iPod - page 18

A pair of electronics Phd candidates at Ottawa, Ontario’s Carleton University may have invented a process for wirelessly connecting the circuits of a mobile device to its antenna, allowing it to consume 12 times less power than traditional, wired-transmitter modules and lowering the overall cost of any hand-held device, according to a report at OttawaCitizen.com.

Atif Shamim and Muhammad Arsalan, together with their adviser Langis Roy of Carleton’s department of electronics, co-authored a paper describing a packaging technique to connect the antenna with the circuits via a wireless connection between a micro-antenna embedded within the circuits on the chip.

Their work was named the best paper at the European Wireless Technology Conference in November, whose judges praised the invention for “excellent integration of system design, material sciences and electromagnetic antenna design.” They also said the innovation is “highly relevant, with large potential for commercialization.”

Shamim has filed patent applications in the U.S. and in Canada, with the knowledge consumers continue to gripe about the short lifespan of the iPhone battery.

“It’s a common problem. There are so many applications in the iPhone, it’s like a power-sucking machine,” said Shamim.

Research on the invention is due to be published in the upcoming edition of Microwave Journal.

Via LowEndMac

Blogger Rick Yeager has launched iPod and AppleTV podcast versions of his whimsical on-line gadget guide.

The fast-paced podcasts feature a no-nonsense style that one reviewer describes as “perfect for people who want to learn something or pick up a new skill quickly without enduring the news digest format used by other podcasters.” Yeager’s takes on gadgetry feature instructional info and tips and tricks for the Mac-curious, geeks and professionals alike.

The MacMerc podcast subscription is free on iTunes.

Via Geek Culture

Tap Tap Dance, from the makers of the wildly popular Tap Tap Revenge, is an all new music game for your iPhone or iPod Touch, featuring top hits from some of the biggest electronic artists in the world like Moby, Justice, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, and more. Built on the 2.0 engine of the free app Tap Tap Revenge, Tap Tap Dance features familiar rhythm game mechanics, presented in an all new smoother, richer package for $4.99.

Tap Tap Dance features 10 dance tracks, including:

– Technologic by Daft Punk
– Zdarlight by Digitalism
– Phantom Pt II (Soulwax Remix) by Justice
– Stratosphere by Junkie XL
– Disco Lies (Remix) by Moby
– Midnight Madness by The Chemical Brothers
– Goldrush by Tiesto
– Compressor by Soul Magic Orchestra (Exclusive)
– Where’s Your Head At by Basement Jaxx
– Daylight (Exclusive Morgan Page Remix) by Sunny Levine

The game includes an exclusive track by Soul Magic Orchestra, and an exclusive remix by Morgan Page of Sunny’s Levine’s Daylight. Three of the tracks, “Technologic,” by Daft Punk, “Disco Lies” by Moby and “Phantom Pt II” by Justice come with their own exclusive themes, offering game players a portable interactive music video experience, right on the iPhone or iPod touch.

Tap Tap Dance game is available now in the US from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch and coming to select international App Stores soon.

No more back-breaking anatomy textbooks for medical students at Ohio State University: these would-be scrubs will have all the info they need thanks to iPods provided by the school.

The program, said to be the first of its kind in a medical school, will be rolled out over the next two years. It is the brainchild of third-year student Justin Harper who, presumably, was tired of lugging around textbooks and getting paper cuts.

The iPods are loaded with specific medical software programs planned by OSU. The hand-held technology will give students quick access to high-res images of each organ and nerve in the body, plus allow them access to videos of medical treatments or surgical procedures and lists of potential drug interactions.

In more traditional school fare, they’ll also be able to give themselves pop quizzes, review all lectures in podcast form and have the entire curricula at their fingertips.

“The iPod touch has the potential to positively impact both medical education and the care provided to patients at the bedside,” said Dr. Catherine Lucey, vice dean for education on the school website. “The personal digital assistant puts a wealth of information at the fingertips of our students. They can study when they want and where they want. If they are seeing a patient and a question arises, they can find the answer instantly, to share with them.”

Via AP

With the arrival, finally, of Apple’s Premium earphones with remote and mic, you can now use your iPod Touch as a telephone through the magic of free software from the VoIP pioneers at TruPhone.

Actually, that’s somewhat inaccurate. You’ve been able to partake of TruPhone’s magic previously using a microphone adapter that plugs into the dock connector, or a headset with built-in mic like the one that ships with iPhones, but now that Apple’s new headsets are on the way, TruPhone’s app seems much more interesting.

