Lost in the meda frenzy over the passing of Steve Jobs was Microsoft killing off the Zune HD. No, that was a mistake its alive. Yes, it is dead. Nope, that was another error. Apparently, at least as of this writing, the Zune HD is in fact discontinued.

“We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players.”

Bear in mind that this is found on the Microsoft’s Zune support page. You can find a big  BUY NOW button at the entry for the Zune HD. Following that link takes one to the American retailer Wal-Mart. The Zune UK web site has nothing on offer, nor does Amazon. Further complicating matters is that whoever runs the Twitter account for Zune support seems to have missed the memo as well.

The story here is not so much that the Zune HD has been discontinued, its not surprising as sales have been lackluster at best and Microsoft wants to steer users to Windows Phones as their all in one media consumption device, but that the announcement was so badly handled. It is quite obvious that the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing here. The timing was also interesting in that the original announcement was made the same day that Apple announced the iPhone 4S.  That was a good move on Microsoft’s part as the ending of the Zune HD was pretty much lost in the iPhone coverage.  However, the “red light, green light” of the days after not only ruined that, but given that journalists were looking for something to move on from the death of Mr. Jobs, Microsoft’s indecision has become more newsworthy with each change in direction.

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“Its dead Steve”

The worldwide press is saturating all media with the death of Steve Jobs, who passed away Wednesday from complications of pancreatic cancer. Rather than repeat all the typical reporting of his passing, it is better to focus on a celebration of his life and his many, many accomplishments that has shaped and changed the world everyone lives in today.  The list is long, the Apple I, the Apple II, the Macintosh, the Lisa during his first stint at Apple. During his time away from Apple he founded NeXT Computing and created Pixar out of pieces that he bought from LucasFilms. Pixar under Jobs became the gold standard for animated films, and is widely credited as revitalizing the genre and the fortunes of Walt Disney Studios when Disney subsequently purchased Pixar for almost ten billion dollars.

All this seemed to be only a prologue for the return of Mr. Jobs and what was arguably his and his teams greatest contributions to the way the world consumed its music, media, and used its phones. Starting with the iMac, Mr. Jobs and the people he surrounded himself with, went on to revolutionize the way we consume music, the iPod and the Apple Music Store.  Starting in 2001, the iPod completely changed the music industry and in all likely hood stated the death spiral of music CDs.  Moving from that the iPhone in 2005, and then the iPad in 2009. It is easy to forget that Apple did not found any of those product categories. Music players, smart phones and tablets all came about well before Apple entered the scene. The tribute that should be rendered to Steve Jobs and his team was that in each product area, Apple came along and arguably perfected the category.

What are your thoughts of your experience of Apple and thoughts on Steve Jobs?

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A Celebration of the Life of Steve Jobs

Sony have announced the full specification of the PS Vita at the Tokyo Gaming Show.

One of the important specifications they listed that wont please many is that the PS Vita will have just 3 to five hours gaming time per charge!

Sony have confirmed that the e system would be released by the end of 2011 in Japan but not until "early 2012" in North American and European regions. It is believed to cost £229 when launched and 26 games will be available at launch including "Ridge Racer," "Uncharted: Golden Abyss," and something called "Army Corps of Hell."

Model number: PCH-1000 series
CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
GPU: SGX543MP4+
Main memory: 512MB
VRAM: 128MB
External Dimensions: Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Weight Approx: 279g (3G/Wi-Fi model), 260g (Wi-Fi model)
Screen: 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED, Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras: Front camera, Rear camera; Frame rate: 120fps@320×240(QVGA), 60fps@640×480(VGA); Resolution: Up to 640×480(VGA)
Sound: Built-in stereo speakers, built-in microphone
Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Threeaxis electronic compass
Location: Built-in GPS (3G/Wi-Fi model only), Wi-Fi location service support
Keys/Switches: PS button, power button, directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), shoulder buttons (Right/Left), right stick, left stick, START button, SELECT button, volume buttons (+/-)
Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G/Wi-Fi model only), 3G modem (data communication): HSDPA/HSUPA *specification for Japanese region, IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）
Slots/Ports: PlayStation®Vita card slot, memory card slot, SIM card slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only), multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In], Serial data communication), headset jack (Stereo mini jack) (for Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In]), accessory port
Power: Built-In Lithium-ion Battery: DC3.7V 2200mA, AC adaptor: DC 5V
Operating environment temperature: 5℃～35℃
Supported AV content format: Music – MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM). Videos – MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High/Main/Baseline Profile (AAC). Photos – JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG

