MP3 Insider

Blue Microphone's Mikey iPod accessory was a surprise find at Macworld 2009.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

The Macworld show floor can induce deja vu for habitual attendees. From a hardware perspective, often it's the same vendors offering the same products, with slight variations from year to year. Despite the gloomy economic outlook, however, I found a surprising amount of new products on the show floor (or, at least new to me). Here are the highlights.

Audio gems from Macworld 2009

CNET is about to close its doors for the rest of 2008, but I couldn't take off on my extra-long, well-deserved holiday break without leaving you with one last tidbit of wisdom for the season of giving. Namely, what's a procrastinator to do when he or she wants to give the gift of digital downloads at the last minute? A couple of options for you below.

(Credit: Amazon)

Q: I, as most people, am trying to find the last gifts on my list before Christmas. Instead of sending people CDs or movies in the mail, however, I wanted to send them digital CDs or movies to make sure they get there on time and save shipping. Do you guys know of any good places that would allow me to do this?--Jereme, via e-mail

A: This is a great idea for last-minute gifting; in fact, I may have to steal it from you. Doing a little research, I found that two online stores stood out in making the purchase of digital gift certificates a simple task: Amazon.com and iTunes (warning: link launches the iTunes app). Both services offer a wide selection of both audio and video content, though you may want to note that Amazon's MP3 store and video service are in separate areas of the Digital Downloads department, and the iTunes gift certificate requires that the software be downloaded. I would go with iTunes if the giftee is an iPod user, but Amazon is a better bet for those with another portable device or none at all.

MP3 Mailbox Monday will return in 2009--happy holidays!

MP3 Mailbox Monday is a recurring feature where I answer a selection of questions about MP3 players and accessories, such as headphones, speakers, and music services and software. Check back often to see if the advice presented here might be of some use to you, or send your questions directly to me. (Note: We never include last names, but if you prefer to remain completely anonymous, please state as much in your e-mail.)

'Tis the season to give, but with the current economic crunch affecting all of our pocketbooks, you may find yourself too cash-strapped to go all out on electronic gadgetry. But that doesn't mean you have to shy away from tech gifting. MP3 player accessories make great gifts and the majority of them aren't going to cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, you can find some cases on Amazon for less than two bucks!

If you have a SanDisk Sansa owner in your family, you've come to the right place. We've rounded up a slew of accouterments that are perfect for stuffing stockings and loading up under trees.

SanDisk Sansa accessories gallery

Sy Mann's Switched on Santa is the pinnacle of holiday Moog-sploitation music. But the prospect of hearing it in August is terrifying.

(Credit: FaLaLaLaLa)

Nothing brings out the holiday spirit better than music. Whether it's Vince Guaraldi's "The Christmas Song," Elvis Presley's "Santa Claus Is Back In Town," or Snoop Dogg's "Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto," everybody has that certain song that epitomizes the holidays. Once the holidays are over, though, it's time to pack away the decorations, hide the tacky lawn ornaments, and take your holiday music out of rotation until next December.

That last part, the part about packing away the holiday tunes, has become harder to accomplish in the digital age. Before the dawn of the MP3, you could just dump your records, tapes, or CDs in the same garage-bound box as your ornaments and wrapping paper. In the days of iTunes, however, your imported songs tend to stick around. Next thing you know, it's August, you're at the gym listening to your iPod Shuffle, and "Jingle Bell Rock" hits you like a fart in a spacesuit.

So how do you store a digital holiday music library that can play from your home computer, while keeping it quarantined from the music you want to hear the other 11 months of the year? I've rounded up a few of my favorite techniques. Feel free to add your own suggestions at the end. ... Read more

One of the most common complaints I hear from people with large music collections is that browsing through songs as if scrolling through a spreadsheet is tedious. For these file-hoarding music fanatics, aimlessly browsing through their music library holds the same appeal as flipping through the card catalog of the Library of Congress.

