iPod Hi-Fi, the new sound system from Apple

Today was a good day for iPod fans: after a couple of months without major iPod product announcements, Steve Jobs finally released something new from Apple. The new product, the iPod Hi-Fi, is a new stereo system with seamless integration with all new models of the iPod. It will certainly be a great consumer electronic for people that are trying to replace their old sound system by an all-iPod alternative.

Read the coverage by Apple in the news:
The iPod is a great success with around 40 millions users in the US only. Given the huge number of people owning iPods, it is not difficult to see the huge demand for sound systems compatible with the iPod. Other companies are delivering everyday new products trying to fill this gap.

Apple is now trying to take part of this market that they own created. During the especial announcement of this Tuesday, Steve Jobs presented the new iPod Hi-Fi: a stereo system created specially for the iPod. From the Apple store here are some of the feature os the iPod Hi-Fi:

• World-class acoustic design
• Large soundstage
• Precise imaging and separation
• Wide frequency range
• Room-filling power without distortion
• Seamless iPod integration
• Apple Remote
• AC and DC modes
• Analog/digital input
• Compact footprint

If you need a world-class music system, from the same creators of the iPod, there is probably no other way to achieve the same results in terms of sound quality and integration with iPod technologies.

Technorati Tags: Announcement, Apple, Music

Sponsored link to the Apple Store:


Related links:
Apple announces new products today

Creating your own iPod stand

A huge industry for iPod accessories has grown during the last few years. Among the most requested accessories are stands for the small accessories.

However, it is not necessary to spend your money to get a nice stand for the iPod. With a little manual ability, you can create your own from readily available materials.

If you want to do this, just follow the instructions on this web page: you can use simple materials such as cardboard, magazines, and scissors to make your iPod setup a little more fashionable.

Technorati tags: iPod, accessories

New iPod nano is released

After a long time of unsupported rumors, Apple finally announced a new version of the iPod nano with 1GB. It has been said that this would be a probable move from Apple to reduce costs for the entry-line product and to kill the iPod shuffle.
In fact, this really made the prices drop (to $149 for the 1GB iPod), but the iShuffle is still there, and now is selling for $69 and $100. This is make almost an ideal situation, where you have more options and smaller price.

So, now, there are even cheaper ways of getting all the technology of the iPod nano for a small price. At the same time, if you don't care about a colored screen, you can just by the iShuffle for as few as $69 dollars. Look a very good proposition for me, as it must be for all other iPod fans!

Technorati Tags: Apple, Entertainment, iPod

Showtime TV programs now on Apple's iPod

The iPod video has already a sizeable amount of content available through the iTunes stores, which by itself makes the iPod a very attractive video device. Now, Apple is improving this even more, by making available TV shows from the Showtime network to be ready to download in any iTunes-loaded computer.

The TV shows available in this package include "Sleeper Cell" and "Weeds". The new shows add to now more than 50 different TV programs that can be downloaded for the common price of $1.99 per show.

With these new show been made available, iTunes becomes the most successful alternate channel for TV content distribution - with the only exception of DVDs. Apple is doing its homework very well, it will be interesting to see the reaction from other players in this area such as Microsoft and Sony.

Link

Technorati Tags: Announcement, Apple, iPod

An iPod doc made out of Lego pieces

If you would like to have a nice dock for your iPod, try to build it yourself! You can use Lego pieces that will make your setup to be much cooler than a normal dock from the store.

The steps to build the Lego iPod doc can be found in the flicker web site.

Link via Lifehacker.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Tip

A new firmware for the iPod

Some people like to tweak the iPod to perform exactly what they want. Although Apple makes it a little difficult to change the software of the iPod, several people have managed to change it successfully. For a good example, remember that the guys of ipodlinux have created a custom version of Linux that runs of the iPod.

A new effort in this direction is shown by the iPodfun.de website (in German). These guys created a new firmware software for the iPod which seems to have some advantages of ipodlinux.

The firmware, called rockbox, has much better play black control than the equivalent ipodlinux software. Moreover, it targets configurability and performance.

Although it seems difficult to improve over the original Apple design, there is always some aspect of a piece of software that can be made better. This is the overal goal of rockbox. Judging for the current version of rockbox, it seems to be making a good start to achieve this objective.

Link via blogblogblog.

Reading files in your iPod

The iPod is a great music player, and more recently, a video player. What many people don't realized yet, is that the iPod can do much more than play music, since it has a general purpose processor. Clearly, the biggest problem of the iPod as a computational device is the lack of a keyboard, but there are many things that you can do without a keyboard.

One of these things is reading! You can use the screen of your iPod to read text, the same way you use it to see video. Thinking about this possibility, you can get tools to automate the process of putting text inside your iPod.

To be able to read text in your iPod, you need a software such as the iPod eBook creator. This program, created by Daniel Duris, is in fact a set of scripts that when used together can translate text into the format that can be read as a set of notes in the iPod.

What is so nice about this page is that you can actually send your file using the web browser, and it will be automatically converted for you. Certainly this is a much needed resource, which will allow you to use the iPod for much more than listening to music!

Link

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Tips