November 6, 2011

Soundmagic E30 Review

After being very positively surprised by the Soundmagic E10, it goes without saying that their slightly pricier brethren, the E30, should get the same review treatment as well. ‘Pricier’ here means a difference of a whopping five currency units – 35 vs. 40, either US dollars or Her Majesty’s pounds, depending on where you live.

The E10 and E30 actually look nothing alike, the former being an aluminum barrel-shaped IEM, the latter being a plastic over-the-ear fit one. However, once they’re in the ears, the Soundmagic family resemblance is easily spotted. Read on for an in-depth look at the E30, and a comparison to the earlier reviewed E10. Continue reading…

October 31, 2011

CrowdGadgets subscribers eligible to win eight weeks of great prizes!

Subscribers of the CrowdGadgets newsletter will be eligible to win eight weeks’ worth of great prizes starting November 7th! The gadgets were selected in honor of each of the sites in the CrowdGather Gadget Network, with Anythingbutipod giving away a Cowon i10.

The CrowdGadgets newsletter complements the CrowdGadgets podcast. Here’s what you could win by subscribing:

November 7th: StreakSmart.com, Dell Streak 7 WiFi
November 14th: Pocketables.net, Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0
November 21st: Anythingbutipod.com, Cowon i10
November 28th: NothingButTablets.com, Amazon Kindle Fire
December 5th: GoodAndEVO.net, HTC EVO 3D
December 12th: Anythingbutiphone.com, HTC HD7/Trophy Windows Phone
December 19th: ZuneBoards.com, Star Wars Xbox 360
December 26th: CrowdGadgets.com, Amazon Kindle Fire

All newsletter subscribers will be automatically entered to win one of these awesome gadgets. The contest is open to everyone, not just those in the US, and the results will be announced in the newsletter. All we ask is that the lucky winners contact us so they can redeem their prize.

The fun will kick off with a Dell Streak 7 WiFi next week and continue until the Amazon Kindle Fire is given away on December 26th. Once again, you only need be a CrowdGadgets newsletter subscriber. Good luck!

October 27, 2011

Zune Music coming to Australia on November 16

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that Australians will finally get access to the Zune Music Marketplace and Zune Music Pass on November 16. This is exciting news for Australian customers who have been waiting years to get their hands on music direct from Zune.

Australia’s Zune Music Pass will run subscribers $11.99 a month or $119.90 a year. It will include all of the features people have come to expect, including unlimited streaming music videos, which was introduced earlier this month as part of the service’s expansion into Canada. The aforementioned announcement also included a price drop from $14.99 to $9.99, but the conversion rate means Australian customers will be paying a bit more.

The Zune Music Marketplace has a library of “more than 11 million tracks available for purchase in MP3 format.” DRM-free tracks purchased through the service are playable on every MP3-compatible device, while Zune Pass content can be streamed to Zune devices, Windows Phone, Xbox 360, the Zune PC software client, and Zune.net. The service is also accessible through Bing’s Music section.

We’re very excited to see the service start playing in yet another international market. It’s been a long time in coming, but the wait will be over in just three weeks.

[Zune Insider]

October 26, 2011

Brainwavz B2 review

After taking a closer look at the Brainwavz Beta and M2, it’s time to review their current flagship product, the B2.

Contrary to other Brainwavz IEMs, the B2 doesn’t use a dynamic driver; they sport a dual balanced armature to create all those wonderful sounds – not just any armature at that, but the widely used Knowles TWFK, the same one found in the Jays q-Jays, Audio Technica ATH-CK10, Ultimate Ears UE700, or the Fischer Audio DBA-02 (which also use the same OEM design as the B2).

Read on to find out how the B2 fare in the sub-$200 price range of in-ear phones. Continue reading…

October 24, 2011

Anythingbutipod launches the CrowdGadgets newsletter

Anythingbutipod is excited to finally launch the CrowdGadgets newsletter. Announced last week, the CrowdGadgets newsletter brings together the biggest news from around the CrowdGather Gadget Network, including Anythingbutiphone, Anythingbutipod, Good and EVO, Nothing But Tablets, Pocketables, and StreakSmart. It’s a great way to catch up on last week’s news in a digest format.

New issues are delivered straight to subscribers’ email inboxes every Monday, and it perfectly coordinates with the weekly CrowdGadgets podcast which is regularly released on the same day. We encourage those interested to sign up for the free newsletter on our website, CrowdGadgets.com.

Subscribers will also have a chance to win cool prizes. Details on how–and what–you can win will revealed in the next issue of the newsletter, but we have a feeling you’ll really like what’s in store.

Thank you for continued support of Anythingbutipod. We can’t wait to hear what you think of the newsletter.

