Apple

iPod With Video; New iMac; FrontRow; iTunes 6: Apple Summary
We’ve now had change to absorb this and ponder its impactAfter weeks of frantic speculation that a video-capable iPod was on the way, Apple have sure enough announced the very thing at their event in the California Theatre in San Jose and BBC Television Centre in the UK.
Steve Kennedy has been at the UK event for us. There was no live updating allowed during the event, so updates have been patchy and details were slow to emerge.
Here’s the highlights …
New iMac G5. A bit faster, but the big thing is FrontRow. It’s Apple’s Media Centre-killer. The new Apple Remote, a svelte 6 button remote control that looks like a shuffle, controls any media you have on your iMac. Makes the MS Media Centre 26+ button remote look very wrong – too tech. Simplicity reigns. iSight camera is built in. Parallel output to bigger screen, projector. Price is very tempting starting at $1,299 (17″ £899 inc vat, €1379) (20″ £1199, €1799).
Video-capable iPod. Next gen iPod with 30% thinner than current generation player but with a bigger 2.5″ colour screen. 320×240 QVGA (quarter VGA), but not wide screen as rumoured. Video playback supports MPEG-4 and h.264 playback. 30Gb & 60Gb. S-vdeo out through the doc, but video will appear pixelated on full size TV screen. The 30GB should go for $299 (~£219~€349), and the 60GB for $399 (~£300~€469). They’re on the Apple online Store and will be shipping next week.?
?Not quite the world shattering device that was expected, but from those who have seen it “sexy.”
iTunes 6 – Upgraded again after the 5.0 release of a few week ago. The big change. As expected from our first video of itms, downloadable video. A deal has (~£227~€331) been done with ABC/Disney to let five shows (Desperate Housewives, Lost and three disney shows currently) to be paid for and downloaded the day after they’re on TV – only in the US currently. Is there any co-incidence that the UK launch happened in the BBC TV centre?
“It’s never been done before, where you could view hit TV shows and buy them online the day after they’re shown,” Jobs said. While this may be true that people have not been able to _Buy_ it, but let’s not forget that the BBC has the iMP trial running, where you can get shows straight after they’re shown – but for nothing.
We imagine there’ll be lots of lost sleep in Redmond tonight.
We’ll have a more considered piece on the impact of the announcements once it’s sunk in.
Apple
13 October, 2005
Top UK Cop: iPods Fuelling Crime
Like a big flashing sign above the listener’s head saying “Mug Me!” the distinctive white headphones of iPods continue to attract the unwanted attentions of ne’er-do-wells in the street.
With the latest Home Office crime statistics expected to reveal that muggings rose by almost 40% in some parts of the country last year, police are blaming the sharp rise in the street robberies on the increasing popularity of iPods, MP3 players and expensive mobile phones.
Chief superintendent Paul Forrester of Merseyside police said students and teenagers strutting around with expensive gear were virtually asking for it, commenting: “Some children carry phones and iPods worth over £600 and they are making themselves walking targets.”
Metropolitan police chief Sir Ian Blair was equally quick to point the finger of blame at all things Apple Mac: “It is very obvious when someone is wearing an iPod. That is what is fuelling this.”
Figures from the Metropolitan police revealed that the practice of purloining iPods increased more than fivefold since last November 2004, with incidents rising from ten a month to 52 in May this year.
Similarly, the number of iPods pinched from motors went in an equally upward direction, leaping from 178 cases in November 2004 to 395 in May this year.
Insurance company Norwich Union have found themselves shelling out for pilfered iPods by the bucketful, replacing 1,721 lost or stolen iPods between January and September this year, compared to just 36 during the same period last year.
Our advice to iPod users: forget about making a style statement, dump those daft white headphones in double quick time and get yourself something more discrete!
11 October, 2005
i-mate K-JAM Smartphone/PDA Announced
Building on the success of their hugely popular JAM phone, i-mate have announced the new K-JAM smartphone/PDA.
Powered by a TI OMAP 850 200MHz processor, the quad-band smartphone features a nifty slide out keyboard, with a form factor of 108mm x 58mm x 23.7mm (roughly the same size as an i-mate JAM, but with a deeper case).
The keyboard slides out from the left side of the phone, with the screen rotating into landscape mode for typing.
Built-in storage capacity has been increased to 64MB SDRAM RAM and 128MB ROM (for programs and user’s storage), supported by a miniSD memory expansion slot.
The display comes in the form of a 2.8″ QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) 64k Transflective screen, and the device runs on the latest Windows Mobile 5.0 OS.
