I4U published a review of the Mint 220 Digital Music Station here on their website. At first glance, the Mint 220 looks like any other iPod speaker dock.. but wait! There’s more! The device is capable of wirelessly streaming music from any PC or Mac within 45 feet of the unit thanks to the included USB Wireless Transmitter. The Mint 220 comes with two 3.5 inch full-range Peerless transducers for “big speaker sound and compact, mini-speaker versatility” and Texas Instrument’s PurePath Digital audio technology. Sounds pretty good eh? So what does I4U think?

Overall, the Mint 220 is very impressive. The sound quality from the small system is great, the price is very good at $179, and the system is very easy to set up for wireless streaming. It’s hard to go wrong with the Mint 220

Not bad.. they get an 8.5 out of 10 from I4U.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Mint 220 Digital Music Station, iPod dock

Sonos also introduced two new ZonePlayer devices today - the ZonePlayer 120 and the ZonePlayer 90 - as well as a new money-saving bundle - the Sonus Bundle 150 which includes one 120 unit, one 90 unit, and a Sonos Controller 100 device. The new ZonePlayers incorporate SonosNet 2.0, Sonos’ latest wireless mesh network which doubles the wireless range of the Sonos Multi-Room Music System. The extended range also works with all previous generation Sonos ZonePlayers, Controllers, and ZoneBridges. Here’s what you need to know about the new units.

The Sonos ZonePlayer 120 features:

• Smallest, lightest, and most powerful Sonos ZonePlayer yet
• Fan-less aluminum case
• 55 watts per channel RMS at 8 Ohms
• THD+N < 0.02%, 20Hz-20kH
• Can be connected directly to speakers
• Class-D amplifier
• Line-In RCA jacks
• Measures 3.5 x 7.3 x 8.15 inches and weighs 5.1 lbs

The 120 will retail for $499 individually.

The Sonos ZonePlayer 90 features:

• Lacks amplifier - can be connected to existing stereo systems
• THD+N < 0.009%, 20-20kHz
• Line Out: Analog RCA, Digital (optical and coaxial)
• Line In: Analog RCA, auto-detecting
• Measures 5.4 x 5.5 x 2.9 inches and weighs 1.5 lbs

The 90 will retail for $349 individually.

Now for the new Sonos Bundle 150, you get one of the ZonePlayer 120 units, one of the ZonePlayer 90 units, and one Sonos Controller device. The bundle sells for $999 which is a 20% discount from the sum of the individual components. You can also purchase the bundle with Sonos loudspeakers for $1149.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sonos, ZonePlayer 120, ZonePlayer 90, Sonos Bundle 150

Attention Sonos owners out there - Sonos released version 2.6 of their Sonos System Software today which gives customers access to free music downloads valued at around $200 dollars once they register their new or upgrade their existing Sonos Multi-Room Music System. The one-button update is free to all Sonos customers and is available now for download.

Once you register or upgrade your system with the new Sonos 2.6 software, you will receive $200 dollars worth of DRM-free music from Sonos partners Classical.com, eMusic, and LiveDownloads.com. Sonos provided an example of what registered customers would receive:

• 3 DRM-free albums (1 classical, 1 jazz and 1 world) from Classical.com. Classical.com is a digital music service with a library dedicated to the latest and greatest classical, jazz, & blues and world music. Browse by composer, genre or country and explore new music with the Classical.com playlists.
• 50 DRM-free music downloads and 1 free audio book from eMusic. eMusic is the world’s largest retailer of independent music, offering more than 3.5 million tracks from thousands of the world’s top independent labels spanning every genre of music.
• 10 full, DRM-free concerts (MP3) from LiveDownloads.com. LiveDownloads is the ultimate download source for live concert recordings. Download last night’s show from hundreds of artists and browse the catalog of more than 100,000 exclusive live tracks.

Other new features added in Sonos 2.6 include:

• Support for SonosNet™ 2.0 and MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) wireless technology
• Support for larger music collections with up to 65,000 tracks stored on a local music collection stored on a PC, Mac or Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices
• Support for NasBasic firmware which allows more than 15 different brands of NAS devices to serve as a local music source
• Support for Apple® Computer operating system Mac OS X Leopard

You can read more about Sonos Software 2.6 by going to http://www.sonos.com/support/software_updates/

More Sonos news to come..

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sonos System Software 2.6, Update

Apple released version 2.0.1 of the iPhone OS for first generation iPhones, the new iPhone 3G, and the iPod touch. I’ve yet to try the update myself but according to Crave, some improvements included better keyboard responsiveness, reduced lag in the Contacts application, and faster backups. Of course, the update features “bug fixes” but we don’t know exactly what kind of issues these fixes address.

