Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"iLuv today made available the latest generation of its iPhone- and iPod-ready clock radios. Unlike nearly any other alarm clock, the iMM178 has a "bed shaker" pod that vibrates to wake those who either don't respond to sound or need to keep the alarm quiet. The shaker also provides a less risky alternative to headphones in bed as it has a speaker for its own listening environment."

This supports 2004 or later dockable iPods and iPhones, and it will use the time from your device in case you lose power so that is a nice feature. It's available today according to the news, however at Amazon they show it as not released yet [affiliate link]. It sells for $99.99 USD, and you can have it in any color as long as it is black. If you want one that works with regular iPods (doesn't appear it works with iPhone or iPod Touch) you can still get the previous version at Amazon [affiliate link] for $41.02 USD.

The title of this really rings true, as this device works for ALL of my charging needs. The company, Gomadic, makes charging adapters but they do it with a twist. Instead of making a different cable for each device, they use what they call "Tip Exchange" so that you only have to buy one cable and the initial charging tip. Once you accumulate devices, instead of buying all new cables, just buy the tip you need and you are good to go. The cables are made by Gomadic and have a lifetime warranty on them (For the first thirty days after your purchase we replace or refund all Gomadic products no questions asked. After the thirty-day grace period has expired, we ask our customers to provide a brief explanation of the problem and if there is indeed some product defect, we're happy to replace any Gomadic product for as long as you own it.) as well as a high output of 1000mAh. On top of that, according to Gomadic, they use "advanced internal circuitry to protect from power surges, overcharging and short-circuiting." These chargers are also built to work anywhere in the world with their international adapter kit.

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"So you've just ripped some new CDs, bought some music on iTunes, or added songs you got from somewhere else to your iTunes library. But you're late for work, and you don't have time to put all your new music in a playlist."

Well no worries because you have read this article about the "On-The-Go-Playlist" feature for your iPod or iPhone (excluding the shuffle). Nice primer on how to do this on the fly, or "on-the-go" if you prefer. 

"There aren't many major iPod and iPhone accessory brands that haven't brought-or tried to bring-their product lines to consumers in the United States. The launch of Japanese brand Simplism here enables us to cross one more name off the ever-shrinking list; the company has developed a dominant position on store shelves in Japan, as we noticed during our most recent visit there in November, and now it is bringing a massive collection of its products to American customers."

These are fantastic looking cases, at least on the surface even though, per the article, there are some inconsistencies with the stitching and other design decisions. They also make charging accessories for a wide range of Apple products. Not sure yet on the availability, but you can see more examples and prices at a review iLounge did at the end of December. 

"An appellate court upheld a federal district court's decision that iPods' maximum output doesn't represent a danger of hearing loss that isn't 'obvious' or 'avoidable.'"

The lawsuit was filed in 2006, dismissed last year, and now the dismissal has been affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Common sense prevailed, but too late to save all the wasted court time on this ridiculous lawsuit. The plaintiffs claimed that the potential to damage hearing was enough to warrant this lawsuit. What are your thoughts?

""The education-specific channel of its iTunes Store, launched in 2007, has reached a new milestone, recording more than 100 million downloads, Apple told CNET on Friday."

iTunes U was launched in May of 2007, and has a wide variety of categories you can download content from like Law, Science, Psychology and Arts and Humanities. The content comes from over 175 higher-education organizations such as Princeton, Harvard, MIT and Oxford University.

"Concert promoter Live Nation today announced that it has partnered with Apple to launch a new initiative focused on audio and video recording of live concert events for distribution via Apple's iTunes Store. Apple has also launched a dedicated section of the iTunes Store to feature the content."

Nice addition to the iTunes store, and you can see the listings here from Live Nation. Here is a blurb from their press release: "Live Nation, the world's largest live music company, has joined with the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com), the world's #1 music retailer, to launch a new live music program, which debuted today. Live Nation Studios will now offer exclusive recorded and filmed concerts from its network of "wired" venues for purchase and download only on iTunes. Exclusive live recordings from OK Go, Jesse McCartney, Saving Abel, A Fine Frenzy, Duffy, Plain White T's and Ziggy Marley, to name a few, have been released this week, with many more to follow."

"The iPhone 3G and latest iPod models have created problems for Apple fans because their old docking accessories are not able to charge their new purchases. Scosche has a solution which will be on sale this month - the US$40 passPORT has a female pass-through connector that can snap into any iPod universal dock or in-car iPod integration system to support charging for the iPhone 3G, iPod nano 4th generation and iPod touch 2nd generation."

The Scosche passPORT, if it works as intended, will save carrying around so many charging cables, especially if you have a mixture of generations of iPods or iPhones like I do. It's available now at Amazon for roughly $22.00 USD

"If you ask a college student about the current favourites on their iPod, you might expect to hear of artists such as Lady Gaga, British Sea Power, or maybe even Michael Jackson for the newly nostalgic. Ask the same question on the campus of the Warwick Business School and you might be surprised when students remove their earphones to tell you that they are catching up on macroeconomics and analysis of the credit crisis, or that they are reviewing the latest thinking on creative management."

There is quite a list of participating educational institutions in iTunes U, and now University of Warwick has joined the mix. This is a great way to educate yourself on a number of topics, from business and finance to humanities and history. 

"While Apple's iTunes team becomes ever more serious about Twitter, DVD John's DoubleTwist has reintroduced sync support for the iPhone and iPod touch (Windows) within its latest update."

More info is available via the DoubleTwist forum posting regarding this update, but basically they have added playlist creation and sync, library search and a persistent DoubleTwist library so you can "add folders or directories from anywhere on your system." They have also brought music and video sync to the iPhone/iPod Touch for their Windows version.

