In the video battler we put the Kindle Fire into battle with the iPod Touch. Now at first when you look at both of these devices you wouldn’t think there is any real way to compare them since they are designed different and meant for two totally different markets. But at the their respective price points of $200 its cause many to compare them to see which is best for them money. The iPod Touch is well-known and proven and the Kindle Fire is the new guy in the market looking make waves.

The Kindle Fire is aimed at being a more consumer friendly media consumption tablet. There isn’t much you can do for content creation. Its goal is to make it easy and simple to read books, play games, watch moves and TV shows and buy them from the Amazon store along with other products. It comes with a 7 inch screen to make sure you can experience this content well in a portable but not pocketable device.  Its using Android with a heavily customized user experience on top of it which is design for anyone to pick up and use.

The iPod Touch is for the MP3 Player and PMP (Portable Media Player) market. It’s all about taking your content on the go from music, movies, TV shows and games.  This portable and pocketable device gives you the ability to enjoy your content anywhere. Similar to the Kindle fire is all about consuming content and not so much creating and the screen can become small when trying to read books, watch movies and TV shows.

As you can see the both come with similar functions in a different hardware body for the same price. In our video you will see us comparing these similarities and breaking down the differences between both of them to give you all the information you need to make the best decision on which one to get.

The Zion earphones are part of the freedom collection in the House OF Marley brand of ECO-Friendly premium quality products. These earphones like all the Marley products are made with components that are either recycled or biodegradable. The Zion’s have 52” fabric cord that helps reduce tangling. I t doesn’t get rid of it totally but I like the cord a lot.  The headphone jack is gold-plated and at a right angle which hI prefer as it fits much more flush in many devices especially MP3 players like the Zune and iPod that have headphone jacks at the bottom. Speaking of iPod the Zion earphones have play controls and a microphone that work with the iPod, iPhone and iPad that will let you control your music and make calls without needed to pull out the device. It also comes with a nice carrying pouch.

The earphones have a nice solid plastic tip that is curved in on both side for you to grab at your fingertips to place in your ear comfortably. Just before the ear buds there is a nice ring of Birchwood that is FSC-Certified. The ear buts themselves have a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20+ Hz, 9 mm driver, 16 ohms of impedance and a dynamic micro speaker with neodymium magnet for sound reinforcement. The Zion’s are comfortable in the ear and don’t need adjustment once place in and block out plenty of exterior noise.

As far as sound quality goes the Zion’s are superb. Bass comes out strong and clear. Sound is even out of both sides. Listening to all types of music will come in clear and crisp.  You will want to tweak your audio settings in the device your using to tailor it exactly to the type of music your listening to but even without doing that you get a great audio experience.The Zion Headphones retail for $99 and sound like headphones that are in the $150 – $200 range. If you’re an audiophile these are the earphones for you.

Sonos announces the PLAY:3 a small, stylish, powerful and affordable Hi-Fi speaker.  Sonos is known for making high-end audio equipment at a high-end price. The PLAY:3  is bringing that high-end quality from Sonos at the price that will attract a lot of people. The wireless speaker comes with 3 integrated speakers and 3 digital amplifiers and can be position either horizontally or vertically. You add more speakers to your network for stereo sound or have different music playing in different rooms using the Sonos app for iOS or Android. The player is available now for $299.99.

Press Release:

FORGET EVERYTHING YOU’VE HEARD BEFORE:

INTRODUCING THE SONOS PLAY:3

 

Stream all the music on earth wirelessly in any room

Big Sonos sound in a compact size

Control wirelessly with Android smartphone, iPhone, iPad

 

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – July 20, 2011 – Sonos, Inc., the leading manufacturer of wireless music systems, today introduced the SONOS PLAY:3, the compact, all-in-one Sonos player with wall-to-wall HiFi sound.  Start with one PLAY:3 in any room and stream all the music on earth.  Expand wirelessly over time – bringing a world of music to every room of the home.  Plus, wirelessly control PLAY:3 and all your music from anywhere via free Sonos Controller Apps for Android®, iPhone® and iPad®. PLAY:3 is ideal for any room where you want music and versatile enough to work both vertically and horizontally. PLAY:3 is available globally beginning today for $299 at Sonos retailers and at sonos.com.  To rock the PLAY:3 demo, check out: sonos.com/PLAY3.

