Posted 10/07/09 at 02:45:15 PM by Bart Sailsbury

In what most likely is a nonevent, the media management company doubleTwist last week introduced the standalone application doubleTwist, which provides access to Amazon’s MP3 downloads. Billed as an iTunes competitor, doubleTwist will allow you to download music and, just like you can if you downloaded at Amazon or Lala or most other online music providers, put them on any device capable of playing MP3s--including an Apple iPod. Wow!

doubleTwist has an iTunes-familiar interface. You can download music (only music, and only from Amazon), but doubleTwist will allow you to manage your music, photos, and movies (which doubleTwist cleverly snatches from your iTunes library). The interface is familiar to iTunes users, but definitely more utilitarian.

A strength of doubleTwist may be its ability to manage your media on a variety of devices, such as the Palm Pre, BlackBerry, the Amazon Kindle, the Sony PSP, and Windows Media devices. But, alas, iPod/iPhone support is only available for Windows users at present. doubleTwist claims to transcode your files to the necessary format before loading to a mobile device.

The market for online music delivery is definitely heating up, with Microsoft’s streaming music venture in the UK, and the impending entry of Spotify into the United States. Given that most existing services are web-based (including Amazon’s), it’s not clear how attractive a machine-based alternative will prove.

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Posted 09/27/09 at 11:13:05 PM by Justin Kerr

Apple has been called out in the past for using its software updater to push unwanted applications out to Windows users, but apparently all the bad press wasn’t enough to teach them a lesson claims ZDNet blogger Ed Bott. Apparently Apple has taken to forcing out its new “iPhone Configuration Utility” using their automated Software Updater, and even systems that have never come in contact with an iPhone before are being targeted.

Upon further testing he was able to confirm that this update was being suggested out to every system that had allowed the Apple Software Updater to become installed, and suggests users keep a close eye on it to avoid downloading applications they don’t need. It’s bad enough Apple keeps trying to force Safari on Windows users, but iPhone configuration utilities for those without iPhones? That’s low.

Has Apple’s has crossed the line this time?

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Posted 08/26/09 at 08:05:31 PM by Paul Lilly

As another reminder that crime doesn't pay, 23-year-old Nicholas Woodhams, also known as the "iPod Mechanic," faces 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud and money laundering charges. Woodhams was also ordered to pay $648,568 in restitution to Apple and $8,066.85 to the U.S. Postal Service, Arstechnica reports.

According to the lawsuit, Woodhams ran a scam of exploiting Apple's advance replacement system for the iPod shuffle and reselling them through his own website. He also allegedly exploited Apple's iPod Warranty Service Program to get Apple to repair out-of-warranty iPods.

Woodhams' scam proved rather lucrative, but it's all going back. In addition to the above jail time and fines, Woodhams must forfeit about $750,000 worth of criminally acquired assets, including his house in Michigan, an Audi S4, an Ariel Atom 2, a Honda motocyle, and over $500,000 in cash. Ouch.

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Posted 08/25/09 at 09:35:19 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Taking cognizance of a complaint filed by Pennsylvania-based BTG International in July, the U.S. International Trade Commission has announced it will launch a probe into the use of Samsung Nand flash-memory chips in gadgets from Apple, RIM, Sony, etc. BTG International claims that certain Samsung Nand flash-memory chips found in a host of consumer electronics devices, including the iPhone, iPod, MacBook Air, Blackberry Storm, and various Sony camcorders, infringe on five out of its patents. The said patents relate to the storage of multiple bits of information per cell, which appreciably increases the storage capacity of flash memory while keeping it inexpensive. BTG is praying for a ban on the import of all devices containing the Samsung chips at issue.

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Posted 08/12/09 at 04:17:57 PM by Andy Salisbury

According to a recent info leak from Best Buy’s inventory system, we expect that the Zune HD will cost only $220 for the 16GB model and $290 for the 32GB model.

For those keeping tabs, this puts Microsoft at a huge advantage over Apple. Currently the iPod Touch costs $229, $299 and $399 for the 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models (respectively). Apple may or may not change prices around once the Zune HD hits store shelves, but as of right now things are looking solid up in Redmond.

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Posted 08/05/09 at 10:30:00 AM by Alex Castle, Norman Chan, and Dave Murphy

While we're big fans of the proven awesomeness of open-source software, we don't automatically download every free application that's labeled as an open-source project. What make more sense is the use of open-source as the tool that effects some kind of massive or otherwise unreachable change in a common device. Case in point is open-source firmware, named not for any philosophical belief behind its creation, but because few would want to heft the banner for these changes themselves. After all, creativity comes from a wide range of sources and inputs--as does software testers. You sure wouldn't want to be the one person working on third-party iPhone firmware, bricking device after device in a quest to add additional functionality that Apple didn't first design.

But that kind of unintended funcitonality is the sole benefit to open-source firmware. Throw those aspirations of community membership and open-source allegiance out the window: You want to increase the power of your device akin to a Sim tinkering his or her hardware to gain mechanical skill points. There's no shame in that. In fact, you can accomplish much by adopting third-party firmware in place of standard manufacturer packages. For example, building increased sound codecs into your MP3 player of choice, or adding on-screen level meters to your digital SLR. You can even turn your router into a bridge, perfect for extending the range of your neighbor's wireless signal so you can thieve his connection from additional locations in your apartment. You can also brick your device.

We jest, but only partially. For the danger of running third-party firmware--safe as many of the packages can seem to be--is that you could render your device of choice unusable. It happens to "real" firmware upgrades; it can happen to "unofficial" firmware upgrades as well, only I venture that you'll probably find more problems in the latter scenario than with a manufacturer's tried-and-tested update. But still, the benefits can often outweigh the risks, especially if you're looking to extend your legacy devices with additional features. An entire ocean of open-source firmware fixes awaits your perusal -- we take a look at some outstanding examples of open-source firmware, and teach you how to install them on your own gadgets!

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Posted 08/04/09 at 10:51:18 PM by Alex Castle

For most people, an MP3 player serves a pretty narrow purpose: it plays music, maybe a video here or there if you’ve got a newer model, and might have a handful of applications. All in all, though, MP3 players are rarely treated as anything more than tiny, portable jukeboxes, which is a shame, because as gadgets they’ve got the potential for so much more. That’s why, in this article, we’re going to show you how to install custom Rockbox firmware and breathe new life into your trusty old MP3 player.

Rockbox is an open source replacement firmware for MP3 players. It supports a wide range of MP3 players, including many (but not all) players from Apple, Archos, Cowon, iriver, Olympus, SanDisk  and Toshiba. Before reading any further, check out the chart at the top of the Rockbox homepage to see whether your specific model is supported or not.

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Posted 07/30/09 at 05:07:20 PM by Andy Salisbury

Thanks to a recent announcement, we now know that Creative’s new Zii Egg Plaszma (read: open source iPod Touch) will be the first to boast a flexible StemCell system architecture, which will make use of 24 floating-point processors.

The Egg, which is shipping out to developers now in a $399 SDK is being marketed as an Android-friendly “handheld computer,” that has many features similar to Apple’s offering, but beefed up in a few areas. Most notably, it features a full-sized SD card slot, a rear facing HD video camera, a front facing VGA camera, Flash Lite support, GPS, WiFi, and it has enough power under the hood to output 1080p video.

The Egg will likely retail for $199, but there’s no official as to when we can expect it on store shelves.

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