Soundcast ICT-111 iCast Wireless Audio Transmitter for iPod Review

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(More customer reviews)When I first heard of the system, a reviewer summed it up by saying "it just works". I couldn't agree more. I purchased the transmitter Soundcast ICT-111 iCast Transmitter and receiver Soundcast ICR-112 iCast Receiver. From opening the box to listing to wireless music in less than 3 minutes. Drop dead simple.
In the past I have tired multiple FM transmitters for my Nano. All have static, drops and distance issues. I feared the same here. I was happily surprised. Not a single problem.
I live in a high rise building in a downtown location. When I switch on my laptop wireless I see lots and lots of connection points. So I was worried about interference with my Soundcast. My receiver is setup in a different room and there is a metal stud wall in-between. After a full month of use, I am happy to report not one crackle, bleep or dropped connection. It just works.
The receiver has a nice feature of being able to stop/play, go forward or backward in a playlist. This also works flawlessly.
This is a well engineered device and it just works.


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There are plenty of iPod docks on the market, but how many work withoutwires? Enter the iCast iPod dock, which incorporates 2.4 GHz Frequency HoppingSpread Spectrum (FHSS) technology to send your iPod's audio signal to your homestereo from a distance. The iCast transmitter comes with several approved,interchangeable iPod inserts, making it possible to accommodate any "dockable" iPod.Setup is simple: Just plug the transmitter and ICR-112 receiver (sold separately) intonearby wall outlets, run a cable between the receiver and your stereo's auxiliary or tapeinput, and place your iPod in the iCast dock. Within seconds, you'll have completeaccess to all your iPod playlists, with no long wires to unroll or programming to master.Plus, you can easily operate all the tracking and menu controls even while the iPod istransmitting a signal. And as with all good docking stations, the iCast charges your iPodwhile you listen.
The real star of the iCast system, however, is the wireless FHSS technology. For years,wireless solutions have been plagued with outside interference from other productsusing the crowded 2.4 GHz band. The Soundcast engineering team, by contrast, refinedthe iCast's wireless technology to the point where neither the microwave nor thecordless phone will affect the quality of the listening experience. No buzzes, nodropouts, and no distortion--just pure, clean sound.
And users aren't restricted to playing their iPod through a single stereo system, as theiCast transmitter can operate up to two receivers at once. Want to play your favoritetunes in the living room and the bedroom at the same time? No problem. Other detailsinclude a full wireless line-of-sight range of 350 feet (150 feet through walls and doors),support for all music formats, and a sleek white housing. The iCast transmitter measures6.8 by 2 by 3.5 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty.
What's in the Box iCast transmitter, six iPod inserts, AC/DC adapter, 3.5 mm mini-to-mini cable, 3.5 mini-to- RCA cable, user's manual.

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HTC Desire A8181 Android Smartphone with 5 MP Camera, Wi-Fi, Touchscreen and Bluetooth--International Version with No Warranty Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had my unlocked HTC Desire for a little over two weeks. At first, I was thrilled with it because it has such a nice display and Android 2.1 runs so smoothly. In the last couple of days, though, it has developed an annoying issue and I think all potential buyers should be warned. Occasionally when placing a call, the screen will go blank and there is no way to end the call or get the display back. HTC delivered at least my Desire with this flaw - and there are some hits on Google about this. All you have to do is Google "HTC Desire screen goes blank" to see what I mean. Apparently, the proximity sensor used by HTC does not work correctly all of the time. What it should do is turn off the screen and disable the buttons when you place the phone to your ear. The faulty sensor does not turn the screen back on and enable the buttons when you pull the phone away from your ear. I am hoping the Android 2.2 update will fix this problem, otherwise I am going to return my phone before the 30-day return period expires.
** Edited to add **
Two things have eliminated this problem today - and I do not know which helped the most. First, Android 2.2 was offered on the Desire today and I updated it. Second, one internet post indicated that a clear scratch protector may be causing the problem. I removed the scratch protector from the screen and the problem has gone away. I am not comfortable using it with no scratch protector - but I am much happier with the phone.

