Review: Musique is the simple and beautiful music player you've always dreamed of

When listening to music on your computer, you can go several different ways. The first is to use a huge, well-known music player such as iTunes or Windows Media Player; the second is to opt for streaming using Spotify, Pandora, Last.fm, and others; and the third is to go for a smaller, lesser-known player that suits your exact needs. Musique (€8.99/$12 after 20-day free trial; Linux, Mac, and PC) is just such a player, and one that is definitely worth your attention.

Simple yet eye-catching, Musique is everything you always wanted from iTunes and were afraid to wish for. Interface-wise, it loosely resembles old versions of iTunes without any of the confusing elements. Right from the get-go, using Musique is completely straightforward, with clear buttons and keyboard shortcuts to accomplish any task.

The tiles and playlist make it easy to find and play what you're looking for

The free version of Musique is a demo that lets you add up to 15 tracks at a time, and pops up a nag screen every few songs. It also expires after 20 days, so it's really only a trial version. When you first launch Musique, you'll need to point it to your music folder for a scan. Musique uses Last.fm to catalog your music, bringing up album covers, artist information and photos, etc. Once done, Musique will present your collection in beautiful tiles which you can view by artists, albums, or folders.

Browse by artists, albums or folders to find your music

The right side of the screen is where your playlist goes. Simply start dragging artist tiles, albums tiles, folders or individual songs to this pane to create your playlist. Alternatively, you can hit the play button on the tile itself to automatically start playing everything it contains. You can also use the search function to find specific songs, albums or artists you're looking for. The playlist supports all common functions such as shuffle and repeat, and you can easily control everything from your keyboard or use the buttons and menus. For any song playing, you can also load an info screen full of artist information and photos, album covers and the song's lyrics. The playlist is very easy to follow: even if you add a single song from an album, Musique will automatically give it a separate albums and artist title to make it easy to recognize.

A treasure trove of information can be revealed by clicking the "i" button

Things are also pretty much perfect when it comes to formats. According to its website, Musique takes advantage of VLC on Windows, and thus supports all common audio formats. While at first I had problems playing OGG and FLAC files, the developer promptly fixed these bugs. In general, any format that can play on VLC should also work in Musique. If it doesn't, it's a bug, rather than a design.

One glaring problem with Musique is its inability to open any files aside from the folder you've scanned on startup. There is no File -> Open option, and even if you set it as the default music player on your system, double clicking a file will merely open the program, without actually opening the file you clicked on. If your music is concentrated in one central folder, and you don't mind using a different app to open the odd audio file that's not in that folder, you shouldn't run into problems with Musique. These issues aside, there are more than enough reasons to fall in love with the app, and even pay for it.

Why pay $11.75 when you can get iTunes or VLC for free, you wonder? Musique is a one-man effort, and is a far better one than most big companies have produced. It's well worth your support.

Note: The Download button takes you to to the vendor's website, where you can download the edition of the software appropriate to your system.

Yaara is a foodie, horse-lover, and biologist who enjoys being a geek as a full-time job.
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Review: DriveTunes adds a music player to Google Drive

DriveTunes If you use Google Drive to store oodles of MP3 music, then you may long for a built-in music player. Enter DriveTunes.

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Cloud storage provides a very simple way of ensuring that your music is always there, wherever there is an Internet connection...but Google Drive doesn't provide a default music player upon. Sure, the files are there, but to actually hear your tunes you must rely on either portable music player applications, or whatever is installed on the host computer. Google's Chrome app DriveTunes provides another option.

Chrome app DriveTunes plays your music in Google Drive. It doesn't do anything more, but that's more than Google Drive does on its own.

If you use the Chrome browser (either the full installation or the portable version), you can install DriveTunes, which places a music player inside your Google Drive folder.  It automatically detects all MP3 and M4A music files inside your Drive and lists them in an easy-to-view interface. Simply double-click a song to hear it

DriveTunes is a pretty basic player with just a play/pause button, a skip track button, and a volume button.  Don't expect anything fancy like album art, equalizers, or playlists. It plays your music and that's it. But isn't that enough?

Note: The Download button takes you to the Chrome Web store, where you can install the latest version directly into your Chrome browser.

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Review: PowerDVD 13 Ultra media player is loaded with under-the-hood improvements

The PowerDVD Ultra series have been the most powerful, feature-laden DVD, Blu-ray, and media players available at retail. On the other hand, each version has also been somewhat slow to launch and sluggish to respond. Version 13 starts up more quickly and is better all around, although it's not a startling upgrade if you already have version 12. That said, there are more than a few new features here, including a user interface that Windows 8 aficionados will find appealing.

Before getting into the new stuff, a quick but impressive list of what PowerDVD Ultra already supports: Playback of DVDs and 2D and 3D Blu-ray movies with resolution enhancement; cataloging and playback of large collections of photos, music files, and videos; a 10-foot interface for use with a remote; and playback of media streamed via DLNA media servers (e.g., other PCs and NAS boxes).

