The player you see above looks rather boring. It’s a screenless square that looks more like a battery than an actual player. But this DAP has a trick up its sleeve; it’s mastered the art of paper folding. Well, it’s made of plastic, but you get the idea! The “Play MP3″ concept player folds into the actual control icons that it represents. For instance, if you want to play your music you fold it in half to get “▶”. If you want to fast-forward. you slide one of the pieces forward to get ” ▶▶”.
It’s a really simple, yet innovative concept. It might not be the most practical player I’ve seen, but I’d still be first in line to get my hands on one if it ever goes on sale.
Yanko Design
(via GMP3)
Show of hands, How many of you have ever wanted to control your phone or DAP with your eyes? Yeah, me neither, but don’t that tell that to Japanese communication giant NTT Docomo Their researchers have created a pair of earphones that are allow you to control your music through specific eye movements. Headphones recording eye movements? That might sound like some futuristic concept, but it actually uses a common medical technique called electrooculography. In simple terms, the process measures the electrical impulses released by your eyes when they move in certain directions, and sends this signal to a pair of electrodes placed on your skin. In this case, the earphones happen to have small electrodes built into them.
Below you’ll find a video demonstration of how it works. The eye movements used for navigation are pretty simple. For instance, if you want to press play move your eyes from right to left, or if you want to increase the volume you move your eyes clockwise.
The earphones are no doubt an intuitive way of using scientific technique, but is it really practical for consumer use? Since our eyes are constantly moving. I can’t imagine it would be. I think I’ll just skip this one, and wait for the brain implant instead.
via MP4Nation
Today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft unveiled their newest mobile phone platform, the Windows Phone 7 series. The name is a mouthful, and the same can be said about what it’s packing. The WP7 series is a complete evolution from previous Windows Mobile platforms, adding a slick new interface with Zune and Xbox Live integration built-in.
At Microsoft’s keynote earlier today, Joe Belfiore, VP of Windows Mobile, said previous WinMo OS’s looked too much like a computer’s interface. He felt that limited the phones ability to adapt. The Windows Phone 7 series allows for easy expandability, and provides instant live updates for your email and social networking (facebook, twitter, etc..) from your home screen.
Words can only say so much, see it in action below:
As you can see, the GUI borrows a lot from the Zune HD’s interface. That’sa good thing in my book. Microsoft has been losing market share in the Smartphone sector every year so this move couldn’t come soon enough. Most major carriers, and phone manufacturers seem to be on board, with the first WP7 phones coming this Holiday. We’ll update you with any important info as we get it. For now, we’d like to know what you think about this new platform.
Windows Phone 7 Series
Other sources:
Engadget hands-on
Gizmodo hands-on
Thanks to all that sent this in!
Continue Reading to read the full Press Release
I’ll admit, when the iPad was first revealed I was pretty impressed with it. Perhaps I was swept up in the hype leading up its announcement, or it could just be Steve Jobs’ power to make anything sound amazing. Soon after, with help from some of you, I started to realize what Jobs didn’t say in his keynote. Jobs poked fun at netbooks for not being an improvement over existing products, yet in many ways, they’re more capable than the iPad. Apple could have really made a revolutionary tablet device with a fully functioning Mac OS, but instead we have a slightly revised iPhone interface that lacks the ability to multitask. I don’t know if Apple is cautious of whether the iPad will sell or not, but it certainly seems like they’re playing it safe.
Since we’re all about music here, I wanted to know how the iPad is as an MP3 player. According to Cnet, who had some hands-on time with the device, the iPad’s music browser looks like a hybrid of iTunes and a standard iPod interface.
You won’t find iTunes LP on the iPad
The player doesn’t differ too much from previous iPods, but oddly enough is missing a few options that would take advantage of the iPad’s larger display. With a screen that size, it would have been cool to navigate through fully scaled album art, but sadly there doesn’t appear to be a Cover Flow mode. Another missing feature is iTunes LP. Just announced in September 09, iTunes LP allows users to get lyrics, photos, and other information for select albums on iTunes.
While those features are mostly for eye candy, I don’t really see any reason not to include them on the iPad. Hopefully these issues and others will be resolved by its release.
LINK
We don’t talk about video games much since it’s not really our niche, but the PSP can certainly be considered a PMP. Last year, Sony released a compact version of it called the PSP Go On paper, it didn’t sound too bad; It has 16GB’s of storage, a cool flip-up screen, and bluetooth support. The only problem is it costs $249, and games are only available through digital distribution. Suffice to say, the launch was complete failure and Sony will be doing a re-launch coupled with a price drop later this year.
Of course, this hasn’t stopped companies from making clones of the device. Chinese manufacturer JXD has PSP cloning down to a tee. Older models like the JXD 2000 are nearly impossible to differentiate from the original. Their newest is the “V3″, and it’s clear they “borrowed” some elements from the PSP Go. In fact, I think this is what the Go should have looked like. Check out its features below.
JXD V3 Features:
- Capacity: 8GB plus expansion
- Display: 4.3 inch TFT LCD, (480×272 resolution)
- Video: RMVB, RM, AVI, VOB, DAT, MPG, FLV, 3GP, MP4, ASF, WMV video (max 1280×720 resolution)
- Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR, AAC, FLAC and APE
- Support Games format: GBA, GBC, GB, NES, SMD, SMC, BIN, SWF game formats, include 8-32 bit games
- Built in 5.0MP camera, support 640×480 30fps video record, DC and DV
- Other features: FM tuner/recorder.calendar, time show and stopwatch, Flash support
- TV-in and TV-out
The best part? It only costs $112.
LINK
(via GMP3)
Fan rendering of the Meizu “mPad”
Let’s rewind back to January 2007. The iPhone was just announced to the public, who gave it a fairly tepid reception . Many liked the cool multi-touch interface, but weren’t too fond of its bland design and hefty price tag. Analysts and other mobile phone manufacturers scoffed at Apple for believing they could gain any significant amount of marketshare. And of course there was the legal battle with Cisco over the actual name of the device. Sounds familiar? The initial reaction to the iPad clearly has many parallels to the iPhone’s launch. We all know how well the latter turned out for Apple, but we’ll have to wait and see how successful they’ll be with their tablet.
Besides pointing out the lessons learned from the iPhone, I brought this up for another reason. Shortly after the iPhone became official, Meizu’s CEO J.Wong released some new renderings of thei “miniOne” aka the M8. It was undoubtedly an iPhone clone, which became even more apparent in the years leading up to its release. So with the iPad now official, many people at the official Meizu forums thought history would be repeating itself again. Fans created renders of a supposed “mPad” like the one you see above. J. Wong eventually stepped in and said the following (translated from Chinese): ” Stop the photoshop work. I do not have the slightest interest in creating a big MP4! Not enough to lose face”. Considering how long it took them to release the M8, that’s probably a good idea. Still, Chinese companies have certainly stepped up the quality of their PMP’s in the past few years, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the inevitable “ChiPads” that get released over there.
Meizu Forums
via Cloned in China
