Archive for May, 2008
Gear4’s latest portable iPod speaker looks heavily reminiscent of the detachable part of the Duo, which launched last month. A big difference being that this speaker plays both iPods and other MP3 players and is considerably more affordable at £29.99.
The Street party III looks very slim with a simple and foldable design, so it would make a convenient travel or park lounging accessory. There’s the option to either charge it at home using the AC adapter, which also charges your iPod or MP3 player, or power up using AA batteries when you’re on the move.
For MP3 player use, you’re provided with a line in port and a 3.5mm audio cable, so this if you do happen to be travelling in a group, everyone can listen to their own tunes on one speaker.
Focal corp Japan has announced the IBoom HiFi a curvy iPod dock. Compatible with all iPods from the Mini to the Touch the dock plays music and charges the iPod as well. True to its name it does create a boom with two speakers, one three inch woofer and one tweeter which deliver 5W×2ch. It does not come with a remote control but you can use the ‘Apple Remote’ which comes with Apple TV, Macbook etc. The unit measures 300×190×240mm, weighs 2kg and goes on sale by late June for 29,800 Yen ($ 300).
On May 30 th Samsung will launch a new portal and software called Emodio. This software seems to be just another media player but centered around Samsungs products offering features specific to their MP3 players. Users will be able to share UCI’s (User Creative Interfaces) with what I’m assuming to be a new UIC generation tool. There is also additional support for Datacasts or basically RSS feeds and the interesting edition of “Text To Speech” features that will allow you to convert txt files to MP3.
The site is rather confusing on its true goals and features since it was obviously written by someone whose first language is not English. Buy the whole aim of the site seems to be targeted at “The Digital Privilege for the Emotional Generation” (I kid you not that’s what the site says), yes as in Emo. This is a definite cultural ignorance on Samsung’s part seeing how bright fun and happy the site has been made, then trying to associate it with the Emo subculture. Regardless, the software looks like it could bring some cool functions to the P2.
It is available but extremely slow on Samsung’s site, so we uploaded it as a Torrent you can download here.
Thanko Solar MP4 player comes with an innovative idea of integrating solar panels onto MP4 player so that you won’t run out of juice anytime anywhere. The 4 GB MP4 player with 220 × 176 pixels LCD has excellent display quality for most of the picture format. Other features include built in FM radio, mono speaker (10mw x 10mw (320hw)), voice recorder and built in games. The included software allows you to convert AVI / RM / MPG / VOB / DAT / RMVB files to video format. The player supports MP3/WMA/WAV formats. 
The biggest feature of Thanko 4GB Solar MP4 player is the built in solar panels. The solar panels can be pulled out from the body for better charging. On a sunny day (120000 lux) one hour charging will last for 15 minutes of video viewing and 35 minutes of music. The player can be charged via USB and mains. It takes about 5 hours to charge fully via USB mains.
If the built in 4GB capacity is not sufficient, user can store the media files with expansion slot of additional 2GB external SD card (no SDHC support). Thanko 4GB Solar MP4 player-SOLMP4PL is available in Japan for approximately 9,980 yen ($96).
Marubeni introduced a stylish new case for your iPod Classic, iPod Nano, and iPod Touch.
It’s available in two versions: Ebony (in four colors: Red, Blue, Green, and Brown), and Silver.
