Sony has launched four audio products that work with current dockable iPod and iPhone devices – a CD clock radio (model ICF-CD3iP), boombox (model ZS-S4iP), table top HD Radio with iTunes Tagging (model XDR-S10HDiP), and docking speaker (model SRS-GU10iP).

The ICF-CD3iP device is Sony’s first CD clock radio with a hidden dock for iPod and iPhone devices. It gives users multi-function flexibility that enables them to listen, wake and fall asleep to their iPhone or iPod, CDs or radio in the form of a small footprint. Continue Reading…

Sony is planning a new entry level Walkman that would combine the simple features of its stick players with the more advanced features of its full-size devices, the company itself has accidentally revealed through its New Zealand website.

Sony NWZ-E430

The NWZ-E430 series appears a sequel to the A600 series with a slightly larger two-inch screen and at most 8GB of storage, but will be easier to load than earlier models; full drag-and-drop support allows not only loading music and video through the operating system’s file manager but through sync software; both iTunes and Windows Media Player are claimed to support new Walkman range.

Few extras will be included with the players, though all have an FM tuner as well as support for widespread formats such as AAC, MP3, and WMA for music as H.264 and MPEG-4 for video. Battery life, however, is claimed as a specialty with up to 45 hours of music and 9.5 hours of video in ideal conditions versus half as much for current players from Apple, SanDisk, and other rivals. Continue Reading…

Directvoxx muso

DirectVoxx has introduced its muso Voice Control for iPod. The muso is a small dock-connecting accessory that allows users to access their music with natural voice commands. According to the company, the device “synchronizes with the user’s iTunes library directly on first use and requires no training to understand requests such as ‘Play me some Led Zeppelin,’ ‘How about some Rolling Stones,’ ‘Gimme jazz’ or ‘Go to My Broadway Tunes playlist.’”

With current support for a wide variety of English phrases, DirectVoxx says non-English multilingual support is coming in 2009. The device is self-powered by an internal rechargeable battery offering ten hours of use under “normal operating conditions.” It includes a sync/charge cable and a remote control, and will be available for the iPod nano in December for $159, with a future iPod/iPhone compatible model planned for release “as soon as possible.”

Amazon on Thursday is revealing Video on Demand, its second approach to online video. Unlike the company’s own Unbox service, which requires that users download the entire video, the new feature will depend on streaming alone; while it depends on an active Internet connection, the feature will allow devices with little to no hard drive space to buy TV shows, and buy or rent movies, with the same access as full computer users.

The new VOD feature similarly remembers which videos the user owns or is renting, allowing them to play back that content on any computer or device without the digital rights management that limits Unbox videos to Windows PCs and TiVo video recorders. The initial service will be cross-platform and support both Mac OS X and Windows PCs, as well as Sony’s BRAVIA Internet Video Link add-on for its line of HDTVs. Other devices are expected in the future but haven’t been specified outside of likely future BRAVIA TVs that will include the Internet link as a standard feature.

The service will be available in a trial version for some users effective today but will launch in a broader fashion this summer, according to Amazon.

Video on Demand potentially returns an edge to Amazon for Internet video services believed lost to iTunes, which began offering movies for rent available both through Apple TV as well as iPhones and iPods. Notably, Amazon doesn’t have complete studio support and is missing content from both ABC and its parent company Disney, which counts Apple chief Steve Jobs as a board member.

According to some leaked info obtained by epiZENter, Creative is getting ready to release their first Wi-Fi enabled portable media player, the ZEN X-Fi.

In addition to some basic control buttons like play/pause, next, and previous on the face, the X-Fi will have a nine-point directional pad and using it’s built-in Wi-Fi users will be able to IM via Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger using the nine-point directional pad to enter text similar to how cellphones without a full QWERTY keyboard do it.

The Wi-Fi will also allow you to stream media from your home computer from a piece of software you’ll install there called Creative Centrale. Looks like you will NOT, however, be able to buy songs on the go via Wi-Fi hotspots.

There’s also something mentioned called a Public Media Server but it’s not 100% clear just what that is at the moment. Maybe it will give you limited access to media in your Creative Centrale over the Internet by setting up a mini web server? We’ll see when things are officially announced. Continue Reading…

Almost a year on from its launch the Creative Zen Plus has been upgraded, but it’s not just a case of the company adding more memory or offering a colour change to entice users.Somehow while keeping the size small, the company has added a speaker so you can share your music. Thing of fad or amazing technical prowess? We get listening to find out.

For those not aware of the MP3 player from Creative here’s a quick recap: the Creative Zen Stone Plus is a available in 2GB and 4GB versions, offers a small OLED screen, FM radio, a recording option, timer and stopwatch functions.

Songs can be transferred via drag and drop and you can even manage your playlist via Apple’s iTunes software although you won’t be able to transfer DRM tracks.

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Amazon yesterday announced early details of an international strategy for its Amazon MP3 direct-download music store. The online retailer says it will unveil versions of the store outside of the US beginning this year; the company declines providing an exact timeframe for when these stores will appear but emphasizes that the stores will remain DRM-free, allowing songs bought from the store to work with most any operating system, software, and portable media player without rights limits.

Continue Reading…