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Sony NWS706 Walkman 4GB MP3 Player
Just spotted on the play.com site is Sony’s new NWS706 Walkman MP3 Player, kitted out with a healthy 4GB of flash memory.
Specifications are a bit vague at the moment, but the site gives out a few tantalising details of the mini-player.
Described by some wags as ‘tampon-shaped,’ the chunky-looking, cylindrical Sony offers the same rotary playback control as seen on the earlier NW-A600 series.
Notably, it’s also got a colour screen, albeit a teensy weensy, itty-bitty one which has to be one of the smallest we’ve ever seen that’s capable of showing album artwork (but we like seeing album art, even when it’s this small!).
The Sony comes in a range of three colours – pink, purple and black – and also sports a built in FM Tuner and a line-in recorder.
We’re not sure right now if the NWS706 can also record off the radio, but surely Sony wouldn’t be so daft as to leave off that useful feature. Would they?.
The Walkman is billed as shipping with “noise cancelling technology,” courtesy of “high value EX headphones” with the player promising a healthy 50 Hours battery life backed up by a quick charge function.
The player also touts a USB 2.0 interface for the nippy transfer of tunes from the user’s PC.
Play.com is currently advertising the NWS706 Walkman MP3 for £180, with delivery promised on the 9th October
3 October, 2006
Microsoft Zune: $249: 14 Nov
The buzz has been around for months and finally we get to hear the pricing. Retail pricing will be $249 and it will hit the shops in 14th November in the US.
What will people get for the money?
A 30Gb digital media player, with a three-inch LCD video screen; WiFi for passing music around and … wait for it …. an FM tuner. There’ll be three colours – black, brown and white.
Each device will come with songs (9), music videos (12), film shorts (3) and images loaded onto it.
Microsoft have learnt from Apple and will be releasing some new software to select content and load it on to your Zune.
Along side this will be the Zune Pass subscription service, which for $14.99/month will give access to “millions of songs.” The downside on this one is that once you stop paying, your stop getting access to the music.
If this doesn’t appeal, you can buy tracks individually at 79 Microsoft Points per track (Yes, less than iTunes). If you’re unfamiliar with Microsoft Points, they’re like pre-paid phone cards.
There’s going to be a ton of accessories available at launch, which are listed at the bottom of the press release and are prices between $20 and $100.
As to whether Microsoft will pursue current Apple customers to drop their iPods for a Zune, or more significantly, waste the money they may have spent buying music or videos on Apple iTunes, is quite another thing. As we all know iTMS customers would’ve had to burn all of their purchased tracks to disk and re-rip them to play them on a Zune.
Large screen grab of Zune PC software
29 September, 2006
BBC Signs MoU With Microsoft: Disaster For Open Media?
The BBC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft. Areas of the potential investigation and collaboration that the non-exclusive agreement includes, covers “search and navigation, distribution, and content enablement” (what ever that means in English).
It was signed in a meeting that sounds like it was designed to massage the egos of Mark Thompson (BBC Chief) and Ashley Highfield (BBC Head of Tech), held with Bill Gates (queue trumpets) at Microsoft’s office in Seattle.
Highfield is quoted as saying “Microsoft is not just a key supplier to the BBC, it is also a key gateway to audiences that the BBC needs to reach through Web services it runs like MSN and Windows Live Messenger, and hardware such as Xbox® and the Windows Media Center.” Apparently trying to balance this, he continued “The BBC needs to work with all players in this space to make sure our programmes and content are enjoyed by the widest possible audience, without always having to come to bbc.co.uk to find it.”
It’s with horror that we read this news. It’s hard to imagine that the BBC will stay format neutral following a deal like this.
Microsoft has been creeping into the BBC’s online media for a long time now. It first came to light when we broke the story near the start of 2004 that the BBC’s interactive media player trial (as it was then) would be using the Microsoft’s media format and DRM. At that point, the story BBC spun, was that they weren’t committed to using Microsoft’s DRM, but each stage of the trial beyond that, did.
