Recently in iPod Category

  Digital Hub, an Apple Premium Reseller and Gold Service Provider, recently had a grand opening of its latest branch in Robinson’s Place, Manila. Joining in the fun and celebration were the supportive gang of Philmug and Podcentral members who were treated to free food and drinks as well as a raffle of various gadget goodies. Digital Hub not only provides consumers with a wide variety of Apple products and 3rd party accessories to choose from, but also have equally competent and friendly personnel to assist you with your inquiries and technical questions. Now, Apple fanboys and those switching have more options available to them as to where they can purchase their system from, and as they say, comptetition breeds better service. Things can only get better for the local Mac community.   Digital Hub is owned and operated by Digits Trading. They're the same guys behind the successful Digital Walker chain of stores and the ones responsible for getting everyone hooked on Crumpler. This new branch is only the third for Digital Hub. The other two are located in the Theatre Mall, Greenhills in San Juan and Robinson’s Forum in Mandaluyong City.

Axis Distribution, a local Apple reseller, is taking a novel approach in bringing Mac products to the greater tech-savvy community, the students. The De La Salle-College of St. Benilde is the first campus to host the Switch Creative Center in their School of Design and Arts building which hopes to better expose students to the world of the Mac. In this short video interview provided by Inquirer.net VDO, Benjamin Loo, president of Axis Distribution, explains what Switch is all about and their future plans with the store. Through these campus-based stores, students get to try out Mac products in a more familiar environment as opposed to mall-based outlets where suspicious and somewhat intimidating sales personnel hound curious on-lookers. Greater exposure will hopefully result in better sales. It’s quite unique and a first in the Philippines, but Apple has been known to be a supporter of the educational system. In the US, they give discounts to schools, teachers and students who purchase their products. Locally, Ynzal is doing the same thing. Switch also has plans to implement a similar scheme in the future. Another Switch Center is opening soon in the UP North Science and Technology Center which is currently still being developed at this time. As more students get the chance to become more familiar and accustomed to Mac products, Apple might just win the hearts of the future generation. Now, if only the prices were a bit more affordable, switching wouldn’t be so difficult.

The possibilities are indeed endless. Some dudes have managed to run the popular first-person shooter game Quake 3 on the iPod Touch which allows for on-the-go gaming madness. Thanks to the Touch's built-in Wi-fi feature, you can likewise play two players on it (provided of course you can find someone with a Quake-running iPod Touch which I highly doubt). Navigation through the game makes us of the accelerometer of the Touch  and shooting is done by tapping on the screen. It'll be a bit tricky at first, but I pretty sure, once you get the hang of things, it'll surely be addictive. I don't expect this to become available through legal channels anytime soon, but with this proof of concept, maybe Apple would want to tie-up with id Software in the near future as this could be a lucrative partnership in the long run.

I guess it really pays to be David Beckham. Not only are you married to one of the hottest babes of the most popular girl group of the 90’s, earn millions from endorsements, and play the sport you love; you also get a one-of-a-kind iPod Touch on your 100^th cap. While other athletes get to bask in the limelight for a few seconds for their record-breaking achievement, David Beckham gets to go home with something more useful than just a commemorative plaque. Given to him by his teammates, this 32-GB Touch is customized in gold with the England logo and his name engraved at the back. It’s said to have cost around £600 which is probably just pocket-change for such professional athletes. It makes me wonder, though, if he’ll ever carry it around with him considering that with the crafty and sly hands of thief, he can loss not only an iPod, but more importantly, his 100^th cap gift as well. Oh well, with all the money he’s making, he can just order another one if he wishes. Heck, he can probably get one to bring with him everyday and keep that one at home.

This is the day early adopters and those with low EQ have been dreading. Apple has announced the release of the beefed-up models of the iPod Touch and iPhone that comes with more storage capacity.
 
The iPod Touch, for its part, now comes with 32 GB which can approximately store up to 7000 songs (128-kbps AAC format) or 40 hours of video. With this release, it now out-weights my iPod 5^th Gen 30 GB by just a couple more gigs. Safe to say, I’m now really tempted to get me a Touch.

The iPhone likewise doubles up on its capacity now offering 16 GB of storage.
This is probably in anticipation for the SDK release scheduled this month, but the question now is, which model will be making its debut in Asia this year?

Rumor has it that a 3G capable version will be released in Japan, but how about the Philippines? Even if it won’t be the 3G version, the 16 GB version is surely a welcome treat if it’s the pioneering model in our country.   

So don't be surprised if there's a sudden surge of pre-owned iPhones and Touches hitting the market one of these days as these new models will surely drive fanboys for a quick upgrade.  

