Nicole Martinelli - page 41

The first iPod launched on Oct. 23, 2001.  It had a scroll wheel, cost $399, could store 1,000 songs and looks like a yoga block compared to later models.

This  promo for the first-gen iPod is charmingly dated (only 6.5 ounces, over 10 hours of battery life! ) — though there must be a portrait of Jonathan Ive in an attic somewhere, he looks the same as he talks about it as one of his “most personal designs” at Apple.

Also stumping for the product, among others,  are Moby (“I’m having a hard time getting my head around the fact that you can transfer a whole album on this in 10 seconds.”) and Steve Harwell from Smash Mouth (“You’ve got your own record store on this damn thing.”)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e84SER_IkP4

Unlike an 8-year-old human, an iPod that age doesn’t enjoy an increase in stamina or conversation at an almost adult level.

Mine (the best Christmas present I got the year it came out) is still in the graveyard drawer of iPods I Have Loved, however.
What do you remember most about your first iPod?

Anyone got a first gen that still works?

When you actually get around to printing out the photos taken on your iPhone you can slide them into this handmade frame from Italy, which can go vertical or horizontal.
Made out of wood, so no one will try to swipe your pic, thinking it’s your phone.

It costs €15 ($22 circa) at phoneart.

The mystery object in Monday’s contest was a close-up of Apple Pro Speakers that CoM’s Lonnie Lazar snapped at a friend’s house where they’re part of a G4 iMac setup — for their size, he notes, “they actually sound great.”

Winner named after the jump.

Apple has updated the list of products it considers “vintage” or “obsolete”  and will no longer provide service, parts or documentation for as of next month.

The Cupertino crew defines “vintage” as products discontinued over five but less than seven years ago.  (One notable exception: California residents can still get service and parts from Apple Service Providers in the state).
Obsolete products are any product discontinued over seven years ago, no exceptions.

Hit the jump for the complete list of the walking dead, updated from the last list published in February.

Condé Nast announced that it will launch a digital version of men’s mag GQ on November 18 in tandem with the print issue.

The digital version available on iTunes will cost $2.99, half of the newsstand price, and there’s no word on whether snail mail subscribers get a discount. Condé says digital GQ be a perfect clone of the dead tree GQ, right down to the ads.

If you want to meet with Apple tech evangelists to discuss your iPhone apps —  get a move on.

Dates for the second iPhone Tech World Tour were announced yesterday; spots are already scarce.
The full-day conferences, free but with a limited number of participants, kick off in San Jose on October 29.

There’s still space in Silicon valley, but London (Nov. 11) New York (Dec. 1) and Tokyo (Dec. 15) are already full.

Sessions include user interface design essentials, working with core data, testing and debugging your iPhone app and something new: adding “in app” purchase to your app.

To end your day with Apple, there’s even a wine and cheese wrap-up. (If you go, send us pics.)
You’ve still got a chance to hobnob with Apple and other devs in Seattle, Toronto, Bejiing, Paris and Hamburg.

Two days after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said it would launch an investigation into iPod battery issues, Apple updated its support document on battery overheating.
Here’s the main update:

iPod nano (1st generation): Rare cases of battery overheating
Apple has determined that in very rare cases, batteries in the iPod nano (1st generation) sold between September 2005 and December 2006, may overheat and prevent the iPod nano from working and deform it.

Apple has received very few reports of such incidents, and the issue has been traced to a single battery supplier. Additionally, there have been no reports of such incidents with any other iPod nano model. If your battery shows signs of overheating, such as discoloration or deformity, stop using the iPod nano immediately and contact AppleCare as soon as possible for further assistance.

It’s an acknowledgment, but just, that comes two months after the EU announced it was going to investigate exploding iPods — and iPhones.

And what about the advice? Easy enough to spot an overheating device (as it melts and changes color) in hand, but if you’re jogging or have it in your back back, good luck.

The second in a series of five t-shirt giveaways, correctly name this mystery Apple item and you could win a T-shirt.

