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iHome 2GO iH19P Green

 

ihome-2go-ih19pTake your Apple iPod anywhere in this rugged water-resistant protective case! Listen through headphones or speakers. The iH19 attaches quickly and easily to bike, stroller, exercise equipment and more. The sturdy, lightweight zippered case features 2 dynamic stereo speakers, built-in remote control capability. It also charges iPod with included adapter.

The iH19 consists of a rugged neoprene case (five colors are available, ours is the light pink iH19P) that measures 9.05 x 4.25 x 3.54 inches and weighs approximately 2.4 lbs (without an iPod). The unit’s front panel features stereo speakers (each with a diameter of about 2.25 inches), as well as a control pad reminiscent of Apple’s own remote control, including back/forward buttons, volume up/down buttons, and a play/pause button in the center. Instead of the various snaps and latches normally used by speaker docks, the iHome2go is held closed by a zipper, which opens to reveal the battery area, as well as an iPod connection cable, a hold switch, and connectors for the AC adaptor, a line-in cable (enabling you to use the iHome2go with an iPod shuffle or other audio devices), and headphones. The power, line-in, and headphone jacks can also be accessed while the unit is closed via a Velcro panel. If you want or need to see your iPod’s screen, however, you will have to unzip the unit fully.

In practice, however, some features of the Colortunes iH19 seem less than optimal. Although the device is designed to be quite portable, it doesn’t include a rechargeable battery—you’ll have to use 4 AAs instead. Moreover, although the product does charge your iPod when it is connected to AC power, it doesn’t charge it on battery power, and it doesn’t provide any syncing ability. You will also not be able to use the iHome2go to charge rechargeable AAs, even if it is plugged in.

Perhaps even worse is that the control panel is buggy—sometimes the buttons don’t seem to respond to being pressed, and sometimes audio doesn’t play through the speakers at all if you use the iPod’s own buttons instead of the control panel. Discussions I found on the Internet seemed to indicate that many people are experiencing similar issues.



MiJam Guitar

 

mijam-guitarHook up this guitar to your iPod, MP3 player or any other music device to jam along with your favorite music. The MiJam guitar has a fret board and four groovin’ sound effects - heavy metal, chorus, acoustic and bass. Built-in rhythm with tempo control and easy thumb-picking action lets you feel like a real rock star. Requires 2 “AAA” batteries (not included). Measures 22″ long.

Guitar Hero lovers will definitely love the mi Jam Guitar that enables anyone to play the guitar in tandem with a digital audio player hooked up to it, such as iPods, MP3 players, CD players, and even the humble personal computer. This four-fingered musical device enables you to strum the bar in order to get some basic cords and riffs with the option to have background rhythms to disguise your lack of musical ability. Features include tempo, pitch, and volume controls that help you be in tune at all times, while the strum bar is a great assistant for those who have difficulty picking the right notes, riffs, and chords. The mi Jam Guitar retails for £26.99.

The miJam Guitar adds a simple drum beat and guitar-like sounds to your iPod’s music. Three knobs adjust the Guitar’s overall volume, the pitch of its guitar noises, and the tempo of the drum beat, which can be turned on or off with a rhythm switch. You use the chord keys at Guitar’s top to activate a specific chord, then hit the strum bar at Guitar’s center to play notes. A whammy bar lets you warp the notes as they’re playing, and a style selector button toggles between “heavy metal,” “rock,” “blues” and “bass” guitar types, each with different sounds. Four AA batteries are required, causing the Guitar to light up in green and blue when inserted; an on-off switch is found next to the audio-out and in ports.

Product Features

  • b2stuf mi Jam Guitar General Features: Jam with your iPod, MP3 and most music players
  • Simulates multiple music styles (Heavy Metal, Rock, Blues, Bass) Easy to use chord / riff buttons
  • Two-way strum bar Tempo Control Volume Control Pitch Control Active “whammy” bar
  • Runs on four (4) AA batteries Regulatory Approvals: CE


Samsung YP-K3

 

samsung-yp-k3It was only a matter of time before Samsung put out a speakerless version of the innovative YP-K5 MP3 player. The YP-K3 delivers the goods in an even sexier–if ever-so-slightly bigger–body than the iPod Nano. But it’s priced for the masses at $119 for 2GB and $169 for 4GB, undercutting the iPod’s tag. Samsung says an 8GB model will be out by summer, which makes sense given the company’s good footing in the flash memory market.

Out of the box–which is nearly identical to that of the full-size iPod, interestingly–the K3 is simply stunning. Its glossy front is trimmed with chrome, giving it a sleek and stylish look. When you turn the player on using the side-mounted power/hold switch, the touch-sensitive controls light up, reminiscent of Philips’ GoGear line of players. The controls consist of four directional arrows, as well as Select, Menu, and Back keys. Like the K5, the YP-K3 takes some design cues from the LG Chocolate phone, right down to the availability of black, red, and green versions–sorry, no white. The red version in particular is truly gorgeous, and the backlit controls give it a very jukebox-like appearance.

