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Apple Has A New iPod Shuffe… And It Talks [UPDATED x2]

Posted in Products with tags , on March 11, 2009 by itnerd

Apple has released a new iPod Shuffle that is 4GB in size, half the size of the last iPod Shuffle, and it talks to you:

Introducing VoiceOver, the feature that gives iPod shuffle a voice. With the press of a button, it tells you what song is playing and who’s performing it. It can even tell you the names of your playlists, giving you a new way to navigate your music.

I guess I have to see this first hand, but this sounds like an interesting feature as my one gripe about the iPod Shuffe has been the fact that it didn’t have a screen. VoiceOver solves that issue, assuming it works well.  It’s available now for $80 US. Oh, if you still have an attachment to the last generation iPod Shuffle, you’ll be happy to know that it’s still available.

UPDATE: I noticed two things. First, the controls for the new iPod Shuffle are on the headset. Can you say “Cha Chnig” as there’s no third party products that work with this iPod (yet?). Second, the new iPod Shuffle requires iTunes 8.1 according to the system requirements page. The current version is 8. I’m guessing that version 8.1 will appear in software update at any second seeing as the iPod Shuffle is available now.

UPDATE #2: iTunes 8.1 is out. The new features are:

iTunes 8.1 is now faster and more responsive. You will enjoy noticeable improvements when working with large libraries, browsing the iTunes Store, preparing to sync with iPod or iPhone, and optimizing photos for syncing.

In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including:

– Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation)
– Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ
– Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows
– Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs
– Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods
– Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus
– Includes many accessibility improvements
– Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls

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Apple Drops New iTunes And iPhone 2.2 Firmware On The World [UPDATE]

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on November 21, 2008 by itnerd

Apple is getting kind of sneaky these days. Late last night, Apple dropped two new updates for its fanbois users. Let’s start with the fact that iTunes 8.0.2 for Mac And Windows is now available. If you want to grab a copy, visit Software Update or click here. This update addresses the following issues:

• iTunes 8 and iTunes U are now accessible with VoiceOver on your Mac.
• Addresses a quality issue creating MP3s on some computers.
• Fixes a connectivity issue with the iTunes Store when using some Internet proxies with Mac OS X.
•Improves accessibility with VoiceOver.

Next is the updated iPhone 2.2 Firmware. It brings a lenghty list of fixes and enhancements:

•Enhancements to Maps
•Google Street View
•Public transit and walking diretions
•Display address of dropped pins
•Share location via email
•Enhancements to Mail
•Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
•Improved formatting of wide HTML email
•Improved stability and performance of Safari
•Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular)
•Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
•Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
•Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes you to the first Home screen
•Preferences to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard settings

This version is available via iTunes after you plug your iPhone into your Mac or PC. This update is apparently available for the iPod Touch as well.

If you’ve got feeback about these updates, please leave a comment.

UPDATE: The iPhone/iPod Touch update security changelog can be found here. Note that it fixes the issue where iPhones are not really locked when they’re locked that I told you about. Apple has posted update pages for the iPhone and the iPod Touch as well. Also, a thread on Apple’s discussion board indicates that this update seems to fix that WPA issue that I told you about.

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WiFi Issue Found In New iPod Touch…. The Fanbois Are Not Happy

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on September 14, 2008 by itnerd

Reports have surfaced on the Apple Discussion Boards that WiFi is broken on the new iPod Touch as they apparently don’t connect to some WPA or WPA2 encrypted wireless networks. D-Link routers seem to be hard hit by this, but other types of routers seem to have this problem as well. Certain Linksys and Belkin routers have been reported to have this issue too. The current workaround is to set your wireless network to use WEP encryption which is horribly insecure. WEP encryption can be cracked by the average 8 year old in about 10 minutes using tools found via Google.

Who’s fault is this? That isn’t clear at this point, but assuming the fault lies with Apple, that’s bad. The WPA and WPA2 encryption standards are not new. So the fact that the iPod Touch doesn’t work on networks that use this standard is pretty bad.

One thing to consider: Leopard (OS X 10.5) has had issues with D-Link hardware for almost a year. I’ve personally had problems with my Macbook Pro connecting to D-Link hardware using WPA/WPA2 in the past. So considering that the iPod Touch uses OS X, perhaps this is a old Apple bug resurfacing?

I’ll keep you posted as this one evolves.

