Griffin Evolve Wireless iPod Speaker Dock

Only the best-sounding speakers ever earn our highest praise. Griffin’s Evolve wireless iPod quite speakers don’t reach that height, but their wireless capabilities are almost remarkable enough to overcome their middle-of-the-road sound.

In fact, we hesitated to call the Evolve “iPod speakers” because any analog stereo source can drive them; but Griffin clearly envisions its customers docking their iPods to the device so they can stream their music nearly anywhere in the house—and we do mean anywhere.

We were skeptical of Griffin’s range claim—150 feet? Riiight. So the first thing we did after charging the speakers’ batteries (more on that shortly) was take them into the double-walled media room at Maximum PC Lab North. The room has caused problems for many a 802.11n router, but it didn’t phase the Evolve in the least. In fact, the speakers didn’t as much as hiccup in any room we took them.

When we took them outside the house, we stared slack-jawed as they continued to play until we were 145 feet from the source. The stereo signal passed through an interior firewall and a fiber-cement exterior wall as if they weren’t event there. We didn’t get as much range on the other side of the house, because the signal had to penetrate multiple interior and one exterior wall, but our experience was only slightly less impressive.

The system sends and receives on the 900MHz band, which could cause problems with cordless phones that operate at that same frequency. We didn’t test this configuration because the cordless phones in use at our test location are based on the DECT standard and operate on the 1900MHz band. (But if you’re still relying on an old 900MHz cordless phone, it’s time to upgrade anyway.)

The two speaker cabinets are 5.5-inch sealed plastic cubes with magnetic shielding, a glossy black finish, and protective rubber trim. Wire grills protect the 3.5-inch drivers. A deeply recessed handle in the back of each makes them easy to pick up and tote around, one in each hand. There are power buttons on each, so you can shut them down to conserve the lithium-ion batteries when you’re finished listening. To recharge the batteries, you simply set them on their base—there’s no need for cables unless you want to use a source other than your iPod.

Best Ways to Charge an iPod Without an Outlet

While the use of iPods are increasing, different ways of powering them are also being brought to market. It will just be amazing to know how new innovative gadgets charge iPods!

Different Ways of Charging an iPod

iPods have become commonly widespread so perhaps this is the time we should start using other methods of charging them. With many other innovative and better options available to power our iPods, why should we only stick to wall outlets? You can charge your iPod without plugging it into the wall and here are the best ways of doing it.

1. Solio charger

The solio charger gets power from sun or power mains to charge its battery. You can charge your iPod with Solio at almost the same rate as Apple iPod charger. The most amazing feature about this product is that it can store power to charge your iPod for the whole year! If you want 40 minutes of music, a charge of just one hour is enough.

2. Swing and charge

A gadget has been introduced for golfers that can not only prevent some injuries but also charges your iPod by extracting the kinetic energy of the swing. When the gadget is swung in the air a certain number of times, the power captured can be utilized to charge an iPod for a few hours.

3. Dance charge

This is something that one might not believe, but it is indeed true that Orange has revealed a belt with an integrated charger that generates power as you dance. The belt converts chemically fueled twitches into electrical current using the magnet and weight system. This current then can be used to charge an iPod during the dance.

The 4.25 x 2.5-inch, 180 gram elastic belt is great for frequent dancers who wish to charge their iPods during their dance routines or ceremonies.

4. iYo-yo charger

iYoyo has a small Lithium-ion battery inside that is charged during the play. What happens is that as the yoyo moves up and down, its Li-ion battery builds up charge. Once it is charged up, you can connect your iPod to it for charging.

5. Hand exercise charger

Get more from your regular exercising activity. Charge your iPod’s battery when you are doing hand exercise with a gripper. This is a nice concept but you would have to be dedicated to your iPod to stick with it, while you do the exercise.

6. Mini Kin Green generator

You are on your way out and it is windy outside and your iPod has run out of charge, so what would you do? Worry not because now you can charge your iPod with Mini Kin Green Generator, which uses wind energy to power your iPod. You can easily strap it almost anywhere such as your bicycle, arm, car, etc.

iPod Storage - the Capacity for Storing Songs

One of the hottest commodities people have these days are their iPods. There are many sizes and types of iPods out there, and many people wonder how many songs a 4GB iPod can hold, or even a 16GB iPod. I have created a reference guide to help you find the correct iPod for your personal needs.

