nick's view

Earbuds big enough for a giant, perfect for your desk

Unless you happen to be an impressive 500 times the size of your average human being, you'll probably use these oversized earbuds as regular speakers. Vaguely called the 500XL Desktop Speakers, there's nothing much here besides a gimmicky design mimicking the iconic Apple iPod earbuds, but then again it's a gimmick we can get on board with.

Luckily the 500XL Desktop Speakers aren't 500 times the price, too, at a reasonable $40 (that is, if you're not tired of the relentless white plastic Apple-esque design).

Amazon,

Steve Picks the Songs That Make the Whole World Groove

For the longest time we here at Mac|Life were 100% certain that the folks in charge of all the iPod commercials were sneaking peeks at our iPods and pulling up music directly from our playlists for their commercials. We have some exceptionally good taste in music. Well we were wrong, which doesn't mean it couldn't happen, we are trend setters after all.

It turns out, people who constantly wear black turtlenecks are blessed with musical taste. Yep, that's right, CEO and all around fashionista Steve Jobs is responsible for the catchy tunes that are used for iPod commercials. In a SongFacts interview with Asteroids Galaxy Tour, band member and beatmaker Lars Iversen explains how his band's track "Around The Bend" was selected as the soundtrack for Apple's second-gen iPod touch commercial.

Asteroids Galaxy Tour American record label was able to get a hold of Jobs himself and get him to come and listen to samples of the Danish bands tracks. When Jobs heard "Around The Bend," he knew that his job was done, saying, "This is it, this is the new track for the iPod touch."

Although the band and the label weren't even considering this track to be released as a single, and they weren't too stoked about some melodic changes made by Apple to their track, they have happily adjusted.

The song selection was made well before the announcement of the iPod touch, so the band was asked to keep it on the down low.

"They keep it under wraps up to the release of the new product, so we were just told: 'You guys are going to be in this ad, and you have to be happy and smile about that,'" he said. "I kind of like it now when I've seen it a few times, it sort of works well with the pictures - you see two hands playing with the iPod and all these silly computer games and so on."

Pea Speaker System

The Pea Speaker system concept looks pretty interesting - each pod holds up to seven wireless Bluetooth speakers that can be placed anywhere you like, assuming you don't walk out of the connection range. Only one of the seven holds the ability to control the master volume, and each speaker pod can be charged when placed in the pod through the magic of induction. Too bad no surround sound is supported since the Pea Speaker System doesn't separate channels. This is one concept I would love to see materialize.

Latest version of widescreen iPod takes another step toward the iPhone

First Look: iPod touch

What a difference a year makes. When Apple first released the iPod touch, it was—with its Wi-Fi capabilities and touchscreen interface—much more than an iPod. Yet originally lacking applications such as Mail, Stocks, Maps, Weather, and Notes (and a Calendar application that allowed you to create events) and eschewing external volume controls and a built-in speaker, it was also far less than an iPhone.

With software updates, Apple brought the iPod touch’s applications in line with the iPhone. With the second go-round of the iPod touch—introduced Tuesday as part of Apple’s annual fall iPod line overhaul—Apple takes another step in the right direction by adding those two desirable physical features: external volume controls and an internal speaker. Along the way, the company also slimmed down the case and, rounding the iPod touch’s edges in style not unlike the iPhone 3G’s.

The price for the iPod touch has been slimmed down as well. Where the 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB iPod touches once cost $299, $399, and $499 respectively, the latest model can be had in these capacities for $229, $299, and $399. They also ship with the latest iPod touch 2.1 software.

This is how my new 16GB iPod touch holds up on first look. (A full review will follow soon.)

Volume controls and speaker

The touch’s new external volume controls are welcome and perform exactly as they do on an iPhone. Press the top of the rocker switch and the volume goes up. A press at the bottom of the switch causes the volume to decrease. As on the iPhone, applications that bear volume sliders reflect the change in volume by moving up or down as you press the switch.

Speaking of iPhones, if you have the headphones that accompany the iPhone—Apple’s headphones that carry the Play/Pause switch and microphone—you’ll be pleased to know that the Play/Pause switch works with this version of the iPod touch. (It doesn’t on older iPod touches, even with the new 2.1 software.)

The speaker, however, is regrettably nothing like the iPhone’s speaker. As Steve Jobs said, this speaker is for “casual listening,” which I’d suggest is a fairly generous description. Unlike the iPhone’s speaker, which clearly sits on the bottom left of the device and is fairly directional, the sound from the iPod touch comes from no particular location—it seems to just seep out of any holes on the device.

