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Wireless Ipod To Be Released Soon

PortalPlayer, the company which produces audio components for the Apple iPod, is about to unveil its wireless and Bluetooth chipsets, which suggests Apple may soon release a wireless iPod.

According to website Reg Hardware, PortalPlayer said it will integrate its PP5022 audio chip family with UK company CSR's UniFi Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controller. Reg Hardware says the companies will demonstrate a reference platform based on the combined technology next week at the 3GSM show in Barcelona.

Incorporating Blutooth and WiFi into an iPod would enable users to use Bluetooth headsets, browse music on a host computer, and even download new music from iTunes at hotspots.

Last week, a supposed invite to an Apple event in late February circulated on the internet, and some have speculated that if the event occurs it may be as a springboard to wireless-capable iPods.

However, this may be premature, as Reg Hardware reports PortalPlayer and CSR's technology wouldn't be available until the second half of the year.

Apple launch new micro-iPod

APPLE today unveiled a smaller iPod nano which will cost £30 less than the larger model.

The 1GB music player is thinner than a pencil and holds up to 240 songs or 15,000 photos.

Described as an "ultra-portable" model, it has the same click wheel and colour screen as the 2GB and 4GB iPod nanos.

It will retail for £109 in the UK, compared to £139 and £179 for the next sizes up.

Ipod Etiquette

USA Today has published an article about Ipod Etiquette which I believe each one of us should read and consider.

Apple Reduces iPod Prices

Apple cut the price of its iPod Shuffle models to $69 and $99. And it introduced a $149 Nano with 1 gigabyte of memory that can hold about 240 songs. Higher-capacity Nanos sell for $199 and $249.
Apple Computer on Tuesday slashed prices on entry-level iPods and added shows from pay-TV's Showtime to its iTunes store -- moves aimed at further cementing its supremacy in digital downloads.
The actions come as rivals struggle to gain a foothold against Apple, which has an 83 percent market share in digital music downloads.

No. 1 PC maker Dell, which hoped to challenge Apple with a line of digital music players, discontinued its hard-drive based units last week. Online music store Napster, which reports earnings today, is repositioning itself as an ad-supported fan Web site.

Apple cut the price of its iPod Shuffle models to $69 and $99. And it introduced a $149 Nano with 1 gigabyte of memory that can hold about 240 songs. Higher-capacity Nanos sell for $199 and $249.

It also added episodes from three Showtime series -- Weeds, Fat Actress and Sleeper Cell -- to its roster of videos.

Dell admits iPod defeat

Another one bites Apple's dust: Dell is pulling out of the hard-drive MP3 player market, discontinuing its DJ and Pocket DJ lines. A spokesman describes the move as "streamlining" Dell's audio line: It will still sell the flash-memory DJ Ditty player. But Apple may well drive Dell out of that market, too. Earlier this week, Apple slashed the price of its cheapest iPod Shuffle to $69, undercutting the Ditty by $30 on a player that carries the same number of songs.

Ricky Gervais awarded the Guinness World Record for the most downloaded podcast

Ricky Gervais and his team were this week awarded the Guinness World Record for the most downloaded podcast, gaining an average of 261,670 downloads per episode of “The Ricky Gervais Show” during its first month.

The podcast has been available since December. Far from simply presenting highlights of previously recorded material, the weekly podcast shows were entirely new material consisting of random and highly amusing discussions between Ricky, and his friends Karl Pilkington and Stephen Merchant.

The official certificate was presented to Ricky and the team by CraigGlenday, editor of Guinness World Records at the Guardian Offices onMonday.Ricky Gervais said, “Steve and Karl wanted to charge for the podcast. Just a pound they said. I said no.We've had nearly 3 million downloads so far. It's difficult doing a show with two people who won’t talk to me now".

The record will be a contester for the 2007 edition of Guinness WorldRecords, out in the autumn.

Do iPod earbuds cause problems?

A federal lawsuit filed against Apple Computer Inc., paired with worries aired by Who guitarist Pete Townshend and others, is once again raising questions about permanent hearing damage from iPods and other portable music devices.
The same hearing loss questions sprouted after the Sony Walkman got big in the 1980s and before that, portable boom boxes. The concerns have started again with the iPod, due to its popularity (Apple sold an estimated 14 million during the holiday shopping season) and because the white headphones packaged with the device are "earbuds," which are inserted directly into the ear.

The answer to the hearing concerns from most doctors is the same one given before: When you're using your ears, also use your head.

"There is a concern that using headphones that go deep into the ear canal may be more likely to cause hearing loss, but we don't have any really good studies right now," said Dr. Douglas Chen, the director of the Hearing and Balance Center at Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side.

"If there is a ringing and buzzing in your ears, it means you're playing it too loud. ... If you hear noise after using your headphones or things are a little muffled, then you know you're probably playing it too loud."


By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

TV recorder for video iPod and Sony PSP

Hauppauge Digital has released a software package enabling consumers to record TV shows on a PC for playback on the Sony’s Playstation Portable (PSP), Apple video iPod, and other portable video players.
Called Wing, the package can also be used to convert existing TV recordings to the PSP and iPod format.
Available as a download from Hauppauge's international web site,www.hauppauge.com/wing, or from selected UK retailers, the $24.95 package aims to complements Hauppauge's PC-based WinTV-PVR and HVR personal video recorders.

Wing records in H.264, MPEG-4 and Divx formats, and also will record directly to a recordable DVD disk.The Wing application comes with three components: a plug-in for the popular TitanTV internet based electronic program guide for automatic recording of TV shows, a plug-in for Hauppauge's WinTV Scheduler for manual TV record scheduling, and an off-line recorder which will turn MPEG2 videos into any of the formats supported by Wing.

