Logitech Thursday introduced the G330 gaming headset, designed to “combat fatigue” with a claimed ‘first-of-its-kind” behind-the-head design and a silicon-lined headband with pivoting ear pads to relieve pressure points.
An iPod Touch plus a mobile WiFi router is better and cheaper than an iPhone, says Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrell.
Sorrell just got the MiFi — a mobile, battery-powered WiFi hotspot that can share a high-speed cell connection with several devices via WiFi. It’s sold in the U.S. by Verizon for $100. (Requires a two-year contract and a monthly plan costing $40 or $60 — 250MB or 5GB of data, respectively.)
The MiFi is fast and reliable, he says, and can be used with an iPod Touch to make Skype calls and play music streaming from Spotify’s fantastic music library.
“The real point is that if you have a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot in your pocket, it is going to be cheaper than an iPhone contract pretty much anywhere, and can not only enable your iPod Touch to have an always on connection, but let you make Skype calls and stream music without having to worry about the usual iPhone size limits, as you’re on Wi-Fi. You can also share the connection with five machines in total, including a netbook, for true on the go video calls and (gasp) Spotify.”
Setup was a little tricky and he’s not been using the setup long, but Sorrel thinks the combo could be all he needs. He’ll be testing his new setup in coming weeks and promises to report back.
(Blurry pics taken by Pete himself)
What it is: Nike+iPod-iPod. Basically, an inexpensive watch that doubles as a run tracker with the help of a transmitter in your shoe. Not an Apple thing, per se, although they did design the chip that goes in your shoe.
Why it’s cool: The Nike+ system originally developed for the iPod nano is a pretty remarkable little invention that allows you to keep track of your running statistics and inspire yourself to greater heights.. Unfortunately, it’s only recently been available across Apple’s mobile devices. If you own anything but a nano, a second-gen iPod touch or an iPhone 3GS, you can’t use Nike+ with your iPod. And, bizarrely, the Nike+iPod set-up actually behaves in obnoxious ways if you’re an urban runner. For example, if you get caught at a long stop light and pause your run clock, the iPod stops its music, too, making the wait that much more interminable. The NikePlus Sportband acknowledges the value of run tracking and music without making them interdependent. You can pause your workout and keep listening. And it obviously works with older iPods and iPhones, or even your shuffle.
And the new model, out as of a few weeks ago (available in gray/neon yellow or white/hot pink), is brilliant and fixes some significant flaws with the previous generation. The original black and orange Sportband had poor sealing, which led to a lot of people ending up with unreadable watches as moisture left smears on the inside. Nike recalled the product and now offers one-for-one swaps if you help onto your original Sportband. Besides fixing the moisture problem, the new display goes for a pleasing black numbers on white background instead of the former’s extremely dim white letters on black. It’s very stylish, and the functionality is better than ever. Additionally, because the face clips off and syncs vis USB (see below)
The watch sets itself and can even charge its (already long-lasting) battery, which means it won’t die the way normal watches do. It’s fuss-free, and the nicest $59 watch you’ll ever find, whether or not you’re a runner.
Where to get it: Finer local running specialty shops or the Nike Store. If you’re making a swap, bring it into the original place of purchase, with or without a receipt. At any NikeTown location, they’ll even give you cash, including tax, if they don’t have enough in stock.
Apple on Thursday unveiled a beefier 2TB Time Capsule backup box and WiFi router.
The new arrival is $499, while the older 1TB version drops to $299.
The Time Capsule box combines a 2TB hard drive with a wireless AirPort Extreme router to provide backup storage, plus a printer and file server.
The new Time Capsule is accessible to MobileMe subscribers and provides a Guest Network which allows users to set up separate network without having to expose the main WiFi password.
[Via AppleInsider]
Zacuto, maker of camera gear for professionals, has introduced a gadget designed for pro (or wannabe pro) Apple iPhone 3GS shooters. The $69 Zgrip iPhone Jr. includes a cradle to which the iPhone attaches, along with multiple “fingers” to grasp the phone. The device also attaches to a tripod. The Zgrip iPhone Jr. is the consumer version of the $295 Zgrip iPhone Pro from Zacuto.