PowerDVD 13 Ultra ($100) now supports every major video technology, including 2K/4K resolution, AVCHD 2.0 and 3D, and it comes with free players and remote-control apps for iOS and Android devices, plus PowerDVD Mobile for Windows tablets (both Windows 8 and RT). The Android and iOS apps are also free with the $80 Pro version, but you’ll need to pay $20 for PowerDVD Mobile. The Pro version drops support for 3D, 7.1-channel surround sound, and DLNA. You’ll need to pay for all three apps if you buy the $60 Deluxe version, which subtracts both Blu-ray and 3D support. Upgrades from previous versions of PowerDVD start at $45.

The last two versions of PowerDVD had the program morphing into a jack-of-all-trades media player, and version 13 continues that trend—albeit mildly. There’s a new a movie library with art for video files (not just movies), though as with many players, it's rather hit or miss on whether the art is correct. If the file name is explicit enough, it does okay. PowerDVD is also ready for Ultra Violet, the online movie storage/delivery service, and it already supports video streaming from most social networks (Facebook, YouTube, etc.)

PowerDVD 13 Ultra now provides its TrueTheater enhancements for 1920-by-1080p video. TrueTheater bypasses GPU hardware acceleration, though, so the hardware requirements are extreme. Even on a Core i7 965 test bed, enhanced video wouldn't play smoothly beyond about 25 Mbps. That’s fine for smaller downloaded files, but not for most Blu-ray movies. If you have the horsepower, TrueTheater really makes video look better. The ability to disable BD-live to speed movie start times is another significant improvement.

Cyberlink added support for two lossless audio codecs that will endear it to hard-core music fans everywhere: FLAC and APE. There's also a software EQ with common settings, and you can use Dolby to produce more spacious sound, but there’s no support for bass enhancement such as Windows Media Player's SRS TruBass. A new mini-player keeps the program out of the way when playing music.

With PowerDVD, CyberLink aspires to deliver the ultimate all-in-one solution for multimedia on the desktop. Version 13 is closer to that ideal, but still lacks a few features, including live TV support. It remains the best available video and movie playback application for state-of-the-art technologies (there are no free Blu-ray 3D alternatives). Only Corel's $50 WinDVD 11 comes close.

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Julliard, and now he power mods his car for kicks.
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Review: Songbird Desktop is much more than just a media player

Songbird Desktop is a media player that's not chained to your desktop, despite its name. Although this free application for PC and Mac will organize you collection and playback audio and video files from your computer, it's also a tool for discovering new music, learning more about your favorite artists, and connecting with friends.

Songbird installs quickly and easily, but getting your music into the program is entirely up to you. You have to add files manually, by pointing Songbird in the direction of your media collection. Once your songs and videos are added to Songbird, you can take advantage of its basic media playback functions. You can play songs, rip CDs (but not burn them), create playlists, and more. Songbird does play videos, but you may have to download some video codecs to play back all files, as Songbird doesn't include some that would require it to pay a royalty.

Songbird includes a Web browser that lets you discover info about your favorite artists.

Songbird will sync with Android mobile devices and smartphones, but not Apple's products. While iPhone and iPod owners are out of luck, Android users will appreciate that Songbird syncs with their devices. I had to download an add-on from Songbird's library in order to get the application to recognize my Motorola Droid Bionic, but once I made it through that somewhat confusing process, Songbird worked seamlessly with my phone.

In fact, Songbird's extensive library of add-ons is just one of the factors that make this application so interesting. In there, you can find add-ons that will do everything from adding lyrics to songs as they play to displaying album art from Last.fm. If you're willing to spend some time poking around the add-on collection, you can find plenty of tools for customizing everything from the look of Songbird to the experience of using its Web browser, which displays right in the main window of the application. This  allows you to find out more about your favorite artists. It also allows you to connect with other users, and lets you connect via Facebook to find out what artists your friends like, too.

Songbird's interface is a bit bland, but you can customize it with skins to get a new look.

And that's not all: Songbird also works as a media server, streaming your media collection to UPnP or DLNA devices on the same local network. It's also available as a Web app and an Android app that sync with the desktop version. In short, there's not a lot Songbird can't do.  It may all be too much for the casual user who simply wants to listen to a few tunes, and if you want to sync them to your iPhone, you're out of luck. But adventurous music fans looking for a player that they can customize will find a lot to sing about in Songbird.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software appropriate to your system.

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Review: Songbird Desktop is much more than just a media player

Songbird Desktop is a media player that's not chained to your desktop, despite its name. Although this free application for PC and Mac will organize you collection and playback audio and video files from your computer, it's also a tool for discovering new music, learning more about your favorite artists, and connecting with friends.

Songbird installs quickly and easily, but getting your music into the program is entirely up to you. You have to add files manually, by pointing Songbird in the direction of your media collection. Once your songs and videos are added to Songbird, you can take advantage of its basic media playback functions. You can play songs, rip CDs (but not burn them), create playlists, and more. Songbird does play videos, but you may have to download some video codecs to play back all files, as Songbird doesn't include some that would require it to pay a royalty.

Songbird includes a Web browser that lets you discover info about your favorite artists.

Songbird will sync with Android mobile devices and smartphones, but not Apple's products. While iPhone and iPod owners are out of luck, Android users will appreciate that Songbird syncs with their devices. I had to download an add-on from Songbird's library in order to get the application to recognize my Motorola Droid Bionic, but once I made it through that somewhat confusing process, Songbird worked seamlessly with my phone.

