вторник, 7 июля 2009 г.
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Thought at Walkman's 30th birthday: why did iPod dominate the media market taday?  hellen 03:54:30 |
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Sony Walkman has turned 30 years old today. Thirty years ago, the device was revolutionary changed the way people listened to music. Sony sold 30,000 Walkmans in the first two months after its launch, and 50 million within a decade. It created the portable media player market. Three decades on, however, Sony is struggling against rivals such as Apple, which has enjoyed immense success with its iPod music player. Apple iPod might be the market leader today. While people celebrate Walkman's 30th birthday, I wonder what makes iPod became dominance in the media player market instead of the original Sony Walkman?
Sony Company has always been developing its video and audio products. Sony Walkman's latest flagship model, the NW-X1060, packs noise canceling, a bright touch screen display, mobile TV, and the ability to surf the Internet With the storage of 32GB, it can hold 8,000 songs (128kbps mp3) or 120h video playback (at 384kbps). It support all major file types includes MP3, MP4, WMA, AAC, Linear PCM, AVC, WMV, JPEG.
The Sony PSP Go will come in fall of this year. It is a much smaller, sexier device that drops the UMD, adds 16GB of flash RAM and Bluetooth, and compresses the older PSP’s brick-like form factor to a narrower, sleeker size and shape. It’s got a huge amount of storage space for you to store music, videos and games. The files support MPEG-4, AVI video format and MP3 audio format.
Besides the multimedia player, Sony’s phone also has powerful multimedia function. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is convergence of multimedia entertainment and mobile web communication. It has a 3.0 inches TFT touchscreen with shades of 65K internal screen colours and gives a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. This let the users to play games and watch video clips on its wide screen easily. The video resolution support 640x480 pixels and video format support MPEG-4. The music format support: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eACC+, WMA (including protected WMA).
By the way, a lot of people don’t know where to get videos and songs when they take a Sony multimedia device. Some may purchase music and movies online. If you still don’t know where to get or don’t want to buy online, you may use [url=http://www.nidesoft.com/dvd-to-sony-xperia-converter.html]Nidesoft DVD to Sony Xperia Converter[/url] to convert DVD files into your Sony device, or use [url=http://www.nidesoft.com/sony-xperia-video-converter.html]Nidesoft Sony Xperia Converter[/url] to convert all other video files into Sony device. It can be used for all Sony products.
After look into Sony product, let’s turn our attention to iPod. Apple first released the original iPod in late 2001, and it was quickly destined to be a huge success. It was exactly what people wanted. It has simple interface, large capacity, fashionable, and visually attractive.
Simple Interface - The Apple iPod has an extremely simple interface, needing only a few seconds of use to be able to master it. It is very easy to use.
Large capacity - The current regular iPod has 8GB or 16GB capacity. It can holds large amount of songs and movies, enable you to enjoy them.
It's visually attractive – The appearance of iPod was fashionable. They made it look very sexy, appealing to just about everyone, and is now extremely recognizable.
Windows and Mac compatibility - When they crossed over to the windows market, they more than tripled their market, literally reaching anyone that owned a computer.
These are the things that really make the Apple iPod dominate the mobile MP3 player market, reaching over 70% of the market share. Apple never simply wanted to dominate the market with one product though, they're still releasing new products at an alarming rate, each of which are doing extremely well. From iPod Mini to iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, from first generation to second generation, third generation. The Apple iPod will never stop giving us surprise by improving its iPod products, and I think that is the most important reason why iPod lead the media player market.
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пятница, 26 июня 2009 г.
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| HTC Magic Review - The HTC Google G2 Phone is Just Magic hellen 02:49:54 |
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The HTC Google G2 Phone is the latest entrant into the android touch screen smart phone line up of HTC. As it is a “special” one: this phone has not yet been released in the United States, and has only a very limited release internationally, I have great interest of full disclosure to let you know this mobile phone. The HTC Google G2 Phone is known internationally as the HTC Magic, and it is a pretty snazzy phone.
Hardware
The HTC Magic smart phone Google G2 is enclosed in a cool white plastic case. It has a slightly protruding bottom that does not hinder the sleekness of its design in any way. A wide 3.2-inch touch screen sprawls on the face of the phone. The LCD TFT screen is vibrant and colorful with its high HVGA 320X480 pixel resolution. The screen attracts fingerprints but this is a commonly found blip in most touch screen phones in the market today. There is also a trackball for navigation. The absence of a physical QWERTY keyboard on this wholly touch screen operated phone has helped the phone knock off some of its weight and appear slimmer.