The iPhone 3GS has become popular with porn movie producers. Director Matt Morningwood employed the iPhone to shoot some scenes included in the first adult movie to use the 3GS. Meanwhile, porn movie maker Pink Visual pronouced itself “the most ‘iPhone-centric’ porn company around.â€
[Via Zacuto]
When’s the last time you’ve heard the gadget world go ga-ga over a camera mount? Well, the folks behind the outrageously orange Monsterpod seem to have hit the mark. “We’re hooked,” raved Wired’s Gadget Lab Wednesday.
The makers are a bit less dramatic. The Monsterpod is “only the coolest freaking, gravity-defying, mind-boggling tripod ever created!”
The excitement stems from the nearly unpronounceable Viscoelastic Polymer, allowing the mount to stick to anything – walls, roofs, whatever – just attach your 20-ounces or less camera and you’re good.
The gadget costs $30 plus $10 for a zip-up bag.
[Via Photojojo]
Are you on an iDiet?
If you really want to move your dieting practice into the modern age, you may want to check out The Connected Scale from Withings, a WiFi-enabled scale that sports a free companion iPhone app (iTunes link) that will give you access to information about your weight and body-fat percentages over the course of time, all viewable in table and graph form – and accessible from the Internet.
Now, there’s a password you’ll want to keep secure.
UPDATE: Withings informs CoM the Connected Scale will be available to US Customers in September at a retail price $159 USD, on their website (https://www.withings.com/). And yes, it can display weight in pounds.
Are you getting tired of your sleek and stylish iPod docking with a speaker system resembling a tank? iLuv Monday introduced its imm9400 vertical CD and MP3 sound system for $249.99. The system sports a 4.3-inch main system with two 3-inch 10W (20W combined) speakers.
Along with the slim line, the system includes a 4-disc CD player and supports MP3 or WMA files via SD/MMC cards or a USB memory stick.
The system also includes an iPhone/iPod dock, 40-track memory, as well as AM and FM radio.
[Via Gearlog]
Apple has officially declared the iconic “Luxo lamp” iMac as an “obsolete” computer.
Several models of the iconic machine, which won as many enemies as fans for its unusual lamp-like design, will be declared obsolete on September 15, according to HardMac.com.
The obsolete designation means that Apple service centers will no longer stock parts for the machines –and will no longer repair them — though third-party repair shops likely will.
The Luxo-lamp iMac caused a huge stir when it was introduced in 2002. It made the cover of Time magazine and is now exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.
The machine was the first iMac to feature a flat-panel display, which floated above its CPU, housed in a white plastic dome. The screen was attached by a double-jointed chrome arm, which realigned the screen with the slightest touch of a fingertip, but then kept it in place — no mean feat of design.
The machine was a bear to design, according to Apple’s head designer, Jonathan Ive. At first Ive tried to glom the guts of the computer onto the back of a flat panel display, but the early prototypes were inelegant. Then, during a walk in Steve Jobs’s back garden, Jobs told Ive that each element had to be “true to itself,” which led the designer to look at sunflowers as inspiration, and seperate the screen from the body.
A few years later, Ive was able to marry the guts to the screen, and newer iMacs are much closer to Ive’s original conception, but the freaky-looking Luxo-lamp iMac remains a firm favorite of many.
Apple is designing an entirely new entertainment experience designed specifically for its upcoming tablet, the Financial Times claims today in an interesting but rather vague story.
Apple’s fabled touchscreen tablet will have a 10-inch screen and will be more like an oversized iPod Touch than a full-fledged tablet computer (a key question is what OS it will run).
Contrary to previous rumors, the tablet hit stores in time for the holidays, the FT says, citing record label sources out of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
To accompany it, Apple is working on a new entertainment package to rival the album experience in days of yore, when the release of a new album was a cultural and social event.
“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” one executive told the FT.
