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Samsung presently loosed a 3-channel Bluetooth speaker previously such year, but apparently, one clearly certainly isn’t enough. The establishment has now introduced its YA-SBR510 for the duration of in South Korea, that streams audio out of BT-enabled players and includes a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary jack for hooking up easily virtually anything and everything else. A tad expensive at €150 ($222), but it is a whole understanding serves to it appear bundled in on the current oh-so-furry rug. Sammy, service to comment?

We can not (with a clean conscience) carelessly fling Newsmy’s M521+ to the KIRF mound — even though we would absolute sttink to. It’s hard not viable to miss the design cues ripped directly out of SanDisk’s Sansa Fuze, while the unit performs suffer recently sufficient uniqueness to carry on it according to making a bona fide clone. Reportedly, the device packs an FM tuner, FM transmitter, validation for MP3 / WMA / APE / FLAC / AVI formats, a photo / text viewer and an interface the current we wouldn’t let our worst enemies use. Oh wait, is this the iTunes logo? Is it too late to reconsider the current gargantuan KIRF eligibility thing.

Like so many other devices made in China, we’re convinced this Bird’s Nest Stadium, um, “inspired” device is totally, completely authorized and legit. And hey, unlike Chinese bird’s nest soup, it not only comes in capacities up to 4GB, but doesn’t even appear to be assembled with avian saliva. Difficulty: 1.2, execution: 3.55.

Our experiences with Microsoft’s Sync in Ford cars has been mostly a comedy of voice-recognition errors (we’ll never forget our rental at CES blasting NWA in response to “Play artist: David Bowie”), but it looks like other automakers will be able to join in the confusing fun in November, when Microsoft’s exclusive contract with Ford runs out. Hyundai and Kia are the first to sign up for what’s now being branded Microsoft Auto, and while it’s not exactly clear what their versions of the system will look like, you can expect the same basic features as Sync, as well as some new capabilities like navigation and emergency-response services. Microsoft also says that Auto will be available for “general release to the automotive community,” which could lead to the inclusion of the OS on aftermarket gear as well. Let’s just hope they tune the system to figure out the difference between Ziggy Stardust and Eazy-E, eh?

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Microsoft’s recently refurbished Zune store features a lot of NBC content like Heroes and The Office, but it looks like it may have come at what could be a steep price: NBC recently told the New York Times that it’s working with Microsoft to develop “copyright filters” for the Zune that would “remove pirated movies and videos.” (We’ll pause for a moment so you can gape appropriately.) Granted, it’s not clear whether NBC wants to actually delete non-DRM’d media or simply block playback, but apparently the network thinks it’s an issue on par with variable pricing, and it’s not in the iTunes Store because Apple refuses to cooperate. Microsoft, on the other hand, is apparently cheerfully working on such a solution, dubbed the “copyright cop,” and says that it’s sympathetic to NBC’s concerns because it also suffers from piracy issues. Sigh. Of course, none of this is new territory for NBC or Microsoft: the two companies are working in similar content filtering systems to be implemented at the ISP level with AT&T, and NBC and SanDisk are working on a filter for Sansa players as well. Still, if Microsoft is serious about competing with the iPod, signing up for consumer-hostile DRM systems that actually block playback and potentially delete files just isn’t the way to do it — let’s hope this one dies on the vine.

Update: Although a spokesperson told the NYT that Microsoft was working with NBC on anti-piracy efforts, the company is now saying that it has no plans to implement a “copyright cop” in the Zune, and the Zune Insider blog confirms. Great, now just cancel the ISP-level filtering system and we’ll be all set.

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There weren’t a whole lot of firm details on the reasons behind Apple’s acquisition of chip designer P.A. Semi to be had back when the deal was announced last month, but it seems that a bit of the veil of mystery may now be lifting, at least if the word EETimes is hearing from its unnamed source is to be believed. Apparently, Apple was keen to have P.A. Semi’s crack chip-making team design a new chip for them, but P.A. Semi had “more or less burnt through its venture capital funds,” leaving them unable to take on the project. According to EETimes source, that meant that the only way to get P.A. Semi involved was for Apple to pay off all of P.A.’s investors and bring the company in-house, something they were able to do for a mere $280 million or so. Of course, as EETimes points out, the big question remaining is exactly what it is that Apple wants P.A. Semi to help it out with, and that’s a detail we’d expect to take considerably longer to trickle out.

[Via Mac Rumors]

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Well, that was fast, the XNA community technology preview with Zune games we were just talking about is already out. Unless you’re a developer ready to get your hands a little dirty it won’t be of much use though, especially since games can only be distributed and installed from source code right now.
Read - Official announcement
Read - How-to install Zune games

We rather liked Onda’s VX767 PMP when it hit the wires back in March, and it looks like the company is hard at work on a sequel with built-in WiFi. The upcoming VX777 shares most of the the 767’s specs, including pretty decent video codec support and TV-out, but adds in WiFi and potentially a touchscreen. We’re not exactly certain if there’s a browser included — the leaked specs only say internet radio — but if this thing is any kind of cheap when it arrives in August we’ll certainly be intrigued.

[Via GenerationMP3]

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It’s taken a few months for Qtrax to actually score a contract with one of the major labels after announcing in January that it would offer free, legal downloads of over 25 million tracks, but it looks like the company has finally succeeded in spearing itself a whale. Universal is the first major on board, joining bankrupt indie TVT, and Qtrax says the deal is for “all” of Universal’s music. Of course, in true Qtrax form, there might not actually be a contract yet — Universal spokespeople would only confirm an “agreement,” but “declined to elaborate or to say whether a contract has been signed.” Sigh. Well, the first one’s always the hardest, right?

[Thanks, Steve Z.]

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Hear that? That’s the sound of dozens of Canadians rejoicing as they finally get a launch date for the Zune in Canada, a year and a half after Zune’s debut in the US. As rumored, Canadians will have a slightly limited lineup on offer, with no 30GB or green versions to puzzle over, but the red Zune 80 will indeed be making an appearance, along with the rest of the players. Prices range from $140 to $250 Canadian Dollars, which sources tell us is a real currency akin to salt traded by the ancients or a Starbucks Card.

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