Software
The alluring wrapping of the HTC Magic is augmented by the android software platform that it uses as its brain. This software ensures fast and high performance of applications of the phone. The superior quality android operating system also allows you to add new applications and games to your HTC Magic smart phone through the android market by exploring options like ‘shopping’, ‘arcade’, ‘social’ and ‘travel’.
Android software in the mobile phone also implies more customization- users can tailor the handset to meet their specific needs by swapping the home screen, applications or even the dialer style. The Android software also lets you access third party applications and not just the core applications and data on the phone. This makes the HTC Magic more open.
The phone has integrations with Google applications. Google Talk, G mail, Google search, Google calendar are some of the applications accessible via the HTC Magic. Google Street view has been integrated with the phone’s mapping applications making it possible to view streets virtually to find out the way. The phone’s GPS facility supports efficacious working of maps.
Multimedia
The HTC Magic has a 3.2 Mega pixel auto focus enabled camera for the masterpiece photograph.. Its powerful video recording capabilities allows you to post videos directly on You Tube or share videos with friends via e-mail or MMS. It is capable of playing media files including videos and audio files. The video looks perfect with the 480x320 pixels screen and the music sounds beautiful. It supports only video formats like MP4 and 3GP which is slightly less when compared to the current standards of android mobiles. That’s doesn’t matter, third party software like [url=http://www.nidesoft.com/dvd-to-mobile-converter.html]Nidesoft DVD to Mobile Converter[/url] can convert DVD videos to HTC Magic video and [url=http://www.nidesoft.com/video-converter.html]Nidesoft Video Converter[/url] can convert all other formats video to HTC Magic video. It also supports rang of audio files including MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV and OGG, and the third party software can also be used for audio files.
Other interesting features:
The phone has high performance Internet mettle due to the presence of HSDPA with a speed of 7.2 Mbps and Wi Fi support. Fast downloads make your mobile Internet experience on the HTC Magic a joy. Stereo Blue tooth connectivity is also present in the phone.
The battery life of HTC G2 is much longer than HTC G1. The stand by time is 660 hours for WCDMA and 420 hours for GSM. The talk time is 400 minutes for WCDMA and 450 minutes for GSM. The 1340 mAh Lithium-ion battery is rechargeable.
Conclusion
Based on what I’ve seen, the HTC Magic seems like a really solid device. We like the Magic, maybe even love it a little bit. But it is a little disappointed at its price of about 6oo dollars, much higher than the new iPhone 3G S and the new Palm Pre.
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воскресенье, 31 мая 2009 г.
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| iPhone 3.0 vs. Palm Pre: which one would you want to get? hellen 07:01:37 |
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iPhone or Palm Pre?
Sprint, Palm Pre’s exclusive carrier announced that Palm Pre would be launched on June 6. Then this summer that’s the question many would-be-smart phone purchasers just might ask themselves. Both have their pros and cons. The iPhone has a huge profile and market presence, but the Pre has the old-school Palm faithful who have been waiting a long time for their Next Big Thing. The iPhone has massive channels and even Sprint admits they won’t be advertising the Palm Pre much due to low initial supply. But those most likely to want the Palm Pre already know it’s coming, where to get, and may well be reading this while already standing in line.
But what about the consumer on the edge? The consumer who has an older iPhone or Palm, or the one who’s about to move up from a feature phone for the first time. What about the dreaded “undecided”? This article is for them. Now let’s get it on.
Display
IPhone: beautiful, large (3.5 inch diagonal), high-resolution (480x320 screen) multi-touch display.
Palm Pre: Beautiful, large (3.1 inch diagonal), high-resolution (480x320 screen). The screen is not as large as the iPhone (0.4 inch smaller) but this is balanced against other hardware features such as the removable battery and sliding keyboard further below.
Advantage: Tie
Keyboard
Palm Pre has a physical, hardware-based QWERTY keyboard while the iPhone has a virtual, software-based keyboard that can be QWERTY (or anything else).
