Swedish Tech Report

Over at Engadget they have meet up with Microsoft in San Francisco to get a first hand look at the Zune 4.5 software. It adds cool features such as Smart DJ on the device and marketplace access via the AV connection. Personally as a Zune pass subscriber I can not wait for these features and see them actually go live. Smart DJ on the device is jummy

We know you’ve been waiting at the edge of your seat for that added codec support and SmartDJ for Zune HD, patient ever since its CES unveiling, and now we’re here to assure you that it’s coming with the next firmware update, version 4.5. We had a chance to preview both SmartDJ and Marketplace access via the AV dock connection this afternoon (video coming soon) — the former being very smooth and easy-to-use, the latter being convenient except for having to input text using the simple remote and an on-screen keyboard. According to Marketing Manager Michael Yaeger, there’s nothing in the cards right now for a new, more text input-friendly remote. While we had his attention, we also asked him about Mac support and international Zune HD releases — neither of which he could answer definitively, but it doesn’t sound hopeful in the near future. As for release date, we couldn’t get anything more specific than within the next few weeks, but at least it’s next on the docket. Press release after the break; so with that out of the way, how about some answers on that 64GB model, eh Microsoft?

Press release:

It’s been an exciting few months for Zune. We launched the Zune HD device last September which has been receiving press and consumer praise for its OLED screen, HD Radio, HD video out and key music discovery features, which become even more powerful with a Zune Pass subscription. We also expanded the Zune service to additional platforms. We brought Zune video to Xbox LIVE in November, giving consumers access to instant on 1080p HD with 5.1 surround sound and the ability to buy content once and play it on the TV through Xbox LIVE, on the PC through the Zune software and on the go on a Zune device. We also announced last month that Zune will be an integrated feature on Windows Phone 7 Series and we’re looking forward to sharing more details about the Zune experience on Windows Phones in the coming weeks and months.

Earlier this year, we also shared that we’ll be introducing a Zune HD firmware update this spring. We’re excited to be bringing even more features and functionality to Zune users through this update, and wanted to share some additional details around what will be introduced.

- Smart DJ on Zune HD: Zune has always been committed to helping people discover new music. We added “Smart DJ” to the Zune software last fall and now we’re bringing this popular music discovery feature to the Zune HD device. Smart DJ on Zune HD will let you create an instant playlist mix whenever the inspiration strikes direct from your device. Just choose a song or artist from your collection or from the Zune Marketplace catalog and press the Smart DJ icon to build a new mix based on your selection. If you have a Zune Pass music subscription it will pull music from your existing collection and the Zune Marketplace catalog to create the mix. If you don’t have a Zune Pass subscription you can still use Smart DJ to build a playlist from the collection on your device.

- Picks on Zune HD: Picks is another popular music recommendation feature in the Zune software which we’re extending to the Zune HD device. The Picks algorithm analyzes what you listen to and compares that to millions of other Zune users to make personalized recommendations. With this update, you’ll be able to access these automatic recommendations directly on the Zune HD device as well as on your PC.

- Browse and Stream Music from Zune Marketplace on your TV: Using the Zune HD A/V dock, you can connect your Zune HD to your TV to play your favorite videos and music from your device on the big screen. With this software update, you’ll also be able to browse and stream music from Zune Marketplace directly on your TV to find and listen to your favorite music from the comfort of your couch. You can browse New Releases, check out recommendations from your Picks page, search for a specific song or artist, or even create a new Smart DJ playlist on your big screen – a great way to make an instant soundtrack for your next party.

- Expanded Video Codec Support: With expanded support to include MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile (ASP), which includes Xvid and AVI support, you’ll be able to immediately enjoy a broader range of video content natively on Zune HD – no transcoding required.

The update will be offered as a free download in the next few weeks, and we’ll be sure to let you know when it’s available. In the meantime, we wanted to share an image of the Smart DJ feature on the Zune HD device which is attached here; All a user needs to do is press the Smart DJ icon on the far right of the screen to build a new mix based on their favorite music.

I spotted this news over at Zunerama about a 64 GB Zune BD coming soon. As a Zune fan continous pushing the limit on my 32 GB version I am really hoping that this rumour is ture.

For nearly six months we heard non-stop speculation on what capacities the ZuneHD might appear during last fall’s release. According to this GDGT user, there may be a capacity bump coming soon. Bonus device pictures after the break.

I recently got the Able planet NC300 to review for Swedish Tech Report. As a travelling golf player it is a necessity for me to have a good pair of headphoens without these headphoens travelling can be a real pain. When Micael told me about these headphoens I did not expect but when I unpacked them my feeling was in one word amazing.

