News Topic - iPod

SDCC 08: Dexter Slashes Only for iTunes
Dexter (iPhone)Marc Ecko announces the Dexter videogame will be an iPhone/iPod exclusive.
IGN.com  –  20 hours ago  ¦  comment?
found in Technology: Video Games

Desert Party much the best in Sanford
Desert Party, purchased by Darley for $2.1 million earlier this year, received a rail-skimming ride from Edgar Prado and ran away from three rivals in the scratched-filled $150,000 Sanford Stakes (gr. II) in the mud at Saratoga on Thursday.Breaking from post three, Desert Party was last after a half-mile but got revved up approaching the top of the stretch. The 2-year-old son of Street Cry caught pacesetter Officer Ipod after they straightened away and easily pulled away for a 3 1/4-length victory. He completed six furlongs on a muddy, sealed track in 1:12.23.Ridden by Ramon Dominguez, Officer Ipod held second, three-quarters of a length in front of Vineyard Haven. Phosphorescent was last.
NTRA.com  –  23 hours, 8 minutes ago  ¦  comment?
found in Sports: Horse Racing

Desert Party wins Grade 2 Sanford Stakes
Desert Party took the lead with an eighth of a mile to go on a muddy track and beat Officer Ipod by 3 lengths in the $142,500, Grade 2 Sanford Stakes for 2-year-olds on Thursday at Saratoga Race Course. The Eoin Harty-trained colt was last of four turning into the stretch before Edgar Prado sent him through a seam on the inside for his second win a row.
Yahoo!  –  23 hours, 40 minutes ago  ¦  comment?
found in Sports: Horse Racing

App Store “puts iPhone above all others”
What makes the App Store “a win for the user”? Andy Ihnatko (suntimes.com) ticks off the reasons: “The entire universe of iPhone software is in one central location.” “Prices start at free.” “Buying and installing an app is dead simple and reliable.” And thanks to the App Store, iPhone and iPod touch now “represent a formidable and legitimate new computing platform.”
Apple.com  –  Jul 24, 2008 7:40 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology: Computer

Lostify 0.7
Videos bought from the iTunes Store come nicely tagged with all the relevant information that iTunes, an iPod or iPhone, Front...
PC World  –  Jul 24, 2008 5:04 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

Illegal filesharing: ISPs pledge not to 'spy' on web users
Internet service providers have pledged not to "spy" on the web habits of customers as part of an agreement with the government to punish illegal sharing of music and films. Fears have been raised after six of the UK's biggest ISPs agreed with the government, music industry body the BPI and the Motion Picture Association to significantly reduce illegal filesharing in the UK within three years. The BPI clarified today that there would be no policing by the ISPs or any "spying" because no personal information was gathered in identifying which internet protocol addresses are illegally filesharing. The BPI chief executive, Geoff Taylor, said in a conference call this morning that the focus was on uploaders of illegal content. He denied reports that a levy on internet users of up to £30 had been considered or tabled with government. As part of the memorandum of understanding - signed by BT, Virgin, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Tiscali and BSkyB - a pilot three-step process will be used to identify repeat offenders. The first step is a letter, "intended to be educational" to an internet user about the "account abuse", the second a suspension of the account until the customers agrees in writing not to offend again, and the final step is cancelling an account. Rights holders will consider prosecuting particularly serious infringers. The ISPs have agreed to send out 1,000 letters a week in a three-month trial to subscribers who have been identified by the BPI as having been engaged in illicit uploading or downloading of music. According to one source the door has been left open for the agreement to extend in the future to include TV companies and the computer games industry. The agreement was announced today as the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform published a consultation on the regulatory options to punish ISPs if they fail to take more action. The government prefers a co-regulatory approach but had threatened to introduce legislation as soon as next April if progress was not made. The consultation will look at measures for punishing offenders that could include blocking people from downloading certain materials or slowing their internet connection. "I think the memorandum of understanding could be enough to stave off the threat of legislation," said John Enser, a media partner at legal firm Olswang. "I'm not sure the government has the stomach to push it through. It is not a vote-winner and it is an issue that could be turned against them." A source said that the memorandum will need to be extended to include other groups such as Apple. According to a report from Jupiter Research, 20% of European iPod owners buy digital music at least once a month, while 30% use filesharing networks to download music illegally at least once a month. "We will still require that the proper legal process is followed before the release of data or escalation to other similar actions against any of our customers," said a spokeswoman for Tiscali. "But the memorandum of understanding has brought together the major ISPs and the music/movie industries, under the leadership of Ofcom our regulator, which is a significant improvement on where we stood before." · To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
The Guardian  –  Jul 24, 2008 12:47 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

Why iPhone 2.0 won't yet rule the roost in the enterprise
InfoWorld - Most of the world, it seemed, drank the Steve Jobs Kool-Aid about the new iPhone being a BlackBerry killer when the Apple CEO first announced the device earlier this year. But after nearly two weeks with the new iPhone 2.0 software on my iPod Touch, I can tell you that Apple has not yet delivered on that promise.
Yahoo!  –  Jul 24, 2008 10:00 AM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

Use technology to reach out, not to look inward
From iPod to TiVo to text alerts, technology makes it easy to stay within your comfort zone — easy, but not right.
Democrat & Chronicle  –  Jul 24, 2008 06:21 AM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Local: New York: Rochester