Wing is currently supported for the following Hauppauge TV tuners:WinTV-PVR-150, WinTV-PVR-250, WinTV-PVR-350, WinTV-PVR-USB2, WinTV-HVR-900, WinTV-HVR-1100, WinTV-HVR-1300, WinTV-NOVA-T-USB2 and WinTV-NOVA-S+.

New utilities allow more iPod functions

To answer some problems addressed by iPod owners, several companies have released utility programs to aid iPod users in downloading, uploading, and storing files with iPod. Many iPod users find that they cannot store music in multiple music libraries with iTunes, and cannot copy their music collection between their computers. Walter S. Mossberg reports that with available utilities and a few extra steps, these problems can be avoided until Apple fixes them from within iTunes. To use an iPod to copy music to multiple computers, Podworks ($8, Mac only), PodUtil ($18, Windows or Mac), and CopyPod ($20, Windows only) will work. Libra (free for Mac and Windows users, $10 registration fee) will allow the user to create multiple libraries and switch between them.

iPod Lessons For Beginners

Selfridges, the uppity London department store, will begin offering iPod lessons to its customers who are apparently "baffled" by the popular MP3 player. Those interested will have to shell-out " 65, for availing the 40 odd minutes of the tutorial.

Interestingly the more cost-conscious of consumers, are already attending workshops and sessions on how to use an iPod, being offered by Apple Computer at its Regent Street Store, which is a stone's throw-away from the Selfridges store.

Dubbed "iPod Survival," these one-on-one sessions will be launched later this month, and will be offered either in-store or on home-visits. The lessons will reportedly cover basic iTunes and iPod usage; including setting-up playlists, transferring songs and videos, and down-loading podcasts.

Podcasting basics for your Ipods

There's no mystery about why podcasting is hot. The technology allows anyone to produce a radio-style program that an audience can find, download, and listen to anytime. Podcasts aren't just for iPods; they can be heard on any computer or portable audio player. More than 10,000 of them have been posted on the Web, with topics ranging from politics and technology to vegan cooking and bass fishing. Apple gave podcasting a big boost when it began promoting the shows on its popular iTunes online music store last summer.

The beauty of podcasting is its simplicity. A podcast is nothing more than a digital audio file with a special link that allows it to be delivered via the Web. Chances are, you've got all the tools to produce one on your desk already. Babolat recorded his first show on his aging Dell (DELL ) laptop using a cheap microphone and Audacity, a free audio program he downloaded from the Internet. A Web-based service called Liberated Syndication hosts his podcast for $10 a month. His only upgrade has been a $50 Sony (SNE ) ECM-S80 microphone.

Several companies are aiming to make podcasting even easier by putting all the basic tools into one package. A good example is the Podcast Factory from M-Audio, an Irwindale (Calif.) division of Avid Technology that usually caters to music pros. In researching the podcasting market, M-Audio found that sound quality made a big difference in the success or failure of a show. So for $150, it bundles a decent dynamic microphone; an external "interface" with controls for input and output levels and jacks for headphones, speakers, and instruments; and copies of Audacity and Podifier, a program for publishing your podcast. A bonus: 2,000 professional-quality music clips you can use to begin or end your show or introduce segments.

If you have podcast dreams, plot out your show before getting started. First, listen to some popular podcasts to get an idea of how they're structured. Then, write a script that will let you move smoothly from sign-on to sign-off. Keep it short: Anything over 30 or 40 minutes is longer than most people will listen to.

Next you'll need to assemble your equipment. You could use your PC's built-in mike, but your listeners might think you're recording from the moon. So upgrade to a headset that combines a better quality microphone with comfortable headphones to let you monitor your voice level. Sennheiser's PC150, which can be purchased from online discounters for less than $35, gives you the added benefit of a noise-canceling mike, which will cut down on background clicks and pops.

Keep in mind that most PCs don't have the proper jacks for connecting pro audio gear. Marshall Electronics solves that problem by including adapters with its $150 Desktop Recording Kit that allow the better-sounding condenser microphone to plug into a PC or Mac. An inexpensive mixer like the $120 TAPCO lets you amplify and even out your voice (and your guests' voices) so they can be heard no matter what kind of device your podcast is playing on. "The No. 1 mistake most podcasters make is they have the audio levels wrong," says Todd Cochrane, author of Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide (Wiley Publishing, $19.99).

YOUR HOST WITH THE MOST
Before you start, you'll need one more thing: a program for recording, mixing, and editing your audio. Audacity works well for beginners, and you can't beat the price. If you have a recent Macintosh, you probably have a copy of GarageBand, a more sophisticated piece of audio software. The latest version is part of Apple's (AAPL ) $79 iLife '05 Suite. Want to see your script roll before your eyes like a TelePrompTer? The $250 ePodcast Producer from Industrial Audio Software can do that and let you record Internet-based phone calls from guests or listeners, too.

Once you've recorded your show, export the audio file as an MP3, the preferred format for podcasts. Be sure to edit the ID3 tags that describe your audio file for listeners. Then upload it to a Web server. Your Net provider likely gives you space you could use, but if your podcast catches fire, it might strain the bandwidth and get you in trouble. A better option is OurMedia.org, which hosts your podcast and stores archived shows for free. If you have a blog, post a link there to let your readers know the podcast is ready.

The final step: Add the link, known as a feed, that transforms your MP3 file into a podcast. That allows your listeners to find your podcast and subscribe to it, which means each new episode will automatically be downloaded to their computers. Sites such as FeedBurner.com will help you do this for free if you have a blog, or, if you're using Podcast Factory or ePodcast Producer, just type in some basic information and they do the rest. Post the link at iTunes and other podcast directories. Pretty soon, you may be a star.