Music

iAxe USB Guitar For Laptop-Toting Plank Spankers
Guitar bands may well be back in, but all those clunky effects pedals and old-school spaghetti cables are unlikely to impress the chix at the front, so aspiring Rock Gods may want to check out the new iAxe USB Guitar.
As the name suggests, this Strat-shaped guitar comes with a USB port, allowing aspiring six string warriors to plug into their laptops and access a host of cool effects.
The guitar certainly looks the part, sporting a maple neck, solid body, single-coil pickups with 5-way switching, shiny chrome machine heads and a whammy bar letting you go for a bite while the sustain continues making that ‘eeeeeeeee’ sound.
The ‘idiot proof’ software supplied lets bedroom plank spankers jam along to their own music, with the ability to slow down or speed up tracks to learn those tricky licks and difficult ‘shapes’.
There’s also a multi-track recording/editing function for laying down dual-guitar sonic attacks, delicately layered tracks or a Ronnie Spector wall of noise.
If your neighbours aren’t down with your late night, death metal interpretations of teenage angst expressed through the medium of a heavy fuzzbox effect, there’s a handy headphone socket to help keep the noise down to minus eleven.
The sound may well be Shea Stadium, but at just £99 the price is definitely Bull & Gate, and the USB iAxe is available now for wannabe six string renegades on the highway to desolation from online widget merchants, Firebox.
26 February, 2007
UK Punters Are Feeling The MP3 Music Love
A new survey by Q Research discovered that a third of UK consumers aged 11 to 25 were slapping down up to £5 a month on digital tunes, with three per cent shelling out £25 or more a month.
Not all the kids are feeling the digital love though, with 45 per cent of respondents spending but ne’er a bean on music.
A hefty 85 per cent of respondents were found to be owners of MP3 players with the ubiquitous Apple iPod being the most popular device by a long chalk.
The survey found that the young ‘uns were the biggest users of free download services – almost half – but 43 per cent of under 16s were still paying up to £10 a month, with a hardcore nine per cent splashing out as much as £10 to £25 a month.
When it comes to the real big spenders, the lucrative 20-24 year olds sector were flashing the most cash, with two thirds spending up to £10 a month on downloads, and 16 per cent spend from £10 to £20 a month.
Downloading tunes direct to mobile phones is still a niche interest though, with punters put off by the high cost.
Liz Nelson, chairman of Q Research, commented that the survey showed that, “while there is already a very buoyant market for paying for MP3 files from the internet among young people, they are very aware of the cost of downloading files to their phones.”
“This finding is underlined by other projects we have done, where we have discovered opposition among young people to watching video or receiving video ads to their mobiles because of the cost,” she added
Source
20 February, 2007
Apple Inc and Apple Corps, Now In Love
Love has broken out between the two Apples – computers and music.
Appropriate with Valentines Day arriving soon – and that it’s the name of the relatively recent Beatle’s album.
We’ve spoken to Apple Corps (music) insiders and learnt that there was genuine shock at them losing the last round of the UK trademark dispute with Apple Inc. (Computers as was – they’ve now dropped the computers part of the name).
Today’s announcement replaces the 1991 agreement between the two and ends up with Apple Inc owning all of the trademarks related to “Apple” with them licensing back certain trademarks to Apple Corps, “for their continued use.”
The terms of settlement are confidential.
With this trademark dispute out of the way, the tables are now clear for a potential deal between the two Apple’s for selling the Beatles music online through iTunes. Some have spoken about the 14 February being the date of the announcement, fitting in with the Love theme again.
Our Apple Corps insider is keeping his cards close to his chest on this one. But if we hear … you’ll be the first to know.
5 February, 2007
Mobile Data Services Set To Rake It In
High speed mobile phones and new gadgets are set to send revenue from mobile entertainment services soaring over the next five years, according to market research firm Informa Telecoms & Media.
Boffins at Informa expect the market for delivering content and services on mobiles to rise from $89.3billion in 2006 to $150billion by 2011.
Mobile music – already the biggest earner – will continue to whip up the biggest wedge of wonga, although its market share is expected to dip from 40 per cent in 2006 to 36 per cent in 2011 in the face of newer consumer technologies like mobile TV and video service.
“Advanced mobile content and services have been slow to take off, but this should not be confused with the deepening relationship that we have with our mobile phones,” commented report author Daniel Winterbottom, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.
“Over time, users will warm to other data services as well. The mobile web is a prime example: WAP failed to take off when it was first launched, but five years on, more and more users have become comfortable with accessing news or other information on their mobile phones,” he added.
