Mp3 Player Market Review

Amazon announces new Kindle starting at $139

Michael — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:17:25 +0000

Amazon has a new Kindle, well two actually, your standard 3G model, as well as a Wi-Fi only model. The new reader comes in black, or white and has the same size display as previous generations, but contrast has been increased by 50%. The device itself is 21% smaller, and 15% lighter. Amazon has also doubled the internal storage from 2 to 4GB. There's a few other minor improvements including a new webkit-based browser, and improved PDF support.

Kindle 3rd Gen Features

Display: 6.0" E-Ink display
4GB storage (holds approximately 3,500 books
3G Wireless or WiFi
Battery life: 1 Month with Wireless off
Books download in 60 seconds
Enhanced PDF reader
new Web-kit based web browser
Dimensions: 7.5" x 4.8" x 0.335" (weight: 8 ounces)

The Kindle begins shipping August 27th starting at just $139 for the Wi-Fi model, and $189 for the 3G.

Pre-order Kindle 3G
Pre-order Kindle Wi-Fi

Sony’s E450 series encourages you to sing along

Michael — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:40:18 +0000

Karaoke is huge in Japan. The term originates from there of course, and is a combination of two words meaning "open orchestra". There are hundreds of venues around Tokyo dedicated to the entertaining, often embarrassing endeavor of singing along to your favorite pop singer. For those that can't make it out to these "Karaoke boxes", as they're called, Sony has a portable solution for you. The new NWZ-E450 Walkman series has a new Karaoke mode that reduces the vocal track on songs. This is accompanied with a new scrolling lyrics feature called "Lyrics Sync" that supports standard .lrc files.

The rest of the specs are about what you'd expect from a Sony Walkman. It has a 2.0" display, capacities ranging from 4 to 16GB's, support for MP3, WMA, AAC, WMV, H.264, and MPEG-4, and has an FM tuner and voice recorder. It also gets an estimated 50 hours of audio playback on a single charge. So really, the only thing truly different about this is the Karaoke mode, which sounds rather gimmicky to me. I think a lot people actually enjoy singing with their favorite artists, not instead of them.

My suggestion for Sony is to release a portable version of their popular Singstar games on the player. Singstar uses a points-based system to evaluate how close you've come to the actual song. I think that would be far more rewarding than a standard Karaoke feature. Additionally, Sony could actually make revenue from selling song packs for the game. But I guess all of this makes too much sense, so we'll never see it happen. The E450 series comes out next month, with no official pricing info released thus far.

via Pocket-Lint

Design Fabulous’ new Concept: HTC 1

Michael — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:31:47 +0000

Fellow DAPreview editor Andrew Kim, aka Design Fabulous, is no stranger to getting recognized for his great concepts. His latest is the "HTC 1", a mobile phone concept that's both stylish and functional. For instance, the bottom half of the solid brass casing rotates, allowing it to double as a kickstand. If you're a germaphobe, you'll feel sane knowing there's a UV light built-in to kill any harmful microbes, as the phone charges.

Kim set out to design a phone with a premium look, and a user interface that complimented that. I think he's accomplished that, and then some. Andrew already has an impressive body of work behind him, and from the looks of it, an even more promising future ahead.

HTC 1 concept

as seen on: engadget

Thanks Saijin_Naib!

GenerationMP3: Cowon J3 vs S9

Michael — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:52:11 +0000

Our friends over at GenerationMP3 have just released a video comparing the Cowon S9 to the J3. The differences between the two don't appear to be anything major. Among other things, the J3 improves on the S9 with a cleaner looking menu system, larger album art, and faster loading images. Response times for the touchscreen looks to be about the same on the two players.

via GMP3

Cowon J3 at Amazon

$150 nook Wi-Fi announced [Updated]

Michael — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:23:03 +0000

E-book readers are finally hitting my target price. Being the cheapskate that I am, I had a hard time plunking down $250 or more for a Kindle. Well today, Barnes and Noble's officially announced a Wi-Fi version of their popular Android-powered nook reader for just $149. Aside from the switch from 3G wireless to Wi-Fi the reader appears to be identical to the original. It has a 6" E-ink display, as well as a 3.5" color touchscreen. It's loaded with 2GB's of memory plus a microSD slot, and supports PDF, EPUB, and MP3 files. B&N also dropped the price of the 3G model to $199. Hopefully this will put a little pressure on Amazon to release a WiFi-only model of their own.

LINK

Update: Well that was fast. Amazon has now dropped the price of the Kindle to $189. We got ourselves a good ol' fashioned pricing war!

Kindle at Amazon

Nintendo 3DS officially unveiled

Michael — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:42:58 +0000

Yesterday at E3, Nintendo officially revealed the 3DS. The successor to the DS may not look too different from the current DS line, but as the name implies, it does 3D. Better yet, it does 3D without glasses. Having to wear glasses is perhaps one of the biggest turn-offs of this new 3D craze. I don't know exactly how Nintendo accomplished it, but from the demonstrations I've seen, it works pretty well. Nintendo announced a ton of games for the new system including Metal Gear Solid, Kid Icarus, and Star Fox. It's also capable of playing 3D movies. Nintendo had trailers for "How to Train Your Dragon" and others playing back perfectly in 3D. The Nintendo 3DS won't arrive on shelves till 2011, but it's already shaping up to be a killer handheld
device.