Wireless connectivity is taken care of via integrated Bluetooth 1.1, InfraRed and – delightfully – built-in WiFi
Like its predecessor, the phone sports a 1.3 megapixel camera with a new video/flash light. We hope it’s the not the same one that shipped with the i-mate JAM because that one was spectacularly rubbish.
Equally rubbish was the low-volume distorto-matic speakerphone, but i-mate seems to have addressed this issue by adding new dual speakers with 3D surround sound.
The phone offers support for a wide range of music formats, and claims 10 hours running time in PDA mode and 4-5 hours talk time.
As with other HTC-manufactured phones, consumers can expect the K-JAM to emerge under a panoply of different names over the coming months, depending on the service provider.
i-mate
26 September, 2005
iPod Nano; Rollable Screen; Koran Virus: Teenage Tech News
Cool, I want one!
Apple has unveiled a new iPod. Why is this news? Because the new device is miniscule and uses flash memory as opposed to a hard drive. This confirms the rumours that Apple were buying 40% of Samsung’s flash memory.
I think that Apple has unveiled a real killer here: It has a decent capacity, is small, cute and features a colour screen. And of course, Christmas is coming up (Shouts “Dad!”).
Ooh, Shiny, new and it rolls up!
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are still in 2005 and not 2020. Even so, Phillips has managed to come up with a prototype roll-up screen. What’s special about this screen is, surprise surprise, that it is possible to roll it up as you would a sheet of paper.
At the moment, the model they have is only a prototype, and can only display four shades of grey, but when it gets better to support more colours, I’m sure it will be an instant hit with makers of Mobile Phones and other applications where a large display and a small size is an advantage.
I personally thought the fact someone had finally developed something like this was pretty neat, very futuristic, and a useful invention. I, for instance, would love to have a small phone simply because it’s, well, small. I can’t currently get one however, because the ones that are the size I would like have tiny displays and no features. Hopefully this will now change.
Allah says no
Meanwhile, there’s a new virus out (Windows only, sorry Mac and Linux users) that attempts to block people from surfing pornography Websites. If the virus finds specific sexually-orientated words in a URL, it will minimize the browser window and display a passage from the Koran.
Don’t people realise that you can’t force religion on people? When will people realise that religion is something that comes naturally? People who don’t grasp this concept make me angry, although I can see there is a vaguely humorous element to this virus too.
At least the virus doesn’t damage any of your files!
“Drop the ink cartridge and put your hands on your head!”
We’re told that Lexmark are attempting to outlaw refilling their cartridges. Apparently, as the ink cartridges are patented as one use only, Lexmark think they can enforce this on anyone running a business refilling ink tanks. Luckily, patents don’t apply to non-for profit activities yet, so it’s still safe to refill a cartridge yourself.
I think there should be bans about companies applying terms of use on something that a consumer has actually bought. If it belongs to you, you should be able to do as you wish with it!
9 September, 2005
iPod Nano; Mot ROKR; iTunes 5 – Apple kills the competition (again)
iTunes 5.0
The iTunes software for PC and Mac has now reached v5, it’s available for immediate download from Apple’s site (and via software update for Mac users).
It features a “refined” interface with a new “search bar” making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for, playlists can be organised into folders, Smart Shuffle allows users change the randomness of their shuffled songs.
Windows users also get the added benefit of being able to sync contacts and calendars from Outlook (Mac users have had this ability through iLife for a long time).
iTunes software unsuprisingly integrates seemlessly with the iTunes music store which (in the UK) accounts for at least 80% of all downloaded music. There’s now over 1.7 million songs available, 15,000 podcasts and 10,000 audio books.
Motorola ROKR
The Motorola ROKR (pronouced rocker) is a quad band GSM phone with iTunes built-in. It can hold 100 songs and connects to a PC (or Mac) via a USB connection. Apart from the iTunes software (which can bedirectly accessed from a button on the front of the phone) it’s a normal Motorola phone. You either like them, or you don’t. It’s still encumbered with Motorola’s quirky menu system.
If you’re listening to iTunes and the phone rings etc, it will pause the song playing and you can return to it when you’ve finished the call.
The phone does have some good features with passable stereo speakers and pretty good playback through headphones. Battery life is meant to be good too, though exact figures were not quoted.
It’s available in the US now exclusively through Cingular.
iPod nano
The nano is the new iPod killer. It’s tiny, but holds up to 4GB (1000 songs, though there’s a 500 song/2GB version available too). It’s got a colour screen and a click-wheel. It comes with a USB 2.0 cable, earbud phones and a CD with iTunes, etc.
