Sunday, February 12, 2006

MobiBlu Looks Ahead, Apple Goes Retro


MobiBlu Looks Ahead, Apple Goes Retro
ABC News - MobiBlu has decided 1GB is soooo last year, announcing its plans for a 2GB version of its wildly popular DAH-1500i cube-shaped MP3 player. The new cube will be just as cute as the old one in fact, it'll be identical in form and function except for

I4U News - Review of the World's Smallest MP3 Player: MobiBlu DAH ...


I4U News - Review of the World's Smallest MP3 Player: MobiBlu DAH ...
Review of the World's Smallest MP3 Player: MobiBlu DAH-1500 aka JNC SSF-8000 aka Cube I4U is a Technology Life Style Magazine and Shopping Guide.

I4U News - New Mobiblu DAH-1500i Cube MP3 Player with 2GB!
New Mobiblu DAH-1500i Cube MP3 Player with 2GB!, I4U News is a Premium Technology News Magazine and Gadget Shopping Guide.

Best, worst, weirdest of 2005?
More than half of our visitors are from the US, and statistics say that 78% of all Americans like numbers, figures and lists (also, 100% of these stats were made up, but only 1.3% of you is likely to actually care about that). So let's do this one before all getting high on bubbly fluids and greasy chunks of appetizer. Don't expect a great deal of factual resources to back up my choices, these lists are mainly based on "gut feelings" right now.

Mind you, all products listed are devices I've actually used during the past year... no cheating by looking at awesome specifications of upcoming cool gear (well except for the last few top-3s, of course)!

Best DAP of 2005, overall (PMPs/PVRs et cetera included)
  1. MobiBlu DAH-1500i
  2. iRiver U10
  3. Cowon iAudio X5
Runner-ups: iPod nano (aaargh! get the garlic!), Samsung's YP-T8/D1 and - despite some complaints - the Archos AV5x0 series.

Why? Well, MobiBlu was a no-name-company until they released that cube-like little marvel - they managed to establish themselves in the US too (not too many Korean companies succeeded in that, besides iRiver & Cowon), thanks to the DAH-1500. Some slight improvements turned the "i"-version into one of the most talked-about DAPs over here, which we tend to like.

iRiver's U10 might seem an unlikely choice but maybe that's just me. I fell in love with the clean design, and yes - it's a very impressive device altogether in terms of output quality and number of (semi)useful features. All it needs is a hefty price cut and a reasonable capacity upgrade. Arguably not the easiest requests, but come on iRiver... you need to keep racing the other dogs!

Cowon's X5 managed to create a stir in DAP-land for several months, and although it's pretty outdated by now (boy, technology ages like crazy nowadays), we won't forget how it did set some standards - slimness (apart from that screen-hump thing), color screen (kind of ugly), video support (hardly useful), USB-Host, the usual Cowon sound quality, blah blah blah... They'll need to upgrade the X5 to something new soon enough, but for the first half of 2005, the X5 managed to impress us for quite some time.

Here's a few other categories on which I spent, say, 0.40 seconds per item. It's all a matter of personal taste, mostly.

Design award
  1. iRiver U10
  2. Philips hdd63x0
  3. MPEye HTS-200
Runner-ups: MobiBlu DAH-1500i, Mpio FL-400, Olympus M:R 100, EZAV EMP-700 (Pebble)

Best flash DAP
  1. MobiBlu DAH-1500i
  2. iRiver U10
  3. iPod nano
Runner-ups: Samsung YP-T8/D1, Samsung YP-U1, Sony NW-E4/5/60x

Best micro-HDD DAP
  1. Samsung YH-J50
  2. iRiver H10
  3. Philips hdd16x0
Runner-ups: Sony NW-A1000, Archos XS100, Creative Zen Micro Photo

Best HDD DAP
  1. Cowon iAudio X5
  2. Archos Gmini-402(cc)
  3. Apple iPod v5
Runner-ups: Samsung YH-J70, Sony NW-HD5, Toshiba Gigabeat F-series

Best PMP/PVR
  1. Archos AV5x0
  2. Cowon A2
  3. Creative Zen Vision
Runner-ups: Digital Cube i-Station 2, ... eh... most other "worthwhile" stuff never made it to where I live.

Most surprising stuff:

  1. Apple dropping the iPod Mini in favor of the nano
  2. Creative's Zen Vision & upcoming Zen Vision:M
  3. iRiver U10 (initially)
Runner-ups: LuxPro's Super Shuffle, Samsung's buckets full of new DAPs @ CES/CeBIT, Rio Audio = dead (not really a surprise, just a shocking fact).