"Apple's fiscal results are out and they are, as expected, quite good. The company reported profits of $9.87 billion compared to $7.9 billion in the year ago quarter."

Apple also sold 3.05 million Macs which was a 17% increase from last year. On the iPod front, down 8% at 10.2 million sold while the iPhone sales hit 7.4 million, which was a 7% increase from the same time last year. Pretty hefty profit especially in these economic times, and Steve Jobs said they had a "great lineup" for the holidays and some "new products in the pipeline for 2010." Hmmm, let the rumors begin! More info can be found on the Apple investor site, or from their press release.

"A marathon runner was disqualified from her victory after it was discovered she listened to music on her iPod for a portion of the race. According to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, 27-year-old Jennifer Goebel was stripped of her victory time of just over three hours. She said she believes it was unfair."

Seems silly that they would ban electronic devices, but that being said, if she knew what the rules were before racing then it is her own fault. She wasn't the only DQ in the race as the person that actually finished ahead of her was DQ'd for accepting water from a friend that wasn't at one of the pre-determined aid points. Again, something that was also pointed out to all competitors before the race.

"Owners of the new iPod nano 5G will no doubt be racking up hours of video footage by now and looking to inflict - I mean, share - their videos with all and sundry. While the nano's 2.2-inch display might be ok "on the set", nothing beats a TV to demand everyone's attention."

And now you can see all those videos from your iPod Nano on your TV with this setup called the VideoBuddy. This also has the authentication chip and is powered by the iPod. It is available now from GEAR4 for approximately $48.00 USD.

"We assure ourselves that words will never hurt us, but they can cost a lot of time and money when it comes to trademark battles. Take the story of Daniel Kokin, who is continuing to fight Apple over a three-letter word: Pod."

This guy has been working on what he calls the "Video Pod" for over 9 years, a device that is designed to play video from DVD players and other devices but surprisingly enough not from iPods. Perhaps that is why Apple is so upset, he left them out of the loop. Seriously though, they think the name "pod" is going to confuse some people and that consumers believe anything with "pod" in it is made by Apple. That is a stretch, but at least Kokin will get his day in court as the summary judgement Apple requested was denied. This is just silly of Apple, and a waste of time and money. Or perhaps I'm off base. What are your thoughts?

There were some hits and misses with the rumor mill, so lets get into it and see just what was revealed by the man behind the curtain.

iPod Touch Revamped

Since this was a music event, the upgrades to the iPod lineup were expected, and for the most part didn't disappoint. Let's start with the iPod Touch. The price was dropped on the 8GB model to $199.00 USD, $30 cheaper than before, and the 16GB and 32GB models doubled their memory without an increase in price. The 32GB version is $299.00 USD and the 64GB model is $399.00. According to Apple, the 32GB and 64GB versions are 50% faster and have OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

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"The lights had only just dimmed as the most exciting part of the press conference happened; Steve Jobs walked onto the stage to huge cheers and applause, looking fit and healthy. Wearing his trademark black turtleneck top and jeans, he expressed his gratitude towards the team at Apple and everyone's continued support during his health leave."

And this began the Apple music event called "It's Only Rock and Roll" yesterday, something that not everyone was convinced would happen, and that had been one of the rumors swirling around the net. If you, like most of us, had to settle for watching the streaming blogs to get the news, you can now watch the event via Apple's Quicktime link. Or if you prefer, you can head over to iTunes and download this and other Apple events.

"Apple has announced a special media event to take place on September 9, 2009. The invitation indicates that it will be iPod-related (just like in previous years) and will take place in San Francisco."

Just a little reminder about the Apple event tomorrow morning. From the ads we have seen, it appears it will be iPod oriented but will that be it? What else do you think will be announced? Will Jobs make an appearance? Will the camera enabled iPod make the cut? Will that tablet rumor be proven true or false? Oh and what about The Beatles?

"AllthingsD is reporting that Apple will hold its yearly music event, which largely focuses on iPods, on September 9th, 2009. That is exactly one year to the day from which it had its "Let's Rock" event last year."

The date has been announced, September 9th this year, and with it many questions and speculation. Will Steve Jobs appear? Will the new iPods have cameras? Will there be a tablet? Beatles? Not sure what a tablet has to do with a normally music related event but it has been thrown out there as well. Lots of speculation to go with this one, but it goes hand in hand with any Apple event doesn't it? How about you, any ideas on what we might see?

"Kensington becomes the latest company attempting to expand the boundary of traditional iPhone/iPod docks. To their credit, Kensington offers a mini battery back pack that can be recharged while your phone or digital music player refuels."

This is going to be available in October this year, and will retail for $69.99 USD. Interesting twist adding the battery pack in the package. I prefer the docks that have a little more functionality such as this combo dock or those with a CF card reader, but having a battery pack that will give you 3 hours of talk time for emergencies isn't a bad idea.

"Living in a multiple iPhone and iPod household is both fun and annoying. It's fun to talk about cool apps and play multi-user games, but it's annoying trying to find a place to plug in our iPhones and iPods. Right now we have two iPhone 3GS's, an original iPhone being used as a game device, and an iPod nano that all need charging."

A common problem in our home is finding a convenient place to charge the myriad of devices we use on a daily basis, so this unit from Dexim sounds like just the ticket. Granted, it doesn't sync, but I don't sync via dock frequently since our iPhones are set up to sync via cloud to MobileMe. The only time I do sync is to change some music or podcasts, which isn't on a daily basis. The charging, however, is done daily so this compact unit that can charge several combinations of devices would work perfectly. If you have the same problem it might be something to check out.