A nationwide live music launch tour (to promote GetMo) was held in August, and saw leading South African artists perform 34 free shows at schools, universities and venues in seven cities across the country.

According to company director, Jehan Mackay, “GetMo offers South Africa a wide range of entertainment including music, movies, mobile content and more. The service is available to both mobile and PC users, making it South Africa’s first multi-platform all-in-one digital entertainment service.”

There is no doubt that the digital entertainment landscape is changing fast, as are users of mobile and PC products. What GetMo aims to accomplish, according to Mackay, is to give South African’s fast and reliable access to value-for-money digital entertainment anywhere at anytime.

In addition to music and movies, GetMo offers consumers online access to ringtones, graphics, video clips, music videos, games and more, all from the same online service, says Klaus Renkl, GetMo Country Manager for South Africa.

Yet how good is this service in comparison to existing ones? Although there may not be many others that are uniquely South African and offer as much, who gets to decide who SA’s top artists are? I’m a big appreciator of local content, yet truthfully GetMo just didn’t seem to offer much that excited me.

*The following is from a Q+A with the peeps behind GetMo

CONTENT & QUALITY:
The content available on getmo.com is aggregated from the major music labels, as well other major or independent entertainment content owners and game developers.

GetMo claims to be able to support all content types and encourages independent filmmakers, designers, creators and the like to make their content available.

The developers aim to set the highest quality standards, especially when it comes to mobile content. According to Mackay, “we demand the highest technical complexity to ensure that each content item works on each mobile handset”.

PRICING:
Whereas most other digital entertainment services offer a pay-as-you-use model, GetMo includes a unique all-you-can-eat service, which allows customers limitless amounts of entertainment on any device they choose for a constant monthly fee.

Consumers can either look out for various GetMo Club Card options (available free of charge and bundled with other products), purchase items directly via credit card on an item-by-item basis, or purchase GetMo Club Cards which allows unlimited access to content for one or more months.

UNIQUENESS:
What is rather appealing about the GetMo product site is that it offers pre-listening sessions, previews, movie trailers, descriptions and other metadata around the items available. This really helps make informed choices and helps ensure that consumers get exactly what they want.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of GetMo is its use of peer-to-peer distribution technologies, which allows users to share files between each other legally. According to Mackay:

“Our legal P2P (peer-to-peer) technology also allows us to use the individual hard drives of PC owners to help distribute large files more effectively (known as the bittorrent principle). This advanced technology has often been misused for illegal file sharing. However, we have designed and approved a platform that enables a legal service without losing any of the benefits.”

If you have ever heard of a nifty file-sharing program called Bearshare, GetMo uses pretty much the same principle. One is able to choose what files on their PC to share across the internet and is able to download zillions of files from others. It used to be entirely illegal and several existing loopholes allow it to remain so. How GetMo manages (or will mange) to keep it all kosher is something I’m waiting to see.

GRIPES:
I’ve been in possession of a Zen Vision mp4 player for about two weeks now. It comes with an introduction CD which includes a Britney Spears music video and some idea on what the games (which are considered as “mobile”) are like, but has no software. One needs to visit their site to download the required software (i.e. the GetMo media suite), which is a 47 meg download required if one wants to share media files with others across an internet network.

To be honest I haven’t felt the urge to use my GetMo media suite or download anything off the website. I am quite keen to get a few movies though. Unfortunately all the videos available so far are cheap Bollywood productions, which is possibly due to the fact that GetMo South Africa is owned by Arvato Middle East Sales (AMES). I’m not much of a fan of Bollywood.

Otherwise if music videos, ‘mobile’ games, wallpapers and ringtones are what you want, there is quite a good collection of those. I’ve been quite content with using my Zen vision as an mp3 player, flash stick and alarm clock (no software required! It’s all a matter of copy and paste).

I’ve also tried converting my favorite shows and movies into mp4 files to see how those tickle my fancy on the tiny screen without too much success. One can download trial versions of several mp4 converters, but these either only convert the first few minutes of a video file or bomb out after a couple of weeks. The full versions of such converters go for between $25 - $30.

