Thanks to Bluetree Electronics, we are giving away four Kube2 MP3 players in our Chinese New Year lucky draw. The Kube2 is touted as the world’s smallest touch MP3 player and sports a unique one-inch cube aluminum body. The S$45.90 doodad also comes with a 4GB microSD card.

To enter the contest:

1. Follow us on Twitter.
2. Post a tweet on any Techgoondu article that you like.
3. The URL of that article (use a link shortener service) must be included in your tweet, along with this hashtag: #TGCNY12.

This contest runs from January 30 to February 7, and we’ll pick the winners at random from all Twitter posts entered for this contest.

Rules and details:

1. Only residents staying in Singapore are eligible to participate.
2. Each tweet is eligible for one entry, so feel free to post as many tweets as you want.
3. Anyone found using multiple Twitter accounts to enter will be disqualified.
4. After the contest closes, we’ll Twitter DM the lucky winners to coordinate with you how you can collect your prize.

Happy new year and good luck!

Every once in a while, a technology emerges that makes you wonder why you haven’t thought about it before. The Singapore-made Orastream app is one such example.

It enables music players to stream the songs at as high a quality as possible, depending on the network that is delivering the songs. This means you always enjoy the highest quality music, without worrying about the dreaded break in transmission – a boon to future music services on the go.

Let’s take your phone, for example. When you are at a cafe and you can receive a good 3G signal, it can stream at a high bit rate of, say, 800Kbps, but if you step into an underground mall, you may only get a slower 2G network link, which means the songs will then be streamed at a much lower bit rate, say, as low as 24Kbps.

Either way, the music continues playing, because the technology adapts automatically to the network conditions. There are not breaks in songs even if you switch from, say, 3G to 2G, as the folks behind Orastream showed in a demo to Techgoondu last week.

First developed at Singapore’s government-funded A*Star labs several years ago, Orastream is the brand name for an adaptive streaming music format called MPEG4SLS. This, incidentally, is also the name for the company spun off from A*Star that now develops Orastream.

The uses for the technology are numerous. For starters, the company is looking to offer a Dropbox-like service where musicians can upload their songs – at the highest lossless quality – to potential record company partners. Instead of sending various demo tapes or CDs or storing different formats of the same song, they can continually update the catalog of songs easily.

To do this, the Singapore firm has even developed simple tools for the musicians to create an app that plays back the music automatically from this library.

Needless to say, this can be applied to consumers as well, as a sort of cloud-based music locker service. You can essentially upload your entire library – at a cost, of course – to the cloud and have the Orastream technology stream the music to your PC, MP3 player and even hi-fi (if someone develops a Squeezebox plug-in, for example).

This means you don’t have to keep separate copies of your library, like MP3s for your portable players and FLAC lossless tracks for your hi-fi or PC. You can just stream them all in one format using Orastream. In countries with well-connected mobile and fibre broadband networks, this is an ideal solution, and better than the other cloud-based music offerings out there which usually only support the “lo-fi” but common MP3 format.

To be fair, there is still a lot more to be done for Orastream before this becomes reality. But the technology is out there and the business model is already proven, so the potential is clear.

And compared to rival technologies from, say, Microsoft, Orastream is truly dynamic, as in, it does not have to be set with a few pre-determined bit-rates, but is fine-tunes the bit rate or quality according to the network quality. If a network offers 300Kbps, the stream will be as close to 300Kbps as possible, perhaps at 290Kbps.

One more thing: Orastream can stream songs at up to 24 bits/192kHz, which is higher than a regular CD’s 16/44.1kHz. This will be a boon for audiophiles looking to stream their songs both over Wi-Fi at home (at high quality) and over the Net to their portable players.

Do check out the Orastream app available for the Mac, iOS and Android. Still very much like demos, these simple players show the potential of a technology that could change the way you enjoy music in future.

Anyone who’s ever gone jogging or biking with their music will know how irritating it is to have wires dangling and getting in the way. You can have a short cable, say, with sports earphones that hook up to an iPod strapped to your arm, but there’s still that bit of wire that often gets in the way if you are sensitive to these things.

For such active folks, you’d be pleased to try out Jabra’s Sport earphones. These Bluetooth headphones receive music wirelessly, doing away with cables other than one between the earphones which you’d hardly feel on the go. I’ve tried a number of Bluetooth stereo headsets before this, but Jabra Sport ranks as one of the best yet.

