When Apple released the 1.1.4 firmware to the iPhone and iPod Touch-owning public earlier in the week, there was much excitement over who was going to be the first to jailbreak it. Well, it turns out it was simple enough to tweak the 1.1.3 jailbreaking apps to do the job; Apple didn’t really make any […]

When Apple released the 1.1.4 firmware to the iPhone and iPod Touch-owning public earlier in the week, there was much excitement over who was going to be the first to jailbreak it. Well, it turns out it was simple enough to tweak the 1.1.3 jailbreaking apps to do the job; Apple didn’t really make any new prohibitions to jailbreaking in the update.

Ziphone has released a new version of its jailbreaking app, and it works easily and quickly with iPhones running 1.1.4.

So far, 1.1.4 is a minor upgrade, but it does allow the iPhone Exchange server access as well as a more stable experience.

A version for the iPod Touch, currently nicknamed Zitouch, is being worked on, but was backburnered when 1.1.4 was unexpectedly released.

Ziphone [Download page, props to JEsTer for the tips]

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We first saw Tannoy’s i30 iPod dock back in January at CES and now we’ve been able to play with it for an extended period of time. Yeah, I know you’re thinking it’s just another iPod dock among the sea of thousands of iPod docks available now, but this UK-engineered dock is much different. It’s […]

We first saw Tannoy’s i30 iPod dock back in January at CES and now we’ve been able to play with it for an extended period of time. Yeah, I know you’re thinking it’s just another iPod dock among the sea of thousands of iPod docks available now, but this UK-engineered dock is much different. It’s leaps and bounds above the rest. Miley Cyrus never sounded so good.

We compared the i30 to Bose’s SoundDock and it beat out the Bose hands down. The SoundDock was more akin to a cheap $20 iPod dock than the grandiose experience people are expected to have with Bose products. The i30’s sound was crisp, unmuffled and undistorted on all levels. It hit lows, mids, and highs with nary an issue. Even with the volume mid-way the sound resonating from the two 4-inch iCT drivers caused others to come over and tell me to turn the volume down. To them I stuck out my tongue and cranked it up.

The sound quality is fantastic. A few peers have told me they’ve put it up against that Zeppelin doodad and they’ve enjoyed the Tannoy much superior. It’s a simple design that isn’t so brash and out there. It’s very unassuming until you turn it on. You can plug in other devices including your computer in case you want superior speakers. There’s also a video output so that you can watch your iPod videos on a more massive screen. A USB port grants you to sync with iTunes from the dock and the included IR remote lets you control everything from the sofa or kitchen or wherever you might be.

I’m sad to have to part ways with the i30 because the music on my iPod never sounded so good. The price may deter some of you, but it’s not worth it to be cheap if you don’t have a booming audio system to start with. I need a smaller setup because of my living situation and the i30 is ideal. I don’t have CDs or any mp3 files on my personal anymore. Everything resides on my iPod and sometimes I like to crank it up and rock out in my apartment. The i30 lets me do that without any distortion or craptastic audio once the volume is turned up. You will want this dock and nothing else. Trust me.

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A man with a stunningly Portuguese name (Nuno Teixeira) has designed an iMac with a curved screen. Called the iMac iView, the concept uses a curved screen because such a screen is better suited to the curvature of the human eye. If the idea sounds familiar, that’s because Alienware demoed a similar display at CES […]

A man with a stunningly Portuguese name (Nuno Teixeira) has designed an iMac with a curved screen. Called the iMac iView, the concept uses a curved screen because such a screen is better suited to the curvature of the human eye. If the idea sounds familiar, that’s because Alienware demoed a similar display at CES earlier this year. Biggs poo pooed the idea of such a monitor:

No availability or release date, but listen, kid. You have a long life ahead of you. There are girls to meet, beaches to hang out on, things to learn. Don’t be the guy with the big weird three-foot surround monitor. Just don’t do it.

The iView also has an LCD on the back along with two built-in Web cams. Again, she’s just a concept, so don’t get too worked up about it.

Curved iMac has your back… [Yanko Design]

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Aren’t we supposed to take a hands-off approach to the market? Like, whatever happens, happens? That’s what I thought. ReadWriteWeb today has a counter argument to Chris Anderson’s everything will be free thesis, only it’s among the weakest counter arguments I’ve ever read. The gist—free does not equal good. Good can mean a quality product, something […]

Aren’t we supposed to take a hands-off approach to the market? Like, whatever happens, happens? That’s what I thought.

ReadWriteWeb today has a counter argument to Chris Anderson’s everything will be free thesis, only it’s among the weakest counter arguments I’ve ever read. The gist—free does not equal good. Good can mean a quality product, something in the best interest of the consumer/business or whatever feels right. Par example, Gmail, being free and having unlimited storage from the get-go, put Yahoo! into a weird position. Now, instead of being able to have a Web mail model where Yahoo! can give away a 10MB account (or whatever) and charge $50 (or whatever) for more space, it has to give away mail for free, lest it go out of business.

Yes, that’s usually what happens. If it can’t compete, it goes out of business. Why that’s so horrible, I don’t know. RRW says that Google was able to abuse its position—you know, its non-existence in Web mail—to launch Gmail for free, thereby screwing Yahoo!. I don’t see why you’d want to punish Google for having the wealth to give away a product, but RRW thinks differently.

The rest of their arguments are just as head-scratching (except maybe that free does not alway equal a high-quality product. See Comcast’s excuse for a DVR remote). I suggest you read Anderson’s piece first, then RRW’s retort. Then RRW’s infantile arguments seem even more silly.

