14
Jan
2011
msnbc.com: The economic woes and innovation sparseness that brought a pall to the Consumer Electronics Show in 2009 and 2010 seemed to have been forgotten, and overall there was a more upbeat spirit in Vegas this month. Tech companies actually had something to talk about that meant something to consumers, after years trying to drum up excitement for products that nobody really cares about. (more…)
17
Dec
2010
Engadget: Looking for a bit more integration than your usual iPhone car dock or FM transmitter can provide? Then you might want to consider Oxygen Audio’s new O’Car head unit, which packs a swiveling iPhone dock that’s considerably discreet than some other similar units out there. It’s also, of course, a full-fledged car radio, and it packs a 4x55W amp that Oxygen says delivers “perfect quality sound” to your car’s speakers. If that’s all a bit too much for you, however, Oxygen has also announced the decidedly more standard-looking O’Dock unit that simply mounts on your dash or windshield. Unfortunately, there’s still no word on pricing or availability for either unit, but we’re assuming those details will be made available at CES next month.
17
Dec
2010
Engadget: Whoa, Nelly! ThinkFlood won’t like this… not one bit. If you’ll recall, the RedEye universal remote dongle was well received, as a simple 3.5mm adapter added IR beaming to Apple’s slate of iDevices. But now, Mashed Pixel has taken the integration one step further, seamlessly embedding an Infrared emitter into a case. Simply pop the Surc around your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, download the (free) accompanying app and start programming. Before long, you’ll be dictating your home entertainment setup sans any external accessories, and heck, you may even improve your phone’s reception all the while. The only downside to this approach compared to ThinkFlood’s is that the iPad is obviously not supported, and once you upgrade to the iPhone 5, your trusty IR case becomes a glorified paperweight. If you’re kosher with that, though, you can get your pre-order in now for $69.95, with initial shipments expected to make their way out in Q1 2011.
03
Dec
2010
iPodNN: H2O Audio has just introduced new waterproof earbuds with the Flex All Sport Buds. They can be submerged in up to three feet of water without any ill effects. This also makes them ideal for workouts when wearers sweat, and can be rinsed out for reuse later on.
Each ships with three sizes of earplugs to get an ideal fit. The headphones are available in green, pink, black and blue, each of which is priced at $30.
26
Nov
2010
Gizmodo: AirPlay arrived this week, perhaps not quite as ass-kickingly as we had hoped. Here’s a clip of Air Video, the excellent stream-any-video-you-want-to-your-iPad app rigged up to beam video to an Apple TV. Basically, this is how AirPlay should work.
And hopefully will, once Apple sorts out the relevant APIs. This demo was done with private ones, so the functionality won’t be in the App Store’s Air Video anytime soon. In this case, the workflow is admittedly circuitous—the video’s being streamed from a computer to the iPad, encoded on the fly, and beamed from the iPad to the Apple TV—and it’s not clear if the iPad has quite what it takes in terms of processing power to do the on-the-fly conversion itself, say with an app like VLC, and then stream that video to the ATV. But it all comes back to what we really want here, and hopefully what Apple will let developers implement, once they iron things out a bit more: use AirPlay to send any video we’re watching on our mobile devices, in any app, to our big screens. Here’s to hoping.
26
Nov
2010
Electronista: The Libratone Beat is a wireless speaker tailored to Apple users and has a unique prism-like design that puts out sound in a 360-degree arc, theoretically removing the need to sit in a given area for the best sound. The systems are also draped in cashmere wool and non-traditional speaker colors like blood orange to fit into the middle of a room without disruption. (more…)
19
Nov
2010
Engadget: Looking for more than just a regular standalone iPad dock? Then you might want to consider Xtreamer’s new iXtreamer system, which is an iPad dock that also doubles as a media streamer. Of course, it will also work with iPhones and iPods, and the “dock” is quite capable all by itself as well — it’ll accommodate a 3.5-inch hard drive and up to two USB hard drives, and it’ll support just about any audio or video content you can throw at it, including content stored on your computer or networked hard drive. Interestingly, Xtreamer also notes that it would like to let you use iOS apps on your TV as well, but it says that’s up to Apple to allow — in other words, don’t bet on it. Head on past the break for a video overview, and look for the device to set you back €175, or roughly $235.
19
Nov
2010
iPodNN: Marshall today finally launched its two inaugural headphone sets with promises of both the outer design as well as their sound. The over-ear Major is designed the most closely to recall Marshall’s amps and uses both the vinyl from its stacks as well as a guitar-like coiled headphone cable. They have an optional quarter-inch plug for amps and stereos and have a collapsible design that folds the ear cups into the headband area.
Each cup has an 0.6-inch moving coil dynamic speaker that can handle a 115dB signal-to-noise ratio and a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. It costs $99.
The Minor caters to in-ear listeners and has a unique shape designed to keep the earpieces in place without having to go to in-canal designs. They also use fabric anti-tangle cords and have an in-line microphone and remote that supports typical iOS (and some other smartphone) features. Although it puts out less power due to its size, the Minor shares similar speakers to the Major and has the same signal-to-noise and frequency range as its larger sibling.
The Minor comes with an adapter to support devices that don’t properly recognize two-way headphone plugs and costs $59, although it’s currently listed as “sold out.”
12
Nov
2010
iPodNN: iHome today explained some of the workings of its upcoming AirPlay speaker. Now called the iW1, the audio system will primarily stream from an iTunes computer to the speaker and should mostly use an iOS 4.2 device as a remote, although the feature should theoretically allow direct-from-device streaming. The hardware will allow a Sonos-like multi-room audio system with the option of piping audio to every iW1 on the local network or just individual units.