October 21, 2011

The Digizoid ZO2 is (almost) released

Putting it subtly, one could say I’m a rabid fanboy of the Digizoid ZO ‘portable subwoofer’. It is basically the best bass boosting headphone amp available.

The first version of the ZO wasn’t without some flaws, though, as I wrote in the review linked above. Being very good listeners, Digizoid took many improvement suggestions by users into account for their freshly updated model.

On the audio side of things, the new ZO2 should have less background hiss, should be better EMI/RFI shielded, the 32 processing steps should be more evenly spaced, and there should be no more clicks and pops at turning the amp on or off. The new housing is rubberized instead of glossy plastic, and the ZO2 now has a volume control, so it can be used with line-level outputs as well. Battery life is slightly improved, and a low battery indicator as well as improved shutdown handling have been added.

The ZO2 can be preordered from Digizoid – expect my review of it soon-ish.

October 19, 2011

Motorola Motoactv is for outdoorsy people

No wonder Motorola is releasing one Android device after another, being acquired by Google and all. What is a bit more bewildering is the rather uncanny resemblance of the new Motoactv to the current generation iPod nano.

The Motoactv’s feature set however distinguishes itself quite a bit from Apple’s oversized Mickey Mouse wrist watch. Besides being a music player with Bluetooth 4.0 support (running headphone wires up your sleeve sure would be awkward) and 1-inch touch screen, it features GPS, a heart rate monitor, and lots of fancy software to track your workout progress. The results can also be uploaded to Motorola’s Motoactv website for analysis. The device also works with other ANT+ aware heart rate sensors, sports an FM radio, and comes in sizes of 8 or 16GB ($249 and $299, respectively). Battery life is said to be between 5 and 10 hours with all features in use. The wrist band can be removed; an arm band is also available.

[Press release via CNET] Thanks to Marvin for the tip.

October 18, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0 have finally been released

Already announced in January 2011, it took good old Sammy long enough to get these 4″ and 5″ 480×800 screen things on the American market. Speaking of market: contrary to Cowon’s D3 and Archos’ Generation 8, Samsung’s phones-without-a-phone come with the official Android Market installed. The long wait for the Galaxy Players’ release also paid off on the operating system side of things – both players run on Android 2.3.5, which is one of the more recent ‘Gingerbread’ versions. Besides the usual variety of codecs and containers found on Android devices, the Galaxy players support MKV, FLV, OGG Vorbis, and FLAC as well.

Hardware specs are quite exhaustive. With front and rear cameras both shutterbugs and chatterbugs should be happy; GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, and Wi-Fi B/G/N are present as well. Not to mention a very necessary MicroSDHC slot – since internal capacity is only a pathetic 8GB for both players. Samsung claims the 2500mAh battery in the Galaxy 5.0 should last up to 60 hours for music playback, which sounds a bit implausible. Eight hours video playback seems more realistic, though. The Galaxy 4.0 runs on a 1200mAh battery and should presumably deliver 54 hours for music and five hours for video.

[Amazon: Galaxy Player 4.0 | Galaxy Player 5.0] Thanks to Lagoo56 for the tip.

October 17, 2011

Anythingbutipod announces the CrowdGadgets newsletter

Anythingbutipod is excited to announce the CrowdGadgets newsletter! Subscribers will be treated to weekly updates with news from around the CrowdGather Gadget Network, including Anythingbutiphone, Anythingbutipod, Good and EVO, Nothing But Tablets, Pocketables, and StreakSmart. Additional CrowdGather websites, such as Zune Boards, will be hopping on board in the near future.

The CrowdGadgets newsletter is the perfect companion to the aforementioned sites and the CrowdGadgets podcast, which was launched just a few short weeks ago. Each issue of the newsletter will be sent straight to subscriber inboxes and include a recap of the latest news from our respective sites.

The first issue of the newsletter will be sent out to subscribers on Monday, October 24, so we encourage readers to sign up today. We’ve also included a QR code after the break for convenience. Best of all, subscribers will be entered to win great prizes. Stay tuned for more details on how to win.

Thank you for continuing to support Anythingbutipod. We love our readers, and we hope you’ll subscribe to the CrowdGadgets newsletter and podcast.

Continue reading…

October 15, 2011

FiiO E6 Portable Headphone Amp Review

 

FiiO is a Chinese audio company that should need no introduction by now. Among all the headphone amp, soundcard, and cable manufacturers they are probably the one with the best bang-for-buck ratio, consistently delivering high quality products for a very fair price.

Their older tiny portable amp model – the E5 – is still quite popular among users, and seriously well performing for its $20 price tag. Let’s see if FiiO could up the ante a notch with the E5’s recently introduced successor, the E6. Continue reading…