The «theme engine» is the root of that customization support, meaning «every drawable (images, backgrounds, etc), all text views, and each seek bars can be themed.» The native theme resembles Google’s own app.

However, unlike Google’s version, this new app supports play/pause control by flipping the phone face down on the table, as well as shaking it to perform custom actions (such as randomizing playback). Both flipping and shaking are supported while the Music app is running in the background, too. There are new homescreen widgets, fully integrated search, social sharing and more.

The app — which will be renamed before release — is expected to drop in a the next few weeks. It will be included as part of a future CM9 build, but will also be released via the Android Market.

kmg 300 kube2 skinThe Kube2 has an aluminum body with a touch sensor for navigation, and you can purchase different skins to personalize its look. It has a battery life of six hours, and an included 4GB microSD card can store up to 1,000 songs.

Unfortunately, the Kube2 is only available right now at 7-Eleven stores in Singapore, where Bluetree Electronics is based. But the company plans to unveil it to the rest of the world at CES in January, 2012 — and since we’ll be there, we hope to get our paws on one to try it out!

Canon took principles of the 5D — a full-frame SLR which shoots hi-def video — and developed it into a proper movie camera. The sensor is a conservative 8,3MP, and it records 1080p video in each of the three color channels. These pixels are big, for good low-light performance, and the movies are recorded to standard CF cards.

From there, things get very movie-techy. The C300 records in the open-source MXF (Material eXchange Format), can capture compressed MPEG2 Full HD, uses 4:2:2 color sampling and hooks up with all manner of movie accessories. In short, unless you’re a movie pro, not much of this camera will be familiar to you.

The new camera will be joined by a range of EF and PL mount lenses, and in Canon also has a 4K-capable SLR camera in the making.

The C300 will cost a cool $20,000. The first version, with the industry-standard Arri PL mount, will ship in March 2012, followed by the EF-mount version. Indie filmmakers should start saving now.

Battery and USB:
It has lithium and Ion battery and it has been enabled with the USB v2,0 compatible. This port helps in fast transfer of data between the player and the PC or laptop. USB helps in mass storage of the device. The battery can provide backup for very less time as 2hours and standby mode is 2 hours 30 minutes only.

Memory and Screen:
However, as discussed previously, it has a less internal memory for about 1GB. The major drawback of this player is that it has no expansion slots. It has a TFT capacitive display screen which can vary 250,000 colors in the 1,8 inch screen.

Audio formats:
It can support various audio formats such as mp3, mp4, AMV, WAV, WMA and movie files (MPEG). Radio facility is also available in it and 20 preset memories for station is availed. Live recording from any of the station is done spontaneously.

Picture format and playback modes:
It can extend the support to picture display for various type of file such as JPEG, JPG, and GIF. Voice can be recorded and heard back. It has a customized playback mode as EQ preset mode.

The package for this MPL 1003 comes up with a set of earphones and other accessories. This is the very basic music player that has been around market and now this mp3 player can be exchanged to obtain the mp4 digital player. However mp2 player was also in market. Now the cost of this player lowered to Rs. 2,560.

The device also touts GPS, and calculates your time, distance, speed, heart rate1 and calories burned are all measured. Users can upload your workout to MOTOACTV.com to analyze the performance data tracked by the device and review useful, easy-to-understand charts, tools and programs that help you see your strengths and empower you to overcome challenges. You can also get workout tips and training plans from fitness experts at MOTOACTV.com and on your Android-powered smartphone with the free mobile app.

It’ll ship with Bluetooth support, a 1.6″ color touch panel (“sweat-proof”), 8GB or 16GB of storage, FM radio, up to five hours of battery life for outdoor workouts, 10 hours indoors, and nearly two weeks on standby and ANT+ wireless connectivity for your existing fitness sensors and your future ones. There’s even the option to sync with the latest Android-powered smartphone to receive incoming calls and texts.

It’ll ship Nov. 6th for $249 and up, and the exclusive launch carrier will be Verizon Wireless. MOTOACTV will also be available in Latin America and Europe starting in Q1 2012. Just in time for that New Year Resolution, huh?

New WD TV Live Adds Breakthrough New Media Streaming Service to Menu of Premium Entertainment Content

Western Digital, the world’s leader in external storage solutions and maker of the popular WD TV media player family, today introduced the next generation of its WD TV Live streaming media player, an easy to use Wi-Fi enabled media player that is the first in its category to deliver the Spotify^® music service.

WD TV Live features WD’s newest intuitive user interface that delivers the latest hit movies, TV shows, music and online services from companies like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Blockbuster directly to your TV. The new streaming media player connects to the Internet wirelessly or through an Ethernet connection, with the high performance 802,11n wireless connectivity supporting Full-HD 1080p video resolution.

In addition to premium Internet content, WD TV Live allows users to enjoy personal media such as photos, video and music on their home entertainment systems by supporting a wide range of file formats for streaming content from any connected USB drive, digital camcorder or camera, network drive such as the My Book^® LiveTM personal cloud storage, and any networked PC or Mac^® computer in the home.

Adding to the WD TV family’s current content offerings from Netflix, Hulu Plus, Blockbuster, CinemaNow, Pandora, YouTube, Facebook^® and many others, WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub are the first streaming media players to deliver Spotify’s acclaimed music service. Premium Spotify subscribers can now enjoy unlimited on-demand access to Spotify’s catalog of over 15 million songs in excellent sound quality (available in up to 320kbps) on their home entertainment system.

WD incorporates Spotify’s popular features in the new service, including the ability to create and manage Spotify playlists, share songs to Spotify friends, and see and subscribe to friends’ playlists via their Spotify profiles. Users can also share tracks by sending songs directly to other Spotify users’ inboxes. Spotify for WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub delivers an exciting new way to enjoy and share music on the best sound system in your home.

