Beats by Dr Dre and Monster part ways in beef over benjamins
Beats by Dr Dre and Monster go together like left and right earbuds, but they've yanked the cable from the socket of their partnership. In a beef over benjamins, Monster and Beats are no longer to work together.
Beats is the bass-tastic audio brand spearheaded by rap supremo Dr Dre, while manufacturer Monster build the actual headphones. Now BusinessWeek reports the two are to part ways at the end of the year in a dispute over money and credit for the partnership's runaway success. Continue reading...
House of Marley speakers bring reggae to Vegas in our video 
We're over in glittering Las Vegas checking out the latest and best the tech world have to offer. This time it's the turn of House of Marley, the Bob Marley-branded audio company founded by Bob's own family.
House of Marley offers three ranges of speakers, docks and headphones to choose from, codenamed Jammin', Freedom and Destiny, which roughly equate to the decidedly un-Marley concepts of basic, mid-range and premium. Continue reading...
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Spotify apps are a big deal, and a real challenge to iTunes
Daniel Ek could do a job for Apple. In terms of keynote presentational skills, I mean -- although the thought of Spotify's CEO working in Cupertino is an intriguing one.
Watching Ek's polished performance at this week's Spotify Apps launch, it was easy to forget that this was the company's first set-piece press event of this nature. Even Steve Jobs would have struggled to find fault, although he may have chucked a few coffee cups at his monitor at the sound of Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner nicking an Apple soundbite to describe Spotify as a service that "just works". Continue reading...
Spotify and Last.fm app hands-on
Pop quiz, pop-pickers: what do you get if you cross one of the most popular ways of discovering music online with one of the most popular ways of listening to music online? Spotify's new app store and the Last.fm app, that's what.
Spotify announced its new direction as an app platform today. Music-related services will run within the Spotify app itself -- apps within apps -- so you can listen to your tunes then explore the artists and music from different angles. Last.fm is one of the first apps available for Spotify, super-charging discovery of new music with custom playlists and personalised recommendations all within Spotify itself. And thanks to our buddies at Last.fm, we've tried it out. Here's how it works.
Continue reading...
iTunes Match: Everything you need to know
iCloud is Apple's new service for keeping iOS devices synced over the air. One of the coolest features is how you can instantly download your music to a mobile device, instead of being at home and syncing a playlist from your computer with a boring old cable.
Any music bought on iTunes will be available from your iCloud automatically, letting you download tracks at any time. But what if you haven't bought your music through iTunes? That's where iTunes Match comes in -- it's US-only at the moment, but we're expecting it here in the UK in early 2012. Continue reading...
Apple to replace faulty first generation iPod nanos
Got a first-gen iPod nano? You could be in line for a free replacement, because Apple says a certain batch of the dinky MP3 players have faulty batteries that could overheat and "pose a safety risk".
The likelihood of this happening apparently increases with the age of the device (or the age of the battery, to be precise), so you could be walking around with a TIME BOMB in the pocket of your Levis. Erk, etc. Continue reading...
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Five best speakers you're craving
Music makes the sun shine, the birds sing, and little animals scamper around in a perpetual euphoria -- unless you're listening to Ke$ha, in which case they'll scamper towards the nearest motorway in a desperate bid for oblivion.
You don't always want to keep the music to yourself (though more people should), so our speaker reviews are here to help you break free of your headphones and fill a room with your mad beats. As you're the ones spending the money, we love to hear just what you think about each product, so we ask you to click the 'Want it', 'Own it' and 'Not for me' buttons on each page. Continue reading...
Apple tries to patent iPod Shuffle speaker
Never one to rest on its laurels, Apple is looking to build a speaker into its lower-end iPods. That's according to a patent application, reports Mac Rumors.
The speaker would be built into the clip of the nano or Shuffle. And maybe it's not quite as crackers an idea as it sounds… Continue reading...
Five best headphones you're craving
Everyone loves music, be it ambient emotional acoustic stuff, jangly pop or the brutal head-smashing sound of some good old death metal. Whatever you're into, you're going to need some good headphones for tunes on the go. Luckily for you, we have a whole heap of reviews telling you which pair of 'phones will do your tunes justice.
We also love hearing what you think about them, which is why we put the 'Own it', 'Want it' and 'Not for me' buttons on all our reviews. We've totted up all your votes to take a look through the top five most popular pairs of headphones this week on CNET UK. Continue reading...
