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Archive for the 'Music' Category

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SRS + IOGEAR = Bluetooth headset with HD audio

November 13th, 2007, 5:10 am by

Two Orange County companies, IOGEAR of Irvine and SRS Labs of Santa Ana, announced today a partnership on a Bluetooth headset with enhanced sound that can be used with any Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player, mobile phone or other audio device.

The deal adds “WOW HD” sound technology from SRS to IOGEAR’s Bluetooth Audio Transport. The device (model GBMH221W6) costs $79.95 from major catalog and online resellers, as well as selected retail outlets. It comes with a one-year warranty from IOGEAR.

Bluetooth Audio Transport
Key features:

  • Maximum Bluetooth range is 33 feet.
  • Button control and a microphone for use with phones that have A2DP technology, allowing users to pick up calls during music playback (like seen with the Apple iPhone and its headphones), even if the phone is tucked away in a pocket.
  • The headset has five control buttons: play, pause, track selection next and previous, and volume control.
  • The built-in rechargable battery provides up to six hours of play time and can be recharged via USB.
  • SRS WOW HD technology improves audio performance, especially of highly compressed music files.

Click here for an example of WOW HD.

Posted in: Cell phones • Music • • | Comments Off

New gigabeat music players from Toshiba

September 25th, 2007, 2:16 pm by

Toshiba’s gigabeat T400Toshiba unveiled some new music players today that will compete with probably anything that isn’t an iPod.

The gigabeat T400 runs on flash memory so it only has 4 GB of storage (that’s 1,000 songs at 4-megabytes a song). But it does have a 2.4-inch color screen for photo slide shows and videos — up to 5 hours on a single battery, says Toshiba.

And it features H2C, a high-end audio enhancement that improves the quality of compressed digital music. This appears to be a Toshiba technology — I’m waiting for more details on this.

This is a very Microsoft-heavy gadget, playing MP3, WMA, WAV, WMA Lossless and WMV files.

Comes in a dark magnesium case with trim in three colors: blue, pink and orange. Includes matching headphones. Price: $120 and available at toshibadirect.com.

Toshiba’s gigabeat T400

And if you have an old gigabeat, trade up and get cash back from Toshiba’s recycling program. Details HERE.

Posted in: Music • | Comments Off

SanDisk’s new Sansa takes swipe at iPod

September 10th, 2007, 5:07 pm by

SanDisk Sansa ViewSanDisk doesn’t hold back one bit about where its new Sansa View MP3 player fits in the digital music market. Here’s the pitch I just got from the company:

Last week Apple unveiled their products for the holiday season. Today SanDisk – Apple’s largest competitor – announced the Sansa View, a video MP3 player that easily surpasses the new Nano with more features and twice the capacity (16GB) at an unbeatable price point. The 16GB Sansa View will be available in October for just $199 – the same price as the 8GB Nano.

The pitch continues…

The Sansa View is twice the memory story (sic) capacity and rich with features that Apple’s player doesn’t have: a large(r) bright 2.4” screen for viewing movies, videos and pictures, a FM radio, a built in microphone and recording capabilities, and an expandable MicroSD/SDHC card slot for additional storage or moving your content to a mobile phone. Plus, the battery life is the largest on the market.

My two cents: A lot of these bonus features that aren’t found on iPods have been on other MP3 players before. Apple has had plenty of opportunity to add removable storage or a built-in microphone but it hasn’t. And yet, it’s still the tops. I guess consumers have voted.

The Sansa View will be available in October.

Posted in: iPods • Music | 1 Comment »

Wolverine updates multimedia gadget to 250 GBs

August 28th, 2007, 11:17 am by

Wolverine ESP now at 250 GBs

I’ve always thought the Wolverine ESP portable media player was a decent deal. The latest update bumps storage to 250 GBs, but at $650, the price seems higher than I remember.

Nevertheless, the Irvine-based company continues to cram a lot of features into a small space. The ESP 5250 has a 3.6-inch LCD screen, TV recording capability, FM radio and best of all, a 7-in-1 memory card reader. Portable hard drives are useful to photographers who need to offload storage cards while in the middle of nowhere.

Formats read: Compact Flash (CF), MicroDrive, Secure Digital (SD & SDHC), MMC, Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Pro (MS-Pro) and XD Card. An optional adapter accepts MS-Duo, MS Pro-Duo, Mini-SD and RS-MMC. Also supports RAW files from cameras.

