Men Free Blog

We’ve gotta hand it to them: electronics conmen are extremely confident in their belief in the ignorance of the masses. Gaze at the unbelievably poor “Ipod [sic] style Mobile Phone iPhone” rendition above, and then suck in the £75 (around $150) pricetag. It comes complete with an iPod-esque white finish, Mac OS X wallpaper, and a strange Quicktime skin for the included media player, but the kicker has got to be the modified Apple logo — as if the extra leaf is going to fool anyone.

[Thanks, John Derbyshire]

Read

Sure, there are already a handful of options out there for extending the life of your iPhone / iPod battery, but since when have we been ones to gripe about a little competition? Kensington has just introduced a standard and miniature version of its Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone / iPod, which unsurprisingly provides juice to your device’s internal battery and can be recharged simultaneously. As you could likely guess, the only differences between the two contraptions are the size, price and battery life; the 0.22-pound standard model extends play time to up to 100 hours (music) / 6 hours (talk), while the even tinier mini version livens things up for another 30 hours (music) / 3 hours (talk). Each is available now for $69.99 / $49.99.

Read

What’s better than having a nice leather or cloth iPod sleeve to show off to your friends? If you’re thinking one made of imitation meat — you’re dead right! Apparently, a company in Japan is under the impression that you want to wrap your music player in a grade A lookalike, undoubtedly to the thrill of your vegetarian friends and family. Of course, don’t just get one for the shock value — this thing oozes pure, sophisticated style. If you’ve got ¥6,800 (or about $66) and dignity to spare, it can be all yours

source

We’re not sure who nodded off in the art department, but we’re fairly certain they’re going to be wide awake come Monday morning. Apparently, Radio Shack is running circulars this week featuring the iPod touch… with the Installer and MobileChat icons. We’re sure Apple will be stoked to discover that a jailbroken iPod is hanging out in one of America’s most-viewed ads, and we’re equally sure that buyers will be pleased to learn they don’t really get an IM application with their purchase. Champagne for everyone!

Update: Take a look at a screen grab from the circular after the break.

source:engadget

We’ve seen a number of iPod speakers with pass-through dock connectors, but we’ve never really understood the point — why would we listen to music on our iPod when we’re already sitting at the computer, which has better speakers? iHome’s latest rig, the iH69, tries to bring it all together, though, with an iPod dock integrated directly into a set of upright computer speakers. We’re not sold on the idea until we actually hear ‘em — or we get a sub in the deal — but those of you looking to save on some cable clutter should look for these bad boys to drop sometime in June.
source:engadget

You know how Apple products get when they’re around their “lesser” consumer electronics counterparts at parties. It starts with a lack of eye contact and some foot scuffing, and ends badly with a scene in close proximity to the punch bowl. That said, Inkel’s giving it a shot with this here IDS-1500 WiFi phone dock, which mixes an iPod dock with internet radio functionality and song playback through the phone. Not a bad combination in the least, so as long as the iPod steers clear of the alcohol. No word on price or availability.

source:engadget

The new FreeLoader 8.0 Portable Solar Charger by Solar Technology is a smart looking, versatile device that charges a multitude of the latest mobile gadgets for free using Solar Energy, and supports charging for your iPod Touch or iPhone! This is an energy efficient way to charge your iPod either while traveling or on a daily basis.
Designed to sit suit the latest fashionable gadgets with its sleek looks and design, the Freeloader 8.0 is gadgetry eye candy. It is also conveniently mobile, boasting a durable casing for hard-core mobility and the ability to fold into a stylish minimal device that can easily be slipped into a pocket or handbag. The FreeLoader 8.0 Portable Solar Charger uses the latest in cutting edge solar technology to convert solar energy into electricity, making power readily available for a wealth of popular mobile devices. For example, the FreeLoader 8.0 boasts the ability to power an iPod for 18 hours.

The Freeloader 8.0 is available in both Hot Pink and Cool Aluminium Silver, retails £29.99. To purchase or for more details, visit www.solartechnology.co.uk, which offers free shipping to the UK.