Most other details are refinements of what was teased after the iW1 was first shown in September. Audio quality should be a focus with both class-D amplifiers as well as Bongiovi Acoustics tuning for the pairs of tweeters and woofers. A row of capacitive touch buttons on top will provide basic physical controls, and iPhone or iPod owners will have the option of charging directly from a USB port on the back.
iHome hasn’t yet given an estimated battery life for the lithium-ion pack in the iW1 other than “hours,” but it did mention that the speaker will support the native iOS app for setting up and delivering firmware updates.
Release dates, prices and other launch details still aren’t known for the wireless audio system, though its release hinges on iOS 4.2′s posting, which could come by Friday.
29
Oct
2010
TG Daily: Is the venerable Steve Jobs and his trusty band of acolytes plotting a hostile takeover or acquisition of Sony with Club Cupertino’s $51 billion war chest?
Although many analysts doubt that such a deal would ever take place, reports of a potential acquisition sent Sony stocks up nearly three percent at one point.
Unsurprisingly, Sony has declined to comment on the rumors, which were kickstarted by a recent Barron’s report endorsing the plausibility of an acquisition engineered and executed by Apple.
As AppleInsider’s Sam Oliver notes, another possible source for the frenetic rumors may be a recent Bloomberg interview with former Apple CEO John Sculley.
“I remember (Sony co-founder) Akio Morita gave us one of the first Sony Walkmans. None of us had ever seen anything like that before, because there had never been a product like that,” Sculley told Bloomberg.
“This was 25 years ago and Steve was fascinated by it. The first thing he did was take it apart, and he looked at every single part. How the fit and finish was done, how it was built.”
However, despite Steve’s obvious admiration for Sony, Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw, remains convinced that Apple has absolutely no intention of buying the Japanese-based company.
“We [really] don’t see any acquisitions of any size,” Kumar told Reuters.
“[Firstly], Apple is happy to keep its cash under the pillow. [And secondly], it would [obviously] be a [clear] cultural miss.”
22
Oct
2010
BBC News: Apple is cashing in on the popularity of its iPhone and iPad to boost demand for its oldest product, the Macintosh.
The company announced that its popular app store for the iPhone and the iPad would soon be coming to its laptops.
It also launched a revamped MacBook Air at an event at its headquarters.
The computer is seen as a marriage of what Apple has learned from desktop computing and mobile devices. Like the iPad, the Air will have no hard drive and rely on flash memory.
Apple shares fall despite profits RIM counters Apple tablet jibes “It’s like nothing we’ve ever created before,” said Apple boss Steve Jobs.
“We see these as the next generation of MacBooks. We think all notebooks are going to be like this one day. We’ve been inspired by some of the work we have done on iOS and want to bring them back to the Mac,” said Mr Jobs.
Analysts said the laptop sends out a clear signal to the industry.
“This is a strong reminder to everyone out there that Apple is still in the PC business,” said Michael Gartenberg, research director with Gartner.
“They are still making a lot of money in the PC business and if anyone thinks they are getting out of that business given the money they are making they are very mistaken.”
On sale
The new MacBook Air is 0.11 inches thick at its thinnest point. Apple said the computer’s battery life lets users surf the web for seven hours. In standby mode, the battery can last 30 days.
The first Macintosh made its debut on 24 January 1984 In an overview, Apple said the Macintosh accounted for a third of the company’s revenue or $22bn in the fiscal year that has just ended.
They sold 13.7 million Macs last year, which is three times the sales they had in 2005. The firm also cited research figures that showed Apple now controls 20.7% of the US consumer market and accounts for one in every five computers sold.
“The Mac company, if it were a standalone company, and we have no plans to do that, would be 110 on the Fortune 500 list,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief technology officer.
Other features
Apple also unveiled a new version of the Macintosh operating system, called Lion, to be released next summer.
The new OS builds on some of the features used in the firm’s iOS, which is currently used to power iPhones and iPads.
“Lion brings many of the best ideas from the iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones,” said Mr Jobs.
The company revealed that Macs will soon have an application store, mirroring the one that exists for its mobile devices.
A feature called launchpad will make it easy to organise and launch apps in the new version of the operating system. The App Store will be added to Macs, as a download, within 90 days.
FaceTime, which debuted on the iPhone 4 this summer, will also bring video-chatting to Macs.
Apple also updated its flagship software suite iLife. The new edition includes updates to iPhotos, iMovie and GarageBand.
The new iPhoto integrates more deeply with social networks, such as Facebook, allowing people to upload pictures directly from the software, as well as see comments that people have made on their photos.
15
Oct
2010
TechRadar: Mobile navigation has put on a huge growth spurt in the past 12 months, with 44 million people using their mobile phones to get from a to b – a 57 per cent increase from last year.
The rise and rise of GPS-enabled mobile phones has seen a massive growth spurt for mobile navigation, as people begin to move onto platforms like Android and Apple’s iOS 4.
According to Berg Insight’s figures, the use of mobile navigation in the first half of 2010 increased by close to 60 per cent compared to the same period in 2009, and that number is set to grow further.
Nearly 200m
“The subscriber base is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.1 per cent to reach 195 million users worldwide in 2015,” added the report.
“Broad availability of GPS handsets and attractive pricing are key factors for widespread adoption of mobile navigation services.
“In the US, where GPS handset penetration is above 70 percent, navigation services for mobile phones has already reached about 8 percent of the total mobile subscriber base.”
As mobile phones with aGPS chips become prevalent, the pressure on the sat nav industry is growing, although many of the companies involved insist that there is still a need for a dedicated device.