Interesting news/reviews/deals from the portable audio market
Review: Usher Audio Technology S-520 loudspeaker: “I’m glad I had a chance to experience Usher Audio Technology’s S-520. Over a wide range of music, the Usher S-520 satisfied me during the many weeks it visited my system, and I found its modern white cabinet attractive. The Usher S-520 is an excellent value with many strengths [...]
Remember “Vingle”? We found out about Apple’s trademark on the term three months ago and wondered whether it was the code name for an uber-leet product or something. Turns out it’s just a buzzword for “video single”. Ah well. For what it’s worth, vingles are sold at the iTMS for $249.
File-Sharing winners and losers of 2005: good wrap-up; BitTorrent, Apple (those MP3s end up in iPods) and the open-source P2P apps make the winners list. The RIAA (so much money wasted on lawsuits), Sony BMG (cf. rootkit), KaZaA (had to close down), and Grokster (forced to shut down too) are sitting on the opposite side. [...]
Apple didn’t present new Shuffles at the MacWorld Expo (like we, along with others, had guessed) but did hav e a treat or two for the iPod users. The iPod Radio Remote lets you enjoy you favorite radio stations via the built-in FM receiver, accompanied by a nice visualisation on the iPod’s screen. Favorite stations [...]
Review: Shure E3G gaming canalphones: they’re a bit tought to fit properly, but accurate bass and sonic clarity is apparently rewarding enough to get these phones a 9/10 rating. The reviewer thinks they’re best when used with gaming consoles, not for desktop gaming. Available for $179.
CES 2006: SanDisk announces the 1GB microSD card: it’s the world’s smallest 1GB flash memory card. First ones to enjoy this card, which goes by a suggested retail price of $120, will be Verizon’s V Cast customers.
Happy news for the miniature hard drive camp. Cornice said they’ll be releasing 8GB and 10GB 1-inch drives under the Dragon series later in Q1. The drives, which are ~40% smaller than the previous 4GB incarnation at 30×40×3.5mm, are mainly to be used in mobile phones. As is the case with most microdrives, care has [...]
CES 2006: Neuros Audio says revised 442 is coming: Neuros 442 v2 is in the works and scheduled for release in late Q2 2006; it’ll be based on the TI DM320 chipset and sport a 24bit/96kHz DAC, among other improvements. The Neuros III (kinda like the 442 minus the video part) is also in the [...]
Guide to iPod accessories: iLounge has written some introductory texts for the various categories of iPod-related accessories. The most noteworthy are: microphones and microphone adapters remote controls speakers
LG Electronics announced they’ll be entering the US portable media market in April with three products. The PM70 (pictured here, skip to the bottom of the post) is a 30GB PVR that can record MPEG-4 video directly from a composite video input. It’s got a 4.3-inch widescreen, sports a video-out so it can connected to [...]