The Apple iPod has evolved over the years since it was introduced to the world. Since then, it has grown into a variety of forms; the iPod Shuffle, Nano, Classic and Touch. With these different models come a variety of sizes and song capacities. So before you go and purchase your iPod, this guide will show you how many songs each model can hold.

How many songs can a 4GB iPod hold? - Which iPod?

For starters, it is important to realize how song capacity works with iPods. A gigabyte is basically equal to about 500 songs. So if you are purchasing an iPod that is 4GB in size, then you will be able to hold about 1,000 songs. Currently the only iPod that comes in a 4GB size is the iPod Shuffle.

iPod Shuffle

The iPod Shuffle is the least expensive of all of the Apple iPods on the market. It is the most basic iPod and holds the smallest amount of music. There are currently two types of iPod shuffles to choose from, the 2GB and the 4GB sized iPod Shuffles.

The 2GB iPod Shuffle will hold about 500 songs. A 4GB iPod can hold about 4,000 songs on it.

iPod Nano

The iPod Nano is the next step up from the iPod Shuffle. Not only does the Nano play video, but it comes with a larger capacity for music. The two iPod Nanos offered are 8GB and 16GB models. With the 8GB iPod Nano, you will be able to put about 2,000 songs on it. With the 16GB iPod Nano, you will be able to hold about 4,000 songs.

iPod Classic

The iPod Classic is the giant of all the basic iPods. What I mean by basic iPods is that it has the scroll wheel and video screen, unlike the iPod Touch, which is completely touch screen oriented. The iPod Classic also holds the most music of any Apple iPod on the market.

The iPod Classic comes in a single monstrous size of 160GB. This iPod has the capacity to hold a whopping 40,000 songs. This should hold your music library for quite some time without you ever having to worry about it getting full. With that said, it also is the most expensive iPod of any of the spin wheel styled iPods on the market today.

iPod Touch

The iPod Touch is the flashiest iPod of the four types currently on the market. It resembles the iPhone in almost every aspect except for the phone feature. The iPod Touch, like the Nano and Shuffle, comes in different sizes. You have the choice of a 8GB, 32GB and 64GB iPod. The 8GB iPod, like the Nano, will hold roughly 2,000 songs, checking in just under at 1750 songs. The 32GB sized iPod Touch will hold about 7,000 songs. Finally, the 64GB sized iPod Touch will hold about 14,000 songs.

The price increases quite a bit as you go up in size, so make sure you know how much space you need before purchasing your iPod.

If you are going to buy a new iPod, it's important to make sure you look at the song capacity for different iPod models. iPods come in many different sizes, colors and styles, so choosing the right one is important. If you have a huge music library, then it may be a good idea to select one of the larger sizes. If you are a casual music listener, you may be happy with a smaller sized iPod. The choice may even save you some money. Apple provides you with so many options that you can find the iPod that fits your needs perfectly.

I hope this guide helps you answer the question; how many songs can a 4GB iPod can hold? I hope it even allows you to distinguish the size differences between the larger sizes and find the best iPod for your needs.

Apple Introduces The Game-Changing iPad

Today Apple announced the iPad, a new tablet device aimed to fill the gap between a mobile phone and notebook. The iPad offers a similar interface to the iPod and iPhone, but blown up to take advantage of the increased size and screen resolution. Priced at $499, is this the netbook replacement we have all been waiting for? We're going out on a limb and saying, YES.