«WD is committed to providing our customers with a premium entertainment experience that includes seamless streaming of personal media and the best of the Internet directly to the highest quality screen and sound system in the home,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager for WD’s Branded Products and Consumer Electronics groups. «By marrying advanced features of the new wireless WD TV Live with quality content from service providers, including a first of its kind service with Spotify, we are excited to deliver on that commitment.”

Pascal de Mul, Global Head of Hardware Partnerships, Spotify, commented: «We’re really excited to make further steps into the living room with the streaming media players from Western Digital, which from today offer the full Spotify streaming catalog in a truly innovative TV-focused user experience.”

In addition to Spotify and WD’s current content offerings, WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub will also now include the Dailymotion video service. The application offers quality video content from users, independent content creators and premium partners, including high-quality and HD video.

Price and Availability
The new WD TV Live streaming media player can be purchased at select retailers worldwide and online at wdstore.com. MSRP for the WD TV Live streaming media player is $99,99 USD. Spotify is now available on the new WD TV Live players, as well as the WD TV Live Hub streaming media player, which features a built-in 1 TB hard drive to store personal content locally for TV streaming. The Spotify service is available in eight countries: USA, UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, The Netherlands and Spain.

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users’ data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and home entertainment products.

About Spotify
Spotify is an award-winning digital music service that gives you on-demand access to over 15 million tracks. Our dream is to make all the world’s music available instantly to everyone, wherever and whenever they want it. Spotify makes it easier than ever to discover, manage and share music with your friends, while making sure that artists get a fair deal. Spotify is available in eight countries: USA, UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, The Netherlands and Spain, with more than 10 million registered users, and over 2 million paying subscribers.

The player was well reviewed when it launched in 2006, and it grabbed as much as 10 percent of the market for media players. But enthusiasm faded, and the Zune has become one of many failed iPod wannabes.

Microsoft Corp. hasn’t released a major update to the line in two years. Some of the look and functionality of the Zune has been moved over to Microsoft’s smartphone software, which it says «will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy.”

Microsoft says it will continue to support existing players.

Bags made for tech gear

Women can carry their tech gear and other essentials in a new line of E-GO bags from Jill-e Designs. Designed with plaid patterns in black or tan with leather trim, each bag contains padded compartments for electronics and zippered pockets for personal items.

The E-GO Laptop Valise, which has room for a 14-inch inch laptop and a camera, costs about $170. Other options include an E-GO Essential Camera Bag for about $90 and an E-GO Wristlet for a smartphone, compact camera or MP3 player for $50.

Lights turn on when power doesn’t

If the power goes out, you don’t have to be in the dark. The Mr. Beams Home Power Outage Lighting system features battery-operated emergency lights that automatically turn on during a power outage. Set up is simple: Plug a power detector into a wall outlet. When the power goes out, the power detector will turn on the emergency LED lights via a wireless signal. Priced at $100, the Power Outage Lighting Set from Wireless Environments contains a power outage detector, two ceiling lights and a stair and path light. Other packages are available.

Creative players go wireless

You can enjoy sharp-sounding music delivered sans wires on the Creative ZEN X-Fi3 multimedia player. Deigned to handle wireless Bluetooth transmissions without sacrificing audio quality, the updated multimedia device uses its X-Fi Crystalizer to restore lost details, providing a more natural digital listening experience. The player can handle a variety of audio and video formats, including MP3, WMA, Audible 4 and iTunes Plus. The player from Creative Technology also sports a 2-inch color screen, a microSD card Slot, a built-in microphone, an FM radio, built-in speakers and a video-out jack. Available this fall, a model with 8 gigabytes of memory costs $100 while one with 16GB of memory is about $140.

Well, 1985 it isn’t anymore that you can be sure of and in today’s modern technological-filled world, the demands of the humble, but powerful computer are more and more.

Being able to use these on a massive screen that the goggle-box offers is more than desirable it seems.

Hastily hitting the scenes now is the Android built and operated Himedia Media Player which is going to offer new possibilities for those who demand convenience and accessibility to the other technologies around them.

It will offer the advantages of being able to use all your Android favourites like games from Angry Birds and other available apps all from the convenience of a big TV screen when it’s connected up.

The Himedia Media Player can be used to access and display all kinds of content from the internet and it can even do this via another computer which is located inside the house, making the possibilities of BitTorrent downloading and video or music streaming easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Connect the hardware up to the TV by use of the included connectors of HDMI, USB 3,0, gigabit Ethernet, composite, coax and optical audio — the Himedia Media Player is your key to plug ‘n play it seems.

For wire-haters, there is also a wireless model available and space to bung in a hard drive of your own if desired.

All this comes at only $160, which is a pretty darn good price tag for all the capabilities the Himedia Media Player offers.

The Galaxy S WiFi 3,6 falls into the same strange category as the iPod touch, that offers almost all the same apps and multimedia capabilities of a smartphone and looks like a smartphone, but can’t actually make any phone calls. This perhaps appeals to those that want a dedicated media playing device that’s more affordable and won’t require an attached wireless contract.

It features a 3,6-inch 480×800 resolution display, a 1GHz TI OMAP processor, a VGA front-facing camera, and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera. There are clear cost-cutting choices made here with the lower-resolution cameras and the non-AMOLED display. The device is already priced for the UK at £149 ($242) for the 8 GB model and £169 ($274) for the 16 GB model. No pricing or availability has been confirmed yet for the US.

Samsung made several other major announcements this morning, including the Galaxy Tab 7,7 and an unexpected Galaxy Note that straddles both the smartphone and tablet categories with its 5,3-inch screen. Make sure to check out our Samsung IFA 2011 wrap-up.