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Sony PS Vita Specifications Revealed

Connectivity between your devices and your TV especially those with camera/video functions is a must these days with new PMPs and mobile smartphones with HDMI out ports so you can see your images and videos in fullscreen, HD goodness. This has eluded portable Apple owners for sometime although there has been the component out lead which retailing at £39.99 was neither cheap nor the simplest form of outputting your goods to the telly. FINALLY Apple is releasing a HDMI adaptor. Yes that’s right lets not incorporate it into our future products, make the customer buy yet another accessory for their iPod, iPhone or iPad.

With the iPad 2 showcased last week Apple also demonstrated its new HDMI adaptor basically plugging into the Apple adaptor port at the base with a HDMI out port then attached to the adaptor. Supporting iPhone 4, 4th generation iPod touch and both the original iPad and the future iPad2. The iPad2 will output at Full 1080p HD whereas the others will only get up to 720p due to the fact the iPad2’s new A4 chipset will give the Full HD support whereas the older chipsets in the iPhone, iPod and iPad can’t handle it.

On the Apple store the HDMI adaptor is listed as the “Digital AV Adaptor” set as coming soon and with a RRP of $39 so if the American price reflects the UK price it’ll be a reasonable £25 or so which is a lot cheaper than the current price of the component lead.

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Apple HDMI Adaptor : iPad 1/2 iPod touch and iPhone supported

It wasn’t that long ago we told you all about Toshiba’s foray ointo the tablet PC market with the Folio 100. Sadly the Folio 100 didn’t live up to expectations whatsoever and was pulled from sale at top high street chain Currys/Pc World due to the fact nearly all of them were coming back as faulty. Well hopefully Toshiba have learned from their mistakes and have improved themselves with their next tablet PC, an unnamed affair that will be sporting Google’s latest version of it’s popular Android 3.0 or Honeycomb if you want to use it’s food based codenames.

At 10.1” it’s already bigger than your iPads and your Galaxy Tabs not to mention the capacitive touchscreen with a whopping 1280×800 resolution. With a rear-facing 5MP camera and a front-facing 2MP camera it’s got the skills to pay the bills when it comes to video capture or video calling etc. Connectivity isn’t an issue either. A USB port and a mini-USB port alongside that ever useful HDMI port and an SD card slot for memory expansion(details of what it’s starting memory are a little thin). It also will have an accelerometer and ambient light sensor.

Toshiba have gone on to say that it will get released in the early half of this year, and will be at a “competitive price” whether that’s competitive to the iPad or the Galaxy Tab we’re not entirely sure. Please let’s hope its better than the Folio 100.

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Toshiba Tablet : Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Archos have never been one to shy away from size when it comes to it’s portable devices. Now the new Android based Archos 70 Internet Tablet cum portable media player now has a whopping 250GB HDD onboard for all your storage needs.

So what’s under the hood. Well firstly the OS is Android 2.2 Froyo giving the tablet Flash 10.1 support alongside Android’s great App marketplace goodies. Secondly it has a superfast 1GHz processor making tasking quick and simple but also has 3D graphics acceleration presumably for Android based games and for better graphical output. Following from this the Archos 70 has a HDMI out port allowing for video playback through an HDTV but also photo viewing, internet browsing and anything else you can do with it all through your TV’s screen if you so wish. What the Archos 70 has over say the Galaxy Tab or the iPad is the screen size. At 10.1” it’s bigger than both and has a responsive capacitive touchscreen.