The problem is: there comes a point when the iTunes paradigm of presenting your music collection as a column-sorted list of files is just absurd. Thankfully, Anita Lillie from MIT's Media Lab has based her thesis around a new way to visualize song data and she's called it MusicBox. The application is an academic exercise and unlikely to be developed into a commercial application, but it opens more than a few doors of perception when it comes to thinking about your music collection.

MusicBox includes many of the practical jukebox features you'd see in iTunes, but the visualization at its center radically rethinks the way we're accustomed to arranging our music collections.

(Credit: Anita Lillie)

Lillie's MusicBox goes far beyond the conventional sorting strategies of ID3 tags and file types, expanding the vocabulary to include factors such as tempo, timbre, and even data summarizing the acoustical properties of a song, pulled from another project of Lillie's called Soundsieve. After dialing-in the particular view of your collection you're interested in, you can plot a path across your songs to create an intelligent playlist capable of, say, playing songs in escalating tempo, or grouping songs with similar acoustic fingerprints across multiple genres (think Lionel Hampton alongside gamelan music).

Of course, from a practical standpoint, I already have a hard enough time explaining to my parents how iTunes works. Demonstrating interrelated acoustical nodes will likely melt mom and dad's brains. For advanced users hungry for new and novel ways to navigate monolithic collections, however, Anita Lillie's MusicBox project points to hope on the horizon.

(Via MAKE)

Beats for your brain.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

In the final MP3 Insider of 2008, Donald and Jasmine discuss Dr. Dre's super stylish in-ear headphones, a way-too-pricey iPod dock from DLO, some touch-screen alternatives to the iPod Touch, and a gaggle of gear for the Creative Zen family.

Plus, find out how to follow Jasmine and Donald while they cruise around CES 2009.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

... Read more

According to a post on the Sony Insider blog, Sony is gearing up to release a touch-screen Walkman to contend with Apple's iPod Touch (get in line Sony). The blog's author, who cites no sources and saw fit to post his own product mock-up, claims the new Walkman includes a 3-inch OLED screen, Wi-Fi, a Web browser, YouTube browser, and an integrated Amazon MP3 download store. Apparently, the device will be unveiled at CES in January. We couldn't reach any of our sources at Sony for comment.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 has already shown us a touch-screen Sony media player with a Web browser. A standalone Walkman with a similar UI isn't inconceivable.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I want to give the Sony Insider the benefit of the doubt, and I have to admit the product sounds exciting. The part of this story I have a hardest time believing is that Sony would announce its Walkman in America. Historically, Sony's U.S. division has had a hard time creating buzz on its MP3 players, partly because they tend to pop up in Asia months before reaching U.S. soil, and partly due to their unbearably complicated product names.

Which is not to say I blame Sony. I have no problem believing that Japan's appetite for Walkmans and Rollys outstrip America's by a hundredfold. The iPod's stranglehold on the American psyche is well-known, and an MP3 player named the NWZ-S738F isn't going to change that, no matter how many awards we give it.

All rants aside--will we see a Wi-Fi-enabled touch-screen Sony Walkman in 2009? I don't see why not. Sony's own Xperia X1 smartphone already has all the ingredients. Of course, the X1 runs around $800 in the U.S.--which brings me to my next question.

Will we see a Wi-Fi-enabled touch-screen Sony Walkman for sale in the U.S. in 2009? That's hard to say. The Sony Insider post wasn't too clear on that part. My sense right now is that no one, not even the mighty Apple, is blind enough to release a risky and potentially expensive MP3 player in the U.S. for 2009.

On a smaller note, I have a hard time believing Sony would partner with Amazon (or anyone) for their device-integrated MP3 store. Personally, I think it would be a great move, but Sony always tries to go with a vertically integrated solution first. Just take a look at Sony Connect, the PS3, Blu-ray, or the most Sony of all products, the MiniDisc. Maybe this is Sony turning over a new leaf, but I wouldn't bet on it.