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COWON J3 32 GB Portable Media Player (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)My Creative Zen:M was getting old, and I had already replaced the battery once so doing it twice was too much for me so I decided to upgrade. That's where the Cowon J3 came in, after doing my research I decided to take a chance on a brand I'd never heard of before.PROS:
- Touchscreen is fast and accurate to the touch
- Beautiful AMOLED screen even when the brightness is toned down
- Plays AAC,MP3,FLAC,WAV,etc etc etc
- Video looks great and is smooth
- Plenty of options for video
- Plenty of options for music
- Recording, speaker, and mic are surprisingly decent
- Jet Effects 3.0 has tons of EQ presets and 4 customizable user options
- Alarm and Radio work great, you get tons of stations
- 3 ways to view everything on your screen, you can switch between them instantly
- Lock option on the side makes it easy to not accidentally turn on the player while it's in your pocket
- Play and volume buttons on other side of also make it practical when you don't want to turn on the player to change tracks
- Sound is amazing, especially with the BBE+ options as mentioned before
- Battery life is great so far, I get tons of hours before a quarter of the battery is even used
- Switches from horizontal to vertical back and forth with ease
- MicroSD slot
- Screen is very durable, it's gorilla glass just like the Cowon S9.
- Did i mentions there's tons of options for the user on this? well there's a ton, it does not disappoint in this reagardCONS:
- Album art does not show up when you change to horizontal view*
- screen is very prone to finger prints as well as back of player, essentially the whole thing
- when you're listening to the radio and want to change the dial up(numbers ascending) you have to press the back button instead of the forward**can be corrected with a nice firmware update.
One thing I do recommend is that you don't purchase this directly from jetmall. Well, that's unless you like multiple charges on your credit/debit card. Amazon is the best way to go, as usually is the case. Overall this product deserves the praise it's been recently getting, just for the sound alone. It's so easy to use the design is simply great. If you want the white version of this though, you're not going to find it on Amazon yet, but it looks just as great from what I can tell and I expect Amazon to make it available soon. About the only thing I could find wrong was how easy it is to smudge the screen, but that's expected with any touchscreen, I'd recommend an anti-glare screen for this problem. Any other problems can be corrected with a firmware update. I have the 2.21 version right now, but I'm sure more are in the works as is per usual with these things. I recommend this product to any music fan, good luck on your search though, it never hurts to keep looking although I'm personally sticking with this one.
EDIT:
JUST DOWNLOADED FIRMWARE UPDATE 2.2 AND THE ALBUM COVERS ARE NOW VIEWABLE THROUGH LANDSCAPE MODE(HORIZONTAL).

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This sleek media player from Cowon boasts a brilliant 3.3-inch touchscreen, playback of a serious list of a serious list of video and audio formats, FM radio and voice recording (or even line-in recording), and 32GB of space for all your favorite media. Not enough? Pop in an SD card for a little extra.

Just Plain Slick Too many media players forget about what's on the outside. The J3 is just 9.9mm thick and features a brushed metallic bezel that's ultra-stylish, and downright attractive.

3.3-Inch AMOLED Display The J3 boasts a 16 million color, 3.3-inch AMOLED display with a 480 x 272 pixel resolution. Thanks to the low-power display technology, the screen is viewable from virtually any angle. It looks great in the dark and even in direct sunlight. AMOLED turns electric signals into video 1,000 times faster than the speed of conventional LCDs, leaving no ghost images while playing video.

Intuitive Touchscreen Interface The COWON J3 boasts super-intuitive touch controls, with gesture recognition features like zoom-able album art, pictures, and text; TrueType fonts for clear visibility at any zoom level; and more. Get where you need fast directly from the durable anti-scratch touchscreen.

