iPod - page 7

Finally, after years of waiting, Americans will be treated to one of the best music services on the planet. Spotify is set to launch in the US tomorrow. The initial launch will be by “invitation and subscription.” Not sure if that means there won’t be a free US service like there is in Europe or not. Either way, Spotify is the best alternative to iTunes available and the US launch has been highly anticipated for about two years now. Spotify’s service allows users to discover and stream new music anywhere.

An former executive of an Apple supplier pleaded guilty to leaking Apple secrets.

Walter Shimoon, who once worked at electronic manufacturer Flextronics a supplier of camera parts to Apple, was arrested in 2010 for spilling the beans on actual and forecast sales figures for iPhones and iPods in the third and fourth quarters of 2009.

He’s the 12th person to plead guilty so far in a government investigation of insider trading.  

A 23-year-old man was arrested for using the iPod video camera to film up the skirts of women at a local Walmart.

There’re absolutely zero reasons not to get this incredibly slick, fly-by-the-seat-of-you-pants remake of the 90’s classic racing shooter Death Rally iOS game unless you hate fun or you’re dead.

Anyone playing around with an iPhone 4 for any length of time will have realized that its compactness, decent sensor-processor combo and the huge selection of editing apps available make the darn thing is a superb platform for making both films and still photographs — if you can work around some of the gadget’s limitations. In this case, Habbycam, a small Southern Camifornia-based company that supplies all manner of rigs to the film industry, came up with the Habbycam iGrip ($140) as a better way to hold and position the iPhone for extended shooting. We think it needs work.

A full week has passed since WWDC, and yet we’re still finding little gems inside iOS 5. The latest finding is that the improved Calendar App allows creators of events to invite people to attend, and then see who all is coming once they’ve responded. The new magic is all made possible with iCloud. Here’s how it works:

We’ve given away an iMainGo X everyday this week. Although we wish we could keep it up, today is the last day for our awesome Cult of Mac readers to win this prize. If you’ve entered the contest everyday this week and still come up empty handed, here is your last chance, so make it count. Because we’re filling generous, we’re going to give everyone the option to submit two entries into the contest. Here’s how to enter:

We’ve been raving about Apple’s new iMessage feature in iOS 5 all week. If our current findings haven’t piqued your interest in the new messaging service that let’s you ditch SMS messaging, then maybe this little tidbit will intrigue you. With iMessage, Apple is also introducing the best mobile group chat client to ever hit a smartphone.

“What? No way, that’s not my Enrique Iglesias track. How’d that get on my iPhone?” Have you ever had your musical tastes harshly criticized by a friend who’s browsing through the music library on your iPhone? Apple’s now enabled users to avoid those awkward moments of friends discovering your guilty pleasures by allowing you to delete songs from your iPhone or iPad.

We’re back at it again today. After yesterday’s highly successful Twitter Trivia Giveaway we’ve decided to give everyone another chance to win the Twitter Trivia Giveaway. We’ve been giving out free stuff all week via Twitter, but we’re nearing the end of our weeklong giveaway. With only two more chances to win you got to make each try count. If you’d like to join our three other winners and receive a free iMainGo X we’d be happy to have one sent to you as long as you play by the rules.

We’ve been giving out free stuff all week via Twitter, and while today is no exception we’ve decided to spice things up by having a Twitter Trivia Giveaway. If you’d like to join our two other winners and receive a free iMainGo X we’d be happy to have one sent to you as long as you play by the rules.

Apple’s new iMessage app was one of the biggest surprises at WWDC yesterday. Once I got iOS 5 and Lion installed on my devices, I asked our Twitter followers what they wanted to know about the new OSes and we got a lot of questions about iMessage and how it works. There seems to have been a bit of confusion regarding the new service, so let me help explain how iMessage works on iOS 5.

Did you hear the fantastic news that Cult of Mac is hosting a weeklong giveaway to celebrate our Twitter followers? Well, if you missed the post in the mountain of news that we unleashed yesterday in our WWDC coverage we’ll forgive you and give you a second chance to win. Today we’re holding another giveaway contest, where one lucky winner will receive a free iMainGo X, the powerful portable speaker system that lets you blast music from your iPod/iPhone wherever you go. You gotta enter to win though, so here’s how to submit your name for the drawing.

Last Thursday we told our Twitter followers we would throw a weeklong giveaway party if we reached 50,000 Twitter followers by the end of the week. Well, our fans heard the call and exceeded our expectations by boosting us up to 53,000! To show our gratitude for our fans we’ll be giving away an awesome iMainGo X (along with some other stuff) every day this week, starting today. Entry into each daily contest will be varied depending on the day, so keep an eye out for the giveaway posts so that you can ensure you win. Here’s how to enter today’s giveaway:

Is your head still spinning from the smackdown of new details Steve Jobs and the Apple crew just slammed you with? Apple’s iCloud page just went live so you can get all the details on the new software that Apple is bringing to you for free later this fall. Of course, Cult of Mac will be posting all new material throughout the day breaking down iCloud and it’s features, so don’t stray too far.

