The In Crowd

From a Giant Step e-blast last week:

 

""This is a historic moment for Wax Poetics. We're very proud to be the first U.S. magazine that has ventured into the digital music arena. We are excited to have the opportunity to further our message of 'Music in Context' through this new medium."
-- Andre Torres, Editor-in-Chief

 

Music-sharing websites are everywhere. The online equivalent to harshly lit department stores number in the thousands. Despite the overwhelming number of digital music providers, there's a glaringly obvious element missing: heart. Wax Poetics aims to change the point-and-click culture that has consumed the music-buying experience. Music appreciation is making a comeback with the Wax Poetics Digital download store.

 

The tasteful, knowledgeable publication you know and love breaks ground on the most visionary, high-quality record store around-in digital format. As local record shops bite the dust each day, Wax Poetics Digital aims to replace them with a specialized selection and replicate the brick-and-mortar experience with easy browsing and relevant recommendations-something the larger stores can't possibly accomplish. This is the new era of digging."

 

Click here for more.

 

Online: 

 

Wax Poetics' Digital Download Store   |  Website

This is a GREAT idea for a Christmas gift or charitable donation:

 

"The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.

 

Since November 12th, OLPC has been offering a limited-time Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During Give One Get One, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution."

 

Click here for more details.

Jacked from my own review on Amazon.com:

 

Within 2 weeks of regular use both ear buds on the first version of the Maximo iM-390 headphones I received had broken. Needless to say I was not happy or impressed. However, when I wrote the compnay to complain, I have to say their Customer Service dept. was extremely helpful and VERY hands-on in trying to address my concerns and making sure I got a new replacement set of headphones quickly and hassle-free.

I wanted to try out the new set for a while first and see if the would hold up better before posting a review here. After a couple months now though, performance-wise they've been great. The sound is nice & clean and the low-end response is decent for in-ear style headphones and can be improved by experimenting with the other two sizes of rubber ear buds included with the headphones.

Overall, if you're looking for a low-cost alternate with decent performance to some of the more costly in-ear headphones in the market like the BOSE ones that also look great, these are definitely worth your consideration.

 

Buy them: Amazon.com  |  Maxwho.com 

Forget all those USB turntables, get the InstantMusic Vinyl & Cassette Ripper and create mp3's from any analogue sources that you can connect to a stereo via RCA cables. Makes the perfect gift for the music nerd in your life?

 

Available via ThinkGeek. 

Most audiophiles and wannabes know that tube technology is supposed to give your music a warmer sound that CD's often lack when played through standard digital stereo equipment. The Times looks at some vacuum tube docking stations that are supposed to bring that analog sound to ipods:

 

"IPODS are fine for listening to music on the go, but sometimes people want to cast headsets aside and hear their playlists piped through the living room by a sound system.

 

Manufacturers offer dozens of devices that do this: the iPod pops into a docking station in an updated version of a boom box, and can be flicked on from the sofa by remote control. But the quality of the music will depend in part on the system that amplifies the signal from the iPod.

 

Now, to create the special rich sound that audiophiles love, manufacturers are selling docking stations for iPods and MP3 players with amplifiers based on an old but resilient technology: vacuum tubes.

 

Most people think of vacuum tubes as relics, long replaced by transistors. But a pocket of audio enthusiasts still values the tubes’ warm tones. Guitar heroes favor vacuum tube amplifiers in their instruments, many recording engineers tend to use vacuum-tube equipment in their studios, and some listeners pay thousands of dollars for high-end tube-based stereo systems and CD players." (click here for more)

 

I've been using the tester unit of the brand new 30GB Microsoft Zune mp3 player sent to me by my dude Cesar on and off now for a good few weeks. And with the 60GB video ipod I bought last year inexplicably crashing on me at least once a week for the past few weeks, I was definitely in a good frame of mind to give the Zune a fair shot unlike many of the apple/ipod fanboys out there. But with Steve Job's recent news, pretty much anything I've got say here has been rendered almost moot and irrelevant as are just about every mp3 player out in the marketplace right now including apple's own current line of ipods! Microsoft's now got their work REALLY cut out for them if they want to keep anyone focused on and excited about their Zune players.

 

That all being said, here's my take on the Zune:

 

First off it's not as ugly as everyone claims although why anyone would want to cop one in brown is beyond me and it's rugged minimalist feel isn't nearly as sleek and sexy as the ipod. The screen is bigger than on the video ipod and really nice & sharp looking. Watching the sample videos that came pre-packaged with the player, I'd be shocked if anyone wasn't blown away by the picture quality plus movies and videos are viewed by turning the player horizontally so you get even larger an image and less of the letter-boxing effect than you do on the ipod. It also has a "Resume play" function to allow you to start viewing from where you last were in the video if you switch away to play music or stop a video which is a nice touch but since I hardly play videos on my ipod, I'm not really sure if the ipod has that same functionality (?).

 

Sound-wise, the Zune seemed to be at least on par with the ipod although I didn't really A-B them to verify that but I was happy with it overall. The Zune also includes an FM radio which is a nice little additional feature that Apple should really consider adding too if they haven't already for the iphone (?).

 

A lot of folks have been complaining about how the Zune has an ipod-like scroll wheel but that doesn't work like the ipod's. This is correct but pretty much a non-starter as a serious con for the player. Yeah it took me a minute to get out of the ipod mindset in using the controls but it didn't take that long and once I was used to it, it worked pretty much as well as the ipod as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I liked the FF/Rew controls on the Zune better and the Back Menu button was an improvement in my view too. 

