Bong Kyu Song of SDESIGNUNIT from Korea has just created a unique umbrella called “Music In The Rain”. As its name stated, this umbrella won’t let you bored while walking alone under the rain — it will entertain you with some music! The speaker is placed inside the canopy, while the controller is on the handle. You can simply spin the umbrella left or right to forward (right turn) or reverse (left turn) the song. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

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Samsung recently unveiled three new Ultra cell phones at the ITU Telecom World 2006 event in Hongkong – the Ultra Messaging i600, Ultra Video F500, and Ultra Music F300. The F300 music phone boasts a digital power amplifier and an intuitive easy-to-navigate user interface for its built-in audio player. Not sure how much onboard memory will it carry, but as an alternative, there’s always a built-in FM radio tuner, so you can tune-in your favourite station anytime you get bored with your music collection. Furthermore, the Quick PC Sync feature will allow users to create their own music library and playlist, while its powerful battery is promised to deliver an all night long of entertainment.

Other features include an integrated 2 megapixel camera module, Bluetooth connectivity, built-in movie player, and like its sibling, Ultra Video F500 cell phone, a unique swivel design with a large, clear screen with a sweep touch key on one side and a fully functional phone that can be used while listening to music on the other.

No info about the price and availability of Samsung Ultra Music F300 cell phone yet.

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Nokia recently upgraded the N70 cell phone and labeled it as the Music Edition. In addition of up to 1GB memory, the phone is now equipped with enhanced music features, including dedicated music key button, track personalization, and music-optimized headset with remote control for easy access. This new version of N70 comes in black-colored and retailed for up to 550 EUR, depend on the memory capacity.

Nokia N70 Cell Phone Specs

• Mode: GSM Triband 900 / 1800 / 1900 and WCDMA 2100 GHz
• OS: Symbian OS Series 60
• Dimensions: 108.8 x 53 x 17.5 mm
• Battery Type: Lithium-Ion BL-5C 970 mAh
• Battery Life: 210 mins talktime, 211 hours standby time
• Weight: 126 grams
• Display: 2,62,000 colors, TFT (176 x 208) 2.1″
• Expansion Slot: RS DV-MMC
• Built-in Memory: 35MB
• Camera: 2.0 Megapixel with flash
• Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, Infrared, Java, MMS, SMS, Pop-port, WAP
• FM Radio, MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ Player, Video Recording

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Measures 54 x 120 x 200 mm, Sony Ericsson MDS-60 Music Desk Stand is available in 3 colors – silver, white, and orange. The loudspeaker’s part itself is covered in white and orange color. This device will be available in Q2 2006.

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Well, I guess you should try this iSplash. It’s a new way to wirelessly transmit your favorite tunes from your MP3 player or satellite radio to a splash proof speaker. It has a rotating speaker handle that you can hang from a shower head, curtain rod or outdoor fence. As long as you’re within the range of 150 feet away, you can always hear the sound of your favourite song. Also, the 900MHz dual-frequency PPL transmitter with ZipConnect will send audio from your iPod to up to four additional speakers, so every one can enjoy your cool tunes.

iSplash is retailed at $129.

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For iPod users, PSP Music Studio also works alongside iTunes, allowing AAC or MP3 tracks to be “dragged and dropped” from iTunes into the PSP Music Studio and your PSP. It will automatically change the extension of your iTunes AAC tracks from M4A to MP4 for seamless transfer to PSP.

Skinned with a stylish intuitive interface, PSP Music Studio gives you access to a whole host of functions that are easy to use and allow you to:

• Import you own music CD collection to MP3 for PSP playback.
• Automatically name your MP3’s with Artist, Album, and Track names.
• Copy MP3 or AAC tracks from iTunes straight into PSP Music Studio
• Rename iTunes AAC tracks from .M4A to .MP4 for PSP playback.
• Fully manage all your PSP music files.
• Use an “iTunes” style intuitive graphical interface- functional and easy to use.
• Copy, Delete, Download and Upload files between PC, PSP and Memory Stick.
• Backup music to PC, and save storage space on your Memory Stick.
• Supports, MP3, AAC and WAV.
• Manage storage capacity via the on-screen memory stick capacity bar. (MB/KB).
• View Lives RSS Feeds to keep you updated with the latest PSP news.

Also includes PC USB to PSP USB Mini Cable with built in USB Charger.

PSP Xploder Music Studio will be available soon for £9.99.

