All Articles in iPod

I, Robot. The Butlarian Jihad. Terminator. Cylons. The Matrix. And the endless sci-fi stories that inspired them. All that cultural warning and still, like lemmings, we humans rush towards inventing our replacements.

No one to blame but ourselves now really. And Apple for making our eventual overlords so aesthetically pleasing…

[via TUAW]

UPDATED: ZDNet retorts, and says to chill.

ORIGINAL: iLounge (via Engadget) is reporting that the new iPod shuffle ships with headsets that not only include advanced (read: complicated) on-wire controls, but with lock-down chips that may prevent third parties from making compatible alternatives without ponying up licensing fees to Apple. Whether this is a money grab in exchange for technology Apple has patented and feels they deserve compensation for, or just another internet controversy that ultimately goes nowhere isn’t fully understood yet (least not by me!). iLounge says:

This is, in short, a nightmare scenario for long-time iPod fans: are we entering a world in which Apple controls and taxes literally every piece of the iPod purchase from headphones to chargers, jacking up their prices, forcing customers to re-purchase things they already own, while making only marginal improvements in their functionality? It’s a shame, and one that consumers should feel empowered to fight.

When the iPhone 3G came out, there was some noise that the new component and composite video cables that came along with it contained proprietary chips that would prevent 3rd parties from creating cheaper alternatives to the Apple-proper cables.

Launched along with the 2nd generation iPod touch was Apple’s new in-ear headset with mic and remote control, allowing music to be started, stopped, and skipped, along with volume to be controlled right on the headset. They worked not only with the iPod touch, but with the new aluminum unibody MacBook family, and to a lesser degree with the iPhone 3G. Was there a proprietary lock-down chip in those headsets?

Either way, are we sharpening our pitchforks and lighting our torches, or waiting to see how this develops before storming the streets of Cupertino?

Today is a good day to be a iPod touch 2G owner. Particularly if you have been waiting for an untethered jailbreak method to appear. The Dev Team put up a post late last night on their blog:

The iPod Touch 2G is now another member of the “pwned for life” family. It has a fatal flaw in its bootrom that means you will always be able to pwn these devices no matter what firmware updates come along. This is the full, untethered jailbreak, something that iPod Touch 2G users have not had before today.

For more information about this iPod touch 2G jailbreak and to download the software you’ll need, visit here. If any of you are feeling adventurous, be sure to let us know how it goes!

[Via blog.iphone-dev.org]

Technically motor vehicles, we suppose, as people who can still afford to fill up the honking huge gas tanks on trucks and the like get their fair share of iPhone/iPod love as well, as Ars Technica reports that integration has now hit a majority level of 58%.

Proprietary dock port notwithstanding, Apple’s dominance of the music player — and now music phone — market has no doubt driven (ha!) the adaption. More egalitarian-ly, USB integration has hit 33%, with an even higher rate of increase. Says Jeff Smykll:

When my significant other bought her new Scion XD earlier in the year, one of the things she was really excited about was the iPod integration that came standard. The unit is pretty slick: the iPod can be controlled from the steering wheel, the information about the currently-playing song is available on the head unit, and the iPod’s playlists can be traversed using the stereo’s knobs.

Pretty slick. Now we have to decide if we’re going to spend our recession-dwindled savings on a car with iPhone integration… or similarly priced Macbook Air. Oh, why do you test us so, Apple?!

A colleague of mine just sent me this, along with the screenshot above:

Every time I try to update my iPod Touch I get this message. I do the help about and it says 7.7.1.11 is installed. Looks like it’s in a loop.

Anyone else getting 2.1 for the iPod Touch yet? Anyone else stuck in a loop? Let us know!

Was Kevin Rose right? Is the Analyst-busting 8-Ball now batting 500? Could there be any more speculation about something that’s close-to, but not quite an iPhone?? Engadget Spanish (via MacRumors) has seen the usual pre-Special Event hype, and raised the first “in the wild” case leaks:

The case is by Hama and is a Sport Case specifically labeled “for iPod nano 4G”.

While notoriously secretive Apple managed to shock the world with the iPhone in 2007, things have been a tad more leaky ever since, with the “fatty” Nano, MacBook Air, and even iPhone 3G details all getting out before Jobs could utter a single Boom!

Not many were thrilled with the Nano 3G prior to holding it in their hands, and not many seem thrilled with the advance peaks at the 4G either (calling it Zune-like — ouch!). Personally, I’m not sold on the design yet either, but I’ve learned the hard way you don’t ever count Jonathan Ive out.

What do you think? Hawt or really not?

Internet superstar Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, Pownce, and Revision3 has a… er… spotty record at best when it comes to iPhone speculation. Still, we give him full marks for getting back on that rumor horse once again. This time, Kevin’s saying he knows that sometime before the end of September we’ll see:

• Firmware 2.1, debuting on the iPod Touch (which will get a minor facelift).
• iTunes 8.0 with “new features and functionality” he can’t get into.
• Price drops along the iPod line to keep them competitive with iPhone’s $199
• Rounded wide-screen nano, back in candy-bar form factor
• Mac OS X 10.5.6 to feature Blu-Ray support.

