Eurovision

Well Norway won. It wasn't the kind of music I would normally enjoy, but at least it was entertaining. The same can't be said about United Kingdom's entry. I thought it was poor, but hei, tours and stuff obviously do help.

Sony Walkman X-Series 32GB NWZ-X1060B first impressions

Here it is folks, quite possibly the single most important Walkman in Sony's recent history. The X-Series is the first Walkman DAP to feature an OLED screen, WiFi, web browser, digital ANC and S-Master digital amp. And it is a stunner. It is also their first mainstream portable OLED PMP since the Japan exclusive Sony Clie VZ90.

The X-Series I have here is the 32GB model (NWZ-X1060B), but the impression and later review also applies to the X1050 (16GB) and the US-centric models X1061 and X1051 (which has Slacker radio application bundled). The build quality is awesome. It is quite heavy (about the same weight as my Nokia E51), but feels very solid. The OLED screen here is quite simply the most brilliant screen I have ever laid my eyes on. Photographs looks stunning on it. It is a shame that the resolution isn't VGA or above as that would make this a killer PMP.

Usability wise, the UI refresh a bit slower than the S739. For example is draws the album art a fraction of a second after the screen switches. Scrolling through the album art by flicking your finger upwards or downwards is a bit of a gimmick, but it should at least satisfy people into such gimmicks. There is a more traditional approach to selecting albums/genre/artists for people who value function over form. The web browser is also a bit of a downer. I am a huge fan of Netfront browser on Windows Mobile platform, but the lack of advance options and stylus makes it almost unusable. It is also very slow. My advice to potential purchasers of the X-Series interested in web browsing is to only limit yourself to visiting mobile friendly websites.

There is a very small hint of hiss, but nothing as bad as the A818. The sound is definitely warm, quite a surprise as I was initially expecting a digital sound due to the S-Master digital amp. So it was a surprise to hear such Sony-like warm music blasting through my headphone. The amp is also pretty powerful. With my S739, I tend to listen on a 14/30 volume level. Here I can comfortably listen at 11/30. 14/30 on the X1060 is too loud for me. If it helps, I did all my listening test with all enhancements turned off (including Clear Stereo which was enabled by default) via my Sennheiser IE 8. Between the S739 and this, the bass is similar in quantity, but the X1060 is clearer overall. Everything is just clearer with the X1060. I am very impressed.

Review will be posted next week. Please direct any questions in the comments section.

You can pre-order the US versions now. UK residents can get them from Amazon UK for less than RRP.

Sony Walkman NWZ-X1060 & X1061 officially announced

Sony has announced the UK pricing and release date for their OLED touchscreen equipped Walkman.

NWZ-X1050B.CE7 16GB £209 RRP
NWZ-X1060B.CE7 32GB £279 RRP

They will be available at selected retailers and Sony Style high street stores from 13 May 2009 (that's tomorrow!). Or, you can buy them from the web for a slight discount. Amazon UK is taking pre-orders for the X1050B for £199.99 and the X1060B for £249.99.

It isn't cheap (the weak sterling didn't help), but considering the technology (WiFi, OLED touchscreen, web browser, digital amp) and bundle (active noise cancelling in-ear headphones), it is still pretty competitive. In the mean time you can read my review of their S639F and S739F Walkmans.

Update for US residents. Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders on the X-Series Walkman. The US specific model numbers will be designated X1051 and X1061, and will feature the Slacker subscription-based personal radio app.

My last.fm musical cloud tag...

...from the last three months, using this. Nifty, ain't it?

Sony Walkman NWZ-S739 16GB review

Introduction

This is a review of Sony's Walkman NWZ-S739F digital audio player. If the text appears similar, it is because it borrows heavily from my review of the S639. Both are exactly the same bar a few minor difference, namely the S730 series is only available in brushed metal black casing (in the UK) and comes bundled with an active noise cancelling (ANC) intra aural headphone.

The S739 is the 16GB version of Sony's new Walkman S730 series, similar to the S630 series but slightly more expensive because it has built-in noise cancelling function. This isn't their flagship Walkman, that now belongs to the OLED touchscreen Walkman X1000 series, due out this month, and already out in Japan. Despite that, the S739 offers tremendous value for money, costing an impossible £99 at Amazon UK (the 8GB version is available from Amazon.com for US$104). On the other hand Apple's iPod Nano 4G costs £138 for the 16GB version. You don't need to be a genius to see which offers more for your money. This review also applies to the Walkman S738 (8GB version) and the Walkman S630 series (but you may as well read my review of the S639 here).