Codenamed “Cocktail,” the entertainment bundle would resemble an “interactive book,” but be more than a bunch of hotlinked PDFs, the FT says.
Apple is reportedly working on Cocktail with the big four record labels, who describe the project as “revolutionary” and are hoping it will offset declining album sales. When consumers buy music online, they biuy low-margin singles, not profitable albums.
Unfortunately the FT doesn’t have many details of this intriguing idea. Reminds me of the hype surrounding “multi-media CDs” in the late ’90s when CDs with music and video were supposed to provide a similar revolution in entertainment and education. There was talk about amazing immersive encyclopedias, but instead we got unreadable digital books with tiny embedded QuickTime movies.
Its also hard to imagine friends sitting around an Apple tablet reading band biographies while listening to music.
Much easier to imagine a couple of kids on the couch sharing the device to watch episodes of Spongebob.
Indeed, one record exec told the FT: “It’s going to be fabulous for watching movies.”
The FT says Apple is also in talks with book publishers who are “optimistic about their services being offered with the new computer.”
Apple is adding moisture sensors to everything, from iPods and iPhones to MacBooks and even its latest keyboards.
But recent reports suggest the sensors may be too sensitive, and may even be triggered by high humidity.
The moisture sensors, or Liquid Submersion Indicators (LSI), are small stickers that change color from white to red if submerged. Apple refuses to honor warranties on products with triggered sensors, assuming they’ve been dropped in a swimming pool or doused with Mountain Dew, no matter what the owner says.
The sensors, which are found in the dock connector ports of iPhones and under the keys of Apple’s latest keyboards, are controversial. There have been complaints that they’re triggered by sweat.
Now, there are reports out of Singapore that high humidity is killing iPhones, but positive LSI indicators are allowing the local carrier to reject warranty claims.
One of the biggest drags of the iPhone – its battery — may one day be supplemented with a wireless charging system that recharges the device in your pocket or bag when you walk in the room.
At the TED Global conference in Oxford on Thursday, Eric Giler, CEO of Witricity, demonstrated an iPhone being recharged wirelessly by his company’s new system.
“You’d never have to worry about plugging these things in again,” he said.
Giler explained the system to the BBC (see the video above). He says the technology could be on the market within 18 months.
Witricity’s wireless charging system is based on the physics of “electromagnetic resonance,†the same principle that makes a wine glass shatter when an opera singer hits the right note.
But instead of sound energy, Witricity’s system transports power over electromagnetic waves. The system has two parts: A transmitter unit, plugged into a wall outlet, which uses a vibrating coil to create a resonant magnetic field. In the target gadget, a matching coil tuned to the same frequency transforms electromagnetic vibrations into juice for the device.
The system works without any physical contact. Other wireless charging systems, like Palm’s Touchstone, require contact between the gadget and the charging base.
The system is claimed to be safe, and will charge gadgets and devices within range, including bigger electronics like flat-screen TVs. Giler demonstrated a TV running on wireless power that is commercially-available.
Giler also showed the system recharging a T-Mobile G1 phone, which had all the components packed inside. The iPhone had to be fitted with a special sled.
“They don’t make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones so we put a little sleeve on the back,” he said.
There’s a couple of interesting new portable iPhone/iPod speakers on the market featuring built-in solar chargers.
Devotec Industries’ Solar Sound portable stereo claims to be the first solar-powered speaker also using Bluetooth for wireless music distribution — perfect for piping music from an iPhone during a picnic.
The $99.99 portable speaker includes a pair of 2W speakers using a 150mA solar panel to provide juice for the built-in 1500mAh Lithium-Ion battery. A solar charge provides eight hours of music at medium volume, or four hours if you crank the unit up to 11, according to maker Devotec Industries.
In an Apple-like design touch, a yellow logo lights up during charging. An AC-DC plug and charging cable are also provided.
Along with the portable speakers, the half-pound device includes touch-screen controls and a built-in microphone.
The other solar speaker after the jump.
Multiple reports Tuesday indicate a 25 year-old employee of Foxconn, one of Apple’s OEM suppliers in China, killed himself last week after losing a 4th generation iPhone which he had been instructed to ship to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA.