Video Playback The J3 plays AVI, WMV, and ASF video files, with codec support for DivX 3/4/5, Xvid SP/ASP, and WMV 7/8/9. That means less conversion on your end. Enjoy all your favorite clips and shows, and just tilt the unit to switch to 16:9 widescreen viewing.

Grab the optional video out composite cable, and you can send your signal to a television for some full-size viewing.

Enjoy Your Music The J3 is a full-featured music player, and it's definitely one for the afficionados. With support for MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV, and APE formats, you can play back most any file. Get detailed track info on the J3's screen with meta tag support, and view LDB 1.0 and 2.0 lyrics files while you listen.

JetEffect Music Enhancement Dial in the perfect sound no matter what you're listening to with Cowon's various sound enhancement tools:

BBE: Refines sound quality
Mach3Bass: Provides deeper, tighter low-end
MP Enhance: Sonic restoration for compressed music formats
3D Surround: Provides 3D sound effect
5-Band EQ: Customizeable equalizer with adjustable band and bandwidth filter

FM Radio and Recorder Enjoy your favorite FM Radio programming using the J3's unique "jog shuttle" touchscreen control for selecting stations. Store your favorites in up to 39 user presets, and record live radio for later listening.

Photo and Document Viewer View or share slideshows of your favorite JPG images, and read your TXT text documents wherever you are.

Bluetooth Freedom The J3 features built-in Bluetooth 2.0 support (A2DP, AVRCP Profile) for use with various wireless devices. Get rid of those cables and enjoy the benefits.

Digital Clock With Alarm Set an alarm to play your music or FM radio, and use the sleep timer to drift off to your favorite songs. You can also use the clock to schedule FM recording for a particular time.

Voice Recording Record voice memos, lectures, meetings or whatever else you need for later using the built-in microphone. The J3 also supports line-in recording, for grabbing audio from external devices like CD players.

Energy Efficient Entertainment The J3 will give you a whopping 64 hours of music playback, and up to 11 hours of video playback, a single charge of its lithium-polymer battery.

Flash Player The pre-installed Adobe Flash Player lets you enjoy Flash games and other utilities, along with the Flash content present on many web sites.

What's in the Box
Cowon J3 32 GB (Black), Earphones, USB 2.0 Cable, Quick Start Guide, Manual CD

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JVC KD-AVX77 El Kameleon DVD/CD/USB Receiver with 5.4-Inch Monitor, Proximity Sensor, Touchscreen Controls, Built-in Bluetooth, iPod/iPhone USB 2.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)Like everyone else, I too love the receiver for all the reasons people described. I DID NOT read the lack of support with the IPHONE 3GS before I bought and installed it. I didn't even really realize the lack of support when I used them together until I read the reviews here. I installed mine yesterday with a powered sub and factory speakers for now. The installation was a breeze and everything works well, except for one thing. Here is a description of the features I setup and the success of their function.
- Bluetooth setup: I have an iPhone 3Gs and it paired just fine the first time. I was not able to get the "phone book", as JVC calls it, loaded to the receiver. It didn't recognize the iPhone as a device with a phone book. Not that big of a deal to me as I will always use my contacts in the phone for that. It DOES however, activate the voice feature in the iPhone which I didn't expect, and works perfectly on voice dialing for hands free use. (so why would you need the phone book downloaded to the receiver if the reason you wanted it there was so you could make hands-free voice calling) It also connects via Bluetooth audio to my iPhone for wireless iPod listening and sounds perfect, as if it were plugged in. To summarize, everything actually works the way it was designed except the phone book can not be downloaded in to this receiver.
- Wired features with the iPhone 3Gs: Everything works as it was described in the list of features from the JVC spec sheet. When plugged in to the USB port of the receiver using the standard interface cable that came with your iPhone, it will charge the iPhone, control the iPod via the "head unit" mode so you can listen to music through the receiver (kind of an attached hard drive idea) as well as use the phone to place calls. All of this also works the same when you have the receiver in "iPod" mode.(you can hold the iPhone and use it as you would normally but have the sound come through the receiver)
I do not use any of the options connected to the receiver, i.e. HD radio, Sirius Radio, so I can not comment on those but I will tell you that this is a pretty kick ass receiver and you will enjoy all the rich features it has to offer. Including what I am calling, support for the iPhone 3Gs.
Believe it or not I don't work for Apple or JVC. Just a guy that wants it right.