 

Here's a few cons that I definitely had issue with though:

 

It doesn't work with Macs (yet) which is a BIG issue for me since most of my mp3 music collection was migrated over to my Powerbook laptop from my slow-ass, virus and spyware ridden PC desktop. Luckily, that PC still had some music on it and worked well enough to load the Zune software on and give this thing a test-run. The battery life on the Zune is also not that great. It definitely seemed to last a LOT less than my ipod's does.

 

Another a big issue: no gapless play which admittedly Apple had only just fixed on their own player's software recently but this is something that should have been addressed out the gate by Microsoft. It's crucial for fans of hip hop and electronic music that leans heavily on DJ-mixed albums and mixtapes as well as for classical music listeners. This is a major faux pas not having this in place.

 

Also, Microsoft has banked almost their entire marketing campaign for the Zune on the "Welcome to the Social" concept:  the fact that Zune's built-in wi-fi capability allows users to beam and share music with fellow Zune owners. Aside from the fact that many critics have vilified Microsoft for the limiting DRM, 3 plays or 3 days restriction on beamed music, even for CC-licensed music, music for which you may own the copyrights and music labels offer DRM-free, my issue was more of the "if a tree fall in the forest..." variety: in the 3-4 weeks during which I actively used the Zune, I repeatedly attempted to locate other Zune players as I walked around town, took the subway etc. but never found another zune on the network to beam stuff to. If sales of this player don't pick up and reach some kind of critical mass quickly, this functionality is gonna bascially be useless. If I was in Microsoft sales & marketing I would REALLY consider doing some kind of deep discount deal with campus bookstores or tech centers at college campuses to get this thing into the hands of as many young people as possible but that's just me. Maybe even group purchase rates so groups of friends who may end up trading music amongst themselves have an incentive to consider buying the Zune instead of ipods or other mp3 player brands.

 

To wrap up, I don't really buy a lot of digital music so I can't really speak on the quality of the Zune marketplace (pictured left) via-a-vis itunes. Price-wise Zunes are basically the same cost as an ipod so the argument comes down to whether you're willing to step away from the mass of ipod users and march to the beat of your own drum. If you have a crazy collection of itunes-purchased music, it might be tough to argue that the Zune has enough extra features to justify you abandoning it (since you can't migrate itunes-purchased audio files onto the Zune, only open mp3's), but if you're not in that position, I would recommend you consider this player. Unless of course you're holding out til June to cop the iphone!

 

Read more about the Zune as reviewed in... 

 

The Washington Post 

 

Houston Chronicle TechBlog 

 

Fox News

 

 

On the net:

 

The Zune official website here.

 

Buy Zune players and accessories via Amazon.com here.

Not really but my man just showed me this, the Samsung Blackjack, last night and it definitely had me drooling. Nowadays literally everyone is coming out with sexy, small, functional and (most crucially) cheap smartphones that make the Blackberry I carry look kind of clunky and crazy. This one is no exception. Available via Cingular for under $200 (with contract, natch). Click here or here for more details. 

 

On the web: Buy at Cingular here. 

 This sounds incredible:

 

"A Japanese recording engineer has developed the world's first glass CD guaranteed not to warp, distort and of a beautiful design, according to its maker.

 

Music critics who have tried out the CD said that it's outstanding and virtually like listening to a live performance.

 

But high quality music to last forever comes at a price -- 98,700 yen apiece to be exact -- as glass CDs have to be made by hand.

 

"I wanted to make a CD that could be passed on to grandchildren," the glass CD's inventor, Suenori Fukui, said.

 

Fukui, 60, noticed that glass was a great receptor of sound and decided to try and create a CD from the material. He spent a decade developing the glass CD together with Mitsugu Ikeda, a technician from a company called Tomie Media Solutions.

 

Information on the glass CD is read by laser. Because existing plastic CDs are not completely transparent, information on them cannot be read perfectly. They are also susceptible to bending or warping if left in sunlight or humid areas, which leads to sound distortion.

 

As glass CDs are completely transparent, information on them can be read perfectly, improving sound quality. They are not affected by heat or humidity and remain in perfect condition forever." (click here to read more)

 

Spotted via Attu yet again!

 

A 10.1 megapixel point-and-shoot camera?! I can't keep up with this technology. Check out the deal on the Samsung NV10:

 

"With 10.1 mega pixels and a 2.5" wide-view LCD, the NV10 provides brighter, sharper, more detailed images. Coupled with Samsung's unique Advanced Shake Reduction (ASR) system, the NV10 enables you to take clearer pictures indoors or in lower light conditions. The NV10 also features TV quality MPEG-4 VGA (640x480) 30fps video recording (zoom and pause). A virtual dial mode is also offered for added convenience in controlling the camera. The NV10 comes complete with a rechargeable battery and can also be charged via USB, or via the optional high capacity SBP-4442 battery kit." (click here for specs)

 

More clicks:

 

The official German Samsung website for the NV10. 

 

Spotted via Cool Hunting:

 

"Based on the way acoustic vibrations resonate through the body of an instrument to create rich sound, Onkyo recently released these specially engineered D-TK10 speakers that take advantage of the entire speaker cabinet—rather than the traditional use of only the woofers and tweeters.

 

Produced in partnership with renowned Japanese guitar maker Takamine, the gorgeously handmade rosewood-and-mahogany set measures under nine inches tall, making them shelf-friendly, as well as good for small spaces in general. Over two years in the making, like most of Onkyo's superior equipment, quality and innovation doesn't come cheap ($2,000), nor in this case easily; they only make 50 per month and purchases are limited to one per household. They're available directly from Onkyo."