Sony considers music downloads for PSP

Posted in PSP by Conner Flynn on May 21st, 2009

50 million PSPs sold worldwideCNET has word that Sony’s been talking to some of the big recording labels about putting their music on the PlayStation Network for download, specifically for the PSP. It makes sense. The service already has a growing library of movies and TV shows. It’s just lacking music.

And since Sony is one of the four largest music companies in the world, they should be able to provide a few good artists. It resides in rumor territory for now, but we’d be real surprised if this didn’t happen. The PSP has never really lived up to it’s potential. This could help.

Alhambra Internet Radio

Posted in internet radio by Conner Flynn on May 14th, 2009

Alhambra Internet RadioThe Alhambra Wi-Fi Internet Radio merges both old and new styles together in an interesting way. This wireless Internet radio receiver will stream your favorite tunes to just about anywhere in your home, assuming you don’t live in a super huge mansion of course.

It’s got an old style interface that some will love while others will hate, but it will blend into any home design-wise and hey, we’ve seen much worse.

Atree J2 PMP

Posted in Portable Meda Players by Conner Flynn on May 12th, 2009

Atree J2 PMPLike a primitive Terminator, the Atree J2 portable media player from Korea sports a glowing red eye and possible plans of human extinction. The Terminator eye is used to navigate through the system’s menu, sort of like the iPod’s scroll wheel.

All of the popular video and audio file formats are supported, and the J2 features a TFT display at 320 x 240 resolution, 5.1 virtual surround sound mode, integrated FM tuner and a Korean-to-English dictionary. Internal memory will be expanded by a microSD memory card slot.

Sony Rolly discontinued

Posted in Sony by Conner Flynn on May 6th, 2009

Sony Rolly gets Bluetooth, more memoryWe wish we could say that this came as a surprise, but nope, we kinda figured that the little Rolly was on The way out. The Sony Rolly has been discontinued in the U.S. The good news is if you are located near a SonyStyle store, go check it out to see if they have them in stock. Thy are having a fire sale with a price of $99. That’s $300 off the original price.

Again, this is no big surprise. The Rolly was a $400 dancing egg. You do the math. But we can’t help wondering what Sony will dream up next to take its place. Maybe a little dancing and hopping cube. Think Rubik’s cube meets Disco.

iPod FM Transmitter

Posted in iPod by Conner Flynn on April 30th, 2009

iPod FM TransmitterOne of the problems with the iPod is the lack of an FM transmitter, though there are dozens of iPod FM transmitters available from third party accessories manufacturers.

This device allows you to stream your iPod or iPhone music to any FM radio within a 10 meter radius, and with digital PLL it enables the reception to remain crystal clear even under extreme conditions. All you have to do is plug it in.

iRiver T5 gets official

Posted in MP3 by Conner Flynn on April 28th, 2009

iRiver T5 gets officialiRiver Japan has announced the T5, a pen drive sized MP3 player that takes quite a pretty picture. The DAP comes with a monochrome display, FM tuner and a microphone.

You can get it in 2GB and 4GB flavors and it supports MP3 and WMA playback. The device measures just 78×25×14mm and weighs only 26.3 grams. The 4GB model sells in Japan for $65.

Verizon getting Samsung Trance tomorrow

Posted in Samsung by Conner Flynn on April 23rd, 2009

Verizon getting Samsung Trance tomorrowThe slider known as the Samsung Trance will be hitting Verizon tomorrow. The phone will feature V CAST with Rhapsody and the VZ Navigator. Some other features include a 2.1-inch screen with a 176 x 220 resolution, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 16GB microSDHC memory card slot, 1GB of built-in memory and support for numerous media files including MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA.

Good phone to listen to music while completing other tasks. You’ll also get a 1.3-megapixel camera and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower speakers for great sound quality. Bluetooth as well.

MOTOROKR W6 packs music and sporty apps

Posted in Motorola by Conner Flynn on April 16th, 2009

MOTOROKR W6 packs music and sporty appsMotorola has announced the MOTOROKR W6, which is a clamshell targeted at those into sports and music. The phone is preloaded with training software to keep track of your physical condition, calories burned and your workout schedule.

It also comes with dedicated music keys, a robust media player and support for stereo Bluetooth. Other specs include 1.3 Megapixel camera and Micro SD card slot. Nothing on pricing and availability just yet. Looks like the phone may hit Mexico first, then hit the rest of the world.