Rose, who’s locked in a battle with Barak Obama and Leo Laporte for the crown of top Twitter’er, asks that we follow him there, or on his own platform, Pownce, for more updates.

Our take? Last year’s big pre-holiday Apple event introduced the iPod Touch, which debuted the new 1.1 firmware, including the WiFi Music Store, so that’s quite possible. iTunes 8.0 is more opaque, however. If App Store integration wasn’t a big enough marketing excuse to make the full point jump to iTunes 8.0, what would it take? (7.0, for example, added CoverFlow and iPod Games).

iPod price drops before the biggest selling season of the year make sense, as Apple dropped the iPhone $200 at last years event. Likewise a new Nano.

Blu-Ray support — if it’s to include BD movie playback — is a bigger nut to crack, however, because the short sighted industry killers in Hollywood demands HDCP DRM compliance (i.e. hardware enforced, digital rights managed copy protection) over the full path, from player, through cables and graphic cards, into the monitor — and in the OS. This caused a bit of an internet brouhaha when Microsoft “caved” for Vista. Laptops and the iMac would be far easier to implement, but is there business advantage enough for Steve Jobs to feel like doing it?

(via MacRumors)

The iPhone might be the best iPod ever, but as Steve Jobs keeps saying, if no one else can compete with Apple, Apple will compete with itself. Witness a number of new iPod rumors that have just surfaced.

First up, iPhone Atlas brings word of a new iPod Touch. Seems the latest developer deep diving in the upcoming iPhone 2.0 code, in addition to cut and paste, has discovered strings for what looks like iPod Touch 2,1. To give perspective, the original iPhone and iPod Touch were 1,1, while the iPhone 3G is 1,2. A jump to 2,1 then looks to be an upgrade quite a bit more significant than what the iPhone just enjoyed. A replacement? An additional model? A twice-sized iTablet? And what will this mean for the similarly Mobile OS X powered iPhone?

Next up, iLounge says the next iPod Nano will shed its “phat” and grow tall again to accommodate an iPhone/iPod Touch wider-screen aspect ratio of 1.5:1 (bumped from the current 1.33:1). iLounge — and almost everyone else who picked up the story — headlined the form factor as “Zune-like”, for obvious link… er… attraction purposes. Well played!

Also, while rumors have swirled over multi-colored iPods being introduced in the next generation, which harken back to marketing mishaps like the Flower Power iMac of yore, MacObserver reveals a new Apple patent application for “computing device with dynamic ornamental [i.e. color changing] appearance”. Though supremely awesome in concept (Predator-like chameleon camo class awesome), iLounge claims any rumors of multi-colored iPods coming this year are inaccurate. Instead, each model will sport its own anodized aluminum skin, much like the old iPod Nano.

Lastly, Apple Insider says Apple is advising resellers to stock up soon, as iPod shortages this way come. Clearing out stock in preparation for another Special Event this autumn? The last one not only debuted the iPod Touch, but a new iPhone Firmware which included the WiFi Music Store, so we certainly hope so!

Macnn/iPodnn (via The Inquirer) reports that unlike CoreLocation, which gives access to the Google Maps-like location-based services, Apple’s new iPhone SDK will be providing absolutely no access to iPod functionality or the onboard iTunes:

Any functionality related to music playback is inaccessible by the iPhone SDK, a new report claims. While the SDK allows access to many other functions of iPhone and the iPod touch, such as dialing, the camera and Internet access, The Inquirer writes that any components connected to iTunes are off-limits, preventing developers from accessing one of the most popular features of the phone

While this could be an anti-competitive move meant to keep VLC off the iPhone — or to protect consumers from the horror that would be RealPlayer Touch… — it may also cripple any Guitar Hero, Rockband, or iPod-style Phase gaming. (Unless Harmonix and other big game developers like EA are granted that oft-mentioned “special dispensation”…?)

Did it used to about the music, and Apple’s now telling us to just “sl@g off!”? Or are you happy they’re keeping developers’ tone-deaf mitts off your shiny (i)tunes? What do you think?

What does the iPhone lack? Besides the obvious — 3G, Office Doc editing, the ability to actually make julienne fries — what the iPhone lacks is games. Real, on-board games. Some of this pain is mitigated by the fact that you can get web-based games (including some great iPhone games by our very own forum member cmaier). Still, though, do you know what the most popular video game on the planet is?

Solitaire. Because it’s built into Windows.

So getting native games on the iPhone is a Big Deal because people are much more likely to form an affinity with a device if they can play a game or two on it. I speak from experience — the most painful part of leaving the PalmOS for me is still the fact that I can’t find a crossword application as good as stand alone’s. Add the love for the iPhone to love for a device with games and you’ll start seeing people getting buried with these little guys.

…All of which is to say that seeing that Apple is extending their trademark to include handheld gaming strikes me as a good sign. Sure, as MacRumors points out, this doesn’t mean much — Apple’s been making games for the iPod Classic for awhile now. Still, though, we need games, Apple, please please release a couple when you announce the SDK. Or announce that partnership with EA that we’ve been hoping for.

Coda: Another reason we need native games (to say nothing of apps): stuff on the web disappears. For example, I just realized that Duck Hunt has shuffled off this series of tubes mortal coil.