Orbitsound unveils new iPod dock
British audio company releases Wi-Fi-enabled digital radio and iPod dock, and a 'soundbar' using spatial stereo technology Orbitsound , the British audio company created by sound engineer and one-time session musician Ted Fletcher, will today unveil a new range of gadgets using its innovative spatial stereo technology that are likely to have audiophiles drooling. Alongside the T12 – a new version of its "soundbar", which sold out within a few months of being made available in John Lewis last year, amid widespread critical acclaim – Orbitsound is releasing a new gadget: a Wi-Fi-enabled digital radio and iPod dock, called the T4 Radiopod. Both gadgets make use of the company's airSOUND system, Fletcher's patented technology that produces clarity and depth of sound wherever the gadget is positioned. With a traditional stereo system there is a "sweet spot" a certain distance from the speakers in which the listener will experience perfect sound. Orbitsound maintains that its products produce fantastic stereo "spatial" sound with depth and clarity wherever the system is positioned, creating a so-called "infinite sweet spot". The technology was developed by Fletcher in 2004, but the first devices were not unveiled until the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008. Fletcher's experience of the audio industry stretches back to the early 1960s, when he worked with music producer Joe Meek – whose most famous hit was Telstar by The Tornados – first as a session artist and then as a sound technician
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Orbitsound unveils new iPod dock
Ian Hart: ‘The Walkman forced you to make musical choices’ | Celebrity squares
Actor Ian Hart is still a big fan of Sony's portable music player What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? The Sony Walkman will always be one of my favourites for many reasons, along with the Dyson AirBlade – which actually dries your hands.
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Ian Hart: 'The Walkman forced you to make musical choices' | Celebrity squares
How Apple could bite the free press | Dan Kennedy
Apple is hailed by many as saviour of the news industry, but its iPad and iPhone aren't entirely compatible with an open society What started out as a narrow dispute between Apple and software developers has turned into a raging controversy over free speech. The case of Mark Fiore , an editorial cartoonist who was banned from Apple's iTunes Store, illustrates a heretofore unappreciated connection between open systems and an open society. And it raises serious questions about Apple's supposed role as a saviour of the faltering news business. Our story begins on 12 April, when Fiore won a Pulitzer prize for his animated political cartoons at SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle's website. A few days later Fiore, a freelancer, revealed to Laura McGann of the Nieman Journalism Lab that Apple had rejected an app he submitted the previous December for the iPhone and the iPod touch. The rejection meant that he had been effectively banned from Apple's latest toy, the iPad, as well. Apple had informed Fiore that his app violated the iTunes Store policy against content that "ridicules public figures", notwithstanding the fact that ridiculing public figures is pretty much the primary mission of any political cartoonist. Although Apple had previously attracted notice for rejecting apps, especially those with a sexual theme, the Fiore matter represented an escalation. Within a day, Apple had contacted Fiore and asked him to resubmit his app. "I feel kind of guilty," Fiore told the Wall Street Journal . "I'm getting preferential treatment because I got the Pulitzer." The trouble, as Fiore noted, is that Apple rectified its mistake while maintaining the right to ban any content it doesn't like from its new generation of closed-system devices. (Apple's signature computer, the Macintosh, is unaffected.) And there is a direct relationship between the battles Apple and its chairman, Steve Jobs, are waging against software developers and Apple's dispute with pornographers and other purveyors of content it doesn't like. The best-known example of the former involves Adobe, whose Flash animation software has been excluded from the iPhone, iPod and iPad. According to Apple, Flash hogs resources and makes its devices unstable – an assessment shared by many computer experts. Still, you'd think Apple might let its users decide whether or not to install Flash.
