Posts filed under Mobile Music

Music streaming service Spotify has hit a winning streak. Not content with winning awards for its Web-based music-streaming service, it’s also set to take the mobile world by storm, firstly with a Spotify app for Android phones (above, and in the video below) and the iPhone, and now with a dedicated Spotify phone.

Most companies are happy enough with just a smartphone app to add to their Web app, but Spotify figures that it might as well go the whole hog and build an entire phone around its service. And why not? If Twitter and Facebook can do it, then surely the world’s most talked about music streaming service can too?

But a Spotify phone won’t just shake up the mobile phone world – it’ll shake up Starbucks, too. Read on after the jump to see how…

After two lack-lustre mobile phones were announced by Sony Ericsson prior to the MWC 2009 conference next week, the company has announced a rather good wireless audio streamer.

The Sony Ericsson AB900 wireless audio streamer is an FM transmitter that enables you to listen to the tunes on your mobile on your car stereo via its radio.

Now before you switch off and say you’ve heard it all before, they never work, etc., Sony Ericsson seems to have done the impossible and fixed all the faults with their new AB900, making it genuinely useful.

Head on over to sister site MediaMentalism for full coverage of the Sony Ericsson AB900 wireless audio streamer.

Nokia announced the Nokia 5310 xPress Music phone the other day, and now speaker manufacturer JBL have announced a new speaker designed especially for the new phone. The JBL On Call 5310 is a stand-alone active speaker that comprises two 3-watt transducers, integrated amplifier and a 3.5mm mini-jack.

In the middle of the speaker is the outline of a phone, into which the Nokia 5310 can slot. Music from the phone can then be played through the speaker, which will also recharge the phone as it plays. Other music sources, such as MP3 players, can also be connected to the JBL On Call 5310 via its 3.5mm jack.

[Source: Aving.net]

Motorola’s original ROKR was born in a blizzard of hype.

Dubbed the ‘iTunes phone’, it was the first phone to feature Apple’s iTunes service, and helped spawn the new blizzard of iPhone hype we’re currently being swamped with.

Unfortunately for Motorola, the ROKR soon died an ugly death of shame, embarrassment and chronic disillusionment, as it was hobbled by Apple, and could only store 100 tunes.

Motorola tried again with the stillborn ROKR E2 and the E3, but that was pants as well, despite ditching the iTunes service.

Now, Motorola are trying again, with the Motorola ROKR E6, a brand new update on a much ridiculed phone. So have they got it right this time?

BenQ-Siemens have been showing off their new BenQ-Siemens EF51 mobile phone….in the bath! The EF51 was first announced at 3GSM, and is another mobile music phone from BenQ-Siemens, with dedicated music buttons and quite a good, clean design.

More pics of the BenQ-Siemens EF51 after the jump.

PeerBox is a neat application that brings P2P music sharing to a mobile phone.

PeerBox lets you tap into over 50 million tunes available on P2P networks.

What’s really cool, though, are the different ways you can locate a tune using PeerBox.

Furiously avoiding any mention of hype, old-skool Public Enemy man Chuck D has launched a new distribution service for mobile music, aimed at providing ringtones, voice tones and other clips from urban artists.

“We hope this distribution platform will really give an opportunity to other musicians (who produce) more positive urban music,” Walter Leaphart, Chuck D’s manager, said last week. “Kids are force-fed when to buy, where to buy and how to buy. The labels are only caring about the quarterly bottom line, and they say (gangsta rap) is what sells. If you take all that bullshit off and put on healthy stuff, you may change a kid’s perspective.”

Called Chuck D Mobile, the new service will “…build on Chuck D’s work to leverage the Internet to give artists more control over their content and how it is distributed to music fans.”

[Source: RCRNews]

More pictures have emerged of the new Motorola ROKR E3. Latest in the line of seemingly doomed ROKR phones (the original ROKR E1 was the heavily-criticised iTunes phone, while the ROKR E2 still hasn’t been released yet!), the new ROKR E3 adds 3G support for US and European networks (UMTS 1900 and WCDMA 2100), as well as tri-band GSM, GPRS and EDGE.

More pictures and details of the new Motorola ROKR E3 after the jump.

[Source: GSMArena]

Sony Ericsson have announced the release of another new Walkman phone, the Sony Ericsson W700. Designed to supersede last year’s W800i, the W700 is the 8th Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson, and comes in a fetching titanium finish. The release date of the Sony Ericsson W700 is the second quarter of 2006.

The W700 comes with 2 megapixel camera, and can store up to 2GB (or 47 CD’s worth) of tunes using a Memory Stick PRO Duo. It seems to be a very well-specified phone, with a good range of features, each of which will doubtless be up to Sony Ericsson’s very high standard. It’s difficult to see what this phone offers over the old W800i though.

Full details and more pics of the Sony Ericsson W700 after the jump, and you can compare its features with its older brother with our Sony Ericsson W800i review.

[Source: Sony Ercisson]

Nokia have released a special edition of their new mobile music phone, the Nokia 3250. The new limited edition Nokia 3250 WESC offers all the features of the original 3250 (1GB storage, dedicated music buttons, 2 megapixel camera), but has been given a makeover by fashion company WESC (We Are the Superlative Conspiracy). Principally, this means a new world design painted on the back of the phone, but WESC have also pre-loaded the 3250 with a digital version of the WESC Travel Guide.

Nokia’s partnership with WESC will continue with other products in the future, and so they seem to be following the same path as Motorola, who are always keen to partner with other firms they see as being hip (Apple, Burton, Oakley, etc.). Only 500 of the new Nokia 3250 WESC mobile phones will be sold, though, so Nokia are clearly aiming for the exclusivity factor to give the new phone some added cool.

Read what you get with the new Nokia 3250 WESC after the jump.

[Source: NokiaWesc, via Phoneyworld]