First lets cover the basics, this phone is similair to many stand alone personal internet devices, but this device contains both a sliding screen and a full QUERTY keyboard.

This phone, while having the telecommunications functionality also has a GPS function which is used by the device not only for route finding but also to automatically update all your social website accounts with your location and to tag images you take with were they were taken!

The home page itself has links to several social networking sites, but it is fully customizable for anyone who would like different websites at the click of a finger.

Under the hood of this beautiful device we have more surprises than you could shake a rabid chincilla at.  For starters the device has 32GB of storage BUILT IN! with flash upgrade capacity of an extra 16GB.  It has a media player built in, and WiFi for at home browsing and file transfers.  On top of this it is fully 3G compatable for ont eh move browsing and downloading.

The camera on this device is a top notch 5 megapixel godsend which is surprisingly good in low light and normal situations. It has the good ol’ Carl Zeiss lens so you are guaranteed a high quality shot!

While this phone has broken the trend of touch screen, better for texting but worse for web browsing, I do predict it will be a massive success on it’s release in Europe in the beginning of 2009.  For 550 euros though the N97 is a little pricy for many people!

The MP3 player itself has a standard but adequate 16gb hard drive and 1.6 inch lcd screen.  When teh sun isn’t out it has a USB power adapter to refill the old power cells!

Many users may find it’s control system unintuitive though, especially in the face of products such as the iPhone!

While it is interesting to see Sky pick up this service it may be too little too late, with only one major record label supporting it many users may be upset that they cannot find all the songs they want!

On the plus side thought the tracks sony release wil be 100% DRM fre, meaning you can swap and change the MP3s between your devices without any worries of incompatability.

There is no news as of yet as to how much this will cost, how many songs you will get or even if they will be downloadable straight onto your set top box, watch this space for more information!

Fans of the Apple iPhone went frantic this weekend as pictures were released showing the Apple iPhone 3G in all its slim lined Glory.

While specs have still not been confirmed for the Apple iPhone 3G they are set to be impressive. One of the major drawbacks of the original iPhone was its slow download speed from the iTunes service, this looks set to be fixed with the broadband speed downloading offered by 3G. the Apple iPhone has been a fantastic product and has excelled in bot the US and European markets. Seeing a new, sleeker faster version of the IPhone 3G is something we are all looking forward to! It is however expected that the new Apple iPhone will be fully WiFi Compatable

Of course as with many early release photos there is a high chance that these may be fake, several people have noticed that the lock button is missing on the red phone. THere is however some Contention over this though as it would be expected that the ‘red’ version would be released later, as part of the anti – AIDS campaign.

The sunglasses also allow you to enjoy your music via MP3 playback. Built-in earbuds provide super convenient listen capability and can be hooked out of the way when not in use.

$99.99 at ThinkGeek

Internet Security

Optimization And Tweaking Tools

Image and photo manipulation And Viewing software

Burning, Ripping And Encoding Tools

and more, check it out here.

Remember that “transformation” sound of the Autobots and Decepticons? well you can now download it here.

The Haier Elegance measuring 9.1 x 3.5 x 1.8cm (3.6 inches long) has been declared as the world’s smallest music phone, the phone also packs in MP3 player (128MB, expandable by 1GB via Micro SD), FM tuner, Stereo Bluetooth, OLED display and Tri-Band GSM. You get three hours of talktime, but a pretty decent 11 hours MP3 playback.

It’s a little bit on the expensive side of the scale with a price tag of $330

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Vixy allows you convert a Flash Video / FLV file (YouTube’s videos,etc) to MPEG4 (AVI/MOV/MP4/MP3/3GP) file online. It is using a compressed domain transcoder technology (outline in Japanese). It converts FLV to MPEG4 faster and less lossy than a typical transcoder.

Try Vixy

Entrepreneurs and founders of the popular Skype Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are working together again on another project called Joost (pronounced “Juiced”).

Joost, like Skype, requires users to download free software. In this case, the program will help them browse the Internet for channels and clips they’re interested in, rather than make phone calls.

“We’re currently in a test phase with a limited ‘beta’ release, so we have content matching our base,” Chief Executive Fredrik de Wahl said in a telephone interview. “Comedy, sports, music, documentaries.”

Source and more : ABC News

One thing that immediately comes to mind is that it resembles a mobile phone but in fact it’s just an MP3 player.If it was a phone it would have been a good rival to Apple’s iPhone with it’s sexy looks.

This lightweight MP3 Player has a heavy portfolio including an innovative touch screen, FM radio receiver, and built-in speakers. The K5 enables you to share your music experience with others. A mini boom box, this revolutionary MP3 player defies engineering forces of nature by squeezing a high-end music player complete with a slide-out speaker into a slim compact form.

