11 foot tall iPod dock provides bone-crushing beats for £350k
AccessoriesMusician and laser afficionado Jean Michiel Jarre's new toy, the AeroDream One, was on show at IFA this year. It's an 11-foot tall iPod dock from Jarre's audio firm Jarre Technologies and it costs a whopping £350,000. Thankfully, the ladder comes included in the price.
The giant audio beast uses a subwoofer, two mid-frequency speakers and two high-frequency tweeters to provide 10,000W of sound -- that's enough to knock any old lady off her mobility scooter. Continue reading...
Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday celebrated in 8-bit style
SoftwareToday's Google doodle celebrates what would be the 65th birthday of one of the most extraordinary rock stars of the 20th century -- Freddie Mercury.
Mercury was best known for his role in the band Queen, pumping out such classic hits as We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions and Bohemian Rhapsody. He rocked stages all over the world with his amazing vocal range and extrovert stage presence before sadly passing away in 1991. Continue reading...
Philips Fidelio SoundRing iPod dock has AirPlay, big hole
AccessoriesRemember the Dyson Air Multiplier? The bladeless fan that was low on buffeting but high on price? Philips has announced a speaker dock that looks a little like it, though the Fidelio SoundRing is closer to a doughnut than the Air Multiplier ever was.
And if you're looking at it thinking, "Where do I dock my iPod?" the answer is you don't. It uses AirPlay, Apple's streaming technology to fire tunes through the air from your iPod touch, iPhone or iPad right to the speaker. The only way you can plug in to this is by using an aux in, though the benefit is you can play non-Apple MP3 players through it. Continue reading...
Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 3.6 is Samsung's iPod touch 
MP3 PlayersPhoning people is for chumps. At least so Samsung would have us believe, which is why it's brought us the Galaxy S WiFi 3.6 -- a device that looks remarkably like a smart phone but won't let us make calls.
The WiFi 3.6 is Samsung's answer to the iPod touch. It's (unsurprisingly) a 3.6-inch device that performs all the functions of a smart phone -- apps, Web browsing, email and media stuff -- but doesn't actually make calls, therefore saving you from having to pay monthly contract fees. Continue reading...
Sony's noise cancelling headphones and speakers tackle the tunes
Mobile PhonesSony has taken the covers off of a bunch of audio peripherals including two sets of noise cancelling headphones -- one in-ear, one on-ear -- and a pair of speakers that are just aching to link up to your smart phone to play some Bluetooth tunes.
Both the in-ear MDR-NC100D headphones and the on-ear MDR NC200D on-ear 'phones clearly hate ambient noise so are packing Sony's Digital Noise Cancelling System that aims to take a more precise sample of background to better drown out the sound. Continue reading...
Sony Android Walkman prototype pictured
MP3 PlayersYou may have noticed a dearth of MP3 players being released over the last couple of years. You may also have noticed sales of iPods soaring. This is no coincidence. So you'd think you'd have to be wrong in the head to try and compete with Apple in the music player stakes, right? Well maybe not. Sony is bringing back its Walkman brand, and it's packing a secret weapon that might just expose the chink in Apple's armour: Android.
By employing the open-source software, Sony's new Walkman can run the thousands of apps from Android market, mounting an effective challenge to the iPod touch with its App Store, not to mention all the games available. Continue reading...
iTunes Match to offer music streaming
Mobile PhonesiTunes Match, the upcoming Apple tool that lets you store your music in the cloud, has gone into beta testing, revealing that the service will let you stream your music as well as download it from Apple's magical hard drive in the sky.
Here's how it works. If you're willing to shell out $25 (roughly £15) for a year's subscription, iTunes Match lets you upload up to 25,000 tracks to Apple's cloud storage, freeing up your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch's precious hard drive space. Continue reading...
Spotify adds 500,000 paying subscribers after throttling free tunes
SoftwareMusic streaming front-runner Spotify saw a massive increase in the number of people who actually pay for the service after it seriously restricted the amount of music users get when using the free version, according to leaked reports Music Ally claims to have received.
In April, Spotify strangled its free service, limiting you to just 10 hours of music playback per month, and only letting you play individual tracks five times ever. Continue reading...
Sony NWZ-W260 Sports Walkman gets wet as you work out
MP3 PlayersYou look like you work out -- what do you bench? When you're in the gym and you want to get your tunes on, the new water-resistant Sony NWZ-W260 Sports Walkman can spot you.
It's 25 per cent lighter than previous entries to the W series, wireless sporty Walkmans that clip round your ears then clip together when not in use. It lasts for eight hours when fully charged, which seems a bit unneccesary: the only time we've ever spent eight hours in a gym was when we got locked in the tanning booth overnight. Continue reading...
iPod 3G could launch in September
MP3 PlayersWhispers are whistling through the Interwebs of a possible 3G iPod touch, which could launch in September.
