nothing worth noting has changed this past week in the tech sector. i figured i’d hit you guys up with some cool gadgets that i think will enhance your tv viewing and music listening experiences.
did you know that your laptop can receive over-the-air digital broadcasts? plextor and avertv have released tv tuners that directly plug into your usb 2.0 port to allow you to receive digital HD broadcasts instantly. priced at $99 and $129, respectively, this will be perfect for virtual ybp’s who constantly travel and want to catch the upcoming nba finals in HD glory! with the included software, you could also pause and rewind live tv just like you would with your normal dvr at home. be sure to check out the minimum specs of your laptop to make sure you’re covered technically. via extremetech and ehomeupgrade.
if you’ve ever asked me about digital audio players, you know that i’ve always recommended steering away from apple. although many have been sucked into the ‘its looks nice’ marketing strategy, i can assure you that there are better mp3 players out there. even better, there are devices that do video playback, music playback, wifi, bluetooth, and even HSDPA (think really fast wireless). such as the case with the new cowon q5. i recommended the x5 to my boy james and he loves it. between the reviews already pouring in and style of this device, i have no doubt you’ll be happy with this purchase. expected to come in around $499 for the 40Gb model and a hundred bucks more for a 60 gig. via laptopmag.
Sheria
I need to upgrade my mp3 player but all of my music is on iTunes. Is there a program that will convert my iTunes music so that I can use it with something other than an iPod? the only solution I’ve come up with so far is to burn a cd and then copy it into windows media player. I’m sure there has to be something more efficient.
April 11, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Fredric
glad you asked. there is a program called jhymn that will automatically convert your encrypted m4p itunes files to whatever format you’d like, including mp3. these daps usually play other types including ogg vorbis, aac, m4a, etc. which are generally easier to convert from m4p.
only problem is that itunes and the hacker who created jhymn having been going at it for sometime. so far, the jhymn hacker has a solution for music bought before itunes 6.0.
if you have music that was purchased in itunes 6.0 or later, you’re right. apple sucks and it will take a few other creative hacks.
1.) download an older version of itunes, open the music in that, and see if jhymn works from there. i think it will since jhymn uses the log-in method from itunes to decrypt.
2.) something like burning to a cd and then re-ripping to the computer to get that music off will always work, but is a PITA.
3.) the only other option, and you’ll find this even if you google ‘m4p to mp3′ is to record your music live. peep my post on that and it could save you time from the burning, etc.
welcome to another reason why i do not like apple. you can’t ‘keep’ the stuff you own.
April 11, 2007 at 5:18 pm
stephenomenal
the low tech/cumbersome solution that worked for me is to burn your album to CD from iTunes and rip it back to MP3 using CDEX (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/).
April 12, 2007 at 10:03 am
YBP Guide — weekly roundup: 4/14
[...] tech news 4/11: “gadgets galore!” edition [...]
April 14, 2007 at 10:18 am