Design

Compared to the Walkman A818 and S639, the S739 is similarly well built. The S730's aluminium case has a brushed metal finish in comparison to the A818's matte finish and the S630's smooth finish. Only the black version is available in the UK, which is a shame as I would rather have a red brushed metal version.

Unlike the A810's chrome surrounds, the S730 is surrounded with black plastic giving the player a better grip than it would might have been. The 3.5mm headphone socket is again sensibly placed on the bottom next to the WM-Port, great for fans of jeans and pockets. The ANC switch is also located here. At 46g, it is also 10g lighter than the A818 and has the same weight as the S630. I personally prefer the look of the A810 and A820 series, but to each his/her own. Having said that the S730 is well designed, offering extreme good function in a competent form factor.

Controls



Sharing the same UI and same basic control layout, the S730 is very easy to use and I didn't have to relearn anything. The front of the S730 features a layout similar to a mobile phone. Due to the design of the controls, some has quipped that it bears semblance to the classic 'Mickey Mouse' look, which I do not disagree. Compared to my S630, the buttons are a bit more raised, similar to those found on the A810. Either way, I personally found the A810 to be more intuitive for 'blind' control. Even the volume control on the S730 is harder to feel for. On the upside accidental button presses is less likely, and I am finding myself less reliant on the 'hold' switch. Overall the S730's buttons offers reasonable tactile feedback, which is better than any 'touch-based' controls can ever hope to offer.

Bundles

Like the S630 series, Sony bundles the S730 series with better than average earphones. The headphones bundled here is a hybrid in-ear headphone similar to the EX85 between an canal headphone and a normal earbud. The difference here compared to the EX082 bundled with the S630 is that these phones contains a built-in microphone that captures the surrounding ambient sound. The S730's active noise cancelling engine then analyses the waveform of the noise, and generate a reversed waveform tha cancels out the noise. With this, you not only have a stock headphone that works pretty good at cancelling out background noise, but also offers excellent sound quality (in comparison to the majority of bundled headphones).



Also included is a USB cable and 3 months free trial of Napster To Go, a music subscription service that I am going to guess most won't be bothered with. Still it is rather nice to have a trial to something that is longer than two weeks.

Features

Like any old DAP, the S730 is primarily a music player first. It does have other features that may prove useful to people who care. People who often find themselves bored with their own music collection will be pleased to find a FM radio here. This is also the first drag and drop Walkman to support Podcast (fancy word for pre-recorded amateur radio by bloggers) as well as wallpaper and themes. A competent video player is also present which increased the file support of those featured on their previous Walkman series to include WMV files (including DRM files). The video player is compatible with BBC's iPlayer. An auto-playlist generator in the form of SenseMe is available which generates playlists that is suitable for the time of the day.

Video Playback

First and foremost, the S730 is not designed with primary video playback in mind. If video playback is what you are seeking foremost, a separate device like the Archos or Sony PSP would be better suited. Like the S630, the S730 is capable of playing files encoded in 320x240 resolution using h.264 (Mpeg4-AVC) video format. It can also play WMV9 files, including those coated in DRM. Video playback is smooth and the vibrant LCD display makes watching videos easy on the eye. Options are readily available to the user who wishes to switch the display orientation. Personally I would prefer not to watch videos on the S730 as the screen is rather small. It is great for showing off a couple of music videos or maybe a 20 minute Futurama episode, but for anything longer I highly recommend a PSP or the new Nokia N97 (due out in summer) instead.

Transferring Content



It is amazing how far Sony has opened up when it comes to their newest and greatest Walkman. Transferring content is a doodle. The player is MTP compliant, meaning you can just plug-in and immediately start dragging and dropping content into their appropriate folder. No proprietary and bloated nonsense like Sonic Stage or iTunes to worry about. For those who prefer some form of music management software, the S730 supports a hold host of applications including Windows Media Player, Sony Media Manager, iTunes and my personal favourite, MediaMonkey. Linux geeks will also be pleased to find that the S730 will show up as a UMS device.

Audio

The Walkman supports basic audio codecs such as MP3 up to 320kbps (as well as those encoded in VBR) and WMA. Lossless fans will be disappointed by the lack FLAC, WMA Lossless or even ATRAC3 Lossless. Gapless is also sorely missing, which in the case of this blogger, is more of an irritant than something crucial. The only way to play full CD quality music (including gapless) is through Linear PCM, hardly the sort of thing you may want to do on a device with only 16GB of space. A couple of sound effects are present for those who likes to tinker around including the 5-band equalisers (four presets and two user definable), VTP Surround setting (which I advice to ignore), DSEE (this is only useful for low bitrate files), Clear Stereo and Dynamic Normalizer (do turn this on).