Apple recently released a firmware update for the 5G and 5.5G iPod line which caused a bit of a stir due to reports that upon installing the latest update, the contents of their iPod were completely wiped out.
 
The problem, as some suggest, is due to iTunes which should be version 7.5 when installing the 1.2.2 firmware update, but others refute this claim saying that they themselves, having used lower version of iTunes, were able to update their firmware without a hitch. Others, on the other hand, point the blame on Windows saying that if you’re not using Windows XP with SP 2, chances are you’ll face the same dilemma. While there are no concrete evidence pointing to one or the other as being the true culprit, we know this much: installing the 1.2.2 firmware update via iTunes 7.5 on a Windows XP with SP 2 machine will not result in any problems.

 

All settled then, right? Well, not quite. I am qualified to update my iPod’s firmware based on the criteria I mentioned above, but to my surprise, iTunes is not detecting the availability of a firmware update saying that my 1.2.1 firmware is the latest. Holy crap! What happened to 1.2.2? Did Apple suddenly decide to pull it out due to reports of it erasing content on updated iPods? Well, one things for sure, 1.2.2 has only become more controversial.

iPod Touch and iPhone users are gaining in number, and it looks like there’s no stopping the jailbreak-wagon anytime soon. With Apple setting February next year as the target date for their iPhone/Touch SDK release, developers are still having a field day in creating various unofficial applications for Steve’s hi-tech toys. Someone even developed local icons for Filipino Touch/iPhone users.

This is why I strongly back the idea of open-source or at the very least, the availability of SDK tools for developers. This will pave the way for more applications to be developed that will cater to everyone’s needs across the different regions all over the world. More people with technical skills will be allowed to create software that can address the needs of individuals within their location and not wait for someone from the other side of the globe to come out with a version that doesn’t quite exactly fit the bill.

By Adel Gabot For the paranoid among us: Those of you who've bit the bullet and sprung for an iPod Touch (or an iPhone) and are concerned about the screen issue that has come up (faulty rendering of blacks and all) and can't tell if your new toy is one of the defective ones, or if you're just worried about stuck or dead pixels like we all are, there is a free online test that you can use to detect any problems. (Would that there were more of these free and useful things around, huh?) Just pop on over to AppleServedUp, and run the two sets of test they offer for free. The first tests for stuck or dead pixels, which they accomplish by playing a video file that runs through the gamut of colors full screen so that you can examine for offending dots. You'd be surprised at what you might discover. The second batch for the Negative Black Problem runs you through a cycle of tests, the first showing you a boxed with a slightly lighter shade of black over the darker background; if there is no discernible difference, you might have a problem. The second test is the Greyscale Gradient Test that shows you a couple of sets of gradients that might not be visible if you got a lemon. The third one is the Faulty Black Aura test which shows you the cover of Jay-Z's The Black Album, which messes up if you got a crappy unit. Try it out.

For those who have patiently been waiting for the iPod Touch, we are happy to announce that PowerMac Center has this latest baby in stock already. However, before you go spending your hard-earned money over this gorgeous multimedia player, why not head on over to iLounge and read their little piece about the Ten Things You Need to Know about the iPod Touch. They give you a run down on some little tidbits about this new iPod that can easily be overlooked and might otherwise make you think twice before getting yourself one.

On a personal note, one thing that’s really enticing about the Touch (and the iPhone) is the Internet experience it’s capable of providing. However, as I quickly found out during the product briefing, the Touch isn’t capable of downloading files to the device. Ouch! While it does provide an unmatched Internet experience, it still has its limitations which, quite frankly, turned me off despite its overwhelming beauty. So for now, I’ll probably sit this one out and wait for the next gen to come out.

I'm currently reviewing Apple's new iPod Touch, the so-called neutered iPhone, and while that's technically correct, I'm finding it to be a unique and completely different creature in and of itself. In fact I'm typing this on one online from a movie theater while watching the Pacquiao fight live. The many preliminary bouts are a bit long and wearying. Bored, I pulled out the iPod and found a free signal labelled Gateway Cinema (why they'd have one here is beyond me) and began surfing. The mere fact I can do this on an iPod and not a laptop or smartphone or Blackberry is no less short of amazing. That this is even doable underscores the usefulness of such a device that is neither a laptop or a smartphone. It's way handy and convenient for times like these so you can surf, blog or email easily anywhere with wifi with just this one gadget. I'm liking this thing more and more and I'm beginning to think that its most significant weakness - not being a phone - is actually its greatest strength. More in the forthcoming review. In the meantime I have to go. Manny's fight is about to start. Kyla's singing.