Does anyone know of a free, full-version mp4 converter available for download?? Otherwise I guess it’s back to illegal file-sharing!

For more information visit www.getmo.com

PS: if your in the market for an mp4 player, and have some cash to spend, go for the ipod nano - you won't regret it!

Go ahead and visit MP4 MP5 Player Firmware Downloads to access the latest firmware for your multimedia PMP player.

Mp3 Player Comparison - Making the comparisons to the originals

Have you noticed lately that every mp3 online retailer you find has the same basic information on the product page?  It’s rare to find a nice detailed summary of the player or a review to give you some basic understanding of which mp3 player may be best suited for you.  I wanted to make the comparisons between the mp3 players, mp4 players and those ones that look just like the original, if you know what I mean!

If you’re reading this you’re either a little confused with all the mp3 players online or a little skeptical on some.  Let’s start off with those regular mp3 players you’ve seen that your local stores don’t carry.  The no name branded ones.  Are they legit?  You bet they are!  Especially if they’re coming from a reputable seller online.

What these players usually come with are you’re basic mp3 player functions with the addition of some extras.  Some cool features that these mp3 players come with now are the voice recorders, supported lyrics, sound equalizers to adjust the bass, or quality of sound.  So to make the comparison to other mp3 players, the ones you can only find online have greater abilities.  I mean these things also are used as USB data storage components now.  So, if you’re looking for a USB drive, why not just get one that plays your music also.

I wanted to touch bases with you on the mp4 players you might have found while searching online.  They’re not much different in comparison to the mp3 players.  You get everything mentioned above but also the mp4 functions.  Some of these players look crazy in their designs and also offer a huge amount of functions with ease of use!  Compared to your conventional mp4 player, these no branded ones offer much more, such as:

• The absolute biggest difference is the PRICE.  You get a much larger memory space for a much cheaper price.  My personal favorite!
• E-book reader:  Allows you transfer you’re e-book so you can read while taking your breaks at work.
• They also support lyrics:  The display will show the lyrics for you so you can sing along  
• Some come with the new OLED technology which is a new advancement in the screens.  This gives you a much better viewing experience. 
• Photo albums/slides
• More times then not you’ll find that you get radio function as well.

If you have come across the mp4 watch players they also support the same functions as listed above.  The screens of these watches come in 1.5” and 1.8”

So here’s the burning question everyone might want to know.  What about the ones that look like the originals?  Well to be upfront about it they look and feel exactly the same except you get a huge price break.  They do come with more features with solid durability, but with that being said it’s just a matter of personal preference and/or opinion.

I could get deeper into the specifics but that’s another story for another time.  I just wanted to make things a little more visible for those not knowing much about these mp3 players that you find everywhere online.

However, I will say, personally I am little biased in comparing these “other” mp3 mp4 players to the ones found at your electronic stores.  The way I see it is that I’m getting a lot more out of my money spent for something that has more capabilities and offers a lot more.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the name brand ones too, but since I know more about these other mp3 players, having sold them and experienced them I tend to go with the alternatives.  There’s nothing wrong with that J  http://www.music2urearz.com

There are some very nice features:

Physically, it's almost more of an attention grabber than the iPhone, at about 2/3 the thickness and wearing the signature iPod chrome jacket. Yes, the back is more prone to scratching, but it's oh so shiny. Removing the recessed headphone jack was also a smart move, as you no longer need compatible headphones, or a silly adapter to make it work.

Much of the iPhone experience remains intact: the wonderful multitouch navigation, the supreme Safari browser, the ease with which you can sync to iTunes, then grab and go without that annoying Eject delay. New minor features like adding a period by double tapping the space bar and bringing up the music HUD by double tapping the Home button are both welcome additions that make using the iPod touch even easier.

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store is thrilling to use, and works as billed. Not only is it easy as hell to find a song, click its animated icon for a preview and download it, in seconds, to your iPod; it's also impressive how it syncs back to your computer's iTunes library without any weirdness. (Hey, as people who have lived through all of the Microsoft-PlaysForSure-compliant software, we are always impressed when DRM music apps work as billed.)