The extras the Archos 70 also has is it’s multimedia preferences and applications. The PMP side will certainly play most video files but also has goodies like a movie information application which updates your movie thumbnails as well as other functions. There’s also great photo support with your social networking too plus the music player has a cover flow very similar to that of the iPod/iPad/iPhone.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Archos as ther products rarely disappoint. Might be worth a look if you’re after a cheaper option than an iPad. Available now at £349.99.

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Archos 70 : 250GB 10.1” Android Tablet

CES 2011 kicks off tomorrow so expect lots of super cool gadgets to come out of it. One we know for definite will be getting a showing, and we have all the details for already is the Samsung Galaxy Player. Samsung have done their best to keep their product line as good, if not better than Apple’s. Take the Galaxy Tab for instance, many reviews rate it above the iPad and you certainly get more for your money with one. Looking at the specs of what it can do and the fact this is to the Galaxy S what the iPod Touch is to the iPhone 4 equal in every way with the fact the Sammy is slightly better specced. you can bet your bottom dollar that this will certainly be one to think about if you’re looking for a cheaper PMP that still does pretty much everything including apps.

So lets break it down.

• Runs Android 2.2 Froyo
• 2 cameras (Front-facing VGA, rear-facing 3.2MP camera)
• 1GHz processor with HD video support
• 3.2” Super Clear WVGA (800×480) LCD touchscreen
• T-DMB and SoundAlive audio enhancing technology
• WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and DNLA connectivity
• 8GB, 16GB and 32GB storage with microSD expansion
• Ogg Vorbis, Flac, XviD and DivX
• Changeable Battery

So as you can see from those it certainly offers more than your standard iPod Touch does and whats better is the price. Amazon have put them up for pre-order on their site (despite the fact the player hasn’t officially be announced yet but rumour has it down for a 7th January release after it gets shown off at CES) with the 8GB player at £150 and the 16GB at £180 so basically its cheaper than an ipod touch too. Roll on CES, can’t wait!!

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Samsung Galaxy Player : Watch out iPod Touch

Although not huge in this part of the world Cowon are massive in the far east especially in their native South Korea but they keep popping up on MightyGadget due to the fact they keep coming up with some top drawer PMPs to rival Apple’s worldwide dominance with the iPod. Cowon’s latest addition the Cowon 3D certainly has all the makings to be #1, read on to find out more

Cowon have claimed it’s new 3D PMP can playback Full 1080p HD, has an 800 x 480 screen resolution on its 4.8” display but to top all that off is capable of showing 3D images and video without the need for 3D glasses. Certainly with specs and function like those Cowon could really, if pushed, take on the iPod for sure. It’s just how true the “glasses-free” 3D is coz certainly all it’s playback functions will be fantastic like previous Cowon PMPs.

It’s released in Korea this week and will retail at $431 for a 32GB model and $509 for a 64GB model that roughly equates to £275 and £325 respectively. Most Cowon stuff has been released in Blighty so it might be worth hanging on before paying extra to get it imported.

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Cowon 3D PMP : 1080p Glasses Free Visuals

Another day, another tablet PC, this time from across the channel it’s the boys from Archos. At the end of the day before Apple came with the iPad and the iPod Touch, Archos were making touchscreen PMPs and Tablet PCs and good ones at that so you can be sure that they have the knowledge and ability to make ones capable of competing with the mighty iPad.

First thing to note about the 101 is that it has a 10.1” screen. Ample enough right? Secondly it runs Android 2.2 which comes with full Flash support making your browsing experience better than that of an Apple product. Bundle this with WiFi, Bluetooth and HDMI out it’s got plenty of connectivity options. Third great fact is it’s only 12mm thin so extra portable and last but by no means least it’s memory size. Available in two sizes 8GB and 16GB the memory can also be expanded by that wonderful invention the SD card.

The 8GB is retailing at £269.99 while the 16GB one at £299.99 certainly both reasonable prices in my opinion in comparison to the higher priced iPad.

