MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Playaway audio books

August 23, 2006

No time to read a book? You can of course by a "book on tape" or "book on CD", but that is so yesterday. With Playaway's iPod-Mini-sized audiobooks, you can now listen to the books you've wanted to read but have not had the time.

These Playaway audio-books come with ear buds and a lanyard and run on one AAA battery. Of course, why not just download an audio book from iTunes?

Posted in Gadgets, Home Entertainment, MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Macy's To Add Kiosks: For Your Gadget Shopping Pleasure!

August 11, 2006

Remember the earlier blog about DVD kiosks?

(I hope so; it was only 24 hours or so ago ...)

Well, now Macy's is getting on the gadget kiosk bandwagon to make its "retail experience" even more interesting.

Macy's is planning to install self-serve robotic vending machines that will offer iPods and most likely other popular gadgets. The roll-out will be at 180 Macy's stores this fall (which is sadly not that far away).

You know, this is a good idea, but I still like touching and holding the gadget before I buy it -- wonder if the kiosks will have some sort of rubber gloves you can wear like in those scary laboratory sci-fi movies?

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Apple iMovies: Why Not?

August 4, 2006

In the "Why not?" category comes the iTunes/movies linkup.

Although Apple's iTunes Music Store has sold more than 15 million digitized TV shows and videos (who would have guessed?), it has yet to begin selling feature-length movies.

Is this due technical challenges or the the film industry's piracy concerns?

Apparently delivering multi-gigabyte files presents difficulties in choosing file formats, bandwidth and picture and sound quality.

This brief from CEA SmartBriefs; read all about in at www.technologyreview.com.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Speakers That (Are) Rock

August 4, 2006

What would summer be without listening to your favorite music al fresco?

Now that doesn't have to mean a festival or town music series and it certainly means more than going personally mobile with an MP3 player or other digital music device (remember when that meant "CD player"?).

What I'm talking about is an outdoor speaker system that sounds good and blends into the great outdoors.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

MS Goes iPod? Apple Goes Phone?

July 24, 2006

Much excitement today about Microsoft's announcement that it is planning on developing an iPod competitor to take on Apple directly.

What's funny is that Microsoft goes one way, Apple goes another (so what else is new?).

Seems Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer has strongly hinted that Apple plans to offer a mobile phone. (Slimmer than Moto?)

"We don't think that the phones that are available today make the best music players -- we think the iPod is," he said. "But over time that is likely to change, and we're not sitting around doing nothing."

This from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Bloomberg.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Microsoft Zune takes on iPod

July 24, 2006

As several news sites have reported, Microsoft plans to release a new music and entertainment player and accompanying software under the "Zune" brand this year to challenge the Apple iPod media player. The latest Apple iPod plays both music and videos with the ability to download TV shows and now even full-fledged movies via iTunes. Microsoft hopes to take some of the 70& marketshare from Apple which has dominated the portable media player market.

The sad thing is, Microsoft could have dominated this market had they minituarized the bulky PocketPC years ago. The PocketPC enjoyed some success, but never really took off.

Posted in GPS, Gadgets, MP3 Players & Digital Audio, Microsoft, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, Video Hardware & Software

Video rentals on the Apple iPod - iVideo

July 18, 2006

ThinkSecret, the guys sued for revealing Apple secrets, is at it again with a rumored Apple video rental service in the works that will allow you to rent videos for download to a video iPod. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is rumored to announce the availability of movie rentals on iTunes at next month’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Although carried on the iTunes site, I wonder if this means they'll call it iVideo? According to ThinkSecret, Apple has agreements with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros, with others in the works.

Unfortunately, it appears that Hollywood and the movie studios have gotten their way with a strict rental model that forces the video download to expire using DRM (digital rights management). Whether or not the video expires after a certain date or after a certain number of playbacks remains to be seen.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

HD Radio: Is Anybody Listening?

July 17, 2006

Although it's not on too many people's radar quite yet, HD radio may be poised for prime time, if everything goes right this year.

(It may still be a challeng if everything does go right ...)

According to published reports, whether HD radio can successfully bring the cool factor back to terrestrial radio will largely be determined by success of this upcoming holiday sales season (which in retailers' minds is not all that far away).

According to Billboard's Radio Monitor, HD radio has been little more that a footnote on the digital music landscape, overshadowed by satellite radio, podcasting and Internet streaming.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Sony's Walkman Making a Comeback?

July 13, 2006

Is there a second act for Sony's Walkman?

Can the product that originally defined "personal audio" make it back to the top?

In fact, can the company that once topped the consumer gadget mountain, once again ascend to that lofty perch?

(So many questions ...)

While some of Sony's major products, such as TVs and digital cameras, are now regaining momentum, Sony president Ryoji Chubachi said the Walkman is a critical product "to reinforce Sony's resurrection."

He hopes to create demand for the Walkman by marrying software and hardware.

Once again, one of the best reads of what's happening in gadgets has the full story -- www.wsj.com.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Gadget Protection at Its Best: Go Allsop!

July 7, 2006

Loved the Allsop Splash Pack DriPod so much that we've just added another one to keep some of my precious gadgets dry this summer!

(And no, that is not a giant tongue!)

The Splash Pack is an air-tight case for your iPod that features a triple seal, heat-sealed headphone jack, it's fully submersible to almost 10 feet (three meters to be exact).

The lanyard makes it easy to hang it around your neck, drape on your beach lounger or strap to your kayak.

Not just for iPods, it can be used with many small electronic gadgets, like another MP3 player, digital camera or cell phone.

Price: $19.99

www.allsop.com

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

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