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+.