In fact, Songbird's extensive library of add-ons is just one of the factors that make this application so interesting. In there, you can find add-ons that will do everything from adding lyrics to songs as they play to displaying album art from Last.fm. If you're willing to spend some time poking around the add-on collection, you can find plenty of tools for customizing everything from the look of Songbird to the experience of using its Web browser, which displays right in the main window of the application. This  allows you to find out more about your favorite artists. It also allows you to connect with other users, and lets you connect via Facebook to find out what artists your friends like, too.

Songbird's interface is a bit bland, but you can customize it with skins to get a new look.

And that's not all: Songbird also works as a media server, streaming your media collection to UPnP or DLNA devices on the same local network. It's also available as a Web app and an Android app that sync with the desktop version. In short, there's not a lot Songbird can't do.  It may all be too much for the casual user who simply wants to listen to a few tunes, and if you want to sync them to your iPhone, you're out of luck. But adventurous music fans looking for a player that they can customize will find a lot to sing about in Songbird.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software appropriate to your system.

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Review: GOM Media Player plays just about anything

Open-source media player VLC's ability to play back just about any file I can throw at it has made me a fan, but its geeky feel and utilitarian interface can be a turnoff.  Enter GOM Media Player (free). It’s a full-featured video player that can handle almost anything, and looks good doing it.

GOM Media Player supports a wide range of audio and video formats out of the box. Supported file types include flv, mp4, mov, mpg, ts, avi, divx, asx, wmv, m4v, dat, ifo, vob, 3gp/3gp2, rm/rmvb, mkv, ogm video files and mp3, .m4a, .aac, .ogg audio files.

If GOM doesn't support your file format, you're not out of luck. The application includes a Codec Finder service that tells you which codec you need, and points you to sources for downloads and more information about the codecs. It's a nice touch that offers enough freedom for advanced users and enough hand-holding for newbies.

GOM Media Player features an attractive interface and a settings menu that provides plenty of options without overwhelming you.Another nice touch is GOM's slick design.

The edges of the video player look like polished steel, and the buttons resemble those you'd see on an actual device. You can easily load videos, create playlists, fast forward and rewind, move quickly through the video to find an exact spot, and switch to full-screen mode.

Advanced users will appreciate options like the ability to capture the screen, change the stereo mode for audio playback, and adjust subtitle size and displayand all of these are laid out in a settings menu that doesn't feel overwhelming.

But all of this wouldn't matter if the video output didn't look good. Luckily, that wasn't the case: Video played back on GOM Media Player looked great. There’s no reason to not keep using GOM as my media player of choice.

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DVDFab Media Player worth a try for Blu-ray fans

Few Blu-ray movie players are on the market because of the royalties for the technologies involved, but there are some. DVDFab has joined the PowerDVDs and WinDVDs of the world with its own player, aptly titled DVDFab Media Player ($50, 30-day free trial with feature limitations).

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. Most functions are accessed from right-clicking in DVDFab Media Player's interface.It's hardly a universal player, and it suffers some obvious version 1.0 oddities, but DVDFab Media Player plays Blu-ray movies perfectly. You must take care of the HDCP encryption DTS and Dolby. I played several titles with nary a glitch. There's a lack of support for most straight audio files, as well as Ogg Theora, but it plays most other video types.

DVDFab Media Player's interface is clean as a whistle. Personally, I don't see the need for the progress dialogs when files or discs are loaded. Something less obvious might be in order, but minimalism is my cup of tea.

Possibly the best feature of DVDFab Media Player is the "Quick & Simple" navigation, which allows you to bypass all the junk you normally have to view when you play a DVD or Blu-ray disc. Just load the disc, hit play, and the movie begins. Bravo.

DVDFab Media Player is free to try, though you have to sit through a 5-second nag each time you launch the program. It's free for playing titles on your hard disk—including Blu-ray structures—but to play discs after the 30-day trial period, you'll need to purchase a license for $50. Even at this early stage, it's worth a look.

—Jon L. Jacobi

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Samsung Announces Galaxy Player 5.8

Think the 5.3-inch screen on the Samsung Galaxy Note is gargantuan? That’s a pipsqueak compared to the massive screen found on the newly announced Samsung Galaxy Player 5.8, the latest iteration of Samsung’s Android-based, iPod-esque media and app player. The new device will join the 3.6-inch, 4.0-inch. 4.2-inch and 5.0-inch models already available as part of the Galaxy Player lineup.

The larger screen doesn’t bring a big leap in sharpness along with it, however. While the Galaxy Player 5.8's 960×540 display is a step up from the Galaxy Player 5.0's 800×480 VGA resolution, it is still far from high definition, especially over such a large expanse. By comparison, the iPod touch has a much smaller 3.5-inch screen but still manages to squeeze in a superior 960×640 resolution.

That being said, previous iterations of the Galaxy Player were capable media devices with features you won’t find in the iPod, such as expandable memory and a removable battery. Stereo speakers, a VGA camera, Bluetooth 4.0, a 2,500mAh battery and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage round out the Galaxy Player 5.8's hardware, while the software is bolstered by the inclusion of Android 4.0 ICS and Samsung’s shiny new TouchWiz update — both firsts for the Galaxy Player line. Wi-Fi and GPS are also on board, as you would expect.

