touch

The search for a universal portable speaker design has been like hunting for UFOs or the Loch Ness Monster: Tons of sightings, but the real thing remains as elusive as ever. If anything, we should expect to see increasingly unusual attempts until the electronics industry figures it out, whether they're made for media players, mobile phones, or any other form of portable audio.

The latest: elephant ears. That, at least, is what the "LiveSpeakR" stereo dock looks like to us. The system wraps around the iPhone or iPod Touch, connected by USB port and accommodating both vertical … Read more

Well that's a new one. And here we thought we'd seen everything when it came to gadgets inflicted with Swarovski disease.

This bizarre creation from the U.K.'s Selfridges is a limited edition "designer" iPod Touch, according to Pocket-lint, though said designer is understandably anonymous. It's encrusted with black Swarovski crystals, hundreds of them, and forms the image of a diamond ring with silver and 24k-plated stones in the center as "a proposal 21st century style." It doesn't even have the excuse of being a Valentine's Day special, as it … Read more

A lot of folks were understandably upset when Apple released five new applications for the iPod Touch that currently exist on the iPhone (Mail, Stocks, Notes, Weather, and Maps), and then proceeded to charge $20 for the package. Now, they're even more upset. Apparently, Apple's insistence on selling Touch owners the $20 upgrade is sending some of them into an unending loop of refusal and redirection.

We've been discussing this a lot lately on the Buzz Out Loud podcast. It started when a caller told us that he plugged in his iPod Touch shortly after the new … Read more

If all personal media players are dominated by the largest touch screen they can handle--a la the iPhone and Touch--how much room is left for designs that distinguish them from the rest of the pack? Take the latest to join the fray, for example: Coby's MP-835.

As Chip Chick notes, it seemed like an obvious Touch competitor, while fellow Craver Donald Bell thought it looked a lot like the Samsung YP-P2. It's certainly clean enough, but the specs aren't anything to crow about--a 3-inch touch LCD, 2GB or 4GB internal storage, and the usual audio and video … Read more

Creative, one of the first MP3 player manufacturers to cross the 32GB threshold for flash-based MP3 players, has lowered the price of their 32GB Zen from $349 to $299. Could this price drop have anything to do with Apple's recently released 32GB iPod Touch? I wouldn't bet against it. After all, it sounds much more impressive to say that the Zen is a full $200 less than the competition. People like big round numbers, right? The Zen also has the advantage of SDHC memory expansion, offering a potential 48GB of solid state storage.

If you're looking for … Read more

Apple has been throwing a lot of love at their iPod Touch MP3 player recently. A few weeks back at Macworld, Steve Jobs announced that the iPod Touch would now include the iPhone's e-mail, stocks, weather, notepad, improved maps, and Safari Web clip features, as well as support for Apple's new iTunes movie rentals. As of yesterday, there's even a new 32GB model to lust over. With all these new developments, Apple's iPod Touch seems less and less like the iPhone's feature-deprived sibling, and more like the touch screen, high-capacity convergence player we all wanted … Read more

Super Tuesday isn't as super for us, plus two of us hate New Jersey, the iPhone and the iPod Touch get larger, and MySpace finally adds third-party app support.

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