MP3 Players
Photos: 30 years of the Sony Walkman 
It's hard to imagine our lives without portable music -- nowadays most of us can fit our entire music collection into an MP3 player the size of a deck of cards. But 30 years ago, as people hefted boom boxes off their shoulders, they oooh'ed and ahhhh'ed in fascination at a little machine called the Walkman.
Originally, portable cassette players were marketed for people who needed to record audio clips for their work, such as journalists and businesspeople, but Sony's Walkman brought the idea of playing cassettes to the masses. Not only did many Walkmans have cassette players, AM/FM dials and dual headphone jacks, they also had cool features such as auto-reverse and record. Continue reading...
Photos: Archos 3 Vision hands-on
At a press conference here in broiling London this morning, Archos showed off its currently gestating trio of MP3 players for the autumn -- the Archos Clipper, the Archos 2 Vision and the Archos 3 Vision.
Most interesting is the latter -- it's that thing up above in the photo, no less! -- which has a 400x240-pixel, 76mm (3-inch) touchscreen and will sell for £90 for the 8GB model. Continue reading...
Dell reportedly developing Android-based rival to iPod touch
Dell is developing a pocket-sized Internet device using Google's Android operating system that could take on Apple's iPod touch, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Two people who have seen early prototypes of the device told the newspaper it looks like the touch but is slightly larger. And, like the touch, the device isn't expected to include a phone. The device is considered part of a category of gadgets called 'mobile Internet devices' (MIDs), which are designed to fit into the market between a mobile phone and a laptop or netbook computer.
The device could go on sale as early as the second half of 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal's sources. Continue reading...
Advanced iTunes: Smart Playlists and multiple libraries
Continuing our sporadically added-to series of iTunes guides, here's a collection of four more-than-just-the-basics tips for getting more out of the software -- multiple libraries on single machines, the best uses for Smart Playlists, getting true CD-quality rips from your CD, and tips for getting perfect album art. Continue reading...
A simple guide to making an MP3 CD
The MP3 CD is the awkward love-child of audio CDs and MP3 players -- a missing link from an era when the cheapest iPod still cost £200 and portable CD players were still the norm.
These days, even though MP3 CDs can be played on many DVD players, bookshelf audio systems, portable CD players and aftermarket car stereos, the format isn't as popular as it should be. It's a shame, since the MP3/CD hybrid offers some practical advantages over standalone MP3 players such as the iPod -- no charging, easy to replace, no expensive cables to worry about. Continue reading...
Michael Jackson takes 40 of top 100 iTunes chart positions
Within the iTunes Store, he accounts for 40 of the current top 100 songs, nine of the top 15 albums, and 25 of the top 30 music video downloads. Michael Jackson's passing has broken millions of hearts, but his posthumous domination of the digital music world is clearly shattering records.
The same is true for Amazon's MP3 store, in which Jacko albums account for 10 of the 25 most downloaded albums, 16 of the top 20 CD albums and five of the top 10 DVDs across all genres at the time of writing -- beating new releases such as Gran Torino and Slumdog Millionaire. Continue reading...
New iPod Touch due in September
Fans of the iPod Touch who felt left out due to last week's launch of the iPhone 3G S, take heart: there’s a new device on the way. In the BlueTool initialization script in the iPhone 3.0 firmware there are mentions of a new iPod Touch called "iPod3,1." Given that the current generation is referred to as "iPod2,1" it would seem to indicate that Apple has a new version in the works.
It's too soon to say what the new iPod Touch will look like or what its feature will be, but rumours point to a camera that takes video as being a likely addition. Other rumours indicate a larger screen, new wireless features, a digital compass, and GPS.
While fans would love to see more iPhone-like functionality in the new device, Apple has to make sure it doesn't give too much away: make the iPod too much similar to the iPhone and it removes much of the reason to buy an iPhone.
Apple's last upgrade to the Touch line came last September, thus it would seem reasonable to assume that the next one would be this coming September. You can be sure more info will slowly come out in the months to come. Continue reading...
Steve Jobs had liver transplant, says report
Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave from Apple for the past six months, received a liver transplant in Tennessee two months ago, according to a report on Friday in The Wall Street Journal that did not cite sources.
Earlier this year, Apple's CEO was reported to be relocating from California to Tennessee, which has a shorter waiting list for patients seeking organs, the report noted. In January, after Jobs announced that he would step aside from his day-to-day duties for a six-month medical leave of absence, Bloomberg reported that Apple's CEO was considering a liver transplant. In a telephone interview at the time, Jobs refused to comment on his health status. Continue reading...
BBC doubles iPlayer radio quality, DAB weeps
All of the BBC's national radio stations are now available streaming in Adobe Flash. The quality of live radio streams has been roughly doubled too, to the same format and quality the iTunes Store used at launch (128Kbps AAC).
This has been available for a while in the BBC Labs, but as of today the final versions are live on the public iPlayer. Continue reading...
Apple warns about iTunes integration, looks at Palm, waggles eyebrows
An article that appeared on Apple's support site on Tuesday about third-party iTunes integration doesn't appear to be directed at any other company in particular -- but it might as well have coughed "Palm" under its breath.
Titled 'iTunes: About unsupported third-party digital media players', the article addresses the claims of "some third parties" that their digital media players are able to sync with iTunes. By "some third parties" they clearly mean Palm, which has manipulated the new Pre smart phone to sync with Apple's music software. Palm execs showed off the iTunes sync feature at last month's D: All Things Digital conference. Continue reading...