Not just any T-shirt: choose from the Apple-inspired designs at might tees, which include the I Love Lisa we wrote about, a retro-style logo and Steve Jobs in typeface.

This iPhone clone found by a reporter at a trade show in Asia comes with about as ugly an add-on as possible: a squashed qwerty keyboard with keys that look like veneers gone wrong.

It’s pretty ingenious, as much as lacking in aesthetics, since the keyboard is integrated into a protector case (which also looks fittingly hideous) with a custom connector for the phone.

For those of you who want an external keyboard for your iPhone, would  you want it badly enough to use this one?

Via Pocket Lint

iSkin just launched a new line of silicone keyboard covers treated with Microban, a secret germ-fighting sauce adding in during the manufacturing process.

Whether you believe in the germ-fighting power of the additive or not, keeping a skin on your keyboard will certainly keep the falling crumbs from your breakfast and bits of ick from settling in — since most office workers are exposed to more germs from their keyboards than toilet seats.

Plus, you can wash it with warm, soapy water.

The new line covers external keyboards and laptop models, prices range from $24.99 – $34.99.

Not sure I would’ve sprung for a keyboard condom in the past, but the amount of grit that never seems to come out of a keyboard plus paranoia over swine flu makes it seem like a small price to pay.

Via iSkin

The mystery object in Monday’s contest is an iBook G3, belonging to our own Giles Turnbull.

The winner, chosen randomly from the correct answers, is Scott Stead.

Scott gets his pick of the Apple-esque tees from might tees, pictured above.

Next Monday we’ll be posting another mystery photo, for another T-shirt.

HAVA just launched a mobile player for iPhone, putting it further into competition with rival service Slingbox.

They call it place-shifting, but lingo aside it allows you to control your live home TV from broadband Internet or computer or mobile phone — and watch it in another room, across town or while stuck in an airport abroad.

HAVA also has DVR capability to allow users to start a recording to their PC or attached storage, pause, rewind or fast forward live TV.

The Hava iPhone app costs $9.99 and you’ll need one of their devices, which start at $149.00 for the platinum HD model, plus broadband connections on both ends and a WIFI connection for your iPhone. (The Slingbox Solo starts at $179 and its companion iPhone app costs $29.99)

Ever since the two companies launched within a year of each other about five years ago, debate has sprung up — in both the Hava community and the Slingbox camp — about which one is better.

Let us know which one you’re using and whether you’d recommend it.

iPhone users can now go keyless, if they want to spend $500 for the Viper SmartStart system.

The app is available, gratis, on iTunes. But you need a Viper receiver that costs half a grand to be able to say goodbye to your keys. (If you’ve already got a Viper system, you can add on the iPhone SmartStart module for $299.)

SmartStart lets you lock or unlock  your car, set the alarm, start it from remote, unlock the trunk and there’s a “panic or car finder” for those parking lot nightmares. You can also manage more than one car on it and assign more than one user per car — which the company says is great for families but somehow I imagine more “War of the Roses” shenanigans.

Cool idea, but I can’t imagine paying that for it. How much would you spend to control your car from your iPhone?

In a shameless rip off of the Burger King slogan, Dell wants customers to know you can have your computer, your way by personalizing it with some fugly case designs.

“You can have it Steve Jobs’ way or you can have it your way,”  Ed Boyd, VP of consumer experience design told journalists last week while promoting Dell’s Design Studio.

Launched in 2008, the customization program will boost its current offer up to 350 designs and patterns plus team logos and colors. The images are imprinted on the computer with a sub-surface image that penetrates the shell and wraps around the laptop — so the Dell logo is still visible.

Design Studio customization, which will go worldwide next summer, tacks $85 on to the cost of a Dell laptop.

Apparently, Boyd doesn’t think people who fancy a bit of customizing are smart enough to put some cool stickers on their Macs instead.

Via Technology Marketing

We’ve written a lot about the iPod Touch becoming a near-requirement at US universities, but iPod use may be on the uptick in North American grade schools, too.

