When Apple announced its fiscal first quarter earnings last week, which encompassed the three months ended December 2011, much of the attention went to the company’s exceedingly strong iPhone and iPad sales. There was also a lot of talk about its huge profit and exploding cash reserves.
Pop fop Justin Bieber's show-stopping CES 2012 appearance is believed to have cost toy manufacturer Tosy a six-figure sum, according to insiders, meaning the firm will have to sell plenty of $200 robots just to cover the singer's fee. Exact details of the Tosy deal have not been revealed, but Bieber apparently pocketed more than $100k for the brief appearance alongside the mRobo Ultra Robot, The Daily was told.
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Last month we saw the Sony Walkman Z1000 Android-powered medial player cross the FCC. Sony has gone official with the new line of players at CES. The Z1000 has several model numbers in it that are differentiated by their storage capacity. The Z1040 is 8GB, the Z1050 is 16GB, and the Z1060 is a 32GB player.
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Google is readying a music download store described by Android boss Andy Rubin as having "a little twist" to the concept, as the search giant continues to challenge Apple and Amazon. The upcoming music service will not only have the support of the record labels but "will have a little twist ... a little Google in it" Rubin teased. "It won't just be selling 99 cent tracks."
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Motorola has unveiled its own interpretation of the smartwatch PMP, the MOTOACTV, a 1.6-inch touchscreen Android gadget that packs GPS and up to 4,000 of your songs. Intended to track your fitness in a similar way to Nike+, the MOTOACTV is sweat resistant and includes both an FM radio and an integrated audio coach that tells you how fast you’re going and how far you’ve run.
Microsoft has seemingly hammered shut the casket on the Zune HD, despite the PMP's reluctance last week to stay dead. The news was confirmed in the official Windows Phone Blog Radio podcast, and the contentious support page that originally tipped the end of the hardware line - and which Microsoft subsequently said was posted "in error" - has been restored.
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Microsoft has apparently flip-flopped on the Zune HD again, resurrecting its PMP hardware from the dead and claiming axing the media player lineup was never its intent. After first squashing rumors that the Zune hardware line had been killed, then promptly admitting that the Zune HD was, indeed, dead, Microsoft's support team now insists that "no official info has been released stating hardware is being discontinued."
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Microsoft has officially confirmed that its Zune PMPs – including the Zune HD - have been axed, despite having denied yesterday that such a decision about the media players had been made. “We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy,” Microsoft’s Zune Player support page claims, “and that we will no longer be producing Zune players”
Samsung has announced a new portable media player called the Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 3.6. It follows after a long list of IFA 2011 announcements this morning from the South Korean company but doesn't fall into the smartphone or tablet category. Instead, it appears to simply be a 3.6-inch addition to Samsung's existing 4- and 5-inch Galaxy S Players.
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I love a good smartphone. I work for Samsung, and I carry a Galaxy S II that I’ve been “testing” for an extended period of time. I use just about every feature on it. I listen to music. I navigate. I talk and text. I take pictures and video. I’ve even read books on it. I’m not pushing my product, I can hardly name a smartphone on the market that cannot do these things. But I just read Jon Pilon’s column on TheNextWeb.com about consolidating all of your gadgets. You know, because most people want to carry around only one gadget, instead of a half dozen. Right?
While we've been fielding rumors of iPhone 5's and iPad HD's of late, let's not forget the iPod touch, itself due for a refresh in September. Rumors regarding what the fifth-gen touch could offer have been thin on the ground so far, but Applespot.nl claims the PMP will, in fact, be the much-requested iPod touch 3G, adding a data-only cellular connection to the touchscreen media-player.
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Goodbye, MiniDisc, we loved you. Well, perhaps not love, but at least a grudging regard. Unfortunately, grudging regards don't add up to sales, and Sony has decided to axe the MZ-RH1 MiniDisc Hi-MD Walkman in September this year. Worry not about your precious MiniDiscs themselves, however; those still using the format will have time to stock up.
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