I've been loving this tune for a while know, and this is one of the only ways to get it up on my blog. Have a listen!
Amazon my MP3 saviour & the vicious cycle of piracy!
Came across some really exciting news here at TechCrunch, Amazon is going to have a DRM-Free Music download service!
So for people like me living out here in Hong Kong I can finally download MP3 tunes. Now this is just my opinion but it seems that people like Apple have always been hesitant about adding Hong Kong to the list of places that have an iTunes shop, because when people think of Hong Kong they think of short little money grubbing Asian pirates with no morals.
Though I believe that to be true in part, there is a large portion of people who do uphold a strong moral code and are more than willing to purchase the real deal. Take a look at 360! For as long as I can remember in the majority of Hong Kong computer malls would only be selling pirated copies of Dream Cast and Playstation games. In fact often times the only way you could get your hands on a copy of these games was to purchase the pirated copy as sometimes publishers didn't want to distribute in HK for fear of having there games copied and pirated.
NEW FLASH *Pirates copy there games from IRC and get there ISO's almost faster than retailers world wide!!!*
Now things have changed drastically, you'll see miles upon miles of 360 games available in those computer malls, real ones! Why because people want to play online, and 360 has a rock solid online service! Basically there is a strong reason to support the market.
Side tracking to music, I'm sure that people who buy music online fall into one of the following categories, 1) a music fan that only likes a couple songs in any given albumn, and does in fact want to support their chosen artist. 2) a person who has very strange taste in music and can't find the tunes they want in a regular CD shops or 3) a music fans that *gasp* don't own a cd player. Now in todays iPod crazy world I'd imagine that most people fall into 3.
Almost everyone in HK owns an iPod, if iTunes got there shit together and had a shop in HK, I'm sure there would be plenty of downloads, but as of now most people can only download pirated stuff. Seriously iTunes is a dead easy system and most Hong Kong people despite being known as pirates aren't very tech savvy. If 1 click allows them to get music on iPod for low cost, they'll do it.
I for one support purchasing music legally and hope Amazon is my answer to finding music, and I also hope its the beginning of the end of the vicious cycle of piracy in HK. People who download pirated software and music will always download but that doesn't mean the rest of us should be punished!
Earphone Reviews: B&O A8 vs Pioneer Cl30 vs Sennheiser CX300
A8
CL30
CX300
Over the past 3 years I’ve owned only these 3 earphones so I’ve
decided to write a brief review on them.
I’ve had the B&O A8 the longest, they have great sound
quality, bass is full, mids are clear and highs are just about right. They look pretty nice but there are a few
problems I have with them. Firstly the
earphones come with foam covers for the actual ear buds, they make the whole
experience of wearing these headphones more comfortable. However these foam covers are thin and are definitely
going to tear, and when you wear these earphone without foam covers it can get
painful.
The second problem I’ve got with these earphones is that if
you wear them for a really long time, it gets kinda
painful, but that might just be my ears. When using them for a short
time you can barely feel them on your ears and its fantastic but for me I just
can’t wear them that long.
The last little gripe I have with these earphones is that well they’re difficult to take on and off. If you expect to yank out your earphones to answer a question or two every few minutes these earphone can become quite troublesome to be using. As a result the A8’s have been relegated to the earphones of choice when I go out for a jog or a work out because they stay put when your moving about.
The first in-ear channel earphones I’ve ever owned is the Pioneer CL30. I bought these in Japan while I was living there and I had read no reviews at all. I lucked out. The first thing you notice with in-ear channel earphones is that you don’t need to turn the volume as high and the base is a LOT more full than other earphones.
The sound quality is great I’d have to say that considering these earphones are quite cheap they have really great mids and really crisp highs, however now that I’m used to in-ear channel earphones I can say that the bass is a bit on the weak side, but overall these ear phones are very well balanced when it comes to sound quality.
The gripes I have with these earphones are that it comes with the short cable design with extension cable. My extension cable died on me a few months ago then recently my short cable died on me forcing me to research and but new earphones, more on that in a minute. Some people may like the short cable design but I personally don’t like hanging my mp3 player around my neck so the short cable doesn’t do it for me at all.
With the death of my CL30’s I elected to purchase the
Sennheiser CX300s. They’ve been receiving
great reviews and they weren’t as expensive as the really
expensive Shure or Ultimate Ear earphones.
I listen to a lot of bass heavy music such as drum and bass and hip hop. However when I was listening to broken beat music I found that the Pioneer’s had better sound quality in the mid and high range. Another thing I’ve noticed is that with the CX300’s you don’t really need to turn up the volume as much, I’ve read in some review that they are more efficient and I can confirm that as on my Sony NW-E507 I could turn the volume down a notch. However the battery life on Sony’s saving a little bit of juice really didn’t make that big a difference to me.
In conclusion I’ve got to say that if you don’t mind the short cable/ extension cable configuration, the larger size and chrome finish look of the Pioneer CL30’s. I would give the edge to the CL30’s over the Sennheiser CX300’s. The CX300’s have a better built quality and a robust bass, however the sound quality of the CL30’s over all is slightly better and oh yeah they’re cheaper but I'll probably forget about the comparison in another month or so
Sennheiser – sporty earphones
I’ve only ever owned one crazy pair of earphones and those were B&O earphones but these new sport range earphones from Sennheiser just might be my next pair of expensive earphones. The reason, basically they are designed for sports, lately I’ve discovered that most earphones just don’t hack it when it comes to sports and on top of that Sennheiser is a brand that I trust. I do have questions about the sound quality, if they will be comfy when sweat is pouring down your head and if they are sound canceling. If I find out more and they fufill my requirements I’ll invest in a pair. Read more here (via:Gizmodo)
Yet another mp3 playing NES controller
People just love to change NES controllers into all sorts of things. This time we have yet another MP3 player, I think I read somewhere on the net that this particular version is also a DAP radio. (via:Kotaku)
iPod nano wallet
Apple products are getting a lot of love these days, especially with the release of the new nano. This wallet design is only possible with the super slim nano, but the problem is that your gonna snap your nano into 2 with this wallet in your back pocket when you sit down. Get one here (via:OhGizmo!)
EA songs on iTunes
Anyone who plays a lot of EA games knows that there is something called EA Tracks (or Traxs or something like that) It usually consists of a bunch of remixes of original tracks which aren’t half bad and sometimes there are original tunes thrown in as well. Well now you can get all those tunes of iTunes, I’m ashamed to admit it but sometimes when I’m playing video games I think hey that’s a pretty cool track. Read more here (via:Slashdot)
mTunes-N Cordless Stero Headset
iProducts normally bug me like crazy, but thankfully this one is actually pretty cool and they went with m instead of i. Designed specifically for the nano (and only possible because the nano is so damn small) these headphones don’t need any batteries (which means they might drain more nano juice), have no cables, but most importantly a nano plugs right into the headset, and you still manage to have access to the precious click wheel! Read more about the details and get one here (via:Oh!Gizmo)
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