SenseMe



Disappointingly the S730 still lacks an on-the-go playlist editor, which is a crying shame in this day and age. Instead Sony has decided to introduced a feature dubbed SenseMe which analysis the music library and register the tracks into ten preset playlist categories - Pop Ballad, Relax, Extreme, Energetic, Classical, Electronic, Acoustic, Daytime and Lounge. No doubt some may accuse Sony of stealing this technology from a certain fruit company, but this nifty feature is actually a veteran function in Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones. Analysing takes some time and it took more than two hours for the Walkman to sort out 2000+ tracks I uploaded. Probably best to leave it to do its business over night.

I found SenseMe to be pretty accurate, with the odd niggles here and there that is probably best placed in another category. The classical playlist was spookily very accurate with mainly tracks by Bear McCreary, Joe Hisaishi, Vanessa-Mae, Hiromi Haneda (piano) and even 'Intro' from Muse's H.A.A.R.P. live album making the list. Not sure what is so classical about Cradle of Filth though...

Sound Quality

Out of the box, the S739 is one of the best sounding DAP on the market. This is because of the bundled ANC headphones which surpasses many (if not all) usual bundled headphones. You are going to have to spend at least £20-30 to gain some form of improvement, and even then it would only be slightly. As for the S730 itself, the lack of hiss even on sensitive phones makes it an improvement over the old A810 and A820 series. Apart from that the S730 is very impressive sound quality wise, surpassing even the venerable A810 in my opinion. Sound stage is also pretty wide.

Without EQ, the sound isn't as neutral as one might hope. Like the A810, the highs and lows are slightly more defined. Bass here is tight, precise and clean, on both my CX 95 and IE 8, wonderful if you love the warm Sony sound signature. Put is simply, the S730 is the best flash based Walkman yet, if judging purely form the perspective of sound quality, at least until we know more about the X1060. Shame that you can't buy a line-out cable for it yet, so portable amps fans will have to make do with headphone-out.

Battery



I've had the S639 for a couple of months and the S739 for a couple of days and the battery life is just amazing. They can easily go last a week with moderate use. I myself use it for a couple of hours a day and only need to charge it once a week.

A quick note on increasing battery life. Sony's quote of 40+ hours audio playback is impressive, but you will only ever reach that level of impressiveness if you turn off the all those sound effects settings. Bitrates also affect battery life, where the higher the bitrate the more power is needed to decode them. Finding the balanced between achieving acceptable battery life and sound quality is something different people will have to do for themselves. Turning on ANC will also affect the battery life.

Conclusion

Sony has a lot to prove in a market where they once had a monopoly of. The A810 series was a step in the right direction and the S730 and S630 series further proves their commitment. Despite the fair assessment, there are a couple of areas Sony should improve on. For one they ought to implement gapless support (or at least cross fade) for lossy playback, as well as supporting at least one lossless codec. Hell even if it means opening up Atrac3 Lossless. They should also really look into introducing flash based Walkmans with replaceable batteries. Remember those chewing gum Sony batteries? Well I do.

Overall, the S730 series is an amazing portable Digital Audio Player that offers great sound quality for very little of your money. At around £99, there is absolutely no excuse not to buy the 16GB Walkman S739 really, unless you want more space, in which case I suggest waiting for the X1060 OLED touchscreen Walkman.

+ Amazing sound quality
+ Great built quality
+ Good ANC bundled headphones
+ BBC iPlayer support
+ Ridiculous good value
+ Exceptional battery life
+ Drag and drop
+ Quick navigation and UI
- No gapless
- Bundled ANC headphones only work on Walkman models that support it
- No lossless
- Accessories a bit hard to come by
- None replaceable battery
- No 32GB models just yet

9/10

Sony has issued a firmware update for the S730 series. This small utility takes about 3 minutes to update and as far as I know does not format the content of player (well, it didn't on mine). Firmware 1.11 fixes a bug that sometimes (very rarely) causes a random freeze/reset on the player.

The S739 is available from both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Religious nutters complains about swine flu

Religious nutters are funny. Rather than trying to see what they can do to help, they rather complain about the none-kosher nature of the term 'swine flu'. Perhaps sensibly, the whole world is ignoring their ridiculous plea and concentrating more on creating panic instead. Bunch of nut-jobs...

"We will call it Mexico flu. We won’t call it swine flu," Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman, a black-garbed Orthodox Jew, told a news conference Monday, assuring the Israeli public that authorities were prepared to handle any cases.