“PLAY:3 gives music fans an incredibly easy way to listen to all the music on earth,” said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. “PLAY:3’s innovative design sets a new bar for Hi Fidelity audio in a compact package and makes it simple to amplify the music experience in any room of the home.”

 

PLAY:3 is connected to the Internet, giving you access to unlimited music.  Play your entire digital music library, including iTunes® stored on any computer or Network Attached storage, such as an Apple Time Capsule.  Find and play over 100,000 radio stations, shows and podcasts for free.  Plus, Sonos works seamlessly with the most popular music streaming services to provide access to millions of songs and stations from AUPEO, iheartradio, Last.fm, MOG, Napster®, Pandora®, Rdio®, Rhapsody®, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Spotify, Stitcher SmartRadio™, TuneIn, Wolfgang’s Vault, and more.

 

PLAY:3 is simple to set up, easy to expand and 100% compatible with all other Sonos products. Just plug in the PLAY:3 wherever you want music. One Sonos player or SONOS BRIDGE (sold separately) must be connected to your router, then all other Sonos players will work wirelessly. When you’re ready to play more music in more rooms, just add another PLAY:3.

 

When it comes to controlling the music and PLAY:3, you can use free Sonos Controller Apps for Android, iPhone and iPad. With your smartphone or tablet in hand, you can wirelessly search for songs and stations, choose the music and control the volume in as many rooms as you like.  PLAY:3 also includes the free Sonos Controller for Mac or PC. Or you can let everyone in the house share the control with the dedicated SONOS CONTROL (sold separately).

Other features of PLAY:3 include:

· Sonos HiFi sound: 3 integrated speakers and 3 dedicated digital amplifiers provide crystal-clear, wall-to-wall sound.

· Innovative, smart-directional design: Internal sensor detects if the speaker is positioned vertically or horizontally and modifies the speaker’s output to ensure clean, balanced, room-filing sound in any position.

· Multi-room: Put several PLAY:3s around your home and enjoy perfectly synchronized all-over-your-home music.

· Stereo pairing: Add two PLAY:3s to the same room and enjoy even bigger sound with each playing a dedicated Left or Right channel.

 

PLAY:3’s innovative design sets a new bar for Hi Fidelity audio in a compact package.  PLAY:3 features three Class-D digital amplifiers and three drivers – one tweeter and two 3” mid-range.  One passive, rear-firing bass radiator for rich sound.  The cabinet features volume and mute control.   PLAY:3 dimensions are 5.2 x 10.5 x 6.3 in. (132 x 268 x 160 mm)/ 5.7 lb (2.6 kg).  Full PLAY:3 specifications and details can be found at www.sonos.com/PLAY3.

 

In other news today, Sonos makes it even easier and more affordable to get started with Sonos.  Sonos has lowered the suggested retail price of the BRIDGE to $49. BRIDGE connects directly to your router and initiates SonosNet, the world’s most robust wireless music network. This gives you the freedom to place the PLAY:3, or any other Sonos players, anywhere in your home.

 

Additionally, today’s launch features an update to Sonos Software.  Along with support for PLAY:3, Sonos Software v3.5 adds several improvements to the Sonos Controller for Android, including the option to install the app to SD cards and localization in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Swedish.

 

For more information about Sonos or to locate an authorized Sonos dealer in your area, please visit www.sonos.com or call 877.80.SONOS .

 

About Sonos, Inc.

Founded in 2003, Sonos is the leading manufacturer of wireless music systems. The Sonos Wireless HiFi System lets you stream all the music on earth wirelessly in every room of your home with control from your Android smartphone, iPhone, or iPad.  In addition to playing your personal digital music collection, Sonos gives you access to millions of songs and thousands of radio stations by partnering with AUPEO, Deezer, iheartradio, Last.fm, MOG, Napster®, Pandora®, Rdio®, Rhapsody®, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Spotify, Stitcher SmartRadio™, TuneIn, Wolfgang’s Vault, and more. The award-winning Sonos Wireless HiFi System is available at more than 6000 retailers in over 65 countries worldwide; or direct from Sonos at www.sonos.com.  Sonos is a privately-held company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA with offices in Cambridge, MA, Hilversum, Netherlands, Shenzen, China, and Penang, Malaysia.