The Samsung YP-K3 looks nice, if not very familiar. More than any similar competitor, it mimics the iPod nano, with a glossy slab front, chrome accents on the side, and the headphone and proprietary USB port on the bottom. The glossy front hides touch sensitive controls, and we usually aren’t fans of these controls, but on the YP-K3, they worked fine. Still, hardware controls always feel more sensitive and responsive to us, and the touch buttons couldn’t speed up the process of scrolling a long list of song titles.

The interface is standard Samsung fare - menu icons made up of tiny dots that morph from one to the other. The screen itself is disappointing, a 1.8-inch OLED display. Colors seemed a bit washed while viewing JPEGs, and even the visualizer was unexciting. Navigating the menus is very easy, and with few features or customization options, there is little to expect from this simple player’s interface.

But it is the music playback and general track handling that really matter. There’s a couple of settings you can apply to tracks alongside the ‘normal’ sound output; vocal, bass boost, 3G sound and concert hall. They didn’t seem to make a huge difference to music playback, but we found the general quality was pretty good through the supplied in-ear headphones.

We’d have liked a customisable setting or two on the equaliser, but then we’d also have liked support for more music formats, the ability to display album art and the ability to record audio. We aren’t concerned about the lack of video playback, but some people might be.



Aigo F029

 

aigo-f029The F029 measures 3.9 x 3.8 x 1.3cm and is held in place with a large, translucent plastic strap that wouldn’t look out of place on a Swatch. The 1.3in, 160 x 128, 26,000-colour OLED screen is surrounded by a brightly coloured removable bezel which, with the strap, gives the gadget a real kid-friendly feel. On the left side of the watch there are a pair of volume controls, a menu buttons and a 2.5mm earphone socket - so don’t expect to be able to use a different pair in place of the set that Aigo bundles, which are almost identical to Apple’s icon iPod set, right down to shape, size, colour and construction.

It feels slightly odd having your earphone cable running from your wrist, but you can always wear it tucked up your sleeve and out at the neck, I suppose. The F029 is crying out for Bluetooth stereo support, even more than regular MP3 players do.

The right side of the watch is home to the track skip and play/pause buttons. The top and bottom of the watch both have tiny holes that could be placed over microphones - the F029 certainly has a voice recording facility, but since it’s unclear how it’s activated, I couldn’t be sure which hole was the mic. The watch’s manual has yet to be translated from Chinese - another penalty imposed on early adopters. The top side of the watch also as a modified mini-USB port, though it’ll take any mini-USB cable.

In the technology and gadget industry, direct imports from the Far East aren’t always success stories in the UK, and Aigo’s rather peculiar F029 digital watch appears to have all the ingredients to follow this trend.

The Aigo F029 is a fully-featured multimedia player, including a photo viewer, mp3 player, video player, e-book reader and voice recorder.

It’s also worth mentioning that you can configure the screensaver to show the time, and if you disable the ‘auto off’ function it behaves as a proper watch when idle; considering it is a watch, these features are pretty handy. Of course you’ll have to remember to charge it each night, so it’s not something you’d want to rely on to get you to important meetings on time.



Motorola ROKR E2

 

motorola-rokr-e2The Motorola ROKR E2 offers the user the complete multimedia experience which comes in a very fashionable white or black coloured casing. The ROKR E2 is a compact & attractive mobile phone with some great capabilities. The ROKR E2 is from the same family as the Motorola ROKR E1 & both phones are totally music & media focused.

SNews reviews the Motorola ROKR-E2 and writes, ” The 1.3 MP camera won’t get any awards, but it takes good-enough pictures if there is enough light. Its included flash is a welcome addition and it even has a mode where the flash will get lit automatically if the room is too dark. You can also record video up to QCIF resolution (3gp format only) and apply zoom to it or some basic filters (e.g. b&w, night mode, add borders etc). The user interface for the camera is pretty simple, although a dedicated button on the side would have been nice (a camera button in the place of the mini-USB, and move the mini-USB on the bottom of the device). One small problem I found was that the actual picture snapped was with 1 second delay from the moment you pressed the button, so make sure you do not move the camera for 2 seconds after you pushed the button (otherwise you will get fuzzy pics).

The ROKR E2 won’t be a music phone if not for the 3.5mm audio jack that is located at the very top of the unit. Motorola bundles the ROKR with ear foams and a high quality stereo earphones. The stock earpiece is much better than the stock iPod earphones, providing fuller bass, mid and high frequencies.

You will find a light sensor on top of the phone that automatically adjusts the keypad backlight. Let’s say you are in a dimly lit room and you take out your ROKR E2 - the light sensor will automatically switch on the keypad backlight. When you are out in the sun or in a brightly lit place, the keypad backlight will be turned off. Sadly, the light sensor does not adjust the brightness of the display. Music aficionados will be glad to know that there is a 3.5mm headphone jack located on top of the phone, enabling owners to use their favorite headphones to listen to their tracks.