Sun Danyong was a recent engineering graduate who worked in product communications for electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn in Shenzhen, a city in the booming industrial corridor between Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
On Thursday, July 9th, according to the first English-language report on the incident at Venture Beat, Sun got 16 prototype phones from the assembly line at a local Foxconn factory. At some point in the next few days, he discovered one of the phones was missing.
On Monday, July 13, he reported the missing phone to his boss. Then, that Wednesday, three Foxconn employees illegally searched his apartment. Accusations have reportedly been flying about the Chinese language Twittersphere that Sun was detained and physically abused during the investigation, although this has not been substantiated.
Shortly after 3am on Thursday July 16th, security cameras at Sun’s apartment building show him leaping to his death from a window in his apartment.
As flash memory and solid state drives steadily become the storage media of choice for portable electronic devices, Apple’s iPod Classic – the device widely credited with kickstarting the company’s rise from the ashes of the John Scully era – may not survive to celebrate its 10th birthday in 2011.
1.8 inch hard disk drives manufactured by Samsung and Toshiba, the last two manufacturers standing in a once-robust market for small, high-capacity spinning disk drives, sit languishing in the supply channel, according to a report at Ars Technica, and industry trends do not bode well for the future of Apple’s signature gadget.
When Apple launched the first iPod in 2001, the hard disk was the only vehicle capable of storing large amounts of data flexibly at reasonable cost. Since then, however, advances in Flash memory and SSD technology have made those two storage options the industry standard for everything from netbooks to iPhones and the entire line of Apple’s portable music players, with only the Classic continuing to rely on the 1.8″ HDD.
The trend toward Flash memory and SSD technology has been building for at least the last couple of years, with Apple having been ahead of the curve when the company introduced its Flash memory-based iPod nano in 2005.
SSDs typically offer higher performance–often much higher performance–than hard-disk drives and are more durable since they have no moving parts. While the larger question of where the technology is headed remains somewhat in debate, in large part over concerns about data’s long-term reliability in SSD storage media and Flash memory’s eventual degradation related to writing, erasing and re-writing its memory blocks, the fate of the 1.8 inch HDD seems dire.
The industry’s current disdain for small-form HDD products, and Apple’s apparent design trajectory for its mobile PMPs and handset devices, suggest the time has come to prepare farewells for the iPod Classic.
The MacBook Air is thin, sexy machine, but you wouldn’t want one smashed into your chest during a car accident.
That’s what happened to this MacBook Air above. It was sitting in a man’s lap when the airbag went off and crushed it into his chest, bending the lid like a Taco. Amazingly, the computer still works, but it left a MacBook-shaped mark on the man’s chest. The man is lucky — the MacBook Air is thin enough to slice through bread and human flesh (see the pix after the jump).
“He does have a bruise that matches the leading edge of the MacBook Air,” says Dana Stibolt, president of MacMedics, the Maryland repair shop that’s attempting to fix the machine.
Stibolt says the man had the MacBook Air open in his lap as he sat in the passenger seat. When the car was involved in a serious smash, the airbag deployed and “pushed the top edge of the MacBook Air (where the camera is) into him, and then kept pushing from the bottom of the hinge area effectively crushing it on his chest,” says Stibolt. Ouch!
The picture on the screen – which looks like a black-and-white mountain — is the pattern of the broken LCD.
Stibolt is hoping to replace the screen — the rest of the computer seems to work fine. More at MacMedics.
Image credit: Randy Stewart
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.
– David Bowie
One day, people may point to an article published Monday at PCMag.com (perhaps the preeminent Windows-foucused tech magazine around) by long-time Apple-baiting columnist John C. Dvorak, as a signal for the storming of Microsoft’s figurative Bastille.
“If I was going to buy a new laptop this minute, a MacBook Pro is probably what I’d get,” are words almost no tech watcher of the past 20 years would ever figure to come from Dvorak, the smart, engaging veteran columnist who has taken over the years a nearly perverse glee in stirring up the bee hive of Apple loyalists in tech journalism.
