Technology, Gadgets, IT, Games

There is no denying that the iPod is the most successful consumer entertainment gadget of all time. Providing an insurmountable benchmark in terms of design and technological achievement, it is always amazing to see Apple continue to improve and upgrade their range.

Today, Apple have shown off their new full suite of iPods, including the Shuffle, Nano, Classic and new ‘Touch’ which will be available this weekend; and have decreased some prices to coincide with this

The iPod Shuffle has been refreshed with new colours, including pastel blue, green, lavender and 1GB (PRODUCT) RED edition which raises money for charity, as with the nano last year. Price stays at $79 though.

The all-new iPod nano is the same as the ‘fatty’ spied by Engadget over the past few weeks. With a bigger, brighter 2-inch 320×240 (QVGA) screen at 204ppi, video capability, an ‘enhanced’ UI, its own take on Cover Flow and three games, its battery has 24 hours of audio playback and 5 hours of video. The silver 4gb model is going for $149, and the more colourful 8gb for $199.

The real/main/original series of iPods has been given a real name as the iPod Classic. This new sixth-generaton version is mostly an upgrade on the previous 5.5th generation units, with a new all-metal shell and (FMJ) and improved interface, coming in two higher-capacity versions. The 80gb iPod Classic has 30 hours of audio, 6 hours of video and will retail at $249. The new 160gb version has 40 hours audio, 7 hours video for $349.

The long-awaited iPod Touch is the phone-less iPhone. Coming in at 8mm deep, this is significantly thinner than the iPhone. The Touch packs a 3.5-inch widescreen display, 22 hours audio, 5 hours video and the same multi-touch inferface with Cover Flow as the iPhone. It also has web capability through WiFi, through which you can even buy music on iTunes. Available in a few weeks, the 8gb will go for $299 and the 16gb for $399.

Apple also announced a partnership and ‘feature’ to be able to purchase a song playing or recently played in a Starbucks through WiFi on the Touch, and free WiFi access to the iTunes Music Store (to buy the song currently playing). Doesn’t hurt I suppose.

The still-new iPhone is having a massive $200 price drop to coincide with these releases, down to $299 for the 4gb and $399 for the 8gb.

Click on for images of the new range… Read more

From Mustek comes the MP100 portable DVD player, the big brother of the MP80D that I reviewed earlier, another straight-forward but well-conceived machine.

The main controls on the machine itself are simple and allow for easy navigation through DVD menus with little hassle, this is something I’ve come to know and love from Mustek. Simplicity. The controls themselves are well flushed with the surface of the player, but not so much so as they would become difficult to operate and irritating. They work fine and each is clearly labelled with its function.

The player itself is reasonably sized and lightweight, but bigger than past models. The LCD screen is a nice large 10-inch which takes up a good amount of the lid of the player. Definitely a decent size in my opinion, it allows for good solo viewing and also gives you a good view if you have multiple people watching. Also due to its widescreen proportions you don’t get the letterbox effect splashed across your films. The screen is both hinged to fold down, like a laptop, but also on a swivel hinge which lets it fold round to allow you to simply just have the screen visible. This is very useful during car journey which lets you simply hang the screen on the back of a car headrest with the provided sling. This does give the impression that the MP100 was designed with keeping the kids quiet in the back of the car… Read more

So Apple are the undisputed kings of the MP3 player market with millions of iPods in use across the UK and indeed the world – Microsoft looks set to challenge this dominance with the Zune but we like choice and we believe Samsung has something to offer.

We recently covered the launch of the Samsung music store (SMS) and two new MP3 players, one of which we have had the pleasure of testing for the past week. So out the window went the Nano and into the recycle bin went iTunes, stepping up to the plate to fill the void, was the smooth looking YP-T9.

So straight out of the bag we note that the stylish Samsung offering is smaller than the Nano (83 x 42.6 x 11 mm), weighs in at only 49g and boasts a significantly larger 1.8-inch. On closer inspection the YP-T9 impresses further, packed solid with a range of features it is clear the word ‘compromise’ didn’t even figure into the making of this device and has a good solid battery life (about 30hrs). Read more

MPMan recently announced the launch of The Blade its latest MP3 player with built-in FM receiver – For all you general knowledge buffs out there it might interest you to know that 10 years ago this year MPMan launched the first ever MP3 player and for this reason we wanted to see what The Blade had to offer.

Let us cover of the basics first – at just 7mm thick and 30g in weight, The Blade is available with either 1GB or 2GB of memory that gives you enough capacity for up to 1000 WMA songs, whilst the inclusion of a 1.5inch 260k colour OLED display provides a means for video playback.

The combination of silver and stainless steel gives The Blade a very polished look. However its slim and light lightweight means that the MP3 players felt rather delicate at times when using the touch pad to navigate between functions. Read more