Technology News

We all know that kids love teddy bears and they also love music, so put the two together and you have a right winner on your hands. It actually looks like an ordinary cuddly teddy bear, but no, it is not ordinary. These will be great toys for the children.

This is the Teddy MP3 player with all the little things like play, forward, previous, power, Vol+ and Vol- button controls, these are all located on the teddy bears paws.

The main features include 1GB of flash memory, support for MP3 and WMA audio formats, 1 x USB cable, 1 x Battery cover (battery is not included here), weighs around about 268 grams and is only 230mm x 230mm x 140mm (L x W x D), fur material, Supports Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista (Window 98 needs USB driver), also support OS Mac 10 and Linux 2.4.

Other features include high Speed USB 2.0 Ultra Fast Data Transfer and easy to operate use. The only downside is the USB chord that comes out of the Teddy bears backside. The market price for the Cute Teddy Bear MP3 Player is normally $62.89, but you can buy it for only $27.49 via UXCELL.

Today Alan reported the news about the all new Google Music Onebox service that is free and legal for downloading music in mainland China that are also supported by advertising, but our question is “When is Google Music Onebox coming to other countries?

Now we know this will never come to any other country for the simple fact China has no copyright laws, Music Onebox will route users to Top100.cn which is a website that already has licensing agreements with about 100 music labels and allows Chinese wibblers to download or stream tunes free of charge. Yes you know what are about to say now, all internet users outside China will indeed be blocked from accessing Top100.cn

Google come on, you have the money and the resources to give all other countries what they need and yes you know that you will earn all the money you desire through advertisements.

Read Alan’s full article here.

The latest figures are in from NPD MusicWatch, and they confirm that Apple iTunes is beginning to dominate music sales in the US. Earlier this year, they surpassed music sales by Wal-Mart and these latest stats show that iTunes remains the leading U.S music retailer, with Amazon starting to also climb the charts.

Amazon rose from fifth place to fourth due to two main reasons, the first being that online CD sales are not dipping as fast as those at high street stores, and secondly the fact that Amazon was now gaining sales from its newly launched digital music store, Amazon.mp3.

A quote from the NPD predicts that Apple will continue to enjoy more success, “We expect Apple will consolidate its lead in the retail music market, as CD sales continue to slow,” claims Russ Crupnick who is a entertainment industry analyst for the NPD group.

This latest story is further evidence that the music industry is more reliant on online sales than ever before, I wonder just how many of you use iTunes regularly to purchase your music, before previously going outside to retail stores to buy, the convenience of it all is basically enough to tempt most of us to purchase tracks online these days.

Here is the chart of Music sales in full:

1. iTunes
2. Wal-Mart
3. Best Buy
4. Amazon
5. Target.

Source: Read

Sonos has recently announced their new products; Sonos has not announced hardware for a while now so we are taking note on these new ones. They have just announced the Z90, ZP120 and BU150 bundle.

The Z90 will set you back $350, ZP120 $500 and the BU150 bundle will be $1,000, the bundle will include both devices and the same original controller.

The main difference between them is that they now support SonosNet 2.0, which basically uses MIMO to double the wireless distance between nodes. The ZP120 is the amp-enabled aluminum-clad flagship model and is much lighter in weight which now leaves it a lot smaller than its predecessor; it will still be capable of driving 55W of sound.

Sonos are also giving us the 2.6 version of its desktop software which will index much more music than before giving a whopping 65k tracks total, it will also gibe new and existing users $200 in free music from sites like eMusic and Livedownloads.

Check out more images over on Engadget.

Aspiring dancers can enter Bollypop, an online dance competition sponsored by Verizon to help showcase the growing amount of Bollywood movies and music videos the company offers its FiOS TV and V CAST customers.

The Bollypop (www.verizon.com/bollypop) contest is open to all U.S. residents and is maintained by Saavn, the largest digital distributor of South Asian movies, music videos, audio tracks and ringtones. Contest entrants can be either individuals or dance troupes (maximum of four performers) and must submit a video of any dance moves to one of 11 Bollywood songs.

The video with the most votes will win the grand prize, which includes airfare, hotel and transportation to Mumbai, India, and an appearance in a Bollywood film. Additionally, the grand prize winner or winners will get a three-day trip to New York City to attend a celebration in their honor.

“We’re excited to bring this fun contest to our customers,” said, Shruti Joshi, director of marketing for Verizon. “As Verizon expands the number of international movie and music channels on FiOS TV and offers more South Asian content, contests and programs such as this one will allow us to connect with the growing base of customers who enjoy Bollywood movies.”

