Gigabeat

Pioneer technology restores lost signal from compressed files

The non-tech media's been full of articles deploring the inferior sound of the MP3 era. Apparently Pioneer agrees. At CES, the company is demonstrating technology it calls Advanced Sound Retrieval, or ASR, which promises to restore some of the signal lost when audio is compressed into a "lossy" format like MP3 or compressed WMA or AAC.

Technically, it's much tricker to restore signal than it is to cut it--that's one of the first rules of audio recording, which is why you want to get the broadest dynamic and frequency range possible, then pare it down, … Read more

Photos: Toshiba Gigabeat T

Toshiba has officially announced the Gigabeat T400, a $120, 4GB MP3 player that has the potential to give the iPod Nano and Creative Zen a run for their money. We'll have our full review up on CNET in the next few days, but our initial impression is that the audio and video quality are both excellent. We are pretty bummed, however, that it has a maximum capacity of just 4GB, with no room for expansion. Also, where's the Wi-Fi found in the Japanese version? Still, with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, and support for WMV video, as well … Read more

Wi-Fi Toshiba PVP loosed on Japan

We still love our dear Toshiba Gigabeat S portable video player, but its definitely beginning to look its age. Lucky for us, Toshiba has announced the release of a seeming successor to the S-series called the Gigabeat T401, which is due out in Japan the first week of September. No word on when (or if) this latest video-worthy Gigabeat will hit the States, but we're optimistic after Toshiba's latest stateside release of the tiny Gigabeat U.

The Gigabeat T401 keeps the styling of the Gigabeat S but ditches the bulk of hard-drive storage in favor of leaner and … Read more

Photos: Toshiba Gigabeat U

The nano-sized heir to the highly-esteemed Toshiba Gigabeat S MP3 player has arrived and we've just posted the full review up on CNET.

As you might suspect from our previous musings on the Gigabeat U, the player is by no means revolutionary. Still, its certainly a classy, rugged, and affordable alternative to an iPod Nano or Creative Zen V Plus. Quench your thirst for gadget pictures by taking a gander at Crave's Gigabeat U slideshow.

Toshiba Gigabeat U watered-down for U.S. market

Toshiba announced today they its latest version of the Gigabeat U, the U202, is now available in the United States through direct order. Crave reported on an earlier, Japan-only version of the Gigabeat U (the U201) back in March, when we marveled at its high-quality 1-bit DAC and built-in FM transmitter. This latest version of the Gigabeat U has an updated look, but it seems to have dropped the Gigabeat U201's nifty built-in ability to broadcast playback over FM. We're kinda bummed.

Sure, Toshiba was able to shave about $50 from the Gigabeat U's price, but the … Read more

Toshiba's latest Gigabeat V series PVP

Toshiba announced that they will be releasing an updated version of the Gigabeat V portable video player on June 1st in Japan. The new Gigabeat V series will be available in 40GB and 80GB capacities priced around $409 and $491 respectively. Beyond increased capacity, the new series improves on the features of last year's Gigabeat V30 by offering a 4-inch, 24-bit color display with a resolution of 480 x 272. Like its brother the Gigabeat S, the V series also uses the Microsoft PMC interface and supports Windows Media DRM 10 and WMA 9 lossless. The new Gigabeat V … Read more

Toshiba Gigabeat U--FM innovation in the face of the inevitable wave of Wi-Fi

In a few years it'll all be Wi-Fi and satellite, but until then, sharing your music by broadcasting it over short-range FM gets us about halfway toward wirelessly sharing our music with our friends. Toshiba's newly announced Gigabeat U series MP3 player lives in this middle ground. It's capable of receiving, transmitting, and recording an FM broadcast, giving you the potential to broadcast music from your Gigabeat to anyone with a device capable of receiving FM. If the receiving device happens to be capable of making recordings from FM (like the Gigabeat U), then you've effectively … Read more