Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

After covering CES and Macworld all week, we somehow let the Apple TV slip by without giving it a fair share on the site. During Steve Job’s keynote, he announced what was previously codenamed the iTV. The Apple TV is Apple, Inc.’s solution to bridging the gap between the computer and the living room. It allows you to wirelessly play all your iTunes content from your Mac or PC on your TV, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts.

“Apple TV is like a DVD player for the 21st century—you connect it to your entertainment system just like a DVD player, but it plays digital content you get from the Internet rather than DVDs you get from a physical store,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Apple TV plays the same iTunes content that users enjoy on their computers and iPods, so now they can even watch part of a movie in their living room, and watch the rest later on their iPod.”

Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive to store up to 50 hours of video, 9,000 songs, 25,000 photos or a combination of each and is capable of delivering 720p output. It comes standard with HDMI, component video, and analog and optical audio ports, and it hooks up to your computer and internet via 802.11b/g/n. Apple TV can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to your TV. Apple TV requires an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen TV. It also ships with a remote that works from up to 30 feet away.

The Apple TV and Remote will be shipping in February for $299.

Read [Apple]

Read [Crave] Read [CrunchGear]

Remember the Audioengine speakers that we reviewed then gave away to one of over 1,500 entrants back near the beginning of the year? Well these hot speakers, the A5s, are now available in a glossy black finish (as opposed to the original iPod white).

In case you don’t remember these speakers has built in USB charging (for iPods), dual 1/8″ audio inputs, auxiliary power, airport support, They come with a 30 day trial and all the cables you could want for $349.99. Overall these speakers have been designed from scratch for your iPod and playback of MP3 files, and they do a great job doing just that.

Read [Audioengine]

That’s right I said it and I’ll say it again. All wanna be DJ’s get out your iPods and get to work. Gemini has made its fashionably late entrance into the world of digital iPod DJ’s with their iTrax. Simply pop in two iPods filled with your favorite music and push play. A crossfader and microphone jack will give you the real feel for what being a DJ is like. A fun idea for those who already own 2 iPods. Come to think of it, if you actually own 2 iPods then you either have zero concept for the value of a dollar or have the worst case of impulse shopping known to mankind.  Either case, your diminished sense of the US dollar or your insane impulse shopping woes may not keep you from picking up this new toy. After all for the asking price tag of $230 you might as well purchase a third iPod.

Read [Engadget]

It seems like Apple is ready to kick the sh!t out of Microsoft in about 45 min from now. We are set and ready to cover the 2006 Word Wide Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, CA. The man himself, Steve Jobs, will take the stage at 10:00 am PST and continue ripping on Microsoft (check out the pictures to see what we’re talking about). These past two weeks have been filled with rumors, honestly too many for us to even cover. They have included the new iPods, video iPods, metalic iPod nano’s, eliminating the shuffle, iTunes will add movies, the long awaited iPhone, Mac tablets, glossy MacBooks, a replacement for the G5 dubbed the Mac Pro, and the already confirmed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. From the banners in the convention center we know Leopard will be the main discussion, but Jobness always has one more thing…

Click on for the live blog of the event as well as pictures from the convention center. As always you can hit Ctrl+R or F5 to reload this page.

Here is the first major assault on Windows Vista.

And here is the second...I must say, very clever.

9:35 PST - The Apple Store is now closed and everyone is walking into the main conference room. We should be rolling in about 30 min.

9:53 PST - Almost everyone is in by now, we have about another 15 min before it begins. Coldplay, The Postal Service, and U2 fill the speakers. I suggest that you Appleheads go get towels now to begin wiping up the drool that will follow.

9:59 PST - We are just about to go, give us a second while we add some more pictures.

10:00 AM PST - The crowd is getting louder as well is the music. The show hasn’t started yet but we just received this supposed leak of the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard disc...we will find out soon if it is real or not.

10:04 AM PST - And here we go, Jobs takes the stage and the crowd goes wild. Steve tells everyone to “take the day off,”—crowd laughs. There are over 4200 registered attendees from 48 countries, largest WWDC ever. There will be tons of Mac demos and tons of people to help you out. 1"4 ratio of Apple engineers to attendees.

10:05 AM PST - Now the issues at hand...the Mac. There have been over 1.3 million Mac shipped (tiny number compared to the number of PCs shipped, but this is a Mac event so I’ll be quiet). 75% have been Intel based Macs. Both the MacBook Pro and MacBook have had great success and as expect the MacBook has lead the lineup.

“Today for the presentation, I’ve asked three colleagues to help me out. Phil Schiller, Bertrand Serlet and Scott Forstall, VP of platform experience.”

