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pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”iRiver M.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/iRiver%20M.jpg” width=”403″ height=”403″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”" //span/p pLong-term Gizmodo fans may remember the Mickey Mouse inspired MP3 player a href=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/06/11/iriver_taking_the_mickey.html”announced last year/a. Well, if you ever wondered what happened to this little number you’ll be pleased to hear it’s now available in the UK./p piRiver does enjoy coming up with funky new ways to control MP3 players, but it has never come up with anything quite like this before./pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/1e5d37e/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/09/16/iriver_takes_the_mickey_with_n.htmllink=Brits Can Now Enjoy iRiver’s Mickey Music” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/09/16/iriver_takes_the_mickey_with_n.htmllink=Brits Can Now Enjoy iRiver’s Mickey Music” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/18827522271/f/9581/c/552/s/31839102/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/18827522271/f/9581/c/552/s/31839102/a2.img” border=”0″//a

The Samsung J700 looks elegant with its slide open design, an embedded keypad, a large screen and some control buttons. This mobile has dimensions 99.5 x 48 x 14.8 mm and weighs only 92 gms. The display screen is a marvelous means to watch pictures and videos at the highest resolution possible. The resolution of [...]

It’s pretty rare for Creative to release a new product without turning it into a whole family of devices of all different shapes and sizes.

We were anticipating more additions to its X-Fi range then, but rather than an MP3 player in its own right, the new Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! is instead designed to bring enhanced audio to a notebook or PC, rather like the X-Fi Surround 5.1.

Launching a classical music download store is a very brave, or perhaps foolhardy, thing to do. While kids shell out loadsamoney for ringtones, classical music buyers tend to be pernickety about recordings, and careful with their money, as Passionato may soon discover.

Passionato is a straightforward site offering classical music albums at decent quality but not at low prices. Typically, albums cost £7.99 for 320kbps MP3 versions and £8.99 for lossless Flac, though some cost £4/£5, and there are tracks at 79p/99p. Tracks are mercifully free of DRM (digital rights management) copy protection, so you can play them on anything, including iPods.

You can browse Passionato’s catalogue by Composers, Artists, Genres/Periods or Record Labels. The labels include EMI, Naxos, Chandos, and BBC Worldwide. Deutsche Grammophon isn’t listed, but there are lots of DG albums inexplicably hidden under Universal Classics & Jazz.

The navigation doesn’t always work. Looking for the sublime Alison Balsom, for example, I went to Artist, Instrumentalist, and clicked Trumpet, but she’s not in the 76 results or its alphabetical listing. A global search for Balsom finds three albums, which is OK, but searching for Lang Lang finds hundreds because the hits include the “Sung Language” subheading, Jean Langlais, Nadia Boulanger etc. “Lang Lang” in quotes gets no results. Did no one test this thing?

Really there should be an Advanced Search facility so you can specify composer, work, orchestra etc. It would be uniquely better if you could also specify things like modern or period instruments: we can dream!

The site also has sections for new releases (Critic’s Choice), a chart and special offers – sign on and you get 10 free tracks.

Currently, Passionato doesn’t have a deep enough catalogue or enough musical information. The catalogue ultimately depends on all the music majors signing up and making “out of print” recordings available. Ideally, for example, I want all four of Karajan’s great Beethoven cycles, a choice of the original or remastered versions, and a guide to the differences. Passionato just has the remastered 1961-62 set and a couple of quotes.

Full background information is probably not affordable unless you crowdsource it by providing a wiki or – as Amazon does – user reviews. Passionato has neither.

But the biggest problem is money: if you find something you want, will you buy it?

Take, for example, the Bach concertos played by Hilary Hahn. Passionato wants £7.99 for the 320kbps MP3 version. However, go to Amazon.co.uk and you can buy a new CD for less (£6.23 plus £1.24 shipping from Caiman USA) and rip it yourself. Which I did, ages ago.

At Amazon.com, the MP3 version (256kbps) costs $8.99, and individual tracks cost 89c instead of 99p. For those who enjoyed the controversial Russian site AllOfMP3.com, MP3sparks.com offers the same download for $2.38 at 192kbps, with tracks at between 14c and 28c. And, of course, popular stuff like this circulates for free on file-sharing networks.

Given the scale of the market challenge, one has to wish Passionato luck. It will need it.

Are you the kind of guy who’s always looking to do more. I know I sure am. You think that’s all you can do with your television, well, think again. Chances are someone has already figured it how to do something even more creative and pleasurable with that mp3 player you have in your hand. [...]

PURE Technology has launched its second generation ONE Classic DAB radio with better audio, iPod/MP3 player input and increased functionality.

The ONE Classic is already the “world’s best-selling DAB radio” and with a £50 price tag, it’s certainly one of the most affordable, without scrimping on features.

The radio is sticking with the retro looks, comes in black, white and pink and the new input for iPod/MP3 players is a useful add-on for when you want to listen to your tunes out loud.

Are you someone who loves surprises? I bet you are! There is nothing like being surprised with something that you love. Well if you love surprises, I have one for you. Close your eyes and walk with me as I take you into a fabulous showroom. Don’t open your eyes yet! Now, remember how much [...]

The trend for most camera phones these days is to increase the mega-pixel count of the snapper inside but, if that’s just too sensible for you, you can opt for the Xun Chi 138, the world’s smallest camera phone [that's the claim anyhow] where quality has been largely kicked out the window in favour of size.

It’s not much longer than an AA battery and inside you have a 1.3MP camera, a touch screen with hand writing recognition, MP3 player and GPRS features. Weighing in at just 55g, it measures only 2.6in in length and will, no doubt, be even harder to find than your existing phone.

It’s arrived.
And it’s a work of art.
Not like a picasso or michelangelo.
But a work of art nonetheless.
Verizon Wireless finally has launched its LG Chocolate VX8600 slim handset that it has taken a niche for itself in the mobile market.
Similar to VX-8500 Chocolate includes CDMA technology and in order to meet the performance requirement .
Most of [...]

The MP3 player watch is a novel idea that has finally become reality. It is a perfect combination of watches and mp3 players. Just plug the MP3 player watch into your computer’s USB port to transfer music files and data. You can listen to Music and Record Conversations wherever you go. All stored in your [...]