As you probably know, the new Apple iPod shuffle can speak up the name of your songs, artists, and playlists. I initially thought it was a new text-to-speech chip. It is not: As you can see in this flowchart, the trick happens in your computer. Apple patented the process a while back, and it's going...

The new iPod Shuffle's capacity has been doubled to 4GB, and now the minuscule music player doesn't have a control wheel. But how will you ever reign over your music? Simple -- with controls on the earbud cord. WHEE! The new design keeps the clip and adds VoiceOver -- a new feature that gets around ...

Talk about a sneak attack. It’s a little hard to get excited about a new iPod Shuffle but hey, new toys are new toys. The third-generation Shuffle features a completely new design, 4GB of storage and perhaps most notably, the controls have been moved off of the device and onto the headset cord...

That's right, thanks to Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Osaka University, soon stopping the music on your iPod will be as simple as sticking out your ass-shaped tongue. The Ear Switch looks like a normal set of headphones, according to an Agence France Press report, but includes a set of sensors that allows i...

“Stress Relief” February 1st, 2009 I am not conditioned to enjoy this hour of The Office. First off, I don’t think the show should be in this position in the first place: Chuck has a special 3D episode ready to go tomorrow night, and is much more vulnerable to audience erosion than...

2.3 software update: a disappointment and frustration too far? Just don’t try to tell anyone on Apple’s forums! Image by niallkennedy via Flickr I’ve heard of Apple’s notoriety in policing the company’s user forums for anything deemed unacceptably tarnishing of its imag...

I just had a trifecta happen and so I thought I would blog about it before I got the (Flying) Monkey (Marathon Race Report) Off My Back. Component #1 WORLD AIDS DAY. December 1st is known as World AIDS Day. I just read an email from Starbucks Coffee that detailed the Worlds AIDS Day support/awarenes...

Waterproof iPod products we’ve previously tested were designed as two-piece solutions—the iPod goes inside a case and connects via a waist-high cord to a pair of special headphones—and H2O Audio’s initial offering for the second-generation iPod shuffle followed this mold. The $40 iS2 used a ...

Joe Klein, Daddy Butler Audio Comments TV Eco Girl Talk Word of the Day: Gimcrack Thanks to Mevio SuperPanel and Nature’s Cure for sponsoring this episode This week’s Nature’s Cure Question of the Week is ‘What is your favorite lazy summer day activity?’ Win a Canon Dig...

There are days that I'm amazed by the Internet, and then there are days that it lives downup to my expectations. Take, for instance, a recent Tweet of mine in which I pondered I was quickly answered by Stephane, who pointed out the wonderfully-implemented and -documented iPod Shuffle RAID0 arra...