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Apple is hosting another media event today. iPod Nanos are expected, and they look drastically different than the current nano. Not everyone is happy with the new look, but from what I can see it looks pretty functional. I think I’m withholding judgment until I’ve seen what all of their iPod lineup looks like.

Meanwhile, ThinkSecret basically guarantees touchscreen iPods. They also say the iPod nano, featured in the above Gizmodo link, will pack some seriously updated iPod software, and it will be great; it will be revolutionary. Or evolutionary. One or the other, really.

Please note that the screenshots from ThinkSecret above include albums from the Beatles that aren’t yet available in the iTunes Store.

Microsoft always seems to pop up with a little snippet of news on event days like this. I think they do this so they can play the ’sour grapes’ role of the day, now hints that making a Zune phone is ‘not unreasonable.’ This is more or less the opposite of what CEO Steve Ballmer said at the D5 conference, so I’m glad to see that they’re still talking from both sides of their mouth. They’re champs of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Emphasis on the ‘uncertainty’ part here. And now you know why they play the sour grapes role — it gets them in the news. But everyone knows somebody that can’t tell the difference between negative attention and positive attention, and it’s not like there’s surging demand for a Zune phone, though I’m sure Windows Mobile users would be happy for the extra functionality.

But back in focus, there’s no shortage of hype — read a paragraph and you can see why Apple’s stock is so volatile after announcements. Taken from Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge:

I seriously believe tomorrow is going to be different. I think it’s going to be the day when iPod die-hards, technology geeks, and mainstreamers alike are all going to be genuinely excited by what Apple is going to show. In short, if the release of the iPod mini signaled the start of Apple’s dominance of the digital music player business, and the nano and 5G signaled the end for most of its small competitors and beginning of its video initiative, tomorrow is going to be the final nail in the coffin for Microsoft, Sony, and the bigger players as well. Yes, even with their recent announcements. The only people who will be upset are those who aren’t already on the bandwagon, or the few who (sorry, NBC) jumped off early and got hit by it.

You know though, the scary thing is that he could just as well be right. John Gruber thinks so, so it must be true.

And in other news, T3 reports that a 3G version of the iPhone will be announced today. I think that’s a pipe dream; there’s no way Apple would update a flagship product 2 months after it came out for the first time. That would flat-out anger the almost-1-million purchasers of an iPhone here in the U.S.A.

Of course, any time Apple updates iTunes, it’s always possible that they will also update the iPhone, so I’ll be keeping my ear close to the news to see what they have planned. There’s plenty of speculation for iPhone Games and ringtones. And it’s not just the iPhone Ranch that’s expecting it, it’s also the New York Post.

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No bones about it, the Aquapac Waterproof Pro Sports Case (store link, $34.95) isn’t a pretty case. It’s a pretty ugly case. You don’t wear the Aquapac to the beauty pageant though, so this review is less about aesthetics and more about form.

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There’s no news from the $100 grand reward for free software blog, but I don’t really think you’ll see it. Why the artificial deadline? The big news today is the absurdity of the DMCA where it comes to unlocking. You see, in the USA, we have a right to unlock the phones. But AT&T and/or Apple has no obligation to do so. And the software that does it; that’s technically software that bypasses a security measure, etc., which means that it’s governed by the DMCA. And the DMCA pretty much screws anyone that bypasses a security measure. That’s the root issue at stake: that our telco laws here are bollocks.

At any rate, Ars Technica has probably the best writeup on it that I’ve read this morning.

They link to Ed Felten’s blog, where he states that AT&T is screwed, and that we’ll have an unlock one of these days. Ed Felten is kind of famous in some circles for work with the Govt. in the Microsoft Antitrust trial, his defeat of the SDMI audio watermarking (and the RIAA’s bizarre lawsuit that followed), and his utter defeat of Diebold / Premier Election Solutions e-voting machines on TV. He’s had some experience here, and knows what he’s talking about.

iPod Observer has a good writeup on an article at BusinessWeek that also explores the issue in depth, and BusinessWeek has a bit of their own insightful commentary as well:

“Indeed, this time, hackers may have the law on their side. Remember, decades ago, automakers built their instrument panels so that only authorized radios of their own manufacture would fit in. Eventually, U.S. courts ended that practice.”

