omd mp3

There are iPod docks with remote controls, but there aren’t many with remote controls that let you choose your music without getting up close to the music player’s diminutive display. DLO’s new HomeDock Music Remote is one of them.The dock unit itself is pretty standard. It’ll take a range of iPods old and new, and connect them to a hi-fi via an RCA cable. An AC adaptor keeps the player powered up and its battery charged.The smart part is the Nano-like remote, which can also be connected to the dock - it has its own bay - for a recharge. The remote’s four-line OLED screen tells you what the player’s playing and allows you to select the songs you want using a control that’s as easy to use as the iPod’s own.The two connect wirelessly at a range of up to 45m (150ft) and unlike other remotes you don’t need a line of sight to the dock.And it’s a snip at $130 (?66/€96) from DLO’s online store.

If rocking out with Guitar Hero isn’t your forte, then how would you like to conduct your own classical orchestra? It’s now possible thanks to the creation of a ‘virtual maestro’ game.The Wii title was created by banking giant UBS as a promotional tool, according to the Associated Press. The game allows the company’s would-be Herbert von Karajans to conduct an on-screen orchestra with the console’s Remote as though it were conductor’s baton.To create the game, UBS recorded the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland while it played three classical pieces, including Rossini’s William Tell Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. UBS’ developers then wrote software that speeds up or slows down the music according to the Remote’s movements.For example, moving the Remote too quickly causes the music to play with a jig-like tempo and moving the wireless controller too slowly will, you guessed it, mean the music comes over all slow and funereal.UBS sponsors the Verbier Festival Orchestra - conducted by James Levine - and has already set the game up in concert hall lobbies in the US, as part of an ongoing tour programme. However, the financial services company hopes to expand the virtual composition videogame out into Europe later this year.

The composer of the music used in controversial adventure game Limbo of the Lost has confirmed that his music was used within the title legitimately.In an email to Register Hardware, Germany-based freelance composer Marko Hautamaki said: “I composed all the game level background music you hear in the game itself, as well as in most of the animated features included on the bonus DVD. My music was also used in many of the game trailers and features.”I can 100 per cent guarantee [the legitimacy of] everything I was involved in, and I have the original project files to prove that,” he added.While Hautamaki is understandably unable to confirm whether other music and sounds used in the game were included with the permission of their respective composer or composers, he did tell us that “Majestic Studios project leader Steve Bovis has assured me that there isn’t any stolen music in the game”.Earlier this week, we reported how website GamePlasma spotted marked similarities between Limbo of the Lost’s static backdrops and locations presented by a number of other games, in particular Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.Limbo of the Lost (top) and PainkillerImages courtesy GamesRadarGamers soon added to the list, pointing out alleged appearances of art from Painkiller, Diablo 2, Unreal Tournament 2004 and others in Limbo of the Lost.Regarding the claimed graphical plagiarism, Hautamaki said: “I hope there will be some explanation to that from Majestic Studios. At the moment, they are the only ones who know how or why this happened.”Indeed, it has been suggested that Majestic outsourced the art production just as it did the music, and may have included what appears to be other games’ content in ignorance. As yet, however, Majestic has not responded to the controversy.Hautamaki, who was credited in the game’s PDF manual, told us he “worked on the music for the Limbo of the Lost game from May 2006 to December 2006 as an outsourcer”, stressing that he was “never a part of Majestic Studios core team”.

Relive music piracy the way it used to be done, back in the days when even Shawn Fanning was a glint in someone’s eye*, let alone his original Napster app and the P2P world it spawned. Yes, we’re talking cassette tapes and a 21st Century take on this format of yesteryear.USB Mix Tape: relive the 80s… the 80s.It’s a 64MB USB Flash drive that comes in a cassette-like box. UK retailer Firebox.com has six of them, all sporting different designs that almost but not quite match famous blank-cassette brands of two decades past.Alas, you can’t choose which one you get…Is it real or is it Mock-xell?The cassette unit itself is a moulded bay for the drive, but it’s wrapped in a cardboard cover with space to write in the names of songs just like we all did in the Sixth Form years ago.Not that nostalgia comes a cheaply as five-packs of C60s did: Firebox wants ?20 for the USB Mix Tape. You can buy a no-name Flash drive that offers 64 times the capacity of this one for not much more than that price.And the gadget could at least come in an old-style plastic case and inlay, we’d say.Want to relive that 1980s vibe nonetheless? Then shuffle over to Firebox.com.And don’t forget, home taping is killing music…* Well, just about. He was born in 1980.