I attempted to watch Chinatown while listening to the audio only through the iPod touch’s built-in speaker and I had a difficult time discerning the dialog even with the volume turned all the way up. I had hopes that I could pass this iPod to the back seat so my daughter could watch her favorite movies on long car trips as she now does with my iPhone. Not going to happen. Couple the speaker’s tinny, very low fidelity with the whoosh of car noise and I can’t imagine she’d get much out of it.

The existence of the speaker is reflected in the Sound setting (called Sound Effects on the original iPod touch). Here you’ll find the addition of the New Mail, Sent Mail, Calendar Alerts, Lock Sounds, and Keyboard Clicks entries—sounds that play through the speaker. You’ll also hear a camera sound when you take a screenshot of the display by pressing Home and Sleep/Wake.

The display

When the iPhone 3G shipped, some noticed that its display had a yellower cast than that of the original iPhone. The new iPod touch’s display is yellower still. Placed side by side with an original 16GB iPod touch with the brightness cranked up on both, the new iPod’s display appeared slightly dingy in comparison. Take the old iPod away, however, and you quickly adjust to the look of the new one.

 

The new iPod touch’s display (center) is clearly yellower than the original iPod touch (left) and today’s iPhone 3G(right).

The Genius playlist

 

When you first invoke the Genius playlist you’re presented with a list of all the songs on your iPod touch.

One of the marquee features of the new iPod nano and iPod touch is the Genius playlist—a scheme for selecting a track in your iTunes library or iPod and intelligently creating a playlist of related music. (Read more about the Genius feature in this first look at iTunes 8.) This feature is implemented in a couple of ways on the iPod touch.

Most obviously, tap the Music icon at the bottom of the Home screen, tap Playlists, and at the top of the Playlists screen you see a Genius entry. Tap that entry and a list of all the tracks on your iPod appear. Tap a track and the iPod creates a list of 25 related tracks and starts playing the track you originally selected.

You also have the option to create a different Genius playlist based on that same track. Just tap Refresh and the playlist is created. If you like what the Genius has come up with, tap Save and the iPod saves that playlist by the name of the original track—Helter Skelter, for example—lists it in the Playlists screen, and puts the Genius icon next to it to indicate it’s a Genius-generated playlist. When you sync your iPod with your computer, any Genius playlists you’ve created are synced to the computer and appear under the Playlists heading in iTunes’ Source list.

 

After creating a Genius playlist you can refresh it with new material based on the same source song or start over by tapping New.

You can later select this playlist and edit it by tapping the Edit button. When you do, a screen scrolls up that reads Refresh Playlist and Delete Playlist. Just how much the playlist is refreshed depends on the tracks on your iPod. If the Genius feature feels it doesn’t have much to choose from you’re going to see a lot of the same tracks appear in the refreshed playlist.

Note that it’s possible to stump the Genius. For example, I selected Ethiopian artist Gigi’s Abay on my iPod touch and I was presented with a dialog box that read “Try Again. This songs does not have enough related songs to create a Genius Playlist.”

The Genius feature is also available from within the Now Playing screen. When playing a track, simply tap on the display to reveal the timeline panel. Below the timeline you’ll find the Genius icon. Tap it and you create a Genius playlist based on that track. This playlist works exactly like other Genius playlists.

The software

 

You can easily create a Genius playlist by tapping the Genius icon on a Now Playing screen.

The new iPod touch includes the iPod touch 2.1 software update—a free update for those who’ve purchased the 2.0 software update and a $10 update for those running the older 1.x update. In addition to adding Genius playlist creation, Apple claims this update fixes some annoyances in the original 2.0 software. While I haven’t had a chance to see the benefits of all these changes, I can say that Apple wasn’t kidding when it claims that the update provides “faster installation of third-party applications.”

I launched the App Store on an original 16GB iPod touch running software version 2.0.2 and the new iPod touch running 2.1. I asked both to update The Iconfactory’s Twitterific to version 1.1. The new iPod with the latest software did it over my Wi-Fi network in 20 seconds. The old iPod touch with the older software version took an interminable 5 minutes and 2 seconds. I obtained similar results with other software updates.

More to come

Apple claims that the new iPod touch offers better battery life than the original touch. I haven’t had the iPod long enough to test its alleged audio playback time of 36 hours and video playback of 6 hours, but will as I delve deeper into the device in preparation for my full review.