The colour screen gives it away, it’s an iPod Photo shrunk to miniscule dimensions, bigger than a Shuffle, but smaller than a mini – and thin (it hides behind a number 2 pencil). It features a standard 30pin dockconnector port, so can be used with most (if not all) mini or standard accessories. Apple have put in a couple extra bits of software like world clocks (you set your normal country, but can select as many otherclocks relating to a country as you wish, each clock shows whether it’s day or night), there’s also a screen lock – to stop others messing with your nano. It can also hold 25,000 photos (when synced through iTunes).
Apple have also released some specific nano accessories like tubes (sleeves in various colour, 5 in a pack), lanyard headphones, armbands and a dock. These should be available within 30 days.
Apple may have been losing to the competition in the lower end of the market especially in the solid state arena, however the nano changes all that (it’s got 4GB of solid-state memory in it, not a hard disc like the iPod Mini) and it’s going to knock the competion for six, it’s got all the “Designed in California” (of course by a Brit, but they keep quite about that) sex appeal and the packaging is superb. It’s smaller than almost everything out there. You’re going to want one for Xmas … actually, on reflection, you’re going to want one of these straight away.
Pricing for the nano is $249 for the 4GB (+ local taxes) or in the UK, £179 inc VAT, in Europe Eu 239. The 2GB model is $199, or GBP 139 inc VAT in the UK and is available now.
The best thing about it though, you can get it in white or black.
Apple iPod Nano
Motorola ROKR
Apple iTunes 5
8 September, 2005
iTunes Promotion Sign Up Iggy Pop, Madonna and Little Richard
Pop stars are falling over themselves to fill their pockets with corporate cash as the Apple/Motorola iTunes phone promotion machine switches into overdrive.
Motorola has already waved their weighty wad in the direction of Madonna, Iggy Pop and a host of other music stars who have all been sufficiently tempted to associate their faces with the iTunes phone.
An article on the Marketing news Website Brand Republic reports that: “Motorola has signed an artist from every generation to appear in the ads, including Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, Lil’ John, The White Stripes, Sleater-Kinney, Sum 41, Mya, Pussycat Dolls and Billie Joe from Green Day.”
The company are still negotiating with Alanis Morissette and The Bravery.
Serious underground tremors are expected around Jimi Hendrix’s burial site as the rock legend will no doubt reach maximum graveyard revolutions on the news that a look-a-like has been booked to perform in the ads.
Apparently, all the pop stars will be seen singing in a phone box in the adverts.
The Brand Republic article goes on to say that, “The ads may debut from next week, at the same time the Motorola phone with iPod personal music system is launched.”
The iTunes-supporting phone is rumoured to be called the Motorola Rokr and will be made available in two models offering 512MB or 1GB of storage.
The ‘iPhone’ is expected to be announced by Apple at a press conference on 7th September.
Motorola
iTunes
5 September, 2005
Apple’s iPhone Coming Soon?
After enjoying huge success with the iPod, mini iPod and photo iPod, Apple are looking to score another hit with consumers with the expected announcement of the iPhone, a music playing mobile phone.
Speculation about the new product has been running rife after Apple announced a mystery San Francisco launch scheduled for next Wednesday with the teasing statement, “1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.”
Pundits are predicting that Steve Jobs’ outfit will finally be launching their much-delayed music-playing mobile in partnership with handset giants Motorola, the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer.
The New York Times reported that Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with research firm Ovum, had been briefed on the new phone and that it would be compatible with Apple’s iTunes software, declaring it “a deluxe music player now on your cellphone.”
The phone has taken longer than a one legged sloth to arrive, with the project dogged by delays while rivals Sony Ericsson and Nokia have gained ground with their own music-playing models handsets – Sony Ericsson’s recently launched W800i phone has already proved a hit and Nokia’s 1,000 song-capacity N series will be in shops by the end of the year.
Despite arriving late at the party, Apple are hopeful that the iPod brand will successfully translate into big sales amongst the world’s estimated 1 billion mobile phone users.
Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst with Jupiter Research, had some doubts: “It’s been awaited for a year, if not more. That means people might be disappointed, because I don’t think it will be much more than a phone that can play music – and there are already others on the market that can do that. But iTunes and iPod are quite famous now in the music space, and they will be hoping for leverage.”
Some analysts have also expressed concerns that the iPhone might cannibalise Apple’s own market and cut into sales of their low end players, while others suspect that mobile phone networks might refuse to carry the phone to protect their own music download services.
