Posts tagged Media
Expandable Storage Comes to iPad via AirStash
0One of the major downsides to owning an iPad (or iPod, or iPhone) is that you’re stuck with whatever storage your device came with.
If you bought the 16GB version, then that’s your lot, and it doesn’t take much to fill up that space.
On the other hand, Android or Windows Tablets usually come with an SD card slot, giving you up to 32GB at a time, more if you carry multiple cards around with you.
Luckily, US based company AirStash have developed a new device that will provide expanded storage for your iOS device.
The USB dongle combines an SD card reader, a WiFi access point and media streaming software to allow you to playback content on SD cards on your iPad or iPhone.
It’s a novel idea, but it does have some drawbacks. For one, you’d have to pair your iOS device to the AirStash, so couldn’t use WiFi for Internet use at the same time. You also have to carry around another device with you, and it doesn’t exactly look small.
Files are copied to your SD card by connecting the AirStash to your PC or Mac via USB. The built in software on the device then makes the files available to compatible devices that connect via WiFi.
Despite it’s shortcomings, this would be a great advantage to those who travel. You’re no longer confined to the free space on your iOS device for media, you could potentially carry a handful of SD cards with you which gives the potential for instant access to a sizable chunk of your media library.
AirStash don’t go on record with battery life, but we’d expect around 3 to 4 hours of continuous use before it needs recharging, so you could probably squeeze out a couple of feature films in a single sitting.
No word on UK availability either, though we have asked. US pricing is set at $99.
Dizzee Rascal and Bing Team up for “Your Britain” Campaign
0As strange a pairing as it might seem, English rapper, songwriter and (apparently) keen photographer has partnered up with Microsoft Bing to launch the “Your Britain” campaign.
The premise of the campaign is simple; take pictures of your favourite spots around the UK,send them to Bing and stand a chance to win £10,000 and have your photo shown on Bing.com.
Dizzee is curating this weeks images himself, with images close to his heart:
“Dizzee Rascal and art director, Ben Drury, have travelled across the country to photograph places that have inspired Dizzee through his life’s journey to today. Dizzee grew up in the East End of London, so he revisited some of his old haunts, including a school where he met an inspiring music teacher, to a street in Bow where he painted his first mural, both of which helped to start his creative journey. He also visited the Olympic Stadium, which he will be playing a lead role in as an ambassador for the East End, as well some of his favourite music spots from festival sites to clubs. His journey also took him to unexpected places, such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and a Carp Lake in Dorking, where he enjoys relaxing with one of his favourite hobbies, fishing.”
Yes, that is Dizzee taking a picture.
Here’s what the man himself had to say:
“I hope I can spark some creative energy in people to take shots of what inspires them about Britain. Beauty doesn’t have to be about traditionally accepted perceptions; it can be anything from memories to ideas – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s important for everyone to be inspired by what’s around them, so this is a great opportunity to visualize what you see as beautiful about Britain. It’s worth it – you can win £10,000 and get your images out to 16 million people on Bing.com.”Members of the public can enter the fray from today, with the competition closing on June 24thr. Categories include “My local Britain”, “My natural Britain”, “My Britain at night” and “My urban Britain”.
Surprisingly eloquant, we thought. Dizzee has a point, though. Britain is a beautiful country, not just in terms of obvious, picturesque beauty, but the beauty of it’s people and culture. You’ll struggle to find somewhere as diverse and multi-cultural as Britain and this shines through in our architecture, our scenery and our people.
For further information on how you can take part, go to www.your-britain.com
Review: Sound Science QSB USB Speakers
0It’s slightly unusual to come across a set of USB speakers. USB headsets we’ve seen hundreds of, but speakers; not so much.
So we were slightly unsure of what to expect when we took deliver of a set of 30W speakers from Sound Science. Sufficed to say; we were suitably impressed. Read on to find out why.
Size and Shape.