The translated announcement doesn’t offer much else in terms of specs or availability details, but given its timing, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Samsung Galaxy Player 5.8 show up at IFA 2012 alongside the Galaxy Note 2 and Samsung’s teased Windows 8 hybrid tablet.

Via Engadget

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Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 Review: Great All-Around Android Player

Available in two new sizes, the Samsung Galaxy Player is a Wi-Fi-connected Android media player that complements Samsung's popular Galaxy phone lineup--with the advantage that it doesn't require you to be tied to a phone contract or monthly data fees. The smaller Galaxy Player 3.6 costs $150, while the larger Galaxy Player 4.2 sells for $200 (prices as of June 1, 2012). Both have 8GB of storage space. In this review, we'll focus on the Galaxy Player 4.2, which matches up against the $200 Apple iPod Touch better than its smaller cousin does. The 3.6 and 4.2 models follow the Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0, which Samsung released only about six months ago.

Design

The numbers in the various Galaxy Player names refer to their diagonal screen size. Thus, the Galaxy Player 4.2 has a 4.2-inch display. Its bezel, especially on the sides, is very thin. Though the iPod Touch has only a 3.5-inch screen, most new smartphones have screens slightly larger than 4 inches now; and Samsung's Galaxy Note boasts a 5.3-inch display.

Despite its large screen, the Galaxy Player feels very thin (at 0.35 inch, it's a tad thicker than the 0.28-inch thick iPod Touch) and light (it weighs just 0.25 pound, as does the Touch). The trade-off for its lightness is that it feels as if it were made of cheap plastic. The glossy black plastic is a fingerprint magnet, too, which further detracts from the device's aesthetics.

The 800-by-480-resolution display doesn't quite achieve retina-display density, but it looks crisp and bright. The 4.2-inch screen is slightly too large for me to comfortably navigate one-handed, using my thumb, but I have small hands. Adults with average-size hands should be able to reach across to the far corner just fine. Ultimately, the screen size strikes an almost ideal balance between being comfortable to hold and being comfortable to view content on.

Unlike its smaller cousin, the Galaxy Player 4.2 comes with dual front-facing speakers--one above the screen and one below it, in portrait orientation. Sound from the speakers is strong and clear, though a bit thin due to their small size. Below the screen, a physical Home button sits between the capacitive buttons for Back and Search.

Similar to the smaller player, the home button and volume rocker are on the right side, and the Micro-USB port and headphone jack are on the bottom. The large back panel is removable, so you can have access to the battery and the MicroSD card slot. You'll have to take out the battery to get to the card, so it's not a quick swap, but at least the fixed storage (at 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB) is expandable, unlike on the Sony Walkman Z Series.

The Galaxy Player 4.2 also has rear- and front-facing cameras. The quality of the 2-megapixel camera on the back is adequate for a quick tweet or Facebook post, but not much else. The front-facing camera has VGA resolution (as does the one on the iPod Touch)--good enough for video chats.

Performance and Specs

The Galaxy Player 4.2 runs Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread, and packs a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. In my hands-on use, the Player ran smoothly for casual gaming; FIFA 12 played smoothly most of the time, but the intro video dropped a few frames.

For connectivity, you get Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, and GPS. The GPS locked onto my location quickly, but in the absence of cellular data to update the maps, turn-by-turn navigation was impractical. Samsung includes an FM radio, too, incase you get tired of the tunes you've loaded. It will only work with the headphones plugged in, however, because it uses the cable as the antenna.

Samsung promises 8 hours of video playback or 60 hours of audio playback between charges of the Galaxy Player 4.2's 1500mAh battery. Oddly, Samsung rates the same-capacity battery on the smaller-screened 3.6-inch player for just 5 hours video or 30 hours of audio. In my use, the battery seemed to be draining faster than its spec would suggest; if you're a commuter, you'll want to charge it at work during the day so you can use it on the trip home.

Software and Extras

The Galaxy Player 4.2 comes with the full suite of Google apps, including access to the Play Store marketplace, Maps, Gmail, GTalk, and other official Google apps. Samsung augments the stock Android experience with its TouchWiz interface; if you have a Samsung phone, you should feel right at home with this overlay.

Other notable preloaded apps are Quickoffice, Samsung Smartview remote control software to turn the player into a remote for a connected Samsung TV, and Kies air to manage the player over a Wi-Fi connection from a browser.

To show off its gaming potential, the Galaxy Player 4.2 also comes with Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Angry Birds, FIFA 12, and a link to trials of more EA games.

The stock headphones that come with the Player of reasonable design, and the same design as on the Player 3.2. The in-ear buds come with a choice of three sizes of rubber tips, and I was surprised to find that the middle size actually fit comfortably and stayed in my normally hard-to-fit ears.

Media

The Galaxy Player 4.2 doesn't have the range of equalizer options that the Walkman Z Series does. Still, the sound is strong and clear, though not as rich or full as the Sony. The 4.2's biggest advantage is its dual front-facing speakers, which outperformed the muffled little rear speakers on both the Galaxy Player 3.6 and the Sony Walkman.

The screen falls short of full 720p resolution, but 800 by 480 is sufficient for clear video. Playback is smooth, even in the action scenes of a 720p film. The Galaxy Player 4.2 can handle playback of ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, 3GP, and WMV videos. Audio playback includes AAC, FLAC, MP3, Ogg, WAV, and WMA.