“If something ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a phrase Etymotic must have taken extremely seriously, judging by a look at their now-mythic, $99 ER-6i. The set has been around since their release in 2004, after which they quickly became the standard against which all other sub-$100 IEMs were tested. But seven years is an eon for a product to have remained essentially unchanged in the gadget world. Are they still as good now as they were then?

iPods and marathon runners are still on shaky ground. Kelly McClure had a good run at the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon on Sunday, coming in unexpectedly in fifth place. Instead of basking in the achievement and the $500 prize, McClure was disqualified for wearing an iPod.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w85fxNueX4g

Apple has provided us with some of the best ads ever created. The Mac vs PC Campaign ads have been some of the most memorably entertaining advertisements to grace the television. Unfortunately Apple pulled the plug on the fun banter between Mac (Justin Long) and PC (John Hodgman) last year. However, should you feel so inclined to walk down memory lane with the plethora of Mac vs PC advertisements, Adweek has compiled all 66 ads for your viewing pleasure. They’ve even got them ordered out chronologically.

[via Adweek]

update: you can also view the ads in a much more pleasant layout on Squrl.

Have an old iPod Nano? Want to spruce up its interface and software a bit? You’re in luck! This post is going to tell you how to really Pimp Your Pod! It’s rather straightfoward, and shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes to complete from start to finish. Please be aware that the iPodWizard portion is using software that’s Windows only, so you should get that virtual machine or Boot Camp install cookin’ for a little while. Read the rest of the post for more information.

Your iPhone does more than just make calls. It’s the perfect companion for almost every situation because there’s an app for almost everything. Having taken my iPhone 4 with me on a couple hikes to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, I can attest that it’s an amazing tool to keep by your side during outdoor excursions. Of course that is until you see your battery meter dip below 3%. At which point the iPhone 4 becomes just an expensive piece of metal and glass. To aid your charging dilemmas on your next camping trips, Solio has created a great line of portable solar chargers.

Solio’s Mono Charger ($60), combines a high-efficiency solar cell, with a long life lithium-ion rechargeable battery in a solid impact resistant casing for all those adventurers who need battery power no matter where they journey. The design of the device is incredibly simple. Nothing detracts from the solar panel, and it’s very easy to use. To begin charging simply place it in the sun and press the Start button on the back of the device. A red LED light will blink to indicate that it’s collecting energy.

The iPhone is a phenomenal tool for a bit of tromping about in the bush; navigation, stargazing, photographing/filming and even staying alive can all be accomplished with the help of the little gadget. That is, if it’s got any juice left.

Solio’s Rocsta ($80) — a solar panel mated to a thin slab of a battery in a sleek, flat, user-friendly housing — seems to have been created with a nod to minimalist adventurous types who want a rugged, no-fuss solar charger aong on their next Iditarod or photo shoot for National Geographic.

Port police in Los Angeles busted a counterfeit iDevice operation with a warehouse full of fakes with an estimated market value of $10 million.
“This was a well-funded operation, and the counterfeits looked very authentic,” said Ron Boyd, chief of the approximately 200-member L.A. Port Police force, adding that a buyer might not have noticed anything awry until he or she got home and tried to hook up with iTunes.

Police believe the fakes were shipped in from China as replacement parts then reassembled them. The two brothers arrested and charged with felony counts for the sale of counterfeit goods in charge of the operation may have thought they could fly under the radar with older-model fakes, still in demand by some consumers. (Personal aside: I still have both of those iPod Nano models and am clinging to them because of the storage, battery life and light weight.)

When President Obama gave his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, he dedicated a significant portion of it to the dismal state of America’s education system.

Some educational experts responded by noting that that mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad could potentially improve the American education system’s “productivity.”

I wonder whether this is a valid point, or yet another manifestation of Americans’ infatuation with technology.

Lawyers defending a pair of brothers accused with murdering for the mob want to give them iPods so they can review the evidence against them, ensuring they have adequate time and means to prepare a defence.

Fotios “Freddy” and Ty Geas, brothers and reputed mob enforcers, are accused in the 2003 murders of organized-crime boss Adolfo Bruno and henchman Gary D. Westerman.

Their lawyers say they have had only two hours per week over four months to pore over thousands of pages and hundreds of hours of audio recordings, all of it potential evidence offered by prosecutors for a trial at U.S. District Court in Manhattan beginning March 8.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Pioneer launched its SmartCradle for the iPhone at its CES presser today, further proving that the aftermarket auto industry seems to be embracing the iPhone with rapidly increasing gusto.

They really pulled out the stops on this one, hardware-wise: a dedicated GPS receiver with an external antenna, which they said will give even newer iPod Touch models GPS capability; an accelerometer and gyro sensor for better location awareness; hands-free calling an integrated amplified speaker with the ability to vary volume based on ambient noise; and audio/video output. Of course, it’ll also charge the iPhone; Ted Cardenas, Pioneer’s director of marketing, made of point of this — but since the iPhone won’t last long with location services going, any dock even remotely similar already includes charging ability. Nary a whiff on price or availability yet.