AllThingsD » iPod Shuffle

Apple Music: The Good, The Bad and the So So

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:03:47 +0000

Apple Inc. is attempting to boost its digital-music arsenal by bringing social networking to iTunes and by redesigning three iPods. The results are mixed.

The iPods are a big improvement from the older models with new, smart features, including some borrowed from the iPhone. The Ping social network, however, is a bit socially awkward, especially for people who are used to Facebook.

[ See post to watch video ]

I’ve been using Ping and the revamped iPod Touch, Shuffle, and Nano for the past week. The most notable iPod changes are the addition of a front-facing camera to the Touch, which enables FaceTime video chats with other new Touches or iPhone 4s, and the Nano’s redesigned, multi-touch screen.

I was less enthusiastic about Ping, Apple’s first attempt at social networking, because it didn’t do well enough with the socializing aspect. An Apple (AAPL) spokesman says it will be making improvements to Ping, including some that will be available by the end of this week. The social-networking experience also could become richer as more people and artists join. (Only 54 artists were on Ping when this column published.)

Ping is a social network that shows you what music your friends like and what your favorite artists are doing. You also can share your own music preferences. When you create a Ping profile, you can choose 10 songs that represent your musical tastes, or the network will generate this list based on music you purchased from the iTunes Store. Ping uses the Twitter model of followers rather than friends, which means you can be followed by someone and opt not to also follow that person, and vice versa. Ping runs in iTunes on Windows and Macs and can also be accessed on iPod Touches and iPhones running Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 4.1.

There are five page views for Ping: Recent Activity (the home page); My Profile; My Reviews (of songs and albums); People (which shows your followers, people you follow or follow requests) and Featured (Apple’s spotlight on people and music).

A stream of updates from people or artists you follow takes up much of the home page. While Facebook suggests friends you might know based on whether you have friends in common, a section in Ping suggests people you might want to follow according to if they have similar musical tastes—even if they’re strangers. This feature wasn’t yet turned on when I tested Ping, but will work within a week.

The iPod Shuffle, Nano, and Touch, and the Ping social network, show Apple’s laser focus on music.

Ping also suggests artists you might like. These suggestions aren’t based on your full iTunes library; rather, they’re based on songs you bought in iTunes and your activities in Ping, including artists you follow and music you “like,” similar to Facebook’s feature.

You can comment on or like anything posted on Ping by someone you follow. I enjoyed checking photos and videos posted on Ping by some of my favorite artists, including a video of U2′s Bono talking about a concert in Istanbul and a behind-the-scenes photo Shakira posted from her tour.

As a new social-network player, Apple needs to make Ping easier to use for people accustomed to the user-friendly features of Facebook. One of Ping’s biggest downsides is that it doesn’t import lists of friends from other established social networks, so you must build up a new network of people using email invitations that ask friends to join Ping.

According to an Apple spokesman, Facebook disallowed Ping from interacting with its network, which could have potentially allowed Ping users to see if their Facebook friends were on Apple’s social network. A spokeswoman for Facebook says the company is working with Apple to resolve this issue.

The Ping social network.

You may also search the network for friends and music artists to follow by typing their names into a search box.

Ping’s other socially awkward characteristics include its inability to notify you when other people comment on or like something you’ve posted or commented on.

Apple says these will appear in the Recent Activity page within a week—but not as easy-to-see notifications at the top of the page.

Ping can’t organize people you follow into groups, like “Dierks Bentley Concert Pals,” and won’t let you send anyone in Ping a message—either privately nor by posting on their wall.

The network also only uses first names of people, leaving me wondering if the John who bought “Walk Like An Egyptian” was my ex-boyfriend or a co-worker—especially since the latter uses an abstract image for his profile photo rather than a photo of himself.

The Apple spokesman said this first-name system was implemented to make Ping more personal.

As for the redesigned iPods, the Touch is remarkably thin, measuring just 0.28 inch deep. It costs $229 for an 8-gigabyte model; $299 for a 32-gigabyte; and $399 for the 64-gigabyte. This Touch now has the same sharp Retina Display screen as the iPhone 4, as well as two built-in cameras. FaceTime calls using the front-facing camera must be placed over Wi-Fi, using a dedicated FaceTime email address, since the Touch doesn’t have a phone number associated with it.

I brought my iPod Touch with me to the U.S. Open tennis tournament last weekend and used it to capture beautiful HD video footage of matches. I was impressed by the high quality audio captured in each video, enabled by a new omnidirectional microphone on the back of the iPod Touch that also captures sounds in front of the device. I accessed Ping from my iPod Touch, accepting Follow Requests and reading new posts from people and artists I follow.

The iPod Nano, which costs $149 for an 8-gigabyte model and $179 for a 16-gigabyte model, offers the most surprising redesign of the three new devices. This fifth-generation Nano is nearly half the size and weight of its predecessor. To achieve this, its hard buttons were exchanged for a smaller, square build and a multi-touch screen, which displays four icons at a time—like Artists, Genius Mixes, FM Radio and Photos.

To see other screens with more icons, swipe a finger from right to left, like on the iPhone. These icons can be rearranged, just as on the iPhone, by tapping and holding an icon until it jiggles, then moving the icon to wherever you want it.

