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Archive for the 'iPods' Category

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Vizio goes beyond TV with 6 new gadgets

January 12th, 2010, 4:31 pm by

Vizio Universal RemoteVizio conquered the LCD HDTV market last year. Now it wants a piece of the TV accessory market.

While the Irvine TV company unveiled its first Blu-ray Disc player, sound bar and cables last year, this year’s show had many nice surprises as well. It not only showed its latest TVs, including a 3D model and a super skinny HDTV, but it offered up a bunch of interesting TV accessories. I’ve highlighted the following, with pictures of course:

Number 1 stock artUniversal remote control with built-in LCD – Two of them are coming but the more interesting one is the XRT100 touchscreen remote control has a 3.5-inch LCD display to control the home’s entertainment system. It will work with Vizio’s upcoming (and delayed) Internet TV, as well as older audio and video devices. Unlike the Samsung Wi-Fi remote with the built-in TV display, this one works over Bluetooth. Click photos to enlarge.

Vizio universal remote control with touchscreen Vizio universal remote control with touchscreen

Number 2 stock artHeadphones with built-in LCD — Why does one need an LCD screen on a set of headphones, I’m not quite sure. But it was cool to see. Vizio added a round LCD display to the outer part of each earpiece. Users will be able to see the album cover or personal images on the screens. These are future products with no price or availability date available. Watch the video I took inside Vizio’s dark CES suite: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Gadgets • iPods • Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • | 9 Comments »

All about iPods and organizing music, Part 2

January 11th, 2010, 2:34 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

This is Part 2 of a 2-part article on iPods and managing your music, pictures and videos. This covers copying of music, pictures and videos to and from your iPod. Read part one: “All about iPods and organizing your music library, Part 1.”

How to copy music to your iPod

There are a few ways to get music on an iPod. Here are two methods:

Use the iTunes library

  1.  
    1. Open iTunes and click File, Add Folder or Add File to Library
    2. Browse to any location on your hard drive or external hard drive and click Add Folder (or select files)
    3. Plug in your iPod now or prior to step 1, it doesn’t matter
    4. Select the Music link under your Library
    5. Create a new Playlist if desired and drag the newly entered songs to the new or existing Playlist.
    6. You can now drag songs from the Library onto your iPod. You may want to create a new Playlist first. Just right-click you iPod icon and select New Playlist.

The above method assumes that you are managing your iPod manually.

Skip the iTunes library Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: iPods • Music • Stump the PC Club • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

Turn a cardboard box into a speaker

January 8th, 2010, 1:38 pm by

rockitimg_7615Spotted on the CES show floor: The ROCK-IT from OrigAudio. It looks like a small square case to stash headphones. But really, it’s a way to turn any empty cardboard box, hollow Tupperware or other object into a speaker for your iPod or MP3 player.

A small round ‘speaker’ pops out of the case and attaches to a cardboard box. Sound vibrations running through the device are amplified through the hollow box, just like a larger speaker. Alone, the device sounds like music from headphones you’re not wearing.

But attached to the box and it sounds like a portable speaker. The sound quality is what you’d expect from a portable speaker, but it’s a handy device if you’re traveling and don’t want to lug a sound system around.

Pre-orders are being taken at origaudio.com for $49.99. The gadget starts shipping on Jan. 18. More pics (click to enlarge):

Rock-IT portable speaker just needs an empty box. rockitimg_7616

Consumer Electronics Show 2010 with The GadgetressFor more CES 2010 coverage, visit the Gadgetress CES page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2010.
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Posted in: Audio • Gadgets • iPods • • • • • • • | Comments Off

All about iPods and organizing your music library, Part 1

January 5th, 2010, 5:10 pm by

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

This is Part 1 of a 2-part article on iPods and managing your music, pictures and videos. Here is Part 2: “All about iPods and organizing music, Part 2.”

QUESTION: My question is a little complicated but here goes. I want to store all my music on my new external hard drive.  It can hold up to 250,000 songs. It has a FAT32 file system. I also want to be able to pull music out of it and put it onto my iPod. My computer is running Windows XP.