Once you’ve installed the software, you can make free calls–no matter where you are in the world–to other iPod touch owners, to customers of Truphone’s Internet telephony service and to users of Google Talk instant messaging service. Support for low cost calling to landlines (PSTN) is on the way, according to company reps, as is support for calling and instant messaging to Skype and MSN (free) and free check and set facilities for both Twitter and Facebook.

The software uses the iPod touch’s Wi-Fi connection to carry VoIP calls over the Internet to its destination. There is no monthly line rental, no subscription or other hidden charges, but it should be noted calls are not handed off to the cellular network if you move beyond or lose your WiFi connection.

Still, when you bought that iPod Touch, I bet you didn’t think you were getting a telephone, too.

Anya Hindmarch is the handbag designer who made women club each other to proclaim to the world: “I’m not a plastic bag.”

She was tapped by UK department store Selfridges to fill their famous holiday hampers with goods.

Her credit-crunch defying “Ultimate Girl’s Hamper” (price tag: £1,000 or a staggering $1,475), includes some of the usual fare: Ruinart Champagne, 40 bottles of nail polish, Marshmallow Fluff and a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” DVD.

You’ll notice from the image that just above the Fluff, however, is an iPod nano.

How did electronics creep into a holiday gift hamper?

Says Hindmarch: “I have always been fascinated by hampers, their history and Britishness. But am always disappointed by yet another basket whose contents I don’t actually want to keep.”

We hear you. The nail polish and Fluff will always run out, but the iPod will remain.

Apple has given iPhone developers an early Christmas present, freeing them (somewhat) from the convoluted mess of ad hoc distribution.

Once an application has been accepted to the App Store by Apple, developers can now issue up to 50 promotional codes. The codes allow the recipient to download a full copy of the application for free. Presently, these codes can only be used in the U.S. iTunes Stores by using the “Redeem” link in the App Store. The 50 code limit is reset for each new version of an application, according to a report at MacRumors.

Presumably developers may continue to use the ad hoc model, wherein a special version of their app can be sent, along with a mobile provisioning file, to up to 100 users (beta testers and/or reviewers) who provide the unique device identification number of their iPhone or iPod Touch, for giving out copies of apps prior to their acceptance in the AppStore.

‘Tis the Season to make a list out of everything you can possibly think of – who’s been naughty, who’s been nice, the Best of This and The Worst of That.

Apple released its lists of the Top 10 Paid and Top 10 Free Apps on the iTunes AppStore Tuesday, and also broke down the top apps by category. If you visited the iTunes store since the AppStore launched in July, you’ve been able to get a running snapshot of the Top 10 overall lists, as they have been published on the AppStore’s front page since the launch.

After opening strong, Super Monkey Ball ended up 4th on the list of top paid app downloads, while Koi Pond quietly, like a zen warrior, took the top honors. Amazingly, enough people paid for iBeer to put it in the #10 spot.

Among the free downloads, two music apps, Pandora Radio and Shazam were in the top 5 (#1 and #4, respectively) and in only two months of availability, Google Earth managed to place #7.

For all of the AppStore’s Top Lists, click here.

For all of the iTunes Store’s Top Lists, click here.

This Lego-look speaker will pump some sound for the iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPod Touch and iPod Mini. The USB-charged speaker blocks come in red, blue, green, white, black  yellow and pink.
No details on how powerful it is, but probably enough to annoy someone in the next cubicle over.
At around $20, it’s an idea for the random people on your list.

Available at Delight

Just in case you don’t have such a great photographic eye, or perhaps are not completely satisfied with the images produced by your iPhone’s distinctive optics, there is help available.

More than 30,000 people have downloaded French photographer Eric Lafforgue’s free iPhone app Hervé Péroteau. He released version 2.1 on Sunday with more than 800 pictures available for use as screensavers for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Lafforgue’s work has been published in prestegious magazines worldwide, including Geo, National Geographic, CNN Traveler, The Times, Stampa and UNESCO magazine. His app will fill 25MB of space on your device, but it automatically lets you know when there are photo updates available and includes professional tips from one of the world’s most successful freelance photographers.

Check out some of his images in the gallery below and be sure also to visit his stunning website.

All images © Eric Lafforgue

If a woman plays soft jazz when you come over but the top 25 played songs on her iPod are death metal, she’s not showing her true self.

The warning comes from psychologist Sam Gosling, author of “SNOOP: What Your Stuff Says About You.”

In this guide for men who want an excuse to pry, Gosling reckons her playlists will reveal whether you’ve hooked up with a potentially dangerous harpy and haven’t noticed yet.

His advice:
“Look for variety not quantity. Also note the differences between the music on her iPod’s top 25 most played list vs. the music she has playing when you visit. Jazz, classical or blues suggests openness; country, pop and soundtracks suggest she is more extraverted and possibly nicer.”

