iLuv has announced that their new i1166 PMP will be available for shipping in mid-October. The unit features a 9″ TFT screen and can play DVD and CD media (including CD-R/RW, and DVD±R/RW and VCD/SVCD) as well as access media on MMC/SD cards and even USB flash drives.  It will play a wide variety of media formats including DivX, MP3, and WMA.  It doesn’t specify AAC, but one would hope that with iPod compatibility would also come AAC support.

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Our friends across the pond at Proporta are well known for accessories for various cellphones, netbooks  and laptops.  Now they have decided to try their hand at selling devices; their first is the new Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet.  The Android Based Archos 5 can record TV shows, has 120 GB of storage, plays movies in HD (720p) or DVD quality, and it comes with a Proporta Alu-Leather Case when you order from Proporta. It is available for a promotional price of £299.99 or $489.45 from the Proporta web site.

The Zii technology demoed at CES has been in hibernation for a while, but the official deets have finally come out today about what they planned to do with their Zii stem cell computing platform.  That devices is called the Zii Egg.

The Egg is the device for Creative’s new developer platform called Plaszma.  Plaszma is based on the Android OS. Continue Reading

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to review the Sandisk Sansa Clip.  It is a great, little music player, which is ideal for runners and other individuals who do not need constant access to the screen.  My only complaint about this player was that it has limited internal memory and no opportunity for expansion.  Even though it can only play music, I still found the maximum size of 4 GB to be a bit limiting.

All of that is about to change, however, with the release this week of an 8 GB version of Sansa Clip.  The 8GB Clip, which makes its debut this week, is able to hold up to 4000 songs, without any modifications to its miniscule size.  You can find more information at Sansa’s website, where you can also purchase the 8GB Sansa Clip for only $99.99. 

I have spent a considerable amount of time here at JAMM, and also at Gear Diary, reviewing portable media players.  One thing I have noticed is that a stand-alone review is really not the best format to help users answer the real question on everyone’s mind: which one should I buy?  While a review is nice, it looks at a particular media player in a vacuum.  The missing piece in the review is how this one compares to the others.  And that is what I want to try to accomplish through this series.

So, in addition to the Sandisk Sansa View, which I already own, I went on eBay and gobbled up a  Microsoft Zune, Samsung YP-P2, and Creative Zen X-Fi.  Heck, I even got the Sony Walkman A828 back on an extended loan.  After considerable thought, I also replaced my iPod Touch with the new fourth generation iPod Nano for this series.

Has this been done before? Doug Goldring has just begun a series pitting not two, not four, but six portable media players against each other! Be sure to keep your eye on JAMM, where he will be focusing “on a specific feature in each article, and compar[ing] the six major portable media players to determine which ones rise to the top, and which ones scrape off the bottom of the barrel.  If it can be measured and compared, then [he plans] to do so. ”

Doug’s daily portable media player is an iPod touch, so it will be interesting to see if he can’t help but slip in a few random references back to it.

In his series, Doug will be comparing the Creative Zen X-fi (8 GB), the Microsoft Zune Slim (16 GB), the iPod Nano 4Gen. (8 GB), the Samsung YP-P2 (4 GB), the Sandisk Sansa View (16 GB), and the Sony Walkman Video NWZ-A828 (8 GB). Be sure to keep your eye on JAMM to see how each contender fares!

Link: Listen To This! The Great JAMM Portable Media Player Showdown. Part 1: Introduction

Even though the screen is small, I enjoy watching video on my iPhone and iPod Touch. No, it will never match the experience of watching a movie on a 50 inch hi-definition LCD, but it is more than merely functional- it is a pleasant experience. I’ve had my eye on Myvu’s various offerings for some time, watching carefully as each new one was released. I have wondered if they really worked.  And, assuming they did work, wondered whether the experience of watching video through Myvu would be that much better than viewing on my iPhone.

So, when the opportunity to try out the Myvu Crystal arose (thanks Judie) I jumped at it.

Do they live up the hype? Read on to find out.

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Right out of the box I could not believe how compact and lightweight the new T30 portable media player from Nextar is.

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As we see a convergence of media formats, everyone is looking for solutions to carry their content on the road with them. One of the drawbacks I see of micro PC’s and MacBook airs is their unsuitability to play dvds to entertain me while I’m traveling. Yeah, I’m selfish that way.