LINK

Apple announces the iPhone 4

Michael — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:47:25 +0000

Well it’s finally official. After months of leaks, Steve Jobs re-introduced the world to the iPhone 4. And yes, it’s just “4″ this time since it’s still running on a 3G network. Most of the new additions are on the software side, but the iPhone itself got some significant upgrades as well First of all, it’s 24% thinner than the last iPhone, and sports a nice stainless steel casing with dedicated volume buttons. The 3.5″ display has a 960 x 640 resolution, 4 times sharper than its predecessor.. Jobs calls it a “retina display” because of its a 336 DPI resolution; that’s higher than printed text, and even beyond what the human eye is capable of distinguishing. In other words, it’s a bit of overkill on Apple’s part. The iPhone 4 uses the same “A4″ chipset as the iPad, allowing for faster processing, and a bump in battery life.

Apple also announced a bunch of new apps for the iPhone 4, including iBook with PDF support, and a Netflix app. They’ve also added iMovie, allowing you to edit movies on the go, and output them in resolutions up to 720P. That should pair nicely with the phone’s new cameras, capable of recording video in HD.

The iPhone 4 will be released later this month, and will come in black, or white. There’s two capacities to choose from, a 16GB for $199, or a 32GB model for $299 (with a 2 year contract I believe).

The keynote is still live, so Apple has yet to update their site with official specs. We’ll fill you in on all the details as they come in.

Sources:

macrumors
Gizmodo
Engadget

Asus Eee Pad Now Official

Michael — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:21:59 +0000

In terms of tech fads, tablets are the new netbooks. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the company behind the eee PC is coming out with an “eee Pad”. Asus unveiled their new tablet in two sizes, a 12″ (EP121) that’s powered by a CULV Intel Core 2 Duo processor, runs Windows 7, and has an estimated battery life of 10 hours. The 10″ model (EP101TC) will run “Windows Embedded Compact 7″.

Press Release

Stay Connected and Multitask with the Eee Pad
Engineering excellence meets stunning design in the ASUS Eee Pad, an ultra-slim and light yet high-performance slate device designed to provide users with a real time cloud computing experience. The Eee Pad will be available in two configurations.

The 12″ Eee Pad EP121 is a full-featured slate computer that serves as a multimedia player, e-reader, and compact computing device. Powered by a CULV Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor and the Windows® 7 Home Premium operating system, it effortlessly handles multitasking tasks whether enabling users to check their email and calendars, have video conferences, or process Microsoft Word and Excel documents simultaneously. The ASUS Eee Pad EP121 offers two convenient modes of character input-an embedded virtual keyboard or an innovative hybrid keyboard/docking station design. All of this power is available in a personal computing device that delivers up to 10 hours of usage.

For users seeking additional mobility, ASUS is proud to present the 10” Eee Pad EP101TC that runs Windows Embedded Compact 7, which provides an engaging user experience and delivers instant connectivity to the Windows world. It also provides a familiar full-featured user experience across various connected devices and cloud computing services.

Asus also showed off a sweet docking station with a built-in keyboard that essentially makes the tablet a notebook when connected. Sadly, it won’t be out till the first quarter of 2011. No official pricing figures yet, but Asus tells engadget they’ll be $399 and $499 respectively.

via engadget

LG and iriver team up to develop new phone

Michael — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:54:42 +0000

LG is known for their mobile phones. Iriver is known for their MP3 players. Combine the two and you should have one stellar DAP phone. At least that’s what the two Korean companies have in mind when partnering up to make the “LG-LB4400″. Iriver not only handled the music portion, but designed the phone’s interface as well. We don’t have the full specs, but the phone has a 2.8″ AMOLED touchscreen display, supports a wide range of formats including FLAC, OGG, AAC, and APE, and has a 3MP camera.

Here’s a video of the LG-LB4400 in action

The LB4400 looks like the best of both worlds. Pricing and availability info haven’t been released yet, but it looks like it’ll only be sold in Korea.

via Akihabara News

Archos 7 Home tablet Now shipping in the US

Michael — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:10:26 +0000

If you don’t feel like spending half a grand on an iPad, then consider the Archos 7 home tablet. It has a high res 7″ touchscreen display, runs Android, has great file support, and an estimated battery life of 42 hours for music . The best part? It only costs $199. That’s an unbelievable price for what you’re getting.

Archos 7 home tablet Specs

Capacity: 8GB plus microSDHC expansion
OS: Linux, Android 1.5
Display: 7.0″ touchscreen (800 x 480)
Audio: MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, and FLAC
Video: WMV, AVI, MPEG-4, H.264, FLV, MKV, MOV (with resolutions up to 720P)
WiFi (802.11 b/g)
USB Slave/Host (connect external drive, or add a keyboard/mouse)
Battery life: 42 hours for Audio, 7 hours for video
Dimensions: 203 mm x 107 mm x 12 mm

With their trend of rebranding Chinese players, I haven’t taken Archos seriously for a few years, but this tablet has certainly gotten my attention. The size is just right, and you really can’t beat $199 for a fully-featured Android tablet. The Archos 7 home tablet is now shipping at the official Archos store, and is also available for Pre-order at Amazon.

Archos Store
Archos 7 at Amazon