And it weighs 10.2 ounces, which is about twice the heft of an iPod.

Need more info? Watch Wolverine’s video demo.

Posted in: Music • Storage • • | Comments Off

Targus’ SoundUP: Get better sound from your mediocre music player

August 22nd, 2007, 6:02 pm by

Targus SoundUP high-definition sound enhancerTwo things I learned after reviewing today’s gadget announcement from Anaheim’s Targus Inc.:

First, the Targus SoundUP  sound enhancer adds back data from the original recording that was lost in compression. And second, Santa Ana’s SRS Labs and Huntington Beach’s BBE Sound have a competitor, Phantom Technologies in St. Paul, Minn.

I’m not sure I believe the first part. Says Targus, SoundUP “enhances sound quality by up to 20-25 percent, revealing instruments and voices from original recordings that are typically lost during compression.”

If the MP3 file cut out the voices for compression’s sake, how can it recapture something that is no longer there? Enhance higher and lower sounds, yes. But recapture the original recording? Hmm…

Targus SoundUP high-definition sound enhancerSoundUP is a high-definition sound enhancer. Plug it into an iPod or MP3 player and it should make the music sound much better.

It’s slightly smaller than an iPod nano, uses 1 AAA battery and weighs less than 2 ounces. It also has an audio-out splitter lets two headphones share a headphone jack. Price $29.99.

Posted in: Audio • iPods • Music • | Comments Off

Consumer electronics adds some funky Boynq

August 16th, 2007, 6:56 am by

Just heard from Dutch consumer electronics maker Boynq, which offers a bunch of colorful gadgets you may like. Sebastian Peersmaan founded the colorful company in 2003 and besides the Boynq brand of electronics, it also does some design work for Apple and Samsung. Products coming in September:

Boynq Alibi Fire

The Alibi Fire (also available in turquoise-colored Alibi Water) is a striking computer speaker plus a 1.3-megapixel web cam and microphone. The web cam can tilt 25-degrees and rotate 360-degrees. Runs on USB power and uses Audio Lens Technology surround sound. Price: $80 and coming soon to Amazon and Target. Click for more: Alibi details

Boynq Cube II Pour Homme

The iCube II has a detachable audio-in cable for any music device, from the prolific iPod to a Walkman or other music player. And just for iPod users, the iCube II can be connected to a computer to sync music. Price: $70. Click for more: iCube II details

Boynq Sabre Pour Femme

Another design-y iPod system, the Boynq Sabre Pour Homme is a docking station, charger and speaker system. Includes FireWire and USB ports plus six different docking inserts to fit all versions of iPods. Price: $100. More info: Sabre details

Posted in: iPods • Music • • | 2 Comments »

One, two, three billion iTunes songs and counting

August 2nd, 2007, 12:27 pm by

iTunes.Apple recently announced that more than three billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from iTunes.
common.jpg
And, to do my part on reaching 4 billion, I downloaded the new Common album this morning.

The release also notes that “iTunes recently surpassed Amazon and Target to become the third largest music retailer in the U.S.”

Sure I’m a regular iTunes buyer, but sometimes it’s just nice owning the physical album. Even though iTunes finally added automatic-artwork-finding to the program, it’s still oh so nice to buy a CD, unwrap the plastic wrap and flip through the lyrics, photos and artwork provided with the CD.

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. What do you think?

 

iGirl

 

Posted in: Music • • • | 1 Comment »

Review: Chocolate 2.0 cell phone

July 24th, 2007, 11:53 pm by

Chocolate VX8550

Chocolate VX8550Got my hands on the new Chocolate VX8550, LG’s update to the music cell phone. Just as before, the Chocolate, version 2, is available from Verizon Wireless.

I liked the first one okay, but it had some issues. Some were addressed in the latest update, others weren’t. To read the full review, here’s a link.

The wheel now spins, the touch-sensitive keys vibrate and there are two headphone jacks (one proprietary and one that fits standard cell-phone headsets). You can’t transfer music to the phone wirelessly but you can move data to the phone with a special USB cable or the microSD card.

A nice touch: Verizon tosses in its music kit (includes stereo Bluetooth headset, 4 GB microSD card and reader, USB cable and music software) which it’s selling for $200. Packaged side-by-side, the Chocolate and the music kit are a pretty good deal for the $250 price tag. But you’ll only get the price with an annual contract.

chocolatebox1.jpg

More pictures after the break

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • Gadgetress reviews • Music • • • • • | Comments Off

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