© 2004-2011 Sonos Inc. All rights reserved.  SONOS and all other Sonos product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sonos, Inc. SONOS Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.  iPhone®, iPod touch®, iPad® and iTunes® are trademarks of Apple Inc. Android® is a trademark of Google Inc. All other products and services may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

Eric Nielsen

Sonos AMPAC

 

A cool remix of the opening Dr. Wily stage 0.5 in Mega Man 10. Anyone that knows me knows that one of my favorite video game franchises is the Mega Man series. From the music, characters and difficulty I love everything about it. So it was really cool to come past this video that Youtube user colvin900 created a remix of the opening stage of Dr. Wily’s theme in Mega Man 10 also know as stage 0.5. Now there are plenty of Mega Man theme remixes from hip-hop, techno, rock and even dubstep but this by far is the best hip-hop remix of the theme with sounds effects from the game and all and one of the best remixes of Mega Man music of all time. First if you don’t know the original theme check out the first video then after check out the 2nd video which is the remix.

Original

colvin900 remix

After the Day One press conference at Google I/O they release the new music app for Android in preparation for the Music Beta By Google streaming service coming soon. Let’s take a look at it.

Let me start off by saying that this is already 10 times better than the original android music app and this isn’t a review as we will wait for the streaming service to come and then review the app. It has a revamped interface and much more user friendly that the previous version.  The app is basically a port of the Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet music app that is optimized for phones.  When you first open it and your in portrait mode your music is organized by typical categories like Artist, Album, Playlist, Songs etc. You can slide at the top to navigate through the menu. When going through songs and music there is a shortcut icon next to each one to quickly play the song or album, add it to a playlist, get more info on the artist or album and shop for more which opens up the browser which takes you out of the experience and hope for it to be integrated in the future.

Play controls are simple you have your basic play/pause, skip and next. Tapping on the album art gives you track controls to scrub through the song and shuffle and repeat options. There isn’t anything too fancy here just functional.

There is some cool stuff when you go into landscape mode with an album art view and going into recent will give you the 3D album gallery like you see on honeycomb tablets a cool add on. If you close out of the app and into another one you can go into the notifications drop down to go back into the app unfortunately there is no play controls those. u have your basic and expect search function for your music along with quick controls at the bottom when you are listening to music and going through your content.

All in all it’s a basic app that is giant improvement over the original. There isn’t a EQ or customization of any kind just yet but we can expect some form of that down the line. If you are already using winamp, doubletwist or if you have Samsung’s Touch Wiz music app then you have a better music app. For those that don’t and you want something basic that will get the job done here you go.

Link to new Music App In Android Market

Today at Google’s I/O press conference they announced a ton of new items in the world of android from streaming music, tablets updates and an Ice Cream Sandwich.

The first big announce we will start with is Music Beta By Google. This is the music streaming services people have expected from Google since Amazon’s Cloud player’s release. The service will let you upload up to 20,000 songs to it and you will be able to listen to your music from the web, an android phone and tablet. The service is now invitation only and is now free while tis in beta. Now while you wait for the service you can go to the Android Market and download the new Music app which is far superior to the original Android app in phones. It’s an optimized version of the Android 3.0 music player and is free and will hold you over until you can get into the Music Beta By Google service.

Android 3.0 will receive an update to Android 3.1. The updated honeycomb tablet OS will have automatic task killing for apps not in use to save batter life and performance, custom resizing and orientation of widgets and will support USB host so you will now be able to plug your camera directly into your android device and import your pictures into there. They also show it working with an Xbox 360 controller. The update is available to Verizon Motorola XOOM customers now via a OTA update and will roll out in stages to other honeycomb tablets. Android 3.1 will also be coming to Google TV and the TV Market store will be open this summer.