My friend has a MAC and has put onto my new external drive 13,000 songs. I have 20 songs on iTunes, 20 songs on My Music and I have 500 songs on my iPod another friend gave me. I want to put all of the songs on the new external drive. iTunes shows that it will erase all the songs that I did not buy.  Also, I have downloaded a program called Media Widget.  What do you suggest?

The new skinnier iPod nano. Image from ApplePC CLUB: Let’s review some of the tasks that you can perform with your music collection:

1. You can back up all of your songs to an external hard drive or to any hard drive
2. You can place any songs from you external hard drive, or from any folder on your PC for that matter, onto your iPod
3. You can copy songs from your iPod to your PC. This does, however, require third-party software such as Media Widget which is currently available from www.bootstrapdevelopment.com for $24.95. There are other utilities that perform this function also and some are free.

As far as the FAT32 is concerned, some external hard drives have this type of file system to ensure maximum compatibility between PCs and Macs. A more secure and robust file system is the NTFS file system. You can reformat an external hard drive to be NTFS but you will lose all of the data. You can read more about file systems at The Elder Geek’s “FAT32 or NTFS: Making the Choice”  (link: bit.ly/BlYXS).  This decision is not crucial but should be made before you start using the drive. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: iPods • Stump the PC Club • • • | Comments Off

Apple alert: Steve Jobs, cheaper iPods, nanos with cameras

September 9th, 2009, 12:06 pm by

Apple iPod nano now includes video cameraApple’s big “It’s Only Rock and Roll” music event this morning has resulted in some surprising news: iPod nanos now have built-in video cameras but new iPod Touches don’t. Steve Jobs is walking and talking. Apple also dropped the lowest price of an iPod shuffle to $55.

The new iPod nano, available immediately, is $149 for the 8GB model and $179 for the 16GB model. Comes in silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange and pink. A yellow and (PRODUCT) RED versions at Apple’s retail or online store.

The iPod Touch was rumored to get a built-in camera but it is MIA, sad news for the iPhoneBlog.com. However, the Touch price dropped to $199 for the 8 GB version, and the lineup got a new size: 64 GBs for $399. The 32GB is now $299.

As for Steve? Standing ovation, according to CNET.  Engadget notes, “Wow — people are psyched right now. He looks good, and he’s definitely soaking this in.” Gizmodo offers its readers a Jesus as Messiah photoshopped image and this sentiment: ‘ … Steve Jobs has reappeared in the It’s Only Rock and Roll event, like the rock star he always wanted to be. Hallelujah!” (For those who don’t know, Apple founder Steve Jobs recently had a liver transplant and has long battled pancreatic cancer.)

Lots of coverage everywhere online. But here’s a link to Apple’s press site with details on new products.

More images: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Apple mania • iPods • • • • • | 6 Comments »

A more Apple friendly CES?

January 12th, 2009, 7:19 pm by

The show ended Sunday. Here is the rest of what I saw at CES… To see more, visit Gadgetress@CES 2009

Apple may have pulled out of Macworld after last week but that annual tradeshow hasn’t officially ended. Rumors are already flying that the similarly timed Consumer Electronics Show will become the new home for Apple, but CES organizers won’t say.

“Yes, we have had discussions regarding Apple but that’s all I can tell you,” Jason Oxman, a senior vice president with the Consumer Electronics Association told me just a week before this year’s CES.  ”We already have a number of companies that exhibit at the show that make Apple products.”  

O.K., fine. For the thousands of companies, journalists and retailers who hate trekking to San Francisco (for MacWorld) only to turn around to get to Las Vegas in time for CES, a combined show would make many lives easier. Then again, Mac products were not absent from the CES floor. Here are a few I stumbled on:

A golden MacBook silicon keyboard cover to protect keys from spills, crumbs and dust.  Click images for larger view. The company that makes this one is from Oceanside, but I should mention that at least two Orange County companies also make silicon keyboard covers. Check out the dermaSHOT cover from Irvine’s Incipio and the Carapace cover from Irvine’s Sonnet Technologies.