The first thing that struck us was the shape of these things. Normally you expect speakers to be taller than they are deep, and deeper than they are wide, but these things are pretty much a pair of cubes. We know a little bit about speakers so we figured that we might be presently surprised at this point. A deeper cabinet usually means a bigger driver, which means more power and more bass. That being said, they are quite small, 8.5cm to be exact, so they couldn’t pump out that much power could they?
The weight suggested that they might be able to. They’re not amazingly heavy, but definitely a little heavier than we were expecting. Generally this is a good thing though as it suggests the speakers will be more heavy duty and able to put out more power.
The weight doesn’t get in the way of these being classed as portable speakers though. Clearly they’ve been designed to be carried around and used with a laptop as a substitute for the generally rubbish speakers that occupy the common notebook. Why else would Sound Science include a carry case for the QSB’s?
The case itself looks distinctly 1980′s. The red and black faux-leather coupled with the chunky plastic zip and Sound Science logo wouldn’t look out of place carrying a Walkman or Gameboy around. It does an excellent job of carrying the speakers though, they fit well and are well protected from impact on all sides. There’s also room two squeeze in the USB lead and single RCA cable used to connect the two speakers together.
When it comes to the finish, we might not have gone with piano black. There’s no doubt that the speakers look gorgeous, but they attract way too many fingerprints and after they’ve been moved around a few times – which they’re intended to be – we can see them looking a little less sophisticated and a little more sticky. That being said, what’s the alternative? A matt finish wouldn’t look anywhere near as good and would look decisively cheaper than what we’ve ended up with.
Next Page: Sound and Conclusions
Review: TuneIn Radio for iPad
0There have been a few great free apps released for the iPad lately, and TuneIn Radio is proving to be one of them. Put simply, TuneIn’s app is an extension of a service that they already provide via a web browser: Free Internet radio. The problem is that the web version operates via a pop-up window written in Javascript, which won’t work on most mobile devices, so another way was needed to access these radio stations. Enter: TuneIn Radio for iPad.
Now, a quick note to say; versions of this app are also available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones. But an iPad is what we have to hand, so an iPad we’re reviewing it on.
Looking at the screenshots shown on the website, the app varies quite substantially depending on the type of device you’re using it on, so bare in mind that some of the features we discuss here may not be available on your device, iPad users should be fine though.
The main screen of the app is fairly simple, you have a navigation menu on the left hand side of the screen, as well as a “now playing” area towards the bottom. The right hand side of the screen is reserved for your preset radio stations, those that you’ve accessed recently and stations that are local to you based upon either a pin-marking from Google Maps, or a location selected from a list.
The first thing that we noticed was the sheer volume of radio stations available. They are broken down by genre but it’s still a massive list to navigate, so it’s a good thing that a search bar is included in the navigation menu on the left.
The station list on the right hand side of the screen lists all search results, including thumbnails where available. Selecting the drop down arrow will expand the station to show you the schedule, as well as “Play”, “Favourite” and “Alarm” buttons which do what they say on the tin.
To play a station it’s just a question of touching the name or logo for it, the app will automatically begin buffering and then play the station within a couple of seconds, depending on your Internet connection. Speaking of connections, TuneIn can stream radio stations via either Wifi or the cellular network, and can tell you exactly how much data you’ve used via the settings menu. If you want to avoid heavy network charges you can turn off the 3G option and only use WiFi connections.
Once a station is playing the app will default to the “full screen” mode which gives a larger view of the station, it’s program listings and what’s currently playing. Artworks are shown where provided by the station:
Hitting the “Back” arrow will send you back to the menu screen, with the “Now Playing” section now being populated by any information provided by the radio station.
Sound quality is what you’d expect from net radio stations; on par with DAB and definitely better than FM, though the audio quality is hampered by going through the iPad’s speaker. Headphones will improve your experience significantly.
