Music

Viewsonic launches personal media players

By Paul Ridden

18:37 August 2, 2009 PDT

Viewsonic is about to break into the portable media player market with the release (in Taiwan initially) of two new players - the 8GB View Show VPD400 and the 16GB View Show VPD500. Sporting an impressive 800 by 480 screen resolution and supporting most media formats, the players will nudge their way in at the very top end of their class. Read More

Music is the engine of new lab-on-a-chip device

By Dario Borghino

17:55 August 2, 2009 PDT

Researchers at the University of Michigan have succeeded in developing a chip used to conduct experiments on fluids which is driven by sound rather than electromechanical valves. This approach to controlling "lab-on-a-chip" devices could be a big step forward in reducing costs and complexity in areas ranging from chemical analysis to environmental monitoring, potentially leading to innovations like handheld devices you could sneeze onto to find out if you have the flu. Read More

Bose announces SoundLink wireless music system

By Darren Quick

18:21 July 20, 2009 PDT

The digitization of music has seen many people’s music collections move from the CD rack to the hard drive. Although the computer is a great place to store music, it can limit the listening experience thanks to the less than stellar speakers that are often tied to it. Bose has unveiled its new designed for people who want to listen to music stored on their computer, but don’t necessarily want to be at their computer to enjoy it - the SoundLink wireless music system. Read More

Void player puts a whole new spin on playing your old LPs

By Paul Ridden

16:18 July 2, 2009 PDT

Korean designer Rhea Jeong says she's been astounded by the amount of interest in her conceptual Void LP record player. One look at the design and you can see why it's made so much noise without even uttering a sound. Close your eyes and imagine a little red globe spinning around on top of a vinyl record emitting sound from speakers inside it. The record itself is suspended in mid-air above a simple black base unit - no strings attached, no wires holding it up and definitely no safety net. The imagery is quite simply jaw-dropping. But can such a thing really work? Read More

Zoom's highly portable R16 multi-track recorder

By Tim LeFevre

00:52 June 29, 2009 PDT

Multi-track recorders allow home users to get professional results on a budget and Zoom Corporation takes this a step further with the versatile and truly portable R16. The diminutive R16 rolls a 16 track recorder, audio interface and control surface all into one. Perhaps the most notable feature is the ability to record to an SD memory card (supporting up to 32GB on an SDHC card). Not only does this add to the R16 portability credentials, but also avoids the pitfalls of hard drive crashes and associated problems. Read More

Review: Logitech's premium Wireless Guitar Controller for PS2 and PS3

By Tim Hanlon

00:24 June 29, 2009 PDT

If you're comfortable with the thought of dropping another $200 on a superior controller for games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, check out our full review of Logitech's premium wireless guitar controller for the PS2 and PS3. Read More

BMW’s new voice control is a much better listener

By Michael Mulcahy

20:50 June 24, 2009 PDT

BMW has taught its built-in voice control system to better understand spoken commands. Available with all models from September 2009, the new BMW Voice Control will allow a driver to tell the navigation system a destination with a single voice command. Similarly, the entertainment system can be told to find and play a selection by the name of the artist, album or even a specific song title. Read More

Opera lovers Unite: the internet just got more close and personal

By Paul Ridden

17:57 June 17, 2009 PDT

Continuing to lead the field in browser innovation, Norwegian internet company Opera has just announced a brand new development that promises to genuinely open up the internet to absolutely everyone. Opera Unite uses a compact web server inside Opera's latest desktop browser that lets you share your content – photos, music, thoughts and the like. Designed to give users more privacy and flexibility by sharing and serving content directly – without the need for third-party servers – Unite also can run chat rooms and host entire websites. The collaborative web experience has well and truly arrived. Read More

Green guitars: a guide to eco-friendly axes

By Gizmag Team

06:33 June 10, 2009 PDT

We live in environmentally enlightened times. Familiar products have been repackaged and now proudly push their green credentials right in your face. So when looking through the racks of the local guitar shop, why is it that the now familiar “environmentally-friendly” claims are conspicuous by their absence? Given the market advantage that being green seems to offer manufacturers, could it be that no-one in the music industry gives a hoot? Perhaps the world of green awareness hasn't yet reached the world of guitars? Or maybe the kings and queens of tone and resonance are just being a bit less obvious about it? Paul Ridden cuts through the distortion to find out more. Read More