Bollywood is the name of India’s film industry, which produces more than 1,000 movies annually. Bollywood movies are typically musicals that feature six to eight songs and major dance sequences. Reflective of the popularity of Bollywood movies, the category has become the highest-grossing foreign film sector in the U.S.

Acclaimed Bollywood choreographer Rujuta Vaidya, said, “Like Latin music did a few years ago, Bollywood is on the cusp of becoming part of the mainstream; because Bollywood fuses all forms of dance including hip-hop and classical Indian music, it appeals to a wide audience.”

Verizon FiOS TV customers can access through the video-on-demand (VOD) library, several Bollywood movies and music videos for $7.99 per month, or order individual movies starting at $3.99 per film. Verizon offers its FiOS TV subscribers more than 10,000 VOD titles each month, 70 percent of which are free. The VOD library also includes an increasing number of high-definition (HD) titles, with plans for 1,000 HD VOD titles per month by the end of the year.

FiOS TV customers can also order TV Asia for $14.99 per month atop their basic FiOS TV Premiere package, which offers more than 400 all-digital channels.

With V CAST Music from Verizon Wireless, customers can also access over 100 of the latest Bollywood music videos on their handsets for $4.99 per month. Interested customers can select “Bollywood Music by Saavn” from the music category on the V CAST videos menu.

Anyone who registers online at BollyPop, sponsored by Verizon, will receive a free Bollywood music compilation courtesy of Verizon. The deadline for entry is Oct. 7, and winners will be announced at the end of October.

All routines must be choreographed to one of these songs from popular Bollywood movies which can be downloaded at verizon.com/bollypop

Read more news about Verizon.

Aspiring dancers can enter Bollypop, an online dance competition sponsored by Verizon to help showcase the growing amount of Bollywood movies and music videos the company offers its FiOS TV and V CAST customers.

The Bollypop (www.verizon.com/bollypop) contest is open to all U.S. residents and is maintained by Saavn, the largest digital distributor of South Asian movies, music videos, audio tracks and ringtones. Contest entrants can be either individuals or dance troupes (maximum of four performers) and must submit a video of any dance moves to one of 11 Bollywood songs.

The video with the most votes will win the grand prize, which includes airfare, hotel and transportation to Mumbai, India, and an appearance in a Bollywood film. Additionally, the grand prize winner or winners will get a three-day trip to New York City to attend a celebration in their honor.

“We’re excited to bring this fun contest to our customers,” said, Shruti Joshi, director of marketing for Verizon. “As Verizon expands the number of international movie and music channels on FiOS TV and offers more South Asian content, contests and programs such as this one will allow us to connect with the growing base of customers who enjoy Bollywood movies.”

Bollywood is the name of India’s film industry, which produces more than 1,000 movies annually. Bollywood movies are typically musicals that feature six to eight songs and major dance sequences. Reflective of the popularity of Bollywood movies, the category has become the highest-grossing foreign film sector in the U.S.

Acclaimed Bollywood choreographer Rujuta Vaidya, said, “Like Latin music did a few years ago, Bollywood is on the cusp of becoming part of the mainstream; because Bollywood fuses all forms of dance including hip-hop and classical Indian music, it appeals to a wide audience.”

Verizon FiOS TV customers can access through the video-on-demand (VOD) library, several Bollywood movies and music videos for $7.99 per month, or order individual movies starting at $3.99 per film. Verizon offers its FiOS TV subscribers more than 10,000 VOD titles each month, 70 percent of which are free. The VOD library also includes an increasing number of high-definition (HD) titles, with plans for 1,000 HD VOD titles per month by the end of the year.

FiOS TV customers can also order TV Asia for $14.99 per month atop their basic FiOS TV Premiere package, which offers more than 400 all-digital channels.

With V CAST Music from Verizon Wireless, customers can also access over 100 of the latest Bollywood music videos on their handsets for $4.99 per month. Interested customers can select “Bollywood Music by Saavn” from the music category on the V CAST videos menu.

Anyone who registers online at BollyPop, sponsored by Verizon, will receive a free Bollywood music compilation courtesy of Verizon. The deadline for entry is Oct. 7, and winners will be announced at the end of October.

All routines must be choreographed to one of these songs from popular Bollywood movies which can be downloaded at verizon.com/bollypop

Read more news about Verizon.

