Rhapsody is all set to break the monopoly of iTunes when it comes to songs that you can listen to on your iPod. The Rhapsody executives referred to their endeavor as a means to provide “Music without Limits”. These songs will now be available to consumers online via partners that include the likes of Verizon Wireless and Yahoo!

Till now, Rhapsody’s reach was severely curbed due to its subscription offer. Under it, users could download unlimited songs but at a payment of about $15 or $13 per month. Along with that, Rhapsody’s service was incompatible with the most popular digital player-Apple’s iPod. But now, the songs offered by Rhapsody are in MP3 format and are hence compatible with the iPod. iTunes, which has the lion’s share, over 70 percent of the digital music market in US, is now under threat with a rival such as Rhapsody.

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If your iPod is your best friend then you wouldn’t want it to be lonely would you?  Even as markets soar with new iPod accessories, the ones that you really need and not just to show-off are still scarce. In multi-iPod households, home playback and charging needs of owners create many problems. JVC offers a quick solution in the form of the Dual iPod Docking Station.

 Available at your nearest shop, the JVC NX-PN7 can host two iPod players simultaneously. It accommodates the two iPod’s together while they are getting charged. It also offers playback from each via the dock’s audio system. In addition to the iPod playback, there is also an AM/FM tuner along with a timer and clock. How’s that for versatility!

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The next time you sit down to copy songs on to your digital music player from your friend’s CDs or are sharing songs via e-mail, you’d better know that you are amongst 96 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds or 89 per cent of 14 to 17 year olds who are doing so and that too illegally.

 A recent survey conducted by the University of Hertfordshire has left the music industry in a state of shock after revealing that an average digital music player or iPod contains over 842 songs that are illegally copied. The research shows that over fifty per cent of the 14 to 24 year old population was willing to share all the music on their hard-drives, allowing their friends to copy more than thousand songs at any given point of time.

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Just when you begin to think that the iPod series has definitely reached the end of its innovation, they surprise you with a BANG! On the latest in the world of iPod’s, iXoundWear has announced the release of made to suit Caps for iPod(R).These are now also available for sale.

These caps are meant to provide welcome relief to all those people who love to exercise while listening to their iPod(R), but hate the hassle of dangling wires. Aiming to provide variety to its users, the cap comes in two types-Sport Caps and Running Caps. The colors too are varied ranging from the usual black and white to blue green and pink. Both the cap models (Sport and Running) are compatible with Nike(R) +iPod(R) Sport Kit for runners.

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It seems that the iPod is not just limiting itself to solar powered bra’s charging it. Recently in a new patent filing for the iPhone and iPod, new technology has been described that will make “Green Earth” people happy.

In the patent filing, a process has been described that talks about using solar cells for power. This is a step that will make the iPod’s popular media player all the more popular.
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There are options galore when it comes to creating a stereo system around your iPod. Such a system would typically consists of an iPod dock, speakers, amplifier and remote control. In such an arrangement you could succeed to get both great sound and mediocre sound. The highest quality of sound comes with the Klipsch iFi and Jamo’s i300, both setting you back by $400.

If you had to put together your own system for the same price, could you get it to sound better – that was the question on my mind. There were two advantages I could see of such a move. Separate speakers often make for better sound. Separate components also leave the possibility of upgrading. For great sound in such a system, you need a cradle connecting to a iPod dock connector port for good sound quality.
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Now charging you iPod is a snap, if you are female that is. The solar powered bra that charges iPods is here! This bra created by Triumph International – a Japanese lingerie maker is completely Earth friendly.

Made of organic cotton of the highest quality, this bra does not affect our environment adversely. Thats not all, the bra’s also come with plastic pouches. Filll them with water and quench your thirst – no need to recycle!
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Now television is yours to enjoy on your iPhone! Now live television can be streamed onto your iPhone as well as your iPod Touch. The credit for this innovation goes to Orb Networks. OrbLive has been designed by them, which is an application that works with jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches.

All users have to do is install the streaming app from Orb Networks on a PC that has a TV tuner and install OrbLive on their iPhone or Touch. After setting PC to live TV, the content can be directly streamed to the Wi-fi enabled device from Apple. Although this piece of work is not the most technologically sophisticated, it is still a first!!
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There are many reasons to transfer music from your iPod to your computer, including wanting to transfer the files to a new iPod, getting a new computer and wanting your music there as well as on your iPod, storage size issues, even dealing with a hard drive crash and wanting to recreate your iTunes library. (God forbid you ever try copying your iPod files to your computer’s iTunes library after a crash if you have been using automatic synchronization. You will find that your empty iTunes library will replace your full iPod, and you’ll lose ALL your music!)

Transferring your music from your computer to your iPod has always been easy, including that ‘gee, let’s just replace all those lovely iPod tracks with an empty library!’

Unfortunately transferring in the other direction (iPod to computer transfer) has not been, unless you bought the music from the iTunes Store. Indeed, with the latest versions of iTunes, you are not only limited to transferring only purchased tracks, but iTunes allows you to only transfer all your purchased tracks, rather than being able to pick and choose which ones you want to move. Talk about being pushy.

(For those of you wanting to know step-by-step details in transferring music from your iPod to your computer using iTunes, check out “Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer – The Definitive Guide” available at iLouge.com

Fortunately third-party vendors were quick to recognize the market and jumped in with both feet, providing all sorts of options for transferring your music from your iPod to your computer, even with the new DRM restrictions.

The best of these utilities can read iPod databases files and use them to locate specific tracks as well as show playlists, ratings and play count. Indeed, some of these products can quite nicely be used in place of iTunes, for those of you not wanting to use iTunes.

Here are a few that you could consider:

> Lenogo iPod to Computer Transfer – This works with iPod, iPod Touch and iPhone!

