Monster Debuts First iPod Dock, Justin Bieber Headphones

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369972,00.asp

by David Pierce


Headphone maker Monster added five new products to its Beats by Dr. Dre line Wednesday, including a high-end iPod dock and celebrity-endorsed headphones from LeBron James and Justin Bieber.

At an event on Wednesday, high-end headphone maker Monster added five new audio products to its Beats by Dr. Dre line. Among the products announced by Head Monster Noel Lee, Interscope Records' Jimmy Iovine, and Dr. Dre: the Beatbox iPod dock, Beats Pro headphones for professionals and DJs, affordable iBeats earphones, and headphones promoted by LeBron James and Justin Bieber. The last two are the latest in a series of celebrity collaborations with Monster, previously including Diddy and Lady Gaga.

Bieber's contribution is the JustBeats headphones, a set of $199.95 on-ear headphones and $119.95 earphones. The headphones and earphones are purple (Bieber's favorite color), and will likely appeal to Bieber's female fan base.

The LeBron James-branded Beats are designed for a different crowd—the fitness set. The $169.95 pair features an adjustable ear hook to keep the earpieces in place, and the eartips are non-noise occluding, meaning even with the volume turned up, users will be able to hear sounds like sirens and car horns around them.

For the headphone generalist, Beats offers up its least-expensive option ever: the $119.95 iBeats. The iBeats are designed for use with iPods and iPhones, and include an in-line microphone and music controls.

And finally, for those with significantly fatter wallets, there's the Beatbox and Pro Beats headphones. The Beatbox is the first iPod dock in the Beats family. The system is an attractive black trapezoid, and sounded quite good in the demo—and for $449.95, it better. The $449.95 Pro Beats are headphones designed for music professionals and DJs with flip-up earcups.

Monster Debuts First iPod Dock, Justin Bieber Headphones

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Fans of Justin Bieber and LeBron James surely have bought the new headphones. The Monster products must be expensive.

FeedLine brings Google Buzz to iPhone, iPod touch

By Nick Spence

FeedLine, an RSS feed reader is believed to be the first application for iPhone and iPod touch to add a public Google Buzz feed reader.

Often compared with Twitter, Google Buzz allows users to share updates, photos, videos and start conversations but publicly and privately amongst friends and colleagues.

FeedLine offers users a chance to read feeds, listen to podcasts and catch with 'real-time' news alerts.

The 1.2 FeedLine update supports RSS, Atom and public Google Buzz feeds, adds the ability to delete individual news items and remove the "Top 10" tab.

The application also promises a chance to easily subscribe to feeds by searching the available feeds on the web, subscribe to feeds by specifying feed URL, offline reading for news items, archive old news items and mark all items read for a selected feed. The makers note FeedLine does not require a Google Reader Account.

Available from the Apple iTunes App Store, FeedLine costs 59p and requires the iPhone 3.0 Software Update or later.


FeedLine brings Google Buzz to iPhone, iPod touch
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I have Google Buzz. If I have an iPod, I'll be glued to my Google Buzz everyday.

Philips Fidelio DS9000 iPod Dock Announced


by Alex

Last week during the 2010 MWC in Barcelona, folks from Philips unveiled their new Fidelio DS9000 iPod dock. A stylish device that perfectly combines wood, metal, and fabric in a rather charming enclosure, the new Philips Fidelio DS9000 not only has the looks, but has what it takes to wow even the pickiest audiophile.

The docking speaker is a two-way acoustic system with one midrange driver and one tweeter per channel, that promises to deliver the best quality sound from your iPhone or iPod. On top of that it comes with a true stereo sound architecture with isolated acoustic chambers (12mm thick walls) meaning that no matter how loud you play your music, you’ll be given incredible sound accuracy and astonishing details.

The new Philips Fidelio DS9000 pumps 100W of power, can be controlled via a remote control or a backlit control panel that is being activated through a proximity sensor, and allows for more functionality thanks to a dedicated app that you can download from the App Store.

There’s no word how much the Fidelio DS9000 will cost or when it’s going to be available, but since it’s a premium design this won’t come in cheap, for sure.

Philips Fidelio DS9000 iPod Dock
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How about this Philips Fidelio DS9000 iPod Dock, iPod fans? According to the review, Philips Fidelio DS9000 iPod Dock not only looks good, it also delivers incredible sound accuracy.