Gizmodo and CNET has done in depth reviews of this products (with video) so check out the links:

Gizmodo

CNET

Digital Love – Daft Punk

Last night I had a dream about you
In this dream I’m dancing right beside you
And it looked like everyone was having fun
The kind of feeling I’ve waited so long

Don’t stop come a little closer
As we jam the rhythm gets stronger
There’s nothing wrong with just a little little fun
We were dancing all night long

The time is right to put my arms around you
You’re feeling right
You wrap your arms around too
But suddenly I feel the shining sun
Before I knew it this dream was all gone

Ooh I don’t know what to do
About this dream and you
I wish this dream comes true

Ooh I don’t know what to do
About this dream and you
We’ll make this dream come true

Why don’t you play the game?
Why don’t you play the game?

A rather intresting news concerning Apple’s forray into the phone market with it’s iPhone is that the company plans to sell the phone ‘unlocked’ which simply means that you are required to insert a GSM subscriber identity (SIM) card, the good thing about this move is that it now opens up most of the world as the target market instead of just the US.

If Apple decided to be tied down by the likes of Cingular or T-Mobile than there will not be marketing for the iPhone abroad, Apple could potentialy stand to make alot of money if they decided to go with Cingular or T-Mobile but they have decided to leave it ‘unlocked’.

On another note the iPhones are expected to be released within the first six months of next year as Apple has assigned the task of completing 12 million units of the iPhones to Taipei based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

This is cool news indeed, i’m looking foward to owning an iPhone sometime in the future

More on Bloomberg

Priced at around $250 to compete with Apple’s 30 gig iPod, Microsoft will launch a digital download store à la iTunes, where Zune owners can buy songs for about $1 each and albums at prices comparable to iTunes’.

JONATHAN SILVERSTEIN of ABC writes:

With Apple in firm control of more than 70 percent of the digital media player market, Microsoft has its work cut out for it, even though close to 70 percent of Americans don’t even own a player yet.

David Pogue at New York Times writes:

“Competition is good and all. But what, exactly, is the point of the Zune? It seems like an awful lot of duplication — in a bigger, heavier form with fewer features — just to indulge Microsoft’s “we want some o’ that” envy.

While Walter S. Mossberg over at Wall Street Journal writes:

Overall, the iPod and iTunes are still the champs. Still, I expect the Zune to attract some converts and to get better with time. And this kind of competition from a big company with deep pockets and lots of talent is good for consumers in the long run.”

Full Rerviews:

ABC News

New York Times

Wall Street Journal

“There’s a certain amount of trouble that Apple can give us, but not enough to stop this,” Monique Farantzos, managing director at DoubleTwist told Associated Press.

“We believe we’re on good legal ground, and our attorneys have given us the green light on this.”

Source and More: BBC

Have fun finding and downloading music with Google at g2p

g2p is a product of i-hacked

Yes, you read that right it is indeed OSIM that has launched an MP3 player, but what would an MP3 player be without a massage feature!, especially since OSIM are the ones who built it.

The OSIM iGoGo is a standard MP3 player with two remote massagers that can be applied to your body (thanks to the included gel pads).the iGoGo can give you one of the seven different kinds of preprogrammed massage, synchronized to your music. The pads are wireless, communicating with the player via RF technology, so no worries about getting tangled in some very unrelaxing wires.

The price for this nifty product is a cool $500

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Rumor is that Apple is set to team up with search engine giants Google Inc who would be the primary provider of video content for the iTv box.It all looks very possible especially since Apple now has Google CEO Eric Schmidt on their board of directors.

“Google and all its competitors are focused on a three-screen approach right now, whether you’re accessing them or their content on a computer screen, on some kind of a handheld product or on your high-definition TV,” explained Ross Rubin, an analyst with the NPD Group.

more from the source

The Napster MP3 player is a 512MB version of the SanDisk Sansa m230 portable music player, which in addition to providing space for 512MB of WMA or MP3 files has an FM tuner, built-in microphone for voice recording and a backlit LCD display.

source

Samsung plans to complement their store with their renage of MP3 players much like what Apple does with iTunes.

Samsung has tapped MusicNet to provide the library of songs for the store, which will likely offer both a monthly subscription and individual downloads. MusicNet currently powers Yahoo! Music Unlimited and MTV Networks’ URGE, which was developed with Microsoft and will be the primary service in Windows Media Player 11.

Do we really need another music store? what are they gonna offer that others haven’t?
Quiet a dumb idea if you ask me.

source

Users can connect the V-Mate to the AV output of their video recorder, set-top box, Freeview, DVR, DVD player, TV or other device and use the V-Mate’s remote control to configure the device, plus record and access content via a TV-based interface.