There is a new delicious dessert in the Android community. Android 2.4 also known as Ice Cream Sandwich became official today and available in Q4 of this year. Not much shown of it besides a quick demo of the head tracking software but Google says that this is their “most ambitious” release of android to date as they aim for it to work on all devices from phones to tablets to convertible laptops etc. The idea with Android 2.4 is to solve some of the fragmentation issues that android currently deals with along with making it easier on developers to create apps.

These were big three items coming out of the press conference and I’m personally excited to see more of Android 2.4. I’m hoping we not only get a streamlined user experience across android but I want improved battery life, speed and stability. If they can come through with that it will take Aneroid as a platform to the next level.

The site is live. Google’s online streaming service will be called Music Beta by Google. The service will allow you to stream your library across the web and your android device. Stay tuned for more updates

Update 2: You can add up to 20,000 songs to the service and will be available in stages and by invite only currently.  The new music app will be available now for android 2.2 devices.

Update 1:  There will be an app available to download on your PC that will help you upload all your music to the cloud service.  The app will be same one that we have see in android 3.0.  The 3D gallery which will also be available on the Android phone devices but will be optimized for phone.

Google I/O is live and while we are not there we can provide the live stream below to see the latest goodies coming from Google. Predictions are the cloud music services will make its debut as Google Music Beta and Android 2.4 Ice Cream that is the Fragment UI and some more tablet news with Android 3.0. Enjoy the stream below.

Unnamed sources sources to the Wall Street Journal are saying that Google is set to unveil its cloud music service today at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, CA.  Its suppose to be similar to Amazon’s Cloud services where the songs are available for streaming but not available for download.  We shall see in the next 15 minutes when Google I/O goes live.

Source: Wall Street Journal

[liveblog]

For Sonos users out there than perfer the Android side of life you will be happy to know that now you will be able to control your Sonos system from your Android device.

A app that was first feature only on iOS devices the free Sonos Controller app allows you to control your Sonos system directly from your Android smartphone.  The app will give you access to radio stations, control which rooms play which music, the volume level in each room and more.  The app is available now in the Android market and check out the full press release for more info.

Press Release:

SONOS CONTROLLER FOR ANDROID NOW AVAILABLE ON ANDROID MARKET

Sonos Gives Android Fans Amazing Sound, Unlimited Music and

Incredible Wireless Control in Every Room of the Home

SANTA BARBARA, CA – April 19, 2011 – Sonos, the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home, today announced that the Sonos Controller for Android™ is now available for download as a free app on Android Market™. Sonos Controller for Android transforms most Android™ smartphones into a wireless music controller for the award-winning Sonos Multi-Room Music System.  To see a video of how you can use an Android smartphone to control music all over the home with Sonos, please visit www.sonos.com/android.

“We’re pleased to deliver a great new way for music lovers to tap into all the music on earth,” said John MacFarlane, founder and CEO, Sonos, Inc.  “Now Android owners can pull out their phones and bring music home with Sonos.”

With the award-winning Sonos S5 in any room and an Android smartphone in hand, music fans can now enjoy an unmatched wireless music experience in the home. Access and play all the music on earth—from the Internet and your personal music library—throughout the home, wirelessly. Play the same song in every room of the house – perfectly synchronized. Or mix it up and play different songs in different rooms. Use the free Sonos Controller for Android to control all your music and rooms, all from the palm of your hand.

Search for songs and stations by typing or speaking, thanks to the new Sonos music voice search feature. Also, turn the hard buttons on your Android smartphone into volume control. And because your Android phone is controlling the music–not the source of it–when a text comes in or you need to make a phone call, the music doesn’t stop.

The Sonos Controller for Android works on any Android smartphone running Android 2.1+ with a screen size of HVGA 320 x 480, WVGA 480 x 800 or WVGA 480 x 854.  Sonos Controller for Android joins the family of Sonos Controllers which includes free apps for iPhone and iPad, a dedicated touchscreen controller, the Sonos Controller 200, and free software for your Mac or PC, which is included with every ZonePlayer. All controllers work together seamlessl