The news today doesn’t go a long way to changing our view that it won’t be a permanent feature.
Of course Gates and Highfield shared a stage at Mix06 back in March this year
Quite why the BBC is tying its colours to the Microsoft mast is beyond us, especially as the announcement focused alot on Web 2.0. It’s widely thought that Microsoft has lost the dominant position it used to hold and is struggling to catchup with the developments that have gone on in the Web 2.0 world – expect bloggers to rip this one apart.
A move like this could take the BBC from an organisation held in high regard with the high tech grass roots, to one of ridicule.
BBC Press release
28 September, 2006
Sony Vaio C Series Notebooks Announced
We love a good laugh at overblown press releases that get carried away with themselves, so we certainly cheered up when we got our hands on Sony’s latest artistic offering describing their new Sony’s new Vaio C range of laptops.
After a flurry of flapping flipcharts, mind-storming mood-boards and envelope-pushing, Sony’s visioneer team decided that the fact that the laptops come in five “hip colours” wasn’t enough; they needed to explain the significance of each colour to us mere mortals.
Graciously declaring that “what you choose depends on who you are,” the creative team declared that the silver white model was just the ticket for the “modern, sophisticated man or woman who wants to reflect calm, cool, karma,” with its “natural, lighter tones suggestive of inner peace.”
The pink model was apparently designed for “the free spirit who likes to be noticed,” while the green laptop is for “the explorer who wants to feel at one with nature.”
Meanwhile, the grey and orange combo is for the “jet-setting nomad,” apparently offering a, “catchy hint of an active, mobile lifestyle,” while the black model was for those who want a “classic understated look that offers timeless elegance” with the “luxurious olive blacks” being “suggestive of subtle chic and sophistication.”
High on triple-shot, low-fat buzzword-uccinos, Sony’s press release went on to insist that the C in the C-series stands for “Choice, Colour, Cosmopolitan and Chic.”
Or maybe, “Cor blimey, who writes this Cobblers?”
Once we managed to waft away the noxious fug of marketing-spiel, we could see there’s a lot to like about Sony’s new machines.
Weighing in at 5 pounds, the Vaio C laptops are powered by Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66Ghz processors with the lappie proclaiming its future-proofing as, “Windows Vista capable” and” Windows Vista Premium ready”.
Flipping open the Vaio, there’s a 13.3-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) widescreen display employing Sony’s energy-saving XBRITE-ECO LCD technology.
Connectivity options come in the shape of an integrated 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro or ExpressCard media slots and i.LINK (IEEE 802.11) and USB ports.
Hard drive capacity runs from 100GB to 120GB, there’s a healthy 1 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM onboard and a built-in DVD+/-R Double Layer/DVD+/-RW/-RAM drive for your multimedia pleasure.
The new range should be available at the end of October, priced from £999 upwards, and customers looking to “complete the look with panache” can shell out for a custom carrying case created exclusively by a “trendsetting” Italian bag designer who regales under the fabulous name of Mandarina Duck.
[From SonyStyle]
27 September, 2006
i-Mate JAQ Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone: Photos
Currently blossoming on the Ugly Tree and ripe for plucking is the new i-mate JAQ PocketPC phone.
The press launch photos looked ugly enough, but it looks like it doesn’t get any prettier close up, as hands-on photos released on Mobility Today reveal.
Looking like a Treo built by Cybermen, the i-Mate JAQ Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone is one of the first i-Mate devices to be developed from the company’s new partnership with Taiwanese firm, Inventec Mercury (previously, i-Mate phones have been made by HTC).
As far as we know, i-Mate haven’t officially split from HTC, but the company seems to be following O2’s policy of sourcing Windows smartphones from other manufacturers as well as HTC – a decision perhaps prompted by HTC recently releasing phones under their own name.
Specification-wise, it’s a case of no alarms or surprises, with the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900, GPRS + EDGE) i-mate JAQ running Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 and featuring a full QWERTY keyboard with 128 MB ROM/64MB RAM and a MiniSD memory card slot.