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The record won’t last for long though, that’s a definite thing in the ever changing tech world.

The e280 holds up to 10GB of music with optional 2GB microSD Card.

In conjunction with the rollout of the e280 and in preparation for the holiday season, SanDisk has lowered its prices on the entire Sansa e200 line of products, including the existing 2, 4 and 6GB models.

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Are you a millionaire who loves digital music? than the TrekStor i.Beat organix Gold MP3 Player is just the player for you.

Here are some technical details of the player, some (those non-millionaire type) will say that the iPod is way better in looks and economy, but hey your a millionaire don’t listen to those folks…here’s some juice:

# Large, 1 GB memory holds loads of tunes (MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, and OGG formats)
# Two-color OLED screen displays ID3 tags, FM radio station info, and equalizer visualization
# Designed with two headphone jacks for sharing music with a friend
# Measures 2.95 x 1.26 x 0.63 inches (WxHxD)

What makes the Gold the most expensive MP3 player in the world? Gold, of course. Oh yes, and diamonds. The casing of the organix Gold is cast in 750 gold (18 karat) and it is adorned with 63 diamonds (one-karat). No MP3 player is complete without being wearable, so TrekStor embellished this player with a small chain that includes beautiful aquamarine gems. Jewelers Wenthe in Mannheim, Germany put over 100 hours of painstaking handiwork into this exquisite gadget.

Buy Now!

Sony will launched Mylo (My Life Online) next month, the Mylo is a personal communicator and we’re bound to see similar products poping up in the marketplace very soon.

With the Mylo you can now chat with your pals with Yahoo! Messenger®, Google Talk® or Skype®, check and send e-mails and even browse the net with an Opera browser via Wi-Fi.
It will also have a media player, a 2.4″ LCD display allowing to view videos on the move and comes with a flash based memory of 1GB which can be expanded with Sony’s Memory Stick Pro Duo cards.

More…

The player can support files like JPEG,MP3, AVI, MPEG 1 & 2, WMV, and ASF video files and comes in capacities of 1GB and 2GB.

The K-PEX 100 measures 3.7″ x 1.8″ x 0.57″ (9.4 cm x 4.5 cm x 1.4 cm and weighs 0.14 lbs. (65 g).

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But what good is a ringtone without your fav tunes?

CoolRinger comes to the rescue with it’s simple, effective and free software, yes i did say FREE.

Coolringer lets you convert any of your MP3/Wav FILES to Mobile and VOIP ringtones in an instant and for free!

Yes it does convert the files for use on your cell phone too.

How to convert and use (Skype)?:

* Download and install Coolringer and right-click any mp3/wav file and create a ringtone file.

*Open Skype and go to Tools>>Options>>Sounds>>Import Sounds.

*Import the sound of your choice from the converted file.

How to convert and use (Mobile)?:

* Download and install Coolringer and right-click any mp3/wav file and create a ringtone file.
* Upload to your phone using any of the common methods available and listed below.
* Use it on your phone or send it to your friends. It’s that easy.

Download Now

File Transfer

This is something so important, and finally Google has decided to add this feature to Gtalk.
With this feature you can send unlimited files and folders to your friends through Google Talk. There is no restriction on the file type or size and the peer-to-peer transfer is fast and reliable.

Voicemail

I like this particular feature, because you can now leave a voicemail to your contacts, and if they don’t use gtalk all that often they’ll receive an email with the message attached as an audio file.

Cool feature indeed.

Music Status

Last but not least is the “music status” feature that lets your friends see what you’re listening to by selecting “Show current music track” in your status menu. Your status message will change when your song does!

currently Google only support this music player:

* iTunes
* Windows Media Player
* Winamp
* Yahoo Music Engine

The bummer is that it only supports Windows machines…go figure!

via : Google

Lindsay Lohan has reportedly been fired by her UK record label Island Records after she failed to travel to London for a planned promotional campaign for her album Speak.

Shocking..but yet not too shocking…

Source

This gadget will have more appeal to the older generation…or maybe this would be a perfect gift for your dad!

Introducing the USB Turntable.

The USB Turntable can be used for two things, First it can convert all those LP’s of your that have been lying around into the popular digital format -MP3 via USB, simply plug this chic little turntable into the nearest USB port, fire up the idiot-proof Audacity software and start converting your collection.

Secondly:

featuring adjustable gain, anti-skating control and high-speed vinyl recording function, the belt-driven USB Turntable can also be connected to any home stereo with CD or auxiliary inputs. This means you can spin your records through your regular system when you’re not converting them.

This gadget will suck £119.95 off your wallet/card.

For the full review and purchase options – click here