iPod Topics - Daily iPod & iTunes News, Views, Blog & Discussion. Apple Shuffle, Nano, Video iPods & More!

Aspiring and Established Drummers Take Notice!

Check out these nifty motion-activated digital drumsticks for the iPod which will make the inner drummer inside you (in my case, deep inside), come alive! Available here, the iPod Digital Drumsticks can be plugged into the iPod or a MP3 player of your choice so that you can drum along with your fav tunes.

It comes bundled with a control module which can be attached to the iPod via a belt clip. The drumsticks can play different combinations including; snare drum, bass drum, tom, floor tom, hi-hat, and crash cymbal. One also comes across volume and tempo controls. The iPod Digital Drumsticks retail for $29.95.

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Another new iPod Speaker System announced by Memorex is the Mi1112 Speaker System. This one will appeal to the audiophiles as it also comes equipped with a two front-loading CD players, in addition to AM/FM support.The 2CD home speaker system for iPod has a total output of 25 watts and features a Blue backlit LCD display for convenience. Memorex has also thrown in a wireless remote control and the Mi1112 . No word on pricing or availability.
Product Page

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Another new day, another new iPod speaker system! This time its from Memorex who unveiled their Mi1003 Speaker System. The system features Four neodymium speakers and also charges the iPod when docked. Available in a black and white model, the Mi1003 will appeal to the casual listener or those who have space issues!

The Mi1003 Speaker System does not support the first 3 generations of the iPod but is compatible with the Nano and the U2 Edition. It has been outfitted with a S-Video out jack and those who don’t have an iPod can also hook it up to their non-docking iPod devices, CD players, and other MP3 players via line-in jack. The Mi1003 Speaker System comes bundled with a Wireless remote control, AC adapter, S-Video out cable and a Line-out cable. It retails for $69.99 and for more info visit the Product Page.

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Coca Cola in a press release announced that it will be collaborating with Apple iTunes for some heavy duty promotion in Europe. Coke and iTunes will give away songs from Apple’s iTunes Store in over 2 billion promotional packs of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero in 17 European countries! The promotion will kick-start at the International Cannes Festival and Coca-Cola will also unveil their a limited-edition, aluminum Coke bottle.

“iTunes is the world’s most popular online music store selling 58 songs every second at a rate of 5 million tracks a day,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in the press release. “We’ve already had great success working with Coca-Cola over the past year and this new pan-European initiative gives music fans across Europe the ability to download free music all summer long.”

What is that strange contraption you might ask? Well before you think that there is a Shuffle robot in the pipeline, let me assure that is not the case! Meet the Kubrick iKUB shuffle variant by Medicom which is available at www.dpmhi.com and is meant to act like a dock for the shuffle! It retails for around £32 and even charges and syncs your iPod Shuffle! Actually on second thoughts, its not that bad and quite creative!

According to the website; “The head can be removed and replaced with your shuffle, whilst the docking cable is inserted into the back meaning your kubrick now has a shuffle for a head and can be charged or have tracks uploaded.”

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Features Sweet Kickstand Technology

There is no dearth of iPod skins , but we can always do with another one! Check out the new iPod case by Body Glove Technology Accessories. This one looks pretty neat as it has a kickstand built into a belt clip which ensures that your iPod doesn’t take a fall! The case has been made of Body Glove’s Ion material which is actually a water-resistant synthetic fabric and is pretty robust. The Body Glove iPod Case with Kickstand is compatible with 30, 60, and 80GB fifth-generation iPods, and is available at Wal-Mart for $20.

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FM Transmitter for iPod® Finds Clearest FM Station in Seconds

If you are like me, you absolutely hate the fact that most FM transmitters for the iPod do not work that well. There is nothing worse than the sound of static, or losing your FM signal while listening to your favorite tunes in your car via your iPod, let alone trying to find the next frequency on the FM transmitter to get that clear signal.

Thanks to the folks at Kensington, the new QuickSeek FM Transmitter finds the clearest FM station for transmitting iPod tunes through a radio within seconds, improving transmission quality and convenience. More music - less time and effort “playing” with the transmitter.

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Study Shows iPod Can Cause Pacemakers to Fail

Ouch.

Just when we all thought that the iPod was the perfect device, it turns out it can be a silent killer. According to a study done by 17 year old Jay Thaker, a student at Okemos High School in Okemos, Michigan, iPod interference can lead physicians to misdiagnose actual heart function.

According to Reuters, the study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient’s chest for 5 to 10 seconds. In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart’s pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.

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The Ultimate iAccessory?

According to iLounge, Nike is going to be release two or three hybrid watch and remote control accessories for Nike + iPOd kit-equipped iPod nanos. As we have mentioned before, Nike has been very vocal about their plans to increase Nike and iPod integration.

Set to be released this month, the Nike Flight+ ($129) is a wireless iPod remote control with a complete digital wristwatch as its body. Flight+’s music controls, such as volume and track adjustment, are built into a rocking bezel around its central Electroluminescent (EL) backlit watch screen. Available in two colors, this watch will feature standard time, date, and chronometer features, including alarms, plus the ability to trigger the Nike + iPod Sport Kit’s voice feedback feature.

The Nike Amp+ is a bracelet-styled remote control with a stripped-down subset of Flight+’s features. Amp+ includes its own integrated LED display with the ability to display either time or iPod control status, an iPod shuffle-styled control pad to let users change tracks, adjust volume, and play/pause songs on the iPod, and special Sport Controls to call up the Sport Kit’s special voice feedback and PowerSong features.

No word yet on the exact release date this month, although earlier reports suggested these were set to hit shelves on May 1st, we can’t seem to find them anywhere. Stay tuned…

Living on a Prayer Just Got a Whole Lot More Interactive

I am not religious but I am sure the iRosary will meet with both criticism and appreciation by both believers and non believers. A concept by Tina Dobra, the iRosary will be on display in Berlin at the “Designmai” till the 20th of May.

According to the designer:

“The most important distinguishing feature of the iPod, the white earphones cable, becomes a string of beads on which only one bead is now found. This bead can be shifted. The position of the bead can be measured and heard as audio beads on a sensitive range of the cable. Due to technical possibilities, the new rosary can help a person to learn the prayer; the right mysteries are inserted automatically and there are various modes for choosing the degree of difficulty.”

So what do you think, is this concept neat? Or are there some lines you never cross?

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