Yes, you did read that right: a former senior Apple engineer says that the US government turned an iPod into a secret Geiger counter. Or, more precisely, a large US defense contractor turned an iPod into a secret device which was probably a Geiger counter – and only four people at Apple ever knew about it.
The story is told by David Shayer, who is a credible source, having played a pivotal role in the development of the iPod – and is backed by ‘father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell …
In a story shared by the CEO of Stripe, Patrick Collison, Tony Fadell describes the timeline of the original iPod. Fadell says he joined Apple in late January to run the iPod project but that when he joined, the iPod wasn’t an iPod — Apple wanted to make a hard-drive-based MP3 player but that was essentially it. “No team, prototype, designs, nothing”.
Incredibly, the product was completed before the end of the year. Fadell pitched a design prototype to Jobs in March, the team found manufacturing partners in April, and Apple started shipping the first devices to customers in November.
Apple has announced a recall of wall plug adapters used in the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It follows six incidents of electric shocks resulting from the plugs breaking, exposing metal contacts.
The plugs were sold with a range of Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPods, but you only have to worry about them if you’re using a rather elderly model – or bought the official Apple World Travel Adapter Kit a long time ago …
I wouldn’t have foreseen much overlap in the market for Apple memorabilia and that for throw pillows, but one Kickstarter campaign seems to be proving me wrong …
A new medical study suggests that children who listen to portable music players are three times more likely to suffer hearing loss than those who don’t …
If you have any of your old iPods in the depths of a desk drawer somewhere, they could act as an interesting time capsule of your musical tastes in your earlier life …
Home security cameras have been made way easier to access with HomeKit solutions like D-Link Omna and Logitech Circle 2, but deploying an always-on video stream from your car is a harder problem to solve. Owl is a new startup founded by an iPod veteran that’s looking to change that with its new Owl Car Cam.
Earlier this week, Apple officially discontinued the iPod nano and shuffle by removing them from its online store and slowly phasing them out from retail locations. The move was somewhat out of the blue, but one that makes sense when you think of the current state of technology.
Earlier today, Apple officially discontinued the iPod nano and iPod shuffle. While some say the move has been a long time coming, others were taken aback by the sudden move.
How do you feel about Apple’s decision to kill the iPod nano and iPod shuffle?
It is a sad day, folks. Apple is discontinuing our favorite miniature iPods. 9to5Mac has now confirmed Apple will no longer be selling the iPod nano and shuffle. Already removed from Apple’s site, they will be taken out of retail stores as well. The news comes alongside the announcement of the updated iPod touch lineup with reduced prices and more. But you can still get one while they last… Expand Expanding Close
It scarcely seems possible now that Apple ever considered an iPhone based on a click-wheel iPod, but we actually got to see a surviving prototype earlier this year. Steve Jobs created competing teams to work on different approaches to an iPhone, and ‘father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell has spoken about this in a new interview …
[Update: OS News reports that what Fraunhofer IIS fails to mention is that the last of the patents expired, and this is the reason that it is no longer licensing the format.]
More than 25 years after it was first developed, the mp3 format for digital music has been officially discontinued. The Fraunhofer Institute, the main organization responsible for licensing the encoders and decoders, has today announced that it ceased doing so late last month.
Apple was of course in large part responsible for popularizing the format, but also played a role in its demise …
Sonny Dickson this evening posted posted a log and video of a never before seen in public version of pre-iPhone era software that was built as an alternative OS to what eventually became iOS.
The OS, which was devised in the iPod’s heyday, was based on a virtual click-wheel that was put on the touch display. A set of menus is navigated with the touch much like one would using an iPod of the time. In the era of multi-touch the idea seems quaint but when everyone is using iPods, the UI makes a lot of sense as a small step rather than the giant leap to iPhone OS, what eventually became iOS.
I’ve always loved music, and am old enough to have lived through every generation of portable music player, from the original cassette Walkman on. The transition from cassette to CD made little difference: you still only had one album loaded at any one time, and carrying others was a pain. The same was true of the very first mp3 player, the MPMan, which I bought in 1998.
The first hard drive-based mp3 player was the Personal Jukebox in 1999. It beat the iPod to market by two years, but was large, heavy and hard to use. Even as an early adopter of technology, I was only briefly tempted.
It was the launch of the iPod fifteen years ago yesterday that changed everything for me. That tagline of ‘1000 songs in your pocket’ said it all: you could now carry a substantial proportion of your entire music library on you at all times. And that changed the way that I – and millions of others around the world – listened to music …
The discontinuation of the iPod Classic back in 2014 gave prices of used models a boost in the following holiday season, some models selling for up to four times the original price. A Guardian report says that collectors are now paying even more for some models, with special editions selling for as much as $90,000.
