iPod - page 10

Particularly in the Crayola colors, JayBird’s retro-styled Bluetooth headphones look quite attractive to me in a PlaySkool kind of way. They pair with your iPhone through a tiny little dongle and even feature side-mounted control buttons for cycling through your iPod’s music collection without digging it out of your purse, as well as an integrated mic perfect for making phone calls.

They’re a bit pricier than I want to spend on a pair of over-the-ear, foam-covered headphones at $99, but when all is said and done, I still like the style quite a bit.

TV-B-Gone is a small, portable device that allows you to remotely turn off televisions, and consequently it’s easily one of the most irritating, selfish and pretentious gadgets on Earth. Now it looks like an iPod.

The only thing that Apple didn’t actually update with the iPhone 4 was the storage, raising the question of whether or not the iPod Touch will get a storage bump come September.

Theoretically, Toshiba’s currently available flash storage modules could give us a 128GB iPod Touch this year… but next year, we could possibly see that number double again to a shocking 256GB, thanks to Toshiba’s latest announcement: they have just announced the first-ever 128GB embedded flash memory chip manufactured with a 32nm process to start shipping this autumn.

Stacking sixteen 8GB NAND layers, the new design is just 0.06″ thick and seems ready made for iDevices. Since Apple employs one NAND flash module in the iPhone 4 and two 32GB NAND flash modules in the 64GB iPod Touch, that means next year, the iPhone 4 could conceivably leap to 128GB of storage to the iPod Touch’s 256GB.

Most of us are familiar with the annoyance of a pair of earbuds squirting out of our ear canals. The best earbuds either use rubber tips to anchor your headphones in place or, better yet, are specifically molded to fit your ears, but even those solutions can be uncomfortable for long listening sessions.

UrbanEars have a different solution with their latest Medi buds: they use an “earclick” solution which secures them in your ears by applying pressure at the catilaginous antiragus and inferior crux. The end result? Even though you can hardly feel them, they stay in your ear.

Each pair of Medis comes with four variably sized swappable pads to guarantee a close fit, and each bud boasts a 15.4mm driver, an inline remote and microphone compatible with the iPhone and a fabric, tangle-free code. They are available now for just $50 in twelve different colors.

[via Gadget Lab]

With Motorola behind one of the main challengers to the iPhone (at least, the current ones, anyway — the emerging iPhone 4, for now, seems fairly peerless), one doesn’t get much chance to observe the iPhone and the Motorola M in close proximity outside, perhaps, some smartphone cage match, or on the bedside table of two star-crossed lovers.

Psst. We’re not going to tell you where to get it, but if you happen to have some seedier connections, we can tell you that yesterday’s Gold Master Build of iOS 4 works on any iPhone or iPod Touch, whether or not its UDID has already been reported to the dev center. That means, if you know where you’re looking, you can install iOS 4 on your device right now… provided your device is a 3G, 3GS or second or third gen iPod Touch. Make sure to grab the right IPSW for your device.

Better? If you’ve got a 3Gs, you can already jailbreak it, although we recommend being cautious and if you don’t know what you’re doing, wait until the Dev Team releases the new 4.0 compatible PwnageTool… which they swear should be available within the month.

It’s made a huge splash on the iPad, so naturally, iBooks is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch, with the same controls, same note taking features, same highlights, same PDF reading and same bookmarks.

Like the iPad version, you can purchase and download a book to all your devices for no charge, and automatically sync your place, bookmarks and notes.

Not so surprisingly, on the iPhone 4 retina display, iBooks looks gorgeous. And to think: this coming from the man who said that people didn’t read anymore.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJeGt5fe7e8&feature=player_embedded

It was a rude dose of unexpected knowledge in the intricacies of USB when starry-eyed iPad owners first came home with their new devices, plugged it into their computer’s port and instead of juicing saw… nothing.

The culprit, they soon found out, was the iPad’s USB requirements: it simply hates the low-powered USB ports so ubiquitous in most PCs, and will accept nothing less than a full 10 watts of energy output if you want it to charge. This forced some users to divorce syncing from charging, plugging their iPads into their computers only when they wanted to slurp up some content from iTunes, and charging it via the wall plug.

Not exactly ideal. Luckily, in the months since the iPad’s debut, some of the biggest names in motherboards (namely Gigabyte, MSI and Asus) have all come out with software that juices up their motherboards to be able to power the iPad.

Better yet, Asus’ software seems to work on pretty much any computer, as illustrated by the above YouTube video. If you’re still grinding your teeth about USB charging issues with your iPad, you might give it a shot.

[via Engadget]

Here’s a device filling a mystery niche if I’ve ever seen one: the iP49 is a bulky, fold down clamshell travel alarm clock which includes a dock for an iPhone or iPod… itself a travel alarm clock. Double indemnity of redundancy. ho!

Personally, I’m not sure I get it, but in case you do, the iP49 features separate weekday/weekend alarms, customizable snooze times, gradual wake and sleep volume controls so you don’t start off the morning swallowing your tongue.

