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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According to an analyst the price cuts in the iPod Shuffle are likely to increase sales across all iPods. This decision by Apple to cut iPod Shuffle prices may help Apple meet shipment forecasts for all iPod models. Shaw Wu, American Technology Research analyst says that this was a development that very positive and due to the low December quarter sale output, this was perhaps needed and in the light of this price cut Apple would reach it’s forecasted sales.

According to Shaw Wu, Apple is a stock to buy. The price target he puts on it is $175 per share. He felt that the right thing for Apple to do would have been to reduce prices in the December quarter. This would have driven incremental demand as newbies to the iPod hooked on to the world of the iPod.
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Monster’s iFreeplay headphones are among the models that are using the small size of the iPod Shuffle to their advantage. They are doing this by incorporating a dock for the iPod Shuffle into the headphones.

This works with the second and third generation iPod Shuffles. By connecting directly with the headphones, there are no cords and this makes the iFreeplay similar to a cordless headphone which doesn’t require Bluetooth.
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A textile made of nano fibers has been created by US researchers. This fiber harvests energy from movement. This development could lead to clothing which could power wearable electronic devices including the iPod. The principle on which the research is based is that of a self winding watch. “Wasted” energy from sound waves, human heart beats and vibrations could be scavenged by tiny nano-generators.

This research was conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology by a group of scientists led by Zhong Lin Wang. The fibers are covered with pairs of zinc oxide nanowires. These produce tiny electric pulses from friction.
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the iPDA 4.1 has recently been released by ZappTek. This is the newest version of its software. It is a personal management software. Using this software, users can transfer Word, RTF, Apple Pages, PDF or text documents and then read them on the iPod.

This software is also capable of downloading RSS feeds, weather forecasts, news headlines and driving directions on to their iPod. In addition this software allows information transfer from iCal, Address Book, Gmail, Stickies and Entourage to the iPod.
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In an amazing incident that should leave iPhone owners with a sweet taste in the mouth, an iPhone was found to be working even after being run over by a truck! The iPhone has long been a symbol of all that is cool and posh but now it has a new tag attached to it. It is the indestructible iPhone.

Lets go back to when Mike Beauchamp innocently left his iPhone on the trunk of his car. Now his memory did not prove as reliable as the considerable memory of his iPhone. Soon he was up and about on the highway.
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New models of the Apple mobile handset – iPhone as well as the iPod media player have been introduced in the market. These models have twice the memory of previous models. The lineup has been changed the second time in the last 6 months.

The new models include a 16 GB iPhone which will cost $499. There is also a 32 GB iPod also for the same price of $499. There is ample room for songs in the new iPod, seven thousand songs in fact. The iPhone can store about 3500.
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It is amazing how students often come out with great stuff in academic projects, like model planes, cheap cars and just in, a hugely popular software program for YouTube users that can download videos to Apple TVs, iPhones and iPods.

The name of the software is “tooble.” This software was exposited at the Mac World 2008 conference and Expo in Frisco. This led to their site www.tooble.tv getting 350,000 hits and 25,000 downloads in just a couple of weeks. This free software benefits just Apple users, with a Windows version expected by summer.
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There is good news for iPodders with pacemakers. Well, according to an FDA study portable music devices such as iPods produce magnetic fields, however these do not adversely affect cardiac pacemakers. The claim that Apple iPod magnetic fields may hurt the heart is thus refuted.

Four iPod models were tested by the research team from the Food and Drug Administration and the report on the same is available in BioMedical Engineering Online.
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According to the “National Defense” magazine, February issue civilian travellers with iPods have something to rejoice about. The military iPod software that allows soldiers to communicate with Arabic and Kurdish soldiers will soon become public.

The software running on the Soldiers iPods is VCommunicator. It plays phrases in Arabic or Kurdish as well as other things while hunting insurgents. While showing an Iraqi an insurgents photo, they would just play a line from the iPod which means “have you seen this person?”
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iPod users in Asia have something to whine about. It is not easy being in love with your iPod in Asia. The much hyped software upgrade publicized by Steve Jobs at Macworld is unavailable in Asia. Even if you have the dollars to spend for the additional 5 apps, the news is that you cant buy them. You can have that facility through iTunes only.
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The iPod has long been known as a cool thing to possess. It has changed a big part of our civilization and how we live. Centuries ago there was another thing that symbolized everything that was cool and it still does. The guitar has long been a symbol of fun, enjoyment and oomph. Now two civilizational icons combine into one.

There is a new application for the iPod Touch. The pocket guitar on the iPod Touch is here. With the help of a new application for the iPod Touch you can now play virtual guitar. The Touch has once again demonstrated its malleability to intelligent design and how it is so innovative.
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