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Archos 101 Tablet PC

Another review to do another Creative product for us at MightyGadget to tell you all about. Today it’s the Creative Zen Style 300, a compact mp3 player on the low cost side that still offers plenty of options. For anybody familiar with Creative’s Mozaic mp3 player this is the newer version of that but not all that different. Click on to read the full review

The first notable difference between the Zen Style 300 and the Mozaic is Creative have gone back to a less eye catching affair but in reality of size and shape it’s not all that different. The player itself is available in 3 colours which are black(what we got) white and blue. The 1.8” screen isn’t big by any means but neither is the player and the 4 buttons are laid out nicely underneath the screen and are big enough to not have multiple button presses. Below the 4 main function buttons is a 5 button directional pad which is very easy to use when navigating the menus.

The very top of the player has a built-in microphone so you can record memos or whatever. The bottom has the standard 3.5mm headphone jack and a mini-USB port. On the side is a tiny reset button in case of a system crash and that’s it. There’s no dedicated volume controls power button or lock/hold which is always a let down but not the end of the world. On the reverse of the player is the built in speaker. Now I know this is standard with today’s mobile phones but on a small mp3 player such as this, to me seemed a bit pointless especially when it’s that small the sound quality is awful. I can only guess this is for the voice record playback or for the annoying folk that sit on public transport that insist we listen to there “tinny” music.

Ok so let’s switch it on. The play/pause button is the power button. Power up is relatively quick. The user interface is the same as the earlier Creative models and is easy to use. The direction buttons obviously navigate the menus and the middle button selects. The UI in general is very responsive and works a treat. The buttons have little pictures on explaining there function. So the menu starts with Microphone, Photos, Music, Videos, FM Radio, Extras and System.

The microphone as stated before is on top of the player and can pick up sound relatively well. Playback wasn’t too quiet on the on-board speaker but wasn’t great either however as it saves te recording onto the player these can be extracted onto your PC for clearer playback.

Photos. To be completely honest a bit pointless on a low-res 128 x 160 1.8” screen. Pictures look very grainy and you’ll have to squint to make out what they are. However you can change the background to a picture of your choice and the album covers feature when you’ve got music on is always a bonus to see what you’re playing but again the quality of the images isn’t fantastic.

Music. Now this is what you’ve bought it for, this is where the Creative Zen should make it’s money. File support sits at mp3, wav and wma. Ok not necessarily suitable for the iTunes crowd(which you can rip cds to mp3 with anyway) but certainly suitable for all the Apple haters. Creative have never let themselves down with the sound quality of their products (see our E3-NPC headphones and Zii Sound Speakers reviews) and this player as always doesn’t disappoint. The first thing you need to do however is ditch the headphones you get with it and get a decent pair (maybe even the Creative E3-NPC headphones) Playback of the music generally was good for your everyday music needs. Obviously if you’re a complete audiophile you’ll notice that at the extreme ends of sound  playback the Zen Style 300 is a little rough around the edges, but this isn’t a top of the range hi-fi. For what it is, it does the job perfectly.

Video. Again same as photo, small  low res screens aren’t ideal to watch your videos. Not only that the Zen Style 300 doesn’t have a broad range of file playback. In order to see video you’ll have to convert whatever it is on your computer into the Creative CMV format, using the Creative Centrale software provided.

FM Radio. Is what it says, a radio. Not a lot we can say about radio really. It’s been around forever and hasn’t really changed.

Extras., The extras function is just a couple of widgets you can use like a calendar a contacts list and a tasks list. These can be synced to your Zen Style using the Centrale software again.

System. All the settings one could possibly want to change.

All in all the Creative Zen Style 300 does the jobs it set out to do. Be an mp3 player. It doesn’t exceed itself in the extras it offers but certainly delivers where it’s needed. We were a little disappointed with the screen quality for photos and videos and the built-in speaker sound isn’t great. What we were impressed with though is the music playback, the speedy easy-to-use interface and the battery life (over 30 hours of music playback on a full charge). If you’re after a small lightweight mp3 player then for around £60 this is certainly worth taking into account. It’s better than an iPod shuffle due to the capacity and the fact it has a screen etc. Although not as good for the extra functions as an iPod Nano, it’s half the price and certainly matches it’s music playing abilities.

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Creative Zen Style 300