The video and audio playback apps on the Galaxy Player 4.2 are easy to use and offer lots of options for organizing and sorting music and videos. You can add new files to the device by plugging in the USB cable and then dragging and dropping them directly to the player itself or to its MicroSD card if you have one installed. You can purchase music and video files from the Google Play store, or you can stream them from apps such as Pandora and Netflix.

Bottom Line

The Galaxy Player 4.2 is a good all-around performer with a nice big screen, strong audio and video performance, solid gaming options, and passable rear- and front-facing cameras. For the price of an iPod Touch, you can have a larger screen, front-facing speakers, and expandable memory. For buyers seeking an Android-powered alternative, the Galaxy Player 4.2 is the best choice.

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Sony Walkman Z Series Review: A Solid Multimedia Player With Limited Storage

Walkman is a familiar name in portable media players, going back several decades. Sony's Walkman Z Series ($210, as of June 1, 2012) is basically an Android phone without the phone, and with a strong emphasis on media playback and gaming.

Design

The Z Series' 4.3-inch, 800-by-480-pixel-resolution screen is big enough for good video playback and an enjoyable gaming experience and yet small enough for the device to feel comfortable in one hand. The player weighs 0.34 pound, which eventually felt a tad heavy, but was fine for casual use.

The sharp edges and button layout make it a little less friendly for one-handed use, though. I have small hands, and my thumb can almost make it to the top corner on the far side, but the Z Series' sharp corners and edges make the stretch uncomfortable. Three capacitive buttons sit on the bezel below the screen for Back, Home, and Menu.

When held in portrait orientation, the power button is on the left side of the top edge, out my fingers' reach when I held the player in my left hand. The volume rocker and the Walkman button occupy the right edge--a location that made them much easier for me to press.

The headphone jack and proprietary charging/data connection port sit on the bottom, and the mini HDMI port is on the bottom of the right edge. The left side has nothing. On the back are the tiny speakers and a reset button. The back is not removable, meaning that the battery is not user-accessible, and hence that the reset button is necessary.

The purple-blue plastic on the back of the Walkman provides a nice contrast to the shiny black of the rest of the device. The design has gentle curves near the top and bottom, which makes the device a pleasure to hold in two hands in landscape orientation.

One feature omission is a camera. The Walkman focuses on media playback, but I would have appreciated having a rear- or front-facing camera to take pictures and videos, or handle video chat.

Performance and Specs

The Z Series runs Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, and packs a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM. Thanks to these specs, multimedia playback and gaming worked well. The unit comes with a demo version of Riptide GP, which played smoothly and showed crisp, clear graphics. Every video file I tried--from the included Spiderman trailer, to a 720p rip, to an Avengers trailer on YouTube--played without a hitch.

The screen is bright and clear, with enough resolution to make games and videos look good. It's not a 720p screen, but at this screen size, it looks good.

On the wireless side, since the device doesn't include a phone, there is no data modem. You do get Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth with A2DP and AVRCP. The built-in FM radio uses the headphone cable as an antenna, so it works only with the headphones plugged in.

Headphones are essentially the only way you'll want to listen to music from this player. The built-in stereo speakers on the back produced disappointingly weak and muffled sound.

Regrettably, Sony chose not to include a MicroSD card slot with its player. The Walkman comes in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB sizes, but a sizable chunk of that space will be unavailable from the get-go: On the 8GB model we had for testing, only 4.58GB were free for user storage.

Sony promises 5 hours of video playback, and the battery seemed to hold up well in my informal testing. The standby times are great too--enough to let me to enjoy several days of casual use without needing to recharge the battery.

Software and Extras

Sony's customization of the Android home-screen launcher and its inclusion of a convenient music playback widget are pleasing. And each of Sony's custom apps has a similarly designed icon, which gives the bottom navigation bar filled with these apps a more unified look.

Sony provides several custom apps for media management and playback. One app is designed to help you use DLNA to listen to music and to view pictures and videos from your home network. Another, the Sony music player, is clean and well-organized. The stock Android music app is available too, but Sony's offering is both more attractive and more functional.

You get additional options for sorting your tracks, including by release year or by folder. In addition, the player's SensMe channels can organize the music in your library on the basis of such themes as Energetic, Upbeat, and Relax. It took the Walkman Z Series about an hour to analyze the 500MB of sample music that I loaded on it and to sort the files into SensMe categories. Sony also includes a five-band equalizer and a handful of other Sony-developed audio enhancement technologies like virtual surround sound.

A link to Sony's Music Unlimited service enables you to stream music from Sony's collection and to manage personalized playlists. The link on the homescreen goes to a Web page that explains the service and provides links for downloading the app. Basic service costs $4 per month, and premium service runs $10 per month.

Sony doesn't preinstall much beyond its custom apps. In particular, I didn't find any productivity apps besides Google's Gmail and Calendar; but with full access to the Google Play Store, you can add anything you might need.

The most annoying thing about using the Z-Series Walkman involves its proprietary cable for data transfers. Part of the beauty of an Android player is the openness of the Android ecosystem; but being stuck with a proprietary cable is regressive--and a tremendous annoyance in practical use.