For those who need to feel those keys, the Palm Pre is the obvious choice. However, the Pre’s keyboard is reportedly somewhere between a Treo Pro and a Palm Centro: softer, more gummy keys with a narrow width overall. It might not be to everyone’s liking. That said, at least the Pre has one, and it’s a slider to boot, which means if you don’t need it, you can just tuck it away back under the screen where it came from.
The iPhone, can draw any kind of keyboard it wants. So if you need to type occasionally (or often) in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, or most any language, you can easily switch between those exact keyboards. You can also automatically be presented with web-optimized, or video, audio — any task at all — specific keyboards.
The iPhone is an excellent touch screen phone, no doubt. But for heavy texters and e-mail addicts, the lack of a physical keyboard can be annoying. Now Palm Pre combined a touch screen and keyboard, pleasing both touch screen and keyboard fans. So Palm Pre wins.
Advantage: Palm Pre
Network
In the US — which is the only country with initial availability — Sprint has exclusive rights to the Palm Pre, much as AT&T has a lock on the iPhone. When you choose mobile phone, also make a choice between the carriers. There are two factors to consider:
1. AT&T is a GSM network, which means you can theoretically pop out your SIM card and put it in another mobile phone. It is great in emergencies, and if you travel and don’t want to deal with roaming charges. Sprint is CDMA, so any phone switches involves a call to your carrier at the very least.
2. Sprint doesn’t currently allow simultaneous voice and data. This means if you’re talking on the Palm Pre, you can’t use the web or email, and vice versa. If you’re using an iPhone on AT&T’s EDGE service, you’ll have the same problem, but if you’re on 3G, there are no worries at all. For the Palm Pre, you’d have to switch to Wi-Fi to do that.
Again, for me, using voice and data at the same time has become a must. Looking up information while out and about on a call is a frequent occurrence. If you’re not accustomed to it, you may not miss it, but once you are, it’s hard to go back.
Advantage: iPhone
Applications
Installing new applications on the iPhone is a complete joy. It’s ultra simple and quick – an absolutely superb experience than virtually nobody has matched today. With 15,000+ apps now available there is something here for everybody and although there is a lot of rubbish there are also many superb applications.
Palm has already confirmed that it will create a full App Catalog – one that will presumably have the same functionality and ease-of-use as Apple’s App Store. Though maybe there will not (initially at least) be as many apps available for the iPhone as for the Palm Pre.
Advantage: Tie
Multimedia
For Palm Pre, it offers a 3-megapixel camera. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snap any photos, but early reports say that the quality is pretty good. Disappointingly, the camera won't have video recording capabilities at this time, but those could be added in the future. In terms of music and movie, it is reported that the music sounds very beautiful, also the movie looks perfect with the 320*480 pixels screen. However Palm Pre can only play MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 videos and MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV audio files. What if you have large music or video collections you want to carry around with you on your mobile? I have got third part software to do this admire job: use Nidesoft DVD to Palm Converter http://www.nidesoft.com/dvd-to-palm-converter.html) to convert DVD collections into Palm Pre and Nidesoft Video Converter(http://www.nidesoft.com/video-converter.html) to convert video or music collections into Palm Pre.
As far as iPhone, there’s no doubt that iPhone is wonderful music mobile phone. Listening to music, viewing photos and watching movies/videos is just “something else” on the iPhone. IPhone can play MPEG-4 videos with resolution of 640 *480, up to 160 Kbps. Also it supports audio formats including AAC (16 to 320 kbps), MP3 (16 to 320 kbps), and WAV. With its beautiful 3.5-inch wide screen display and Multi-Touch controls, iPhone is an amazing iPod. Watch movies and TV shows in wide screen, iPhone brings you a video experience unlike any other portable device.
Advantage: Tie
Conclusion
So there you have it. Two companies that both pride themselves on their high-skill products. One who’s Newton spawned an industry that the other is Pilot defined and dominated, went on to converge with the Treo only to fall behind and get eclipsed by the iPhone, and is now poised to come back with the Pre. Apple is going on to the third version of their smart phone line while Palm is introducing the first version of their third act.
If it seems like the only real deciding factors are where you live and work, what you want to do, and how you prefer to do it, well — yeah. That’s it.
Bottom line, the competition between iPhone and Pre is good for Apple and Palm — it keeps them on their toes and on top of their games — and it’s better for us. We’re lucky to live in a time and place where we have such increasingly awesome mobile options to choose between.
Come this summer, we’ll have a few more choices as well. Which one will be yours?
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