Recently in Music Category

A bunch of sites posted about the Zvue Spirit last Monday.

The spirit is an unapologetically patriotic MP3 player "dedicated to the land of the free and inspired by this great nation" wrapped in the American flag, with a star for navigation, and preloaded with songs like "God Bless the USA" "America is my home" and "back in the USA".

After reading about it I thought to myself "wow, what a great American company Zvue is to create a patriotic product like this. I wonder where in the US they produce these?"

So I emailed their investor/press relations guy to ask "Is it made in the US?".........

Yep, like the rest of the cheap crap at Wal-Mart the patriotic player is likely a re-branded Asian OEM player of unknown quality.

I know a lot of people who consider themselves Patriots, many of then have served in the military and fought to defend this nation, they try to support American businesses and buy American made products. Many of them would see a product like this and buy it assuming it was made in the USA.

If you had made them here and proudly put "Made in the USA" on the packaging you would have had a lot of satisfied patriotic customers even if it meant a higher price point. But was it even possibly for Zvue to have built it in the US? What electronics are still made in the US?

Has American manufacturing fallen so far that we are incapable of making something as simple as a 1GB flash based MP3 player domestically?

What do you think? is it ok to hype a "patriotic" product that is made overseas? can a product like this actually be made in America in 2008?

zvue spirit via anythingbutipod

Logitech has announced a bluetooth portable speaker system for cellphone users.

The Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile Bluetooth system has four two-inch speakers (two active, two passive) and delivers 12 hrs of playtime before needing to recharge the built-in battery via USB.

You can also use it as a PC speaker or with almost any gadget that had a standard line-out.

The Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile Bluetooth speakers will be out in June for $150.

Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile Bluetooth speakers via crave

The Sony Rolly is described as being "for those who want to experience music through movement."

In other words once you turn it on and select music it flashes lights and starts to roll and spin in time to the music.

So for $400 you get a lump of plastic with only 2GB of memory that you have to chase around the room when you want to change songs or turn it off (and turning it off would be at the top of my list as soon as I saw one).

Why? why would you buy this? I wouldn't buy this with $20 of someone else's money.

Press release follows.

Sony Rolly via ubergizmo

The P10 is a new portable media player from Iriver that will, unfortunately, only be sold in Korea.

The P10 features a 4.3" 800x480 pixel LCD, 33GB of internal memory, supports PDF word and excel files as well as WMV and mpeg video, and has handwriting recognition.

Iriver P10 PMP via akihibaranews

Photos have shown up on a Chinese site of the iTouch lookalike RAmos V8.

What do we know about it? not much: 4.3" touchscreen, 16GB storage, and just 0.3" thick.

RAmos V8 PMP photos via engadget

I'm willing to bet the Zippo lighter company has no idea this Zippo branded MP3 player from Chinese company Zarva exists.

Here's the funny computer translation:

"Exterior features:

MP320 using Actions 2091-dominated movement that supports MP3, WMA and other audio formats players, with natural, rock, pop, classical, soft, jazz, heavy bass sound of seven models can choose to support AB repeat, built-in Microphone, recording quality is also adjustable. Built-in 210 mAh lithium battery, a USB 2.0 high-speed transmission interface to ensure that the transmission speed. "

Zarva Zippo MP3 Player via PMPtoday

Wholesale price for a 1GB lighter is 188 Yuan (about $27)

Singapore Airlines has announced that their "all business class" flights from Newark to Singapore now have iPod/iPhone docks at every seats, and that they will be available on Los Angeles to Singapore flights in August.

We don't just mean the charge your phone type of docks, we means the type of docks that integrate your iPod or iPhone into the planes entertainment system so you can view your movies and photos and listen to your music via the planes 15.4" widescreen LCDs and active noise-canceling headlines.

Very cool! I know what airline I want to fly next..... all I need is a good excuse to go to Singapore.

iPod Docks on Singapore Airlines (press release)

Creative's answer to the iPod Shuffle, the Muvo T200, is getting a storage boost - going from 2GB to 4GB.

We prefer the MuVo T200 to the shuffle because you not only get a small (but usable) display and compatibility with standard MP3 and WMA music files, you also get to avoid being tied to Apple's iTunes software.

The price for the 4GB MuVo T200 in Japan is 6980 Yen so expect it to sell in the $60 to $75 range in the US.

Creative MuVo T200 4GB (via slashgear)

The Vita Audio R4 with it's sexy walnut veneer exterior will be a sure hit with guys who want to appear smooth in a modern day Barry White/Marvin Gaye (or maybe even Quagmire from Family Guy) kind of way.

More than just an iPod dock the Vita Audio R4 is an integrated music system with CD player, USB post, DAB and FM tuner, and iPod dock, all controlled by a "RotoDial" remote, pumping out the tunes of your choice through 80 watt speakers with an integrated active subwoofer.

The Vita Audio R4 will be available in June at a cost of £499.99 ($1000) for smooth walnut or £549.99 for nerdy white.

Vita Audio R4 via ShinyShiny

The Motorola ROKR E8 has been reviewed by Unwired View.

