ipod

The new iPod Nano will please people who've been craving a larger display. But those who want to wear one as a watch are out of luck.

Apple said today that it wanted to "reinvent the product," and it's done just that. The new Nano sports a 2-inch, multitouch screen, almost resembling a traditional MP3 player. The latest model is also 40 percent thinner than the sixth-generation version.

A new volume rocker on the side lets users play, pause, and scroll through the music, while the built-in FM tuner includes a live pause feature.

The new … Read more

If it looks like an iPhone and walks like an iPhone, it must be an iPhone, right? Yet the iPod Touch isn't quite there.

Sure, you can install a voice-over-IP app like Fring, Line2 (a personal favorite), or Skype and make calls over Wi-Fi, but you still have to plug in a headset or rely on the speakerphone -- you can't hold the iPod up to your head and talk into it like you do an iPhone.

Not yet, anyway. Indiegogo project MorphCase lets you use your iPod Touch like an iPhone, effectively replacing the need for a … Read more

The iPhone and iPad get all the ink nowadays, but I think the iPod Touch is one of the single greatest gadgets ever built. It does nearly everything an iPhone can, but with a thinner form factor and without the monthly fees.

Today only, and while supplies last, Woot Sellout has the refurbished current-generation iPod Touch 8GB for $139.99, plus $5 for shipping. I'm pretty sure that's the lowest price I've seen on this model.

Update: Wow, my batting average is a disaster this week. Woot has already sold out. My apologies, cheeps.

Update No. 2: … Read more

Earlier this week I did a quick article on what Apple would name its next iPhone. Of the more than 4,000 readers who voted in our poll, 40 percent thought the next iPhone would be called "The New iPhone." Coming in second was "iPhone 5" with 34 percent of the vote.

If the rumors are true -- and there are plenty of indications they are -- Apple will not only be introducing a new iPhone in September, but a smaller iPad as well, despite Steve Jobs' apparent disdain for smaller tablets.

For a while, tech … Read more

Ouch.

Is there a worse feeling than seeing your iPod Touch smack the ground and hearing the unmistakable crack of glass?

Just one: picking up the iPod and realizing the screen is shattered top-to-bottom. That was one expensive attack of gravity.

This happened to my daughter not long ago, resulting in a fourth-gen iPod Touch that, remarkably, still worked, but really wasn't usable anymore owing to the spider web of cracked glass.

As the household cheapskate, I figured it would be cheaper to repair the unit than buy a new one. After all, a current 32GB iPod Touch sells … Read more

Sony pulled off a surprise yesterday when it added the Android 4.0-powered F800 and E470 to its popular and long-running Walkman series of personal media players.

It isn't Sony's first Walkman to run Android (in January the company unveiled the Z series) nor is Sony the first company to use Android for media players. Samsung and Archos, for example, have used the OS, with the Galaxy Player 4.2 being Sammy's most recent example.

Yet, for all the success that Android smartphones have reaped, there are no top-selling media players running Google's OS at its … Read more

Before the launch of iCloud, sharing an Apple ID linked to iTunes or the App Store was straightforward -- you would simply log in to the same account across all devices and you'd avoid having to purchase an app more than once.

With the launch of iCloud, users are still able to share one main "iTunes account" (if you will) and still have their own iCloud account linked to the rest of the iOS services. Although, not many people realize how straightforward it is.

When initially setting up a new device, go ahead and log in using … Read more

It's a completely new way to capture pictures that moves the process of focus, composition, and even interpretation from the photographer to the viewer. Ren Ng is the founder of startup Lytro in Silicon Valley, where they are building this new kind of camera and new kind of mindset to go with it.

The things Lytro exposes in consumer photography have always been just a little out of the grasp of the mainstream photographer. By making them simple, this company's technology could popularize some of the finer points of photography like depth of field and perspective control. Biggest challenges? Definitely the smartphone and the flight to convenience, social connectivity and low commitment that it represents. … Read more

When Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers partner Mary Meeker was asked about Facebook's IPO during an interview at the D10 Conference today, she pointed to a key problem: that Facebook's shares were trading on the private market at $104 billion valuation before the company went public.

Actually, they shares traded even higher than that as the anticipation and hype surrounding the giant IPO neared.

Facebook was the most active stock on SecondMarket, an exchange for shares in private companies. And plenty of hedge funds and other big money managers were scooping up shares there -- often at prices far … Read more