> imTOO iPod Computer Transfer – This is another great software for transferring songs, files and video from iPod to your PC.

XPlay, another transfer utility, also works on both Macs and Windows operating systems and doesn’t require you to learn a new system. Simply plug in your iPod, and XPlay makes it appear as simply another drive on your computer. Just open the XPlay folder and your music appears just like it does on your iPod. You can then drag-and-drop your music from your iPod to your computer…and vice versa. Talk about easy. XPlay even includes a built-in WMA to MP3 converter.

Transferring music from your iPod to a computer is easy with the right tool. Check out your favorite search engine to find reviews and user comments, and the best tool for you.

There is something new in the malware world. There are now websites with code specifically written to crash your computer which runs on Safari, whether it is PC or Mac. In addition the code on these websites result in a lock up on your iPhone or iPod Touch. It requires no user interaction to execute.

This glitch in the Safari spans most versions. It seems like the latest version is not vulnerable to this though. What happens that the memory allocated to Safari is overrun. Cnet says that remote code execution may be possible but is unconfirmed. This new exploit is different from an earlier exploit that required user interaction, this one is executed without user interaction.
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The iPod Touch and iPhone are just like handheld computers. They have storage space, memory and mobile processors. Just like a computer, therefore, you should shut it down every once in a while. When you are on a roaming or foriegn network the iPhone will then not fetch updated emails. The iPod Touch will deliver improved performance as a result of regular shutting down.

Many iPod Touch owners have observed that playing large play lists or in shuffle mode, the iPod stops playing music and returns to the home screen. When the iPod Touch is turned off by default, it goes into standby mode. The RAM is then maintained just like in a laptop.
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The iPod is now truly a space age gadget. Last week there was a photo released of Endeavour – the space shuttle. There was one special treat in that photo for iPod lovers. A keen blogger noticed in the window console an…iPod!

Using a 400 mm lens an overhead exterior shot of the shuttle was taken. The shot was taken by crew members of Expedition 16 on the international space station. Astronaut Dominic Gorie STS-123 commander did a roll pitch maneouver. This is essentially a back flip which allows the space station crew a proper view of the heat shield of the Endeavour.
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In an announcement, Monster, which is a leading manufacturer of advanced consumer accessories said that the iSoniCast Wireless Audio Bridge is now shipping. The iSonicast is revolutionary.

Using the iSonicast you can listen to your iPod over a home stereo without batteries. Noel Lee the head of the company announced that Monster which had been highly successful in iPod accessories had a new addition.
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Apple is being sued by ZapMedia based on a claim that the online iTunes store as well as the iPod were infringements of ZapMedia’s patents. Zapmedia claimed that it tried repeatedly to negotiate with Apple and when this failed they filed the suit against Apple.

The suit was filed on Wednesday in Marshall, Texas in the US District Court. According to the suit ZapMedia Services’ property was being unlawfully exploited and they therefore wanted a royalty on this. This was a statement made by Steven G. Hill.
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Recently an Apple iPod shot out sparks and this is being investigated in Japan by government officials. One official from the trade and economy ministry of Japan told AP that this sparking that happened in Kanagawa Prefecture in January was thought to be due to a defect in the lithium-ion battery of the iPod Nano.

The model number of the defective iPod was MA099J/A according to Associated Press. Between September 2005 and September 2006 about 425000 iPods with this number were imported into Japan. This is not the first time problems have cropped up in the Nano. In Douglasville, Ga, last October a Nano reportedly caught fire in a mans pocket.
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In vehicles that have been manufactured after 2006, iPod connections have been offered as standard fare. If unsure whether your have an iPod connection in your car check the radio deck for an auxiliary input which is the standard connection. It would be labeled as “aux”. If this is a part of your car deck then all you need to do is buy an auxiliary cable running from the headset connector to the radio deck input.

Some radio decks do not have this feature. For these you have other options for iPod connection. For cassette players, you need to connect a cassette adaptor. This costs about $15.
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The iPhone has been hacked for quite a while in order to create games for it. People have even used the accelerometer for the purpose of playing by calculating the direction of hardware tilt. Steve D. has developed a new title aimed at the ipod Touch and iPhone called Trism.

This puzzle game is said to be really neat and simple. The game uses the Touchscreen with which the onscreen triangles can be manipulated. You have to use a fair bit of strategy and the direction you tilt the phone decides which way the blocks fall down.
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The three main businesses of Apple are doing very well. This is not all. According to Tim Cook, COO, Apple, there is a very good growth potential for these businesses in the future.

According to Cook, among all Apple products, the iPhone has received the highest customer satisfaction ratings. This is an achievement for the iPhone since all Apple products are so high on customer satisfaction.
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After taking back broken iPod Touch’s, Apple is finding ways to make good use of them. Apple is refurbishing them and then selling them for less. They are in perfect working condition. The only catch is that the online Apple store was selling only the 8GB model. Now there is a 32 GB model being sold after being redone as well. This is not the best iPod out there but it is definitely very desirable.

Till recently iPod Touch users were installing iPhone apps illegitimately. Now with a new software upgrade iPod Touch users can access iPhone apps legitimately. All new units have this software upgrade. If you don’t want to spend the $20 on the new functionality then the only option is hacking it!
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The future of podcasting hangs in the balance with Apple’s new patent. A few years ago, we witnessed the maturing of podcasting. When Apple added fuel to the podcasting fire with its iTunes store in 2005, the process accelerated. There is now a new patent in line that may change the face of the podcast world.

The patent is titled “Creation, Management and Delivery of Personalized Media Items.” It was filed on Jan 9, 2007. The abstract is a little vague. If this patent goes through, users will be able to choose episodes from podcasts, manually or automatically combining them into content.
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