iPod - page 6

For all intents and purposes the latest, 7th generation iPod nano is nothing new. We’ve seen it all before: the widescreen form factor, the touchscreen display. What is new is that we’ve never seen these features in this configuration.

That’s what paradoxically makes the 2012 iPod nano the best one yet: it’s an agglomeration of the best features of the nanos that came before.

It is as though the best features of all previous generations of this protean device are refined and combined into this latest “Lucky Seventh” iteration. Now the iPod nano is the right height, the right shape, the right screen size, the right colors, and perfectly simple. It is what the iPod nano was always meant to be — a good-looking, on-the-go music player.

The cubicle wars continue unabated, sparking an arms race of unprecedented idiocy.

Now the conflict is escalating with a new weapons system coming online that could tilt the balance of power: A $130 iOS-controlled ping pong ball-dropping drone aircraft.

Called the iStrike Shuttle, the 3-channel office drone is remotely piloted via an iStrike Controller app on your iOS device by way of Bluetooth.

The app features G-Sensor and Joystick modes for flight control.

The iStrike Shuttle is available in November from Hammacher Schlemmer and Dream Cheeky.

Here comes the video.

The wristwatch has fallen out of fashion. Sure, a few geezers still wear watches out of habit. Hipsters wear them ironically. Geeks wear them defiantly. And the fashionable wear them decoratively.

But these people are the minority. Bare wrists are the norm now.

People think the wristwatch is dead because our phones tell time, so they’re redundant. But that’s not why.

The reason most reject wristwatches is the same reason most rejected tablets until Apple shipped the iPad in 2010: The available selection is too bloated, clunky, expensive and poorly suited to how people really live and work.

In other words, the right kind of watch would get everyone wearing them again.

Apple mainstreamed tablets by re-imagining what a tablet is, by making it touch and with app and at low cost with a compelling user interface.

Will they do the same for the wristwatch? I think they will. 

If you’re going to launch a real product on April 1st, then you may as well make it seems as ridiculous as possible, and that’s just what Brian Holmes did yesterday when he announced The Littlest Black Book for the iPod Nano, the new tiny, nano-sized Moleskine-style case from Brian’s company, Pad&Quill.

I actually mailed Brian yesterday to see if this was for real, and it is. There’s even a Kickstarter page to prove it, which is already almost a quarter of the way to the $4,500 goal.

We love us a good iConcept design here at Cult of Mac, and we especially love those which appear to be better than the Apple product they are based on. So I’m happy to bring you Enrico Penello’s iPod Nano Touch, a great-looking update to the terrible iPod Nano.

If you’ve ever taken apart an Apple device, you know what delicate work it can be.

Imagine trying to extract incriminating child pornography photos from a laptop and you’ll understand why tools that help you see what’s on the device before opening it up are increasingly important in law enforcement.

ITunes has long given users the option of scaling music down to 128kbps upon sync to their iPod or other device in order to save space. The idea being, I guess, that you could keep your master collection at a higher bit-rate on the computer’s capacious hard drive, whilst saving space on the smaller flash storage on the iPod. Bit what if you liked this idea, but hated the low quality? Well, iTunes 10.6 has your back.

You might have suspected that the right music – whether it’s thrash metal or Mozart – keeps you more focused or relaxed.

Now a trio of brain researchers have studied the effects of playlists on the brain, resulting in a nifty little book called  Your Playlist Can Change Your Life. In the book’s 200-or so pages, they explain how to use specific playlists to alleviate anxiety, promote concentration, get happy or move into a flow state thanks to Brain Music Treatment or BMT.

If you can’t make it to New York for BMT therapy, for $9.99, you can also download a Common BMT File. Created from more than 2,000 people’s brain waves with the help of evidence-based BMT tech, they say it acts as a kind of aural “first-aid” before you get your own playlists together.

Intrigued (my current nightstand read is Mark Changizi’s excellent Harnessed about music and the brain), I talked to author Dr. Galina Mindlin about what playlists have the most impact, cleaning up your music collection and her current heavy rotations.

The latest iTV rumor is hitting the web today as Gene Munster told the crowd at IGNITION: Future of Media that the new Apple Television Set has been in the works for sometime now but should be released next year.

Munster is so certain that the new device is coming that he told everyone to wait before buying a new TV because Apple’s is going to be awesome.

The iPod is essentially Apple’s typewriter: a piece of technology that reshaped society completely, then was made redundant by its descendants. However, the iPod’s birth a decade ago launched a legacy that can’t be ignored, no matter how hard you try.

 A decade ago Apple introduced the iPod, and with it a new method for controlling music playback: a scroll wheel with buttons around the perimeter. The interface was novel for a portable music player, which usually used more traditional buttons in a linear or grid layout.

The scroll wheel was the brainchild of Phil Schiller, Apple’s Director of Marketing. He realized that users would have to navigate large lists of songs, and that a wheel offered an intuitive, dynamic solution.

The original iPod, just a decade old today, was little more than a hard disk with earbuds. But this humble little gadget launched five revolutions that made consumer electronics what it is today.

In fact, everything Apple is today sprang from the iPod seed. From Apple’s revenues to design influence to the fundamental business and distribution models that glue the industry together, the iPod started it all.

So put in those white earbuds and click “play.” Because if you love consumer electronics, you’re about to hear how the iPod started it all.

The days of the stand-alone music player may be over, but the iPod’s role as the preeminent fitness gadget could keep the product relevant for the next decade to come.

33-year-old Jason Daniel Goodman left his iPod Touch behind at an Oregon gas station almost a year ago. Employees figured something that valuable would be claimed, so they waited five months.

The music options on the iPhone have sure gotten exciting over the last few months. First Apple unveiled iTunes Match, then Spotify launched their app in the US, and now Turntable.fm has brought their amazing social music experience to the iPhone. Earlier this morning Turntable.fm released their new iPhone app that enables users to listen to Turntable.fm DJ Rooms wherever they go.

Students lobbied to have a ban removed so they can use their iPads on the way to and from school.

The Manatee County School district in Florida had obliged kids to take the journey to and from school unplugged from iPods, iPads and the like.

Vitamin Water may be the 2011 equivalent of snake oil, but now those bus shelter ads have got some actual juice: you can hook up your iPhone or iPod to charge on the go.

The ads featuring USB ports will be rolled out in Boston, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. They are the brainchild of Crispin Porter + Bogusky — the same Mac-happy guys behind Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunters”  campaign.

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.