Proving your parents’ point that exciting things can come in mundane looking packages, the new Teclast T51 PMP doesn’t exactly inspire at first-glance but certainly leaves us impressed once we’ve worked our way through the spec-sheet. The T51 has a capacitive touchscreen, 8GB (and possibly 16GB) of internal storage and a memory card slot, but what’s really exciting is the audiophile-quality components inside.
It’s obviously a week for mobile music, as Rhapsody has become the latest media streaming app to land on the iPhone [iTunes link]. Promising to do for US Apple customers what Spotify on iPhone has done in Europe, the new application offers its 8 million tracks over WiFi or mobile; however, unlike Spotify it’s unable to play music when offline, using cached versions of songs.
Like the European service, Rhapsody on iPhone demands a monthly subscription – in this case, Rhapsody To Go, which costs $15 per month. There’s a week’s free trial included when you download the app initially, which is something Spotify foolishly didn’t include, and tracks are streamed in 64kbps quality.
Apple’s last-remaining hard-drive based PMP, the iPod classic, has also had a quiet upgrade today, with the company throwing out the 120GB of the previous version and slotting in 160GB instead. The iPod classic remains the same size as previously, though, together with keeping the same price tag.
Apple have unveiled the latest incarnation of the iPod shuffle, and they’ve managed to bring the entry-price down to just $59 for the 2GB model and $79 for the 4GB. There’s also a new, special edition version with a polished stainless steel casing, priced at $99 for 4GB.
Looking for a bargain? Not interested in (possibly) taking photos with your PMP? Apple are doing some shelf clearing with an impromptu price slash across their iPod touch range, with the 8GB dumped unceremoniously by $40 to $189.
Netgear have announced their latest networked media box, the EVA2000 Digital Entertainer Live, which allows for both locally-streamed and IPTV content to be shown on your big-screen TV. The EVA2000 can play YouTube videos, pay-per-view movies, Hulu, VuNow and Netflix content, among other things, together with audio, video and images from USB external storage.
Having released Spotify Mobile for the iPhone, iPod touch and Android earlier on today, Spotify have followed up with a demo of their upcoming S60 version. Much anticipated among Symbian users, the app will support the same offline playback and full catalog access of its released cousins.
Video demo after the cut
Spotify have released both their iPhone and Android mobile apps, a little over a week after Apple approved it in late August. Premium subscribers to the streaming music service will now be able to access Spotify’s catalog on their iPhone, iPod touch, or any of the Android devices currently available. The app also supports offline playback, where tracks are cached in the background and thus can be played back even when there is no network connection, particularly useful for iPod touch owners.
Unlike streaming radio, Spotify allows users to search from their database of tracks and put together custom playlists. The desktop version of the service has both ad-supported free and paid “premium” versions (which do not have adverts), but only the latter group will be able to use the mobile client.
Video demos after the cut
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Nokia have announced that, thanks to new agreements with carriers and music studios, users of their Comes With Music unlimited downloads service will now be able to extend the service beyond the initial included period. However no specific pricing figures have been revealed as yet.
Parrot have announced their latest head-unit, the iPhone-compatible RKi8400, which eschews a dull old CD player for Bluetooth A2DP streaming, an SD card slot, iPod/iPhone connectivity, USB PMP support and standard line-in ports. It also works as a Bluetooth hands-free kit, with the Parrot RKi8400 having a 2.4-inch color LCD display text-to-speech support and a 7-band equalizer.
SlashGear Japan
