My word, actual innovation coming for a digital audio player. It’s certainly been a while.

It’s called the Twinned MP3 player, and its gimmick is that it’s actually two separate players joined at the hips, so to speak. Each half of the player is a fully functional player; both half contains the same playlist of music, a playlist that’s controlled by an online server. So when Person A adds a song to the online playlist it doesn’t become “official” until Person B syncs their player.

The idea here is that the two players will always have the same playlist, so, presumably, you and your friend will always be listening to the same music. Perhaps you and your special girl have a song that reminds you of some important event in your relationship—well now you’ll always have that song with you, together.

It’s designed by one Liberty Fearns, but the odds of it go into mass production? Eh.

Flickr’d

You know what the $100 Sansa Fuze does that the $150 iPod nano doesn’t? It plays FLAC and OGG, now that SanDisk has released updated firmware for the little player. (Apple Lossless is cool and all, but trying finding—wink-wink—albums encoded with it online.)

The updated firmware, version 1.01.05 (yeesh, user-friendly numbering convention right there), also includes the usual bug fixes, as well as support for Audible’s AAX file format.

Just a quick note regarding iTunes. Apple has updated it to version 8.0.1, and this release fixes a few quirks that no doubt annoyed some of you. The bug that caused iTunes to copy over HD versions of a TV show with an SD version is now squashed. Genius also sees some attention: when creating a Genius playlist, the song you’re basing the playlist on no longer stops playing.

Just “Check for Updates” from within iTunes and you’re good to go (so come on Davey sing me something that I know).

Get ready for yet another mobile music store, this time from Sony Ericsson. Yup, that company’s still around.

SE will launch Play Now Plus in “a few weeks” in Sweden. The music service will initially be available to Telenor subscribers, a wireless carrier there. The service will cost 99 Swedish crowns (about $15) a month for unlimited downloads.

If all of this sounds awfully familiar, give yourself a gold star. Nokia launches Comes With Music next month in the UK, a similar mobile music service. And don’t forget that Amazon MP3 comes pre-installed on the T-Mobile G1. Granted, the phone doesn’t have a headphone jack, but these phones aren’t designed with living, breathing human beings in mind, people with common and easy-to-predict needs and expectations.

That mobile Amazon music store rumor? Totally true.

Yeah, so Amazon just confirmed the existence of a mobile music store for Android-based cellphones. It’s essentially a pint sized version of Amazon MP3, and it comes pre-loaded on the G1. You’ll have 6 million DRM-free songs to choose from, from all four of the big record labels.

The catch? You can only download MP3s over a Wi-Fi connection; you can browse and preview just fine over the 3G, but buying and downloading can only be done over Wi-Fi.

Songs are the same price, 89 cents unless otherwise indicated.

The full presser, ladies and germs…

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Another day, another movie and music store. This time, though, it’s for Android-based phones; today is Android Day, in case you forgot.

Right, so it looks like Amazon has struck a deal with Google to launch a mobile version of its online music and movie store for Android-based cellphones. That’s the hot rumor right now, at least. It seems—get this—that a G1 made the rounds at a San Francisco bar at the weekend (making the user Mr. Popular!), and on the device was the Amazon store. Presumably you’d be able to download MP3s from a desktop client, maybe even other the air, then load them onto your G1. Movies? Again, maybe you’d be able to download them onto your desktop, then load them onto your phone. It really is speculation of the highest order.

So to recap: there may or may not be an Amazon music and movie store for Android, the first phone of which officially debuts later today.

One side note to all this Android hysteria: if, at the end of the day, the G1 is a cellphone, how do you convince people in areas where T-Mobile is absolutely horrendous to switch over? In upstate New York (Dutchess County), you’re lucky if your T-Mo cellphone doesn’t drop out before actually completing a phone call; voice quality is similarly disappointing. The thing is, if you want to actually use your phone as a phone, you’re much better of using Verizon Wireless, because with VZW I can at least hear the person on the other end of the line. Are people now “cool” with terrible voice quality so long as they have mobile Internet access? Would you buy a TV because it has great built-in speakers but whose picture quality is lousy? Call me old school, but I expect to be able to hear the person on the other end of the line when talking on a phone.

