Technology Corner

Archive for the ‘Media Player’ Category

Apple iPod Touch third-generation version has arrived, flaunting 8GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities. The third-generation iPod Touch design is unchanged at all. Just like its phone-wielding sibling, the iPhone, the iPod Touch is a touch-screen device with a glass-covered 3.5-inch screen that sports a 480×320-pixel resolution. Despite its touchscreen interface, Apple includes some physical buttons, including a finer volume control on the left side, switch on the top and home buttons at the front of the player, which is below the screen. Lower edge of the Touch includes the same universal port docking station and 3.5 mm jack for headphones, as the previous model, drilling otherwise uninterrupted chrome steel extension that wraps the back and edges of the device.

The size and shape of The Touch also remained unchanged (4.3 cm high by 2.4 inches wide 0.33 inches), some flat glass front set in a curved steel support that is natural to hand but it makes the iPod a bit shaky, when installed on the table. The Touch is packed with Universal Dock Apple USB connector cable, a pair of white headphones, which include a microphone and a remote control on the cable, insert molding, and a universal base for use in any capacity or accessories speakers.

Out of the box, the third-generation iPod Touch includes an amazing music player, podcast support, video playback (including rental of iTunes and YouTube player), the Safari browser, photo viewer, e-mail reader (compatible with Outlook, Exchange, MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL or POP E-Mail Service), integrated iTunes Store for music and video files, as well as many smaller utilities (weather, calendar, maps, stocks, notes, notes voice, clock, contacts, calendar and calculator). Provided become proficient with its touch-screen keyboard, the iPod Touch is more pocket PC than an MP3 player.

Video battery life is a tough one to test for the Touch or iPhone, so the player has been incorporated into the provision, interruption of video playback when the battery is low, forcing us to collect video playback on several occasions to assess the full measure of battery discharge video.

The market research firm IDC says that Apple will unveil its long-awaited tablet device late next year. In the newly released “Top 10 predictions” Report for the year 2010, IDC analyst Frank Gens, said that the endless rumor is true: Apple iPad “will premiere during the year.
The iPad a tablet computer Apple announced on 27 January 2010. This 0.5-inches thick, weighs 1.5 kg and has a 9.7-inch IPS capacitive multitouch screen. It is powered by its own 1GHz processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and is available in 16, 32 or 64 GB of Flash storage. Additional features include an accelerometer, a compass, speaker, microphone, 30-pin dock connector Apple and 10-hour internal battery.
The music player is a hybrid, the style as a cross between the iPhone interface for iTunes and iPod full desktop. Interestingly, Cover Flow seems to have more or less died off. The photo library app looks a lot like iPhoto, only adapted for multitouch finger input. YouTube is available in the form of applications, iPhone style, which can play 720p HD video formats. The iTunes video content is played on special applications, such as the iPhone, but can also play in HD. Movie codec support otherwise the same as the iPhone, which is very limited.
Standard applications come pre-loaded device includes a mobile Web browser, Safari, E-book reader application called iBooks, calendar application, two panels of electronic applications, contacts, notes, Google Maps, Media Player, Viewer photos, iTunes Store and the App Store to load third party applications and games. Existing applications for iPhone will focus on the screen at its native resolution of 480×320, or can be run in extended mode, when an application has been increased to fit the screen.

Cowon may be a bit of an underdog in the U.S. market by sales, but this Korean company that knows how to make a quality player MP3. A solid and compact player dominated by a 2.5-inch screen. Cowon D2 is a rather geeky PMP, which fits perfectly into the palm of your hand, ready to play a 30-frame video, photos and music at the touch of a virtual button. With up to 4GB of internal flash storage plus an SD card slot–and a 50-hour battery life–the D2 can keep you mindlessly occupied for hours on end.

The Devices controls are along the top, which includes a power switch, volume up / down, and the menu / custom buttons, as well as a pinhole mic for voice recordings. The AC power jack and standard USB mini ports (AC adapter and USB cable are included) are covered by a plastic door on the left side next to the headphone jack, and an SD card slot is on the bottom.

D2 is shown as an external drive on Macs and PCs (and Linux boxes), and can synchronize with Windows Media Player or MTP-compatible client. Using the touchscreen is surprisingly easy, thanks to just the right amount of sensitivity and a mostly well-thought-out interface that works well with your fingers or the included stylus. The D2 can play WMA (including PlaysForSure audio content), MP3, OGG, FLAC, WAV, and APE, plus AVI files (320 by 240 or less). To create playable video files.

The integrated FM tuner is sensitive enough to pick up even fringe stations very well that make it easy to record radio at up to 256Kbps in MP3 format. The voice recorder also works fairly well, though the tiny pinhole mic is very easy to overload.

The D2’s sound quality with the stock earbuds is very good right out of the box–partly because of the strengthening of several sound modules active by default. Video and photo playback are both excellent in terms of clarity, smoothness, and color. Battery life is one of the greatest victories of the D2: It will play audio for around 50 hours and video for 8 to 10 hours–very impressive on both counts.