 

Candy-coated iPhone cases - Speck Products, which makes all sorts of covers for Apple laptops, just introduced its line of CandyShell cases, so named because they have a rubberized interior but a thin, hard shell on the exterior. Four colors are available: Lemon Drop Liquorice (high-gloss black shell with bright yellow interior), Key Lime Jawbreaker (high-gloss dark grey shell with bright lime interior), Cranberry White Truffle (high-gloss white shell with cranberry red interior) and Watermelon Gumball (high-gloss light grey shell with pink salmon interior). The $34.95 cases are available at Apple Stores, www.apple.com and www.speckproducts.com.

 

Nano-matching USB car adapters. These 2-port USB adapters from Casco Products aren’t just for iPods. They work with any USB device. This obviously is to appeal to the nano lover who wants matching accessories. Seven colors available. The guy manning Casco’s booth told me that the USB car charger sells for $9.99 and a matching cable with an iPod nano tip is $5.99. But I think he was telling me about the wholesale price. On Casco’s web site, the USB car chargers are $19.99 and aren’t available in the nano chromatic colors.

For the list of Gadgetress reports from CES, visit the headline page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/ces2009.

 

Posted in: Apple mania • iPhone • iPods • • • • • • | Comments Off

Tech toys at CES just for (wee) girls

January 12th, 2009, 5:27 pm by

The show ended Sunday. Here is the rest of what I saw at CES… To see more, visit Gadgetress@CES 2009

Girly gadgets and other frou-frou tech toys may not be the best tech around, but they are still fun to spot at CES. Here’s my roundup of fun stuff I saw:

1. The Barbie nail painter: From Mattel, this is a little fingernail printer that prints custom images directly on a wee fingernail. It’s definitely a relative of the industrial fingernail printer I wrote about in 2004 (where are these things anyway?). This offers an assortment of Barbie-friendly images, plus you can upload your own.

And better yet, it’s expected to become an actual product that people can buy at the store.  No price was available nor a launch date. I’m guessing it will be out my the holidays. I need one for my, uh, 1-year-old daughter. (Click images for larger view)

    

2. The Hello Kitty netbook. These mini computers have become very trendy, although I suspect they are more popular in Europe and Asia than here in the U.S. And what’s a world without Hello Kitty? With an Intel chip, no less. Comes with cute red bag. This one is apparently from Sotec (here are more details in Japanese).

 

3. Invasion of the Palachans: A strange assortment of USB storage creatures from Toshiba. Available in Japan only. These creatures were “born off the pristine tropical paradise of the Palau Islands.”

4. Bone bags: What started out as a silicon-based dog bone USB drive has developed into an army of cute things from the Fruitshop International Corp., which has a local office in Rancho Cordova. The USB keys are still cute, but a new product is a line of cases for iPods. On the back of the silicon case is room for headphones and cables. 

More images (click for larger view):

    

For the list of Gadgetress reports from CES, visit the headline page at gadgetress.freedomblogging.co

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New iPods and more from Apple today

September 9th, 2008, 10:43 am by

New iPod nanos. Photo from Engadget.com

I’m following live reports from around the web of this morning’s Apple news conference. But I’m only highlighting the key points. The news so far:

  • Updated iPhone 2.1 firmware to fix all the bugs. Free and available Friday.
  • New  games: Spore, Real Soccer 09, Need For Speed: Undercover
  • Thinner iPod Touches too. The 8GB is $229, 16GB is $299 and 32GB is $399.
  • New in-ear phones for $79.
  • A new iPod nano — the skinniest yet! It has an accelerometer. Shake it and it shuffles the songs. (Does that mean I can’t run with it and listen to the full song?) It’s $149 for the 8GB model, $199 for the 16GB model and comes in 8 super-bright colors.
  • New iPods in 120 GB for $249 and 160 GBs (the 80 GB is being discontinued).
  • iTunes 8 announced.
  • HD TV shows  for $2.99. They’re watchable on a computer or Apple TV (which is a computer!).

(Image from Engadget)

Looks like that’s it folks. No more ‘One more thing…” Hmm. Stay tuned for more photos.

New Apple iPod nanos — Images from Apple

The image below doesn’t quite do the skinnier new iPod nano justice. But it’s the official photo Apple is sending out:

The new skinnier iPod nano. Image from Apple

The official press releases are below: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: iPods • news • • • • • • | 2 Comments »

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