Archive for: Mp3 players
- February 26, 2010 7:41 am
When I seek out a new pair of headphones, the one and only feature I care about is audio quality. Fit is a close second. Appearance however doesn’t even come close. But headphones have become so much more in recent years as mp3 players and smartphones have driven us to block out the outside world.
The headphones you see above were designed by William Gerwin and feature not only that Steampunk design that is captivating everyone, but a video camera mounted to the side to capture all of your life’s travels. Affordable? Probably not. Cool looking? Very much so. Would you strap these to your head?
Technabob
YenkoDesign
- September 15, 2009 5:54 am
Can you imagine a world without squirting? While many die hard Zune users and honest to goodness geeks stayed up until the wee hours of the morning waiting for the Zune 4.0 software, others retired to their sleeping chambers ready to conquer another day. The reason for the all nighter of course was the release of the Zune 4.0 software. With the 4.0 update comes many new features (and removal of some) such as device apps with more to come, download-to-own, and “Smart DJ” playlists to name a few. However, a casualty has appeared to show up this morning. The often mocked “squirting” feature that allowed two Zune users to wirelessly share a DRM laiden song has reportedly been yanked. Why remove such a feature that not too long ago Microsoft put big marketing behind? Eh? Beats me, but, when I used my Zune daily for a good year long stint, I never once used it. So in reality it probably won’t be missed by many. Still, it’s sad that the new Zune is removing features isn’t it? Sound off, do you already find yourself shaking because you can’t squirt?
**BTW…anyone care to clarify or confirm this feature is really gone?
Source: Engadget, Cnet, Image Source
For many, MP3 player is synonymous with iPod. However, in terms of audio quality, the iPod is far from the top of the heap. Back when hard drive mp3 players were big, units such as the Rio Karma, iRiver iHP-120 (my favorite…mine still works), and Cowon’s X5 were the real kings of audio when actual audio quality was considered – something that seems to have fallen by the wayside today. If you want to bring some new school love to an old friend, in this case an old Cowon X5, reinvent your dying love with some new compact flash goodness. Of course this is a DIY project and as always you run the risk of rendering your precious sound gem into a nice heavy ‘ol paper weight. But it’s all good. Just think, with dual CF to IDE connectors, you can pair together two 32GB CF cards and have a 64gig CF X5 monster with storage and awesome sound to boot. Willing to take the risk? Come inside for a quick blurb on the Frankenstein project as well as some pictures of the madness in action.
Take a gander at your local mp3 player/PMP department at your local best buy and you will see every type of style of player you can think of under the sun, all under one roof. While there are a ton of players to choose from, there really isn’t that much differentiation between the various models. You could in fact say the MP3/PMP player market is saturated. So what does a device like the Atree J2 PMP bring to the market that we haven’t seen before?
While the Zune has enjoyed so far a reign of mediocrity, Microsoft is looking to change things up a bit and bring the superbly average device up to 2007 specs. While I have some pretty thick criticism flying forward from the start, I am pretty excited to see the Zune HD or whatever Microsoft decides to name this thing. So far the funning list of more or less “known” facts according to Neowin looks like this:
- 3.6″ (give or take a few tenths) OLED touchscreen
- Nvidia Tegra inside
- Flash versions in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, 32GB/Hard drive model coming in 120GB
- mini-HDMI connection
- web browser
- WiFi w/ access to the Marketplace
- early fall release date
While these specs are definitely pretty exciting, I can’t help but feel underwhelmed (though oddly still intrigued). These are all (save for the OLED) things that have been around for almost 2 years now on several other players. Hey Microsoft, heres an idea. Instead of going the cheap/large storage idea, incorporate a 120GB flash storage model instead of the older style hard drive model. While it would be pretty pricey, you would finally be the first to market with something in this area. Ok twice to be first if the OLED pans out as well. I would gladly save up an extra few weeks and donate an organ for a 120GB flash player. Think about it M! And for good measure and speculation is the image above which is supposedly what the new Zune is going to resemble pretty closely. So whataya think? Will it make you open up your wallet?
Source: Electronista, Neowin, WM Power User *post pic*
Ever wish you could choose what type of music you’re listening to based on color or your emotional state? If you answered yes, Rhea Jeong’s conceptual Colorsonic MP3 player might be just the player for you. Lacking frivilous things such as an actual display, the Colorsonic instead uses different colored sections on its body. You can organize music based on color. For instance, lovey dovey songs go to red, happy songs to yellow, murderous songs to black, etc. After that, simply touching a color will activate that colors playlist of music. One nifty feature is the onboard storage for two rat ear sized bluetooth ear buds (above) that stow away in the middle of the device. Since this device was conceptualized in an internship at Samsung, you never know, you might be walking down the street with the Colorsonic in the not too distant future. Click on for a few more pics!
With the ocean of formats available for what seems like an equally full ocean of different types of cards, you may think oh *expletive* at hearing of another storage format. Fret not fellow readers for it is a backwards compatible format for SD cards dubbed SDXC SD (eXtended Capacity). What is the benefit of these new fangled cards? How about storage up to 2TB! The cards rely on Microsofts exFat file format. A few examples of what you can store on this thing are: 4,000 RAW images, 100HD movies, or 300 hours of HD recording. Transfering all of this data to and fro will occur at a speed 300Mbps rate. Expect the first cards to ship before March with read and write speeds of up to 104Mbps. The 2TB won’t be coming out at launch, but it is coming!
Source: Engadget, Breitbart, Geek *pic*
Have you ever been out and about and your phone dies, or your Mp3 player stops pumping out music? You either don’t have a charger with you or aren’t near a power outlet. Well two designers, Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong, have come up with a brilliant idea. They designed a pair off sunglasses with dye solar cells that turn sun power into gadget power. All you have to do is plug the electronics of your choice into the power jack on the back of the glasses and you’re good to go! With the world becoming increasingly mobile, relying on electronics more and more, it is now more important than ever to keep them charged. You can get chargers built into backpacks, cases, mats, etc. But something like these glasses are very practical for your eyes and your gadgets. Availability isn’t known yet, but as soon as I know, I’ll let you know.
Source: Crave