SanDisk and the RIAA sure do hope y’all aren’t “finished” with physical media-based music playback. If you are, then this whole slotMusic venture will end up being a waste of everyone’s time.

SlotMusic, actually written slotMusic, is the name of Sandisk’s new line of music-filled microSD cards. The thinking behind slotMusic is that consumers, what with their music playing cellphones, still lack an easy way to load and listen to their favorite songs. So, you walk into a Best Buy or Wal-Mart (slotMusic will initially be sold there), grab the latest pop sensation-loaded slotMusic, then stick it in your phone and off you go.

Again, that’s the thinking. That the iPhone doesn’t accept microSD cards is one minor issue. That consumers are more comfortable with downloading music (from iTunes) and may have completely written off physical media is another.

It’s worth pointing out that the songs loaded onto slotMusic cards will be DRM-free MP3s. Specific bitrates and encoding methods? ::shoulder shrug::

And yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how this affects that whole Samsung-Sandisk talk.

UPDATE Some more info has trickled out, in the form of the official press release. The slotMusic cards weigh in at 1GB, and the MP3s are encoded at 320 kbps. All the big record labels are here, too. Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner are all part of the scheme. Click through if you want to read the full press release. Maybe you’re bored?

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It’s all about convergence. It’s all…about…convergence. Howsabout a sweet memory foam neck pillow with built-in speakers? Plug in your portable audio player or, hell, plug it right into your computer to hear that sweet Eudora jingle every time you get a new e-mail. Eudora’s still cool, right?

Anyhoo, I have no idea how long this wonderful product has been in existence but I just noticed it as a new product in the latest SkyMall catalog, which invariably means that it’s about to take the world by storm. By storm, I tell you! Plus, it’s from the same people who brought you the MP3 blackout shades. How could it miss?!

Get it from Skymall for $39.99 or on sale directly from Smarthome for $36.90.

It’s not just iPhone users who can listen to the radio while toolin’ about their fine city. A just-released (well, re-released, kinda) application for the BlackBerry called the Mobiola xPlayer lets you listen to Internet radio (that includes live news and the like) and MP3s (and AACs and WMAs, etc.) Listening to MP3s and the like won’t cost you anything, but to hear Internet radio you’ll have to pay a one-time fee of $19.95.

If I had bothered brining my BlackBerry 8800 with me, I’d be downloading this ASAP. But of course, being a total numpty, I forgot it. Oh well.

via BerryReviews.com

Oh, Yahoo. Why do you make it so hard to like you?

Take this story. Yahoo is shutting down its music download store at the end of September, including the DRM validation servers. Without DRM validation servers, people who purchased tracks outright won’t be able to play them.

In other words, people will be left with useless files on their hard drives. Nice.

To be fair, it’s not like Yahoo is completely screwing its [former] customers. The company will provide coupons to download the previously downloaded (but now useless) songs again from Rhapsody, which will be DRM-free MP3s. That, or you can get your money back. Your choice.

Meh, to be honest, Yahoo is doing right by it customers, and this is more of an illustatrion of how silly DRM is more than anything else.

Can you tell it’s summertime yet?

This delightful little concept that’ll never actually be manufactured, called Sweet Honey, combines aroma therapy with lossy MP3s, which just has to be a match made in Heaven. The little bulb thing on the other end of the headphone wire contains a scented tablet. Depending on the type of music being played, different scents are released.

Fact: when you play emo, the stench of failure emanates from the device.

I still have my 20GB Dell DJ (the one on the left up there). It’s been sitting in a box marked “To Sell on eBay” for, oh, at least three years along with my Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, my first-generation Nintendo DS, and a couple of ink cartridges for an old Lexmark printer. Bad news for me, as it appears the value of my old Dell music player might plummet when Dell’s new MP3 players hit the market. Instead of getting $20 for my old Dell DJ, I might only get $18 or $19.

That’s right, Reuters is reporting that Dell “has been testing a digital music player that could go on sale as early as September.” Actually, Reuters is reporting that the Wall Street Journal said all that stuff, but the Wall Street Journal wants people to pay for its (ad supported) web content. I’d rather “rent” a “videotape” instead.

