Audio

From Personal Tech column January 24, 2013

Music players wired for fuller sound

While the iPod and iTunes dominate portable players, some users consider the music’s sound quality to be less than stellar. This has opened up a niche for rivals to offer higher-fidelity recordings on higher-end devices. This week, a look at one such player, also a PC appendage and an app audio upgrade.

Tags: iRiver
Posted in Audio, Personal technology | Permalink

Olive listens to crowd for new music player

December 13, 2012 2:56 am by Paul Taylor

Crowdfunding is by now a well established route for startups to raise the capital they need to develop, manufacture and market a new product.

But Olive Media, a seven-year-old San Francisco-based company whose high performance audio servers are a favourite among audiophiles, has adopted the crowdfunding model to launch the Olive ONE, which it claims is the first all-in-one high definition (HD) music player. Read more

Tags: Olive
Posted in Audio, Personal technology, Tech | Permalink

Last.fm founders launch new service Lumi

December 4, 2012 12:04 pm by Robert Cookson

Two of the three founders of Last.fm, the original Silicon Roundabout success story, have arrived back on the London tech scene to launch a new service that helps people discover popular web pages.

Felix Miller and Martin Stiksel, who sold their music “scrobbling” service Last.fm to CBS in $280m in 2007, announced their new venture Lumi in a blog post on Tuesday. Read more

Tags: Last.fm, Lumi
Posted in Audio, Digital media, Europe, Internet, Tech | Permalink

Boxee comes to the UK with BBC iPlayer

June 8, 2011 11:41 am by Tim Bradshaw

Boxee, the internet entertainment service, is bringing its TV set-top box to the UK this week. Netflix, Pandora and Major League Baseball have proven popular on its D-Link-manufactured device in the US since its launch last year, allowing owners to watch web TV and their own digital downloads on the big-screen TV set. Read more

Tags: Boxee, UK
Posted in Audio, Consumer Electronics, Europe, Gadgets, Hardware, Personal technology | Permalink

Beyond Oblivion’s music ambitions get $77m boost

March 8, 2011 1:08 am by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson

When Beyond Oblivion broke cover last April even its founder, Adam Kidron, admitted that its plans for a digital music service that would make money from the 95 per cent of people who do not currently pay for downloads were “frightfully ambitious”. The service has yet to arrive – but at least Kidron now has some serious money to back his plans. Read more

Posted in Audio, Digital media, Tech, Tech Finance | Permalink

Skype says HD Voice message is loud and clear

April 20, 2010 3:49 am by Chris Nuttall

Mobile and fixed-line operators have shown little interest in improving the voice quality of phone calls, but the internet phone company Skype came out with a compelling reason for them to do so on Monday.

Speaking at the eComm conference in Silicon Valley, Jonathan Rosenberg, Skype‘s chief technology officer, said its users were talking for almost 50 per cent longer on calls delivered in high-definition quality. Read more

Tags: HD Voice, skype
Posted in Audio, Internet, Mobile, Telecoms | Permalink

Warner talks tough on Spotify

February 10, 2010 9:51 pm by Tim Bradshaw

The music industry has taken another beating in the blogosphere over the last 24 hours after the head of Warner Music lashed out against online music streaming services such as Spotify and We7.

“Free streaming services are clearly not net positive for the industry, and, as far as Warner Music is concerned, will not be licensed,” Edgar Bronfman Jr, Warner Music’s chairman, said on the major label’s analyst call yesterday.

“The sort of ‘Get all of the music you want for free and then, with a few bells and whistles, maybe we can move you to a premium price’ strategy is not the kind of approach to business we’ll be supporting in the future.” Read more