Friday, July 13, 2007

The mobiBLU™ DAH-2100 Digital Multimedia Player

The mobiBLU™ DAH-2100 Digital Multimedia Player




DAH-2100 Features
• Small Form Factor Digital Multimedia Player
• Supports MP3, WMA, OGG, and “Protected” WMA (DRM)
• View Digital Images and Watch Video Clips
• Full Color OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) Display
• Available in 1GB, and 2GB (500/1000 Songs*)
• Podcast Ready™ -enabled
• USB Rechargeable Lithium Polymer Battery – 13 Hour
Playtime
• FM Tuner and FM Recording
• Voice Recording and Direct Encoding
• Firmware Upgradeable

*Based on 4 minutes per song at 64kbps WMA

.Introducing the DAH-2100 Digital Audio and Video Player from mobiBLU! You will be amazed at the tiny form factor of the DAH-2100 and at the features that this micro-marvel has. Not only can you listen to your favorite digital audio tracks, but you can also view your digital images and watch video clips on its oversize color OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display. The DAH-2100 doubles as a USB flash drive (for storing data files) and is USB charging (it charges while connected to your PC’s USB port). Another cool feature is its tempo control. You can slow down or speed up your music tracks and recordings, and the user interface is beautiful to look at and easy to use.

In addition, the DAH-2100 has a built in FM radio and FM recorder. You can record your favorite radio broadcasts on-the-fly and listen to them anytime on the player or on your PC. The DAH-2100 has a integrated microphone so you can make instant voice memos, and it has “line-in” Direct Encoding, which allows you to record from any audio source using the included line-in cable. With Direct Encoding you can make MP3 files directly on the DAH-2100…no PC required!


DAH-2100 is

The easiest ways to find, manage, enjoy, and share Podcasts! Podcast Ready provides a full featured software application for your DAH-2100 which allows you to manage and receive Podcasts from any internet-enabled PC without installing additional software or drivers. Podcast Ready’s web services, www.podcastready.com, interact with the DAH-2100 to help you find and enjoy high-quality content from anywhere, and share it easily with your friends. With a vast directory and a patent-pending “one-click” subscription process, Podcast Ready makes listening to your favorite shows easy.

Available Color!
Black
(1GB & 2GB)


DAH-2100 Specification
AUDIO FORMATS SUPPORTED MP3 (MPEG 1/2-Layer 2/3, 16-320Kbps), OGG(Q1~Q10),
WMA (Microsoft Windows Audio, 32-192Kbps), WMA DRM 9 (Digital Rights Management – supports “ala-carte” music download services
VIDEO FORMATS SUPPORTED AVI (Video Clip file format converted by provided software)
IMAGE FORMATS SUPPORTED JPG (Image format converted by provided software)
BUILT-IN MEMORY 1GB, 2GB
DISPLAY 65K Color OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode)
ENCODING Record from FM Radio (FM Recording) and Internal Microphone (Voice Recording) and Line-In (Direct Encoding) into MP3 format
FM FREQUENCY 87.50MHz – 108.00MHz / 76.0MHz ~ 108.0MHz
AUDIO OUTPUT FREQUENCY 20Hz – 20KHz
AUDIO SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO 90dB
HEADPHONE OUTPUT POWER 15mW
PC INTERFACE USB 2.0
DOWNLOAD SPEED 25 Mbps
POWER SUPPLY Li-Polymer (Built-in)
BATTERY LIFE Max 13 hours MAX (Audio Playback)
PRODUCT DIMENSIONS 1.22” x 3.35” x 0.55” (31mm x 65mm x 14mm)
PRODUCT WEIGHT 1.09 Ounces (31 Grams)
PLAY MODES Normal, Repeat, Repeat All, Random, Random All
EQUALIZER Normal, Rock, Jazz, Classic, Pop, Live (Mode Setting)
OTHER FEATURES PRE-LOADED Podcast Ready™, Firmware Upgradeable, Graphic Equalizer
ACCESSORIES Stereo Earbud-style Earphones, USB Cable, Line-In Cable, Neck Strap, User Manual, Program CD, Carrying Case
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MS Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, or XP / MAC OS 9.x ~ 10.x, or OS X. Pentium (or Compatible) 200MHz or Higher, 32MB (64MB for Windows ME or 2000) Main Memory or Higher, 128MB free hard drive space or Higher, CD-ROM Drive and USB Port(USB 1.1 or 2.0), Internet Connection for content downloading

MobiBlu's B153 MP3 Player

The first thing I did when I got my hands on the MobiBlu B153 was charge it up via my PC's USB port. Then I loaded it up with a few CDs' worth of Pizzicato Five, set it to repeat endlessly, and made a note of the time and date. The player was not only still playing at the claimed 153-hour running time, it kept going for another nine -- just four hours short of a week.

I can hear you asking: why, in the name of all that is good and just, would anyone want to listen to six days' worth of nonstop music? Practically speaking, you wouldn't (unless you really liked Shibuya pop), but the fact that you could means that you can go for weeks without having to recharge the player, if not longer. A quick calculation revealed that with my listening habits, I could conceivably charge a B153 in May and only get around to recharging it in August.

But beyond this much-appreciated gimmick, the B153 is actually a fairly decent flash player, if a bit no-frills. Though the player reads ID3 tags, there's no searching or organizing by artist or album -- it's strictly folder navigation. And don't even think about PlaysForSure or Janus.

Available in 512 MB, 1 GB and 2 GB versions (at the entirely reasonable prices of $89, $99 and $129), the B153 is a Universal Mass Storage (UMS) device, so it's recognized as an external drive on any recent version of Windows, MacOS or Linux. Its interface is a little quirky, but I found it easy to adapt to -- especially since the little thumb joystick is so responsive. (Lefties, take note: there's an option to flip the OLED screen's display text upside down, which should make things easier for you.)

The built-in voice and line-in recorders are decent, though they only top out at 128 and 192 kbps, respectively, in the MP3 format. The audio is clear enough that every instrument on my universal test track -- Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" -- was discernible without using any of the audio-boost or EQ functions. Activating SRS at its default setting brought a nice richness to the sound, though.

Also included and pre-installed is Podcast Ready's myPodder, which I gushed about in March (and continue to gush about -- I use it all the time, and am pleased to note that the software seems to be out of beta).

There are a few flaws: the B153 only plays MP3 and WMA (up to version 9, and I confess I did not test it with lossless), and there's no gapless playback, though gaps are small enough that you won't notice except on mixed or live CDs. The player's also a little sluggish when it comes to skipping tracks, and I'm not too keen on the non-standard USB connector. But overall this is a keeper, especially considering its price.