Ultimate Ears triple.vi- iPhoning with style

I have long been a fan of Ultimate Ears headphones.  I've used mine for years and they never fail to impress me with their rich booming bass in headphones that fit in the ear.  It was with reluctance that I replaced them with the Bang & Olufsen headset so I could both listen to music and make phone calls with my iPhone.  Now I am torn as the Ultimate Ears folks have produced a kicking headset for the iPhone and Blackberries.  The triple.vi 10 pairs those wonderful earbuds with a microphone so you can blow your ears off and still make phone calls using the phone.  Now you know what to get that iPhonista who has everything.  $420.

Zune music subscription now includes 10 monthly downloads-to-keep

More news on the Zune front as the holiday season begins to heat warm up like mild baby bathwater. Earlier in the week, we saw price cuts on the Zune flash-based players, which left hard-drive shoppers out in the cold. Today, all current and potential Zune owners get another tidbit that's pretty darn appealing. Starting today: all Zune Pass subsribers gain the ability to download and keep ten songs per month at no extra charge.

That means your $14.95 monthly subscription fee not only includes unlimited music streaming but could save you around $10 a month because you get to "buy" ten songs:

"Zune Pass subscribers will have the added benefit of retaining digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3 tracks from Sony BMG and UMG, in addition to MP3 tracks from EMI Music, Warner Music Group and a large portion of the independent music labels. With the addition of tracks from UMG and Sony BMG, Zune will soon offer over 90 percent of its music in the MP3 format."

That's ten DRM-free MP3 audio files included with the unlimited streaming subscription. Looks like Microsoft is starting to think about how they can compete or differentiate themselves from Apple and Nokia's "Comes with Music" deal. Now if they can add Zune support to Windows Mobile and get some marketing behind the ideas, I think they can start making some real progress.

(via The Mobile Gadgeteer)

Zune news: new firmware and lower pricing

Couple of bits on the Microsoft Zune Player front and I don't just mean that the device works with Celio's new REDFLY. Turns out that there's a minor firmware update ready and waiting for Zune owners according to Zune Thoughts: version 3.1 adds new games and feature enhancements. Once you update, you'll see Checkers, the ever-popular and maddeningly addictive SuDoKu, and Space Battle. Also included is an update to Texas Hold 'em which adds multi-player support. I'm staying away from that because of a time-sucking similar game I'm using on my iPhone all too frequently... more on that some other time.

The flash-based Zune players are also getting a break in the MSRP department per Mobile Devices Today:

• 4GB = $99
• 8GB = $139
• 16GB = $179

Hard-drive based Zune pricing isn't changing. While it's good to see the Zune gain more functionality and drop in price, the flash-based DAP market is packed with competitors and, in my opinion, dying a slow death. There's still a market there to be sure, but I see it declining as smartphones and other small web-capable devices offer more in terms of features. I said this back in July and still believe it today. Regardless, the new Zune pricing makes this more of compelling purchase if you're in the market. I still have my first-gen Zune and it's a solid digital audio player.

New Celio REDFLYs: one more mobile, one extends media devices

Normally, this time of year is what I call the "CES quiet period". Major product announcements are farther and fewer between than normal because the massive January show is right around the corner. Luckily, nobody told the folks at Celio because the company just announced two new REDFLY models, the C7 and C8N. These are both slightly different than the original (see our video review) and are far below the original price of that device when it came out, which addresses some potential customer's concerns. Both devices are still meant to pair with your Windows Mobile smartphone, a unique solution that brings the mobile OS, connectivity, and processing power to a more usable display and keyboard.

The REDFLY C7 shaves of a little size and weight, moving down to an 7-inch display, lighter battery and weight of 1.5 pounds. Celio says the C7 should run for five hours on a single charge. I'd think most folks wouldn't use this smartphone companion for all day computing, so it sounds like a workable situation to me. The C7 can be pre-ordered today at $229, with delivery starting December 1st.

The new C8N REDFLY model extends the device beyond the traditional smartphone to bring media to your mobile environment. The C8N supports USB connections to an iPod, iPhone, Microsoft Zune player or supported digital camera so you can view and listen to media on the 8-inch 800x480 display. Celio will offer a $19.95 REDFLY Media Cable that provides a third USB port to the REDFLY and also accepts composite video signals. The C8N is also available for pre-order today at $299 and shipping is expected to start on the same day as the C7.

Update: our podcast co-host, Matt Miller, put the new REDFLY C8N through the paces and offers up a review with video. Looks like he was able to connect his iPhone and Nokia N96 for media playback on the 8-inch display.