Apple iPad Specifications:

• 1GHz Apple A4 Processor
• 9.7-inch Capacitive Multi-Touch IPS Display (1024x768 resolution)
• 16GB, 32GB, 64GB Storage Configurations
• 10 hours of battery life, one month of standby
• 802.11n Wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, 3G WWAN ($15 for 250MB, $30 for unlimited)
• Compass and Accelerometer
• 0.5” Thick
• $499 Starting Price (3G models will cost $130 extra)
• Weight: 1.5lbs

iPod and iPhone software support comes straight of the box with the iPad working natively with all applications. Software designed to run on the smaller screens will be displayed in 1x mode or scaled up to fill the entire screen. Apple also released a new SDK for developers so we should see most applications supporting the full resolution of the iPad very soon. The iPad also offers redesigned versions of the primary applications, including a cooler looking iTunes store, Calendar, better email support, and a much larger finger-friendly keyboard.

A new application being introduced today to compete in the Kindle space is iBooks. Offering a storefront to purchase some of the latest books, we see Apple isn’t holding anything back and plans on going full into the eReader space with the new iPad. iBooks will offer a clean reading interface with multiple fonts and font sizes to pick from. A productivity suite is also being introduced offering Keynote, Pages, and Numbers (or PowerPoint, Word, and Excel in Microsoft Office terminology). Each iWork application will be offered for $9.99 ... not included with the purchase of the iPad.

The biggest surprise with the new Apple iPad which very well may be a game changer is the inclusion of 3G support and pricing structure. Normally most notebooks with WWAN built-in require service contracts with plans starting around $60 per month. The Apple iPad will offer two contract-free data plans ... 250MB per month for $14.99 and unlimited data for $30. That right there is what will change the entire pricing structure that most cell companies go with when they deal with notebooks. If Apple can offer these plans at this cost with ATT, more companies will be pushing for lower rates—without contract—for their products.

Apple iPad Pricing
iPad Version	16GB	32GB	64GB
Wi-Fi	$499	$599	$699
Wi-Fi + 3G	$629	$729	$829

Overall I can't wait to see the Apple iPad in person. This device will probably cannibalize current sales of the iPod Touch and MacBook Air with its low starting price and it will easily influence other data providers to start lowering their pricing schemes for wireless broadband. As Jerry mentioned in our Apple iSlate editorial yesterday, many of the things we mentioned it would offer came true. It is based off a mobile operating system, uses non-traditional netbook hardware, and priced well below $999. Apple says that consumers can expect to buy the iPads with Wi-Fi only as soon as March. iPads with Wi-Fi and built-in 3G will be coming a month later. Stay tuned for more information on the Apple iPad and our review that will be coming as soon as it is released in stores.

The new iPad runs the iPhone OS -- and that's the problem

By Jay Garmon

No matter how excited you are about the 9.7-inch HD display, capacitive multitouch interface, or staggeringly cheap 3G data plans promised by Apple's iPad, there's one feature that's billed as a benefit but may prove to be more of a bug: The iPad runs the iPhone OS. On the surface this seems like shrewd platform cross-compatibility, but do you really want to pay between $499 and $829 (plus data plan) for a device that actually does less -- as in no built-in camera, no phone -- than your iPhone?

While you may be smiling inwardly at the notion of getting all your existing iPhone apps ported to your iPad for free (you've already paid for them), there's a question of whether anyone really wants to run apps designed for a phone-sized screen on a tablet-sized display. During Steve Jobs's demo today, we saw this phenomenon in action. Either the iPhone app ran at native resolution as a floating block inside a lot of blank screen real estate, or the iPad upscaled the app to its full screen resolution, presenting you with ridiculously oversized icons and buttons. If one could run multiple iPhone apps side by side on the iPad, that would be worth talking about, but that brings me to the second problem with building an iPhone OS-based tablet: No multithreading.

The iPhone OS can't run background processes. It can't have two apps open at the same time. You can't chat while watching a video. You can't read the New York Times while listening to Pandora. You can't toggle between a word processor and a spreadsheet, or a Web browser and a presentation. Thus, while you can get an iPad version of iWork for $30 ($9.99 each for Pages, Numbers and Keynote), you won't be using any of those apps simultaneously -- which is how many of us work best. Here's betting that most iPad adopters will want to rebuy most of their apps in iPad versions, which makes me wonder why the iPad couldn't get its own multithreaded OS to begin with.

