Hijinks Inc.

Category: New Products

  • Why your iPod won’t charge (and what to do about it)

    Why your iPod won’t charge (and what to do about it)

    Show of hands if you’ve seen this message on your iPhone or iPod touch:

    “Charging is not supported with this accessory”

    Why not?  The music and video still works… why wouldn’t charging be supported?  It upset me too.  I tried connecting it to an older Alpine stereo and it flashed me the error.

    The short and sweet of it?  Previous to the 3G iPhone and 2G iPod touch, the pin-out configuration of the connection used a FireWire standard for the location of the charging pin.  The newest generation switched to using a USB pin-out standard, and low and behold, the charging pin is different!

    Enter the Scosche passPORT charging adapter.  The $20 adapter (Apple actually sells it, as well as many other retailers) switches the charging pin-out, but allows the rest of the data stream to pass-through.  However, there are limitations… this from Scosche’s website:

    “The charging adapter is specifically designed to fix the charging error associated with several iPod and iPhone accessories. If the accessory you are intending to use does not initially support the audio or video functionality of the iPod or iPhone , the charging adapter will not enable these features.”

    What bothers me is there had to be some poor tech from Scosche who took this call:

    Customer: “Hi, I’ve got a problem.”

    Tech: “What can I help you with?”

    Customer: “Well, I bought your charging adapter for my iPod touch, but I can’t see the video on my TV!”

    Tech: “Are you connecting your iPod to your home theater system?”

    Customer: “No, I’ve got it connected to a wall-mount charging adapter.”

    Tech: “Great, now we need a disclaimer…”

  • Kevin Rose says revamp of iPod line coming, and soon

    Behold the new iPod Nano! At least, that’s what Kevin Rose thinks. In a post on his blog Rose cites several rumors, including:

    – Revamp of entire iPod line.
    – Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign.
    – iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
    – iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.
    – iTunes 8.0 (“it’s a big update w/new features”).
    – All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.

    Crazy? Well, rumors of a Zune-like iPod have been floating around for a few weeks now, and Kevin’s comments would lend credence to the theory. There are a couple interesting things about this set of rumors.

    First and foremost, the price cuts. If Apple rethinks their pricing structure based on a $199 iPhone, can we expect a $99 Nano? And second, if the announcement window Kevin presents is correct, Apple will be celebrating the 1st anniversary of the 3rd gen Nano by replacing it with the 4th gen version. Either the fatty didn’t get them the sales they expected, or Apple is counting on their customers to buy a new iPod every time they release a new generation. I’d say a little of both is true.

    If Kevin Rose is correct, expect Apple’s shares to plummet as investors cry bitterly about the price cuts, then recommit their souls to Steve Jobs as Apple rakes in disgusting amounts of money this holiday season.

  • .Me – Apple’s missing link

    Except it’s not.

    It’s a nice thought that the revamp of .Mac will yield a brilliant and usable service to connect everything in your digital life, but the likelihood of that happening just isn’t very high.

    Colin Pape of Seeking Alpha thinks that Mobile Me (or .Me as some are calling it) is going to be the magic bullet for Apple, and it will suddenly tie all their products together. I’m sure that’s what Apple is aiming for, but they’ve neglected .Mac for so long that I’m not sure an overhaul and a new name is going to be enough to breathe life into it.

    On the other hand, some rumors suggest that Apple will be turning .Me over to Google for a portion of it’s revenue. Though with Steve’s ego, I find this hard to believe. It’s a nice idea though, imagine a Google run service that would allow for unlimited email/file storage and instant syncing of your contacts/calendar/photos/email/music from your phone (iPhone or Android) to the web, and your home or office computer.

    While the promise of an easy solution all in one place is nice, why pay for it? Nothing .Mac currently offers is worth the yearly fee, you can easily find free or cheap alternatives to most everything it offers.

    Only time will tell I suppose. I’d be more than happy to be wrong on this, the more innovative products and services Apple launches the better.

    [ In the interest of full disclosure, I currently hold stock in Apple ]

  • Multi-Touch + ThinkPad = Drool

    X Tablet

    You see something like the new ThinkPad X Tablet and you just want to touch it, right? I know I do. Apparently though, that’s exactly what Lenovo is expecting you to do.

    In addition to being a pen tablet, the screen also sports a MultiView/MultiTouch interface, allowing you to “use your finger or the pen to interact with the notebook, open applications, etc.”

    Check out the full specs and features here.

    No word on how sensitive or precise the touch interface is, but I’ll be looking into this further… stay in touch.

  • equinux releases TubeStick hybrid

    On May 1st, equinux released their new TubeStick hybrid for the modest price of $129. The TubeStick hybrid is a new TV receiver for the Mac, designed exclusively for North America. It features two receivers: One to watch digital over-the-air HDTV broadcasts and one for digital HDTV (QAM) cable or regular analog cable TV.

    It’s a pretty sweet piece of hardware, that actually makes me wish I watched TV, just so I could buy one.

    $129 (with free shipping) will get you the following…

    • USB 2.0 Stick for ATSC, Analog and Cable TV
    • TV Software “The Tube 2”
    • Printed quick start guide
    • Extensive PDF manual
    • Antenna with magnetic base
    • External antenna adapter
    • Break-out Cable (S-Video; Composite)
    • USB extension cable

    The TV software “The Tube 2” seems pretty robust, offering a timeshift buffer that allows users to go back and record a show from the moment they started watching it. It also includes automatic synchronization with iTunes, so as soon as you stop a recording it converts it to your preset format and adds it to your iTunes library.

    Another great feature is their free TubeToGo service, it allows you to upload clips to a web gallery and view them on your iPhone, iPod touch, or another computer. It also includes the ability to add, remove and even schedule recordings.

    Turns out the TubeStick also ships with a Windows driver, and works with Windows Media Center. Not bad at all.