If you’ve used TuneIn’s web service before they you probably have a login for the site, if you use it on your iPad then your personal preferences will automatically be downloaded, so syncing your favourite stations between devices is easy as pie.
You’ll notice the ad’s shown in some of the stills above, these pop up from time to time, and are the reason that the app can remain free. For us, it’s worth it; TuneIn is a great way to listen to your favourite radio stations on the go. No matter if it’s the nation’s number one radio station, or some obscure rock station from Florida that you picked up while travelling in the US (yo).
TuneIn Radio for iPad is top of our list of free iOS apps for now, give it a go, even if you’re not a radio fan, you may find that after downloading this app; you are.
Review: Vevo for iPad
0We’re seeing some great free iPad apps lately. One of the greatest that we’ve come across has been Vevo for the iPad.
Put simple, Vevo allows you to view a large category of music vidoes, directly on your iPad wherever you have an Internet connection. We say large, it’s hardly a comprehensive database of every music video ever made, but the list is growing and we were able to find some quite obscure music videos using the search facility.
Not only does the database contain official music videos, but it also includes other clips such as “making of” films and other documentaries. Some of them are a little pointless and annoying, but this will be subjective to peoples tastes and there will certainly be something for everybody.
Getting around the database is plain and simple, with the familiar navigation bar at the base of the app. From there you can select featured artists and videos, the most popular videos, artists, playlists, a “music map” and your playing history. The Music Map is a flashy looking tool, but so far as we can tell it just contains the videos that other Vevo users in your area have viewed, so it’s a little pointless in our opinion.
Fortunately, the other navigation options are more useful, particularly the “Artists” section which allows you to quickly establish if the video you’re looking for is in the database or not:
Selecting a video will switch to the player view, which takes over the whole of the screen. You may be subjected to a short advertisement video – ours was 20 seconds – but then your selected video will begin playing as soon as it’s finished buffering. Speaking of buffering, the Vevo guys clearly don’t want you to get bored; fun facts are shown on the screen at random while you’re waiting for your video to load.
Once watching a video there are a number of options that can be brought up through touching the screen. The first is an info window for the song you’re listening to, which will feature artist/track information as well as producer, director, composer, label and copyright information for the track. The next option is a “Share” button which allows you to share the video via Facebook, Twitter or via Email. The third option is to buy the track on iTunes, which is fantastic if you stumble across a song that you like the sound of. You can also add videos to your playlist should you wish to come back to it at a later date.
If you want to work your way back to the artist or search menu, it’s just a case of pinching the video to drop it into a smaller frame on the main screen of the app, you can then browse other videos from your search results without the need to stop the one you’re watching.
If you have a Last.FM account then Vevo can integrate with their Scrobbling service which means that videos that you watch on the Vevo app will count towards recommendations etc. on Last.FM.
One big thing that is missing from this app, so far as we could see, was the ability to turn off viewing over 3G networks. So many media streaming apps have this feature, it’s hard to think why Vevo didn’t include it. The last thing that users will want is huge data charges after watching a couple of hundred music videos via their operators mobile network.
That being said, this is really the responsibility of the user, but it would have been nice to see at any rate.
Vevo is a great way to experience music videos, young and old, on your iPad. The search feature is fast and accurate and the method of browsing the large database is extremely competent. We’ve had no problems with bad links, poor quality playback or any problems with the app itself. The only inconvenience that you might suffer are the adverts played before some videos, but this really isn’t that bad and, seeing as it’s the only advertising included in the app, wouldn’t have presented us from shelling out a few quid for the app in the first place.
Seeing as it’s free, it’s hard to see where you could go wrong, we recommend that every music loving iPad owner download it.
Discover New Music With Aweditorium for iPad
0We all know that the iPad is a great tool for consuming media. It’s also a good tool for social networking. Now thanks to Aweditorium it can combine the two.
Aweditorium is sort of an enigma, there’s minimal information regarding it on the App Store itself, and the official website has only a single image and links to the App Store and Twitter.