Beware of Freeconomics [ReadWriteWeb]

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Well, maybe not quite that fast, but if you’re bringing your laptop on that Joint Strike Fighter your father just got, you might want to stuff it with this hard drive. It’ll keep working under stresses of up to 400 Gs, so when you’re pulling out of that nose dive, it won’t have trouble spooling […]

Well, maybe not quite that fast, but if you’re bringing your laptop on that Joint Strike Fighter your father just got, you might want to stuff it with this hard drive. It’ll keep working under stresses of up to 400 Gs, so when you’re pulling out of that nose dive, it won’t have trouble spooling up that next mp3.

Hitachi’s New 400G Resistant HDD [Akihabara News]

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Here’s an idea I know I’ve been kicking around in my head for years. Tactile feedback from the trackpad. It seems so obvious, I’m not sure why I can’t already feel the icons and windows on my MBP. Well, this ZEN (Z-axis ENabled) Computing concept allows just that, and more. It’s designed for blind users, […]

Here’s an idea I know I’ve been kicking around in my head for years. Tactile feedback from the trackpad. It seems so obvious, I’m not sure why I can’t already feel the icons and windows on my MBP. Well, this ZEN (Z-axis ENabled) Computing concept grants just that, and more. It’s designed for blind users, basically a gigantic 3-D touchpad that can rise and fall physically at a high resolution, conveying everything from window locations to text using braille.

Sounds great, but I think the engineering is still fiction, considering the design uses nothing more specific than “nano-scale fibers.” They might as well have said it runs on Truffula Tree extract. Still, I’d like to see this idea happen.

Zen PC Design for the Visually Impaired

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Here’s a look at the upcoming Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 digital camera. It’s got a 13.6-megapixel CCD imager along with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens, and a 2.7-inch LCD screen. There’s also an “extra high-speed” burst mode that can shoot three-megapixel photos at five frames per second. Coming in May for $349. ShareThis

Here’s a look at the upcoming Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 digital camera. It’s got a 13.6-megapixel CCD imager along with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens, and a 2.7-inch LCD screen. There’s also an “extra high-speed” burst mode that can shoot three-megapixel photos at five frames per second. Coming in May for $349.

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Shipments of the iPod could be done this quarter, the first ever such decline. An analyst at Piper Jaffray looked over the NPD numbers from January till now and found shipments in the 9.5 million to 10.3 million range. AppleInsider reminds us that, even if the final number turns out to be in the middle […]

Shipments of the iPod could be done this quarter, the first ever such decline. An analyst at Piper Jaffray looked over the NPD numbers from January till now and found shipments in the 9.5 million to 10.3 million range. AppleInsider reminds us that, even if the final number turns out to be in the middle of that range, it would still represent a 6 percent shipment decline. And you can bet Wall Street won’t be too pleased with that.

But what’s Apple to do? It recently started to diversify its entertainment offerings, launching iTunes motion picture rentals and an improved Apple Television; it’s clear Apple isn’t totally relying on the iPod to carry the day (though it recently cut the price of the iPod Shuffle).

Apple in trouble? I’m gonna guess “no,” though I do feel like a tool for having purchased a MacBook 10 days ago. Hopefully I can trade-up for free or pay the difference.

Report: iPod shipments tracking towards first yearly decline [AppleInsider]

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Sure, it’s no Microsoft’s Surface, but it’s pretty cool anyway. Using an array of infrared sensors and a CPU, the LED table tracks motion and activates the LCDs in response. It’s not as expensive as Surface, but of course it does a whole lot less. That being said, $2,215 sounds a bit steep still. The Wave Interactive […]

Sure, it’s no Microsoft’s Surface, but it’s pretty cool anyway. Using an array of infrared sensors and a CPU, the LED table tracks motion and activates the LCDs in response.

It’s not as costly as Surface, but of course it does a whole lot less. That being stated, $2,215 sounds a bit steep still.

The Wave Interactive LED Coffee Table [Cool Hunting]

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We’re all news junkies. That’s what the Internet has done to us. You can sit at your desk and watch all the feeds and refresh, but we still like our news in video form, and that’s what we’re doing here today. Unless you’re working for Ted Turner, you’re likely not in a place to watch TV […]

We’re all news junkies. That’s what the Internet has done to us. You can sit at your desk and watch all the feeds and refresh, but we still like our news in video form, and that’s what we’re doing here this day.

Unless you’re working for Ted Turner, you’re likely not in a place to watch TV at your desk, but you need to stay up to date. With a PC at home, your home TV, and a cheap vidcap device, you can watch your home Television news on your desktop at work.

Find yourself a good, cheap video capture device. I like the EasyCAP009 Video Grabber for MAC. It’s easy to use, has decent picture quality, and is relatively cheap. You should be able to find one for about $50, and it works with Macs or Computers.

Take a video out from your TV by either splitting the signal from your cable box (which is easy enough with a $10 splitter from Radio Shack) or running out from a VCR. Conversely, some TVs have auxiliary outs, which works too.

Take the video and audio feeds in RCA format at plug them into the EasyCAP dongle. Then plug the dongle into your Mac or PC’s USB port.

Now fire up your favorite instant messaging app. I like iChat as it supports higher grade video, but Yahoo! Messenger or MSN Messenger work just as well.

Make a new account. I used “MattsTVFeed”. Don’t use your own, you’re going to want to use it to log in later.

Connect to the instant messaging network. Go to “preferences” and hit the “video” tab. You should be able to select the EasyCAP as a capture device. Hit the broadcast button, and you’re done.

When you’re at work, add the screen name you made earlier and hit it’s “video” button. It should pop up a window locked onto whatever channel you left your Television on. I like MSNBC. Watch whenever you want. In Yahoo! Messenger, there’s an option to leave the video window on top of all others, pretty handy for this type of fun.

Make sure your work IT staff is OK with you wasting bandwidth all day, and keep it safe for work, and you should be fine.

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