10:09 AM PST - Schiller takes the stage: Mac Pro, same case as the old G5 but with 2 optical drives, Woodcrest processors (based on Core 2 duo processors), up to 3 Ghz, 4 MB shared L2 cache, 64 bit, etc. It is 3x faster than the Xeon processors. 1.6 to 2.1 times faster than the G5 quad. There is room for 4 hard drives (up to 2 TB). 4 PCI express slots, Firewire 800, USb 2.0,graphics slot at the bottom…

There will be one main configuration: Dual 2 2.66 dual core Xeons, 1 GB RAM, 667 MHz FB-DIMM. 250GB HD. Nvidia geforce 7300GT, 256 MB and 16x Superdrive for $2499. The previously fastest model was $800 more and Dell’s closest model cost $1000 more. Starts shipping today. They built this thing from scratch in 210 days, WOW!

10:20 AM PST - Xserve is a 1 rack unit server built by Xtech. The new Xserve will be up to 3 Ghz, built on Xeons - quad performance like the Mac Pro. 5x faster than its predicesor. $3293 for a Dell, $2999 for a Xserve.

10:26 AM PST - Job is back, now lets talk dirty—Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. 19 million users, 6 major releases with the last one being for Intel processors. Over 3000 applications run on PowerPC and Intel chips. Microsoft has been working on Vista for 5 whole years and each elements is just copying Mac OS.

10:28 AM PST - Bertrand: “Redmond start your photocopiers.” The jokes don’t stop, showing how Vista and Windows is just like OS X. MS has taken the same features and moved them around. Search boxes move from the top right to the bottom left. RSS has been in Safari and now hits IE7. iCal and Calendar all the same.

10:33 AM PST - Jobs is back on stage and tells us that some features will stay under wraps for now but here is a preview. “Money isn’t everything with R&D.” Major releases in Leopard:

1. Support for 64 bit applications - Can run 32 bit applications side-by-side with 64 bit applications


2. Time Machine - Only 26% of people backup files. Time Machine automatically backs up a music, folders, photos, everything. You change the file and it gets backed up. Of course you can restore it as well. You can backup a hard drive or just a file. If you ever rename the file or overwrite it you can now search via a time-line so you don’t have to loose it forever, hence the name Time Machine. This is great for finder and works with 3rd part apps as well. This looks really easy and a great life jacket for when you kills that important file. “Absolutely the best way to back up everything you have, store everything, and find what you need that you thought you didn’t”


3. Delivering a complete software package - Lots of new beta software will be finalized and ship with Leopard including Boot Camp (to load Windows on a Mac). Thus far 500,000 downloads. Also Front Row to access all of your media from your couch. There will be next generation versions of Front Row and Photo Booth.


4. Spaces / Virtual Desktop - It essentially creates a virtual space for clusters of apps to work together like Mail and Safari. You can drag information from one desktop to another.


5. Spotlight - One of the best features thus far in Tiger, you can search for files instantly. You will now be able to search other machines if you have permission. This includes other home computers as well as work servers.


6. Core animations - Core animation handles everything in between - color, size, opacity, etc. You can create whatever you want by zoom and flying a camera around. You can move items within their own layers.
7. Universal Access - “Mac OS X is so great that we want everyone to be able to use it. We’ve made major enhancements to Voice Over, Braille support, closed captioning support, faster, better navigation.” Text to speech sounds very good as well as the computer text. You can speed it up or slow it down.


8. Mail - New things including stationary (you can use photos to create HTML email), notes (will keep self emails out of your inbox and now in a notes box), to-do lists (set priority, alarms, any incoming message can be a To-do, any application can create these To-do’s...one system wide tracker)


9. Dashboard - Over 2,500 widgets available today.


• Developers will get Dashcode—an easy way to help the create the widgets you want and they have an itch to make. It has a CSS visual editor, RSS built in for updating content, Javascript, debugger...


• Users will now be able to turn any part of a webpage into a widget. With about 4 clicks from within Safari a user can create a Widget of a Dilbert Comic Strip, NYT best seller list, whatever you want.


10. iChat - Multiple logins, invisibility, animated icons, video recording, and tabbed chats. Photobooth effects in iChat. iChat Theatre, you can show iPhoto slideshows when talking. You can also change your background, like standing in the middle of Times Square or video background like being on a roller-coaster. Steve, “Life at apple is a roller-coaster.”

11:22 AM PST - These are the newest 10 core features of Mac OS X. They are all 64 bit. (iCal was not discussed but we hear it is moving to a multi-user platform like Google Calendar.) “We plan to get done with Leopard and ship it this coming spring. We think we’re going to get it out next spring.”