It also boasts “Bongiovi Acoustics’ patyented Digital Power station technology and four neodymium compression drivers,” which sounds impressive and promises to provide “studio quality” sound wherever you are. It also boasts both an AC adapter and a built-in, rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

The iP49 is available from iHome now for $159.99.

Logic3’s latest accessory, the LCD ProDock, is a compact dock for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPod Classic that isn’t particularly remarkable in any way, except for one: it comes with a neat, Nano-like LCD remote that allows you to browse your docked iDevice’s media content through an iPod-style interface.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard cheapie dock, featuring component and composite video outputs for hooking up to a television or stereo, but we do like that remote. We’d like it even better if it had a clickwheel instead of buttons.

You can pick the LCD ProDock up now for just £79.99

For years, I’ve been resiting the urge to upgrade my deck and instead pumping my iPod or iPhone audios to my antediluvian car stereo with a cheap $2 cassette deck adapter. For guys like me, then — individuals who own cars worth less than their phones, and are proud of the fact — the iDeck iPod Car Cassette Adapter seems ideal: it turns your existing cassette deck into a permanent in-auto iPod dock.

I’d be typing “SOLD” here except for that last remaining sticking point, the price: the iDeck costs $39.99 through Amazon. Heck, for that price, a cheapskate like me might as well buy a new car. One with floorboards!

It’s that time of year again! Apple’s throwing a bone (or, alternatively, trying to lock-in) green undergrads heading to college for the first time with their annual “Back to School” program, which nets eligible students a free 8GB iPod Touch (or $199 off any other iPod).

If you want to qualify, you have to buy a new Mac and iPod simultaneously at the Apple Education Store, an Apple retail store or authorized campus store. The discount is in the form of a rebate, so you’ll need to wait ninety days to get your $199 back.

As usual, it’s a pretty sweet deal that is available to any educator, students of higher-education or parents shopping for their college-bound sproglings. If you think you’re eligible and are looking to buy a new Mac, this is a great time to pick it up and get yourself a free iPod in the process.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kY46zm98Ng

The iPod is a multi-function device and using it to rap your order at McDonalds is not a crime.

A Salt Lake City judge cleared Spenser Dauwalder, 18, of disorderly conduct for ordering at a McDonald’s by singing along to a rap song playing on his iPod. Dauwalder and his three 17-year-old friends in the car faced $750 fines.

The teen was imitating the Mickey D rap in the YouTube video above, which, translated into lay speak asks for fries, a double cheeseburger, a 10-piece chicken dinner and two Dr Peppers.

Apple’s factory leak is just getting bigger, and Vietnam continues to be the undiscovered country of Apple leaks, this time with exclusive photos of the new iPod Touch… this time sporting the long rumored 2MP camera we’ve been waiting for for the past years.

Vietnamese site Tinhte’s photos show a 64GB iPod Touch that looks remarkably similar to the current model, except for the addition of the camera sensor (which, surprisingly, is center-mounted on the back… I thought for sure the rubber foot on the left corner was where the iPod Touch’s camera would inevitably end up).

The biggest surprise here is that the fourth-generation iPod Touch isn’t sporting the same design as the iPhone, but is sticking with the current unibody, reflective unibody casing. And it looks like my wet dream of a microSIM slot in the iPod Touch was just that.

No matter, though: I’ve been waiting for a camera on the Touch for so long, this is easily a day one purchase for me. We’ll know for sure when we can pick one up at WWDC in June, although an early September release is historically the most likely bet.

The urge for YouTube fame got the better of a trio of three teen crooks, whose iPod recording of an assault and robbery of another teen got them arrested.

Two 14-year-olds and a 13-year-old in Waldorf, Maryland approached a 13-year-old on a neighborhood basketball court at 5:30 pm. They reportedly tried to pick an argument with the victim, who packed up his stuff and tried to walk away from them.

The suspects attacked him, striking him on the back of his head. One of the suspects recorded the assault on his iPod while the other two stole the victim’s backpack.

At first blush, I absolutely loved this iPhone speaker dock, crafted in the GlaDOS style aesthetic of an old iMac arm. And, undeniably, it looks great.

The problem is, it’s not a speaker, per se. Instead, it uses resonance to transmit the sound from your iPod, iPhone or other MP3 player into the hard surface of the table underneath it. The audio output is rated at 12W, with a built-in amp for a bit of a boost, but the inevitable result here is still going to be terrible sound.

What a pity. I always loved the lamp-style iMac. At $42, though, this is a waste of money as anything besides a conversation piece.

You know, even if you’re a naysayer, you have to admit: Apple data makes for some of the most compelling infographics around, and this infographic from Mashable explaining the rise of Apple as the hegemon of the digital music industry is one of the best we’ve ever seen. Well, at least, one of the best we’ve ever seen that doesn’t involve Mega Sharks.

The full infographic, after the jump.

iHome’s pantheon of docks, clocks, and speakers for the iPhone and iPod are pretty hard to keep straight, but their flagship iP90 alarm clock docking station has always been one of their more visible products… and now they’ve updated it with a host of new features that make the iP90 a better buy than before.