Sony's included earbuds offer full, rich sound. They aren't especially comfortable to wear, though, and they stick out rather far. They're joined together in that annoying (or endearing, depending on your taste) Sony way where they don't split in an even Y shape. The cord to the left bud is significantly shorter than the cord to the right bud, so that the main cable that connects to the player runs off the left side, leaving an extra loop of cable to run over the right ear.

Media

Sony's experience with audio playback really shows. The built-in speakers may be thin, but the audio quality through a good set of headphones or speakers is strong. Sony calls its audio-processing software S-Master Technology, and it yielded full, rich sound through my Bose desktop speakers and through several test pairs of headphones. And Sony offers a ton of equalizer options that you can tweak if the straight sound is not to your liking.

The Walkman supports MP4 and WMV video, as well as AAC-LC, L-PCM, MP3, and WMA audio; the competing Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 and Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 support far more video codecs, plus FLAC, Ogg, and WAV audio.

Bottom Line

The Sony Walkman Z Series combines a powerful processor, a good screen, and great audio processing. But if you're prepared to deal with a proprietary connector, a sealed battery, and an absence of expandable storage, you may want to check out the iPod Touch. That said, the bigger screen and Tegra 2 gaming options may sway some buyers looking for an Android alternative to Apple's hegemony.

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Darkfall Online Excels at Player vs. Player Combat

Darkfall Online ($15/month subscription, 14-day free trial) hearkens back to some of the earliest days of MMOs, especially Ultima Online, where a combination of game design issues and misreading the audience led to the early months being pretty much a nonstop slaughterfest. While the history of MMOs since then has shown that most players do not like to pay 15 dollars a month to be someone else's victim, there's a small, but very loud, group that wants the hardest of hardcore PVP. The MBA degree holders in that group play spreadsheets-in-space game EVE Online. The rest play Darkfall.

Don't let the seemingly placid scene fool you; Darkfall is full of opportunities for sudden death.I'm not a big fan of Free-for-All Player vs. Player games, but I was illed only once by another player in Darkfall, and he resurrected me seconds late.; I do not know if he killed me by accident, was just trying to raise his casting skill, or if this was some kind of initiation rite. ("Welcome to Darkfall! Die! Aw, just kidding!") He ran off before I could ask. Another player tried to trick me into attacking him while in one of the rare "safe" zones, by dancing around me threateningly and casting non-damaging spells on me. If I'd attacked him, the guard towers would kill me instantly and he'd be able to freely loot my corpse. This was a common tactic back in the UO days.

Darkfall has a freeform skill system in which skills increase as you use them. You learn new skills by purchasing them (at level 1.0) from assorted vendors or sometimes gaining them as quest rewards), and many have prerequisite skills you must master first. Skills include combat, magic, and crafting, with many options. You can be anything or master any set of skills, though of course there are plenty of user guides out there opining about the optimal mix and/or which aren't worth your time. Learning armor and weapon crafting helped me replace broken basic gear at minimal cost; it's a good thing to have.

Combat in Darkfall is a mix of game mechanics and player skill. You don't just select an enemy and spam actions; you must constantly keep them targeted. Enemies in Darkfall, as opposed to those in most MMORPGs, do not stand there and let you kill them. They run, dodge, call for help, retreat when wounded, and surround you. They will attack from range and will not close in just to make it easier for you to kill them. About the only thing they don't do is loot your body.

When you die in Darkfall, you drop everything you were carrying except a single basic weapon. You must then make your way back to your corpse to retrieve your items, and your corpse is still surrounded by the monsters that killed you when you were fully armed and armored. This is why a lot of my time in Darkfall was spent running from the monster spawn areas to the town, banking everything I had, and running back. "Bank early, bank often." Also, run. Don't make a last stand; even if you die, the further away from the main monster areas you die, the better. And rest. Don't go into any fight at less than full health. This is a very different playstyle than most MMOs, where death is borderline meaningless and there's no real risk of loss. Assume that you may permanently lose every item on your person every time you start to play, and accept that as part of the game. (Players who happen on your corpse can loot it; you may return to find there's nothing left on your body but items not worth taking.)

Darkfall equipment also takes wear-and-tear damage from normal use; if you don't pay attention, you may find your weapon or armor breaking mid-battle. While aspects of Darkfall might appeal to those who just want to kill kill kill, such players will probably not last long, as planning and patience are as important as quick reflexes.

Darkfall Online has no instances or arenas or scenarios. It's entirely open-world PVP. There are no mechanical restrictions on who can attack whom, but players who prey on their allies may find themselves barred from the major towns and cities (player-built cities, of course, set their own rules). To really survive and prosper in Darkfall, you need to join an active clan (guild), who will help you train and gain gear.

Darkfall's interface is modal; you're in 'combat mode' or 'UI mode', activated by right-clicking. This can take some getting used to, as can constantly switching weapons and items during combat. I won't say it ever got intuitive, but it got easier the longer I played.

Graphically, Darkfall ranges from adequate to pretty darn nice, especially given that it's coming from a small studio. . Lighting, plants, and weather effects are very atmospheric, and there are nice touches, such as rivers with currents that can wash you along. There's a price to this beauty, though. I was sputtering at about 8-16 FPS until I turned off shadows; then my FPS shot up to 80-100, which greatly improved my ability to fight and target foes.