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Oh…. One More Thing…. (With Apologies To Steve Jobs) [UPDATED X2]

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on September 9, 2008 by itnerd

It seems that Apple has slipped out some extras in addition to today’s news:

  • A iPod Touch guided walkthrough video has been posted.
  • A document that was just posted confirms that a number of security issues have been fixed in the iPod Touch/iPhone 2.1 firmware. By the way, the firmware may actually be shipping via iTunes at this time. However, there have been reports of issues in terms of downloading it.
  • Bonjour for Windows 1.05 has appeared today as well. This utility, which gives XP and Vista machines access to zero-configuration network resources such as printers or Mac OS X web sharing, now includes a couple of DNS-related patches. Click here for the full details and download it here.
  • The word on the street is that the iPhone won’t work with the Nike+iPod system even with the 2.1 update because of a lack of hardware inside the iPhone.

And because I care, here’s the new iPod Nano ad. In case you are wondering what the song is, it’s Bruises by Chairlift. [iTunes link]. And for added fun, here’s the new iPod Touch Ad. Anybody want to tell me who does the music in this commercial?

Question: Is “Funnest” even a word?

UPDATE: The iPod Touch 2.1 update is the one that is currently available. MacRumors has a list of what is in this update. The iPhone 2.1 update is still scheduled for release on Friday. MacRumors has also noted that the iPod Touch gets an external mic as well. Finally, the song in the iPod Touch ad is Around the Bend by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. [iTunes link]

UPDATE #2: The infamous MobileMe Control Panel for Windows has been updated too. Plus there is now a download page for the Front Row Update that I mentioned in my previous post.

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Apple Drops New iPods And A New Version Of iTunes… Fanbois Go Wild [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on September 9, 2008 by itnerd

It was another one of those days today. Apple held one of their religious experiences for their fanbois press events to announce the following:

  • A new version of iTunes has hit the streets. It has support for High Definition TV shows and Genius playlists which automatically find similar songs in your collection. It’s available now from www.apple.com/itunes. You’ll need Quicktime 7.5.5 which was also released today along with a Front Row update for Macs.
  • A new iPod Nano is available. It’s taller and thinner than the last version. It has a accelerometer to detect tilt, which is clearly used with the “Shake iPod to shuffle” feature. The genius playlist feature is built in to this iPods as well along with an enhanced user interface. The battery lasts 24 hours for music. 4 hours for video and comes in 9 Colors (silver, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, black) in 8GB and 16GB variants. Check out all the details at www.apple.com/ipodnano
  • The other iPod that was announced was the iPod Touch. They’ve changed the casing and have incuded the long rumored iPod Touch/iPhone firmware 2.1 (more on that in a second) as well as support for Nike+iPod. There’s also built-in speaker, volume controls. Get the details at www.apple.com/ipodtouch
  • iPod Touch/iPhone firmware 2.1 as mentioned earlier hit the streets today. Changes apparently include significantly better battery life, fewer call drops, the ever popular “bug fixes” and faster backups to iTunes, no application crashes. The iPhone 2.1 firmware will presumably support the same Genius playlist features described in the new iPod Touches and perhaps maybe the Nike+iPod too (although that would require hardware support and I haven’t seen anything on that). Perhaps this will put an end to the lawsuits? The firmware will be relased on Friday via iTunes.
  • NBC who had pulled their TV shows from iTunes a high profile falling out with Apple have returned to iTunes. Word on the street is that Apple caved to demands from NBC about the pricing of their shows on iTunes. Oh yeah, the shows are in HD.
  • New in-ear headphones are now available as well.
  • Finally, the iPod Classic only comes in one variant now. It is now available with 120GB of storage. The 80GB & 160GB versions have been discontinued.

The markets didn’t like this news. Apple stock is down by 4% as I write this. But as you can see here and here, the fanbois are talking about the new offerings from “The Steve.”

UPDATE: A Video of the event is now available.

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Canadian iTunes Store Now Has Movies….. Bye Bye Bell!

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on June 4, 2008 by itnerd

You’ll recall that I said the following when Bell Canada came out with their half assed video store:

“I’m going to sit back and watch this service get utterly destroyed by the Apple iTunes service as it’s clear that Bell doesn’t have a clue needed to think this through a bit more before rolling this out to the public.”

Well, today is the day the destruction begins. Apple has brought movie rentals and sales to the Canadian iTunes music store. You can watch the movies on your PC, Mac, AppleTV or iPod and the pricing structure is as follows:

  • CAN$9.99 to purchase catalog titles
  • CAN$14.99 to get recently released movies
  • CAN$19.99 to purchase new movies
  • CAN$3.99 for renting a library title (a dollar more for HD)
  • CAN$4.99 for new release rental (a dollar more for HD)

So lets recap:

Apple (who pretty much owns the online distribution of music and movies) has set up shop in Canada and their movies are playable on both PC and Mac computers as well as the AppleTV and the iPod (which at last count 7 or 10 people in the universe owned one).

Versus:

The uber lame movie store that Bell has which only works on Windows and Microsoft PlaysForSure portable players that maybe a handful of people own.

Gee. I wonder who’s going to win?

