Interesting news/reviews/deals from the portable audio market
You can feel it in the air. Not that many ground-breaking news in portable audio land these days. Which means we’ll be spending our time off for the holidays with much less guilts (it’s all about you, the dear and beloved reader, after all).
We’ll be back with you on Monday, January 9th (just in time [...]
Why a music collector does what he does: words of wisdom from Volkher. The two last paragraphs are not to be missed (and man, do they hurt…).
Winamp vs iTunes vs MediaMonkey: no definite winner to be found, though he makes some good points for each app. Also, I like the idea for an “inbox” of music: ” Just like email, music that has just been downloaded (or whatever) should be separated from the main library, and then only at your discretion [...]
6 ways to link a portable audio player with the car stereo: FM modulator, cassette adapter, direct antenna connection + FM modulator, line-in connection, line-in connection via CD changer, and for iPods only, obivously the iPod smart-cable connection. [via]
Review: Neuros Audio 442: the hardware is nice, but the software is still buggy. Not to despair though, since it’s constantly being worked on by the open-source community that surrounds Neuros’ projects. [via]
Will we be seeing a 1GB Nano early next year? AppleInsider’s sources think so. Estimated price-point: $149.
Also: 100k Nanos sold each day.
Audio-Technica, makers of some fine headphones (among other audio equipment) announced they’ll be presenting their Import Series to the U.S. market in next month’s Consumer Electronics Show (Las Vegas—Jan. 5th, 2006).
The Import Series consists of 15 headphone models, previously available only in Japan. They can be classified in the following categories:
[Note: for the links that [...]
HP’s iTunes obligations coming to an end: “Hewlett Packard’s deal with Apple, requiring HP to bundle iTunes with its PCs, will lapse in January. HP says it plans to pursue a new digital entertainment strategy in 2006, but isn’t telling what that strategy will look like. Business Week reports that there has already been [...]
Microsoft reorganizing its entertainment division, putting hopes on Xbox team: in order to take a better stab at Apple who’s reigning in the music & video department.
The new president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, Robert J. Bach, put key members of his Xbox team in charge of the entertainment businesses. [...] In a Dec. [...]
2005: Music sales down 8%: that’s 2003-levels (and 4% lower than 2004). And we didn’t have a considerable digital music market back then (though this market too, shows signs of slowing down). That’s what you get for treating music lovers like criminals.
UPDATE: Cf: Do you hear what I hear? It’s the sound of the CD [...]