Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

7Digital will be the default music app for Blackberry users thanks to a deal signed up between the two companies. 7 Digital which recently had 50% of it bought by HMV offers 100% DRM-free downloads and has a rather extensive library.

The price war between 7Digital and iTunes has started already with 7Digital cutting the price of singles to 77c a track, to iTunes 99c per track. As per usual though the UK wont benefit from it as  both companies still sell tracks to us at 79p.

Coming first to the Curve 8900, the Bold and the Storm it will come head to head with iTunes and Nokia’s “Comes with Music”. Over the next few weeks/months it will be added to more of its phones.

7Digital’s music is encoded at 320kbps, larger than your average mp3 but obviously a better quality than what iTunes offers to you. It also has a good little tool called “Wi-Fi Auto-Sync”. When the phone is connected to your mobile network, it downloads lower audio quality versions of tracks, then upgrades that to full quality when your phone's in range of a faster wi-fi connection. Clever eh?

As the unveiling has passed for another year from Apple and as we all knew and expected another year of new iPods. Now obviously I’m all for new technology and gadgets(hence why i write on a blog about them) but I’m getting to a stage of frustration where every year Apple bring out a new set of iPods that aren’t really much better than the last generation. Well this year they haven’t disappointed with only slight changes, but the nano seems to get the major upgrade. Click on for all the info

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Many people though that the iPod Classic may get discontinued however Apple have announced that the Classic is getting an upgrade to 160GB.

According to Apple, that’s enough room for 40,000 songs. Aside from that, it’s the same deal. Same size, same shape, same software.

Pricing will remain the same.

Apple have announced an update to its iPod Touch line, this includes the new 64GB model which will set you back £299.

Prices of the 32GB and 8GB models have dropped in the states to $299 and $199 respectively so expect the UK to follow.

Apart from that there has not been much of a change but it appears that the new models use the same CPU as the iPhone 3GS, since they can run OpenGL 2.0

With the Flip HD and Creative Vado doing well in the small video camera stakes, Sony is trying to get in there with this little beauty.

Sony PM1 Mobile HD Snap Camera certainly should put itself in there with its sharp looks, 27 degree swivel lens, 5MP sensor with 4x digital sensor to boot. It has five different scene selections for you to use including auto, sports, landscape, low light and back light.It sports a slightly small 1.8” screen but due to the fact the camera is so small, it doesn’t make the camera bad at all.

Everything can then be loaded straight onto your PC or Mac or can be directly uploaded to Youtube, Picasa and Dailymotion. Unfortunately, no news on a price yet.

September 15^th. Mark it in your diaries. Thats the date some leaked Zune packaging was bearing. It’s the PMP we’re all waiting for(if you’re one of these that don’t like Apple especially). Piece by piece fanboys have tried to source the clues and got Microsoft to spill the proverbial beans.

The OLED toting PMP looks nice. It’s specs sound nice, c’mon you know it cant disappoint can it? Well unfortunately the September 15th date is only for the States and Microsoft are keeping quiet as to when us Brits will get a go of it and we havent even got the first Zune which was realeased nearly 3 years ago and has had several models since then too.

Also there’s still no news on a price but a lot of rumours are flying round the £150 mark. C’mon Microsoft pull your finger out and let us limeys in.

The aluminium bodied E200 has been officially given the green light by the IRiver website. The new PMP will be available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB but has microSD so can be beefed up by an extra 8GB.

Similar in size to a nano and the obvious storage size comparison, we’re guessing it will get a similar price tag if not less as Apple always seem to be that little bit more.

Specs : -

• 320 x 240 2.8-inch LED display
• MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, ASF Audio support
• MPEG-4, WMV, XviD, RM and RMVB Video Support
• JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF Image Support
• FM tuner
• 1W Built in Speaker

With all these mega expensive PMPs out there and times of financial ruin upon us, the iPod shuffle is the logical answer to those on a budget or those who want the simplicity of one. Those lovely French people at Archos have opened the options with a 2GB mp3 player which will cost us penny counters a measly £18………yes £18.

It doesn’t boast much in the way of specs but neither does the iPod shuffle but the Clipper certainly is a damn sight cheaper. The usual playback and volume controls, all you need to listen to your mp3s on the go.

Source : Electricpig