One Florida elementary school has 80 iPods that some kids use to listen to audio books (instead of reading them, it seems) others do comprehension exercises and the wee ones watch videos teaching them about the five senses and then answer questions.

“It’s cool,” 11-year-old Devyn Cabral said, taking a break from Science Fair by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. “When you’re sitting at your desk and reading a book, it’s harder. It’s easier for me to comprehend by listening to it.”

Julianne Audino, 8, said she liked the iPods “better than reading, because we actually get to listen.”

Seven-year-old Dejah Staton wasn’t so thrilled.
“I’d rather read the book,” she said. “You can imagine it on your own. This is telling you.”

Continue reading

The first in a series of five t-shirt giveaways, correctly name this mystery Apple item and you could win a T-shirt.

Not just any T-shirt: choose from the Apple-inspired designs at might tees, which include the I Love Lisa we wrote about, a retro-style logo and Steve Jobs in typeface.

The tees are made with water-based eco inks screen printed on high quality tri-blend shirts (part organic cotton, part recycled rayon and polyester) and a $28-$36 value.

We’ll chose a winner at random from correct answers — please name object and model in the comments.
Contest ends midnight, October 14.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ircH4hwjx60

If you’ve ever wondered what the point of those flashlight apps are, wonder no more: they are kick-butt investigation tools.

The next time you need to crawl down a 150-foot electrical conduit and don’t have a flashlight —  your iPhone can light the way, a recent episode of CSI reminds us.

In a cheesy bit of iProduct placement, the actor hands his iPhone-cum-flashlight over to the guy who will have to brave the crawl space saying “There’s an app for that.”

There are a bunch of these apps on iTunes, most are free, ranging from Funny Flashlight to myLite (also has strobe effects), with jokey descriptions like “Are you scared of the dark?”

Has anyone found the flashlight app handy — aside from helping solve heinous crimes?

Via Art of the iPhone

The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) gave the green light to Station Stops, an app with handy time tables, after having it yanked from iTunes for intellectual property claims against the developer.

Station Stops, which costs $2.99, is back in the Apple store this week.
It’s a major victory for the developer/blogger/commuter Chris Schoenfeld, who saw his work pulled from iTunes in August and on the receiving end of a nastygram from MTA lawyers.

The app provides a timetable for the Metro-North Railroad for regularly-scheduled trains departing and arriving from Grand Central Station.
Schoenfeld ran into trouble with the MTA because although they provide schedules to Google Transit, they do not release the data publicly. To build his app, Schoenfeld did it the old way — by entering data manually from the published public schedule.

More on how the MTA saw the light after the jump.

If you read the crime logs, you’ll know the best place to snag an iPod at a five-finger discount is from a parked car. (Often an unlocked one).

Teen Tyler J. Peglow in Bay City Michigan is charged with picking off iPods from a parking lot. He got caught with four in hand by police who tased him and brought the 18-year-old before a judge.

Peglow, however, also managed to pick his spot poorly: proximity to the courthouse meant that he ended up in front of the judge whose iPod he nicked.

“I told him, ‘You might want to ask another judge to review your status because I think you stole my iPod,’” Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran told local papers.

The teen will go before another judge Oct. 12.

“The lesson here for people is to lock your cars,” Sheeran said. “The overall lesson for people who engage in this activity is that they will be caught eventually. In this case, justice was swift.”

Color me unsurprised, but the Mac vs. PC mentality doesn’t always hold true at home.

The fascinatingly-named 2009 Household Penetration Study from NPD finds that Apple computers are in 12% of US households, up from 9% in 2008.

Ad campaigns aside, the study found that these Mac people don’t mind a little fraternizing with the “enemy:” 85% also have a Windows-based PC at home.

The study also found that Apple owners have more computers (and more laptops) than strictly PC owners, plus they also tend to have more gadget-happy households in general.

The latest corporate apple to be taken to court by Apple is Woolworths, an Australian supermarket chain.