And no one ever had trouble installing a car stereo again.

There’s another writeup on the two currently-poised-to-release-unlocking-software-but-not-really-willing-to-until-the-lawyers-say-it’s-ok groups, iPhone Unlocking / John McLaughlin, and iPhoneSimFree. It gives a good view from above if you’ve not heard about it.

MYiTablet found an interesting article at C|Net that postulates that Jobs wants the iPhone hacked and unlocked; that Apple lawyers doesn’t care — Apple’s stake after the sale is tiny:

“Isn’t it ironic that AT&T lawyers went knocking on the doors of the hackers while Apple lawyers sipped tea at home?”

I suppose that’s a rhetorical question, but NO — it’s not irony. It is insightful and interesting, though. What does Apple get for iPhone service plan revenue sharing, $12 the 1st month and $3/month per subscriber thereafter? He’s got a good point, and it’s a good article. As a side note, Don Reisinger has some crazy red lips.

figure 1: Seriously, check out the crazy red lips Don Reisinger’s got.

And finally, there’s a Slashdot discussion about it all too. I don’t have anything stupid to say that I want broadcast to the internet today, so I’ll skip it. But that option is always there.

figure 1: the Belkin Sport Armband. Note the absence of the holes by the key slot

I quit smoking over a year ago. I didn’t like how expensive it all was (a pack a day gets expensive quick), so I started rolling my own cigarettes; which is probably way worse for you. I liked smoking, but I knew I had to quit. I was going to be moving in to a house, meaning my tiny little monthly rent was going to jump up to a ginormous monthly mortgage. So I quit. Boy, did that suck. I mean, it sucked at first. Eventually I was done with smoking and that’s great, nothing bad about that. Except for the 30 pounds I packed on. The charts don’t say I’m overweight, but I started running anyway. It’s either that or buy a whole bunch of pants.

I can do a mile without killing myself, so that’s great. It takes a while; long enough that I sometimes wish for music or podcasts as I jog. But, I’m not really excited about dumping an iPhone to flop around in my running shorts. Ergo, the need for the Belkin Sport Armband case (store link, $24.95).

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This might sound weird, but the Smartphone Experts Wall Charger ($14.95, store link) was one of the items that I really anticipated. I’m always glad to have a 2nd charger; and one with an extra-long cord is always a plus. The integrated cord management is just a bonus.

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When I pulled down the Smartphone Experts Side Pouch (store link, $29.95) from my current list, I figured it would be the side-loading version of their Top Pouch. I’m glad to say that I’m wrong: the quality of the side pouch surpasses it. A person will have to be pretty nitpicky to find something wrong with it. Lucky for you, I’m nitpicky.

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So, I’ve talked before at length about my pile of accessories to review. Well, it’s nigh time to turn my burning gaze to the stack of accessories that need reviewing. Again, if there’s a product you want reviewed first, let me know and I’ll move that to the top of my queue. First up on that queue is the Smartphone Experts Top Pouch.

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So, yeah. Favelets and bookmarklets. In the podcast, I promised a review article about useful bookmarklets and favelets, for the iPhone. And here it is.

I’ve written a few simple bookmarklets as well; it seems a lot of the bookmarklets are designed for web editors, and not always so much for the average web user. I’m guessing that not many regular folks need to edit CSS from the iPhone, and those that do already have those bookmarklets synched over. But still, there’s a void for popular sites. It seemed that all I found were eBay, Amazon, and Google sites. So I set out to make a few of my own, and edit a few others so that they’d work on iPhone Safari (henceforth, iSafari).

If you have any requests for a custom bookmarklet, put them in the comments. It has to be said that I make no guarantees that I can make the resulting request as I’m not an expert with javascript by any means, but the worst that can happen is that I say no. Okay, that’s not the worst that can happen. The worst is that I say no VERY IMPOLITELY.

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This is an article that I’ll be updating throughout Apple’s Quarterly Earnings report for Q3 2007. All times are CST.

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