Price: $0.96
Size: 173,49 Mb
Tracks:
1: Intro - Jupiter From Holst’s Planet Suite
2: Jerkin’ Crocus
3: Sucker
4: Hymn For The Dudes
5: Ready For Love
6: Sweet Jane
7: Sae Diver
8: Sweet Angeline
9: One Of The Boys
10: Midnight Lady
11: All The Young Dudes
12: Honky Tonk Women

Mobile World Congress Handset manufacturer HTC has redesigned its existing Advantage device, upping the storage capacity to 16GB, overhauling the keyboard’s responsiveness - it claimed - and updating the UMPC’s software.The Advantage’s detachable keyboard now offers haptic feedback that, much like a similar feature on the recently updated U600, vibrates when users touch it.HTC’s Advantage: now with a larger memoryInternally, HTC has built in a customisable home screen to allow for one-touch access to all of a modern handset’s vital functions, such as emails, text messages, missed calls and the major city’s weather conditions.The Advantage’s keys now vibrate when touchedYou’ll also be able to browse around web pages, documents, messages and contact lists with greater fingertip ease, because a TouchFlo function has been added to the Advantage.In terms of connectivity, not much has changed on the Advantage. Users still get a quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge handset, with 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi connectivity and a 5in display. Bluetooth 2.0 is on-board and you’ll be able to listen to music stored on the device’s mini SD card through its 3.5mm headphone jack.HTC’s updated Advantage - sometimes referred to as the X7510 - will be available in selected European countries next month, which hopefully includes the UK. An updated price however, hasn’t been given yet.Mobile World Congress 2008 Complete Coverage here

Nokia’s music N91 smartphone - it’s first phone with a hard disk - has been held up because of DRM issues, the company confirmed.Nokia’s Pekka Pohjakallio told us last week in Barcelona that adding Windows DRM was the primary cause of the slip. That confirms what Nokia executives said when the delay was acknowledged last Fall.Nokia had originally hoped to ship the N91, which was announced back in April, by Christmas. Instead, it promoted the N70, an incremental improvement over the 6680 series, as its Xmas bait.The N91 is due by the end of Q1. It can’t have escaped your notice that we’re already more than halfway through Q1.Nokia has been bundling Symtella - a Symbian port of the Gnutella P2P client - with media units Stateside, and last year made much of this Wi-Fi phone’s sharing capabilities. It seems to have lost its fervour, with Pohjakallio talking guardedly about sharing N91 playlists by Bluetooth or MMS.Nokia says it shipped 46.5m music phones last year, and expects to ship $80m in 2006. But only the hefty N91, with its dedicated music controls, 4GB hard drive, and a real headphone jack, and the slimmer, mid-market 3250, look like they’re able to give the ever-shrinking iPod a run for its money.Sony Ericsson unveiled its best Walkman phone yet at 3GSM last week, and you can read our first impressions here. The W950 isn’t out until Q3, however. R

Price: $2.00
Size: 96,00 Mb
Tracks:
1: Main Title
2: Crystal Skull
3: On Horses
4: The Package
5: Fencing
6: Casablanca
7: Escape from the Tomb
8: Journey Begins
9: Photos of Dad
10: Jomo’s Village
11: Chocolate
12: hardly Knew Him
13: Breasts of Sheba
14: Ruins
15: Honeymooners
16: All Seeing eye
17: Red Dress
18: Song of Solomon
19: Goodbye, Jerry
20: Lava
21: The Key
22: Uncle Told Me / Drowning Pool
23: Summoning Evil / Schooling Jerry
24: Temple Destruction / Looking At You
25: Lesson Learned / End Credits

Here’s a handy add-on for all you Eee PC owners who’d like your micro laptop to be able to handle Bluetooth connections: a penny-sized USB adaptor with wireless stereo and Extended Data Rate (EDR) support.E-Blue Nova: tinyThe tiny unit - it’s called the E-Blue Nova - is barely bigger than a standard USB connector: the metal bit of the connector’s 13mm long but the whole adaptor stretches to 19mm. So yes, it will poke out past the edge of the Eee PC’s casing - or that of any other laptop or desktop, come to that - but not by much.Ideal for Eee?The device has Bluetooth 2.0+EDR on board to deliver data transfer rates of up to 723Kb/s, but it’ll connect to Bluetooth 1.1 devices too. It also supports Bluetooth’s A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) for streaming stereo music to speakers and headphones.The price is pretty wee too: $24 (?13/€17) plus three bucks shipping if you buy the adaptor from Hong Kong-based Brando.Related Reviews• Invisio G5 ‘world’s smallest’ Bluetooth headset• iSkin Cerulean F1+TX Bluetooth stereo headset

My wife got me an 8MB Creative Zen - reviewed here - for Christmas and I am very pleased with its performance through my headphones. However, when I connect it to the AUX input of my hi-fi, the sound quality is no match for the same music played from the CD player. The level is much less and needs higher volume adjustment for same output.Can you help?