Trekstore i.Beat Organix

What do you think this tiny little mp3-player costs?
You can have it for about 24,000 USD. Isn´t that a bargain?!
No, seriously, what kind of millionaire would commission a trekstore mp3-player when he can have all the ipods and zunes in the world? With jewels and made of gold if necessary. What a cheap millionaire this must be...

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Your Own Podcast for Your Blog!

Yesterday I found a website where you can automatically generate a kind of podcast for your blog. You just have to sign up on OdioGo.com and integrate the javascript into your sidebar. Every time you write an article now, a little button appears on top of your post saying "listen now!". Click it and a voice will read the whole article for you/your readers.

OdioGo also provides an RSS feed for your posts. So readers can subscribe to your "podcast".

Up to now I´ve integrated in my technology-blog. Check it out at:

*chilli*technology*
(You´ll have to wait a few seconds - the button will load after the sidebar has completely loaded.)

I had to try it immediatley after I saw it on shadowscope.com
Write a comment if you have any questions concerning the integration of the code or anything else. I´m also interested in your opinion about OdioGo. Do you think this´ll make your blog more interesting? Do you thing this will sky-rocket traffic?


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iriver clix - Next mp3-Player Generation?

Can this mp3-player catch up with iPod and all the others?
The "iriver clix", like many other players of this generation, is for music, photos and videos. You can choose between a 2GB and a 4GB hdd. The cool thing about it is, that it comes with a built-in digital FM tuner which the iPod for example doesn´t have. The only interesting issue left is the battery life of this gadget. If it can´t keep up with other mp3-players then it might be uninteresting due to it´s price which currently is between $120 for the 2GB version and $185-200 for the other two 4GB versions.

Check out this new mp3-player at iriveramerica.com



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Navigation System + Music + Video

Talking about wireless...
The next time you think about a navigation system for your car, take a look at the new one from "Harman/Kardon".
You can combine all things that have to do with car-multimedia with this device. You can listen to music while the "GPS-500 Guide and Play" gives you the directions. And you - or let´s better say the co-driver - can watch movies on the 4" / 480x272px display.
Both, music and videos, can be transferred from your computer via USB 2.0.
The integrated MP3-player allows you to search by artist, album, genre, song, or playlist. So get rid of your car radio!



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On my way to complete "wirelessness"!

Do you hate cable spaghetti?

I hate it, too. And I think I´m going to do something about it. Recently I saw someone with these cool wireless headphones. That´s definitely my next purchase!
I can then use it for my cell phone and my iPod. For my cell phone I won´t need an adapter - for my iPod I will. But it looks quite cool and it´s not too oversized.

I love the wireless-age! I wish everything was wireless. And soon I´m going to do the next move towards complete "wirelessness".

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Media Library = MediaMonkey

If you always wanted to sort your media on your PC you should take a look at "MediaMonkey" and give it a try.
"MediaMonkey" is a powerful program with many options.

You can for example:
- organize your music
- edit song tags
- play all kinds of files (MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, etc.)
- record CDs
- burn CDs
- convert music files
- create playlists
- synchronize with your MP3-player (iPod, Zune, etc.)
- MediaMonkey automatically gets missing song information (title, album, artist, etc.)

This is a very useful tool as it combines many programs in one. So why install 10 programs when there´s one for all?!
You can get more information and download it at: http://www.mediamonkey.com/

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Audacity - Free Audio Editor and Recorder

Why spend money on audio editing software when there´s always a free program somewhere on the internet. My favorite program in terms of audio editing is "Audacity".
I use it to edit songs I recorded with the No23-recorder.
Here are some things you can do with "Audacity":
- recording
- import and export of various file types
- editing
- change the sound quality
- add effects

Learn more and download it at: audacity.sourceforge.net

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MP3 Duplicates On Your HDD - Not With "CloneSpy"

Maybe you know this - there are gigabytes of music on your harddisk and you know that there are duplicates among them.
But now you can get your disk space back! Don´t start searching every single folder and look through the file names. There´s a program that makes it easy to find duplicates of songs on your HDD.
It´s called "CloneSpy".
CloneSpy is a free duplicate file cleanup tool that finds songs you already have somewhere else on your computer.

You can download CloneSpy at: www.clonespy.com

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Zune vs. iPod (5G)

If you´re irresolute whether to go for Microsoft´s Zune or Apple´s iPod, here´s a brief summary.

In terms of storage capacity they are both the same. Both of them are available with a 30GB and a 80GB hard disk.

The battery life of the Zune is stated with 14 hours (music) and 4 hours (video). The iPod can play 20 hours of music and 2 hours of movies.

The size of the Zune-screen is 3" (320x240 pixel) - the iPod-screen is 2.5" large (320x240 pixel). However, the Zune has - besides the portrait display mode - the option to switch to a landscape display mode.

The Zune has an FM tuner, the iPod doesn´t.