Sony officially announces PSP Go

By Darren Quick

21:58 June 3, 2009 PDT

Sony has confirmed the rumors and officially announced the updated, slimmed down version of its PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld gaming console at E3. The new PSP go features a sliding form factor with the ability to play video and music when closed, or transform into a gaming console when the familiar PlayStation controls are revealed. Read More

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Leonard Grigoryan tests Paul Kinny's Stereo Acoustic Guitar

By Loz Blain

01:43 June 3, 2009 PDT

The regular acoustic guitar is such a familiar and effective shape that it's hard to get past the bizarre looks of Paul Kinny's 'Stereo Acoustic' guitar - but rest assured, it's built that way for a good reason. While standard acoustics have a sound hole that faces forward, projecting the sound to a listening audience, the Stereo Acoustic's two sound holes are pointed directly up at the player. That means that it's an instrument you play for yourself, sitting right inside the sound, enjoying a huge dynamic range and the natural stereo and chorus effects it produces. We took the opportunity to put these unique - and remarkably affordable - acoustics in the hands of classical guitar god Leonard Grigoryan for a video review. Then we locked Lenny in a cage of microphones to take some studio recordings and demonstrate the gorgeous sounds these oddball guitars can produce on tape. Read More

The squidolin takes new approach to teaching violin and there's nothing fishy about it

By Paul Best

21:28 June 2, 2009 PDT

“I love the sound of the violin,” explains Carlos Mendez. “Since I was a kid, I wanted to learn how to play it. But born in a poor country such as Nicaragua, my parents couldn't afford lessons.” It was this childhood affection for the stringed instrument that encouraged the young industrial designer to use part of his final project at the Art Center College of Design in Pasedena, California, where he graduated with honors in product design, to come up with an affordable way of learning the violin. So was born the concept of the “squidolin”. Read More

Music Maker RockStar lets the inner rock god cut loose with freestyle play

By Mike Hanlon

19:53 May 30, 2009 PDT

Playing music is therapeutic in myriad ways. It can soothe the mind, lower blood pressure, increase your IQ – but most of all, it's fun. The recent advent of the Personal Media Player may have taken music to the masses, but it's a fair bet that musical console games will be seen in decades to come as the true democratizing force behind creating your own music. Now, the massive success of play-along games, such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, is about to progress to the next level with the European release of MAGIX Music Maker RockStar for PlayStation 2, which turns your guitar controller into an instrument to be played with complete freedom. Read More

Green energy charger ready and pumped for UK's biggest music festival

By Paul Best

23:30 May 26, 2009 PDT

Mobile operator Orange and renewable energy specialists GotWind know they’ve hit on a good, marketable idea. The companies have joined forces for a third consecutive year to showcase their outdoor charging solution at next month's Glastonbury Festival, the United Kingdom’s largest and hippest open-air music bash. This year Orange has unveiled a mobile phone charger prototype it’s calling the Orange Power Pump. By treading on what is essentially a standard camping air foot-pump, the kinetic energy created drives a small turbine inside the Power Pump. The energy is converted into electrical current, which recharges the mobile phone. The idea is not only simple, it cleverly encourages you to dance and charge your mobile at the same time. Read More

Sony X-Series Walkman packs OLED display and noise canceling technology

By Darren Quick

06:00 May 14, 2009 PDT

Sony has set its PMP sights firmly on the iPod Touch with the new X-Series Walkman. Sporting a similar form factor and much of the functionality of its Apple competitor, the X-Series manages to hold its own with the inclusion of an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) touch screen and integrated digital noise canceling technology. Read More

Archos 2 gives iPod Shuffle a run for its money

By Mick Webb

19:21 May 11, 2009 PDT

When it comes to ultra-compact portable music players, for many the choice

"du jour" has been the ubiquitous iPod Shuffle. Apple’s minute MP3 players have consistently offered an attractive price point and ever diminishing size with each generation of Shuffle, which has allowed the pocket player to claim the lion’s share of the market. Here to give them a run for their money is the Archos 2 portable music player, which packs a punch with size, specs and price. Read More