Basic To-do Apps for IPhone and IPod Touch
Back when the original iPhone was released, in June 2007, one of the most-frequent complaints was that it didn't include a...
PC World  –  Jul 24, 2008 12:01 AM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology

Touch takes hold, but it's no mouse-killer
As reported a few weeks ago in these pages, the market is being flooded with touchscreen phones - and this time there's no controversy over whether they've succeeded: sales of the iPhone surprised even its most ardent admirers from day one. Meanwhile, the desktop market is showing signs of adopting similar technology. Both Apple's next operating system and the next version of Windows will contain "hooks" for touchscreen technology, if installed on the right hardware. This has led to speculation about the future of the keyboard and mouse. "We already have well-integrated touch technology on consumer electronics, from Apple's multitouch devices (iPhone, MacBook Pro, the new Mac operating system), games consoles (Nintendo DS) and now PCs and notebooks," says a spokesman for HP, which has now released the TouchSmart, a desktop system with a touch interface. And this month, Dell released a module to turn its Latitude XT Tablet computer into a full-blown touch-operated system. All of this adds weight to comments from respected research house Gartner, which last week said the day of the mouse, if not the keyboard, may well be numbered. Speaking to the BBC's news website, the organisation said the mouse would last three to five years tops, to be replaced by gesture-based computing and other technologies, such as gesture recognition, which are emerging in the home entertainment market. It could be that there's more going on than a few product launches, but there will be practical issues. Richard MacKinnon, a business psychologist for the people assessment company Talent Q, has a postgraduate diploma in ergonomics and says touchscreens are unlikely to be suited for use over long periods of time. They also inadvertently promote poor posture, and reduced productivity through reduced typing speeds. "Touchscreens can have a place in entertainment scenarios, but in the office environment? I don't think we're there yet," he says. Dumbing down? Other academics concur. "It all depends on the ease of use of the technology, whether or not it's fit for purpose, and how well it maps to people's mental model of their tasks," says Chris Clegg, professor of organisational psychology and deputy director of the Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School. Future generations may also adapt better than the current Qwerty-bound people. "I couldn't have imagined taking to texting, and I still don't find it friendly, but a lot of people use it extensively." Non-psychologists also have reservations. Pete Bennett, chief executive of the training provider Learning Resources International, has doubts about the quality of the information available to non-keyboardists. "Nobody wants to sound like a luddite, of course anything can happen and things can change - but I can't see it being anywhere near anything other than basic functions," he says. "Our background is in designing learning materials and if you're only using a finger, there isn't much action involved." Fingers acting as a mouse is one thing, he says, but a mouse doesn't type. "The interaction of typing helps people read the words, retain the words and I don't see how a touchscreen can replace that requirement. It's a bit dumb, in a non-insulting manner." It could be great for some applications, he says - shopping and anything involving lists - but for anything requiring thought and which is challenging there's a need for more interaction. Let's assume some sort of change is on the way. The next question for everyone will be how quickly it's going to happen - and therefore how soon to eBay those old non-touch screens. "As we've seen with Office and Vista, people can be very resistant to changes in their technology that are two steps ahead of the previous version," says Darren Van Laar, principle lecturer in psychology at the University of Portsmouth. "If it's incremental versions then people don't mind - if they have to unlearn too much then it gives them a problem." This is presumably why Microsoft is reportedly considering several mini-releases of Windows next time around rather than a single larger launch. Reactions are bound to be mixed early on. One user of the HP Touchsmart, which is the first mainstream computer to be released based on touchscreens outside the Tablet PC (which is pen- rather than finger-sensitive), enthused at first. "It's a terrific box, loving the integrated DTV and dead easy to get going with," she said. However: "We don't use the touchscreen, though. Partly old habits, but mainly due to the fact that it gets intolerably grubby after use. Should come with a box of wipes, really." Fingering the problem If this is typical - and it's anecdotal rather than a scientific sample, of course - then the dawn of the touchscreen age may have a slightly bumpy beginning. Add to this the fact that at a pre-launch event another HP spokesperson pointed to the screen's value as a kitchen computer - eliminate all those recipe books, have demonstrations of cooking techniques on tap as well as static pictures, went the patter - and the idea of dirty fingerprints all over it becomes less of a small problem than an epidemic. Particularly when the current models retail for more than £1,000. Nonetheless, the HP spokesman's original point - that we've adopted touch for phones and games consoles happily enough - remains valid. In January 2007 Apple launched the multitouch screen for what would evolve into its iPhone, while in February 2006 a professor from New York University demonstrated a full screen using touch technology (The hands-on revolution, January 18, 2007). Following a year in which the iPhone and iPod Touch enjoyed a near-monopoly, touchscreen products are now arriving on the market en masse. At this stage it looks unlikely that keyboards and mice will actually be displaced in people's affections, but they may find they have a new, touchy-feely running partner in the right niches before long.Related StoriesTechnophile: The Skype PhoneLocation technology finally finds its feetLetters and blogsAleks Krotoski, gamesblog: Capturing game data is the futureCold callers target O2 users with false Bluetooth security warning
The Guardian  –  Jul 23, 2008 11:04 PM [GMT]  ¦  comment?
found in Technology