05.23.07 - 02:24pm
The rain is pouring down in different colors these days, specifically liquid blue, orange and white, and it’s coming down blaring as Dreams Japan has just released their new Rain Drop speakers.
Compatible with the iPod and other MP3 players the speakers have an onboard stereo mini jack for connection. Playback is controlled by four external white buttons (from left to right - decrease volume, stop, playback, and increase volume).
They are powered by 4AA batteries and will play up to 10 hours. The speakers hold the iPod inside protecting it from water splashed for use playing by your pool, taking a back, or sitting on the seashore.
Category: Speakers | Tags: iPod, mp3_players, rain_drop-speakers, water-resistant | Be the First to Comment »
05.10.07 - 10:05am
Simple and easy, that’s the market that Slacker, a new portable little music maker, is going for. They are hoping to challenge the iPod with a different format - ease of use over multiple uses.
What Slacker offers is a player that with a simple touch of a button will keep as many songs as a consumer wants for as long as they want for a cheap $7.50 a month subscriber fee. All you have to do is hit the “Love it” button while listening to a customizable radio station and the song will be saved with similar styled songs sent to you. If you hate it you can hit the “Ban It” button and songs and songs like it will not come your way again.
Jonathan Sasse, one of the three founders of Slacker says, “Most MP3 players are too much work for the average user. They don’t want to bother updating their players via a USB connection. Our devices will just feed themselves.”
Category: MP3 Players, iPod | Tags: forrester_research, iPod, listen_to_music, mp3_players | Be the First to Comment »
04.27.07 - 10:47am
Ipod Mods used to be a place where users would go to get there iPod repaired - simply send it in and presto a whole new to you working iPod.
Well, this iPod repair place has been venturing out also repairing Zunes as well so like Apple switching from Apple Computer Inc. to
just Apple Inc. the iPod Mods is changing their name to Rapid Repair so now you Zune users won’t feel like you’re being disloyal going to an iPod repair shop to fix your Zune.
The companies wrote that “The change comes as the result of the company’s rapid expansion into product and service offerings that now extend past iPod product repairs and modifications.â€
Word is they may even be expanding to fix other sorts of MP3 players beyond the Zune.
Category: iPod | Tags: iPod, mp3_players, rapid_repair, Zune | Be the First to Comment »
04.18.07 - 11:29am
The Zune was the first to come out with Wi-Fi in a little music device and while it certainly didn’t make it overpower the iPod in any way it did point out a distinct feature the iPod lacked. Now rumors are abounding that the iPod will be releasing a Wi-Fi enabled iPod in the second half of 2007.
According to reports from Digitimes the new iPods’ Wi-Fi modules will be produced by Universal Scientific Industrial and Foxconn will perform as the OEM assembler.
A Wi-Fi iPod is almost a must as competition is heating up in the world of MP3 players. Even as Apple was patting itself on the back for breaking the 100 million mark of iPods sold, SanDisk was releasing their new MP3 player which allows users to wirelessly download songs through a Wi-Fi network, and gives them access with an $11.99 monthly paid subscription to as many songs as they wish to download.
Category: MP3 Players, Zune, iPod | Tags: iPod, mp3_players, sandisk, wirelessly, wi_fi | Be the First to Comment »
02.21.07 - 04:37pm
Now don’t get too upset, remember these were the rankings of Consumer Reports - they didn’t look at “cool factor”, all the accessories available, plane and car integration, iTunes or a whole list of other reasons why we buy the Nano. They simply put on their spectacles and made their pronouncement - and the Nano didn’t win in their list of top 18 MP3 players.
Actually it came in fourth - fourth?? Behind iRiver U10 and Cowan iAudio U3 and the Samsung YP-Y8Z?? Have we heard of these? Well Consumer reports has and they ranked the Nano behind them followed by the iRiver T10.
The ratings were based on unbiased reviews (are we biased?) - as well as audio quality, headphone quality and battery life.
I didn’t get the specs, cause you have to do that subscription thing, but thanks to Roger Hibbert, Senior Editor at Yahoo Tech for posting the fab five.
Category: MP3 Players, iPod | Tags: consumer-reports, mp3_players, nano | Be the First to Comment »
01.31.07 - 03:43pm
We always knew that someday we would all have a car like Knight Rider and Sync takes us one step closer to the real thing.
