Gadgetoid

Still clinging to your ugly, generic, white iPod headphones? Want to set yourself apart from the crowd? Don’t want one of the bulky but excellent Sennheiser PX series? Well the MX 560 could be the earphones for you.

Boasting Sennheiser’s excellent sound quality and stylish design in 5 attractive colours the MX 560 are a more traditional earphone offering from Sennheiser at a price that wont break the bank. That’s £19.99 to be specific. What’s more; they come with a cable winder and a carrying pouch.

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The Tangent Quattro Mk2 introduces FM radio in addition to streaming internet radio, an RJ45 port for those who do not have a Wi-fi network and WPA2 Wi-fi security added for those who do.

With some 9900 stations to choose from plus your normal local and national FM stations, BBC Radio On Demand, Podcasts and the ability to stream audio from your PC or Mac the only thing the Quattro Mk2 could possibly need now is an iPod dock. However, Considering the iPod is best at browsing its own music collection and that the Quattro has line inputs for mp3 players I’m not sure if it’s even lacking that.

The whole package is packed into a heavyweight wooden enclosure available in four colours that both screams “retro” and still maintains that popular modern minimalist feel.

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The SD memory card slot and FM radio endowed portable media playing beauty that is the Creative Zen has just recieved a price slash on its 4gb and 8gb models to make room for the 32gb addition to the family. This is good news for anyone considering one of these players.

New prices are as follows:

• ZEN 2GB SRP £59.99
• ZEN 4GB SRP £79.99 (was £89.99)
• ZEN 8GB SRP £99.99 (was £119.99)
• ZEN 16GB SRP £159.99
• ZEN 32GB SRP £249.99

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Available in a range of colours and a couple of sizes the new Zen Stone (isn’t it technically a pebble) and Zen Stone Plus come with a built-in speaker and a free skin case with a clip.

I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of players with built-in speakers, they don’t quite compare to delivering sound directly to ones eardrums and seem somewhat gimicky. However, there must be a market for them somewhere.

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If, like me, you own an iPod and sync it with your home computer to keep its library of songs up to date with your latest listening preferences, but have always wanted to do the same when someone brings a CD into work or recommends a track then TuneRanger could be the software for you.

TuneRanger allows network syncronisation of iTunes libraries across Mac OS X and Windows computers, going so far as to support iTunes sync over the internet. This is all well and good, but where TuneRanger really shines is its ability to bi-directionally sync your iPod to both your home computer, your workstation and more.

This means you can pop that new CD on your iPod at work and listen to it on the way home.

Click here to learn more about TuneRanger

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What’s the plural for Walkman? Walkmen? I digress. Sony have announced the new big-screened, big battery life NWZ-A820 (That’s a mouthful!) series Walkman loaded up with Bluetooth goodness for wireless music.

The battery life apprently allows up to 10 hours of video playback or 36 hours of uninterrupted music playback. And even with Bluetooth stereo enabled, playback stretches to 7 hours of video or 15 hours of music.

The players are available for pre-order now at sonystyle-europe.com

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Back in October the Sennheiser PXC 450 were rated the best noise canceling headphone on the market, in november a black edition was released dubbed the PXC 350 and retailing for some £70 less. It’s this version I managed to obtain for the Gadgetoid once over, and it didn’t take much more than the insertion of batteries and the flip of just one switch to realize exactly how the Sennheiser PXC 450 stole the noise canceling crown. In fact, the PXC 350s have won the very first Gadgetoid “really rather good” award.

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Sennheiser are very quickly coming round to the popularity of their headsets amongst gamers. With so many PC peripheral companies churning out mediocrity or novelty and claiming it to be the greatest of gaming headsets (Razer, I’m looking at you) having Sennheiser step in and floor the competition with a genuinely high quality product is a breath of fresh air. Albiet at £150 it’s an incredibly expensive one.

Granted, with the Sennheiser brand behind these I’ve assumed that they floor the competition without having experienced them for myself but it’s an easy assumption to make if you’ve had any experience with Sennheiser products in the past. And. Seriously. Look at the things; a build like a brick outhouse must have been part of the design specification.

Anyway, enough of the ranting blurb… I use Roland headphones for all my gaming/audio/tv needs anyway! Check over the fold for specifications.

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ARCHOS have released an updated version of their feature packed but diminuatively sized 405 series portable media player now boasting a whopping 30gb capacity. That’s not bad for something so compact; the 405 is, in fact, the smallest PMP in the Generation 5 lineup from ARCHOS.

The 405 includes a great lineup of accessories and plug-ins which allow for on-the-go video recording from many sources, playback of MPEG2/VOB video files straight from DVD and Video Podcast support.

The 3.5″ screen strikes a good balance between portability and viewability, with 30gb storage now backing that up my 30gb 5.5g iPod video is begging to be ‘accidentally broken’.

You can get more information on the new 30gb 405 from the ARCHOS website.

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Yet another iPod dock has hit the market in the form of the IXOS XMI318 ARGO £49.99. Touting an already-obsolete FM Radio (seriously, give us some quality DAB love already!) and a solid 12 watts of power from 4 drivers all in a neat, compact package the IXOS is sure to appeal to someone. But that someone sure isn’t me!

The “portable” in the IXOS ARGO’s name comes from the fact it can additionally be driven by 6 x AA batteries, so it’s an ideal dock for adding music to the many outdoor activities you might embark upon this summer.

The ARGO will be supplied complete with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, USB connection (which lets you sync your iPod whilst docked) the usual interchangable dock cartridges and, surprisingly enough, a mains adaptor with UK/European converters.

The third generation “fat” iPod nano will not fit in the ARGO out of the box, but IXOS are offering a converter free of charge via the contact section on their website.

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