[rustydoglim]

Size = smaller than iPhone
Cool factory = Very
Price = cheaper than iPod Nano
Features: It works with PC/Mac, iPod, and our soon-to-be-released-again NE-7M.  Icon is for your desk, this is for you to carry everywhere you go!
Color = red, blue, black and silver
Availability = November

[mandolin!]

Jason

Please excuse my ignorance but what is it? Media Player? Headphone Amp?

And what is an NE-7M?

[kbuzz3]

Agreed, im not sure what it is either

[mca]

If it's what I think it is, will it play FLAC files?

[mandolin!]

Assuming it is a media player, how about listing some features?

Support for Audio: OGG, FLAC, ASF, WAV, WMA, etc?
Gapless Playback?
Support for Image: jpeg, tiff, bmp, etc?
Album Art?
TAg Database?
Support for video: xvid avi?
Bit rates handled (8 -  500 Kbps)?
Equalizer & Enhance Options? SRS WOW,  WOW HD, Trubass, etc? Parametric EQ?
Screen size & resolution?
Rated frequency response: 20 - 20Khz?
USB OTG support?
Drive Capacity Type and size?
Line in/Line out Options?
Battery type and playback hrs?

Jason, if you want to sell heaps of units, make the firmware open to the Rockbox team and they will improve things for you!

[rustydoglim]

I guess I am no Steve Job 
I don't think people will wait till Nov 7 to find out.
This is a rechargeable headphone amp and USB DAC - 2-in-1 gadget. NE-7M is our earphones with mic.
So you can connect via USB to the laptop and with NE-7M, use it as a very good earphone and Skype phone.
Tie it with iPod Nano (using an elastic silicone band that we provide) and you get much better sound out of your iPod. We'll provide an optional iPod adapter.

[mandolin!]

Jason

Promise me...never become Steve Jobs! Your icon and S1's are much better than the dross apple makes.

Can you provide any details on the amp design? What sort of heaphones will it suit? Sensitivity? Frequency Response? THD?

Reason I ask - I want them!

[mcullinan]

Jason

Promise me...never become Steve Jobs! Your icon and S1's are much better than the dross apple makes.

Can you provide any details on the amp design? What sort of heaphones will it suit? Sensitivity? Frequency Response? THD?

Reason I ask - I want them!

Uhh... without Apple you wouldnt be using the rechargeable headphone amp/Dac. . . Apple innovated the user interface/operating system from computer to ipod to phone. That with beautiful design is what make their products so popular.
Mike

[mandolin!]

Mc
Not even close. Have a look at the early Sony and Creative players. Apple did what they always do...pretty up someone elses technology.

Cute knickers or functional Y fronts...YMMV

[mcullinan]

Mc
Not even close. Have a look at the early Sony and Creative players. Apple did what they always do...pretty up someone elses technology.

Cute knickers or functional Y fronts...YMMV

Uhh, no.
Well yes SOny and Creative make ugly electronics.
It is the intuitiveness of Apple products that make them so great, not their nice design, and hell yeah I want something that looks good. Sony has been stumbling ever since the Walkman/PS2 and their obvious better than thou attitude that let all the other tv makers walk right in and take a nice big share of there market. Creative really isnt a player imo.
Youve obviously never used a Mac.
But we can agree to disagree, even though I could say, hmm who makes the most popular music player... umm.. oh yeah Apple.
Mike

Plus I love Nuforce as I own the monoblocks... but as you reply to my lil talk here... look at the Nuforce headphone amp, then look at Apples Iphone. Who is emulating who?
 

[mandolin!]

Well yes Sony and Creative make ugly electronics.
It is the intuitiveness of Apple products that make them so great, not their nice design, and hell yeah I want something that looks good. Sony has been stumbling ever since the Walkman/PS2 and their obvious better than thou attitude that let all the other tv makers walk right in and take a nice big share of there market. Creative really isnt a player imo.
Youve obviously never used a Mac.

That's the point Mc. People are swayed by prettiness rather than the underlying technical properties. Apple's genius is to take others technology and make it prettier. Good luck to them if they then sell heaps of units. But that doesn't make them a technically superior player. (far from it). It makes them good marketers to people who want to make a fashion statement.

For what it's worth, I do use Macs. Used them all the way since the Classic II which I still own. For a few and decreasing number of jobs, I find the Macs are good. But in reality a well specc'ed PC beats the Macs hands down and is about half the cost. I own a couple of ipods and ditto - there are much better players around imo.

I do agree that the Macs and ipods are far far prettier

[Toka]

Color me interested! Can't wait to check out this device. 


And Apple rocks! Its all about the OS, people. 

[mandolin!]

So Jason (or Steve)

What now?

Any more details?

[Albireo]

I guess I am no Steve Job 
I don't think people will wait till Nov 7 to find out.
This is a rechargeable headphone amp and USB DAC - 2-in-1 gadget. NE-7M is our earphones with mic.
So you can connect via USB to the laptop and with NE-7M, use it as a very good earphone and Skype phone.
Tie it with iPod Nano (using an elastic silicone band that we provide) and you get much better sound out of your iPod. We'll provide an optional iPod adapter.

Awesome! How does the amp/DAC compare with that already inside the Icon?

[rustydoglim]

"Icon Mobile: Superior Sound for Your Mobile Device and Computer"

Features:

Two headphone/line outputs: a 3.5mm 4-pin mini stereo (with mic) jack and a 3.5mm 3-pin mini stereo jack. These are low-impedance outputs for driving earphones and line-level sources such as active speakers.
A 3.5mm mini stereo external input.
High quality rotary volume pot that maximizes USB and iPod signal-to-noise ratios.
Gain select switch that provides compatibility to a wide range of headphones and earphones.
Built-in rechargeable Lithium Ion battery with USB featuring a 2.5 hour charge-time for 13 hours of playback.
Supports USB audio input and ouput
 
Functions:

When attached to PC via USB, the Icon Mobile acts as a USB DAC with support for a Skype, Messenger, or similar microphone input.
External 3.5mm input, when inserted, will take precedence over the USB DAC.
The Battery-Low indicator blinks when the battery requires recharging.

Headphone Amp:

Power output: 80mW x 2 @ 16-Ohm
THD+N: 0.054% @ 25 mW, 1 kHz
S/N: 98dB @ 40mW

USB DAC:

USB 2.0 compatible
Supports 44.1kHz and 48kHz native sampling rates
Microphone input: 16-bit ADC 4-pin mini stereo compatible headsets

[Toka]

Will a pre-order be offered? This is a must-buy for me.

[rustydoglim]

We will offer some silver units from pilot production (normally these are for distributors and reviewers) for sale at promotional price on the online store and will take pre-order around mid to 3rd week of October after we can confirm production is going smoothly. So far we're quite happy with pre-production sample sound quality.

[Toka]

Sounds good...I'll be ready. 

[rustydoglim]

We just evaluated the latest pre-production prototype and we are pleasantly surprised that the earphone amp and USB DAC are comparable to Icon in performance.

I hope you'll buy Icon for your home office, Icon mobile for work office and another Icon mobile to go with your iPod when you travel  aa

By the way, we were leading the market with colorful aluminum chassis (for Icon) and now Icon Mobile before Apple started doing that with iPod Nano 

With Icon Mobile and NE-7M earphones, we are going to show the market that great sound doesn't have to be expensive.  Sorry it is taking so long with relaunch of the earphones because we have to make a few thousand units in one product batch.