The Samsung YP-M1 that leaked two weeks ago just got a little more official. Samsung has posted the player on their site, alongside a pink version of the YP-R1 (aka the r’mix). The M1 is the main draw here though, with its 3.3″ AMOLED touchscreen display, bluetooth, Divx playback, built-in accelerometer, and DMB TV (for Korea).
The teaser page also mentions the use of an Nvidia chipset. Could the M1 be sporting a powerful Tegra chip, like the upcoming Zune HD? A Samsung rep recently confirmed that Samsung is indeed working on devices that will be using the Nvidia Tegra, so this definitely seems to fit with that. We should find out more when it’s formally announced.
The Samsung YP-M1 that leaked two weeks ago just got a little more official. Samsung has posted the player on their site, alongside a pink version of the YP-R1 (aka the r’mix). The M1 is the main draw here though, with its 3.3″ AMOLED touchscreen display, bluetooth, Divx playback, built-in accelerometer, and DMB TV (for Korea).
The teaser page also mentions the use of an Nvidia chipset. Could the M1 be sporting a powerful Tegra chip, like the upcoming Zune HD? A Samsung rep recently confirmed that Samsung is indeed working on devices that will be using the Nvidia Tegra, so this definitely seems to fit with that. We should find out more when it’s formally announced.
Cowon Korea has just updated their front page with a preview of an upcoming device called the E2. Judging by the name, I’m guessing that it’ll be a similar device to the T2, just screen-less. Cowon has tried to keep up with iriver in terms of design and devices like the S9, O2 and D2+ show how things have gone well. The E2 might have gone a bit far though. It looks too similar to the iriver NV and domino. Nevertheless, I might have to pick one up for you guys if it’s priced reasonably low.
A few weeks ago we reported on an FCC leak of Creative’s first touchscreen player called the Zii Egg. Well it’s officially hatched, and I must say, it’s simply amazing on paper. It’s a 3.5″ multi-touch touchscreen device capable of outputting video in 1080P. It has Wi-Fi (with full Opera web browser), X-Fi, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, an SDHDC slot, Dual cameras, and so much more. Now get this, it’ll cost as low as $199US. Just as impressive is Creative’s new software for the device called “Plaszma”. It’s an open-source OS that appears to be built on OS, and optimized for the Zii chip (ZMS-05). It’s being targeted at manufactures as a market ready OS platform to implement on various devices.
Zii Egg Specs:
• Capacitive 10-point multi-gesture touch display • 3.5” 320×480 true-color display • Up to 32GB internal plus SDHC slot (supports up to 32GB of external SDHC Card) • Supports: MP3, WMA, AAC, WMV, H.264, MPEG-4, AVI, and MOV • X-Fi audio processing • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR • 3-axis Accelerometer • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g • Hardware GPS receiver • 32MB NOR (Linux Kernel Boot ROM) • 256MB Mobile DDR RAM • Supports 720p and 1080p HDTVs via HD cable •Headphone socket, built-in speaker and microphone • Dual cameras - Forward facing HD camera - Rear facing VGA camera • 1200mAH rechargeable lithium-ion • 115 x 62 x 12 mm (108grams)
See a video of the Zii Egg and Plaszma OS in action:
It’s hard for me to believe a company in Creative’s position could create something so high-end. While the design isn’t the most original, the abundance of features that it has, with the combination of an open-source OS like Android really sets it apart from any other player released thus far. We’ll make sure to update you as soon as we have more.
Typically we don’t report on firmware updates, this is because usually firmware updates just address bugfixes, but when an update adds significant new features to a player we see it as being as good as a new player being announced. Late late last month we reported that Cowon had released a beta firmware update that added m3u support as well as gapless playback to lossless formats, now they’ve released the second beta firmware update which, to much joy, has added lossless playback to mp3! Full list of updates/fixes below:
Firmware 2.31 beta2:
Support gapless playback in MP3 files.
Improved DivX3 playback performance and hours of continuous playback.
Fixed the error that audio synchronization was not working properly when some AVI 2.0 files are searched in 0 second.
Fixed the error that some files display frame rate incorrectly.
Fixed the error that audio plays faster than video in some video files.
Fixed date created of DMB, DAB, and recording files.
I know that for quite a few people gapless is not all that important, none the less it’s great that for those of us that listen to albums in full. Being able to listen to music properly, without that click between tracks, really does improve ones audio experience. It seems that Cowon are working very very hard to make the S9 one of the best players available, and with last weeks announcement of that ceramic white S9 I think I might finally bite the bullet and get one.
Last week, in our report of the new E440 series, I commented on the need for Sony to try something different. Now by different, I didn’t mean speakers. According to Sony Insider, you’re looking at the newest S-series Walkman. The player comes in metallic blue, pink, red, and black, and has speakers at the top and bottom of the device. I’ve owned a lot of players with integrated speakers, but have never been all that pleased with their sound output. Can Sony be the first to get built-in speakers done right? We’ll have to wait and see.
Apple saw the first year over year decline in iPod sales since the player launched in 2001. Sales were down 7% from the same quarter last year. Despite this drop, that still amounts to 10.2 million new iPods sold. According to Apple, conventional iPods like the Shuffle, nano, and Classic were to blame for the decline, citing iPod touch sale being up 130%. In their conference call, Apple explains that products like the iPhone and iPod touch were created in anticipation of this decline. They say they “expect traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves.”
Apple Reports Third Quarter Results
Best Non-Holiday Quarter Revenue and Earnings in Apple History
CUPERTINO, California—July 21, 2009—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended June 27, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their estimated economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $9.74 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $1.94 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”
Apple sold 2.6 million Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing a four percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing a seven percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhones sold were 5.2 million, representing 626 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
“We’re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.”
“We’re extremely pleased to report record non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings and quarterly cash flow from operations of $2.3 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.18 to $1.23.”
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2009 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple’s standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT on July 21, 2009 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq309/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.
It looks like conventional players are on their way out in general. Just about every major company will have a touchscreen player as their flagship DAP by the end of this year.