The first thing that inspires confidence is the sturdy-looking yellow cable hooking up the two earphones. Okay, the yellow seems a bit obligatory since these are meant to be “sport” headphones, but there is a lot more thought involved here than colour.

The flat cable, for one, is less likely to be tangled up than regular thin, rounded cables. Then there is the hardy joints between cable and earphone – you’d have to pull pretty hard to destroy that.

When I took them out of the pretty packaging, the Jabra Sport also impressed with their really soft yet sturdy hooked design. Though they resemble the early Jabra headphones that made the brand famous, the new headphones are now made with a material that is much improved in comfort and fit. Few Bluetooth headphones fit as snugly yet feels as comfortable.

When I went for a short run last week, I didn’t feel the Jabra Sport on my ears at all, partly because they hung on without moving irritatingly as in-ear types can often do. The Jabra Sport comes too with three “ear gels” for that perfect fit, but I was happy enough with what I got out of the box.

Like similar Bluetooth stereo headphones, the Jabra Sport receives the music wirelessly using the Bluetooth A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) feature, which is supported on most smartphones today and a small number of Bluetooth-enabled MP3 players such as the Apple iPod Touch (check Apple support here).

It’s a pity that small and light iPods, such as the Nano that runners like, don’t do Bluetooth. You may still add a Bluetooth transmitter to it, though I have not tested this out and can’t vouch for 100 per cent compatibility with the Jabra Sport.

Once powered on, the Bluetooth headsets are a joy to use. Fire it up for the first time, and a voice prompt tells you to hook up with a phone or MP3 player using a pre-set pass code. That’s all the fuss you need to go through before heading to the gym or track or climbing on your bike.

I paired the Jabra Sport with my Samsung Galaxy S II (yes, a little big for running) once and never had to fuss around with the settings again. Every time I wanted to play back tracks on the Jabra Sport, I only have to press the Play button on it, and it automatically loads the last track played on the phone. There’s no need to even stumble through the menus on the phone, which is a good thing if you want to quickly get going for a jog.

And what of the audio quality? I’m pleased to say that music streamed perfectly for me, as long as the phone and headphones were within line of sight, say, about 5m to 10m. You’d have no problems streaming music clearly if you jog while having your music player in your trouser pocket (even though Jabra, for some reason, doesn’t encourage it).

The headphones also punched well in the bass department and sounded clearer and brighter than many poor-sounding sports headphones that often don’t emphasise audio quality.

Needless to say, the voice quality is impressive as well. Expect no less clarity when it comes to phone conversations as you would with other high-end Jabra headphones, especially since the Sport also suppresses background noises like wind noise. I guess it’s something bikers might want if they are on hours-long rides, though the one time I answered a call on my smartphone while in the middle of a jog, my panting proved more of an issue than the noise cancellation.

I use the Nike+ run tracker now, and the Jabra Sport comes with similar features as long as your phone – or MP3 player – supports them. If you install the free Endomondo Sports Tracker app on your phone (Android, iOS or Blackberry) to track your run or bike ride, the Jabra Sport will remind you of the distance you have covered and even offer words of encouragement (or taunts). If you like Nike+, you’d probably like this Jabra + Endomondo combination.

The only small issue I have with the Jabra Sport is probably its USB connector, or rather, the rubber protector that you have to lift every now and then to charge the headphones.

I know it’s ruggedised, but I can’t help worrying that I’d accidentally pull out the really thin plastic connector holding it in place, which could leave the USB port totally exposed to sweat and grime. Considering how often you have to flip this little rubber piece out to charge your headphones, it has better be able to withstand tough use.

To be fair, I’ve not managed to destroy the headphones yet in the couple of weeks I used them. I’d happily recommend the Jabra Sport because few headphones have felt so “transparent” and comfortable when I go jogging with them. Plus, the audio quality is pretty good, which is a plus when you just want to enjoy the music while not working out. I just have to find a Bluetooth adapter for my iPod nano now.

The Xperia Active and Live with Walkman are retailing at $498 and $398 respectively without a mobile plan contract. Check today’s papers for telco deals.