Coldplay shuns Spotify; another reason to use Spotify
Coldplay's new album, Mylo Xyloto, won't be offered up on Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, or any other music streaming service, reports CNET.
EMI, the band's label, confirmed the album won't be distributed through any streaming services, but didn't give any reason for the decision. One industry insider reckons the band thinks the album should be heard as a cohesive piece of work, rather than individual tracks. Though Coldplay released a new track a day from the album last week through iTunes. Continue reading...
The complete history of Apple's iPod 
Apple's iPod celebrates its 10th birthday this month. Rather than splash out on jelly and ice cream and party hats, we take a look through its past from its humble beginnings in 2001, through to the sharp new iPod touches of 2011.
Our iPod adventure begins in October 2001, when Apple launched its first portable music player. Continue reading...
Bedphones let you listen to music while you doze off
Desperate to listen to music in bed, but wary of disturbing your spouse or losing your conventional earphones inside the murky depths of your ear canal?
Step this way, music addict, and cuddle up with the Bedphones -- the first headphones we've seen that are designed specifically for use in bed. Continue reading...
Samsung Galaxy Wi-Fi on sale in the UK now
The Samsung Galaxy Wi-Fi is basically part of the Galaxy range of smartphones but lacking the phone part, much like the iPod Touch is an iPhone that can't make calls. It runs Android, so you'll have apps, music, videos and games, as well as the whole internet wherever you can find a Wi-Fi connection.
We first spied the Galaxy Wi-Fi back at CES, and were mightily impressed, as it looks like it could well be a worthy challenger the iPod Touch's MP3 player crown. The 5-inch model is on sale now for us Brits, while the 3.65-incher will hit shelves next month. Continue reading...
Apple iPod touch fifth-gen in official photos
Apple has just finished telling us all about its new revision of the iPod touch, so we thought we'd do the only good thing and show you all the shiny official pictures.
The new iPod touch may not look any different to the previous version, but it's what's underneath the covers that counts. It's running iOS 5 -- the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system that brings over-the-air updates, advanced camera features and a handy notification centre to easily see new messages and app alerts. Continue reading...
iPod touch and iPod nano updated
Apple has updated the iPod touch and iPod nano. The touch now runs iOS 5, while the nano packs a number of virtual watch faces, including a Mickey Mouse one. But there's no sign of an update for the poor old iPod classic.
The new iPod touch runs iOS 5, so it offers over-the-air updates, advanced camera features, and built-in Twitter integration for several apps. It also offers iMessage, a free messaging service for chatting to friends and family who also have an iPod touch, iPhone or iPad. iMessage requires a Wi-Fi connection.
Continue reading...
300 million iPods sold, Apple boasts
All bums are firmly on the edges of seats tonight as new Apple chief executive Tim Cook prepares to unveil what we hope will be a new iPhone -- or two. First though, Tim's had a good old brag about the iPod.
"Over 300 million iPods have been sold," Cook explained to a packed audience in Apple's Cupertino headquarters. "It took Sony 30 years to sell 220,000 Walkman cassette players". That's certainly an impressive boast, and a swift kick to Sony's unmentionables. Continue reading...
Microsoft kills Zune, then resurrects it
Update: Microsoft issued the following statement overnight, confirming that no more Zunes will be produced. "We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players.
"So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing. Your device will continue to work with Zune services just as it does today. And we will continue to honor the warranties of all devices for both current owners and those who buy our last devices. Customer service has been, and will remain a top priority for us." Continue reading...
Apple kills clickwheel games, R.I.P. iPod Classic?
We've brought you rumours Apple was killing the iPod Classic before, but now we've more reason to believe it's true. Apple has removed an entire section of games from iTunes dedicated to be played with the clickwheel.
The drop-down menu on iTunes used to have an option entitled "iPod clickwheel games," but now it's mysteriously vanished, reports AppleInsider. Could these be the last days of the iconic iPod design? Continue reading...
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New iPods and iPhones show up in Apple's inventory
If you can tear yourself away from all that Kindle news breaking on CNET UK, we've got some more Apple tidbits to tempt you with. What a busy time this is turning out to be.
A mysterious tipster named 'Mr. X' has given the nod to 9to5Mac that Apple has two updates to product lines in its internal inventory. Want to know what they are? Well, two new iPhones, and no fewer than three more iPod Touches. Tuesday can't come soon enough. Continue reading...
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