They 80-year-old company restyled their “W” to look like an apple, meant to symbolize fresh produce.

Apple’s lawyers are seeing red, just as they did with the Canadian school, and hope to convince IP Australia, the federal agency that governs trademarks down under, to repeal Woolworths’ application, made last August, to trademark its new logo, according to The Age.

The rare Apple I we noted was going to go on the block about a month ago has sold on eBay for nearly $18,000, a couple of grand over what guesstimates had it valued at $14,000 – $16,000.

And that’s without knowing whether it actually works: in the eBay description, seller Monroe Postman notes:

“I do not know if it is functional and I do not intend to power it up. If a trace on the board were to burn up due to a shorted component, it would radically decrease its value as an historical artifact and as, in my mind, a work of art (signed by the artist!). A few of the chips were missing when I purchased it and they have been replaced with the proper ones, although dated a year or two later, in some cases.”

If the buyer wants to come forward and talk about the purchase, CoM is all ears.

Thanks to eagle-eyed reader Bob who alerted us in the comments.

There’s frustration over stuff like dropped calls and tethering troubles, then, you know, there’s Frustration.

The latter was apparently what fueled Donald Goodrich, 38, to threaten to pull a gun on his iPhone at the Kenwood Towne Centre Apple Store in Cinncinati.

Goodrich came in with an iPhone that wasn’t working properly, telling the employee he was “So mad, I could pop a 9mm at it.”

To prove he meant business, Goodrich flashed the employee a gun hidden under his jacket.

The cool-headed employee told Goodrich she’d get his phone fixed and walked him over to a Genius. She then told her manager of his iHomicidal intentions, who called police.

Goodrich was charged with aggravated menacing, causing fear of harm to an Apple employee. He’s expected to be arraigned this morning.

No word on exactly what drove him to want to kill his phone.

Any guesses?

Via KY post, ifoapplestore

Veteran pop artist David Hockney has been demonstrating his passion for creating works on his iPhone since he started fingerpainting on one six months ago.

Turns out Hockney first got his hands on an iPhone one a year ago, when he grabbed it from Lawrence Weschler,  writer and director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University.

Weschler interviews Hockney about it what reads like a 1,528-word love letter to the iPhone for the New York Review of Books.

There’s been a lot on the 72-year-old’s use of the iPhone, not so much about how he gets the mini-masterpieces on touch screens.

Hockney’s technique? He doesn’t finger paint as much as thumb paint those flowers and landscapes he sends to friends daily.

Hockney limits his contact with the screen exclusively to the pad of his thumb. “The thing is,” Hockney explains, “if you are using your pointer or other fingers, you actually have to be working from your elbow. Only the thumb has the opposable joint which allows you to move over the screen with maximum speed and agility, and the screen is exactly the right size, you can easily reach every corner with your thumb.” He goes on to note how people used to worry that computers would one day render us “all thumbs,” but it’s incredible the dexterity, the expressive range, lodged in “these not-so-simple thumbs of ours.”

Brushes is Hockney’s app for painting on the iPhone —  though a footnote to the story says the latest upgrade released in August is not to his liking and he continues to use the earlier version.

Interestingly, Hockney doesn’t think the art created is so great, once it’s off the device or a screen:

“Though it is worth noting,” he adds, “that the images always look better on the screen than on the page. After all, this is a medium of pure light, not ink or pigment, if anything more akin to a stained glass window than an illustration on paper.”

Although the $9,995 price tag was one of the reasons the computer Lisa didn’t sell well, showing some love for Lisa in T-shirt form will only set you back $32.

Often considered one of Apple’s flops, the ill-starred Lisa was the first computer on the consumer market with a graphical user interface (GUI) but despite this innovation the high cost, lack of software programs and general sluggishness led it to the computer graveyard in 1983 after two years and 100,000 units sold.

Bruce Tognazzini, the interface guru at Apple once said, “The Lisa was a great machine. We just couldn’t sell any.”

Show that you agree with this T-shirt, available on Etsy.

Via iPhone Savior