Quite a hefty beast at 122x71x22mm and weighing 160 grams, the i-Mate JAQ comes with a 2.8″ 320×240 pixels, 65k colour display, Bluetooth and InfraRed, but there’s no WiFi or 3G in sight, neither is there an onboard camera, which strikes us as a serious omission.
With looks that even its own mother couldn’t love, and a no-fun, limited feature set, here’s one phone that we can’t get excited about.
Let’s hope future collaborations between i-Mate and Inventec bring more exciting results.
i-mate JAQ specs:
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Data: GPRS + EDGE
Screen: 320×240 pixels, 65k colours
Camera: No
Size: 122x71x22mm / 160 grams
Bluetooth: Yes
Memory card: microSD
Infra-red: Yes
Polyphonic: Yes
Java: Limited
Battery life: Not specified
25 September, 2006
Soapbox: Microsoft Takes Aim At YouTube
Microsoft is looking to shove its king sized oar into the massive successful user-generated video phenomenon with the launch of an online service to take on the likes of YouTube, Google and Yahoo.
Named Soapbox, the service enters beta testing today, and is expected to launch within six months as an integrated part of their current MSN Video service.
“We’re definitely not blind to the fact that YouTube has a big lead right now,” admitted Rob Bennett, general manager of MSN’s entertainment and video services.
He’s not wrong there either, with Nielsen/NetRatings reporting that YouTube scooped up 34 million visitors last month, while MSN Video could only muster some 12m.
In comparison, MySpace video notches up 17.9 million visitors a month with Google Video not far behind with 13.5 million each month.
With Microsoft’s vast reserves of cash to fall back on, it’s not surprising that Bennett is chirpy about their prospects, “It’s really early days in online video; this is still act one.”
Microsoft is running the beta trials by invitation only although users can apply on the website, which currently shows a kray-zeee video of some bloke prancing around in a silly MSN-style costume.
Woowargh! Those wacky Microsoft dudes!
The company says that the service will support a number of video file formats and delivery methods and run on both Windows and Apple operating systems with support for popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
It’s obviously early days yet, but tech website Cnet were unimpressed with the Soapbox beta, declaring it “disappointing” and only “slightly better sharing service than YouTube in some small technical ways.”
MSN Soapbox
[Via: BBC]
21 September, 2006
Sony Vaio LA Series All-In-One Desktop PC
Sony Europe has announced the Vaio LA-Series, a striking all-in-one Media Centre which is sure to make a big statement on your desk (e.g. “I have pots of money” or, “keep your grubby mitts off my fashion statement transparent surround”).
Converging the PC and TV to provide a feast o’entertainment on your desktop, the unit features a specially developed motherboard to maintain its ultra slim profile, and is powered by the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 GB of RAM.
In a design not entirely unreminiscent of the iMac, the slim and sleek unit has all the components and gubbins neatly tucked away behind a large LCD screen.
The display looks stunning, with the spacious 19 inch WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050 pixels) flat screen framed by an oversized see-through border giving it a floating effect. We’re not sure if the display is glass, Perspex or humble plastic, but it sure looks mighty purdy to us.
Running on Windows XP Media Center edition, the Sony also includes a hybrid tuner delivering both analogue and digital terrestrial (DVB-T) channels, a hefty 250GB hard drive, DVD burner, Wi-Fi, Integrated Motion-Eye webcam and Remote Control.
In line with the unit’s eye catching looks, there’s Sony comes bundled with a wireless keyboard and mouse in a stylish brushed aluminium finish, with the keyboard “folding up for a beautiful presentation when not in use.” Can’t say we’ve ever seen a beautifully presented keyboard before, but there you go.
Pricing details are a bit confusing, ranging from $2,499 on some sites to the more competitive price of $2,099.99 on Sony’s US website.