With Motorola’s history of announcing new products months ahead of launch and Apple’s traditional penchant for headline-grabbing, last-minute announcements, the launch might be an interesting one.
Apple Motorola
31 August, 2005
News Roundup: Hamster Powered Mobile; US Kids SMS
Elvis Charges Mobile Phones
A 16-year-old lad in the West Country is breaking open the alcopops as he celebrates passing his GSCE electronics course – all thanks to his cunning hamster powered phone charger invention.
Peter Ash, from Lawford in Somerset, rustled up the wheeze after listening to his sister Sarah moaning that his pet hamster Elvis was keeping her awake at night by whizzing around on his exercise wheel for hours on end.
A light bulb illuminated above young Peter’s head as he realised that his hamster’s nocturnal marathons could be used to generate electricity.
For the next 13 months, the teenager worked on perfecting the hamster-powered device for his GSCE electronics coursework project.
After strenuous trials, Peter managed to get the insomniac hamster to generate enough power to charge his mobile phone overnight.
Rumours that he is now working on a dog powered version for powering small sound systems have proved to be unfounded.
Nearly 40% of Mobiles Bought By US Teens For Texting
A recent survey in the States by IDC and SMS.ac revealed that talking is, like, so uncool amongst teenagers, with Da KidZ preferring to text than talk.
The study revealed that 35.9% of teens acquired their cellphones for the sole or main purpose of texting, with just 13.3% of them getting all traditional and actually talking into the things.
Naturally, we advise that a large mountain side of salt be consumed with these ‘facts’ seeing as the survey was commissioned by online text service SMS.ac who have something of a vested interest.
Curiously, the survey doesn’t explain what the remaining 50.8% of kids are doing with their phones.
SMS.ac
A Feast Of Firefox Facts
Anyone using the excellent Mozilla Firefox browser may find this site invaluable: http://www.extensionsmirror.nl
The site serves up a ton of useful links to turn browser dabblers into Firefox pros, with information about rendering issues, downloading, interface enhancements, installable mini-applications, configuration and preference customisation, browser tabs, extensions and more.
30 August, 2005
Shuffle Art Archives – Decorate Your iPod Shuffle, Free
Shortly after the launch of the Apple iPod shuffle, if not simultaneously, manufacturers were quick to jump on the bandwagon by producing and offering thin cases or skins.
I didn’t ever understand the point of this. I found the shuffle to be made of pretty tough stuff, quite happy knocking around in a pocket of change, with smudges wiping off easily.
Not only that, but it attacked one of the very things that I found desirable about the shuffle. Being a male of a certain age, I liked the way I could wear it under my tops and it didn’t add to the girth of my waist. Adding a case around the shuffle would extend my wait by a few additional millimeters.
Many of you will also have seen the devoted souls who have been arranging a packet of chewing gum around their shuffle, aping the comparison that Apple used at its launch, when the Apple product evangelists held the shuffle up with the packet of gum.
NB. At the UK press launch the US Appleittes brought US gum packets over with them, noted with some amusement by some of the assembled hacks.
Well, I’ve just come across an alternative to buying a cover.
Design your own shuffle cover Shuffle Art Archives is an enterprising Japanese Web site which has assembled collections of designs for decorative stickers that you can apply to your little white pride and joy.
It brings together all of the aspects of shuffle decoration – make your own; share your designs; and photo galleries of others designs.
Once you have downloaded your blank shuffle-sized templates as Photoshop file or GIF, you are then free to decorate, upload and share with your fellow shuffle customisers.
User Generated Content doesn’t just have to be digital.
Designs to Download The libraries of designs cover a really impressive range of designs and styles. These are easy to preview and download for you to print out to sticky-backed printer paper for your use.
Most of the designs for download leave the round controls uncovered, as I would assume that the print would wear out with use and it is possible that not seeing the functions of the keys could confuse the owner.
Rather than ignoring this large circle, a couple designs make use of the circular gap left in the print. One of particular note is Crow’s who uses an open mouth to surround the controls.
Another treats the shuffle as a phone, displaying the numbered keys in the lower section, with the controls taking the position of the ear piece
While some people take the simple approach and cover only one face of the player, others are more devoted and produce stickers for each of the exposed surfaces.
Once created or downloaded, they can be printed out on to sticky paper and applied to your virginal-white shuffle.
The quality of some of them is extraordinarily high. Two by Thomas Hui, could almost be sponsored version of the shuffle for the Basketball league.
Gallery The final part in the jigsaw is a photo gallery showing how enthusiastic people have been in customising their pride and joys.
