Filed under: Analysis / View, Humor, iPod Family, Cult of Mac, Odds and ends, Steve Jobs

I’m a huge fan of the Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Superior Writing daily podcasts — she does a terrific job, day in and day out, of breaking down major grammar gaffes in a very interesting and clear way. After the massive “Let’s Rock” event on Tuesday, Grammar Girl had to jump to the rescue on Apple’s commercial use of the word “funnest” to describe the iPod touch — as many language elitists noted, “funnest” isn’t quite a real word.

Believe it or not, Grammar Girl is suprisingly forgiving — she says that fun, while originally a noun (”we had fun”), has made a transition in the last century or so to an “attributive noun” which can be used as an adjective (”we had a fun party”). And while old-timers may flinch at the words “funner” and “funnest”, the correct way to modify one-syllable adjectives is in fact by adding “-er” and “-est” to the ends. So technically, “funnest” is grammatically correct, even if it isn’t exactly accepted; Grammar Girl calls it “grating and horrifying.”

She finishes today’s podcast, however, with a scary note for language traditionalists — it could very well be that Apple’s usage of the word is just what “funnest” needs to go over the edge into regular acceptance. Sure, we get that language evolves, but couldn’t they just have said it was “the most fun iPod ever?” Or, even more traditionally, “the most fun you’ll have with an iPod?”

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Filed under: iPod Family, Deals, iPhone, App Store

It looks like developers are really catching on to the “give it away or lower the price to drive up user rankings” game. Here are a few last-second deals that you’ll want to check out at App Store.

Cro-Mag Rally
Pangea has dropped the price on its premiere racing game down to just $1.99. This sale is for a limited time, and while it affects the other Pangea titles as well, Cro-Mag offers the ideal deal of the bunch.

Poptiq
Poptiq delivers personalized video streams to your iPhone or iPod touch. Over time, it customizes itself to your likes and dislikes, so you don’t have to wade through videos that aren’t to your taste. You can download a free copy of Poptiq until September 25. Read more at the Poptiq website.

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Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone

We have pwnage. Before you get too excited, we’re speaking just iPod touch — the update that’s been around since Tuesday afternoon — not for iPhone 2.1, released this morning. That having been stated, point your browser over to quickpwn.com to grab the latest version of the iPod QuickPwn.

Now there is good news, and there is bad news, about jailbreak and iTunes 8. The bad news is that Apple has taken countermeasures against custom ipsw firmware bundles. The good news is that the iPhone devteam folks are working on patches for each of the device types in addition to the touch.

Hop over to the devteam blog to keep abreast of the latest news.

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Filed under: Analysis / View, Gaming, Hardware, iPod Family, Apple, App Store

We want to personally welcome analysts to earlier this week — we realized right after Tuesday’s huge event that Apple was making a foray into the handheld gaming world with the new iPod touch model. If there was any question, Apple even sent out an email this past week to customers asking them to “game on” with the touch 2G, and as business observers are finally noting, Apple is moving the iPod touch away from its former positions as a media player and a cheap iPhone to be game central.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether the push will work — obviously, the handheld games market has a few very entrenched opponents in it, and Apple has attempted to sneak into the videogames market before, with unsatisfactory results to say the least. But there’s no question that the iPod touch is an incredible piece of hardware (at least until Nintendo comes up with a “WiiBoy”), and that integrating the iTunes store gives Apple’s unit a nice advantage over units like the PSP in terms of media viewing. There’s that nagging tactile controls problem, but moving the touch away from Apple’s other lines and throwing it out there for would-be gamers this holiday season is a solid business decision on Apple’s part whether it pans out or not.

[via IMG]

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Filed under: iPod Family, Security, iPhone

On your iPhone or your iPod touch, when you press the Home button, there’s a nice little animation that takes you back to the home screen.

To create that animation, your iPhone takes a screenshot of whatever it is you’re doing, and uses it for the transition. Sounds innocent, right?

Not so much, says data forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski (thank you, clipboard). The screenshot is presumably erased from the iPhone after the application closes, but is any digital file really gone after you delete it? Survey states no.

Forensics experts have mined for these screenshots, successfully recovering evidence against criminals accused of rape, murder, and drug deals. They have the ability to also recover data from the iPhone’s keyboard and web caches, too.