The rumours started on Dutch tech blog AppleSpot, whose sources reckon the upcoming version of Apple's iPod could feature 3G connectivity, to keep you connected to the Web even when you're away from a Wi-Fi connection. Continue reading...
iTunes in the Cloud delayed for UK music fans until 2012
Mobile PhonesApple's new online music services won't come to the UK until 2012. The British record industry licensing body has confirmed our suspicions that iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match aren't coming to these shores any time soon.
The Performing Right Society (PRS), which sorts out licensing and royalties so artists, composers and labels get paid, is in talks with Apple, but negotiations are at a "very early stage". The Telegraph reports that major record labels have reached "tentative" deals with Jobs' mob, but the services probably won't launch to the great British public until next year. Continue reading...
Les Paul Google doodle is a playable guitar
SoftwareGood evening the Internet! Guitar legend Les Paul is the inspiration for today's Google doodle, which turns the Google logo into a guitar you can strum with your mouse or keyboard.
Today is the birthday of Les Paul -- born Lester William Polsfuss in 1915. Paul was a guitar-playing legend who not only made guitars sing, he also made them. Paul hung round the Epiphone factory after hours, building one of the first solid-body guitars, known as the 'The Log'. Continue reading...
Lara Croft uses Beats by Dr Dre headphones, and an iPhone 4
Games and GearHere's an odd one -- while perusing the E3 trailer for the new Tomb Raider game, we noticed that iconic pistol-packing heroine Lara Croft was using what are -- unmistakably -- Beats by Dr Dre headphones. Continue reading...
iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match not coming to UK any time soon
SoftwareApple has revealed iCloud, but there's no silver lining for music-lovers here in the UK. Our cousins in the US are happily using new online services in iTunes from today, so we asked Apple when -- or if -- we'll see iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match here in Britain.
The online storage and syncing service iCloud will launch to the public this autumn. Once you've updated your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to iOS 5, you can sign up to iCloud and start backing up your data and photos. The music-related bits of the service are more complicated, unfortunately, and are only currently available in the US. Continue reading...
iCloud complete guide
SoftwareSteve Jobs took to the stage today to talk about Apple's newest service, iCloud. It stores your content online and pushes it to all your other Apple devices -- and wonderfully it's free.
It's a bold stab at encouraging people who own one Apple device to buy into a whole Apple-flavoured ecosystem. But what exactly does it offer? Read our complete guide for the skinny. Continue reading...
Apple iCloud stores and syncs all your data across all your devices -- for free
Software
Apple iCloud has appeared on the horizon. Apple boss Steve Jobs revealed that iCloud and iTunes in the Cloud replace MobileMe, wirelessly syncing everything on your iPhone or iPad to all your other Apple devices, and automatically adding new music to all your devices in one go. Best of all: it's all free!
iCloud stores all your data from apps, all your video and pictures, all your contacts and calendars and email... basically everything on your phone is pushed to the cloud and synced to all your other Apple devices. Even your music is being pushed into the cloud -- but only in the US for now.
Continue reading...
Apple iCloud music streaming service confirmed
SoftwareThere's an iCloud on the horizon. Apple has confirmed the existence of iCloud, a new online music-streaming service from the people behind iTunes and the iPod -- which means we'll almost certainly be kept waiting for the iPhone 5.
Apple says it will reveal details of iCloud at its annual Worldwide Developers' Conference in San Francisco. WWDC has been the launch platform for each new version of the iPhone up to this point, but as Apple looks to keep the focus on software it seems the forecast isn't good for a new iPhone next week. Continue reading...
Facebook and Spotify rumoured to be working on music service
SoftwareFacebook and Spotify are planning a new music service that could be launched within two weeks, Forbes reports.
The social network wants to make beautiful music by integrating a service that allows you to stream songs from Spotify's vast library. You'll see a Spotify icon appear on the left-hand side of your newsfeed along with your photos and events, and once you click on it, it installs the app on your desktop. Continue reading...
Apple strikes deal with Sony for cloud-music service
SoftwareThree down, one to go. After agreeing terms with major labels EMI and Warner Music, Apple has completed a licensing deal with Sony, Bloomberg reports.
Apple is now a step closer to launching its cloud-based music service, with the largest recording company Universal the last to add to the playlist. The heavily rumoured iCloud will supposedly let you stream your music wherever you are -- and could be announced as soon as June at the World Wide Developers' Conference. Continue reading...
Spotify Free now works with iPhone and Android, even iPods
MP3 PlayersA major update to Spotify allows users to sync their MP3s and playlists from the music-streaming service to iPods, iPhones and Android handsets -- even if you don't pay a subscription.
As of today, you can sync Spotify with your iPod classic, iPod nano and iPod shuffle as well as via the apps for iPhone, iPod touch and Android. You'll still need to pay for Spotify Premium to listen to streamed music, but the software is now an effective competitor for iTunes as a desktop music manager -- and much less of a system hog. Continue reading...
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