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Both innovative and stylish, exclusive El Kameleon technology provides the ultimate anti-theft security advantage. The KD-AVX77's faceplate converts to a stealthy black appearance when the power is turned off--appearing unnoticeable to potential car stereo thieves. Once powered on, El Kameleon comes to life as a full function Multimedia player--complete with a unique electro-static touch panel operation interface and 3-D graphical menu system.

El Kameleon Control Panel The single-din receiver's 5.4" ultra wide monitor is constructed with a high-resolution 192,000 pixel TFT panel capable of over thousands of display colors. This TFT panel can display aspect ratios up to 3:32:1 for a super-wide Cinemascope viewing experience. The ultra wide monitor can also display multimedia video and AV input content at the same time in split screen mode. The KD-AVX77 also boasts a wide viewing angle free of screen glares, making the monitor clearly visible from every angle. Another new feature is full touch screen capability, which allows the entire TFT panel to dual-task as the receiver"s control panel. This receiver also features a built-in electrostatic proximity sensor, which illuminates the screen when the user approaches it with their hand. Otherwise, it's pitch black--El Kameleon.
Customizable Interface The KD-AVX77 lets you make it your own by selecting touch-key layouts and designs, colors, and wallpaper. You can also upload a favorite JPEG picture to use as the wallpaper.
Built-in Bluetooth Wireless Technology The KD-AVX77 features built-in Bluetooth for hands-free calling while driving. Phone calls can be made easily and received directly through the receiver, while voice recognition technology enables immediate dialing from the driver's cell phone without the distraction of handling the phone while driving. Phonebook entries can be stored and accessed on the receiver and text message notification can also be displayed on-screen.
JVC also includes PBAP, or "Phonebook Access Profile" capability. This feature allows direct view and selection of phonebook entries without requiring any additional action or information transfer. PBAP also allows access to all phonebook entries, regardless of how many number entries are stored in the cell phone's memory.
Bluetooth connectivity also allows music enthusiasts to listen to their favorite songs and artists wirelessly from iPod/iPhone, cell phone, or other Bluetooth enabled devices through the receiver.
CD and DVD Playback Enjoy your favorite CDs or watch some video on DVD, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW or VCDs. Use the gold-plated video output terminals to send video to a passenger screen.
AM/FM Radio The KD-AVX77 features an AM/FM radio with standards like automatic presetting. You can also add SAT or HD radio with additional accessories.
GIGA MP3 MULTI--Play MP3, WMA, and WAV Files Burned on DVD The KD-AVX77 features GIGA MP3 MULTI, which plays MP3, WMA, or WAV files burned on DVD. With MP3 and WMA files, the 4.7GB capacity of a DVD can store up to 2,500 songs on a single disc--equal to 250 pre-recorded CDs. If you want even more superior sound quality, WAV files can be burned onto a DVD. WAV is an uncompressed PC music file format that delivers CD-quality sound. A single DVD disc can store 100 WAV files--equal to 10 pre-recorded CDs. Now you can enjoy non-stop entertainment with CD-quality sound, without an additional CD changer.
USB Port Stream WAV/MP3/WMA/AAC files from USB thumb drives and other devices via the included USB port.
iPod Connectivity You can also operate your iPod via the USB port. Control your iPod/iPhone from either the player itself or from the receiver's controls, while allowing song and artist information display, play, pause, skip, or back commands from either device.
MPEG 1/MPEG 2 Playback Play MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 video files burned on DVD or CD, TV programs recorded from a PC, or personal footage from digital camcorders, without the hassles of authoring or decoding.
JPEG Pictures JPEG digital still photos can be displayed on their own or as slideshows.
Expandability With its 50W x 4 MOSFET amplifier, the KD-AVX11 packs a lot of punch. But if you need more, two sets of preamp outputs (front, rear, and sub) are included.
A/V Input Connect external devices like video game systems with the A/V input.
What's in the Box JVC KD-AVX77 DVD/CD Receiver, external wired microphone, trim ring, sleeve, remote control, wiring harness, installation hardware, installation manual, instructions

