So a few weeks ago we talked about the quirky answer to an iPod, the iBean – which is the worlds first “cybatonic” digital music player made all the way over in South America. Well, those clever people at Cybatonics who created this cheeky invention seem to have already made brilliant progress, so we thought we’d update you all. 

This very exciting consumer electronics design company have now agreed to work with Real World Records, Peter Gabriel’s legendary world music record label, on an exclusive, preloaded content deal with the iBean & iTagua.

Real World Records is home to some of the most forward-thinking, boundary-shaking music from around the world, and grew alongside international world music, arts and dance festival, WOMAD. It is now in final discussions with Cybotanics to provide exclusive content in ‘lossless’ CD quality form on the much talked about iBean® & iTagua®  with is made from Amazonian beans and nuts from Colombia.  The first deal will centre on the unique digital audio products, preloaded with a number of Real World’s global artists from WOMAD.

The London-based start-up’s iBean and iTagua products are currently available to ‘pre-order’ without preloaded content on the crowd sourced funding website, Kickstarter and upon successful completion of this with enough pledges from the general public, they will go into commercial production and have an agreement ready to sign to launch an exclusive preloaded device with the label’s content.

Each 4GB music player is a meticulously crafted and engineered digital  audio device that delivers ‘lossless’, CD quality exclusive Real World music at a much higher bit rate than conventional music players all housed in a naturally beautiful and truly original form. Lossless compression reduces a file’s size with no loss of quality.  APE is a form of lossless compression.  Each unique product will retail for under £50.00

Here’s a few burning questions you all might have…

Why is the sound quality so much better than an iPod?

iBean® and iTagua®  use a new form of music compression in lossless CD quality form (APE-Monkey’s audio). The devices also play normal MP3 files.http://www.monkeysaudio.com/  Unlike traditional methods such as MP3, OGG, or LGT that permanently discard quality to save space, Monkey’s Audio represents bit-for-bit copies of music. That means it always sounds perfect – exactly the same as a CD. Even though the sound is perfect, it still saves a lot of space (think of it as a beefed-up Winzip™ for your music).  The other great thing is that you can always decompress your Monkey’s Audio files back to the exact, original files.  That way, you’ll never have to recopy your CD collection to switch formats, and you’ll always be able to perfectly recreate the original music CD.

What is the Tagua nut that iTagua is made from?

The Nut- Tagua (Vegetable Ivory)

The Nut- PHYTELEPHAS  Family: Arecaceae  (Phytelephas Aequatorialis Macrocarpa)  The Tagua is actually a kind of palm nut, it has become referred to as ‘Vegetable Ivory’ because of its internal colour and working properties which are almost identical to elephant ivory, from which its latin name derives.

What is the bean that the iBean is made from?

The Bean – ENTADA GIGAS Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae Mimosoldea)  Known as ‘Sea Beans’ these gigantic seeds come from pods which grow up to four feet  in length. They measure about 5cm across and have a beautiful surface that can be polished. The beans are as hard as polycarbonate and have even baffled NASA scientists. Cybotanics has discovered a unique way of machining them to incorporate their digital hearts.