George Sawyer, who describes himself as “raised in a wood shop,” fashioned the Podbark case from flexible veneer adhered to wood-look paper with a protective screen sandwiched between. They wrap around the iPod with a finger joint, adding an authentic touch.

Sawyer started making them a few years ago, when the fifth gen iPod came out. Podbark currently fits those and the iPod classic 80gig, a comfort to those of us who have older models hanging around. They cost $15-$18, available in your choice of maple (pictured) or walnut.

iPhone (iBark?) and newer iPod models are in the works.

Podbark at Etsy

Depending on your point of view, Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder” was either a bladder-threatening comedy, a hodge-podge of offensive stereotypes or just plain stupid.

After earning $100 mil at the US box office, it was recently released on DVD. The movie, about a ragtag bunch of actors forced to become real-life heroes, is a triumph of product placement. TiVo plays has a decisive role in the plot and everything from the newly-sexy cherry Chapstick and, yes, the iPod have cameos.

When Stiller’s character Tugg Speedman gets lost in the jungle, he soothes himself by watching Star Trek on his iPod, which was prominently placed in a giant gift basket in an earlier scene.

Not to spoil the plot, but after he’s attacked, he loses his cool and starts wearing his iPod as part of pseudo tribal fetish costume.

Guessing the iPod wouldn’t work with beads strung through it, but it’s a nice idea.

iPods provide welcome respite from annoying incidental music in stores, since retailers don’t understand that no one over 10 wants to buy anything while listening to Britney Spears.

There’s no bringing your own acoustic oasis in a bar for drinks, though.

Enter the WXYZ bar at hip Aloft hotel in Minneapolis, where customers can bring their iPods and blast personalized playlists over the venue stereo while they imbibe. Birthdays, anniversaries, 80s theme nights with office mates, the possibilities are endless.

Manager Amy Phillips said the plug-in-your-iPod idea was meant to provide “a connection to why they are there.”

The only catch? You do have to show them the playlist before hand. Which sort of rules out my favorite, though admittedly disturbing girl’s choir cover version of “I Touch Myself,” but I think it could be worked out. Or maybe I’ll have to sign up for this bring-your-own iPod night instead.

Photo credit: Metro Mix Twin Cities
Via Twin Cities Eater

Artcoustic has come up with a clever solution for small spaces or people who like music but want speakers to be good-looking or at least unobtrusive. It looks like a painting but this iPod dock with speaker blasts your sound without any of the bulk, the only thing not super cool about it is the name — SUPERSTAR iPod Music Centre.

The makers assure it’s a plug and play setup for these state-of-the art speakers with built-in
2x150watt Amplifier.

The front panel of the SUPERSTAR (what were they thinking?) comes in solid colors, jaunty stripes, a ton of patterns and even a series of Buddha portraits. And if you get tired of the look, move or repaint, you can always change it. Available in 2009, no word on price.

Via Smarthouse

Whacky journo types at the Super Soaraway Sun (as it used to be known when I was a lad) have discovered that you can turn VEGETABLES into BATTERIES.

Sun senior editors, average age 57, found that they could fill a few precious inches of newsprint with a story of a man who recharges his iPod with an onion, a technique well documented in school-level science for donkeys years.

An onlooker said: “If they hadn’t been able to get an iPod angle on it, they’d never have considered it as a story at all.

“But anything iPod is worth a hundred words here and there, mainly because everyone in the newsroom owns one.”

Continued on page 94.

Travis Hammond is a graphic designer located near Baltimore, Maryland. He works for a private auction firm and a local magazine, and does freelance photography and design work. He’s also a bit of an Apple nut, if these among many other examples of his Mac, iPod and iPhone inspired creativity are any indication.

See more at his website and his Flickr pages

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A Long Island woman stabbed an attacker in the neck with her iPod charger, then managed to pick the twice-convicted rapist out of a police line up — he still had the prong marks from the charger on his neck.

According to a local paper, at 2 a.m. the rapist approached an 18-year-old as she was walking home from a friend’s place. He made a pretense of asking for directions, then put her in a chokehold and pulled her behind a church.

In the struggle, she stabbed him with an iPod charger which didn’t prevent the rape but became key in identifying her 23-year-old attacker.

Sources told the paper that by the time police rounded him up as a suspect, about a week later the rapist still bore “two prong marks on the neck from the charger.”

Wondering whether the European iPod charger with rounded prongs would come in as handy for impromptu self-defense.

Via Macenstein

Fashion czar Karl Lagerfeld, who put his hand to an iPod casehimself once for Italian fashion house Fendi, owns a custom iPod trunk to support his professed love of Mac.