Toast 9 Titanium – Burn. Watch. Listen. Share.

Roxio, the makers of Toast have evolved their product to respond to the needs of Mac and iPhone users who desire access to many different formats of video across various platforms. Read what they have to say below:

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There it was.  At last!  Writ large upon the outer wrapping of the new Sony NWZ-A828K Digital Media Player (which most of you will know as a Walkman).  There were the words I have longed to hear from a media player for so many years.  The box read:

WIRELESS.

Enjoy music wirelessly with the supplied Bluetooth stereo headset.

Yes, that is right folks.  This will be my first media player review without the patented Bluetooth rant.  And really, having found a media player with Bluetooth, I might as well end the review right here.  Nice job, Sony!  But no, as long as I have the media player, I suppose we should take a closer look and see what else this thing can do…besides transmitting music, “wirelessly with the supplied Bluetooth stereo headset,” that is.

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With the approach of the 3-day Memorial Day weekend that unofficially kicks off summer, I figured it would be a good time to take a peek at a tool to encourage some of us pasty-white technophiles out into the actual outdoors. Although my legs have often been described as “cadaverous,” I realize that I probably need to break down and put on some shorts and get some fresh air for a change.

But when I’m in the great outdoors, I don’t want to be totally disconnected from the grid and I want to know where I’m going. Enter the Universal Bike Mount Holder for iPhone / iPod / PDA / GPS from USB Fever.

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Part of the lure of a being on holiday is the ability to get away from all of your tech distractions. But if you’re reading this site, then you’re probably like me and derive an inordinate amount of enjoyment from having all of your toys and gadgets with you wherever you go. There’s a lot to be said for putting your smartphone, MP3 player, digital camera or laptop away in order to be able to fully soak in your surroundings, but when used in moderation, I think gadgets can actually enhance your travel experience.

There are all sorts of considerations to take into account when travelling with your tech toys. Will it have enough storage for all my photos and music? Is it durable enough to handle the rigours of the road? Will the battery last me until the next time I get to a power outlet? And what happens if my bag gets stolen?

Gadget insurance is something I’ll cover in another post, but the rest of the concerns are easily take care of with the right tech and accessories.

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Earlier this week, although we did not write about it in this space, rumors started trickling in about a new Sansa media player from Sandisk.  In fact, it wasn’t long before Amazon confirmed these early reports of a new media player, posting for pre-order sales.

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For SO long I have been looking for a MP3 Player without wires. Sure, everyone wishes Apple did it (I don’t). However, Best Buy, yes you heard me right, Best Buy has come out with a store brand MP3/Video Player that supports Bluetooth A2DP Stereo Headphones!

Also, this MP3 Player is a Open Source fanatics dream MP3 player. It supports Ogg Vorbis. Ogg, for the uninitiated, is a non patent encumbered audio codec that’s vary comparable in quality to MP3. Also, since it’s patent friendly, you can use it with Linux directly out of the box Continue Reading

The main reason I bought the Zune was so that I could watch TV and video on my train trip to university every day. I often have unwatched TV shows on my Media Center, so clearing them out during the trip to uni in the morning sounded like a good idea.

Until this application was released, I wasn’t interested in buying a Zune, or any other PMP device. When ZuneTVWatcher was released I ordered a Zune straight away (thanks Judie!). ZuneTVWatcher fills the baffling gap that Microsoft left in their Zune desktop software: the inability to convert and transfer DVR-MS files from Media Center to the Zune.

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Part of the X-Series offer on Three is Orb, the video streaming application that lets you access your media files from practically anywhere that you have a decent internet connection. I’ve never really tried it before, but this seemed the perfect opportunity. With my daily train commute, what could be better than catching up on my recorded TV or watching some of my stored videos without having to encode or sync anything. While I have my new Zune for watching videos, the Media Centre recorded TV converted ZuneTVWatcher is not working for PAL properly yet, so I don’t yet have TV on my Zune.

Setting up Orb is incredibly easy. Download the desktop program, install it, and login with your Orb username and password (or signup for one and then login).

You can configure Orb to access your media files wherever they are stored. I couldn’t add network drives, so I simply mapped the ones I wanted and added the mapped drives to Orb. Worked great

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