Podio – for playing out loud

By Jude Garvey

23:48 May 2, 2009 PDT

Taiwanese-based Agios Technology Company has spent two years developing the Podio - a portable digital Hi-Fi player made specially for bikes, but not exclusively. The cylindrical, pocket-sized music machine has been designed to produce a clear, natural sound, which is intended to be listened to without the need for earbuds. Read More

Cisco Linksys Media Hub promises intelligent multimedia management

By Karen Sprey

17:25 April 20, 2009 PDT

‘Whatever you want – wherever and whenever you want it' is pretty much today’s philosophy, especially when it comes to music, movies and photos. We’re used to getting our content at the click of a mouse, button or scroll-wheel and it's this kind of flexibility and simplicity of access that Cisco's Linksys Media Hub aims to bring to personal media collections, delivering up to a terabyte of storage capacity backed by an intuitive interface and remote access functionality. Read More

Lego set to launch a line of portable electronic gear for kids

By Jude Garvey

17:53 April 15, 2009 PDT

Lego Systems has joined with Digital Blue to produce a range of colorful Lego-inspired electronic gear for kids. The range of portable electronics includes an alarm clock (pictured), boom box, MP3 player and later in the year, a stop animation video camera. Designed to appeal to little and big kids, the first products will be released mid-year. Read More

Genius' $50 noise-cancelling GHP-04NC headphones

By Mick Webb

05:45 April 2, 2009 PDT

As recently reported here at Gizmag, when it comes to headphone quality a growing number of consumers seem to be sacrificing sound for style. Fortunately there are companies out there still looking to cater for aural afficianados and the latest effort from Genius - the GHP-04NC Noise Cancelling headphones - have the added bonus of costing half as much as the company's offering from 18 months ago. Read More

Music really is a universal language

By Karen Sprey

04:19 March 30, 2009 PDT

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words but the same image can have different meanings across cultures. Music, however, may bridge the cultural divide: a new study has shown that regardless of culture or previous exposure, people were accurately able to recognize three emotions in Western music - happiness, sadness and fear. Read More

Music does indeed improve the mind

By Mike Hanlon

21:48 March 16, 2009 PDT

March 17, 2009 A number of studies over the years have reported positive associations between music experience and increased abilities in non-musical (e.g., linguistic, mathematical, and spatial) domains in children. Now a new study, published this week in the Journal Psychology of Music, report that children exposed to a multi-year programme of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers. Read More

Wacom nextbeat: wireless digital DJ controller

By Tim Hanlon

17:29 March 15, 2009 PDT

Wacom has taken an unlikely detour from the digital imaging market to create the nextbeat, a complete digital DJ package with a wireless control unit that can be removed from the base unit, and promises to liberate DJs from the booth - but we're not quite sure how that works when the headphones jack is located on the base unit. Read More

Apple's new talking iPod Shuffle

By Darren Quick

23:20 March 12, 2009 PDT

Call it anti-social if you like, but a lot of people listen to portable music players to avoid being spoken to. This hasn’t stopped Apple adding a new VoiceOver feature that speaks song titles, artists and playlist names to the latest iPod shuffle while also shrinking it to nearly half the size of its predecessor. The third generation Shuffle can store 4GB (around 1,000 songs) worth of music in a unit that is smaller than an AA battery. This reduction in size has seen the controls moved from the unit itself onto the included earphone cord - an immediate issue if you don’t happen to like Apple’s earphones. The featureless aluminum design includes the usual built-in stainless steel clip for wearability, but the feature sure to get the most interest is VoiceOver. Read More

Silent Drum wins applause

By Darren Quick

22:27 March 10, 2009 PDT

New technology means new ways to create and express music and new types of interfaces that broaden the definition of a "musical instrument" way beyond traditional parameters. Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology seeks to recognize the creators of new musical instruments with the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. The first winners of the competition include a robotic guitar, SLABS touch pad and a Silent Drum that generates sound by manipulating the elastic spandex head of a drum shell. Read More