The other major drawback to the iPad's iPhone OS-basis is a lack of support for Adobe Flash. I'll accept not being able to render highly interactive Flash Web sites on my phone, but on a high-end media consumption device like the iPad I should be able to open every Web site on the planet. This Flash incompatibility also bans any Web video player that isn't Quicktime or Youtube. Sorry budding filmmakers, but there will be no Vimeo or Hulu or Yahoo Video for you on the iPad. Jobs himself showed a failed Flashplayer icon during his Web surfing demo today, so clearly Steve isn't perturbed by this feature limitation, which won't be solved until HTML5 reaches full adoption -- months or years from now.

On the bright side, the iPad running the iPhone OS does mean that the new iBook store will be cross-compatible with the iPhone, which is great news for iPhone owners. The iBook store will sell ePub versions of books from major publishers, which means digital reading just got a boost, if only because iBooks will appear on the world's most popular mobile phone. That said, I don't expect the iBookstore to truly revolutionize publishing, both because the $14.99 price point suggested for iBook titles is still too high, and because I can't rip my existing dead-tree books to the platform. While almost anyone can copy a CD into iTunes easily, almost no one can scan in paperbacks to iBooks with any speed or grace. At $14.99 each I'm not going to rebuy all my favorite books for the iPad.

Now that the iPad SDK is in the wild, I expect developers to create new and innovative applications and content that truly take advantage of the iPad form factor, display, and interface. Until those iPad-native apps show up, however, I'll reserve judgment as to whether the iPad is the successor to the glorious iPhone, or the ignominious Newton.

Readers Respond: Apple iPad a Boom or a Bust?

You've got to hand it to Steve Jobs. If there's one person on the planet who knows how to generate buzz over new technology it's the man in charge over at Cupertino. Apple's announcement of the iPad was probably the single most talked about piece of tech news during the month of January. Tablet PC enthusiasts have been asking for an Apple tablet for years and Steve Jobs finally delivered one ... more or less.

As we covered the launch of the iPad last week we couldn't help but notice some potential problems. First, the iPad isn't a tablet MacBook like many people hoped. The iPad runs a modified version of the iPhone OS and is designed to fill the gap between a MacBook and an iPhone. Think of the iPad as Apple's netbook: a mobile internet companion that provides more functionality than a smartphone but less computing power than a full notebook PC.

That being the case, the obvious question is ... will consumers buy it?

As of this morning a total of 2,116 readers responded to our survey about the Apple iPad ... and it looks like opinions are pretty evenly split. About 25 percent of respondents think the iPad will be a flop, 25 percent say it will easily attract a following, one third of our readers say it's "nothing to write home about" while just over 15 percent think the iPad is "a sure hit."

One thing is certain: The announcement of the iPad last week left a lot of consumers wanting to know more. Is it meant to be an ebook reader? Is it a portable web browser? Is it just a larger iPod Touch? Is it a mobile digital photo frame? Is it a fully functional slate tablet? The answer is simple: Yes. At least that is what Apple wants you to think. The marketing blitz over Apple's new "media tablet" seems to be working as the iPad even made a surprise appearance at the Grammy awards thanks to Steven Colbert.

However, the buzz surrounding the iPad isn't entirely positive if the discussion forums here at NotebookReview.com are any indication. Most of our forum members are concerned about the limited hardware and software on the iPad. Forum member MGS2392 summarized many complaints by saying: "The hardware isn't too bad (just about netbook level), but the software is what holds it back. I really don't see the need to run mobile apps on a bigger screen."

Our audience seems pretty divided over the price of the iPad as well. Some people think the $499 starting price is reasonable for what you get while many others think $399 netbooks offer much more value for the money. Forum user Skyshade had this to say about the cost of the iPad: "All I can say is: Thanks, Apple. Somehow you made Sony VAIO X's pricing sound reasonable."

At the end of the day the jury is still out on Apple's latest mobile device. The iPad offers consumers a great deal in terms of a mobile entertainment device, but we'll have to see what software becomes available for the iPad before we know if this tablet offers any additional productivity compared to an iPhone.

Let us know what you think. Head over to our discussion forum and make sure your voice is heard.