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JVC KD-AVX44 El Kameleon Vehicle Multimedia Receiver w/ 3.5" Monitor Review

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(More customer reviews)I was searching around trying to find something that I could use as my central "media" center without having to install a mac mini in my Pt Cruiser.
My needs were/are: Ipod integration (including video playback), Dvd Playback, CDs, Bluetooth and of course am/fm. After a long hard search of single-din units I choose this model.
[...]
What I liked about this unit is you have a video out. You can hook up your headrest monitors and if you have a game system (Xbox, PS, Wii...what have you) you can hook it up to the video in that it has to offer as well (with full playback to your headrests). This just allows you to have direct connection to your cars speakers.
Dvd Playback. It is very good. Turn the car off, it'll start right back up where it left off.
Bluetooth. My boyfriend has a Pioneer DEH-P9800BT which I installed as well (A great unit if you don't require Dvd play back). Unlike the pioneer unit there is no mic to install anywhere and the quality still sounds pretty good on both ends. Doesn't matter what source you are using Bluetooth will alert you when someone is calling by pausing your music/video and showing the caller Id. You can accept or decline.
AM/FM. I was a bit disappointed that the unit didn't have RDS. I have been using a factory unit that had it and kind of miss that feature. Seemed like a feature they could have added.
Ipod. Heres where I am on the fence. I had been using a fm transmitter for my ipod and finally wanted direct connect because I could not take the quality anymore. I purchased an Apple Composite AV Cable (THIS WORKS JUST AS GOOD AS A JVC KSU20 CABLE) Of course, The quality was 300% better than before. However, The Interface is a bit slow. I really hope that JVC comes out with a firmware upgrade that speeds it up a bit. When I go to play "The Killers" it takes me approx. 1 minute to get to the letter "K". But for the most part I keep it on shuffle. The unit charges the Ipod as well.
Ipod Video. This is a cool feature. With either the JVC KSU20 or the Ipod Composite AV cable. You can watch any video off your ipod and direct the signal to the headrest monitors as well.
Pros: Great Bluetooth, DVD, Ipod Video integration with a sleek (no button look). Love the 4 setting tilt screen (great for stereo units closer to the ground)And Love the Proximity motion light as well.
Cons: For a single din unit JVC did a decent job, Ipod interface is really my only complaint. I had looked at the JVC KD NX5000. But didn't like the look of the unit or felt the need for crappy navagation. The menu interface feels like it should be more user friendly (getting to the ipod artists list has to be done by hitting about 5 buttons)
I have not used satellite or the back-up camera (which I plan to install soon).
[...]
Good luck and have fun with this great little unit.*UPDATE*
A few new things.
Satellite Radio - Bought the Sirius Adapter through ebay. Though it's not as fast as a stand-alone unit, It sounds great and it's nice to have it integrated into the radio.
Iphone Compatibility - I was a little disappointed to see that, unfortunately, the Iphone does not seem to be compatible with the unit. Maybe with either an update from Apple or JVC this will change in the future. For now, I use my usable Ipod touch just as a music jukebox in the car and Iphone for everything else (gym, work, etc...). It's actually not a bad setup.
HD Radio - Buying the HD Adapter fixed my RDS problem. Any stations that send out artist info is now displayed. Without excellent reception, those extra HD stations are hit or miss. It's a nice feature to have. Quality can be exceptional at times.
I will keep those interested up-to-date if I come across any new info on the unit.
Have Fun,
Mary

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