Monster first started talking this one up way back in August of last year, but the company just now seems to have gotten its act together, with it finally starting to ship its iPod Wireless Audio Bridge out the door. Now dubbed the iSoniCast, the device relies on “proprietary 2.5GHz technology” to wirelessly stream music from your iPod to the home audio system of your choice and, like many other similar products, includes a dock conncetor-attached transmitter to let you use the iPod itself as a wireless remote. As you can see above, the device has also gotten a bit of a facelift since its initial debut, but it’s hung onto the same price tag, with it setting you back $100 even.

source:engadget.com

In 2007, Apple unveiled an addition to its iPod family which brought a whole new level to the concept of portable media players. The iPod touch, with features akin to the new iPhone, has put to rest the question that Apply is the undisputed leader in the portable media player market.

With the addition of the iPod touch, Apple now has four iPods to offer its market base. There’s the iPod Classic which offers a visual interface and is capable of handling a large music library with 160 GB of disc space. And there’s the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano which are geared towards people who prefer carrying much smaller media players, those who do not want a visual user interface, and those that can be satisfied with a much lower disc space for storing media materials.

The iPod touch uses 8 or 16 GB of flash memory and offers Wi-Fi and and Safari web browser to its users. The touch is the first iPod to incorporate wireless access to the iTunes Store allowing one to download music whenever there’s a Wi-Fi connection available.

Critiques have commented that Apple was wrong to release the iPod touch just months after the iPhone was released especially when the touch incorporates some of the key features of the iPhone, the most prominent of which is the 3.5-inch multitouch widescreen that contains 480-by-320 resolution of data with 163 pixels per inch. Also at $300 and $400 for a 8GB and 16GB unit, respectively, the touch is definitely more expensive.

However, the display and touchscreen controls seem to get the attention away from the price tags. Browsing through folders of data, image, music, and videos by simply tapping on the scratch-free display is increases the value of the iPod touch.

The new iPod is thinner than the iPhone, having dimensions of 4.3 by 2.4 by 0.3 inches and weighing merely 4.2 ounces. Although, the touch is not small enough to fit in all kinds of pants pockets the size and shape is still manageable. If you want something that will fit in all your pockets, you better get an iPod Nano. Also, unlike the iPhone, the iPod touch does not have camera nor does it have Bluetooth capabilities.

File compatibility is similar to older iPods. The touch is able to play all bit rates of MP3 files including VBR, Apple’s DRM tracks or iTunes Plus, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, H.264 and MPEG-4 files. It supports images that are saved in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, PSD (but PSD for Macs only), and PNG.

The overall performance of the touch is excellent, and the visual touch screen experience is simply great. If you already have a phone and camera, and if you have the money to spare, i do recommend buying the iPod touch instead of the iPhone.

The third-generation Apple iPod Nano has its share of admirers and haters, and we can’t blame them. Its features and design takes an acquired taste, even for hardcore Apple users.

Compared to its second-generation predecessor, the new iPod Nano is just as wide as it is thin. It looks like a small square, in contrast to the “candy bar” appearance of its former models, while it is insanely several millimeters thinner than the second-gen model. Despite its size, the new iPod Nano comes in a two-inch screen-bigger than its predecessor-for better video viewing.

The new Nano boasts of the features its bigger, bulkier versions can do, if not even better. It also comes with a preview pane that splits the screen in half without any lagging issues.

But what’s amazing in the third generation iPod Nano is its performance. Gone are the tiny, hollow sounds that is familiar in past Nanos. The audio quality in the new Nano sounds much like the iPod Classic, but on a flatter side. Meanwhile, video quality is clear and crisp with well-saturated colors. Plus, it even has built-in games.

Its downside is that the new iPod Nano has a chrome backing, which is prone to fingerprints as well as surface scratching. Meanwhile, the Hold switch is transferred to the bottom, making it impossible to operate the gadget with one hand.

Meanwhile, video playback is a challenge in the new Nano (as with most Apple music devices) because it requires an expensive authorization chip.

Although the slender form of the previous iPod Nano model is very much missed, the third-generation iPod Nano has more advantages. For one, it is less expensive for a 4GB MP3 player. Also, it is one of the smallest, thinnest, and most exquisitely designed music players in the market.