The music player will apparently feature a Wi-Fi connection, a “small navigation screen” which seems to indicate a touchscreen, and a price tag of under $100.

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Journey, the “band,” has a 1GB MP3 player out there, brought to you by the fine folks at ZVUE. It comes with 11 brand new songs from the album Revelation and 11 re-recorded songs.

A neat venture, but one we’d like to see with a good band, like My Chemical Romance.

via Anything But iPod

The UK’s Sky and Universal are the latest companies to try, and ultimately fail, to knock Apple’s iTunes off its high horse. The two have teamed up to launch a new service, due later this year, that will be one of those all-you-can-eat subscription schemes. Think Napster and Rhapsody.

Thankfully, songs that are downloadable will be DRM-free.

Universal is the biggest record company of them all, and has bands like U2, the Mars Volta and the Wu-Tang Clan under contract.

It’s 2008 and the record labels are still trying to figure out digital distribution. What an impotent industry.

Hackers are now using ASF (Advanced System Format) to trick PC users into installing malicious software. If you’re not familiar with ASF, it’s a Microsoft-defined container format for media streams that contain additional content like links to websites and images. You don’t see it around quite as much these days (most sites use FLV or some such these days) but it’s still out there. Click below for more info on how these villains are spiking the venerable format.

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A British shoppe is now hawking what it calls the “Sport In-Ear MP3 Player,” a do-as-you-like 1GB MP3 player you wear around your head. With styling straight out of 1997, the player does all sorts of unexpected things, like supporting, in addition to MP3, WMA and WAV. Its little battery charges over USB.

No Mac support, it looks like, but who needs that!

So it’s a little on the junk side, sure, but it’s only $22; give it to someone you don’t particularly like.

Apple has now sold over five billion songs from its iTunes music store. The program has been around since early 2001. Earlier this year, iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart as the most popular place to buy music. Apple still hasn’t figured out how to sell Drakkar Noir for under $40 through its store but, still, five billion songs is impressive.

It’ll be interesting to see how long iTunes will be able to retain this title, with competitors like Amazon’s MP3 store gaining traction. In fact, Amazon just unveiled special deals — today’s deal is Coldplay’s Parachutes album for $1.99 – and has embraced variable pricing (popular tracks cost more, allowing certain tracks and albums like the ones found in the “deals” section to cost less), something Apple’s refused to do thus far. Still, five billion songs is nothing to sneeze at.

Indie cool iRiver is now showing off (in Korea) the L Player, using message board cool Muse’s likeness to promote it. The portable media player has 2-inch LCD, and works with all the dumb file formats you’re likely to find on The Pirate Bay or whatever, including MPEG-4, XVID and FLAC. There’s even OGG support—that must be great news for, like, nine of you. SRS Wow HD, too.

She comes in 2, 4 and 8GB sizes, at around $150 for the 8GB model. When does it come out here? Don’t know.

via Akihabara News

The MP3 player, bane of the RIAA and friend to commuters everywhere, was first unveiled in 1998. The first device with built-in MP3 decoding and dedicated storage was the SaeHan Information Systems’s MPMan F10, debuting at Cebit (see this post from a couple months ago). Boasting an impressive 32MB, the machine could play back files loaded via an included serial cable.

I remember the first MP3 device I bought was a generic model I found at a pawn shop for $40. They weren’t sure what it was, but it was mine after I talked them down to $25. I had to get a $40 64MB MMC (not SD!) card via eBay to make it work. It would hold about 5 albums (I compressed well) which I ripped myself. The AA batteries lasted about 16 hours, not bad for the day.

Now, of couse, we have iPod and Zune and iPhone and a million imitators. Our phones, picture frames, and even cars play MP3s now. But nostalgia is awesome, so I must ask: what was your first MP3 player? And what was the first MP3 you downloaded? Let’s share!

Genuinely funny, last night’s episode of The Office (Hulu link) showcased the gravity of the situation between Apple and NBC. The long and short of it is, Michael wanted to create a mix CD using “M3Ps” for the office’s new human resources guy, who’s actually a girl; Michael falls in love with her immediately, or “love at first see with my ears.” Rather than download the songs from iTunes (or BitTorrent), he used AmazonMP3!

The humanity!

via The Apple Blog