Lagerfeld totes his gear around in a handcrafted custom trunk from Louis Vuitton. Well, probably some bedraggled assistant has to pack his wardrobe of 20 iPods, one charger (what just one?), JBL iPod speakers and a subwoofer.

Too cool even to even carry the LV monogram (but they do have Lagerfeld’s initials near the handle) the trunk is made in trademark Taiga black leather with a microfiber interior.

Custom cases like these take from four to six months to make and run upwards of $10,000.

Via Luxist

Microsoft, a day after slashing prices of its Zune media player, Thursday threw a bone to fans of DRM-free music, offering a $15 per month Zune Pass subscription for essentially $5.

Microsoft said it would allow Zune Pass subscribers to keep 10 songs (worth around $10) per month that they can own, even if the subscription ends. Previously, copy-protection meant songs downloaded from the Zune marketplace would be disabled if the $15 per month subscription service expired.

“People want the freedom to listen to whatever they want across millions of songs, combined with the confidence that they can keep their favorite tracks forever,” Chris Stephenson, Zune’s general manager of global marketing, said in statement.

As we enter the critical holiday shopping period, the future of Apple’s iPod hangs in the balance as two courts consider a patent lawsuit over memory chips. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion Inc. Monday named Apple, along with other customers of Samsung in a dispute over alleged abuse of flash memory patents.

While the Delaware lawsuit, covering six patents, asks for damages and an injunction against Samsung, Spansion’s case before the International Trade Commission could result in blocking imports of Apple and other makers of devices containing flash memory chips, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A wide range of gadgets, from MP3 players to cell phones and digital cameras, use flash memory. The ITC could forego an import ban if it views the blockage would impose undue harm on a company.

Apple released a significant update for 4th generation iPod Nano Tuesday night. Software Version 1.0.3 includes a number of fixes to cover art and photo distortion issues that some users had been experiencing, and delivers support for the eagerly awaited Apple in-ear headphones with mic and remote.

Although the headphones were announced in September when the iPod Nano line was refreshed, they have remained as yet unavailable.

Nano users can obtain the new software by connecting the digital media player to their computer and launching iTunes. Follow the prompts for downloading and installing the software.

Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16Ms, recently unveiled in all their Batmobile-meets-James Bond glory, will have an optional iPod built in to the dashboard.
The 16GB touch, black with the prancing horse logo, will come loaded with Ferrari images and sounds — the famous engine purr, maybe?

This is the kind of kit Ferrari owners will love, since the detachable iPod allows them to take the brand with them in places (like the gym, shopping) where it wouldn’t be obvious otherwise that they were Ferrari owners. (I once worked briefly on the Ferrari owners’ site. As a person who let their driver’s license lapse and uses a bicycle to get to work, it was a challenge). And the iPod can keep you company when the car is kept safely in the garage for more practical transport or serve as a memento when you sell it.

The base price for the limited-edition car is $277,000, no word on the extra cost for the iPod upgrade.

Via iPod Nation

Artist Catherine Forster began examining the world through a microscope as a biologist, now she uses technology to talk about the world.

Her installation “Golden Oldies” features four silent videos inspired by pop songs (“Karaoke classics” she says) played on iPods.

These visual landscapes are inspired by “Tiny Bubbles” (Don Ho, 1966), ‘Under the Boardwalk” (Drifters, 1964), “Spinning Wheel” (Blood Sweat and Tears, 1969), and “Starry Starry Night” (Don McLean, 1971).

“Golden Oldies” was meant to be a humorous take on how people cut themselves off from the world by creating iPod retreats.

Right now, it’s part of a Biennial show in Kentucky, but Forster says the ongoing project include new videos from the 1960s to the 1990s. You can check out the videos up close from her site.

Is the exit of Tony Fadell, labeled the “Father of the iPod,” a signal Apple has larger plans for the device now partially eclipsed by the iPhone? Yes, say Apple experts.

“We believe this is the second major indication of the future of the iPod as a mobile computing platform,” Andrew Murphy, analyst at Piper Jaffray, told Cult of Mac Tuesday.

The introduction of the iPod Touch was the first tip Apple was moving toward greater mobile computing, Murphy added.

Fadell, who joined Cupertino in 2001, was a senior vice president in the iPod division. He’ll become an advisor to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The decision, made with his Apple Human Resources executive wife Danielle Lambert, was to “devote more time to their young family,” Apple announced.

Former IBM vice president Mark Papermaster will take Fadell’s position, a move Murphy believes means more emphasis on hardware.

“Papermaster’s experience in chip design and his replacement of Tony Fadell shows Apple focusing on mobile devices and possibly doing their own chips for the devices (iPods and iPhones),” the Piper Jaffray analyst wrote in an e-mail to Cult of Mac.