Blue Snowflake USB microphone sounds good

I've noticed a common denominator in some of the netbooks I've seen of late: the integrated microphone is sub-par. And while many folks don't use a netbook for audio recording or voice communications, I've found that the form factor makes for a great little Skype machine. If only the microphone worked as well as the camera. That's why I was interested in the Snowflake USB microphone from Blue. The folks at Blue sent over a review unit and I've had a few weeks to give it a go.

Rebuild an iTunes library from an iPhone or iPod with Senuti

While James has been sharing his new MacBook trackpad experiences, I've actually been doing some maintenance on my MacBook Pro. Most of it was cleaning up stray files, removing applications I no longer use and wiping out local data that's stored in the cloud. I also moved my iTunes library to a 320GB USB drive. On one hand, I hate to have a USB port always taken up since the MacBook Pro only has two ports to begin with. On the other hand, I'd rather not use space on my notebook hard drive for my media. The one thing I absolutely didn't want to do was accidentally wipe out the iTunes library in both places, so of course that's what happened.

I'm not one to back up my iTunes library as 98% of it came from ripped CDs and a few Amazon MP3 purchases. I could have re-ripped the CDs but that's as much fun as watching long YouTube videos over EDGE, so I went a different route. I moved the songs back onto my comptuer from my iPhone using a free application called Senuti.

jkOnTheRun video- Plantronics Pulsar 590E Bluetooth headset

We are always getting asked what wireless headset we recommend for use with VoIP on notebooks and since we've been using the Pulsar 590E Bluetooth Headset for a good while decided to shoot a quick video.  The Pulsar was used for the audio in headset mode so you can get a feel for the audio quality it provides.  The Pulsar can be used as either a wireless headset with any device that supports the A2DP protocol and also as stereo headphones.  Take a look at the video and listen to the audio quality and you'll see how good the 590E is for wireless audio use.  It is small and very light which makes it comfortable for long-term use.  Enjoy the show.

Snowflake, a portable USB microphone

One thing I've noticed recently is that netbook microphones are lacking. When we first did a Skype chat on the Acer Aspire One, I had to crank the input up before James could hear me. Then we did a Skype call on the MSI Wind and sure enough, the volume was lacking. Earlier this week James called me on the Lenovo S10 and guess what... I had to punch up my speakers. I'm not sure if it's the microphone placement, the same general sound card components or a combination of both, but there's an opportunity for improvement.

Enter Blue and their portable Snowflake USB microphone. Now the Snowflake isn't specific to netbooks by any means, but I'm betting it's a solid alternative to the marginal input these small notebooks get natively. It retails for $69, which is about the top end I'd spend for a plug-in mic and it's certainly small enough to tote along with any notebook. It also stands on its own or it can be clipped to a computer. The USB device works with both Mac and PC; there's no additional drivers needed. I've got a request for loaner review unit to see if it does make the Skype experience better on a netbook. Plan B would be to simply use a USB webcam with integrated microphone, but the webcams with most netbooks is more than passable. Let's see if the Snowflake melts that poor-quality sound away!

Stereo Bluetooth support added to Resco Pocket Radio

The lack of wireless stereo support might have kept some Windows Mobile device owners away from Resco Pocket Radio, but there's one less excuse now. Bluetooth stereo is now part of Pocket Radio version 1.90, so you can now stream wireless Internet radio stations to those cans on your head. This version is a free upgrade if you have an older version. New listeners can try Pocket Radio free for a week and listen to stations that broadcast in either MP3 or Ogg Vorbis format. After the trial, a license will set you back $19.95.

Pocket Radio includes a Today screen plug-in for quick access to tunes and I like how you can import stations. I'm a fan of the New Age station on Sky and would hate to give that up for my daily background music.

SanDisk's slotMusic gets physical, but why?

I'm not getting this concept at all from SanDisk. The latest and greatest idea appears to be combining their core competencies in flash memory and digital audio players to create: music on a microSD card. Yes... you buy a microSD card that has a complete album on it. I understand the target device, which are the millions of phones with a slot for this type of format, but those devices already have a music mechanism: the data connection that's inherent in the phone itself. SanDisk is not only competing with downloaded and burned music from online retailers here, they're also likely to butt heads with music services from the carriers themselves. SanDisk calls it slotMusic, but I call it DOA. There's just no space for yet another physical content delivery mechanism for digital content.

Speaking of space, you'll be buying your album on a one Gigabyte microSD card, so if you need some storage capacity and don't mind paying $7 to $10 for memory plus an album, this might be music to your ears. Sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me. At least the tunes are DRM-free and use a high-quality, 320kbps bitrate for the MP3 files. While that's a a little better than the Amazon MP3 store since they average around 256 kbps, I think I'll stick with the digital downloads over physical media and I suspect the masses will too. I find it difficult enough to manage the four memory cards I currently have. I don't need to manage hundreds more.