Apple fans remember October 23, 2001 as the debut of the first ever iPod. Turns out right on the day of its launch, people were already dissing what’s easily Apple’s most successful product line as “just another MP3 player”. Get ready to feel smug folks, for hindsight always is, and dismissive thoughts were saved for posterity at the MacRumors forums:

elitemacor: “iPoop… iCry. I was so hoping for something more.”
WeezerX80: “Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where’s the Newton?!”
Pants: “hey – heres an idea Apple – rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, …read more

Under fire for covering up incidents of exploding iPhones and iPods, Apple asserts these were caused by “external forces”.

In a statement to the AFP, Apple says ” To date, there are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits… The iPhones with broken glass that we have analysed to date show that in all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone.”
In non-marketese layman-friendly terms, Apple is characterizing these incidents as isolated, most likely caused by user carelessness. What’s interesting …read more

To be fair, it’s Apple’s status that are causing people to pay attention, when they hear stories about iPods and iPhones exploding and injuring their owners. But the company’s stance of offering refunds in exchange of keeping quiet also merits notice.
At first glance, Apple is protecting its bottom line—which any publicly-listed company has a legal an obligation to do, given it’s responsibility to shareholders to increase share value and dividends. What I personally find disturbing about reports requiring silence in exchange for refunds is that the company wants to be held unaccountable for obvious design faults with its products. Something …read more

When the Palm Pre debuted, many made noise over its ability to sync with iTunes. The talk mainly centered on how Palm figured this out, and what actions Apple would take.

So it comes as no surprise that the latest iTunes update basically “disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre.” Palm’s reaction to this isn’t clear yet, but here are some possibilities:
Palm Sues Apple. Given Apple’s dominance of the portable music industry, could Palm’s lawyers argue that Apple is being anti-competitive?
Someone hacks iTunes to restore Pre compatibility. Or simply comes out with a program that fools any …read more

According to Gearlog, at least two companies are working on earphones designed for the iPod shuffle. Like the earphones that come with the music player, these planned products feature playback controls right on the earphone cords.

If nothing else, the Shuffle’s inline control interface definitely isn’t the same as that used in iPhones and other iPods. The Griffin SmartTalk inline iPod headphone controls pictured here don’t work, for example, in the 3rd-gen Shuffle. They have the same triple-ringed version of the headphone plug and nearly identical functionality, but do nothing.
-BBG\
The silence from the other side is deafening: Could it be that, for the first time, those Apple-can’t-do-wrong fanboys have nothing to say?

To be fair, no one can fault Apple for making their new iPod shuffle as small as a clip (1.8″ x 0.7″ x 0.3″), nor can they call out the company for providing 4GB of storage. And while the VoiceOver feature, which reads out song or playlist names, uses imperfect synthesized text, it’s still a great way to make up for a missing display.

Well duh. That makes sense, like Steve Ballmer banning Google and iPods for his kids. Then again, Gates and Ballmer could be missing out on crucial market research opportunities.

Check it out, a video detailing how iTouchMidi works:

(itouchmidi.com, via Gearfuse)

BudFits are just what I like in a gadget invention. Simple, cheap and solving one single problem with an Apple iPod accessory.

Taken from the official BudFits website:
iPod earbuds have reached iconic status and are the outward symbol to the world that you own an iPod instead of a generic digital media player. Yet iPod earbuds can be uncomfortable and fall out of many people’s ears during physical activities like exercise and extreme sports. The solution… BudFits.
Apparently these little gadgets are snap-on earpieces that fit Apple’s earbuds and will prevent them from falling out of your ears.
For for less then …read more