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The attention grabber is here. It is the Apple iPod touch and it has already been making its impression felt in the market for over a year. The thickness with which it is available is two thirds that of the Apple iPhone and it also wears the exemplary iPod Chrome jacket. The back is not at all prone to scratches and the shine is also attractive. There is no need of an adapter to make the iPod work and the requirement of compatible headphones is therefore not needed. Features like the multitouch navigation, the Safari browser and access to the iTunes will enthrall the user.

The Wi-Fi music store instills thrill and the animated icon can be clicked and downloaded. The song can be previewed and downloaded within seconds. The iTune library provides the user with a lot of options where as the battery life is tremendous. Music can be played for more than half of the day and the PlaysForSure compliance software by Microsoft ensures that the user always gets DRM music whenever asked. The life of the Apple iPod touch 8 GB’s battery is fairly impressive, as more than five hours of video footage can be played without recharging. So in short, the gadget is worth buying just in case you feel like experiencing video technology that you might have never seen before.

If you are a video junkie, then the idyllic gizmo that will suit all of your needs is already out in the market. In simple words, we are talking about none other than the 3rd generation iPod Nano. The gadget has an amazing storage capacity of 8GB of flash memory, which is considered to be very high on performance. It will develop into being your best companion and will act as a storage device on which lots of videos can be stored along with your favorite tracks. The compatibility is such that it can be adjusted with both Mac and the Windows Operating System. Courtesy the fact that the size of the screens were enlarged in 3G phones, the new Apple iPod Nano has a screen size of 320X240X2”.

The battery of the Apple iPod Nano will provide you with 24 hours of non stop music and 5 hours of video streaming. The option of playing games and getting more of iTunes is also a heavy possibility. The stop watch in the iPod will help you take note of time especially when you are out for a jog. It is such features which make the iPod high on durability and endurance. The price is a little on the higher side but the facilities offered are such are that the user will get value for every penny that he spends. Another feature provided with the Apple iPod nano 8 GB is a firewall that will keep the gadget safe from any sort of detrimental bug. Buy it and be a proud owner of a gem.

The Apple corporation has just unveiled its third generation iPod Shuffle which not only shuffles the playlists at the touch of a button but also clams to possess speaking powers. Yes, you read it right. The new iPod Shuffle is powered via VoiceOver technology that invokes speaking capability into this miniature music player. With the VoiceOver feature the new Shuffle can speak out song titles, artists and playlist names. It can also give you some status information. For example it can tell you about the battery life in 14 different languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

The new Shuffle is small, sleek and offers intuitive controls on its earphone cords. Essentially, aside from the VoiceOver feature, the new Shuffle is mostly the same as the earlier Apple iPod Shuffle 1GB. For instance, just like the original, you can easily control the playback with the press of a button with the 3rd Gen Shuffle. According to Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing, “Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names. The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you, also making it the first iPod shuffle with playlists.”

As of now the talking Shuffle is available in two colours, silver and Black. Most of the functions, file compatibility and technical specifications are same as the previous iPod Shuffle devices. So you won’t face any difficulties while transferring the music to the new one.

Tags for this article: 3rd generation, apple, ipod shuffle, mp3 player, voiceover

It’s time to put on a stylish jacket instead of untangling your headphones to listen to music while on move. The latest iPod Jacket is going to hit UK markets very soon and is aimed at those who love to enjoy music especially when they drive. The iPod Jacket is made in Korea and will be launched in UK and Europe at an affordable price.

The jacket is called Sound Walk and aims at providing safety while you listen to the music. Most of the people prefer listening to music while they drive and when the volume gets pumped up due to thumping beats the listener (the driver) fails to hear horns, emergency sirens and other on road sounds. This ultimately increases the risk of lethal on road accidents, especially if you happen to be listening with noise-cancelling headphones, like the Sennheiser PXC 350, whilst driving. The iPod jacket makes listening to music safer by accommodating the MP3 player in the front pocket which is connected to the high quality speakers built into the shoulder pads. The power has to be supplied via two AAA batteries. Besides driving, the jacket can also be used while jogging or doing any other activity. It not only offers safer music listening experience but also saves you from the irritation and pain caused by earbuds.

The maker of this unique attire claims that the sound quality of the built–in speakers is satisfactory and loud enough so that everyone sitting in the car or a room can enjoy the track. Earphones in any case can cause ear damage. Currently it was found that the people using earphones for listening to music at high volume suffer from deafness and other hearing impairments. The iPod jacket avoids any such type of issues.

iPod Shuffle is the cutest of all the iPods developed by Apple. It’s a small, tiny and sleek music machine that not only looks good but also delivers great sound quality via its small yet powerful earbuds. Apple has got years of expertise in manufacturing iPods and that’s the reason behind the remarkable success of this extraordinary product.

iPod Shuffle has got a sturdy built in clip that can be used to clip it on the places like sleeves, lapel, belt or anywhere else you want. It’s available in five different trendy colours to match your style and attitude. Each iPod Shuffle features a thumb friendly circular control pad that offers convenient access to different options like play/pause, forward, reverse and volume adjustment. The specialty of Apple iPod Shuffle 1GB is the shuffle switch that can be used to mix up the tracks and play them randomly. With the main unit you will also get an iPod dock to easily connect the device to PC or Mac for charging and synching with the iTunes music player.

iPod Shuffle accepts MP3, MP3 VBR, ACC, Protected ACC, WAV and AIFF files. Alas! It is not meant for those who want to watch videos. There is no display screen on the device. So, you are restricted to listen to audio files only. Shuffle is available in 1GB and 2GB storage capacities.

You can now view any video on your Apple iPod. Videora can convert almost any video file into a format playable by the iPod. If you have got large number of videos but cannot play them on your iPod because of compatibility issues, then the Videora video converter can definitely snap you out of this. It smoothly converts the videos and puts them on your fingertips so that you can enjoy them practically anywhere you want.

Videora is easy to install and use. You need not to be rocket scientist to get hold of its various self explanatory functions. Simply install it in your PC, click on the icon and a window will pop out conventionally. The best feature of this application is that it can be used with all the iPods, including the Apple iPod Classic, Shuffle, Nano and iPod Touch.The Videora can manage all the video files in a playlist style. It enables the user to select one or more files at a time and convert them in the desired format. You can convert avi, divx, xvid, flv, x264, vob, mpeg, DVD’s, YouTube and other files into popular video formats such as MPEG-4 and H.264 that are accepted by Apple iPods.

Videora ensures functionality and quality. It makes sure that during the conversion process there is no significant loss in pixel quality, colour reproductions, brightness and contrast. You can also use it to convert videos for Apple iPhone and integrate it with the Videora video search and download program to download, convert and copy video to your iPod automatically (using BitTorrent and RSS technology).

Have you got a large collection of DVD movies and videos but don’t have enough time to spend enjoying them? Do you also have an Apple iPhone? If yes, then you are not out of luck completely. You can now convert any DVD file into a format that is accepted by the iPhone and enjoy all the pristine quality content on the move. All you need is the Xilisoft DVD to iPhone Converter to optimally use the DVDs.

The Xilisoft DVD to iPhone Converter can rip DVDs to iPhone MP4 video, MP3 audio, AAC and M4A audio. This is the main selling factor of this software. You can find any other DVD ripper and converter in the market but most of them offer full video to video conversion. However, the Xilisoft DVD to iPhone Converter delivers more flexibility in its operations. You can split a whole DVD file into different sections (like a VCD cutter) and then convert them. You can also extract the audio from a video file and then convert it into MP3.

User interface is excellent. There are lots of options that are provided to control the conversion process and define the output format. You can go for single conversion process or for a batch processing for your Apple iPhone 3G. The batch processing is further split into two parts. Either you can convert a same file into multiple formats or convert multiple files simultaneously.