UK Consumer Watchdog says citizens are unaware of copyright rules

by James "Dela" Delahunty

UK Consumer Watchdog says citizens are unaware of copyright rules Consumer Focus, a consumer watchdog that operates in the United Kingdom, has called for the region's copyright laws to be adjusted after research showed most consumers are unaware of copyright law. Millions of people are totally unaware that they regularly break the law in the UK, according to Consumer Focus. Their great crimes? Ripping and format shifting.

Consumers regularly rip CDs to computers as MP3 or other digital file formats for convenience, a practice which could very well be illegal depending on the circumstances. The same user would then break the law again by transferring those files to a portable media player device; a practice known as format shifting (technically, just ripping to a computer is format shifting, but the CD -> MP3 player example is usually given).

Some rights holders believe format shifting should be illegal, and that consumers should have to pay again to consume the same content on a different format. In a poll of 2,026 people, 73 percent were totally unaware of what they could legally copy or record. Jill Johnstone, of Consumer Focus, said that the law does not take the advance of technology over the past decade into account and needs to be changed.

"The world has moved on and reform of copyright law is inevitable, but it is not going to update itself," she said. Of course, consumers are not being prosecuted generally for ripping CDs or putting music from a CD on an iPod, clearly, but its the implication that people are breaking the law by doing so that is bad enough on its own.

IT lawyer Nick Lockett, of DL Legal, said that law enforcement only has the will and allocated resources to tackle commercial operations, not personal use. He pointed out that the practice of recording content from television using a video recorder only became legal through a copyright law amendment some time after recorders were on the market, and recording was a common practice.

iPod users unaware of copyright rules
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Consumers must be informed then, of the regulations before they put their fave music in the their precious iPods.

Cheap Soniq iPod Dock Quite Unique

By Mendelson Tiu

If you are planning to purchase an iPod dock for your bedroom, then you should check out the iM600K from Soniq. This $129 product sold exclusively at JB Hi-Fi sounds good for its asking price.

This trapezoidal box sports a brushed aluminium border at the bottom and a black finish that complements the grill cloth. Users can find a window in the centre of the unit that displays your iPod screen (once it is docked) as well as the time. The power button, loading dock, snooze button, remote control, and control buttons (located underneath the remote dock) are found on top of the unit.

In order to dock an iPod, a user must press the open/close button on the unit (or eject on the remote) and wait for the motorised dock to come out of the trapdoor. Once an iPod is secured, you can now bring the dock back down and see your iPod from the outside. Yes, it may be gimmicky, but at least the company is making an effort to make its product stand out from the rest.

The remote provides total control for the iPod and allowed us to browse through the main menu without problems.

In addition to the iPod mode, users can also listen to various radio stations using its FM mode. Unfortunately, the unit had a hard time picking up stations in our office, with us having to move the string antennae around every time we switch stations. The overall reception could have been better if Soniq used a telescopic antenna instead.

Those who want to listen to other audio devices on the iM600K like MP3 or CD players can connect it to the Aux-in jack.

The iM600K sounds good, with the highs, mids, and lows sounding clear and detailed. The unit's built-in subwoofer was able to handle the bass well, while the audio did not sound distorted even at high volumes. The unit comes with five different EQ modes as well as an MBASS mode, but users cannot change the bass and treble settings manually.

Finally, users can also use the iM600K as an alarm clock as it has two alarms and a choice of a buzzer, iPod or radio modes.

Overall, we were impressed with the Soniq iM600K. It sounds great and is perfect for users who want to play music stored on their iPod.

 Soniq iPod Dock
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iPod fans, this is a must-have for your bedrooms. Care to pay $ 129.00? Go ahead and grab it!

Did the iPod kill music 2 - Are low bit rates ruining the future?

By Rob Mead

One thing that frequently gets laid at the iPod's door is the issue of sound quality: from the way music is consumed as low bit-rate MP3 and AAC files, to the oft-cited argument that music producers now mix music so it sounds great on the crappy earbuds bundled with iPods. In truth, it's actually a lot more serious than that, says Kerchoonz Ian Morrow:

"If you get a kid who wants to be an [sound] engineer and wants to work in studios, they're all listening to things outside the realm of the way you're meant to hear... If you want a drum kit to sound good, you need to listen to it in a room, not on headphones.