The iPod classic is just keeping the seat warm

On Tuesday, my colleague Peter Cohen bemoaned Apple’s announcement that the iPod classic is now available in only a single configuration. Gone is the 160GB “thick” model, leaving only the “thin” model, now at 120GB. Peter, like many hardcore music aficionados, was hoping for an iPod with more space, not less—or, in a perfect world, a chunky iPod touch with the same capacity as the now-discontinued 160GB classic.

I’ve heard similar complaints around the Web and from friends, and while I, as a music fiend myself, sympathize—heck, I’ve got a 160GB iPod classic right here, and I don’t plan on letting it go anytime soon—my own reaction to Apple’s announcement can be summed up thusly: One down, one to go.

You see, since the day the iPod classic debuted a year ago, with essentially minor tweaks over its predecessor, I’ve been saying it’s Dead iPod Walking. Even the name implies at much: When a product carries the label “classic,” it’s a pretty good bet the company doesn’t see that product as anything more than a legacy offering for, um, classic customers.

Instead, it’s clear that Apple views the iPod touch and similar future products—ones with with large screens, the multitouch interface, and the iPhone software platform—as the future of the iPod franchise (or at least the top end of it). And in terms of storage, Apple has been transitioning from hard drives to flash memory for several years now, because it allows for smaller, thinner devices and because it's simply more reliable in products designed to be carried in a pocket or tossed in a bag. Put the two together, and the flagship iPod Apple wants to produce is obviously an iPod touch with iPod classic-like capacity.

The big obstacle to that goal has been cost: flash memory was, and remains, too expensive to make a capacious iPod touch at a reasonable price. Consider that Apple hasn’t priced a large-capacity iPod higher than $349 since the top-of-the-line fifth-generation model, released three years ago. Similarly, the price of the top-end iPod touch is now only $399. An iPod touch with space to store your entire music library and all that wonderful video being sold on the iTunes Store would cost considerably more than either.

But once Apple can offer an iPod touch with iPod-classic capacity at a price that’s not outrageous, consider it the final nail in the classic’s coffin. Given the declining cost of flash-memory cards, I suspect that day will come sometime in 2009.

As for why Apple—by replacing the 80GB and 160GB classic models with a single 120GB model—reduced the size of the largest-capacity iPod you can buy, some blame the decision on “Apple’s manic pursuit of thinness.” (The slimmer iPod classic uses a single-platter hard drive, and 120GB is the largest currently available; the thicker iPod classic could have accommodated a 240GB dual-platter drive.) But I think the real reason—in addition to the fact that, according to Apple, the larger classic didn't sell as well—is that Apple is priming us for the classic-to-touch transition. Even with falling prices, any major upgrade to the iPod touch’s capacity is likely to top out at 128GB for the near future. When Apple releases such an iPod touch and discontinues the iPod classic altogether, the transition will go much more smoothly, from a PR standpoint, if the new touch offers more space for your media than the model it replaces. Going from 120GB up to 128GB is an upgrade; going from 240GB down to 128GB, not so much.

Until that transition happens, the lone iPod classic, bless its hard-drive heart, is just keeping the seat warm. And when it’s gone, remember it fondly: It’s the last direct descendent of the iPod that started it all.

Apple Introduces New iPod nano

Available in nine vibrant colors, the new fourth generation iPod nano — the thinnest iPod ever — features a sleek new design with a curved aluminum and glass enclosure. It also incorporates Genius technology and features a built-in accelerometer that automatically switches to Cover Flow when rotated and automatically goes into Shuffle mode when lightly shaken. iPod nano (4th generation) comes in 8GB and 16GB models, starting at just $149.

View Original Article

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: apple, mac, computer leasing, nick tadd, Vanessa warwick, 4wallsandaceiling, gadgets, IT, mobile me, iphone, blog, macbook air, macbook pro, mac pro, HD cameras, online video, vimeo, you tube, walt Mossberg, google, imac, ipod, touch, new ipod nano

Porsche Design P9121

I'm pretty sure you think you've seen just about all the iPod speakers available, and most of them are pretty generic in nature - boring rectangular designs that pump out your favorite tunes. Etón isn't going to settle for less, with the Porsche Design P9121 featuring an aluminum body, a metal remote control (perfect to double up as a discipline rod for unruly kids), and a trio of front-facing speakers. In addition, the Porsche Design comes with an integrated high-performance AM/FM tuner, XM Radio capability, an OLED display, a 3" rear-facing subwoofer and a separate iPod dock. All this can be yours for $600.