To get the update, just connect your device to your PC or Mac, start up iTunes (unless it starts up automatically), and then press the “Update” button.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple iPhone OS 2.0.1, update, iPhone, iPod touch, firmware update

Duracell has launched the Duracell My Pocket Charger and PowerSource Mini to help keep your mobile devices powered while you’re on the go. Its actually pretty amazing that the company best known for batteries didn’t come up with these solutions sooner! In any event, here’s what you need to know about these two new products.

The Duracell My Pocket Charger is a pocket-sized power source comprised of two Duracell AA batteries. It comes in two models - one for MP3 players and one for all BlackBerry models and the newest Motorola phones. The MP3 player model can provide up to 24 hours of music on the latest iPod nano. The BlackBerry model can provide an additional hour of talk time.

The Duracell PowerSource Mini is a pocket sized rechargeable battery that can provide power to USB powered devices (cell phones, BlackBerry phones, MP3 players etc). The PowerSource Mini is a DC to DC lithium-ion battery pack. Features include:

Via GearFuse

• mini USB pivot arm for direct connections to devices
• Second USB port allows you to power two devices at once
• Includes AC adapter and DC charger - each with a USB port

Technorati Tags: Duracell, PowerSource Mini, My Pocket Charger

Creative Japan has a new portable media player out called the Creative ZEN Mosaic. One half of the ZEN Mosaic is covered by the 1.8 inch LCD display while the other half is covered by a patchwork of square and rectangular patterns (which also double as control and navigational buttons).  Spec wise, this is a flash based media player with storage options ranging from 2GB,4GB, and 8GB. Other specs include:

• Measures 79.5 x 40 x 12.8mm
• Weighs 43 grams
• Supports MP3, WMA, WAV, JPG
• Built-in speakers
• FM tuner

The ZEN Mosaic will be due out in August.

[Check it out via Akihabara News]

Technorati Tags: Creative ZEN Mosaic, Portable Media Player

The new Winpwn 2.0 software is finally available which allows Windows users to easily jailbreak their iPhone or iPod touch running the 2.0 firmware. Enjoy!

[Check it out via Gizmonews.com]

Technorati Tags: Winpwn 2.0, iPhone

We’ve seen some cheesy MP3 players over the years.. but this has got to be one of the cheesiest. It’s the Star Wars Darth Vader MP3 player and really now.. this is an MP3 player that ONLY a die hard Star Wars fan could possibly love. There’s really nothing at all special with this player aside from the picture of good ‘ol Darth himself. You get 512 MB of space, a built-in radio, and support for WMA and MP3 file formats. Yup.. pretty lame.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Star Wars, Darth Vader MP3 player

iSkin has announced a new armband solution for the iPod nano 3G called the DuoBand. The DuoBand  has a unique dual layer design which combines a silicon layer and a frontal ViSOR layer into one package. The silicon layer is designed to protect the iPod nano from shocks, dirt, dust, and moisture while the ViSOR layer protects the frontal areas of the iPod nano from scratches and other impact damages.

The DuoBand also features a breathable armband that allows you to slide in/out the protected iPod nano. The DuoBand  is available in Amp (energy red with metallic accent) and Maxum (power black with carbon accent) and retails for $39.99.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: iSkin, DuoBand, iPod nano 3G

Think Apple’s business is being driven by the iPod and iPhone? Guess again - Apple’s Mac business is alive and well as they’ve announced that 2.4 million Macs were shipped during the third quarter ending June 28th. That represents a 41 percent unit growth and a whopping 43 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. In total, Apple posted amazing revenues of 7.46 billion with a net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion (or $1.19 per diluted share). Compare those numbers to the year-ago quarter which were 5.41 billion and a net quarterly profit of $818 million. Gross profits dipped somewhat - from 36.9 percent to 34.8 percent.

Here are other stats of interest:

• 11 million iPods were sold during the quarter - 12 percent unit growth and seven percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter
• 717,000 iPhones were sold during the quarter compared to 270K in year ago quarter (of course the iPhone had just started sales during the third quarter of last year)

Now here’s where things get interesting. Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, decided to warn analysts that 4th quarter gross margins will be negatively affected by a “product transition.” So as News.com points out - let the guessing games begin. What exactly does this product transition mean exactly? Does this lend credence that new notebooks are coming out from Apple? Does this mean product prices are coming down? Does it mean things getting more expensive to manufacture? It’s really anyone’s guess right now (but you can be sure that people will be coming out with their own theories now). For the record though, News.com thinks that Apple will do two things during the fourth quarter: Introduce new Centrino 2 based MacBooks and reduce price for the iPod touch.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Third Quarter, 2008, Fourth Quarter, Apple iPhone, Mac, iPod Touch