Via New Launches website
21 September, 2006
O2 XDA Stealth PDA Phone Coming Soon
Slated for an October release is the swish O2 Xda Stealth PDA phone, clad in ‘ebony black’ and featuring a slide-up numerical keypad.
Billed as a “fusion of functionality and versatility,” the tri-band GMS900/1800/1900 phone (but no 3G) is powered by an Intel Xscale PXA 272 Processor running at 416 MHz with a healthy 192 MB Flash ROM and 64MB RAM onboard.
The front panel is dominated by a 2.4 inch touch screen supporting a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and 65,000 colours.
There’s a built in 2 mega pixel camera for your snapping pleasure and support for the usual audio formats like MP3,WMA and WAV with MIDI for those plinky-plonky ring tones.
Running on the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, the Stealth comes preloaded with Microsoft Office Suite for Mobile devices, and offers built in 802.11b and 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 1.2 and USB1.1 for synchronisation.
A SD card slot takes care of expansion needs, while the 1300 mAh Lithium Ion battery provides a claimed 150 hours of talktime and 4.5 hours of standby time.
Unlike its Blackberry and Palm Treo competitors, there’s no proper QWERTY keyboard, so heavy users will either have to make do with the keypad or get mighty acquainted with the stylus.
The slider-tastic Stealth measures up at a bijou 53 x 110 x 22.5 mm, and weighs just 140g.
C|Net video preview
[Via: New Launches]
21 September, 2006
ChanSkype: Skype And Asterisk Talk To Each Other
A Brazilian company has forged a software bridge between Asterisk and Skype.
Asterisk is an open source VoIP PBX that runs on Linux and other platforms which handles VoIP to VoIP calling as well as calls to landlines. Developed by Mark Spencer it has taken the community by storm, sprouting many tens of thousands of installations world-wide, with a thriving development community.
It can work with traditional telephony systems or POTS (plain old telephone system), with digital systems (ISDN etc) and modern VoIP protocols such as H.323, SIP, MGCP and more.
Digium (set-up by Spencer) now manufactures hardware and offers a commercially supported version of Asterisk known as ABE (Asterisk Binary Edition).
One feature that has been missing is Skype integration (the next version of Asterisk v1.4 supports GoogleTalk using Google’s libjingle library). A Brazilian company has now changed that, with their ChanSkype site.
ChanSkype
Currently the service is in test and you have to utilise ChanSkype’s own Asterisk servers. They offer a “free” trial whereby they allow a SIP connection and then by passing in a Skype address it sets-up a connection to the Skype user.
In the future they will be offering an actual chan_skype that plugs directly into any Asterisk server and can connect to the Skype network.
Of course it’s not quite so simple. The initial release only runs on RedHat’s Fedora Core or CentOS (which means it will probably also run on RedHat Enterprise Server too as CentOS is a clone of that). There must also be an X server running as well as the Skype for Linux client. So ChanSkype just bridges the two systems together.
A dual Xeon 3Ghz with 2 gigs of memory should run 30 simultaneous Skype calls without any noticable degradation of performance.
Pricing has not yet been set, but it will be licensed on a per-channel basis.
There may be licensing problems too as Asterisk modules should normally be available under a GPL license and with source code, but as Skype is proprietry they may get away with it.
Someone really needs to reverse engineer the Skype protocol and then a native chan_skype could be developed, but this is unlikely to happen in the western world as that could be illegal.
It’s a good idea, but really just a straight link into the Skype software which unfortunately is the only way it can be done.
ChanSkype
20 September, 2006
Apple iTV Device Pre-Anounced
Apple has for once pre-announced a new product, codenamed iTV (which is unlikely to be the final name as they’d get sued in the UK for a start).
This is a media playback unit (about the same dimensions of a Mac Mini but half the height). It has a multitude of connectors on the back (audio and various video including HDMI). It connects to the network over wireless and can stream movies, music, video, photos, podcastsfrom iTunes or from Apple.com/iTunes store.
It will be available in Q1 2007 for $199.
13 September, 2006