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How Apple could bite the free press | Dan Kennedy
Liz Bonnin: ‘I’m still a nerd, just a different type of a nerd’
The master's degree-wielding BBC presenter Liz Bonnin is so nerdy that she prefers a PC to a Mac What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? I don't use that many, but I do love my iPod – and I have the old school 20GB version, with the wheel. It works beautifully. I have everything on it, and I just think it's my favourite piece of kit. It's just a genius invention. When was the last time you used it, and what for? It was actually yesterday – I downloaded the Il Postino soundtrack because a friend of mine was telling me about the Chilean poet it was based on. I bought Rhianna's Rude Boy as well – just the single, not the album – on iTunes. What additional features would you add if you could? I think if this one ever does break down, I will get the updated version that you can get video on as well. But I'm the kind of person who doesn't get carried away with one piece of kit that does everything. Do you think it will be obsolete in 10 years' time? No, I can't imagine how you can beat something like this for having your whole music collection on
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Liz Bonnin: 'I'm still a nerd, just a different type of a nerd'
Thanks, Mr Jobs, for my new iNanny | Jemima Kiss
They said the iPod would never last, so only a fool would bet against the success of the iPad "A ll this hype for something so ridiculous! Why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!" "It won't sell. It will be killed off." "The reality distortion field is starting to warp Steve Jobs's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off." It's reassuring to know that some things never change: those were comments made on Apple fan sites as the first iPod was released in October 2001. Despite initial doubts, the iPod has become the symbol for seismic change, and very much to the benefit of Apple. The "iPod effect" boosted sales of its computers and also successfully staked out a lucrative chunk of the nascent digital music market by locking consumers into its own music store – effectively stealing the future from under the noses of the old music industry. Less than nine years later, Apple has sold 250m iPods. So what of the iPad ? Apple did no formal promotion ahead of the launch
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Thanks, Mr Jobs, for my new iNanny | Jemima Kiss
The Apple iPad: reactions
We asked a panel of leading commentators in a range of industries for their reactions to the launch of Apple's iPad tablet computer. Here are some of their thoughts … Jonathan Glancey: Guardian architecture and design correspondent Without holding one in my hands and trying one out, I can only say that the universally-hyped iPad looks very much like a giant iPhone. And none the worse for that. Designed by a team led by Jonathan Ive, Apple's British-born head of design, the iPad is slim, sleek and to use an overworked, yet appropriate word, minimalist. It reflects Ive's clearly expressedadmiration for the work of the self-effacing and supremely talented German designer, Dieter Ram – 45 years Ive's senior – whose electric and electronic products for Braun have been a byword for fine, simple design for half a century. Computer and communication buffs will have to tell us how well the iPad performs. If I works as well as it probably does, then it will sell like hot cakes – raising the perennially fascinating issue of why so very many people, worldwide, otherwise oblivious to such coolly sophisticated design, will fork out good money for Apple's latest gizmo. Because it's a gizmo is the most probable answer. Would a Jonathan Ive or Dieter Rams style house, or pad I should say, sell as well? I very much doubt it. Bigger than a mobile phone and smaller than a laptop, the iPad will be carried around the house and in bags to and from schools, colleges and workplaces. Will its shiny plastic and metal surfaces scratch? How will it cope when it drops on floors and pavements? Will it need, and does it come with, a special bag to carry it about in and protect it? Just how robust will it be
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The Apple iPad: reactions
Video: Apple launches the iPad
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs shows off the much-hyped iPad, which he hopes will come to define a new category of wireless device
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Video: Apple launches the iPad
Whoops! Publishing boss leaks Apple tablet details
Terry McGraw likely to anger Steve Jobs by revealing previously unknown facts about the Apple tablet on live TV Apple is notorious for the levels of secrecy it keeps around new products - and never more so than with the impending launch of its tablet computer , which has seen the company clamp down and let only a select few pieces of information leak out. Why? Because Steve Jobs is (in his words) "a big bang guy" : building anticipation and appetite is part of the marketing game.
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Whoops! Publishing boss leaks Apple tablet details
Learn to replace an ipod battery
30 minutes Professional cost £39-£59: depends on the model of iPod DIY cost £10: depends on the model of iPod Difficulty: Your iPod may still play your tunes, but over time the lithium ion batteries irreversibly lose capacity and you end up having to recharge more and more often. Fortunately, replacing an MP3 player battery is something that you can do yourself without specialised tools. Do not attempt this if your iPod is still under warranty as you will invalidate it; get Apple to fix it for free instead. The difficulty of battery replacement varies by model (see box below). This tutorial applies to the popular iPod Video, but the same concept applies to many models: for model‑specific tutorials visit ifixit.com. Opening the iPod Make sure the hold button is on before you start. Insert the opening tool in the thin gap between the plastic front and the metal back (illustration A).
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Learn to replace an ipod battery
Technophile | Chumby widget gadget
The Chumby does nothing you couldn't with an iPod touch – yet, it has a peculiar, clever charm Once upon the dotcom boom, 3Com announced a product called Audrey. Audrey was to be an internet device that would sit in your kitchen, and which you would use to do little online tasks. It would cost about $499. It never arrived; and it's not even clear whether there are any Audreys still in existence. (Dreadful name, of course, didn't help.)Now, though, there's the Chumby. And the Chumby is everything the Audrey wanted to be, and much more. It's a small, mains-powered device, about the size of two of those juggling beanbags, and about as soft (or hard); it looks and feels throwable. It also has a little screen (3.5in, 320x240, which doesn't sound enough, but is plenty). And Wi-Fi. And an alarm clock function. And some USB sockets for connecting, occasionally, to a computer
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Technophile | Chumby widget gadget