you happen to be the owner of a GoGear Opus, Ariaz or Vibe you’ll also get 30 days free access to the Napster To Go portable subscription service which would normally work out at £14.95 per month. Sure, a month’s grace isn’t a lot to play with but at the least you do get 90 ad free radio stations and recommendation software to play with as well as the on the hoof access as opposed to PC side-loading only.
It’s hard to work out exactly how good this all actually is given that a) it’s DRMed up to the hilt and b) there’s a lot of free music services out there anyway but I don’t suppose you can really argue with a sudden 10,000 folding of your effective music collection for both your mp3 player and home.
Philips / Naptser
Thomson launches next generation mp3 format
If you’re anything like the girl on the right, you probably enjoy your mp3 music as it is. But if you’re a serious audiophile, you may already be left raging at the amount that mp3 files miss out to keep the file size in the single digits. If that sums you up, then it’s time to celebrate, because Thomson – one of the companies to come up with the original mp3 format – has developed MP3HD technology.
What does this mean to you? Well potentially nothing if it doesn’t pick up, but if it does then you can expect higher quality audio with less sound loss than conventional mp3s. Mp3s achieve their svelte file size by discarding various bits of audio that the algorithm considers expendable. It essentially means that what you’re hearing will always be of inferior quality to the original CD source, though it’s questionable as to how many can tell the difference. In the days of smaller mp3 players (32mb ones used to be the norm, remember) this loss of quality was essential, but with flash memory and hard disk sizes growing every day, we can afford to be a little more selective in what should be left out.
Apple unveils talking iPod Shuffle
When the Apple store drops off the internet for a few hours there’s only ever one reason and now that the curtain is up again we’ve got a new look 4GB iPod Shuffle to coo about. Coo coo…
Philips GoGear Spark: now with full colour screen, but little else
Philips has leant its range of budget MP3 players a long overdue refresh. Remember the GoGear? Well, ladles and jellyspoons, I give you – the GoGear Spark!
Yes, that’s right; gather round, gather round. What once was a rather plain Jane super brain of mini OLEDs has become a fully colour…
SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: Optoma Pico Projector
I’ve had this thing for far too long but after a fair bit of faffing around to find the right cables, I finally got a good go on the PK101 Pico projector from Optoma. So, grab yourself a cup of tea, sit back and I’ll tell you all about it…
Sony X-series touchscreen Walkmans get priced
Sony’s forthcoming X-Series of touchscreen OLED MP3 players, which they’re still insisting on calling a Walkman, are now available on Amazon to pre-order.
There’s a 16GB model for £214, and a…
