As with most accomplishments these days, we can’t help but place a rather large asterisk next to Sony’s award for managing to outsell the iPod lineup with its Walkman. According to Tokyo-based research firm BCN Inc., for the week ending August 30th, the Walkman series had a 43 percent share of the personal music player market versus 42.1 percent for iPods, marking the first time in four years that Sony’s managed to get the upper hand. Got that? Good, now for a major caveat. For whatever reason, iPhones aren’t considered part of the iPod line, meaning people who want the luxuries of the iPod touch and a wireless data plan aren’t included in the survey. That’s quite an omission — the iPhone 3GS is currently the best-selling phone in Japan, after all — and we gotta imagine it’d be more than enough to tilt the data in Apple’s favor, even if you threw in Sony Ericsson’s Walkman phones for good measure. But hey, it’s still a feat in its own right, and Sony might as well celebrate while it lasts — something tells us the gang in Cupertino has something up their sleeve soon.

Filed under: Portable Audio

Walkman outsells iPod in Japan for first time in four years… but iPhone sales don’t count originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Functionally, MyRacer has yet to really knock our socks off. But, its lineup of PMPs has always featured some lovely design cues, and the Q10 is perhaps the nicest yet. It has some subtly ’70s styling and that cheeky volume knob with an illuminated red surround that would probably result in you getting an earful whenever sliding it into a back pocket. As you’d expect it has all the major audio and video formats covered (including DivX, Xvid, MP3, AAC, and WMA) and also includes an FM tuner, transmitter, and a voice recorder. There’s 8GB of storage behind the 3-inch, 400 x 240 touchscreen and a microSD slot for expansion. No word on price, but we’re unlikely to see this one Stateside anyway, so enjoy these fine pictures and see if you can spot the snail.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

MyRacer’s Q10 is the PMP with a funky little dial originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s certainly got the portable media player design down to a cold, cold science. There isn’t much in the way of artistic license here, so let’s get on with the specs, shall we? 2.6-inch TFT LCD, microSD slot, FM radio, second-language acquisition programs, text / photo viewer, and video codec support including DivX, XviD, and H.264. Your color choices, with the appropriately inappropriate adjectives, are Indie Black, Techno Silver, and Rap Pink. Korean-only, this little guy will line shelves at KRW139,000 (US $120) with 4GB internal memory, and KRW179,000 (US $155) for 8GB.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Samsung R0 not-so-boldly goes where most PMPs have gone before it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Wearables

Ears-on with Sony Ericsson MH907 Motion Activated Headphones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates would often talk about his dream of “information at your fingertips.” The company he co-founded, though, is now taking literal steps toward that goal. By the end of the month, Microsoft will have released three new devices or platforms that embrace or extend touchscreen support — but the impact touch will have on each varies significantly by their legacy, usage, and manufacturers.

Windows has long had touchscreen support. Such support, in fact, was the basis of the Tablet Edition of Windows XP, and Tablet PCs were proclaimed to be the future of notebooks. Early iterations were larger and thicker keyboard-lacking slates much like the new Archos 9pctablet. But this was before rampant Web browsing, streaming video, casual games and electronic books — all of which now provide relevance for a new generation of touchscreen PCs as content-consumption devices.

Continue reading Switched On: Microsoft’s touchy subjects

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Tablet PCs

Switched On: Microsoft’s touchy subjects originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung’s certainly got the portable media player design down to a cold, cold science. There isn’t much in the way of artistic license here, so let’s get on with the specs, shall we? 2.6-inch TFT LCD, microSD slot, FM radio, second-language acquisition programs, text / photo viewer, and video codec support including DivX, XviD, and H.264. Your color choices, with the appropriately inappropriate adjectives, are Indie Black, Techno Silver, and Rap Pink. Korean-only, this little guy will line shelves at KRW139,000 (US $120) with 4GB internal memory, and KRW179,000 (US $155) for 8GB.

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Samsung R0 not-so-boldly goes where most PMPs have gone before it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready to have your imperfect complexions scrutinized by every anonymous coward on the Internet? You’d better ’cause YouTube has announced the move from 720p to 1080p video streaming to make use of those cheap, Full HD camcorders flooding the market. Now puff up that keyboard courage — the ruthless bashing of your peers is set to begin next week.

Update: 1080p sample video posted after the break.

Continue reading YouTube begins streaming 1080p insecurities next week (update: 1080p video!)

Filed under: Portable Video

YouTube begins streaming 1080p insecurities next week (update: 1080p video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who says Microsoft ain’t lookin’ out for those who selected its Zune HD over something Designed In Cupertino? Just days after countless owners went berserk over a playcount syncing issue, Microsoft has released a new firmware update that not only solves that very quandary but also adds a gaggle of fantastic new and / or improved features. The v4.3 update is available now by selecting “Player Update” from within the device itself, and with it will come “support for upcoming 3d games and applications, as well as an auto-suggest feature for better text input, and other minor improvements.” We’re hearing that those “minor improvements” include a snappier browser, so it’s pretty safe to say you’re only harming yourself if you don’t get this download going right now. (Psst… there’s a vid of the new software running after the break.)

[Via MobileTechWorld, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Zune HD v4.3 firmware out now: fixes playcount bug, adds lots of great things (video)

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Zune HD v4.3 firmware out now: fixes playcount bug, adds lots of great things (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Apple_updates_iPod_touch_line_drops_prices_adds_top_end_64′; Couldn’t see this one coming, right? Apple just announced an update to the iPod touch line. It’s not exactly a major overhaul to the player, but prices have fallen, and it appears that the new models use the same CPU as the iPhone 3GS, since they can run OpenGL 2.0. The big news is actually no news, however: there doesn’t appear to be a camera, contrary to all the rumors. You’ll just have to make do with 8GB of storage for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for a whopping $399.

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Apple updates iPod touch line, drops prices, adds top-end 64GB model originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a sorry state of affairs when a media player like the Zune HD has more polygon-pushing power than the latest handheld videogame consoles on the market. If rumors are to be believed, Nintendo and Sony will set things straight with their next-generation portables — at least for a little while. We’ve already heard that the successor to Nintendo’s DS will have Tegra power, but the current speculation is that it’ll be a Tegra 2 chip, promising twice the power of the current iteration. On the Sony side the PSP2 is apparently shaping up to use an offspring of the IMG PowerVR graphics found on the iPhone, said to be theoretically superior to what the DS2 will be able to achieve but costing more, being more difficult to develop for, and not shipping until sometime in 2011 — potentially a year later than the DS2. In other words it’s standard operating procedure if these rumors are to be believed, but even if there aren’t any surprises in this showdown we’ll be there in the front row with popcorn to watch the bloodshed.

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Hardware battle looms for theoretical successors to Nintendo DS and Sony PSP originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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