But that’s exactly what Dvorak had to say after seeing first-hand “all these whiz-bang features” of his son’s brand-new MacBook Pro that, he said, “make me realize that I have fallen behind.”
But don’t go thinking Dvorak has fully consumed the kool-aid or that his enmity for Apple will abate completely anytime soon. The real reason he’s kindly disposed to an Apple product at this point, aside from “that hard aluminum unibody that makes the thing feel like a rock,” is a piece of software his son required, DEVONthink, which organizes and sorts PDF files into manageable database blocks – and has no Windows-based counterpart. “It’s about as close to a killer Apple app as anything I’ve seen since VisiCalc in the late ’70s,” he gushed.
Of course no Dvorak piece would be complete without a pointed jab at something Apple, and he dutifully reported his son’s experience at the Apple Store as something akin to “a car dealership in the ’70s, with layers of various salespeople, each trying to screw you.”
“I actually think that the Apple Stores are barriers to sales, and people only buy Macs because the machines have clearly moved ahead in genuine usefulness,” he wrote, saying, “overall, it’s a pathetic indictment of the entire PC scene.”
Well, perhaps it’s a reach to tar the entire PC scene with the same brush, but clearly change is in the air and more and more people such as Dvorak’s kid are coming around to just how far Apple machines have moved ahead.
It’s at least a bright sign that someone like Dvorak has finally noticed.
After my post yearning for more battery life out of my iPhone 3GS and hoping that the Mophie Juice Pack Air might hold the solutions to all of problems, a reader, who shall remain anonymous, tipped me off to some unresolved problems with the current generation fo the combination iPhone case/battery pack.
At left is one of two screenshots he sent me purporting to show the Juice Pack Air refusing to provide power to his iPhone (which kind of defeats its purpose). He bought one, was told it was defective, was given a replacement, and found it had the same troubles.
Here’s his explanation:
“It only happens if you discharge your iPhone to 20% warning. Then allow the Mophie to charge your iPhone 3GS until its depleted. Once it’s at zero charge the errors happen in the iPhone 3GS every time. I think those errors even crashed the phone once, but this is unconfirmed but feel its right since it was left to charge, placed in an outer mesh pocket of a laptop bag and found unresponsive later until removed from the Mophie and hard reset. Sigh.”
Anyone else seen these issues? I’ll admit, it has me back in a wait-and-see mode again…
Spot the difference? One of these is a $30 iPhone Stereo Headset from Apple. The other is a $14 knockoff from the Philippines.
Thing is, the $14 copycat is as almost good as the original. It’s nearly physically indistinguishable. The sound is exceptionally good. And the microphone/remote works the same as it does on the genuine article.
Even the packaging is remarkably realistic.
Except there’s a few things that are off — a few minor details that give them away as fakes. Plus, they broke down after a week.
The audio manufacturer Shure is known for its excellent headphones, which makes it a favorite target of counterfeiters.
In May, Shure helped Chinese authorities bust knockoff shops run by two Shanghai companies that were making copycat Shure headphones. The raids uncovered large quantities of Shure E2c and E4c earphones, which sell for about $70 and $170 respectively, as well as headphones branded JVC and Audio-Technica.
Unlike copycats of yore, today’s counterfeiters are amazingly sophisticated and accomplished, turning out high-quality knockoffs that in some ways rival the originals. Flickr user digaderfox bought a pair of fake Shures on eBay last year, and documented the surprisingly high quality of the knockoffs on the photo site.
Apple is also is becoming a target of copycats, with amazingly good knockoffs of iPhones and headsets coming onto the market.
SEE ALSO:
Marvel At the Ingenuity of the Chinese iPhoney, iPhone Knockoffs Now Near Perfect
Paul Applebaum, Shure’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel, said counterfeiters are increasingly sophisticated. Some are setting up convincing factory-direct websites, or hijacking U.S. eBay accounts to make it appear goods are shipped domestically.
Full interview after the jump.