The analysts also predict that the market for mobile entertainment services, including games, gambling and naughty adult content, will more than double during the same period, increasing from $18.84 billion in 2006 to a bumper US$38.12 billion in 2011.
User-generated content is also expected to grow, with Informa predicting that revenue from user-generated services will hit $13.17 billion by 2011.
Full of enthusiasm for the future, Daniel Winterbottom enthused: “The arrival of the mobile web on the mobile handset over in 2007 and beyond will see users embracing the same content they take for granted on their PCs.
[Via]
5 February, 2007
Sony Ericsson W51S Mobile Phone
Sony Ericsson in Japan is launching the snazzy new W51S phone which comes in a striking clamshell package.
The no-fuss, flip out design is pleasantly understated, featuring a textured matt black front with just three icons for notifying the user of an incoming email, call or alarm/reminder.
The Organic Light Emitting Device (OLED) icons look rather dandy to our weary eyes, although work-shirkers probably won’t like not being able to see who’s actually calling before flipping open the phone and getting an irate boss on the line.
Once opened, the phone sports a 2.7-inch display with a 16:9 widescreen which (apparently) employs RealityMAX technology to “enhance picture quality.”
Also bundled on board the phone is a 2-megapixel camera backed up by a fairly healthy 120MB of internal memory and IrDA. As ever, Sony are persisting with their love of all things Memory Stuck, burdening the W51S with a Pro Duo expansion slot.
The W51S measures up at 105 × 48 × 19.3 mm, with talk time quoted at 210 minutes, with a standby time of 270 hours. For the security conscious, there’s also a feature letting users remotely lock and delete data on the handset over the web (Palm Treo users have been able to do this for years via excellent software like Warden)
The phone will be available in black, silver or pink, but there’s been ne’er a whisper from the Sony head honchos about pricing, release dates or even if this funky number will be getting it into the greasy paws of Britlanders.
[ From MobileWhack ]
5 February, 2007
Sony W880i Ai: Tuesday Euro Launch?
Sony Ericsson have let it be known via press invites that there’s a number of new handsets being released in Europe next Tuesday.
What they are and where it’s going on is currently being held close to the chest, but there’s rumours going around that one of them might be the W880i Ai.
There’s some shots purporting to be it floating around on a Swedish site called Mobil.
If the shots are to be believed, it looks mighty svelte, appearing only just bigger than a Bic lighter and as thin as you like.
It’s understood that it feels really solid, with a covering of metal conveying a feeling of quality.
We think it looks pretty hot, but the only thing that holds us back from near-total lust is the size and make up of the numeric keys, that have more than a passing similarity to a 1970’s calculator. Without having our hands on it, it’s unclear how friendly it will be to texting at high speed.
Specs are unclear, but it looks like two cameras, one facing forward, the other, a 2mpx facing back. Walkman branding makes it pretty clear it has music-ness included.
It looks like it’s 3G, which makes it all the more remarkable that it’s so tiny.
We’re really interested in its almost-neon-type interface.
Last, but not least, it looks like it’s heading to the US, as it’s got FCC approval.
Tune in next Tuesday for more details following the press launch, until then have a look at Mobil for more shots of it – and get a handkerchief to catch the drool.
The official I Want My W880 site.
Well done to those at Mobil for the photo scoop and Thanks to Hugo for the pointer.
2 February, 2007
MP3Tunes Oboe: Now Unlimited Free Storage
Oboe, the MP3Tunes.com online music service is increasing its previous 1Gb of free music storage to unlimited storage to some of its registered users.
The bold move was signalled when we received an email notification today that our account had been given the magic blessing.
MP3Tunes takes a different approach to iTunes and other on-computer music management software. Rather than have all of your music stored on the machine you are listening to it on, the music is stored on the Internet.
To listen to the music you can either use their application; or plugins for Browsers (Firefox or ie); or media players (iTunes and Winamp). Access to the music is also free.
This brings the advantage that your music can be played by any Internet-attached computer or device that you might have to hand, including TiVo, Nokia 770 and Series 60 phones.
Uploading music is done using their Oboe Sync 2.0 software which runs on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP, Mac OSX and Linux.
They’re not sniffy about the music file formats either, with a comprehensive selection supported (MP3, MP4, M4A, M4P, AAC, WMA, OGG, AIF, AIFF, MIDI). Pointedly it is also stated that “Digitally Restricted Files may not play.”
