Apple Peripherals Don’t Have to Look “Apple”
The Kanto Morph speakers were originally designed by Alp Germaner for a competition but he missed the fine print about it being a “skin design” only and so it was relegated to languish in the dark corners of his hard drive – that is, until we got our hands on it. Look, for once it’s a design not about nostalgia. It’s not ostensibly minimalistic and it’s contemporary. Yes it’s an iPhone/iPod dock but who says all Apple peripherals have to look like Cupertino designed them? I applaud his aberrant design choices.
Designer:
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Posted: April 4th, 2011
at 7:34am by Long Tran
Topics: Alp-Germaner, Kanto, Product Design, Technology, concept, ipod, speakers
Apple to Live Stream Press Conference — to Apple Customers Only
Apple late this afternoon announced plans to live stream its Wednesday music event, where many expect the company to introduce upgrades for the iPod and Apple TV. The stream will only be viewable to Apple customers.
In a press bulletin, Apple said it would be streaming its event using “Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards,” even though the viewing requires a Mac running Snow Leopard, or an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running iOS 3.0 or higher.
Some technology observers speculate the live stream will accompany Apple’s release of a new version of iTunes capable of streaming live video and TV rentals.
Wired.com’s Gadget Lab will be live blogging the event, which commences 10 a.m. PT. Stay tuned for our coverage. Meanwhile, read our predictions of what to expect at the event.
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Posted: September 1st, 2010
at 12:28am by Brian X. Chen
Topics: Apple, Media Players, iTunes, ipod, music
DIY Friday: Charge Your iPhone With AAs or Solar Power
Limor Fried’s MintyBoost project is a great example of DIY and commercial tech working together. Take an Altoids tin, a couple of AA batteries, and some very smart hackery, and you’ve got a lightweight USB charger that you can use to charge/run your handheld iWhatever, or almost any other phone, camera, or small device that can take a charge off USB power. About a month ago, she released this video outlining the Apple hackery needed to make this work.
Reverse engineering Apple’s secret charging methods from adafruit industries on Vimeo.
Clive Thompson profiled Fried and her company Adafruit Industries as part of a 2008 feature in Wired on “open source hardware.” The idea is that hackers like Fried can use what they find out about consumer devices to make and sell their own products, but also to produce DIY kits and share information with others who then build their own projects.
As a case study in the value of sharing this information, consider Rob Scott. Before he took his son on a week-long bike trip this summer, he used Fried’s schematic to hack together what turns out to be a really striking-looking solar charger for his son’s iPod.
It’s always nice to see what the maker community is doing to accessorize their retail gadgets; the results aren’t always super-polished, but they generally solve real problems in important use cases that don’t get addressed by manufacturers, either because they’re too unusual or they can’t be easily solved by more plugs, more peripherals, more complex devices that cost a lot of money. And in turn, we all find out a little bit more about how these magical devices get put together and how they work.
See Also:
- DIY Graphing Calculator Is Built From Open Source Hardware
- Why Arduino Is a Hit With Hardware Hackers
- Beautifully Hypnotic Video Details Canon Macro Lens Hack
- Hacker Stuffs MiFi Inside iPad, Ruins it in the Process
Posted: August 27th, 2010
at 11:28pm by Tim Carmody
Topics: Adafruit, Apple, Batteries, DIY, Hacks, Mods and DIY, Limor Fried, Solar, arduino, hacks, iPhone, iPhone Hacks, ipod, open source hardware
The iPad Under Mouse
Let me tell you a little bit about what I know of world commerce. There’s information, which travels at the speed of light, then there’s product, which travels at the speed of a van, then a boat, then a van, then a train, then a car. It’s slower than light. This causes a bit of annoyance in the world of electronics and multimedia. Why? Because Russia doesn’t have their iPads yet! So what did the folks at DarkDesignGroup (Russian design group) do?
They made the iMousePad.
Simple. Silly. Amazing.
And that’s all there really is to say about that. It’s a mouse pad. It’s clever. It’s excellent.
And I don’t think it’s licensed by Apple. Just a hunch.
Designer: DarkDesignGroup
Kenwood AS-iP70 converges picture frame, alarm clock, FM radio and iPhone dock into one
We know, you’ve seen enough iDevice docks to make your eyes bleed with frustration, but if your bedside table is growing a bit cluttered with all the appendages and chargers you have lying around, you might wanna check this one out. Kenwood’s 7-inch AS-iP70 can serve as a picture viewer, a music player, an alarm clock, or an FM radio, while also packing USB and SD card inputs for alternative media sources. All in all, it looks quite slick and has plenty of buttons to play around with, but be warned that its 800 x 480 resolution is intended for pictures only, there’s no video playback to be had. If that and the ¥25,000 sticker (about $270, launching in Japan this April) have you running scared, you might want to check out Sony’s cheaper, AVI-playing alternative right over here. More pictures of Kenwood’s new hotness can be found at the source.
Kenwood AS-iP70 converges picture frame, alarm clock, FM radio and iPhone dock into one originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted: March 29th, 2010
at 8:30am by Vladislav Savov
Topics: AlarmClock, Dock, FM radio, FmRadio, IphoneDock, IpodDock, IpodTouch, Kenwood, KenwoodAs-ip70, PictureFrame, alarm, alarm clock, as-ip70, frame, iPhone, iphone dock, ipod, ipod dock, ipod touch, kenwood as-ip70, picture frame, radio