Hands on: SanDisk slotRadio

Posted in Review by Conner Flynn on April 13th, 2009

Sansa slotRadio comes with 1,000 songsWe checked out Sandisk’s new slotRadio recently. As a refresher, this player comes with a microSD memory card slot so you can have your choice of pre-loaded music. The idea is that you can get it pre-loaded with Billboard hits cards that hold more than 1,000 tracks and buy other similar cards.

Did we like it? Did we hate it? Is it filled with useless songs that are all played out? You’re about to find out.

Amazon also uses variable pricing

Posted in Amazon by Conner Flynn on April 8th, 2009

itunesprice-sbIf you thought you could count on Amazon keeping the price of their MP3s under the $1 price point after Apple introduced variable pricing to their tunes, think again. And disregard the comparison above. Sorry to dash your hopes and pour salt in your music-loving wounds, but Amazon has decided to go the same route.

They meet the $1.29 price point on iTunes, at least where tracks by popular artists are concerned. Walmart however, throws all caution to the wind and rolls back the price to $1.24 for selected titles. If you like songs that nobody else likes you’ll pay $0.79 and $0.64 on Amazon and Walmart.

Ribbit MP3 player from Toys R Us

Posted in MP3 by Conner Flynn on April 5th, 2009

Ribbit MP3 player from Toys R UsWell, this is certainly the strangest MP3 player we’ve seen this week. Too bad they didn’t go all Kermit the Frog with this guy. They may have actually sold more. The Toys R Us ‘Ribbit’ MP3 player comes with five play modes (normal, repeat one, repeat all, folder, repeat folder). And an eight-mode equalizer.(normal, rock, pop, classical, bass, jazz, soft, and SRS WOW)

It also sports a high-speed USB 2.0 interface, play-list function, and support for seven languages. A built-in rechargeable Lithium Ion battery is the power source. Not bugs. You’ll get up to six hours of continuous playback with a fully charged battery.

Schimmel “Ferrari” piano

Posted in Musical Instruments by Conner Flynn on April 5th, 2009

Schimmel "Ferrari" pianoUp until recently, Pianos hadn’t really changed very much. Ever. But lately Schimmel has taken the piano and evolved it in great quantum leaps. Like the Pegasus grand piano for instance. This particular incarnation pictured above makes it look like the piano will take off and take you for a wild ride.

It’s dubbed the Schimmel Pegasus Guoqin. It sports the Ferrari Rosso Red finish and styling, only missing the horse logo. I guess it isn’t officially endorsed. The price is $410,000. Which means, if you can afford this, you likely already own a Ferrari.

Remote control your Sony Rolly

Posted in Sony by Conner Flynn on April 2nd, 2009

Sony Rolly gets Bluetooth, more memoryJapanese owners of Sony’s rolly have been able to remote control the device for several months now. Now users in the US will be able to, with the release of Rolly Remote for US owners.

The software and firmware update lets you connect to Rolly wirelessly from a PC, letting you control things like playlist and movements. You can control up to seven at a time, if you wanted to choreograph a rolly musical. Head over to the Sony Support page to get the files.

Game-800 pocket emulator

Posted in Portable Meda Players by Conner Flynn on March 31st, 2009

Game-800 pocket emulatorThis media player does it all. It will crank out music, videos and pictures, but it’ll also play your favorite old school video games. The device features a 320×240 LCD screen and has a software emulator on board that lets it play NES, Famicom, GameBoy, GameBoy Color and Sega Mega Drive games.

There’s even a text-to-speech eBook reader that can read any TXT file out loud in Chinese or English. Oh and a handy digital camera too, which must be low quality. You’ll get 4GB of onboard storage, which can be expanded up to 8GB total using an SD memory card.

Samsung S8000 and M8000 handsets leaked

Posted in Samsung by Conner Flynn on March 26th, 2009

Samsung S8000 and M8000 handsets leakedIt looks like Samsung was ultra serious about releasing about a million touchscreen devices this year. Two more handsets have been leaked and despite the fact that they look exactly the same, they have some differences.

Both pack in a 240 x 400 resolution touchscreen and both have a home button. Their exteriors make them look like twins, but under the hood is where the differences are. We don’t know much about the S8000, but we do know it features a 5-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and autofocus. The M8000 also has the camera but is marketed toward the music-listening crowd with a music key on the screen and a 3.5mm headset jack.





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