As the issue of overheating iPhones heats up, Apple might be preparing to point the finger at iPhone owners who fail to keep their iPhones within acceptable temperatures.
Apple recently updated its knowledge base advising iPhone owners how to keep their devices within acceptable operating temperatures.
For many, this was not the answer they were hoping for because Apple’s solution to an apparent defect appears to be to place the burden on the user to ensure their iPhone’s temperature remains within an acceptable range.
What’s troubling about Apple’s position is that it sets the stage for Apple to adjust its iPhone service policy based on the argument that damage caused by overheating the iPhone is the fault of the iPhone’s owner — not Apple.
Remember how Apple resolved the problem with the iPhone’s oversensitive moisture sensor, which some claimed was activated by sweat?
That’s right, if you bought an iPhone with a defective moisture sensor that subsequently gets tripped by sweat or humidity you have to pay Apple $199 for a replacement under the theory that Apple cannot confirm that your iPhone was not exposed to water.
Sound familiar?
Up for sale is on eBay is a sketchy-looking, non-functioning white iPhone described as a prototype demo unit of the brand new GS model.
The auction has attracted two bids and is currently running at $305, even though the iPhone doesn’t work.
The seller says there’s a problem with restoring the software: “This device is not eligible for the requested build,” iTunes says when he tries to restore it.
The seller, vofffka, of Ocean City, New Jersey, says an Apple genius at his local retail store verified the iPhone as an Apple product, but can’t service it, “because it’s never been sold.”
WTF that means, who knows?
The seller has a very high rating. He is currently selling several unlocked iPhones.
Where did he get this prototype? Get this. In the QA section, a potential buyer asks the same question, and gets this reply:
“Hi! It is currently NOT WORKING, I got it on ebay a month ago and the guy I got it from told me he found it in the airport. Thanks!”
Yeah, that makes me feel real keen to bid on this item.
Here’s a link to the auction: White 16GB APPLE IPHONE 3G S PROTOTYPE UNIT!
More pictures after the jump.
Here’s a witty idea for putting you overheating iPhone to good use over the July 4 weekend, by freelance illustrator Chad Covino.
Apple has a support document called “Keeping iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS within acceptable operating temperatures” to which the company has directed those with concerns about alleged overheating problems with 3G and 3GS models of the device.
In addition to offering practical advice such as “Don’t leave the device in your car” (as car interiors can exceed the recommended operating range of -20º to 45º C [-4º to 113º F]), the document also warns that CPU-intensive applications, such playing music or using the GPS while in direct sunlight may also overheat the iPhone.
The OS has a temperature warning screen built in, that appears to indicate when the phone could be running into problems and may not work properly.
Using the iPhone in temperatures over 95 degrees can trigger the temperature warning, according to at least one report. “Low- or high-temperature conditions might temporarily shorten battery life or cause the device to temporarily stop working properly,” Apple warns in the support document, though it says when the temperature warning appears, the phone “may still be able to make emergency calls.”
Recent anecdotal reports of 3GS iPhones overheating, with some white models turning pink as a result, have led to speculation that Apple may have a recall situation on its hands, but the company so far is relying on the fact that “iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS comply with the safety standard for Safety of Information Technology Equipment, IEC 60950-1,” and has had no further comment on the overheating issue.
[GearLog]
Despite touting its green credentials in new TV ads, Apple is ranked fairly low in Greenpeace’s latest survey of green electronics.
Greenpeace’s quarterly green scorecard was released on Wednesday, and while Apple got high marks for reducing toxic chemicals, it got low marks for not supporting global recycling initiatives or using more recycled plastics.
Overall, Apple scored 4.7 out of 10, putting it in the lower half of a pack of 18 electronics manufacturers. Nokia came top with a score of 7.45, and Nintendo came bottom with a score of 1.
Apple has been advertising the green credentials of its new MacBook line in TV ads — proclaiming them the greenest laptops ever.
Greenpeace’s 12th Guide to Greener Electronics ranks tech companies on three main criteria: reducing overall environmental impact, eliminating toxic chemicals, and recycling efforts.