I’m guessing that a bunch of Bell execs are crapping their pants very concerned right now.

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Apple Owns Up To Defective Batteries In Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on May 9, 2008 by itnerd

Two class-action lawsuits against Apple Canada have been settled with a $45 credit being offered to Canadian residents who purchased a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation iPod prior to June 24, 2004. According to this story, up to 80,000 Canadians would be eligible for this credit. It’s not the first time that Apple has had to deal with wonky batteries. Apple USA settled a similar lawsuit a while ago. Full details about the settlement are available here. (warning: PDF)

Still up in the air is a lawsuit by another Canadian gentleman who discovered that his 8GB nano only has 7.45GB of storage. I have the same iPod, so I will be watching this closely.

UPDATE: Apple has disclaimers on each iPod specs page (Click here for an example. Scroll to the bottom) that has the following text:

“1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.”

I don’t think his lawsuit will go too far. But I am not a lawyer.

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Buy A Refub iPod, Get A Virus For Free

Posted in Commentary, Security with tags , on April 30, 2008 by itnerd

Ina Fried who writes for news.com decided to buy a re-certified iPod via buy.com to save a few bucks. But when he plugged it into his Mac, he got a nasty surprise. Namely the AdobeR.exe virus. He contacted buy.com who swapped it right away. When they looked into it further, they declared that it was an isolated incident.

Maybe it’s an isolated incident for them, but Apple had a bunch of brand new iPods ship with a virus on them back in 2006. Also, Best Buy had a bunch of picture frames ship with a virus recently as well. The fact is, anything that has some form of storage on it can have “unwanted passengers” hop on for a ride into your computer. The best thing that you can do is to make sure that you have up to date anti-virus protection (I recommend AVG Free for PC users. Mac users can try ClamXav) on your computer so that if you happen to be unlucky enough to have a product with a virus on it, you can at least stop it from doing any damage.

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I Was Almost iMugged

Posted in Tips with tags , on February 29, 2008 by itnerd

Picture this. Yesterday I hop off my train and head to the exit. I’m minding my own business when from my left some “strung out, really thin, 20 something punk male” grabs my headset cord and pulls it towards him. All he gets is my Sennhiser MX500 (or two thirds of them as the jack was still plugged into my iPod). I stare at him in disbelief for a second, then I start to move towards him to ask him WTF? That’s when he took off and disappeared into the rush hour crowd.

In short, I was almost iMugged.

The basic definition of being iMugged is simple: Someone jumps you to steal your iPod. How do they know that you have an iPod? Their odds are good that they’d score an iPod seeing that 7 of 10 MP3 players sold on planet earth are iPods. Of course the fact that they all have white headsets are a dead giveaway as well. I presume that they’re easy to flip for drug money and they’re likely easy to steal as they are often accessible. The New York Times talked about this in a widely quoted article three years ago, so this is not new by any means.

So, why didn’t this “punk” get my iPod?

I have always kept my iPod out of sight so that I don’t advertise that I have one. That and the fact that I use a Incase Leather case that has the belt clip upside down. That way you have to pull down to remove the case from your belt (as the natural tendency is to pull up to remove something from your belt). I think between the two these things, it kept my iPod from going anywhere. So the only real damage was to my headsets which were destroyed. One quick trip to a stereo shop at lunch and I was back in business.

So how do you avoid being an iMugging victim? Here’s what the cop who took my incident report told me:

Never let it out of your sight: Keep your iPod close to you, don’t leave it unattended, don’t leave it exposed in your car when you’re not in it, etc.

Change your headsets: Ignoring the fact that the Apple earbuds aren’t that good from an audio perspective, the white earbuds that come with iPods have become well-known indicators that the headphone cord snaking into your pocket or bag is connected to an iPod. I’m now using a set of black Sony’s and I’m hoping that reduces my risk. Plus the audio quality is superior to the Apple earbuds. (For the record, the ones that the “punk” trashed were a pair of Sennhiser MX500’s. But they were still white)

Keep it out of sight: Things are harder to steal if the scumbag thieves can’t see it.

Be aware of what’s around you: Don Cherry tells kids on Hockey Night In Canada to “put their heads on a swivel” whenever they play hockey to avoid getting hurt. That means that they should always be looking around to see what’s around them. That’s a good idea when you’re using your iPod (considering that you’re likely not hearing any outside noise while using your iPod, it may be vital). In fact, given the times we live in, it may just be a good idea period.

Oh yeah, to the punk who tried to steal my iPod: If you’re reading this, the cops have you on tape as the transit system has a network of cameras installed in all of the train stations. They have a decent shot of your face from several angles. If I were you, I’d watch your back as the cops are looking for you. So bad boy, what you gonna do when they come for you?

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