Sure, you could just spend $15 for the iLuv iEA15 inline remote for your high-end earbuds, but where’s the fun in that? One of our enterprising readers decided to take matters into his own hands and whip out the X-acto knife and solder gun. Andreas bought a new Apple iPhone 3GS but didn’t even put the included earbuds next to his eardrums. Instead, he transplanted the speakers from his Sennheiser CX300 set into the iPhone cord and thus has high-end earphones that support the inline remote controls. Note that the Palm Pre uses a similar solution so this hack ought to work for a Pre as well.

I was seriously considering the iLuv product for my pair of Shures, but Andreas has me rethinking the approach. The iLuv adapter is simply a short cord coming from the phone, so the remote controls get moved down to your hip if you the phone is in a pocket. With the native solution, they’re essentially near my chin, which is where the microphone ought to be. Hmm…. I’m not too skilled with a soldering iron, but he raises a good point.

In mid-July, Verizon pushed the Slacker music application to all BlackBerry Storm devices. The software is tied directly to Verizon’s VCast store so if you like what you hear on Slacker, Verizon is happy to sell you the track right over the air. I just received word from Slacker that Verizon is dancing to the same tune on the hot, new BlackBerry Tour handset as well. While you can opt out for a camera on the Tour, you can’t skip a beat without Slacker.

I’m curious how folks feel about this particular situation. For years, we’ve dealt with custom carrier builds and branded services. Sometimes we’re able to remove those apps and sometimes we’re not. In a way, the automatic installation of Slacker on the Storm and Tour, isn’t much different than having it pre-installed on a device out of the box. And it sounds to me like Verizon figures it can earn more audio track revenues with a third-party title than with their own software. But that’s the question — Slacker is a third party title that can be installed, or not, on many other handsets. It’s normally up to the handset owner if they want Slacker. Not this time, though. Consumers can always just not use the software, but what if you want to reclaim that storage space?

Is this a non-issue or a practice that bothers you?

When I got a chance to review the Sonos whole-house music system, I pretty much fell in love. The hardware was easy to set up and I was streaming music all through the house in no time. About the only item I wasn’t a fan of was the ginormous touchscreen remote control. Why? Let’s just say that I’ve seen UMPCs that were smaller.

Sonos just announced an update to their controller — the CR200. This model is far smaller than its predecessor, but still offers a 3.5″ VGA color display with capacitive touchscreen. That comes in handy for controls, album art, playlists and other functions:

• Easy set up — A few simple steps are all that’s needed to get Sonos up and running using the new Controller.
• Instant on — Pick up the Controller or touch the screen and it’s instantly ready to play music.
• Dedicated buttons — Mute, Volume and Zones buttons provide shortcuts to the most often used functions.
• Quick, intuitive search — Instantly find the artist, song, radio station, or radio show you want to listen to by typing on the on-screen keyboard. Suggestions are provided as you type.
• Easy zone management — Take music with you as you move through the house by linking rooms with ease (and without interrupting music playback).
• Multi-room volume control — Change the volume in a single room, or in several rooms, all from the same screen.

All in all, it’s a very functional gadget. But is it worth $349? I’d say if you don’t have an iPhone, it probably is, because it provides complete control over your Sonos system. iPhone users ought to be quite happy with the iPhone app that replicates the same functionality for free. Sonos says they’ve added a new InfoView to the iPhone app, bringing the version up to v3.0 today. InfoView offers one touch access to artist info, reviews, concert listings and more. Have a look for yourself at the version I saw on the iPhone — even without InfoView it’s feature-packed.

I never seem to know what to do with my Bluetooth headset when it’s not attached to my ear. Do I put it in a pocket? Drop it in my gear bag? Just keep wearing it until it grafts itself permanently to the side of my head? None of these options sounds ideal, but the bluDANGLE just might work.

This $6 lanyard clips to a shirt on one end and attaches to a Bluetooth headset on the other. The high-strength cord is only a millimeter thick and ranges from eight to 16 inches. While I can’t say that a dangling dongle is the most fashionable solution, it does solve the problem.

I’m a lucky audiophile as both of my phones, the iPhone and the Pre both offer inline headphone remote controls. With the buttons, I can pause, play, skip and control the music volume. On the the iPhone, I can also use the controls to initiate a voice command. That’s all well and good, but what about using a better sounding set of ‘phones? You end up losing the remote features. Or do you?

Once launched, iLuv ’s iEA15 will add the same remote features to any set of standard headphones that use a 3.5mm jack. Essentially, this is a little cord extension that includes the buttons and functionality to replicate the remote control features used with the included headphones of a Pre or iPhone. That gives new life to my Shure headset, which I’ve abandoned in favor of the included earbuds for the time being. Hopefully, the iEA15 comes in at or under $20 — after that, I’m not sure it’s worth the money to me for remote controls. It’s not that difficult to look at the phone display and tap a button.

By the way, Mac owners can use their iPhone headset (or the iEA15, I suppose) to control music on newer Macs. I often listen to music over a headset through my MacBook and it’s nice to pause, skip or adjust volume with the inline controls.

