The iPod Nation

Louis, a 21 year old from Portsmouth England has allegedly been charging his iPod using a solution that invloves an Onion and energy drinks. The story claims that the youngster was shown how to generate the electricity by a friend of his in class and has been using it as a method to power his iPod everyday. This might make for a very interesting story especially since the basic science behind it is sound. Vegetables carry within them ions which are prone to reactions that generate electricity when mixed with an energy drink. However, this story cannot work as described because in order for electricity to power a modern device, it would have to flow in a circuit. That is why a battery has a “+” end and a “-” end. Simply mixing an onion with some Red Bull will simply short itself out in a matter of speaking. That is despite the fact that buying an Onion and a Red Bull every morning to charge your iPod would be far more expensive than simply charging it through a standard wall socket…

-Derek

Apple on Friday will unleash iPhone Software v2.1, a major bug fix release for all iPhone owners that will include a number of other improvements that iPod touch users are discovering as part of yesterday’s similarly number iPod touch update.

“The [iPhone] 2.1 software update is a big update. It fixes lots of bugs,” said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. “You’ll get fewer call drops; you’ll get significantly improved battery life for most customers.”

In addition, Jobs said the update will patch a number of bugs related to third-party App Store applications, namely crashes experienced by those users who’ve installed a large number of apps. Backing up to iTunes will be “dramatically faster,” he added.

Meanwhile, some of the other “great new performance enhancements” that Jobs alluded to, but did not describe, are being discovered by first-generation iPod touch owners who’ve just installed iPod touch 2.1, which will be very similar to Friday’s free iPhone Software 2.1 update.

One AppleInsider forum member remarked that he was “blown away” by the speed at which App Store applications are able to update themselves after applying the 2.1 update. The process seemed to have sped up fivefold, he said. What’s more, icons of updated applications now retain their pre-set position on the Touch’s home screen, rather than being thrust to the end of the home screen, where they previously needed to be forcibly repositioned by the user.
Another forum member notes that a second line of information, containing artist and album info, is visible when viewing songs. The responsiveness of the iPod application has also seen improvements, and a longer scrub bar makes it easier to scan through songs, he said. The app’s ’shuffle’ and ‘continuous play’ buttons have also been repositioned.

Separately, Wired has highlighted changes to the iPod app’s Podcast manager. A completely filled blue dot next to a podcast subscription serves as a notification that a new episode is available, while a half dot means that a user hasn’t finished listening to a particular episode.

- Joe

[Source: Apple insider]

So we were just as excited as you to hear that the new iPod Touch sported a fancy pants Bluetooth a2dp. Now our hopes of wireless syncing in our car has been smashed by Engadget. It seems it is very likely this hardwares only outlet will be for the Nike+. I guess it is a valid point but we are still crossing our fingers. Check out the article below from The iPhone Blog:

One of the big missing features on the iPhone is support for wireless bluetooth stereo, also known as A2DP. Naturally, the iPod Touch lacks the same, since it lacks a Bluetooth chip altogether. …Or does it? Yes, it does. See, as MacRumors notes, the legendary disassemblers at iFixit took on the iPod Touch 2G and found a little chip called the Broadcom BCM4325 — a chip typically used to provide WiFi or Bluetooth. There’s already a separate WiFi chip, so Bluetooth is the natural assumption.

ZOMG, right? Well, no — Engadget put the hammer down on the rumor and our childlike sense of wonder by pointing out that 1) the chip’s presence doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s actual Bluetooth support in there and 2) that what the chip probably really does is interact with Nike+ (it’s built-in, see), since Nike+ uses a “proprietary 802.11 protocol” that this Broadcom chip is almost surely able to work with.

In other words, move jog along, nothing to see here.

- Joe

[Source: The iPhone Blog]

A day after Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event, more news seems to be streaming out of the media event. The second-generation iPod Touch was introduced yesterday at the event and there are more news coming out. The second-generation iPod Touch has some minor hardware tweaks and software updates. The most notable change of the second-generation iPod Touch that was reported yesterday was the built-in speaker and volume controls. But a major hardware update that was unreported yesterday was the external microphone support. Apple introduced two microphone headphones that could work with the new iPod Touch: the Apple Earphones with remote and microphone and the Apple In-Ear Headphones with remote and microphone. With these new headphones one could record voice memos with the iPod Touch as well as the iPod Nano and the iPod classic. It is quite unclear if the iPod Touch does indeed have built-in microphone support. If you have experienced using the new built-in microphone support with the new iPod Touch, please tell us more.

- Geoff

[Source: MacRumors]

A photo of what appears to be the new taller iPod Nano was seenon endgadget recently. It looks like the rumors of a taller zune-like 4th generation iPod Nano are true. The new iPod Nano is said to be the reason for the Apple event to be held in San Francisco tomorrow. The image also shows the iPod Nano with a more vibrant color compared to the paler and blander iPod Nano. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the Apple Event to find out if this is the real deal.

-Ray

[Source: macrumor]

With Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event coming into full effect tomorrow, more news has been leaked about the next generation iPod Nanos. A new iPod Nano case from Jivo has been leaked. Again, this news just confirms some speculation that tomorrow’s will be the day that Apple unveils the 4th generation iPod Nano to the public.

As in other news, there are rumors that retails stores have been pulling their iPod Touches off store shelves per instructions from Apple Inc. Apparently, Apple does not want any retail stores to be selling the iPod Touch. What does that mean? Only time can tell. Stay tuned as more information comes our way.

- Geoff

[Source: Engadget]

More news regarding the fourth-generation iPod Nano and the next iPod Touch have surfaced. Although we are unable to determine if these drawings are accurate or even real, we just took it for what it is. Despite the drawings, we have learned that the fourth-generation iPod Nano will go back to the same frame of the second-generation iPod Nano. The new iPod Nano, although, will be slimmed down from the 2nd-gen’s 6.5mm to a new 6.05mm thickness. The iPod Touch will get more curvy just like its iPhone 3G brother, but at the same time the thickness increases from 8.0mm to 8.4mm. As far as the earphone jack is concerned, sorry folks, the jack looks to remain at the base of the iPod Touch. Remember to check back as more information comes our way.

- Geoff

[Source: Engadget]