Jabra, that brand better known for its Bluetooth headsets, has come up with a rather solid pair of sports earphones that are both light on the ear and firm enough to stay in place when you run or cycle.

The Jabra Sport receives the music wirelessly via Bluetooth from your smartphone or a compatible MP3 player, doing away with the annoying cord that usually runs down to your MP3 player in your shorts pocket or an arm pouch.

At a launch in Singapore yesterday, reporters were shown how the earphones come with a number of useful features for those sweaty moments, starting with the specially-coated, flat cord linking the two headsets that are said to be less susceptible to stick to your sweaty back, or get tangled that easily.

Like the company’s other similar-looking Bluetooth headphones, the Jabra Sport is made of material that lets you easily shape it to fit your ears. I’m not sure about the comfort offered by the hook design, but I’m told by the Jabra folks that this helps the earphones stay on better when you exercise.

Like the Sennheiser/adidas Sports earphones that I use now for my jogs, the Jabra Sport also comes with inner ear fins that are indispensable in keeping the earphones in place and making sure the music is loud and clear.

In terms of durability, the Jabra Sport is said to have cleared similar rain, dust and shock torture tests that the US military puts its gear through. I guess if something can work on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, it should be able to handle your daily run or cycle.

I actually did a little test yesterday, while handling the earphones. I tucked at the cord gently to see if it felt flimsy, but I came away feeling more assured of the Jabra Sport than most regular earphones.

Beyond just a pair of earphones, the Jabra Sport also works with the Endomondo app that you can download onto your smartphone (Android, iOS or Blackberry) to keep track of your run, a la Nike+. It can also be programmed to goads you on with canned voice prompts, reminding you ever so gently that you are not taking a walk in the park, for example.

How much is the Jabra Sport? The regular version costs S$148 while a “Made for iPod” version will cost S$168, and is guaranteed to work with a wider range of Apple devices.

Beside the Sport, Jabra yesterday also launched a number of other Bluetooth devices, like the S$148 Halo 2, which are sleek flat, folder headphones for travellers, as well as the S$198 Jabra Supreme, an attractive mono headset that comes with a foldable-boom design and advanced active noise cancellation and ambient noise reduction.

But the coolest, in my eyes, is the Bluetooth sport earphones, because they are a new class of devices in their own right and will only get more popular as more folks start syncing up with their Bluetooth-enabled smartphones. Look out for a Goond Review on the Jabra Sport soon when I get it out for a jog.

Bring up Bose to your audiophiles friends and they’d probably let you know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, while pointing out that there are better-sounding options that cost a fraction of what it asks for.

The United States company’s SoundDock systems, though, are hugely popular because they appeal to iPod and iPhone users who desire not just the Bose design but also a bit of oomph lacking in other plain vanilla iPod docks and speakers. The latest high-end SoundDock 10, costing a cool S$1,299, is no difference.

The traditional SoundDock look has been retained by Bose, which is smart, considering the clean design and ease of use that have made the original SoundDock a hit in the first place. To ensure minimum fuss, there is no power button on the device itself – only a pretty iPod icon appears on the bottom left when you plug in an iPod or iPhone.

Besides Apple devices, you can also hook up other MP3 players or phones via an auxiliary audio port and via Bluetooth using an additional add-in module from Bose. But I suspect most users would be Apple users like me.

The good news about the SoundDock 10 is that it sounds surprisingly good for its size. First off, there is hardly any distortion when you turn it up to party-level volumes, which you can’t say for most of the run-of-the-mill iPod docks out there. Vocals and instruments both sounded clear and hardly stretched even when I dialled up the volume.

Indeed, clear is a word you’d say about the sound on the SoundDock 10. When I played a mixture of MP3s and AAC lossless audio on it, I did not detect any unnecessary weight in the sound nor did singers sound flat and thin.

Bose boasts that its compact system rivals some more expensive and bigger sound systems, and I’ll have to agree. The company may not make the cheapest systems or the best-sounding gear for audiophiles, but it does know how to make good small speakers.

The best evidence of that is the bass that you hear on the SoundDock 10. Pumped out by the in-built back-firing subwoofer, which surely adds to the hefty 8.4kg weight, the low-end you get from the SoundDock 10 is surprisingly full yet free from any muddiness.