[ Press Release ]

Merging his interests in physical computing and electronic music, artist and composer Tristan Perich will give a presentation on his recent project, One Bit Music. Electronics programmed and packaged in a standard CD jewel case by Perich play minimal glitch/dance music when headphones are plugged in. The device is meant to fit into the standard album-based method of music distribution: you will find it along other CDs in a record store and it has different tracks; it will be released by Cantaloupe Music in the upcoming months.

[ Visit OneBit Music ] [ Via BoingBoing ]

Playlouder MSP is to supply the broadband connection itself. This is the same basic idea as used by radio where the revenue generated compensates the artists. Playlouder MSP, as the world’s only licensed music ISP, will be able to control the flow of music files over its network, ensuring that all file sharing traffic stay within its ‘walled-garden‘.

Moreover, the company stated that by controlling the network on which the music flows, Playlouder MSP is able to effectively and accurately track and monitor the distribution of digital music through a sophisticated method of audio fingerprinting and return the appropriate share of revenues back to the rights owners.

To prevent any possible leakage, PlayLouder MSP will deploy watermarks and “deep packet searches” software on the network.

The service will go live in the UK-only next month.

[ Via Technologist Community ]

The picture on the left is Yang Chen Gang. He’s the one who wrote the song, “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”, 5 years ago, in 2000. That was everyone believe at the moment. However, the song is now featured on this Wuhan singer’s album.

The story behind, it is said that the song remained unknown until a ‘friend‘ of Gang’s put a recording of it on the internet in November 2004. There is no information as to who made this recording and what date it was recorded. A report in Phenomena/Beijing Today (April 15th, 2005) said that by November 5th, 2004, a Chinese search engine was receiving over 200.000 clicks each day for the song. This massive attention earned 26 year old Gang the disparaging nickname of ‘the internet singer‘. However, the success of the song eventually lead him to an official recording contract (on November 25th, 2004) with Guangzhou based ‘Fei Le Records‘ for 5,000,000 yuan. Astonishingly, the Phenomena article quoted above, goes on to state:

“At the same time, Yang Cheng is fighting for the copyright of Mice Love Rice with three previous owners of the song. Actually, Yang had sold the song to them but had since wanted it back. In the end, Fei Le Records paid 400,000 yuan to the last permanent owner to make its ownership legal”.

Now here goes the controversy. Two version of “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”, that scattered around the internet, both were credited as being Yang Chen Gang’s, reveal a voice that does not sound like him at all. At least not the Gang on the official Gang album! But that’s not enough. The version that available on most Chinesse CD shops doesn’t sound like him either. So, how can he changed his voice in just a few months since the first version was recorded?

The Moustro, from Mouse-Loves-Rice.com, has made his own deep research about this.

Both the internet MP3s run for exactly 4:35secs. The first and most preferable out of these has a rather ’rounded flow’ and is a 4.27meg file size. This one is now very hard to find and sounds as if it has been badly compressed and decompressed, MP3 style! The other version (at 4.20meg) although very similar, has more of a ’springy chorus’ and ‘rhythmic’ sound. This version is still widely available. However, – as previously outlined – the version featured on Gang’s album sounds like a totally different singer and what is more, sounds whiney and lacks quality instrumentation. This runs for 4:58secs.

Then there is an unauthorized remixed Disco version featuring Gang’s voice (it’s typical techno type stuff and rips the heart right out of the song) and a duet version with Xiang Xiang (who will be mentioned more in a moment). Again, the Gang voice on these two versions, matches the voice on the official album release. But, again, this does not sound like the voice heard on the vast majority of internet downloads, which are by far the most popular versions.

Regardless, this song has been very popular, and many singers has sung “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”, each with their own version. One of the most popular version came from Xiang-Xiang (picture on the right). She has two version of it, the English version, titled “The Mouse Loves The Rice”, and the Mandarin version. From Hongkong, there were Wang Qi Wang, Liu De Hua, and Twins (who recorded 2 versions, the Mandarin and Cantonese version).

It is said that there are at least 16 different versions of “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”! Not quite surprising, since I have Guo Mei Mei – Lao Shu Ai Da Mi album which has 8 (yes, EIGHT) different version of this song, including accoustic version, ballad version, and club dance extended mix version.

Before I end up this post, there’s another “mystery” left. The English translation of “Da Mi” is “Big Rice“, not just “Rice“. So why everyone who sing the English version never use the title “Mouse Loves Big Rice“, instead, they use “Mouse Loves Rice” title. Well, only time can answer it :p

[ Download MP3 (Xiang-Xiang version) ] [ Source ]