Features:

• Superior Noise Canceling Technology
• Featuring Award-Winning Patented LINX AUDIO^®-a Hear the Difference^® technology
• In-Line Volume Control for Easy Adjustment to Safe Listening Levels
• Lightweight and Comfortable fit
• Ideal for Creating Your Own Personal Space Filled with Full Rich Sound
• Removable Cord with 1/8” and 1/4” Stereo Adapters
• For use in Computer & Language Labs, Stereos, Personal Computers, CD, DVD and MP3 Players
• For Use With or Without a Hearing Aid

The packaging is really really nice.  It is one of those sturdy packages that allows you to more easily carry with you these headphoens all the times.  One thing that I have noticed on one of my latest airplanes rides is that it is one suprisingly sturdy packages. If you carry these headphones in your backpack when you are travelling you do not have to worry about these breaking on you.

One thing I liked about this is  how discreet the branding on the package is…   When I opened up the pacakge I liked that it feelt like you got value for the money.  They ship plenty of accessories for these headphones.

What I do like about this package is that it is not that big. I was suprised to see that I could actually store this package without any trouble in my backpack. Believe me I am carrying alot of things in my backpack

This may just be me but with certain headphoene cases I have noticed that  the zipper can become suprisingly loose when you open and close the headphone case. This is not the case with this one it works really good.

These are the things that they ship with the headphones:

• Battery
• 2 adapters (one pronged for older jacks and one for airplanes)

Here is a more clearer picture of the headphoens.  As  you can see this one displays the padding that you feel when you have these headphones on your head. One thing I have noticed with these headphoens are that they feel good when you carry them above your head with you all the time.  I have tired alot of different headphones that does not feel good when you have them above your head. Seriously other headphone manufactures such as Bose has to look up their is a new player in town and they  are making excellent headphones.

What is cool with these hadphones are that they are powered with one battery. If I compare these headphoens with my Monster Dr Dre Studio headphones I have to say that thse headphones have a much better batterylife and they are powered with two batteries.

I live in Florida and there is one thing that we can say  about the sunshine state and that is that we have a really really warm weather here. It is not suprising for me to have a 20 degree Celsius weather here.  During these weather conditions these headphones are suprisingly  comfortable to use. There is alot of headphones that I have ‘retired’ because I can not use them in the sunshine state.

The NC300 has a permanent place in my backpack…

I have a broad music taste that I listen to each day. It ranges from listening to Ludacris latest to listening to Alicia Keys latest.  If I compare these to my Dr Dre Studio headphones, Able Planet’s NC300 provides much better sound then the Dr Dre Studio headphones provides. Right now my Studio headphoens are for sale….   If I turn on them to listen to Alicia Keys i like that I can listen to Alica Keys voice and hear voice singing. It feels like it just me there.

Conclusion: There is a new player in town and that is Able Planet. The sound in these headphones are in one word amazing..  These headphones have a permanent place in my backpack You can get yours over at Able Planet.

I got an Invisible Shield for my Xpera X2 and within the first day it was already scratched… It may just be me, but if you get a screenprotector  it should really  be able to survive more then a day without having to be scracthed in your pocket and then I do only have my Xperia X2 in my pocket without beening all scratched up…. It may just be me but at the moment I am not certain that I want to get a screen protector that I just want to trust and not have to worry about it. At the moment that is just not Invisible Shield. .  I am currently looking at screenprotectors form either Proporta or Brando I am thinking of which one to get…

In the past I have used screenprotectors from Proporta and have had goood luck with them..  So I am not afraid of trying them once more on my devices.   Although I have to say that the Boxwave screenprotectors does look good to. I have to say that exploring these screenprotectors are kind of fun;mrgreen:

What screen protector do you use for your device? Let me know in the comment section below:mrgreen:

Over at The Office for Mac blog they have just announced the latest beta of Messenger 8 for Mac. If you have a Mac this may be somethign to try   I do not own a MAC so unfortunately I have not been able to try  how it works. If you do try it pelase let me know in the comment section below

After a long effort, I am pleased to announce the beta release of Messenger for Mac 8 which supports audio and video calls.

Have you have ever wanted to do an audio call or a video call from your Mac with a contact on the Windows Live network? Starting today you can! Using your Live ID, Messenger for Mac users can now make AV calls to each other. Messenger for Mac 8 is also the first and only Mac-desktop client that can do calls with Windows Live Messenger 2009.
Customers with an account on a corporate network that uses Office Communications Server should continue to use Messenger for Mac 7. The Messenger for Mac 8 Beta is for personal accounts using the Windows Live Network

Why did it take so long?

We have been working hard on this feature for a long time so the answer is not a lack of effort. The honest answer is that AV calls are a lot harder to implement than one would think and after we got things working last year, we had to postpone the release because of significant protocol changes we needed to support in order to stay compatible with the latest version of our Windows Live desktop client.

Why is this a beta release?

This is a beta release because we are still putting the finishing touches on the full application and some things are not finished yet. However, we are very aware of how patiently you have been waiting for AV support so we decided it was better to get it into your hands now as a beta release than to make you wait even longer.

The official release of Messenger 8 will happen with the next version of Office for Mac – Office for Mac 2011. When Office 2011 is released later this year, beta users will be updated to the finished version.