What it is is a platform for consuming some of the best music that the independent music scene has to offer. The interface is made up entirely of a huge picture wall of artist portraits, it’s up to your fingers to navigate around and find something that interests you.
It’s pretty much a guessing game to start with, but acts are grouped together according to style, location and other meta data, so once you find something you like it’s a pretty good bet you’ll like it’s neighbors too.
To select an artist it’s just a case of touching the picture, then you’re treated to a full screen image, accompanied by the artists music and information relating to them popping up on the screen, complete with sound effects – it reminds me a lot of the VH1 show “Pop up videos” if anyone remembers that from the 90′s.
From any artists page you can share to Facebook or Twitter, at it to your favorites, experience more by the same artist and even watch videos from the artist on YouTube. Aweditorium uses multi-touch gestures to navigate, pinching will return to the photo wall while continuing to play and swiping will move to adjacent acts.
Aweditorium is such a novel concept, you’re not going to find any music from major names on it, but that’s not the point, and it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s rubbish music. I’ve spent hours moving around the wall listening to different acts, some not so great, but others absolutely fantastic.
There is nothing like this on the iPad, or any other platform for that matter, it is truly unique in it’s approach and a must have for any iPad owner.
Words fail me, it really has to be experienced to be understood.
Aweditorium is available now from the iTunes App Store,and it’s absolutely free.
Jaybird Announce Freedom Bluetooth Earphones
0Heaphone manufacturer Jaybird have announced the UK release of their latest bluetooth headphones, dubbed “Freedom”.
The Freedom headphones extend Jaybirds existing lineup of Bluetooth devices, this time with in-ear headphones at the heart of the design.
The design of these phones is absolutely flawless, with minimal controls (volume, on/off) allowing the phones to feel incredibly light in the ear. Charging is via USB using a bundled lead connecting to a port on one of the earpieces
I usually have problems with in-ear phones fitting properly, but experienced no problems at all with the Freedom headphones due to both the reduced weight and the excellent rubberised buds. They also come with a pack of different sized tips to accomodate those who find the standard ones uncomfortable or difficult to keep in place.
In terms of sound, I was blown away by how such a small set of phones could produce such clear and powerful tone, it really was incredible. The noise isolation works well, and even in a packed NEC hall I was able to listen to music streamed from a phone via Bluetooth with absolute clarity, something my wired Sennheiser headphones couldn’t manage on the same day.
Jaybird are aiming these earphones towards athletes as well as those on the go, the connecting cable sits comfortably behind the neck and shouldn’t offer any discomfort for those persuing an active lifestyle. I was also told that the earbuds and speakers were 100% sweat proof and should stay in place even in the face of the repetitive movement associated with things like jogging.
The Jaybird Freedom earphones are available imminently (currently awaiting stock) for UK buyers for the reasonable price of £99.
Elonex Announce eTouch Tablet PC’s
0UK computer company Elonex are joining the tablet PC market with a range of 6 budget tablet PC’s.
Elonex will be offering 7″ and 10″ models with prices ranging from £119 to around £200.
As you’d expect, the base model 7″ eTouch 760T is a little slim on features, with only WiFi connectivity, a resistive touchscreen and 4GB of on board memory. That being said, I’ve just had a go on one here at Gadget Show Live and it’s perfectly usable for basic web browsing, media playback and casual gaming. The resistive screen is a bit of a pain, but the next model up, the 702ET comes with a capacitive screen which is infinitely more usable.
Sadly, Elonex haven’t gotten any of the 10″ versions up and running yet.
** Ooh, Jason Bradbury just walked past**
Sorry about that. As I was saying, the 10″ versions aren’t running yet but they feature the same processors and memory as the 7″ versions so don’t expect much more in terms of performance.
All versions run Android 2.2, which is a shame given the impending arrival of version 3 on tablet PC’s across the industry. That being said, for the price you could definitely do a lot worse than these tablets.