Get your Hard-fi (MP3 gadget) here and not worry about Sony DRM

Cambridge University physics graduate, Martin Brennan, founder of , has developed and now marketing a hard-FI gizmo in this HI-FI world of today.

What is Hard-Fi?

Hard-Fi is a Hi-fi with a hard disk that talks to your Phone, iPod or MP3 player. 3GA put the power of a PC into a stereo to create a product that breathes life into your MP3 phone, Ringtones and iPods.

There are 1.3 billion mobile telephone subscribers. By 2008 there will be 350 million MP3 handsets made each year. Far more people own and will own more handsets than computers. The MP3 player market is $6.9 billion. The ringtone business is $3 billion. music business is another place that I don't want to go. With all the Sony DRM stuff I have written,
geemodo: No Sony Gadgets, Gizmo's or anything related to Sony on this site!
geemodo: SonyÂ’s Rootkit Saga Continues! And Sony/First4 claim innocence!!
geemodo: Californians (lawyers) Hit back Sony!
geemodo: Wahington Cast eyes on Sony like DRM practices.
May be this is the Solution, But how long before Martin joins big boys and practice their trade?
The Other thing is if your MP3 player is in the loo, geemodo: MP3 Set LOOs you cannot take loo to the computer so Hard-Fi to your rescue.
Hard-Fi is quite simply the easiest way to get music into a phone or mp3 player.
Features of Hard-Fi gadget, if you call it that;
With Hard-Fi you can:
All this in box that i’s as easy to use as your car radio.
The power of a PC with the simplicity of a stereo.
* Store all your music
* Find tracks instantly
* Mix like a DJ
* Plug in your MP3 player or phone, press a button and the track that is playing is sent to the player or phone - done!
* Segue mode blends one track seamlessly into the next. Its like hearing your music for the first time. YouÂ’ll never want to go back.
* IDE hard disk stores 700 albums on 40Gb.
* Rapid 15x copy from CD to hard disk means you can load your CD collection very quickly and its simple - put the CD in the drawer and press OK.
* Built-in upgradeable database with 1.7million albums labels CD tracks as they are loaded.
* Instant track search on a key by key basis finds matching tracks in seconds - as simple as sending a txt message.
* Burn audio CDs from playlists.
* Background MP3 compression hidden from user.
* Reverberation, pitch shifting, tone control and other effects.
* Microphone & line in, loudspeaker & line out.
* Low cost DSP - flexible & just five ICs. Already in manufacture. New products possible in months.
* Suitable for all audio formats including micro-system, in-car, boombox, hi-fi separate even clock-radio.
His reasons for the Hard-Fi; And why he developed HaFE-FI.
MP3 compresses music by a factor of ten, and Hard disks of 20Gb - were big enough for an entire music collection. Low cost DSPs had 100 million instructions per second - enough for MP3.
Of course you could do all this on a PC but Martin knew that to be a mass market successor to the gramophone, the wireless, the record player, the transistor radio and the CD player the product needed spontaneity and simplicity. Not what comes to mind when you think of a PC.
Martin said "We have developed a successor to the home stereo but the most rewarding thing about the project is that when I hear my music on Hard-Fi - it surprises me - its like hearing it for the first time."
If you are technically interest in the gadgets inards, here is a block diagram of the system;

More info at Hardfi site.