These are the Parrot DS1120 Bluetooth Speakers that will give you wireless music in every room, if you want sound and style in areas that are limited on space then the DS1120 speakers are a good choice.

You can stream music from cell phones, digital music players and other Bluetooth compatible devices. If you do not have a Bluetooth device to stream music to the DS1120, then you can use the line-in jack.

These Parrot speakers feature a 30-watt Class D digital amplifier for a richness of sound with music reproduced down to 100Hz, a 4- inch poly-cone speaker that extends high frequencies to 18kHz.

You store your music on computer, cell phone and digital music device – pretty much everywhere. The Parrot DS1120 Bluetooth active speaker system fits, looks and sounds terrific – everywhere. Send it your playlist wirelessly from any Bluetooth A2DP-enabled source and enjoy your favorite music or audio wherever and whenever you want

If it’s a phone you want to use these speakers with, then you should know that almost every Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) mobile phone would work with the Parrot DS1120 speakers.

View the product page or other Parrot products.

When this holiday season starts the three main games consoles are going to be launching their best products to get your attention, today we hear what Nintendo will be bringing this season.

Nintendo’s Wii Music will feature around 60 instruments that you can play by using the Wii controller to mimic playing movements, giving the user a much more interactive and calorie burning experience.

The new Wii MotionPlus accessory that we mentioned yesterday will be taking advantage of in a new game called Wii Sports Resort, this game will feature extra precision compared to existing Wii controllers.

Families will also love a new game for the Wii called Animal Crossing: City Folk, perfect for all the family, in this version you can create your own character and follow them in a much larger city.

The new Animal Crossing game will feature a new microphone called WiiSpeak, this lets users interact online by chatting with each other while playing.

The Nintendo DS has always been aimed at the younger gamer, but this holiday season will see Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars come to the portable DS gamer.

Hercules, as a pioneer of the first portable dual deck mix controller (DJ Console) they are now bringing the fun of mixing and remixing in the digital age to aspiring DJs and music lovers of all ages with the “DJ Console MK2″.

Below you will find more information on the DJ Console MK2, a great gadget for those looking to experiment and try their hand at mixing and remixing tunes like a real DJ.

The Hercules DJ Console MK2 is a portable, twin deck DJ mixer with audio customzed to play, mix and create DJ music on a PC or a Mac is great for DJs who want a versatile, cost effective mixing solution.

Key features include a all-in-one DJ Controller with audio for complete computer DJ mixing, high precision wheels and buttons for DJ mixing, 2×3 equalization buttons, Add effects, loops and cue-points, 1 cross fader, 2 decks with jog wheels and volume & pitch control.

Advanced integrated audio features for DJing - 2 line/phono inputs, to mix analogue and digital formats, headphone monitoring to cue up the next track, include mix and split cue and microphone input to with talk over funciton.

Most Digital Formats Supported - MP3, CD-Audio and more (WMA, WAV…in PC/AIFF …in Mac), also play video in window mode (no full screen) (AVI, MPEG).

Included Software - Customized version of Virtual DJ 3 DJ Console Edition PC/Mac and the Hercules DJ Console MK2 is everything you need to host great prarties or record DJing performances.

Retails at around $249.99 at J & R Computer World, Sam Ash, DJ Supply, Guitar Center and Long-McQuade (CA).

The music companies have been doing their best to protect the music for their artists and the record labels profit, DRM copy protection on digital music was meant to help this but today we see Rhapsody have launched a DRM-free MP3 store. To promote this new service, Rhapsody is giving the first 100,000 people to sign-up a free album until July 4th.

The stores MP3s cost $9.99 per album and $.99 per track, they are encoded in 256kpbs CBR and this is near CD quality. As this music is DRM free you are able to copy it to CDs, PCs, iPods and other media as many times as you like. Does this show that DRM copy protection on digital music is on its way out?

If you are with the Verizon Wireless service, then you can download the music to your phone thanks to versions of the Rhapsody store being on them phones. With Rhapsody following in Amazon’s footsteps, could we be that much closer to a DRM copy protection free future?

You cannot doubt that iTunes is still massive, but how long can Apple keep copy protection up when other big names are not. This should send thousands of music lovers away from iTunes, but in the real world could that really happen to the amount that makes iTunes go DRM free.

If you are a Verizon Wireless phone owner, will you download music DMR free and will iTunes users want DRM free music? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Visit rhapsody.com/mp3 to see what the new store looks like and to get some DMR free action.

Written by Daniel for Product Reviews
In Sections: Music, News
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