Like its previous incarnation, the iP90 will charge and play music from the iPhone and iPod, and functions as a speaker dock, a dual alarm clock and an AM/FM radio. The new iP90’s most immediately obvious improvement, though, is a larger and more clear display, as well as improved sound quality thanks to Reson8 stereo speaker chambers as well as adjustable bass and treble.

In addition, the iP90 now has a Time Sync feature that automatically sets the time on your clock to the more trustworthy time on your iPhone or iPod. A switch for changing the clock to daylight savings time is also there, although if your phone is setting the time for you, I don’t really see the point.

Like the earlier model, the iP90 looks like a good addition to any iPhone owners bedside table. It will cost $99.

Beta 3 of the iPhone OS 4.0 SDK has a couple of great new interface features, including the ability to close background apps through a hold-and-close method similar to the way deleting programs functions on the operating system, but I think I like the new media player widgets best.

In the latest beta, if you load the multitasking interface you see a new set of widgets that sit in the dock to control iPod playback. The widgets include three buttons for track navigation (Play/Pause, Track Back, Track Forward), a shortcut to launch the iPod application, and a software orientation lock which serves the same function as the iPad’s hardware switch. Accessing the widgets is as simple as swiping left on the dock.

Very slick, but what interests me most is the possibility of further widget sets. If third-party developers can program their own widgets to control background apps from the dock, multitasking on iPhone OS 4.0 is just going to rock. Skype widgets anyone? My guess is that’s just what Apple has in mind, and the screen orientation lock will be the one standard icon

Cult of Mac reader Ian Chan was inspired by our recent story of a football player getting grounded after listening to his iPod during landing to pen the above comic on airplane safety.

Chan — along with everyone else who has forgotten to turn off a device on board — says:

“I might be overreacting, but perhaps you (the FAA) should worry more about your pilots making $17,000 a year and being on food stamps [warning, link to Michael Moore] than me listening to Miley Cyrus on my flight home.”

Word.

Via Ian Chan

New York Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes created a flap on a flight from Newark to Pittsburgh by using his iPod during landing.

Authorities filed an “incident report” on Holmes — he was not formally charged with violating FAA regulations on the use of personal electronic devices (PEDs) during flight.

Holmes got off easy,  one unlucky iPhone user was detained after keeping the device in airplane mode.

Most laptops and portable media players have pretty terrible bass, no matter how great their audio may otherwise be, but subwoofers aren’t exactly easily luggable devices. Digivoid’s latest device attempts to shore up your iPod and MacBook’s weak vibes.

The Zo Personal Subwoofer is a small gadget about the size of an iPod Nano. All you do is plug it into your device’s headphone jack through a supplied mini-stereo cable. You then plug your headphones into the Zo for improved sound, which is itself powered by an internal rechargeable battery.

According to DigiZoid, the Zo Persona Subwoofer offers bass that’s the equivalent of a 12-inch subwoofer. That seems like a little bit of a stretch to us, but if you’re interested, you can pick up a Zo to supplement your iPod’s bass for just $99.

Today, Patently Apple revealed a whole slew of new multi-touch gestures that Apple might introduce in new products and software updates, most of which are detailed in the image above… which, incidentally, looks like the pictogram instruction set for the secret high five that was in vogue my senior year in high school, and which I could never pull off without the tendons in my wrist rolling up like a window shade.

Patently Apple’s post also indicates a neat new iPod technology which is unrelated, but plenty cool: automatic adjustment of music tempo based on your performance. For example, if you’re flagging on the hill, the tempo increases, while if your heart is about to explode, it slows on down. Looks like a smart evolution of Apple’s current Nike partnership to me.

The Horizontal 51 sound board from Finite Elemente isn’t just a shelf, it’s an iPod docking solution with integrated Surround Sound speakers with a 25WPC amplifier and a frequency range of 50 to 25,000Hz, as well as other available connections for TV, PCs and MP3 players. The shelf itself can support up to 25KG of weight, so if you don’t want to put plants or books on it, it can probably support the weight of a light HDTV. It’s an attractive solution, but $664 is a lot of money to spend on a shelf, no matter how many devices it can integrate with.

Apple’s perverse obsession with miniaturizing the iPod Shuffle doesn’t seem likely to stop until they bring it down to the size of a nanoangstrom, but one of the biggest drawbacks of making a music player smaller than the controls needed to use it is that the user interface needs to be offloaded to a peripheral: in the third generation iPod Shuffle’s case, the stock ear buds.

It’s a bad approach. The Shuffle was already small enough, and since ear buds tend to be easily damaged, it meant that anyone who owned a Shuffle who lost or damaged their stock ear buds would have to lay out for a replacement pair instead of just plugging in another set of cochleal cans.

From Apple, though, comes slightly encouraging news for third-gen Shuffle owners: they will replace your ear buds free of charge for up to two years if they stop working. Just call up Apple or drop by an Apple Store and they’ll send you off with a new pair of ear buds.

Personally, though, I’ll stick to my second gen Shuffle: an MP3 player the size of a box of matches (as opposed to the matches themselves) is plenty small enough for me already, thank you.