Here's what they thought of the Motorola ROKR E8:

"Now a little bit about the weak points of the E8. In my case, the phone was very laggy. I didn't manage to do as much as write an SMS while listening to the music at the same time, and launching Java applications was pretty much out of the question. Perhaps the phone being a prototype is to blame - the RAZR2 had such problems in it's time, too. Let's see if this is fixed in the commercial version. I will say only this: a strong player has appeared among the music phones, one that can win the hearts of many users."

Motorola ROKR E8 review at Unwired View

As if "urban youth" weren't annoying enough, they can now buy hoodies with built-in speakers.

At least the speakers are unpowered so the noise shouldn't be too deafening. Then again they will probably be less annoying that the people having loud one-sided bluetooth phonecalls.

Thankfully these are just a prototype for now.

(via makezine)

Mvix have announced a new 2.5" hard drive based media player that provides up to 250GB of portable media storage in a 5" x 3" x 0.5" enclosure.

The MV-2500U doesn't have a screen of it's own so you need to connect it to a TV via component cables then use the remote control and on screen menus to access your media.

The MV-2500U supports MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, DivX® 3.11, 4x, 5x, XviD, DVD(IFO, VOB), ISO video, AC3, MP2, MP3, DTS pass through, WMA, OGG, M3U audio, and JPG photos and outputs in 1080i or 720p resolution.

Cost for the basic unit is $149 without a drive or you can get one with a 80MB, 160MB or 250MB drive for between $99 and $199 more.

Ina Fried bought a $99 recertified 4gb iPod Nano from buy.com. The ipod contained a virus (that thankfully was caught by antivirus software).

That iPod didn't come from apple, it was recertified by an unidentified company in Illinois and supposedly buy.com checked and it was not a widespread problem.

As with any good deal online: caveat emptor ("buyer beware").

(via cnet)

iLuv is one of the multitude of companies who jumped on the Apply iPod iMac iPhone bandwagon by putting the letter i in front of everything.

They just announced two alarm clock radios that receive HD radio broadcasts: the i168 at $89.99 and the i169 at $169.99. What's the difference I hear you ask? the i169 looks cooler and has an iPod dock so you can listen to your iTunes when the iAlarm wakes iYou in time to go to your iJob.

Me? I'm "blessed" with a built-in alarm clock that wakes me at 4.40am every morning, even on the weekends......

Press release:

You may be worried about the damage ear buds do your hearing, and you may be looking for an alternative, but please do not buy the soundwalk: you have awful taste in music and I don't want to listen to it.

Yes, now you can subject everyone nearby to whatever musical masterpiece is currently in your playlist. Whether it is Miley Cyrus or Nine Inch Nails I can guarantee your choice will annoy someone.

The soundwalk is coming to the Koreannovation in New York soon, a whole show just for wield Korean stuff that we thought the Japanese had a monopoly on.

(via gearlog)

Now this is a nice looking portable media player, too bad it appears that it will only be available in Korea.

The TG Sambo has an 800 x 480 pixel 4.8" touchscreen display, 801.11b/g WiFi and lots more features that make the most of it's alchemy AU1250 700MHz processor.

Lets hope it gets released in the US.

(more at aving)

We saw Samsung's HT-X810 Home Theater Sound Bar with wireless subwoofer and integrated slot-in upconverting DVD player at CES and it is now available for purchase.

It blends in nicely with flat TVs, and has a 300W output including the wirelessly connected subwoofer.

Portable music players can connect wirelessly via bluetooth, and the HT-X910 also plays CD, DVD-Audio, DivX video, and MP3/WMA, upconverting video to 1080p on request.

(via electronichouse)

Digital Home Thoughts has reviewed some speakers I had never heard of before: the Orb audio Home Theater Speaker System that retails for $549 and up.

Here's what they thought:

"When it's all said and done, the bottom line is that the Orb Audio speakers impressed me so much that I'm going to purchase my own set of these speakers. There's no higher recommendation I can give than to say that this is the product I personally want to use. The Orb Audio speakers are not only smaller than the Harman Kardon speakers I had before, they sound better, look better, and made me never want to set up the old system again. While the overall package can get a bit pricey if you need two pairs of their HOSS stands, if you're looking for a quality system - or an upgrade from that horrendously bad Home Theatre In-A-Box system you might have - Orb Audio has a range of solutions at every price point that will allow you to enjoy movies, music, games in ways you never have before. And because their system is so modular, you can start with a minimal Mod1 system and as long as you get the right kind of stands or mounts, you can add more speakers to your system over time. That's a powerful advantage that I haven't seen in any retail speaker solution, and is the cherry on top of what is already a luscious mix of tasty audio."

(full review at digitalhomethoughts)

Memorex has relaunched it's MMP line of media players with two models:

The Clip & Play (pictured) is a very small square media player with a two line OLED screen, graphic equalizer, and FM radio tuner. It comes with 2GB of memory and costs $50.

The MMP8590 is larger with a 1.5" OLED screen, displays jpeg photos, and has a voice recorder and stopwatch. It too comes with 2GB of memory and costs $60.

(via electronista)

Creative have brought out two new colored versions of their ZEM portable media player.

The new red and pink versions are otherwise identical to the existing versions with 2.5" 320 x 240 pixel screen, 4 to 32GB storage capacities and SD expansion slot.

The red version is available at buy.com and the pink is a walmart exclusive.

If you are just looking for the black version there are good deals available directly through Creative's refurbished store.

(Via slashgear)