11:27 AM PST - Thats all, thanks for coming. There is no one more thing. In review we got the Mac Pro, the xServer server, and a preview of the top 10 apps in Leopard, due this spring. We are sure there will be lots more released in the near future.

Pugilists are not as interested in your case as in what’s in it. According to the FBI, Blackberries, iPods and GPS systems are the new, widely targeted devices.

Recent crime statistics show that motor vehicle theft last year remained nearly the same as in 2004. However, thefts of parts and accessories from vehicles has jumped 30% since the year 2000. Of course this isn’t hard to imagine, as tracking devices and radio-controlled ignition locks have become a standard, it would be pretty stupid for a thief to attempt to steal a vehicle. And, good thieves tend to not be stupid. Kleptomaniacs? Maybe. Stupid? Definitely not.

Stealing a GPS system on the other hand, proves to be as easy as taking candy from a baby.

“There’s no wires to cut or screw to pull out (as with) a radio,” says Capt. John O’Leary of the Brookline, Mass., police, which has investigated a rash of the thefts. “You just pop off the suction cups.”

Guess it’s time to buy your GPS system a GPS tracker.

Read [Reuters]

Targus seems to be the first to announce products that will finally keep your iPod safe. Featuring a keyless, three-digit combination, the locks are designed for use with iPods configured with a dock connector, including the 5G, nano, iPod Photo, 4G, iPod mini and 3G. There is nothing worse than setting your iPod down for a second or even just turning around to then come back and find your small piece of Apple heaven gone.

Ideal for teenagers, students, backpackers, and other users on-the-go, the Mobile Security Lock for iPod features a compact case that houses the retractable cable and combination lock. Users loop the cable around the strap of a backpack, purse or briefcase, or other stationary object, insert the combination lock through the opening in the case, and then attach the lock to their iPod for the ultimate in ease of use and mobile security. Available in black, the Mobile Security Lock for iPod measures 1.8” x 4.2” x 0.6” and weighs 2.8 oz. MSRP is $39.99.

Featuring a 6.5-foot galvanized black steel cable, the Desktop Security Lock secures the iPod to any stationary object and allows for ease of use.  The Desktop Lock is the ideal security solution for use in offices, dormitory rooms, libraries or corporate displays. The Desktop Security Lock for iPod is available in black and weighs 5.5 oz. MSRP is $29.99.

The Eyelet Security Lock is designed for use with any notebook cable lock to secure the iPod and img notebook together, providing ease of use and stationary security. The eyelet lock attaches to the iPod’s dock connector. The cable from the notebook lock is threaded through the Eyelet Lock’s pass-through loop and then fastened to the notebook to secure both devices simultaneously. Compact and flexible, the Eyelet Security Lock offers an affordable, convenient solution for individual or corporate users. Available in black and constructed of galvanized steel, the Eyelet Security Lock measures 5.5” x 1.25” x 0.5” and weighs 2 oz. MSRP is $19.99.

Read [Targus]

Yesterday Apple introduced a new U2 Special Edition iPod, but strangely enough it was nowhere to be found at the 5th Ave. NYC store. The new U2 iPod is based on the fifth generation 30GB iPod and holds up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos or over 75 hours of video. They key differences between this version and the non-U2 version are an all-black stainless steel enclosure, red Click Wheel and custom engraving of U2 band member signatures. U2 iPod customers will also receive 30 minutes of exclusive U2 video downloadable from the iTunes Music Store. The new U2 iPod is available immediately for $329 (or $30 more than the non-U2 version, attributing to the 30 min download).

With black iPods now commercially available, I beleive you need to be a die-hard U2 fan to consider this model, otherwise just spend your 30 bucks on the video. Or heck, save your money.

Read [Apple]

Expanding its iPod accessory line, Kensington is introducing the 4-in 1-Car Charger for iPod. Driving and your iPod naturally go together. Kensington will now let you Keep the sound moving with the Kensington 4-in-1 Car Charger for iPod that powers click wheel iPods, including iPod nano and iPod with video with a pass-through connector keeps FM Transmitters on, even while charging your iPod or other USB devices in your car.

Read [Kensington]

Apple has been selling iPods and Apple branded accessories in Best Buy for a few years now, and most recently added the Mac mini. But in an un-Apple like move, the company will start setting-up shop in your local Best Buy.  The new MacBooks, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini and iMac systems will all be showcased together on prominent Apple displays within the computer section at Best Buy. Two stores already have these kiosks and more are expected to added inventory.

This should not only get Apple into areas where there are no Apple store, but consumers will finally be able to compare PCs directly to Macs. I guess Apple is really confident about this whole Intel-Mac thing.

Read [ZD Net]
Image via [News.com]