| NekFit, for the Running Man
A new iPod Nano accessory, called nekFit, places your iPod Nano or Shuffle on the back of your neck. The idea is to keep your cables away from your arms and chest. But unless you want to look like one of the enslaved Enterprise crew in "The Gamesters of Triskelion" episode of "Star Trek" or a prisoner in "Running Man," I'd stick with the traditional armband from Apple. NekFit really does look like a sci-fi shock collar. But the nuttiest thing about it is that it places your iPod controls behind your head, where most humanoids don't keep their eyes. Woburn-based NekFit Inc. (nekfit.com) has fitted the device with large, tactile buttons which help a bit, but controls take some getting used to. NekFit does a good job of tidying-up those cables along its frame, which resembles an eyewear frame you put on backwards.
Ever new
This isn't a brand new bar; rather, momentum has been building at this neighborhood watering hole for several months. Which is to say that the owner's efforts are paying off, as she appears to be on a first-name basis with almost half of her customers. That personal touch provides an irrepressibly homey vibe. Indeed, one regular proudly told me that the evening's playlist came from his iPod and that the art on display was courtesy of another loyal patron. Thus, even with stiff Long Island Iced Teas (RMB 45) and a standing policy of 'buy two get one free' on all cocktails, Avenue stands far apart from the crowd of sleazy Jing'an bars. So if you're game to listen to a shuffled set of reggae and rock in the company of low-key locals and young, fresh-faced English teachers, well, this bar is right up your avenue.
Tok Tak MP3 Player Same Size As Audio Adapter
And you thought the clip-tastic iPod shuffle was small. Designer Tae-wan Kim has come up with an MP3 player that's about as tiny as it gets, looking more like an audio jack adapter than a full-fledged music player. To a random passer-by, it'll look like you just have a set of headphones dangling from your ears. Naturally, this is still very much in the conceptual stage, so you've got to wonder just how viable such a design could be. Both flash memory and batteries have miniaturized considerably in recent years, so it just might work. Dubbed the Tok Tak, this incredibly tiny MP3 layer also comes with a base station used to recharge its batteries and upload new music. Interestingly, the dock also doubles as a "joystick controller to listen to your turns [sic] externally." Ready for some crazy Atari-inspired action?
Via yankodesign.com
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Creative MP3 Player Share Falls 24% Over Last Year
"Creative Technology, the Singapore-based company that's a distant third behind Apple (AAPL) in the MP3 player market, full further behind last quarter. The company, which delisted from the Nasdaq earlier this year, posted Q1 sales of $185 million.That's down 24% y/y, while Apple saw iPod revenues increase 4%, and unit sales increase 17% in its last quarter. About the best you can for Creative is that it still has a larger market share (something in the single digits, according to NPD data) than Microsoft's Zune."That's some bad news for Creative - they've obviously struggling, being pounded by Apple on one side and Microsoft and Sandisk on the other.It's too bad, because I really do like Creative's products - my Zen Vision:M is still a great player in many ways.I think one problem Creative has always had is that they simply have too many products in their lineup - it's not easy to digest or understand which one you want to buy.Differentiation is of course also the big problem - people need to look at their products and understand why it's better than other players.Take the Zen Stone for instance: I bought one for use in an infrared sauna we bought this year, and not only was it a hassle that it didn't come with a built-in clip (come on, it's a no-brainer to copy Apple's Shuffle) it also couldn't take the heat in the sauna - yet the old Dell Ditty could.So now the Zen Stone sits here doing nothing.
Heise: iPhone tracking concerns unfounded
Despite concerns, the iPhone is not sending gratuitous identifiers to Apple, a German publication reports. Warnings had been raised about binaries for the iPhone's Stocks and Weather applications, which appeared to be sending IMEI numbers to Apple URLs; these could in theory be used to pair a user with his web activity. It is now claimed through testing, though, that the iPhone does not send out its real IMEI, but rather codes unique to each application. The codes are also uniform across iPhones, meaning that they cannot be traced to a particular device. Still unexplained is why nominally offline applications for Mac OS X and the iPod touch, such as Calculator, would require any sort of identifying tag. The programming may simply reflect the general architecture of the Mac OS, rather than constant attempts to send information to Apple.
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