Label:Life

We’ll be seeing a lot more headphones in the next three months, according to a survey of consumer household technology purchase intentions by Ipsos Insight, the U.S. survey-based market research group. Almost a quarter of respondents (22%) anticipate buying a portable MP3 player or lower-storage Apple iPod Shuffle or iPod Nano (to use primarily for music) in the next three months, and 14% are interested in buying a portable multimedia device, such as the 30GB or 60GB iPod, Sony PSP, Creative Zen, or iRiver devices.

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Microsoft Corp. has some lofty goals for its new Xbox 360 video game console, not the least of which is to actually make some money.

When the original Xbox came out in 2001, it established Microsoft as a legitimate game company, but also resulted in about a $4 billion loss in the game division.

Now, Microsoft is trying to overtake market leader Sony and generate a profit.

“The first time around was like a trial run for us,” said David Hufford, director of Xbox product management at Microsoft. “It was great to get the experience of making a box. But this is really what we had our eyes set on five years ago when we dreamed up the first Xbox on a cocktail napkin.”

Microsoft expects to sell $1.5 billion worth of Xbox 360 hardware and software in the first 90 days, including about 3 million consoles. Microsoft executives have said previously that they hope to sell 10 million consoles within 12 to 16 months.

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It’s a well-known fact that Xbox 360 will be able to stream music from iPod MP3 players on its “dashboard” front-end and to provide background music for games, but what’s less well-known is that the next-generation console will be unable to play songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

That’s according to Microsoft’s Jeff Henshaw, who told CNET News.com that because of the digital-rights-management (DRM) software in iPod, playback of those tracks was not possible. The songs will appear greyed out in menus when Xbox 360 owners attempt to access them.

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This has to be gadget of the month.

The MicroLink dLAN Audio can be plugged into any power socket in the house, and communicates with any number of music sources over your existing household power circuit: With the HiFi in the living room or the multi-media PC in your study; with Internet radio or with an MP3 file server – any sound source can be streamed anywhere in the house. As with all devolo HomePlug adapters, it’s dead easy: Plug it into a power socket and use the audio input or output sockets to connect it to the audio devices. Even four separate channels can be pre-programmed when devolo’s own plug-ins for Windows Media Player or Winamp are used in combination with a MicroLink dLAN Ethernet adapter… and all that in 192kbps stereo quality! As MicroLink dLAN adapters communicate over your existing electricity network, they are particularly well suited to old buildings and houses; MicroLink dLAN adapters don’t suffer from typical WLAN obstacles like thick walls and multi-floor.

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Sony Media Software, a leading provider of award-winning professional video and audio editing applications, announced today the availability of software for the PC that lets users easily move content from their personal computer to their PSP™ (PlayStation® Portable) system. Titled PSP Media Manager, the product allows users to take full advantage of the PSP system’s ability to display various types of multimedia content by leveraging its capabilities as a portable music device, digital photo album, and movie viewer. With PSP Media Manager software, users can transfer videos, music, and still images, all via a USB-cable connecting their PSP system to a personal computer. A download-only version is immediately available for US $19.95 at www.sony.com/mediasoftware. The boxed version, which will include a 6-foot USB 2.0 cable, sample media, and 5 free song downloads from the CONNECT music store (www.connect.com), will be available online at www.sony.com/mediasoftware or www.sonystyle.com on December 1st with an MSRP of US $29.95. (more…)

Strategy Analytics, the global research and consulting company, today released, “Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone Beats Motorola ROKR to Best-in-Class Cellular Music Device Title,” its latest cellular music device benchmark report, which concludes that the Sony Ericsson W800i ‘Walkman’ phone is the highest rated cellular music device in the USA, ahead of the Motorola E1 ‘ROKR’ and Samsung A970. These results come from hands-on consumer testing by the Strategy Analytics Advanced Wireless User Panel.

The Sony Ericsson W800i ‘Walkman’ device achieved ‘Best in Class’ status based upon superior style appeal and an above average rating for music feature quality. The Motorola E1 ‘ROKR ’ achieved the highest rating for usability, but failed to impress in terms of style and feature quality. At 144 grams, the panel considered the Samsung A970 too large for primary feature phone positioning.

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Don’t call it the Video iPod, the vPod, or anything that indicates that this is a video player. It’s the new iPod, period. Though it does have video-playback capabilities, Apple has chosen to keep the iPod’s focus on audio (for now). That said, video looks excellent on the new model’s 2.5-inch screen, and the thinner profile—not to mention new audio capabilities such as high-quality stereo recording—makes it more versatile than previous generations. Consider that you can now get the 30GB model for the same price as the previous-generation 20GB model, and you have a pretty impressive product.

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Apple have unveiled their new video iPod.

The original white version of the digital music player has been upgraded, and now features a bigger screen and a thinner casing.

The new iPod will be available in either black or white and customers will have a choice of 30 or 60 GB of storage.

The video-playing gadget follows Apple’s development of the iPod shuffle, mini and nano.

Announcing the new product, Apple boss Steve Jobs said that the company has sold more than 28 million iPods since their launch in 2001 and that more than one million iPod nanos were sold in the first 17 days they were available. (more…)

The Nokia 3250, Nokia’s newest music phone, grabbed the spotlight of Nokia Trends, an electronic music festival that took place in Berlin, Germany this weekend. This unique design twists to transform a traditional phone keypad into dedicated music keys. The Nokia 3250 stores up to 1 Gigabyte (750 songs) of high quality music and offers 10 hours of music play. In addition, consumers can take advantage of the Nokia 3250’s two-megapixel camera and smartphone capabilities. The triband GSM 900/1800/1900 model is expected to start shipping in the first quarter 2006 with an estimated retail price of 350 EUR before subsidies or taxes.

By twisting the Nokia 3250 keypad 180 degrees, consumers can toggle between the music controls and the traditional phone keypad. The music player of the Nokia 3250 supports a wide array of digital music formats such as MP3, WMA, M4A and AAC, making it easy to load and transfer music. Additionally, songs can be downloaded over-the-air while on the go and favourite songs can be set as ringtones.

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HELSINKI (Reuters) – Mobile phone giant Nokia said on Tuesday it was delaying the launch of its premium N91 music phone until the first quarter of next year.

The company said it wanted to ensure that the phone, holding thousands of songs, would work on the widest range of music platforms and be a true “jukebox” mobile phone.

That compares with the Rokr music phone launched by Motorola Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. this month, which stores 100 songs and works with Apple’s iTunes music store.

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