MP3 Players & Digital Audio

You Can Argue with Success

December 16, 2005

Lots of buzz late yesterday how Microsoft has had such a successful Xbox 360 launch, yet it's decided to split its "entertainment and devices" divisionÂ into four separate companies.Â Imagine if the launch didn't go well?

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Altec Lansing Says Goodbye to Cheesy Headphones

December 6, 2005

Leveraging the companyâs well-earned expertise in professional audio reproduction, Altec Lansing has entered the consumer earphone market with its inMotionâ¢ iM616 and iM716.Â Both models utilize patented Etymotic Research technology to provide a market-leading 35db of noise isolation.Â

The inMotion earphones feature a special earplug-like design that blocks virtually all ambient noise when used with MP3 players and other portable audio devices.Â The company claims this passive noise isolation technology outperforms active noise-cancelling earphones by a wide margin â in some cases multiples of 10 â to ensure that traffic and other external sources of noise have minimal impact on the listening experience.

Each earpiece contains a specially engineered speaker that is designed to provide maximum sound fidelity at all frequencies.Â This combination of the speaker design and noise isolation technology not only enables you to hear more tone and detail than ever before, but also helps prevent hearing damage and sound distortion.

The inMotion iM616 features enhanced bass, an 84% sound accuracy rating as well as a black earplug and cord with a shirt clip for optimal positioning.Â The inMotion iM716 features both enhanced bass and high-definition audio modes and you can choose either one with an in-line controller located on the cable.Â This controller also doubles as a shirt clip and includes a switch permitting volume control directly from the earphones.Â The iM716 has a sound accuracy rating of 90% and a white form factor that matches the Appleâs standard issue iPod.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Now Iâve Heard Everything! An 'iPod Tax'?

December 2, 2005

Thank goodness the Japanese plan to charge royalties on portable digital music players fell apart yesterday in Tokyo.

According to a New York Times report (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Japan-iPod-Tax.html), Japan's recording industry has been urging an âiPod taxâ tax for two years since the explosive success of Apple's iPod.

The planned tax would have added from 2 percent to 5 percent to the price of portable players, with the money going to recording companies, composers and artists.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

iPod on the Brain

November 28, 2005

With Apple's line-up of iPod products on every holiday shopper's mind, interesting to see which one will be the sales winner this season. Will it be:

Nano -- impossibly small, but suffering from that bad screen damage press Shuffle -- for whatever song's next, that's cool "New iPod" -- this time video-focused, so your favorite video is always close at hand

Â (Sure do miss the Mini, though ...)

Â And will any other MP3 player from any other manufacturer come close to making a real difference?

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Grokster Goes ByeBye

November 7, 2005

One of the leading file sharing companies, Grokster,Â shut down today following a settlement with the recording industry that has ended years of battling copyright infringement lawsuits in the U.S. Supreme Court.Â

The company's web site posted a terse announcement:Â "The UnitedÂ States Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that using this service to trade copyrighted material is illegal. Copying copyrighted motion picture and music files using unauthorized peer-to-peer services is illegal and is prosecuted by copyright owners.

"There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them."

However, the company promises that theÂ safe, secureÂ and legal P2P Grokster3G will be coming soon!

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Guiding Light Lite Podcast

November 3, 2005

Are you ready for this?Â Next Monday, November 7, Guiding Light, the first and only entertainment television program to podcast entire audio episodes, will begin podcasting Guiding Light LITE, a 10-minute mini-episode highlighting one Guiding Light storyline each day.Â This will be followed by an interview with an actor featured in that storyline.Â

Â The LITE audio episodes and the full Guiding Light episodes are available for download at CBS.com/netcast and iTunes.com.Â

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

Bang & Olufsen innovations

September 15, 2005

Check out the new Bang & Olufsen innovation rumors from our friends at engadget.

DAB as well as SD...mouth water now.Â Read more HERE!

Posted in Home Entertainment, MP3 Players & Digital Audio

The All New Ipod nano

September 14, 2005

iPod has a smaller sister. And her name is nano.

IPod nano hosts many of the features we've come to love from iPod, along with a few KEY additions:

Smaller in size and weight

Bright COLOR LCD

Long battery life

And best of all FLASH MEMORY meaning NO moving parts, No skips, less likelihood of breakage or malfunction!

Thank goodness iPod moved away from hard-disc storage as most people seem to use the iPod on the move.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

The Super Shuffle returns as the Super Tangent/Super Shiner?

March 30, 2005

From Engadget:

Weâre not sure what the hellâs going on now, but our old pals at LuxPro have pasted up a product page for a new, slightly less iPod shuffle-esque version of their notorious Super Shuffle MP3 player which is either called the Super Shiner or the Super Tangent. It still comes in either 512MB or 1GB flavors and has a built-in FM tuner, a digital voice recorder function, and a shuffle mode, but theyâve changed the controls a bit to make the player less of lawsuit-magnet. Oh, and the player also now comes in both black and red, in additon to the original white. This is all assuming that this player actually exists, of course.

[Thanks, Jimmy]

(Peter Rojas) Read more from this post.

Posted in MP3 Players & Digital Audio

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