(via UNEASYsilence)

The BlackBerry Tour might be today’s talk of the town, but that’s doesn’t mean the Storm is dissipating. Verizon just announced that Slacker’s software will be on every BlackBerry Storm. Slacker announced support for the Storm back in January, but it was an optional download up to now. With the news, every Storm will see the Slacker Personal Radio App appear on the home screen over the next few days. Verizon is delivering the software right over the air, so there’s no need to download it from a mobile site or transfer it to your Storm using a computer. There’s no additional charge for the Slacker service for customers that have a BlackBerry plan including email and web. I suspect most, if not all, Storm owners have such a data plan.

The Slacker Personal Radio software is integrated into Verizon’s VCAST music service as well. If a tune you’re listening to is available for purchase from Verizon, a VCAST icon appears in the software. One tap later and the audio file is on its way to your Storm without interrupting the tune on Slacker.

Slacker claims to have to have four times more music than the nearest competitor, which I take to be Pandora. That’s one advantage, but I think a larger one is the ability to cache music. Slacker can do it, while Pandora can’t. As much as I enjoy Pandora, I’m hoping to see a Slacker app for the Palm Pre now that the Mojo SDK is out. I’d love the ability to cache some music and then shut off the radios on my Pre — that would save some battery life. Slacker does offer an application for my iPhone 3GS, but it’s restricted. The ability to cache music isn’t supported on the iPhone.

The news that Apple blocked the ability for Palm Pre owners to sync their phone with iTunes came as no surprise. Apple had warned Pre owners that the ability to sync the phone with iTunes might go away, and the very next iTunes update did so. Kevin pointed out some good methods to sync the Pre to iTunes without the help of Apple, so those wanting to get their groove on can still do so. Today we heard of a free solution that not only works with the Pre, but with other smartphones, too. Salling Media Sync works on both Macs and Windows PCs and will sync iTunes music to phones with ease.

The program is free to use, but there is a paid version ($22) that syncs faster. In addition to music libraries, Salling Media Sync will move podcasts and photos between the computer and the phone. I haven’t tried it yet but plan to do so shortly. Of course, DRM-infested music will not be copied, as it can’t be played on the phone anyway.

So the great experiment is over. What used to work with the Palm Pre no longer does, as the result of Apple’s new iTunes 8.2.1 software. I’m talking about the ability to synchronize DRM-free iTunes music with the Pre handset. It was fun while it lasted, but Apple has effectively shut it down for now, says PreCentral.

Most of us figured that this functionality was on borrowed time at best. Masquerading a Pre to look like an iPod was clever on the part of Palm. But in the end, Palm has no control over iTunes. Apple does.

Long story short: This isn’t as terrible as it sounds from an end user perspective. While it would be easier for some folks to use iTunes, there are alternatives. We’ve covered DoubleTwist and The Missing Sync before and although the latter only works on a Mac, both are viable options. Or you could use the simple but manual method I show above: Plug in your Pre via USB and put it in USB Drive mode. From there, you simply drag and drop music as needed. It’s not pretty, but it works with practically no effort.

Might Palm try to circumvent the new block from Apple? Perhaps, but I don’t think it’s likely. I expect that Palm simply tried to buy time until third-party developers created tools to sync music between the Pre and a computer.

I thought that Microsoft’s Zune HD would be the first portable HD Radio unit for sale, but it wasn’t meant to be. Electronics retailer Best Buy won the race that nobody is watching. Actually, at least one person was watching. Dave Zatz hopped over to his local Best Buy and dropped $50 to get an HD Radio for totable tunes. He bought an Insignia model, which is the “house brand” for Best Buy.

At $50, the NS-HD01 is more of a bare-bones device than a high-end portable. There’s no AC adapter included, for example. To charge the device, you connect it to a computer with the included USB cable. The included earbuds aren’t the highest quality, either. Using a set of third-party headphones might be hit or miss as well, based on Dave’s tests. He had to position the headphone jack just right in order for it to make the proper stereo connection. However, there is a nice armband included, making this a nice unit to accompany you during exercise.

Although I’m tempted, at $50, for higher-quality sound and a greater number of digital radio stations, I’m going to pass. If I could track my running activities with the NS-ND01, like I can with my iPhone, then maybe I’d drop the coin. For now, I’ll let Dave enjoy this one solo.

HD Radio has always appealed to me, but I’m thinking the opportunity for it is passing. I realize not everyone wants to carry a phone or a digital audio player with pre-loaded music, but there are so many other options today: Slacker, Pandora, and even satellite radio. More vehicles are getting configured with easy-to-use auxiliary jacks, USB ports and Bluetooth, too. Is it too late for HD Radio to become a major player?

So maybe you’re not ready for a web-based operating system but you still like to flit from computer to computer. That’s great for hitting up the web but not always so great for playing media files. Sure, if you’re sticking with Flash-based vids or a common file format, you’re likely in the clear. But you can’t expect every major codec installed on every PC you come across, can you? Lifehacker says that with VLC Media Player Portable, you don’t have to.

The highly flexible media application is part of the Portable Apps suite, which means you can carry VLC on a flash drive in your pocket. The download is 20MB, but will only take up to 37MB on your flash drive. The portable version has may of the same features as the latest desktop version and supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg and many other media formats.