The community is mixed. The players I chatted with privately were generally helpful and gave me good advice on getting started, but the general chat channels and forums have a distinctly negative vibe. Again, finding a good guild is paramount if you want to have fun in Darkfall.

Because of the way your character gains skills in Darkfall Online, veteran players have a strong edge on newer ones, despite changes to accelerate learning. Likewise, the game attracts "win at any cost" types who will use every exploit known to achieve victory. Competitive players will need to keep on top of scripts, macros, and optimization tips.

Recommendation? If you like this playstyle, there are not many games that offer it, and Darkfall has been around long enough to work out most of the major bugs and balance issues. Other than EVE Online, Darkfall is probably the best-supported and populated PVP sandbox game out there. An important caveat to note is that Aventurine is working on Darkfall 2, which is likely to replace Darkfall at some point in the future. This can make investing a lot of time in the existing game risky, as Aventurine has been open that the bulk of their corporate resources are focused on the sequel game. Very recently, Aventurine dropped the requirement to purchase the game itself, allowing you to pay just the subscription fee.

The 14-day trial is long enough to allow you to judge Darkfall Online. After that, there's a $15 per month fee (or $40 for a three-month subscription), with no cash shop, microtransactions, or free-to-play options.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

--Ian Harac

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Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6, 4.2 Challenge iPod touch with One-Two Punch

Samsung’s Galaxy Player line of personal media players hasn’t enjoyed much success against Apple’s iPod Touch, but the South Korea-based company is looking to change that with two new devices, the $149 Galaxy Player 3.6, on sale now, and $199 Galaxy Player 4.2, which hits stores on May 13. Both Android-powered Players offer the features and app selection of a Samsung smartphone, without the voice and data bills.

The Galaxy Player 3.6 features a 3.6-inch HVGA TDT display with a 480 x 320 resolution and comes loaded with Google’s Android Gingerbread, as well as Samsung’s TouchWiz skin. Up front is a standard VGA front-facing camera, while the backside is home to a 2-megapixel rear-facing camera. You get 8GB of internal memory, and a microSD card for 32GB worth of expansion.

The larger Galaxy Player 4.2 offers a more premium look and a bit more functionality. For starters, the bigger screen sports a sharper 800 x 480 resolution. The Galaxy Player 4.2, which also features Google’s Androd Gingerbread and Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, also picks up a GyroSensor, something the 3.6 lacks. We like the single physical home button on the Player 4.2, which buyers will find easy to click.

Storage capacity for the 4.2, like the 3.6, is limited to 8GB of internal memory, although that can be increased by up to 32GB via the 4.2's microSD card slot. Both the 4.2's front-facing and rear-facing cameras are a match with the 3.6's, as well.

Both devices offer a wide variety of apps, including Samsung’s AllShare and SmartView apps, as well as Google’s suite of Android apps. The Galaxy Player 4.2, however, gets the added benefit of preloaded games, including Angry Birds, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and FIFA 2012. These are not lame trials but full versions of the titles.

So how do Samsung’s Galaxy Player 3.6 and 4.2 stack up to Apple’s leading device? Check out our full review of the Galaxy Player 3.6 and hands-on shots of the Galaxy Player 4.2 below.

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Hands-On with Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6: Gingerbread PMP with Wi-Fi, DLNA Sharing

A Korean-only Samsung Galaxy Player wasn’t the only gadget we got to preview this week. We also got a sneak peak at the Galaxy Player 3.6, which has launched in Korea and is on its way to Europe and the U.S. (no exact timing details now). The Android Gingerbread-powered PMP sports a (surprise) 3.6-inch display with a 800 x 480 resolution and runs a 1-GHz processor under the hood.

As far as other specs go, the Galaxy Player 3.6 doesn’t stand out much from other members of Samsung’s media-device line-up; there’s a 3-megapixel shooter in back and a VGA cam up front, and storage sizes are 8GB or 16GB. But it looks like you’ll be able to make calls via Bluetooth. (Google Talk is also available “with a software update.”)

Samsung boosts the device’s entertainment cred with Smart View, which turns the player into a remote for your TV. There’s also Kies Air and All Share for sharing locally saved files with devices paired via Wi-Fi or DLNA, respectively. The entry-level 8GB version is priced around $175, though as we said before there’s no clear timeline for the Player 3.6 hitting our shores.

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Only in Korea: Dual-core Samsung Galaxy Player with DMB TV Tuner, Radio

We’re wrapping up a visit to Seoul, Korea, where we got a chance to tour Samsung’s Digital City, home to the company’s Digital Imaging department (stay tuned for more on that note). While getting a closer look at the company’s camera strategy was great, we’re mobile-tech geeks at heart–and that’s why we were thrilled to discover a rare Samsung specimen: the Galaxy Player 70.

While it may look like a larger Galaxy smartphone, the Player 70 is exactly what its name suggests: a portable media player. It runs Android Gingerbread, has an 5-inch, 800 x 480-pixel display, and all the ports you’d expect on a Samsung device (microUSB, microSD card slot, headphone jack). There’s also a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera along with a VGA cam up front. But unlike the Samsung media devices we have stateside, this one packs a dual-core processor and–most incredibly–a DMB TV tuner and an extendable radio antenna for enjoying Korean radio and TV channels.