"That's a major thing with the kids that are coming through. Most of the kids that I've heard demos from, they're all crap - the drums sound terrible. The first thing I say to them is have you heard a drum kit - go and stand right in front of it.

"If it sounds crap when you listen to it, it's going to sound crap when you record it. Now when you listen to things on headphones all the time, you're never going to learn that perception of what sound actually is."

Morrow's Kerchoonz co-founder and singer/songwriter Indiana Gregg agrees:

"I see kids who are talented, who could be into music or becoming sound engineers, but their point of reference is so screwed up. If you're going to produce something that has the sound of an MP3, that's all we're going to have probably 20 years from now when they all grow up.

"Because if you don't have a point of reference... it's like being a musician without any influences. You grow up in a cave and suddenly you want to be the next Beethoven? It's not going to happen."

Alan O'Rouke, MD and founder of Vita Audio is more optimistic. His company is just one of the many that has adapted to the changed landscape brought about by the iPod:

"Apple Premium Resellers are doing good business on audio systems these days. People are buying them from there.

"They're not going into hi-fi shops. Hi-fi shops still have this strange enigma where you don't go in there unless you know what you're talking about, like the Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch, you know? Very true really. [Apple Premium Resellers] provide a bright, fresh environment where it's good to go in. A lot of hi-fi shops are fairly back in the Dark Ages.

Roger Batchelor, product marketing consultant at Denon is another optimist:

"Many artists have more freedom and are running their own websites and have more control over the way their music is distributed than ever before. Music has always been a commodity for some, even back in the '60s and '70s we had those Top Of The Pops LPs with studio bands playing the hits of the day for the casual listener.

"At the same time, there were, and still are, dedicated music fans who love music with a passion."

Are low bit rates ruining the future?
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People will have different views about iPod. But as long as people are using iPod, it will be here to stay, and others might have to adapt. Such is technology.

Did the iPod kill music?

By Rob Mead

"The iPod has f***ed all of this, in a way. The decade we've just left will never be forgotten."

So says Simon Drake, 24-year-old owner/producer of indie record company Naim Label, who is trying to explain to TechRadar what the last 10 years have done to the music business - a time in which music has seemingly been commoditised, debased and devalued by everything from the X-Factor to CD giveaways, digital downloads and ringtones.

"When iTunes launched in 2005 in the UK in terms of selling music, it's amazing. Even the way they [Apple] dictated price: based on the knowledge that they were going to sell millions of iPods worldwide, saying 'screws you guys, we're going to sell it for 79p a song'. It's changed music. It has accelerated the culture of the under-pricing of music."

Music as a commodity

While 79p sounds like a great deal for the average X-Factor fan, Drake argues that the effect has been to make life much harder for specialised labels like his.

"We don't really shift enough units for iTunes to want to place our business. If all of my album sales were iTunes album sales I would have been out of a job a long time ago. What's happened is that Apple has dictated the price of music to the market, which at the time, was drastically less than it needed to be.

"It's fine if you're a major label, you can find other ways of making money, but we don't licence stuff to TV. We rely on the sales of music to the consumer. That's always been a big issue of mine. I've always been slightly angry that they [Apple] rushed off and set their own price and have dominated the market ever since because it [the iTunes Store] is so easy to use."

And dominate it has. Apple's iTunes Store became the biggest music retailer in the US last year with 25 per cent of all digital and physical music sales. Compare digital downloads alone, and iTunes' dominance rises to 69 per cent of the total US market.

In the UK the situation is arguably even worse, with iTunes share said to be around 90 per cent.

The impact is there for us all to see. Squeezed by supermarkets on the one side and digital downloads on the other, old school record shops have been rapidly disappearing from our high streets, leaving those that remain to focus on other, more profitable, areas instead. Last year HMV said music sales accounted for just 28 per cent of its revenue, a fall of 9 per cent in just two years.