Are you still here reading? Head to our downloads page and start making AV calls! We hope you are as excited about this new feature as we are.

Matt over at ZDNET:s blog Smartphones and Cellphones recently picked up the new HD2 from T-Mobile USA.  It is the US version of  the european HD2 that we have seen for a while here in Europe. What is cool about the US HD2 is that  they have done partnerships with both Borders and Nextflix. They ship it with the Transformers 1 and 2 movies for you to watch and two free rentals from Nextflix.

Back during Mobile World Congress I wrote that the distinguishing feature of the T-Mobile USA HD2 was the partnerships that were struck to bring content to the WM platform and after just a day of use I would say they did quite well with this. The HD2 makes it easy to get movies and ebooks right on your device with streaming music fully supported too. I can see sticking with this device for a while and skipping the first WP7 device on T-Mobile (I’ll talk more about that later). Let’s take a closer look at the media content aspects of the HD2.

Spotted this one on HTC USA Twitter. I think that there should be more commercials like this in Sweden also. Their You phone commercials are good but hey I do not feel it is this good. It may just be the Transformers fan inside of me but when I see this commercial I almost want to go out and buy myself an HD2.

I have been using my Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 now for the last two weeks and I have to say that IT is one awesome unit.  The first one had some weird screen issues so to say it did not work out the way that I might would have hoped for so I got the next best thing a new one   A black Sony Ericsson Xperia X2. The screen does not feel woobbly on htis unit at all which I do really like. It has a matte black finish with silver edges. One acessory that I plan on getting for this unit is the full body shield, it may be to much but perosnally I feel that getting a scracth on my unit is not the thing that I want to. …

It is one of those things htat can make me want to stop using a unit just because of a couple of simple scratches…..  One thing that I like with the Xperia line is the panel interface. Having the correct interface for the day is a feeling that I really like. Switching between facebook, twitter and the SPB Mobileshell with just one button is really fun and it feels like it never stops beeing fun really

So this question goes out to you guys.  What interface is it that you arre currently using on mobile device?

Another cool interface that they have added onto the X2 is the slideview function. It has basically allows you to scroll between the different information on your device more easily then what you did before.  You can easily switch between calendars  and tasks without any trouble. The only thing I would like to say about this software portion is that Sony Ericsson should really have done it as a panel and not a software piece. It would have showed the information for me more easily then what it does currently with the different panels.

One thing that I do like about this panel is that when you have it in landscape mode you can easily switch between the different panels. This view is actually more better then the portrait version. Nice really nice.What I do like about these panels is that when I switch between these panels is that I do not see any lagging when switching between these panels.

The ’tile panel’ is perhaps the most exciting panels of the ones that comes with this device. I can easily access more information and have easy access to new ones. If you are a fan of the Simy CIty games they have a panel where you can move in a city and access information when you press the different buildings.  As you may understand SE have really outdone themselves with some really cool panels out there for the Xperia X2

This is another one of the awesome reviews that they do over at Gottabemobile. If you are interested in netbooks or tablets this is something that you do really have to watch.

The S10T is also using Intel’s Pinetrail processor. As you’ll see in the video the emphasis on battery life leaves something to be desired when it comes to speed, at least in the unit we’re evaluating here. We don’t do a direct comparison, but Thomasin feels (and that kind of experience is worth quite a bit) that it operates slower than the HP Mini.

All in all, if you’re looking for a convertible Netbook, Lenovo has created one that will most likely serve your needs. It is solid, the keyboard is easy to type on, and quite honestly it does feel good in your hand. I’d be wary if you have to do any heavy document creation on this though because of the lack of processing power, but if you’re content with a Netbook for some of your computing and want to reach out and touch, it is worth considering.

I have been using my Altec Lansing/Plantronics Backeat 903 now for the last few months and if there is one thign I can say about it, it is that they rock. When listening to music I get an excellent battery life (around 6 – 7 hours). If I use them with Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 or my iPhone 3GS there is just one thing to say about htese headphones and that are that they do truly rock. I listen to a broad range of music and like to do this because they do give a range of listenign that I did not get before.  One thing that I do can say about this is that the 3.5 mm adapter that they do ship with these headphones works nicely. They are an easy pair to pair together.

I have connected my Zune HD with my adapter to the Backbeat 903 and I can easily go 10 m without feeling any interfence. It is when I go past htese meters that I start to hear that crackling sound in the background.  I have used it with my Zune 120 and found that these two were also a good pair.  The only real issue that I have been having with is when I connected with my iPod Nano. They did not like my first generation iPod Nano.

While we are talking about connectivity. I have have been using my Xperia X2 actively for the last couple of weeks and that connection manager has been a total breeze ot use compared to my other devices.

There is one more thing that I do really like about these headphones and that is Skyping with the Backeat 903 and my HP DM3. The sound quality over skype has been really nice. Compared to the earlier bluetoth headsets that I have used before this one is much better then what I could have expected. I am really enjoying using these headphones. If you are looking for a good pair of bluetooth headphones I can really recommend these.