What we haven't yet reported is that the battery life is ridiculously good, well over the 5 hours of video advertised by Apple, we have achieved over 6 hours and 45 minutes. We had the Wi-Fi turned off, but you dont always need it turned on do you!

There are, however, some issues with the thing. We have brought some up, but here they are, out in the open, for us to discuss:

Our biggest complaint is that the touch's screen is not as good as the iPhone's screen. As Adrian has already mentioned, when you look directly at the screen while playing video, the deep blacks look strange and opalescent, almost like a film negative. We have tried this on three iPods and they all returned the same result. The only way to solve this problem, in my experience, is to tilt the touch away from you slightly, so that the top left corner is angled down. Not a fun way to watch video. The iPhone does not have this problem in any noticeable way.

One of the quieter breakthroughs of the iPhone was the physical volume buttons on its side. We were hoping this was a sign that Apple had recognized the need for quick, no-look volume adjustments. With an iPhone, you can turn volume up or down without pulling it out of your pocket. We view the lack of physical volume buttons on the iPod touch as a step backwards.

We found that there can be some lag when doing video-intensive activities. We were trying to find a single frame of a movie to show off, and we skipped forward and back so much that the thing eventually just froze up for a spell. After say 10 seconds, it was back in action, but everyone hates a freeze. The software can also experience crashes in the same way iPhone apps do: the app you're in closes out quickly, and you have to relaunch. Fairly painless, but potentially annoying.

Old iPod video accessories don't work with the iPod touch. As we reported with the nano, the iPod touch doesn't support video through its headphone jack. All future video out will be through the 30-pin connection, but old third-party video products using the pin connector don't work either. While future products are on the way, anyone with old hardware is going to have to upgrade. On the bright side, component video out is now supported.

No disk mode. We're not quite sure why this disappeared on the iPhone to begin with (cellphone data sensitivity, perhaps?), but its the same on the iPod touch and we don't like it one bit.

Here are some less extreme gripes we'll just get off our chest: No video downloads in iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, no wireless syncing to iTunes, no external speakers, dumbing down the calendar, and no Mail or Notes apps. This falls into the same category as our bitching about the lack of stereo Bluetooth A2DP on the iPhone: would be nice, might happen with a software update. Seriously, Steve, we're just planting the seed.

So far, we've had no luck with AppTapp, but we don't think that it will be long before we can load third-party apps onto the touch, too.

The bottom line, if there is one, is that this will certainly be a great product for people who are unable or unwilling to sign up for Virgin. But spending 250 pounds on the 16GB touch is not better than spending 250 poundson an 8GB iPhone. There are real reasons why the iPhone is a better iPod than the touch, especially now that both will have equal access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.

There is then the question of the old software version, or the new updated one. I have to be honest, for the extra 20-30 pounds, go with the software updated version. It is available on Amazon or we found it from AudioMania for about 15 pounds more, got to be worth it.

This player is quite simply fantastic. It is packed full of features and is a staggering 7mm thick (or thin!). It boasts an inbuilt FM Transmitter, FM recording and a huge 2″ screen. It is very easy to use, carefully manufactured buttons allow quick access to all the main functions and easy navigation of the menu system. It has a huge range of support, for music, video, ebooks, games, pretty much anything you could want!

If you want a stylish but fully functional player, don’t waste your money on an ipod, this is what you need.

Having purchased this from Audio Mania (www.audio-mania.co.uk) we felt it necessary to pass on details of this fantastic price from a great company. If you havnt heard of Audio Mania before they proud themselves on premium service to tens of thousands of satisfied customers.

This unique product also offers video playback, FM Radio, 2" Screen, ID3 Tag Support, Lyric Display and not to mention Loud Speaker.

The maximum memory of this player is 8Gb, enough for over 2000 tracks, enough to keep you amused for ages. It also has support for formats like AVI/AMV, MP3 and WMA.

The songs can be uploaded using drag and drop, simple and quick. It supports all the major Operating Systems like Win 98/SE/ME/2K/XP/Vista, Mac OS.