It still lacks some finesse if you are picky, but if you realise the audio comes from such a compact unit, you have to be happy to hear that bass guitar in the background or the heavy beat in rap songs.

For one, Sergio Mendes’ Encanto, which features Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am and Fergie, will show off some of the bass that the SoundDock 10 is capable of. Percussions are not found lacking in many tracks – again, quite an achievement for such a small system.

Separately, vocals are one area that I always feel that Bose manages well enough in and the SoundDock 10 isn’t too shabby with that either. The bossa nova album Mind Games Plays the Music of Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto sounds smooth enough for me to listen to it twice over in the living room without feeling my ears are in need of a rest.

One thing to note: the mid-end and treble don’t suffer from unneeded heft just because the SoundDock 10 is able to produce bass that is more commanding than other similar docks.

There are lots of things to pick on, of course, if you are an audio buff. First thing is that speakers this size will never truly produce room-filling sound. Yes, I said it doesn’t sound distorted at high volumes, but the music is still “stuck” on the system – it doesn’t manage to fill the room and fool you into thinking that you are in front of a live performance.

And, of course, things like separation and imaging are zero on a compact system like the SoundDock 10. There is hardly any distinction between instruments and you surely hear nothing suggesting the different performers on stage.

But then again, judging a compact system on those criteria would be harsh. The main downside I see the Bose facing is the S$1,299 price tag. For that price, you’d be pretty close to buying a hi-fi setup.

Personally, I won’t like to use the SoundDock 10 in the living room, unless space is really a premium. If you are prepared to pay that amount, you can easily stretch your dollar a little more and set up a much superior hi-fi system that will offer a lot more sophistication in the sound you get.

However, I do see some (well-off) users using the SoundDock 10 in a hostel room, small bedroom or even kitchen, where you don’t have much space and you might not bother too much with trying to relive a live performance, as with getting great sounds from a small system conveniently.

So, if you are looking for a hi-end dock and can afford the asking price of the SoundDock 10, it might be worth a listen at the showroom.

SingTel cellphone users can now download songs from Madonna, Katy Perry and Jolin Tsai over SingTel’s AMPed music download service, after the telecom operator added songs from record firm Warner Music Group, which also represents EMI in Singapore, to its catalog last week.

With the new additions, the “red” telco now has all the major international music labels for its download service, which will feature two million tracks for users to download onto their phones and PCs. This comes about half a year after it added Sony to its list of record labels in July 2010.

With more songs available, subscribers for the AMPed download service have tripled within a year, said the telco on Friday. The service is free for selected SingTel data plan users, and does not incur data charges when users download songs over the air.

Other plus points for AMPed, where other music service have failed? Users get 15 DRM-free songs each month and the service works on more than 80 handsets including the iPhone, Android devices and Nokia’s Symbian phones as well.

AMPed appears to be among a handful of music services still heavily marketed in Singapore after its launch in 2009, when a raft of similar offerings from both telcos and handset makers were launched.

Nokia recently scaled back its music offerings by scrapping the Comes With Music free-downloads-for-a-year offering in most markets, while little more has been heard of Sony Ericsson’s PlayNowPlus music service, which runs on the company’s older Walkman phones or StarHub’s Play online store, whose website could not be accessed.

Nokia has stopped the music on its year-long unlimited song downloads that come bundled in phones in all but six countries, as the world’s largest cellphone maker readies for a tough 2011.

The service, launched to much fanfare as Comes With Music in Singapore in early 2009, enables users of selected phones to download as many songs as possible from the Nokia music store, for a year.

However, the phone maker has now said it will stop the bundling in 27 markets, including Singapore, and will keep it going in only China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa.

Users who have downloaded songs previously will not be affected, a company spokesman told Bloomberg. Plus, Nokia will continue operating its music stores worldwide, which will sell music directly to cellphone users.

A number of reasons have been attributed to the demise of what once looked like an innovative way for Nokia to hook up hardware and services, much the same way as Apple has done with iTunes and the iPhone.

Chief among these reasons is that the songs were tied to anti-piracy measures, which limited how users could share their music over different devices.

Given that many users change phones often, this DRM (digital rights management) scheme became unattractive to spend all that time downloading thousands of songs, only to have them tied to an old phone that may be discarded in a few months.