The unlimited service, previously called Premium, used to cost $40/year. As with their previous offering, there may limits on the size of each file that you upload, but at time of going to press, this remains unclear.
A bit of history for you …
Mp3Tunes was started by Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com, the trail blazing music service that started in 1998 and eventually had to close after a concerted legal attack by the music business.
In 2000 mp3.com started my.mp3.com, a service very similar to the Oboe service offered now offered by MP3Tunes. We hope that their new service doesn’t suffer the same end.
Impact
We think this move to an unlimited service could just start to put a dent in the dominance of iTunes, particularly in Europe, where legal pressure is building on them.
Being able to access music collections from work as well as home, without having to physically carry them, is a big boost.
As far as sustaining the service, because clearly there’s a fair cost in offering something like this, we assume the income will arise from the sale of additional music to the people who embrace the service.p
1 February, 2007
Blowfly Alarm Clock
Are you always late for work? Does your alarm clock fail to wake you up in the morning? Have you developed a reflex action that bashes the ‘alarm off’ button while you carry on counting sheep?
Hard core slumberers and die hard alarm ‘snooze button’ activators fed up with always being late may find the Flying Alarm Clock the answer to their problems.
Like most bedside alarm clocks, there’s a big LCD display and buttons for setting the time and alarm.
Unlike regular alarm clocks however, there’s no snooze button to be found and – as you can see – there’s a rather curious contraption sitting on top of the clock.
When it’s time for you to get out of your jimjams, this totally daft clock launches a flying propeller that hovers around the room, making strange buzzing noises while the clock’s alarm sounds.
The only way to shut the thing up is to get out of bed and put the propeller back on the clock – by which time you should be wide awake (or have your neighbours hammering through your walls in rage).
The clock is a commercial development of an idea that won a prize in the Taiwan International Design competition in 2005 and has just appeared for sale on a Danish website for around £27.
blowflyalarmclock.net
[Via]
1 February, 2007
iTunes Illegal Declares Norway Consumer Watchdog
Norway has declared iTunes to be illegal because it doesn’t allow songs downloaded from the online music store to be played on any other equipment except their own, today’s FT reported.
This is the first time, worldwide, for action like this to have been successful, despite bodies in other countries threatening the same, including France.
The decision by the Norwegian consumer watchdog, which the FT describes as “powerful” is based on Apple’s restrictive approach breaking their consumer protection laws.
Apple have until the 1 October deadline to make their FairPlay DRM schema available to other technology companies or face fines, or ultimately have the service shutdown.
The original complaint was made by Torgeir Waterhouse, senior advisor to the Norwegian Consumer Council. He told the FT that “he was in negotiations with pan_European consumer groups to present a unified position on iTunes’ legality.”
Worrying news for Apple, especially when they hear that Germany and France have joined Sweden and Finland. When added together, this comprises more than 100m European consumers.
25 January, 2007
SCH-V960: Samsung ‘Optical Joystick’ Phone Launched
Samsung has launched what it claims is the first mobile phone in the known universe to come with an optical joystick.
You may be wondering why you’d want one of those in the first place, but Samsung clearly thinks it’s on to a winner with its new SCH-V960 ‘Optical Joystick’ Phone.
As ever, Samsung have thoughtfully included a photo of some hotty demonstrating the joys of the optical interface, showing her little digit poised over the handset’s control.
Moving your digit over this control moves a cursor around the screen, just like a mouse about on a grown up PC.
The boffins at Samsung reckon that this will give users nippier access to frequently used menus and make it easy to skip through music track listings.
Weighing a pocket-pleasing 102g, the V960 is a fully fledged phone too, coming with a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, microSD memory slot and a sizeable 2.12-inch 240×320 262K colour TFT screen.
The slide-open phone also comes with an illumination sensor which automatically controls the brightness of the LCD screen and keypad, so you won’t be dazzled if the phone goes off in the middle of the night.
Kitae Lee, President of Samsung’s Telecommunication and Network Business was well chuffed with the new interface, “As the importance of user-friendly interface increases, Samsung is researching and developing methods that enhances intuitive use of mobile phones. Samsung will continue to combine innovative ideas and the latest technology that will benefit our end users.”
Coming in black and white versions, the V960 will be launched in the Korean market at the end of this year but – as ever- there’s ne’er a hint from Messrs and Missuses Samsung as to whether us Limeys will be getting a slice of the optical action.
Samsung SCH V960 Optical Joystick phone. How does it work? [unwired]
21 December, 2006