The Zune supports the following formats:
Music: WMA, MP3, AAC;
Photos: JPEG;
Videos: MPEG-4, H.264, WMV

iPod´s supported formats are:
Music: MP3, WAV, AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless and Audible 2,3 and 4 audio files
Photos: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG and PSD
Videos: MPEG-4, H.264, MOV

Zune´s wireless-feature let´s you share songs and pictures. The iPod does not support wireless features.

While you can connect your iPod with your PC and your MAC, Microsoft only allows you to connect your Zune to your PC.

iPod´s software is iTunes - Zune´s software is called "Zune Software". Take a look at this comparison: iTunes vs. Zune Software

Accessories for both players can be found here:
iPod
Zune

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Sony NW A 808 (MP3 - Video - Player)

What an ugly name compared with "nano", "shuffle", "iPod Video", "zune", "mini", "Slickr" and all the others. Even "Sony Walkman MP3 Video Player" doesn´t sound that catchy.
But in terms of performance this device is top-notch.
If you´re tired of the iPod´s battery capacity e.g. (2 hours video/16 hours music) than you might be impressed by the battery power of Sony´s new one. 30 hours of music and 8 hours of video.



In terms of data transfer Sony has one thing in common with Apple. You need to have a program to transfer music to your device. However, and this is an advantage compared with the iPod, you don´t need a program to transfer videos and photos. Here the device acts like a simple hard disk and you can copy movies and pictures to the MP3-player via drag ´n´ drop.
You can buy the player with a capacity of 1, 4 and 8GB.
It has a 2" TFT-display with 262,144 colors and weighs 53g.
Supported file types are: ATRAC, MP3, AAC, WMA, MPEG4, AVC Baseline

For more information see: www.sony.com

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The "Just-a-Display"-Player

What a cutting-edge media player! Looks like it has even less keys than apple´s iPod. The "Venzero Mini" comes with a 1.8" TFT screen with 262,000 colors and has a size of 39 x 53 x 13mm and a weight of 30.5g.

It´s available with a storage capacity of 1GB and 2GB (Flash).
It plays MP3 and WMA songs but unfortunately only the ones without DRM copy protection. It also has 7 equalizer modes.

Further features are the built-in FM tuner, preinstalled games, and a digital voice recorder.



The special thing about digital voice recorder is the "MUSICMARKER"-feature. It allows you to record any piece of music with the built-in microphone. If you hear a song, no matter where you are, you can record it and when you synchronize your device the next time, a program (provided by Venzero) will recognize that song and shows you where to download it.

Further supported file types are: AVI, JPEG
And by the way, it´s not a touch-screen. The keys are placed at the side of the device.

If you want an upgraded version of the mini, then choose the "Venzero Slickr". It has an additional slot for another 2GB miniSD-card and a 2.83" TFT screen with 1.6 million colours.
Supported file types of the "Slickr" are: MP3, WMA, WAV, AVI, JPEG and TXT

Learn more at www.venzero.com

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Blogmusik.net

An alternative to finetune´s embeddable player is blogmusik. Here you can create your own playlist via "SmartPlaylist". You are asked whether you like a song or not and can then add it to your own playlist by drag ´n´ drop, tell the system that you don´t like the song or just skip it. The system recognizes your likes and dislikes and offers you songs according to your taste of music. The range of songs becomes more and more precise with every click. Once you´ve created your own playlist you can of course add it to your blog, website, myspace-account, etc.
For more information you can take a look at their blog. It´s quite helpful.

http://www.blogmusik.net/blog/

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Nokia 5200 - Affordable Music Cell Phone

After having done some research, I think that the "Nokia 5200" is the best music cell phone you can get by now. Of course there are better ones on the market but this one, so it seems, has the best price-performance ratio. With other words, it´s a phone targeted at the more budget-conscious consumer.
It comes with an iPod-like music library which can easily be handled and organized. You can sort your songs by artist, album, genre and composer. The Nokia 5200, as well as its more expensive brother, is also equipped with an equalizer to change the sound according to your preferences. With the dedicated radio/MP3-key you can stop and start the music at any time, no matter if you´re somewhere in the menu or the phone is in stand-by mode. The cell phone also supports wireless stereo bluetooth headsets.
If you´re not willing to pay a fortune for the N91, which is probably the best music cell phone in the world, then the Nokia 5200 might be the best choice.

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Clickster - MP3 Search Tool

Clickster searches the web for legal MP3 files. It doesn´t have anything to do with P2P or a file sharing program. Clickster only scans websites for songs. If there´s a song in a download section on any band´s website - Clickster will find it. You just have to enter the name of the song or the artist. Then you can either listen to the results or download them legally. There´s also an info-button that shows the exact URL so that you can search for further downloads on the particular website. At the moment Clickster finds more than 25 million songs.

Download it at www.remlapsoftware.com

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MP3Gain - Same Volume Level For All Your Songs

If you have songs on your computer that have a different volume levels, try "MP3 Gain".
Choose either single songs or even folders, add them to the program either by navigating through the menu or by drag ´n´ drop, and convert your songs. A nice feature is that you can even set your preferred target volume (dB).
The program´s for free and is available at mp3gain.sourceforge.net/.

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