As with the other sections, the range and quality is highly impressive with quite a few playfully mocking trade names such as a Sony battery, and a packet of Viagra.
As you might tell, I’m pretty enthused about the site – providing the tools to make your own covers and providing the inspiration to do it.
Shufflesome – has turned this idea into a business, even using RSS to alter you when new designed (or Outfits as they call them) becoming available.
Again, an impressive site with good designs – but of course you have to pay them for it!
Shuffle Art Archives
Shufflesome
19 August, 2005
Traffic Hacking, Mac Madness, Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev , .xxx interference – Teenage Tech News Review
Traffic Light Hacking
We’ve had hackers doing all sorts of naughty things in the past, but one thing I heard about recently is new to me: Hacking traffic lights. You heard right: traffic lights. However, these traffic lights aren’t used to harvest credit account numbers of passers-by or to spam traffic: They are simply used to enable people to get to work that bit faster, if a little less legally. These hackers use technology originally intended for use with emergency vehicles and mass-transit systems. The way it works, is that a lot major traffic lights in the US have infrared receivers built into them. These receive one of two frequencies of infrared pulses: The first is a low frequency, and intended for use by mass-transit like buses. This low frequency makes traffic lights stay green for that bit longer, enabling the bus to pass through and thus speeding up public transport. The second frequency is intended for use by emergency vehicles, and switches traffic lights from red to green within two seconds of activation, allowing them (and anyone possessing a similar device) to pass through traffic lights unhindered.
These sorts of devices had a dodgy legal status in the States up until recently, when they were outlawed entirely and use of them declared a federal crime.
Mac Madness
It seems people are getting less civilized by the day: In a scene reminiscent of the riot caused by the opening of an Ikea store in Edmonton near London, there was another riot when a school in Virginia decided to sell its old laptops for $50 a piece. Apparently, “One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.” The school was selling laptops that were worth around $1,500 dollars 4 years ago for a meager $50. This kind of event does showcase the fact that a lot of people are eager about technology as long as it is at the right price. Maybe if manufacturers decreased their prices by half, although they might initially make a loss, the hugely increased bulk of sales could lead to much lower production costs. Of course, they will never do this, as it will both cut their profit margins as well as saturating the market. Nice thought though!
Cosmonaut Capers
Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev is now the person who has spent the longest time in space, ever. The Russian is currently the commander of the ISS, and now has 750 days in space to his name. Spending this amount of time in space can be detrimental to a person’s health: 6 months in space typically leads to a loss of about 1.5% of bone mass, which can take years to grow back. 2 years of life in space could lead to a variety of problems when the Russian cosmonaut returns back to earth, but the extent of these remains to be seen. In the worst case, his bones could be unable to support his weight here, although NASA suspects it shouldn’t be anywhere near as bad. While in space, people must stick to a strict regime of exercise to simulate the stresses that bones receive during life on earth to ensure they lose a minimum of mass. This along with the increased danger of high radiation (which can lead to cancer), makes space have many more risks than the obvious danger of your vessel disintegrating. Maybe in the future these will be solved, but bar artificial gravity, I fail to see how this might work.
Although I of all people think Space is a pretty cool thing to explore, issues like this must be solved before any lengthy extra-planetary stays are considered.
They Couldn’t Give a .XXX
This week, it seems like we have another nice example of people in government being quite the opposite of liberal and interfering with technology: Various suit-wearing, self-important men/women of power have objected to ICANN’s newest top-level domain (things like .com, .net), .xxx: according to them and others, introducing a .xxx top-level domain will mean “Pornographers will be given even more opportunities to flood our homes, libraries and society with pornography through the .xxx domain.”
Apparently, the American Department of Commerce has received a “staggering” 6,000 emails and letters protesting about the creation of a .xxx domain. Ok, so 6,000 sounds a lot, but when you think about it, 6,000 people out of the approximately 600,000,000 who use the Internet worldwide, it isn’t quite so impressive.
Surely, the creation of a .xxx domain might even help people distinguish from a filthy porn site and a normal one: It would mean it would be easier for people to block these kinds of sites from opening, and would mean that classification of Web sites as containing porn or not would be easier, and thus the subsequent blocking of offensive content would be made easier.
Although this doesn’t directly affect me, as I am still under the age of 18, I still believe that political objectives should not be allowed to interfere with the running of the Internet. Besides, the Internet is a virtual, international, entity and as such shouldn’t be allowed to be governed by a single country and it’s respective governing body’s re-election agenda.
18 August, 2005