Though this gadget won’t ever hit the global market, it’s too unique not to share with you. Check out the Player 70 in action below.

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CyberLink PowerDVD 12 Ultra Review: An All-Purpose Media Player

CyberLink’s PowerDVD has long been a powerful media player. The $100 (as of March 8, 2012) PowerDVD 12 Ultra continues the tradition, establishing itself as the Blu-ray/DVD/music/video player to beat. It makes movies look great and audio sound wonderful, and it's entirely tweakable. Even better, the easy-to-use program plays a ton of file types, including 3D video and photos. Version 12 takes PowerDVD further toward being a truly universal media player and organizer--but it has also developed into a large and resource-hungry application.

The core reason for buying PowerDVD is its Blu-ray movie playback. In that regard, version 12 has only one new feature: TrueTheater 3D, which turns 2D movies into 3D (sort of). Previously you could use this feature on DVD movies; now, you can apply it to Blu-ray playback as well.

PowerDVD's other new features all pertain to organization, streaming media, mobile devices, and social media. The revised interface is logical, with a left-side navigating pane that lets you easily switch between functions as well as navigate the music, photo, and video libraries. A large pane to the right displays the actual data. Functionally the interface is much like iTunes, but it's styled in dark gray and black tones--not particularly warm and friendly. Also, navigating the program's media library and moving between areas was somewhat slow in the version I tested (12.0.1312.54).

The software can now function as a DLNA server as well as a client. You can use it to stream the multimedia content on your PC across a network to other devices, as well as play content from other servers. CyberLink has produced new two-way media streaming/syncing apps (version 4) for both the IOS and Android platforms. The apps are free for PowerDVD Ultra users, but cost $5 for users of the less-expensive PowerDVD Professional and Standard. The company also offers a free app to turn your mobile device into a remote control for PowerDVD, a handy feature that worked remarkably well on my iPod Touch.

In addition, PowerDVD 12 integrates browsing and playing YouTube videos, freeing you from having to open a browser to do so. Facebook and Flickr are baked in, too, but although I was able to upload photos, PowerDVD didn't seem to recognize any of the nearly 100 pictures I already have on Facebook. 7digital music store access is now available, so you can shop for and download tunes; you can participate in CyberLink's MoovieLive cinema database and community site as well.

I did find one minor bug in the music player: It listed an Apple lossless file by the wrong name, and then would not play it (apparently lossless .M4A files are not supported). On the other hand, applying the TrueTheater audio effects breathes new life into old tunes. If the software only had something along the lines of Windows Media Player's SRS TruBass to give them more kick, I might switch to PowerDVD as my main music application.

Other useful new features include support for lossless pass-through of Dolby TrueHD (7.1), DTS-HD Master Audio (7.1), Ogg, and Flac formats.

The downside of all the new technology CyberLink has added to PowerDVD is that it requires a lot of resources. After installation, I counted nine separate PowerDVD-related programs running (most in the background), consuming close to 500MB of memory. Unfortunately, the software doesn't seem to provide a way to turn off features that you might not need, such as DLNA serving, to free up system resources. Actual playback performance was top-notch.

A true all-in-one media application is something that many users would appreciate and possibly spend $100 for. In its twelfth incarnation, PowerDVD comes close, and if another iteration were to add TV support--and scale back its hunger for memory and CPU cycles--that package might just fill the bill. For now, buy PowerDVD for Blu-ray playback, which it does very well.

You might opt for the $80 Professional version that handles Blu-ray but omits some of the streaming features and support for the 7.1 audio codecs. The $50 Standard version is a good player, but lacks Blu-ray support, which makes it hardly more useful than the free Windows Media Player or VLC.

--Jon L. Jacobi

With over a 100 million copies sold annually, PowerDVD is the number one choice for media entertainment on PCs and the only player software you need for all your media content and entertainment devices.

PowerDVD 12 plays all types of media content - movies, videos, photos and music, and brings the best in video and audio technologies to upgrade all your viewing experience to HD and 3D, including streamed content via home network, or, Youtube, Facebook and Flickr pages. PowerDVD 12 is the ultimate entertainment software you need anywhere at home and on-the-road.

Notes about the trial/demo:

30 day working trial.
VC-1/H.264 file playback in the trial version is limited to PCs with hardware acceleration.
Blu-ray playback in the trial version is limited to PCs with hardware acceleration.
Does not support the playback of CPRM protected content.
Does not support the playback of DTCP-IP protected content.
Does not support USB Sync and Home Media Server

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Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 4.2 on Video: Multimedia Player with EA Games, Front Speaker

Aside from Apple, Samsung seems to be the only company with the entertainment and design chops to keep the devoted media player alive. Exhibit A at Mobile Congress is the  Galaxy S WiFi 4.2, an Ice Cream Sandwich-based device with–you’ve guessed it–Wi-Fi access rather than the full phone and data experience.

This device is all about a quality multimedia experience, from playing EA Games titles on the 4.2-inch WVGA (800 x 400) display to listening to music through the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2's front-mounted speaker and enjoying other apps via the Android Market. Memory-wise, you get either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage.

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