Most potential (DAPs (PMPs/PVRs/...) I haven't used, but consider very interesting)
  1. Rio Audio CarbonC 30GB
  2. Creative's Zen Vision & upcoming Zen Vision:M
  3. Mobiblu DAH-1900 (150 hour battery life)
Runner-ups: Digital Cube i-Station V43, BestaPro DMP-1, Maxian T600, 30000 other units I can't remember right away.

Most disappointing DAP of 2005, overall
  1. Olympus M:R500
  2. Apple iPod shuffle & Sony Bean
  3. iRiver H10, 20GB
Runner-ups: Creative Zen Sleek, Creative Zen Neeon, Archos Gmini-500, Cowon iAudio M5

Old stuff that still ruled in 2005
  1. Rio Audio Karma
  2. iRiver H1x0 series (+RockBox)
  3. Cowon iAudio U2
Runner-ups: iPod v4, Archos AV4x0, Creative Zen Xtra (60GB).

Feel free to fill in your own "personal bests", "worst stuff ever" et cetera. Lists are fun, remember? If you want to go through this year's major events when filling in your own favorites, please check out our "year in review" article. Try to keep it friendly, and respect each other's choices like sane people tend to do.

Ok, let's celebrate New Year's Eve now. Y'all keep safe and have a nice few upcoming hours! I'll be on my way to Vegas the next day - another thing to really look forward to, for me anyway .

Wal-Mart actively adding more and more tech gadets on its shelves
The company said it is using its site to test trendy products and those that appeal to a younger, wealthier demographic. Among them this holiday season: the MobiBlu, a tiny cubic $99 MP3 player, a six-megapixel camera and dock by Kodak for $199

MobiBlu DAH-1500i: still small, now with 2GB


MobiBlu DAH-1500i: still small, now with 2GB
engadget, CA - Feb 9, 2006Remember that "world's smallest" digital audio player: the MobiBlu DAH-1500? Well, it just got a bump to 2GB and still includes ...

Seagate s 8gb ST1 Series Hard Drive Powers Portable Multi Media ...
TechWhack (press release), India - Jan 25, 2006... digital audio players, DataPlay and IPS equipment, has chosen Seagate s 8GB 1-inch Hard Drive for its new portable multi-media player, the mobiBLU DHH-200. ...

Sturdy flash MP3 player, Mac compatible w/ voice recording?
CNET Reviews - Feb 11, 2006I like the cool factor of the Mobiblu, but they don't seem all that reliable and the firmware updates as near as I can tell don't work on the Mac. ...

MobiBlu Looks Ahead, Apple Goes Retro
ABC News - Feb 8, 2006MobiBlu has decided 1GB is soooo last year, announcing its plans for a 2GB version of its wildly popular DAH-1500i cube-shaped MP3 player. ...

Review: MobiBlu DAH-1500i


Review: MobiBlu DAH-1500i
Playlist, CA - Feb 9, 2006... MobiBlu s diminutive MP3 player, the DAH-1500i, packs a few miles of features into a player that measures less than one cubic inch. ...

Seagate's 8GB STl series HDD powers Hyunwon
CRN-India, India - Jan 25, 2006... digital audio players, DataPlay and IPS equipment, has chosen Seagate's 8GB 1-inch Hard Drive for its new portable multi-media player, the mobiBLU DHH-200. ...

Micro-Miniature Masterpieces
Independent-Bangladesh, Bangladesh - Feb 2, 2006... cube. Today, we have the MobiBlu DAH-1500i for review with us! ... grams. The MobiBLU DAH-1500i has only one input, which is the earphone jack. ...

X9 XN-F3 MP3 Player With Color Screen
Gizmodo.com, Hungary - Jan 27, 2006One of the smallest DAPs ever just 1.5 x 1.6 x .5 inches (half as thick as the MobiBLU) and it has a 65K color OLED screen to boot. ...

MobiBlu Looks Ahead, Apple Goes Retro
ABC News - Feb 8, 2006MobiBlu has decided 1GB is soooo last year, announcing its plans for a 2GB version of its wildly popular DAH-1500i cube-shaped MP3 player. ...

Say Hello To My Little Friend: The 2GB MobiBlu
Gearlog, NY - Feb 8, 2006The cubed friend that we all know and love the MobiBlu DAH-1500i player will be released in a 2GB version. The new version will ...