Anyway, here's a rather cute desktop wallpaper I found on the net of those poor little swines. They don't look that concern of having an alleged pandemic-capable flu named after their species. Awww...

Tekken 6 and Soulcalibur for PSP

Tekken: Dark Resurrection was one of the better fighters on the PSP. In fact it is the only fighter title worth considering if you are not into retro fighters. Which is a darn shame considering the title is almost three years old.



Well wait no more. According to the internet, Namco is releasing Tekken 6 (and Bloodline Rebellion) for the PSP, which they promise will contain plenty of those features unique to the PS3 version. This includes character customisation and ad-hoc wireless multiplayer.



Better yet is the announcement of Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny. Unlike the broken Wii abomination Soulcalibur Legends, the PSP game here is said to be based on Soulcalibur IV, which I found to be a rather nice game. It will also apparently feature ad-hoc wireless multiplayer.

Now, what about a decent portable Street Fighter for a change, Capcom?

Camera Obscura's My Maudlin Career and Shepherd Bush's Empire gig review

I have always felt shameful that not too many people have heard of the band Camera Obscura. Formed in 1996, this Glaswegian twee band is known for their country/indie pop 'romantic' music laced with the sweet voice of band co-founder and singer songwriter Tracyanne Campbell, but always sadly lurking in the shadows of Belle & Sebastian, which I find rather disgraceful. Camera Obscura rarely plays in London. In fact they are more popular outside of Britain, evident by the number of fans from different countries attending last night's gig at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in support of their new album My Maudlin Career.

My Maudlin Career is yet another wonderful album. Personally I can't see the band ever churning out any bad albums or songs. The album is a lot more mature sounding than their previous albums and it did take me by surprise by how mellow it sounded in comparison to Let's Get Out of this Country. Delve deeper and you will find all the usual melodramatic and depressing lyrics, no matter how 'happy' or 60s they sound. Having listened to it for tens of times, this is now my second favourite Camera Obscura album, just behind the classic that was Let's Get Out of this Country, and easily the best indie pop album I have heard this year. Short review: it's great, go buy it.



Anyway, onto the gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire. With guitarist Fránçois of Bristol based fránçois and the Atlas Mountain, Camera Obscura went through a set list consisting of a number of songs from My Maudlin Career and Let's Get Out of this Country. Despite the set consisting mainly of songs from the new album, the fans were well versed. You could tell when they are stumbling to get into groove with some of the lesser known tracks. The title track, "My Maudlin Career", the track given away for free from their website back in February, was the first one up, followed by the soft melancholy "Tears for the Sun" from Let's Get Out of this Country. The upbeat and infectious "Honey in the Sun" was next, with its brilliant use of trumpets getting the crowd moving. Even the big-haired pro-photographer down the front was grooving along as he recorded a video on his SLR.

The choice to include "French Navy" in the set is a no brainer considering it is the first single off the album. It also happens to be the first track from My Maudlin Career, which I thought was a wise choice as it is a rather lively song and great lyrics ("You make me go uuuh, with the things that you do"). "James" is a perfect example of a very Tracyanne song. With lyrics like "Oh James, you broke me... I thought I knew you well" reminds us all why we love the band as much as we do, even as Tracyanne laments this alleged James. Then it was the country (and beautiful) "Forest and Sands" followed by "Swans" with its mocking "Oh you want to be a writer, fantastic idea" lyrics. Brilliant.



It is back to fan favourite, "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken" of the last album, a song that is as sunny on the outside even if you are ready to be heartbroken and response to "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" by Lloyd Cole. The assault from Let's Get Out of this Country continues with the up-beat "If Looks Could Kill" and melancholy "Country Mile", whose wrenching lyrics takes you down. While I won't be doing it anytime soon, Tracyanne is just prepared to trade her mother to see hear her sing with "The Sweetest Thing", which while good was one of the more unforgettable songs from My Maudlin Career, in my opinion of course.

"You Told a Lie" which comes right after "The Sweetest Thing", just like in the album, is definitely the highlight of My Maudlin Career, as Tracyanne continues lamenting with "Who was it that said that love conquers all? Oh he was a fool cause it doesn't add up". The set ends just like how Let's Get Out of this Country ends, with the exhilarating rendition of "Razzle Dazzle Rose", a classic song. The encore consists of two fairly popular favourites - "Eighties Fan", the song that brought them the attention through association with Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian from their debut album Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi (with nothing else from the first two albums) and the quality indie pop title track from "Let's Get Out of this Country".

Buy the album now from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk