So it looks like this whole “iPod Touch with Camera” thing is coming to fruition. While the first case we saw was a little wonky, this makes more sense. Take a look at the back of your iPod touch - there’s a Wi-Fi antenna on the left side so the only place they could stuff a camera would be in the center, next to the antenna. I’m not sure what else is up in that spot, but the camera can’t take that much space.
UPDATE - Now there’s a freaking Nano case with a hole in it!
Before I go defile myself with burgers and beer I wanted to jailbreak my iPhone 3GS for you all. The process was amazingly simple. Using a Windows netbook - it doesn’t work under Windows 7 - I simply installed iTunes and ran purplera1n. It took a second to reboot then it rolled through recovery mode, rebooted, and an app called Freeze appeared. Freeze then installed Cydia and all was right with the world.
Reader “Jenny” sent us a link to a silicone case from Asiajunk manufacturer UXSight. It purports to show an iPod Touch 3G - third generation, not third generation wireless - with two holes -one for a camera and one for the antenna. Or maybe the little one is for a little pencil that comes out and draws the subject on a piece of paper?
Remember: Apple never releases designs to vendors until the absolute last minute. If we were to see anything it would happen in August at the earliest. Go back to your hot dogs.
Read More
My favorite blogger after Jimmy Fallon, Joel Johnson, posted a video of himself fondling the Sigma DP2, a camera I would very much like to fondle myself. That came out wrong.
Read More
Waves of exultation and joy must be coming out of Saigon as the first secret G.S.M. Palm Pres begin wending their way out of the secret Pre factories in the jungles to the south. A crack team of commandoes have wrested one of these super secretive models out of the hands of an unsuspecting courier and taken video and photos of it.
Remember that the Palm Pre originally came in G.S.M. flavor back at MWC 2008 and that O2 and Movistar probably have Pre exclusivity which allows us to assume the G.S.M. model will drop sooner than later.
The Interweb is a tizzy over the 3GS unlock/jailbreak and the Dev Teams decision not to release it until there is a new firmware update immanent. Why would they do this? Well, if they release now, Apple can close the hole with the new release, something they’d be loathe to do if the unlock happened closer to launch. While this isn’t very nice, it’s amazingly practical and forward thinking.
Wee Scott Campbell of Aberdeen, Scotland is 13 years old and sent us an email last week asking if he could write for us. What he lacks in physical age he makes up for in chutzpah. And so, much to my surprise, I wake up this morning to discover young Campbell on BBC comparing an iPod to a Walkman with his mum and generally impressing the heck out of us.
The bairn writes:
My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.
He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.
When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade - a bland grey.
So it’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.
From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.
First, an anecdote: when the iPhone first launched in 2007 I took it on a tour of Central Europe, namely Budapest and Warsaw. Communism had just fallen and the hopes and dreams of these benighted nations were dashed. But as I pulled the iPhone from its protective cozy, the eyes of those present were filled with hope again, hope that there was something better out there, something magical. That something was called the iPhone and it was this promise, the promise of a Jobsian escape from the gristmill of history. All of this in a cigarette-pack-sized cellphone.
Fast forward two years. With the release of the iPhone 3G S we can safely say that the bloom is off the rose. The 3G S looks exactly like the iPhone 3G in every way. There is no outward identification and, in those intervening years, Hungary, Poland, the UK, Russia - heck, everybody - got the iPhone. Pulling one of these out is like pulling out something like a tin of Altoids - a bit against the grain but common enough to discourage gawking. So we must answer a few questions in this review. They are:
* What are the major improvements?
* Who is this phone for?
* Should you buy one/should you upgrade?
And so we begin.
Yesterday we posted about Alice and Kev, homeless Sims that exist entirely in the world of Sims 3. They are a family. Alice is a girl with the traditional adolescent pre-teen worries but she’s saddled with a father who is high-strung, hates kids, and is generally a misfit in the orderly world of the Sims. They are homeless in that they live in a house with no walls and sleep on park benches. They have no source of food except for things given to them from other Sims or stolen in the course of the day. They can’t get clean in their own home - there’s no bathroom - and Alice’s sleep is interrupted constantly by Kev’s rants.
Rob Burkinshaw created the experiment, called Alice and Kev, as an examination of game theory and a test of his in-game photography skills but it quickly morphed into one of the most heart-breaking stories I’ve read in a long time.
Read More
Dealnews has a great deal on the Ectaco Jetbook eBook Reader, an e-ink device with 5-inch display, built-in Fodor’s Travel Guide and CIA World Factbook (!!) and an SD card slot for expansion. It supports .txt, .pdf, .fb2, Mobi, PRC, EPUB, RTF files and doesn’t seem to have any built-in storage. It’s available at NewEgg for $169.99 and free shipping, down from $299.99.
I’ve been going through the items I’ve seen and bought this year and thought I’d share a few things that would make me particularly happy this Father’s Day. To that end, I’ve collected a mish-mash of items that might make dad smile a bit more readily than a tie and cologne set from Donald Trump’s fashion collection.
I had to send this camera back but I’m honestly thinking of buying it new. It’s a great, heavy duty shooter with plenty of manual chops and a huge rear LCD. It takes shots at 14-megapixels and costs $485. It’s a bit much - I always recommend getting a DSLR like the Rebel if you’re at all into shooting - but it’s a good mid-point camera with great portability.
Back in the old days, my buddy and I made do with a cheap four track mixer and a tape recorder. Now these kids have a 16 track recorder that dumbs audio to an SD card that supports 8 simultaneous recording tracks in 44kHz WAV recording and 8 XLR/1/4-inch inputs.
There are even built-in preamps and DSP effects and has a USB interface for audio editing. It only costs $400 so get thee to the computer music store.
Read More
Sorry for the clipping but this sucker was loud. This is Electro-Harmonix’s local tester running the POG2 pedal through its paces. The pedal makes a standard guitar sound like a harpsichord and an organ.
The POG2 will take you even higher. Use the new attack control to fade in lush, smooth swells. Tune in the new second sub-octave to reach deeper than ever before. The 2-pole resonant low-pass filter now includes two additional Q modes. Slide in the newly enhanced detune to further refine your sound.
The POG2 delivers unrivaled tonal variations — and now you can save your favorite settings, and recall them with a click. The POG2 just plain sounds better, thanks to an enhanced algorithm that delivers a more focused and in-the-pocket harmonic performance. And all this is now packed into our rugged and pedalboard-friendly diecast chassis.
Jack Conte is an Internet musician who makes his living from selling MP3s online and generally running around like a madman making great music. I was introduced to him through Electro-Harmonix but I was amazed when I found the rest of his great music online. I met with him at a cafe in San Francisco where we drank huge bowls of coffee and talked music, technology, and hardware. He makes videosongs of himself recording his songs and sells his music online. Oddly enough, he also Tweets.
CG: So from a hardware perspective, and I know you use a lot of gear, it’s interesting how far things have come from your Dad’s old amp in the basement to a box that does everything for you. How have things changed in your experience so far and in terms of being a musician trying to get an authentic sound?
Jack: I think my ear is pretty good, but I don’t have formal training so my ear isn’t that good. I know when I like a sound. I’m pretty confident knowing when I like something… sometimes it’s the “wrong thing” but in terms of gear I always like the old stuff. My philosophy is that if it’s still around, it’s stuff people couldn’t bear to throw away.
The thing that’s cool about Electro-Harmonix is that they still make all those old pedals and old tubes. It’s tempting to get those electronic guitar boxes that does everything - I’ve had those before - but instead of opening doors they kind of close doors. The limitations imposed by that gear, using certain analog pedals, adds creative stimulation.
Read More
This cool system uses an Arduino board and home wiring to turn your local home telephone network into an intercom. When you take the phone off the hook it disconnects from the phone line and rings all of the phones with a different cadence. When you pick up the phone you get an open line so you can talk with loved ones and burglars who have broken in anywhere in the house.
We the people of CrunchGear would like confirm a quick, informal meet-up today at 7pm at the View Lounge at the San Francisco Marriott. The meet-up will include drinking, talking about the iPhone 3G S, and the fondling of the Palm Pre, allowing you, the reading public, to try the cellphone of the moment before the next cellphone of the moment comes out.
Special thanks to BrightKite and PageOnce for sponsoring the event.
Ah, the Bluetooth headset. Often times, it’s the bane of any cell phone owner’s hands-free existence. You’re too cautious to stick it in your pocket because it’ll get caught up in your keys and covered in lint, so you forget to bring it with you. Or if you have it with you, it’s never charged because you always leave the proprietary cable at home.
Newton Peripherals, makers of the popular MoGo Mouse, have come up with a technologically-impressive and, perhaps more importantly, dead simple answer to the above problems. It’s a flat-folding Bluetooth headset that’s just five millimeters thick and rests in a tiny charging slot on the back of a super slim iPhone case. So your headset’s with you at all times and its charger is integrated right into your phone’s case, enabling you to split off your phone’s charging cord to power the micro-USB port that charges the headset.
Go over and watch it, if you are so inclined. No pressure. I know this has been a long day. Also, the new commercial appears after the jump. If you’re not doing anything else this evening give it a look. Otherwise it will be here when you wake.