Terapeak, a company which tracks pricing of collectibles on eBay, […] found that classic iPods in their original packaging were priced at collectibles levels – one U2 special edition, Terapeak noted, sold in November for $90,000.
It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on the state of iPhone and iPad controllers, but I have seen some improvements since we first covered some of the shortcomings with the early batch of game controllers that came out under Apple’s Made-for-iPhone licensing program. Today I’m taking a look at the new Tt eSports Contour MFi controller, a new $65 option that includes a classic Xbox-style design and a built-in stand to hold your iPhone and turn it into a true handheld game console.
The view that Apple lost its innovative edge with the sad loss of Steve Jobs has been one of the oft-repeated criticisms of the company in recent years. But this idea is based on an entirely mythological view of Apple as a company that was constantly launching ground-breaking new product categories.
The reality is a little more mundane. The Macintosh, a truly revolutionary computer, was launched in 1984. We had to wait 17 years for the next groundbreaking product: the iPod in 2001. We had to wait six years after that for the next major product category: the iPhone in 2007. And a further three years for the iPad in 2010. (If you wanted to push things a little, you could argue that the MacBook Air was also so revolutionary that it deserves to be included; if so, we’re up to five new product categories in 26 years.)
Note, too, that none of the product categories were invented by Apple. Xerox, of course, invented the graphical user interface for personal computers. There were MP3 players before the iPod; touchscreen smartphones before the iPhone; tablets before the iPad. What Apple did in each case was what the company does best: take something clunky and used only by techies, and turn it into a slick product that will appeal to the masses.
So no, Apple never has churned out revolutionary new products on an annual basis. If we’re going to assess its performance today, it has to be against a realistic background. Zac recently reminded us of Apple’s product timeline for 2015. Looking at this in the context of a company whose true history is occasionally taking a new product category and doing it better than anyone else – and in between times merely refining its existing product ranges – how did Apple do this year … ?
A recently unearthed patent published by the USPTO, and discovered by Patently Mobile shows a unique folding mobile device concept by Samsung. Although the idea of bending and folding electronic products is really interesting, perhaps more noteworthy is the Korean company’s choice of onscreen icons. We have WhatsApp, Phone and Messages which are all platform agnostic apps. But they’re followed by iPod. Certainly an unusual choice for a company which claims it doesn’t copy Apple. And one with which Cupertino has long been in legal battle with… Expand Expanding Close
Nomad is ending 2015 with a bang. Having moved from small plastic accessories into using luxury materials including metal, leather, and wood, Nomad is flexing its design muscles with four new Apple device chargers that are equally attractive and creative. There’s a deluxe metal Apple Watch/iPhone travel charger called Pod Pro, the wood-encased iPad battery pack PowerPlant, a hybrid iPhone battery and car charger named Roadtrip, and a Lightning battery-equipped leather Wallet. Three of the accessories look as if they were expressly designed to be holiday gifts, while the fourth is less exotic, but practical.
The common thread here is “portable power.” Pod Pro steps up from Nomad’s Apple Watch-only Pod (reviewed here) by more than tripling the power to 6,000mAh, and adding iPhone charging. PowerPlant packs an iPad-ready 12,000mAh cell inside a solid American Walnut wood block. Roadtrip serves as a car charger in your car, doubling as a portable iPhone battery pack for on-the-go use. And Wallet guarantees you’ll have a 2,400mAh battery and Lightning cable anywhere you go. Below, I’ll quickly walk through all of these new accessories so you can get a sense of whether any or all of them is right for you, or your favorite gift recipient…
Tony Fadell, often called the “father of the iPod” and now CEO of Alphabet’s Nest, is on Bloomberg TV today to discuss his time at Apple, the future of mobility and his current effort in the connected home industry. During the interview, Fadell revealed that back in 2008, he had discussions with then Apple CEO Steve Jobs about what an ‘Apple car’ would look like and how the company could approach such a project… Expand Expanding Close
As it does regularly with older products, Apple is about to move a bunch of Macs, iPods, and accessories to obsolete status, meaning the products will no longer be eligible for service or repair support through Apple retail stores or authorized third-party channels. So if you happen to have one of these products and need a hardware repair of some kind, you’ll have until early December to do so at an Apple Store or authorized service provider.
The revamped Apple TV set top box and iPad Pro will both begin showing up in Apple Retail Stores for sale during the first week of November after going on sale via Apple’s website in late October, according to reliable sources. It is also likely that the first online orders of both products will reach customers in early November.