Sync is a new automotive electronics system from Ford and Microsoft. What it does is allow the driver to speak to the car to make a phone call, listen to a text message - read aloud by the car, or find a music track from your iPod or MP3 player and play it without having to fumble through the click wheel (a definite asset while driving).
Announced at CES and the North American International Auto Show, Sync links Bluetooth mobile phones, kindred wireless and USB-based devices into the cars audio system. It offers a USB 2.0 port for control and charging of digital devices including the iPod, Zune, MP3 players and storage devices such as flash drives. One can access Sync either by speaking to it or through steering wheel controls.
Category: Bling Bling, Car Chargers, Car Mounts, MP3 Players, Zune, iPod | Tags: american_international_auto_show, iPod, mp3_players, sync | Be the First to Comment »
01.26.07 - 12:06pm
Back in October Starbucks announced that their Starbucks Music Catalog would be available on iTunes and now word is that the music will soon be available in their stores, not as a CD to be burned as previously debutted, but as a MP3 download.
Turning the coffee break into a music break, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz says “Within 12 months , probably, you’re going to be able to walk into a Starbucks and digitally be able to fill up your MP3 player with music.”
Testing is due to begin over the next six to 18 months. Starbucks has stated MP3 players, but with their previous alliance with Apple it seems likely that MP3 will mean iPod and iTunes.
Category: MP3 Players, iPod, itunes | Tags: iPod, itunes, mp3_players, starbucks_music | Be the First to Comment »
01.19.07 - 04:58pm
Professor Fan-Gang Zeng, from the University of California, noticed a phenomenon happening among his students. The phenomenon wasn’t students getting superb grades or suddenly being able to jump buildings. The phenomenon was hearing loss. Hearing loss that normally wouldn’t be seen until his students were 50 or 60.
Professor Zeng works in boi-medical engineering and is a researcher specializing in hearing loss. He has seen cases of hearing loss in all of his classes for the past two years. The only thing that he’s seen change in the lifestyle of his students, for that two years, is the use of iPods or MP3 players.
“We can’t say for sure it’s from MP3 players, but I don’t know what else has changed,” said Zeng, “The climate and the food are the same.”
“Earbuds” such as the little white ones that have become synonymously famous with the iPod can be played much louder than earphones with previous technologies due to digital sound. Digital sound lets you turn it up, way up, without distortion. Also earbuds are directly in the ear canal allowing no sound to escape.
Category: MP3 Players, Protection, iPod | Tags: hearing_loss, ipods, mp3_players | Be the First to Comment »
01.05.07 - 11:14am
This is what Luxpro is touting on their website as they claim victory over Apple and rejoice by filing a 100 million dollar lawsuit against the high-profile conglomerate.
The dispute between the two companies began back in 2005 when Apple filed petition against Luxpro claiming their MP3 players looked too much like the Shuffle and violated laws concerning duplication. At the time the Taiwanese court agreed as Luxpro could not remember where the design idea had come from. Luxpro waited a year filing appeal after appeal until finally winning in district court. Luxpro stated in papers that “This belated verdict, was without doubt justice well deserved.”
Luxpro is asking for the 100 million in damages due to lost sales since the ban on their products was instated. They also said Apple directly or indirectly through distributors, approached electronic sales stores, issuing stern warning and demanding all Luxpro players removed from the shelves immediately. They supposedly followed with threats to withdraw all iPod products and take legal measures if this was not done.
Category: MP3 Players, iPod | Tags: apple, luxpro, mp3_players, shuffle | Be the First to Comment »
12.15.06 - 04:13pm
The trend in the lack of training and overuse of technologies such as computer games, MP3 players and iPods is known as “Technology Isolation Syndrome.”
The sydrome recently being studied by Professor Tony McEnery with Lancaster University in the UK, focuses on teenagers
who have become so enveloped in technology and the shorthand way of writing and communicating that they are no longer communicating with each other, in real live conversations.
Professer McErny found that the top 20 words being used by teenagers include yeah, no, but, and like. Not only were they in the top 20 but they accounted for one third of all the words being used. His report states “Of note when examining the word ‘no’ is the frequency with which the word is accompanied by the word ‘but’. These words occur in the sequence ‘but no’ or ‘no but’ almost twice as frequently in teenage speech as it does in young adult or middle aged speech.”
Category: MP3 Players, iPod | Tags: communication_skills, ipods, mp3_players | Be the First to Comment »