Another problem, a larger one, was that Nokia’s DRM made use of Microsoft’s Windows Media technology, which made it even more unappealing. For one, users have to use Internet Explorer – and no other Web browser – to buy music.

Nokia’s music service now comes with DRM-free tracks, which will enable users to play their music across different devices once they download the songs. It is part of its Ovi Suite of services.

However, even as it gets its services up and running with a number of Ovi offerings, such as maps, Nokia is finding itself in a corner once more – this time boxed in by a lack of great hardware.

Since the N97 launched in June 2009, Nokia has not had a winner on its hands. In the 18 months afterwards – an eternity in an industry that declares winners and losers every quarter – the Finnish phone giant has seen Apple and Android-based devices leapfrog its dull models in the lucrative smartphone segment.

While Apple had the iPhone 4, which sold well despite much-publicised problems, and Google had Android winners in the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire HD in 2010, Nokia could only come up with the dated-looking N8. The N8 was actually delayed as well, but nobody really cared.

So, while the end of Comes with Music marks the closing of a chapter for Nokia, it will take a lot more great hardware and services to win back a market that has moved on with Apple/iTunes, Google/Android and yes, even Microsoft/Windows Phone 7.

Next month’s showing at the Mobile World Congress expo, which usually offers a preview of what’s to come later in the year, could tell us how far ahead – or behind – Nokia will be in 2011.

Here’s something for all you sweaty joggers and gym regulars – a “wearable” Walkman MP3 player that is not just water-resistant and but also washable.

The latest Sony Walkman W, launched today, also comes without a long wire dangling down the side. The S$129 device appears like a one-piece construction that wraps around the back of your head and is secured onto the ears with ear buds that remind one of Bluetooth headsets.

This means no more getting tangled with an irritating wire either running to your iPod hooked up on your arm or stored in your shorts pocket.

For my evening jogs, I’m currently using the Sennheiser/adidas CX680, which has an excellent “ear fin” to keep the ear buds steady and not moving inside your ears. The earphones are solidly built too – the cable is Dupont-Kevlar reinforced, says Sennheiser, and feels solid.

But the biggest problem is the unwieldy extended cable for the CX680, which you have to use to hook up an MP3 player in your shorts pocket (the original cable length is for runners who place an MP3 player on the arm). Plus, my silver iPod is getting dirtier by the day, thanks to sweat and grime collected when I hold it after each run.

So, Sony’s new 43-gram Walkman W would seem to be the answer, since it’s washable and doesn’t have irritating cables. It’s also foldable, making it easy to carry around. The only downside is that it won’t support the Nike+ system I’m grown used to.

[nggallery id=21]

Philips GoGear Opus

Philips may not be on many portable gear head’s shortlists of brands when it comes to buying a new portable music player, but its new model’s support for FLAC could swing a few votes its way.

The GoGear Opus is one of a slew of new releases by the Dutch electronics giant in Singapore today, and the only one in that bunch – as well as one of the few in the market – to supprt Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), an open source lossless compression standard that more than a few discerning listeners have told me is sonically a tad better than rival codecs like Apple Lossless and WMA lossless (although I can’t really discern those differences – all lossless codecs sound as good to me).

A rival to Apple’s Nano in terms of features and price, the decidedly chunkier Opus has a larger screen real estate compared to the Nano (2.8 diagonal inches vs 2.0-inch) but also costs slightly more ($339 vs $328 for the 16GB version; $299 vs $248 for an 8GB version).

The Opus comes with a built-in audio recording function, which is lacking in the Nano, but it lacks Nano’s motion-sensing feature that automatically flip-flops screen displays from portrait to landscape. The Opus arguably offers better sound off the bat, thanks to its sound-sealing earphones, which appear to have a sonic edge over Apple’s bundled conventional ear buds.

But it is the Opus’ support for FLAC that will excite open-source software inclined audiophiles – although its 16GB flash memory capacity means you can only carry 50 or so albums’ worth of lossless music at any one time.

Alongside the Opus, the other new Philips music and video portable players launched are the Aria ($229 for 8GB and $189 for 4GB); ViBE ($169 for 8GB and $149 for 4GB); the diminutive Spark ($129 for 4GB and $109 for 2GB); and the Shuffle-lookalike Mix ($119 for 4GB and $79 for 2GB).