Naim record label

Another complaint you'll hear from creatives about the iPod and digital downloads is that they've not only devalued the financial currency of music, but they've made it disposable too. Ian Morrow, record producer (Seal, Wet Wet Wet, Lisa Stansfield) and co-founder of Kerchoonz, the social networking and music download site says:

"I was listening to what Warners said about its decision to remove its music from streaming sites and they were talking about the value of music - and the value of music is really important. Just by it being like running water, everywhere all the time, it has no value. It is a complete commodity. There is no 'must go down to the record shop this afternoon, because they'll probably be sold out by Monday'."

That's great if you're a massive music fan who doesn't like paying huge sums for long-deleted albums, but it also means the artefact - the record, the song, the download - no longer has any intrinsic value - at least not to a certain generation.

You can download something one minute and delete it the next - there's no sense of ownership or occasion like you had with a CD or vinyl collection any more.

Short attention spans

"It [the iPod] has become so prevalent in people's live's now that it's really helped accelerate this culture of having a very short attention span," says Naim's Simon Drake.

"In terms of what it does for the music itself? You watch kids on an iPod in a group, they'll play 20 seconds of a song, they'll all scream and laugh, and then they'll change it to the next 20 seconds of another song.

"We're not actually helping develop any love or desire towards music or the thought process behind actually making it. One of my biggest problems, is - as someone from the independent sector who's not trying to make a quick buck - I'm trying to make compelling albums that people will hopefully sit down and enjoy in their entirety.

"I don't think for a minute that Apple thought that was going to be the case. It's human nature, our will to be lazy is becoming ever more present. it's our fault, not Apple's fault."

Did iPod kill the music - Driving down the price of music
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Did iPod really kill the music? Find out more about this on the next issue.

Apple iPad, iPhone & iPod - The future looks rosy

Apple have enjoyed many successes with some outstanding products and we as consumers have shared, and will continue, to share this too. Apparently.

Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook attended an Investor Conference and announced some interesting details about Apples sales. Tim Cook favoured the iMac saying that it is 'very key, and will continue to be very key'. There were 10 million iMacs sold during 2009, and Cook goes on to state that 'The ceiling [for Apple] is still far off'.

Sales of the iPod Touch doubled in 2009 and with the strong growth of the iPhone, Cook says 'That helps fuel more app sales, which helps fuel more developers, which helps make the iPhone OS platform stronger'.

The company enjoyed revenue of $40 billion, and now with the imminent arrival of the iPad, which is due to arrive in March, the future is looking even more rosy. Cook says that the iPad is a magical experience and finds it difficult to believe that consumers would choose to buy a netbook over the iPad.

Future of iPod, others look rosy
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That's a good number in sales of iPod. I think iPod is really here to stay.

Millions of iPod fans breaking law by copying CDs

By Harry Wallop

So-called "format shifting" is illegal under British copyright law. If a consumer has bought the CD they are breaking the law if they "shift" the content onto another device, even if they are the only one to listen to the music.

Consumer Focus, the Government-backed watchdog, has called for the law to be changed. It has surveyed 2,000 adults and found 17 per cent did not realise that copying CDs onto their computer or iPod was illegal.

According to Ofcom, 41 per cent of the adult population, equating to 18 million people, own an MP3 digital music player, such as an iPod. On top of this, there are at least five million who own mobile phones that have a music player incorporated.

Consumer Focus admitted that not a single person has been prosecuted for format shifting but it argued that the law had to be changed if the music industry wanted consumers to take its concerns over piracy seriously.

Under the Digital Economy Bill, still being debated, there are plans to crack down more severely on those who file share.

Jill Johnstone, International Director, Consumer Focus said: "The credibility of UK copyright law has fallen through the floor. Millions of consumers are regularly copying CDs or DVDs and are unaware they are breaching copyright law.

"The world has moved on and reform of copyright law is inevitable, but it’s not going to update itself. If the Government wants consumers to respect copyright law they have to stop sitting on their hands and bring the law in line with the real world."

The music industry hinted that it would like to see the law change so that music fans were not criminalised.

A spokesman for the BPI, the record industry trade body, said: “We agree that the format shifting of legitimately purchased CDs should not leave consumers in a legal quandary.

"In practice, we have never taken any action against consumers who rip CDs to computers or portable music players. Nonetheless, we do believe it would be better for personal CD ripping to be legal and the industry has made proposals to Government to achieve that.”


iPod fans copying CDs
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Ipod is really more convenient because you could put more music and even videos. But what are the authorities doing about copying CDs?