In his presentation, Zdziarski also demonstrated how to bypass an iPhone’s passcode in order to own the device and access personal data. Time-consuming? Sure (it took JZ about an hour and involved a custom firmware build). Impossible? No.

As with all things digital (and networked), your privacy is largely illusory. Time to go Don Draper on this one and just use Field Notes books, my stack of business cards, and the rotary dial.

[Via Wired.]

Thanks, Kenny!

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Filed under: Hardware, iPod Family, How-tos

The screwdriver-happy mavens over at iFixit.com have taken it upon themselves to disassemble the iPod Nano 4g and the iPod Touch 2g announced at Tuesday’s Let’s Rock event.

Take-aparts are always cool, but the dissection of the iPod Touch 2g is especially interesting because it reveals that the device actually has an on-board Bluetooth chip! Even though this is likely what is powering the built-in Nike+ support, this particular chipset supports EDR and — if we’re really lucky — could potentially support A2DP for wireless stereo headphones.

On the Nano’s side, the new glass screen is separate from the metal casing. The battery is soldered into the logic board, which makes replacement probably more trouble (and more expensive) than it is worth. The processor is an Apple-branded Samsung ARM chip. And even though his Steve-ness went on about how the newest Nano is the thinnest iPod ever, we’re speaking micrometers when stacked up with the original and second generation Nano. Still, thin is in!

Read through both of iFixit’s guides for more details at the interior and take-apart instructions in the event of a self-repair emergency.

[via Register Hardware]

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Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends, Surveys and Polls

Apple gave us a juicy spectrum of colors yesterday with the new iPod nano, and I find myself wondering which color I’d purchase. I really like the green and yellow, simply because they’re bright, happy colors. I also like the Denver Broncos (or is it University of Texas?) orange and the Colorado Rockies purple. The (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition makes a statement.

Probably because I’m working on a lack of sleep, I thought it would be interesting to see what the favorite “nano-chromatic” color of TUAW readers is. Take our poll, and let us know why you picked your favorite color.

View Poll

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Filed under: iPod Family

One of the interesting minor details on the iPod nanos released this day is the inclusion of some new accessibility features. There’s even an Accessibility section on the spec page, which notes the addition of spoken menus and an substitute more massive font. The spoken menus “allow listeners to hear many of the names of menus, song titles, and artists without viewing the screen.”

While this is clearly a boon to those with some visual disabilities I suspect it could also be handy to other folks as well, since it will presumably grant changing song, playlists, etc. without looking at the screen, which would be really nice while driving. According to Infinite Loop a nano with this feature turned on will even inherit your Mac’s VoiceOver voice. Unfortunately, it’s not clear if other iPods or the iPhone will also gain this feature at some point.

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Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family

I recently got a new bicycle, so I was interested to run across iBikeConsole, a new iPod nano-focused accessory designed for cyclists. It combines two wireless remote controls with a central weather-resistant iPod nano case. The remote controls mount inside the hand grips and can be used while wearing gloves, while the central case also includes a cycle personal with distance and speed functions displayed on the nano’s screen. The whole thing is powered by the nano’s battery, the it will store data even after the nano is removed.

It’s designed to work with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation nanos. I contacted the manufacturer to check on compatibility with the just announced 4th gen nano, and they say that they have yet to get one and so cannot confirm compatibility. We’ll update this post when more information is available.

iBikeConsole is available for $76.00.

[via Gizmodo]

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Filed under: Accessories, iPod Family, Peripherals, iPhone

Another interesting detail released in the excitement of the Let’s Rock event: Apple’s announcement of two new sets of headphones designed for the new iPods and their voice notes recording feature. The first set is similar the the present iPhone headset with a main button for play/plause and skipping control (in addition to the mic). A nice new feature, however, is the addition of two buttons for volume control.

The second set (pictured right) is a bit more exciting as it seems to represent Apple’s attempt to compete with more high-end “canalphone” headsets from the likes of Etymotics, Shure, Ultimate Ears, etc. In addition to the mic and in-line controls of the other set, the buds on this one include two separate drivers (tweeter and woofer) as well as three sizes of silicone tips for sound isolation. We can only hope this hi-fi effort is more successful than the ill-fated iPod Hi-Fi.

Both sets are listed as compatible only with the new iPod classic, 4th gen nano, and 2nd gen touch. However, Infinite Loop has recommended that they’ll work with the iPhone excepting the volume controls which are not supported. The first set will be $29, while the in-ear set will run $79.

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