Despite the economic slowdown, Microsoft has decided to launch its own retail stores. According to the company this is necessary to connect to the end consumers in a better and deeper way. The competitors like Apple have already made this move and have been very successful in boosting their sales with their Apple retail stores. Microsoft too expects such a positive outcome by launching its own chain of retail stores that will target all the consumers instead of some high profile ones.

The company has hired David Porter for this project. David Porter has worked with Wal-Mart for 25 years and has promoted the organisation to a great extent. He will be joining Microsoft as the corporate vice president of the Microsoft retail stores and will help the organisation in creating a better PC and Microsoft retail purchase experience for consumers. We can expect the shops to specialise in selling the latest copies of Windows, Xbox 360 consoles and games like Left 4 Dead, and perhaps Windows Mobile phones as well. However, the company has not revealed a specific date regarding the grand opening, store locations and total number of stores.

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says, “Microsoft is working hard to improve the articulation and demonstration of the company’s innovation and value proposition so it’s clear, simple and straightforward.”

David Porter says, “There are tremendous opportunities ahead for Microsoft to create a world-class shopping experience for our customers. I am excited about helping consumers make more informed decisions about their PC and software purchases, and we’ll share learnings from our stores with our existing retail and OEM partners that are critical to our success.”

Tags for this article: apple, chain, microsoft, retail stores, shop

Cartoonizeme is the latest application developed exclusively for the Apple iPhone. It allows iPhone users to explore the creative kid in them. It’s basically a photo editing application but with a twist. It adds cartoonish effects to any image loaded in the iPhone. Intended for use as a fun application, the Cartoonizeme app has got various tool and options that make the images look better, hilarious and cool.

With Cartoonizeme you can add moustache to a lady, make the lips big, add cool looking goggles to your photo, apply funny tattoos and stickers on the face and much more. It’s not quite as advanced as Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0, but you can still have a lot fun with the programme. A comprehensive yet easy to understand help guide is also included in the application, together with preloaded visual samples. So it’s really very easy to preview what a particular option do. Once you load the Cartoonizeme in the iPhone and run it, it will ask you whether you want to take a new photo or add effects to an existing one. If you are taking a new picture then you have to save it first. After that you can customise it the way you want.

Cartoonizeme offers different types of hair styles, skin tones and stickers. The stickers are found in three different categories namely facial features, accessories and word bubbles. The facial features contain different options that can be used to change the eyes, mouth, nose, lips and apply scars, wigs and other things. Under accessories you will get different subcategories that have loads of items such as funny goggles, caps, t-shirts, beard etc. Finally the word bubbles can be used to add caption. All the stickers are resizable and you can also adjust their opacity.

Apple is looking forward to develop a unique laptop that will sport three displays instead of one. Named as Apple Tribook, the laptop is just in the concept stage right now and according to the company it will take lots of time to materialise it. But still it sounds wonderful. The concept of a three screened laptop has never been done before, although we recently say a two display laptop with the Fujitsu Lifebook N7010. According to the company the Tribook will offer a complete 21 inches of display when all its three screens are unfolded.

The total 21 inches of display will be split into three parts. The main display will be surrounded by the two secondary displays on sideways. The user can either use the main display only or any two of them or all the three simultaneously. The Tribook is also expected to support different desktops on different screens. That means the users will be able to work on three different applications simultaneously without compromising with viewable area.

However, it’s natural that the Tribook will be a hefty unit and much larger in size as compared to other Apple laptops as it will sport three displays. The battery needed to backlit these displays properly will also be heavy and large. The unfolded Tribook will measure 6.75 x 10 inches and will be 1 inch thick. As far as performance is concerned, the Tribook will likely be on par with the advanced Apple MacBook Pro. The Tribook will also equip all the necessary inputs, interfaces and connectivity slots.