I touched the Nano’s screen with two fingers and turned them, rotating the screen in all four directions, which comes in handy if you use the player’s built-in clip to attach it a sleeve or belt and want to look at its screen from an odd angle.

When a song plays, its album cover fills the Nano screen and looks a little like a colorful postage stamp clipped to you.

I especially liked flicking through photos on the Nano, double tapping to zoom in on images and moving the images around with one finger. The iPod Nano comes in seven colors and its battery lasts for 24 hours of music playback.

Apple’s $49 iPod Shuffle, which comes in five colors, holds 2 gigabytes and costs $10 less than its predecessor. It has hard buttons and a square shape again (the last model nixed both in favor of a smaller design). This Shuffle still offers VoiceOver announcements of song information and still has its signature clip, making it popular for running or working out.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg. Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

The iCoach: Apps Help Runners Go Farther, Faster

Nick Wingfield — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:43:21 +0000

Before the iPhone came out, I ran with a watch that uses GPS satellite technology to keep tabs on my pace, distance and other measurements when I run.

Like a lot of runners, I’ve gotten hooked on the ability to tally up how many miles I put in on the road and to use my watch to motivate myself to run a bit farther or faster.

The Adidas miCoach

These days ordinary smartphones have GPS built into them and developers are creating apps that use the technology for tracking runs. Plus some of the apps do a lot more than a GPS watch: They can help you devise a training schedule prior to races and more actively coach you during your runs.

I spent a couple of weeks using three running apps for the iPhone—Running Method’s Run Coach Pro, FitnessKeeper’s RunKeeper Pro and Adidas’ miCoach—with the goal of seeing whether any of them could be an adequate substitute for my GPS watch, a Garmin (GRMN) Forerunner 305, which cost me $190 two years ago with a companion heart-rate monitor (the same package now sells for $153 on Amazon). (There’s a BlackBerry version of miCoach app and an Android app is in the works.)

The answer, in one case, is an emphatic yes. There are, however, some tradeoffs to running with an iPhone that might make using any running app a deal-killer for some people. First, the iPhone is a handsome device that faces a risk of disfigurement from your sweaty hands as well as from falling onto concrete so runners will want to consider buying an accessory that keeps the phone safe.

My Garmin is a giant of a watch, but at least it doesn’t require its own carrying case on a run, unlike the iPhone. Armbands for the iPhone let you easily glance at the screen while you’re working out. I ran with the iPhone tucked into a carrying pouch that came with a water-bottle belt I used on long runs. The iPhone is also a music player, which meant I could leave the iPod Shuffle at home. The iPhone’s maps feature also would have been very helpful on runs in unfamiliar places where I’ve gotten completely lost.

Revolver’s Run Coach Pro ($2.99) was the most bare-bones apps I ran with. It starts by guiding you through a few selections to develop a training plan for everything from achieving basic fitness to finishing a 50K “ultra” run. You tell the app your experience level as a runner, when any race you plan to run will occur and which day of the week you like to do your long runs—the endurance workouts that are a cornerstone of half-marathon and marathon training.

The RunKeeper Pro app helps runners record information about their runs.

The app then crafts a weekly running schedule telling you which days to run and rest on; how long to run (in time terms); and how hard to run (for example, easy or race pace). During runs, it tracks your distance, your overall pace and time elapsed.

One of the biggest drawbacks of Run Coach Pro is that you have to look at the iPhone screen while you’re running to check on your progress. That’s a big distraction if, like me, you run with your iPhone in a case on a belt.

The app could have gotten around this by using voice commands to tell me through my headphones when to go faster or slower, which would have been helpful on days when the app recommended I do interval runs, where I was supposed to vary my pace.

RunKeeper’s RunKeeper Pro ($9.99), in contrast, uses a pleasant female voice to tell you when you’re falling short of or exceeding a target pace that you establish with the app before your run. You can control how often the voice chimes in through your headphones at various time and distance intervals.

It also helps them work out smarter, right.

If you’re listening to music, RunKeeper Pro temporarily dims your tunes so you can hear the voice commands. A free version of RunKeeper lacks these voice commands.

I was most disappointed by the lack of a feature that allows you to build a training calendar for a specific race. The publisher says such a feature is coming. The app syncs all the data it collects during a workout to the RunKeeper Web site, which makes it easy to look at some basic weekly and monthly statistics your runs, but charges extra for weekly reports with other data, like average pace and calories burned.

The free miCoach app from apparel maker Adidas does all the same run tracking of the other apps, but it was the only one to really use the intelligence of the iPhone to provide decent coaching during runs.

I first set up a training calendar for a half-marathon in November through the miCoach Web site on my computer, which then synced the plan with my iPhone. It then told me to do a 12-minute “assessment workout” during which a coach instructed me to proceed from a walk to a fast pace, providing detailed instructions on how much I should be exerting myself at each interval (“conversation should be difficult”). It assessed my fitness level by judging how fast I moved into different intervals.

This step was key for helping miCoach calibrate how fast I should be going during different stages of a run. All of the instructions it gave me during runs were personalized to my fitness level based on that initial assessment run.

Adidas has also done a good job keeping all of its coaching from getting too complicated. The app and its companion Web site use a color-coded system of speed zones, from the slowest, blue, to the fastest, red, to visually illustrate how difficult an upcoming series of runs will be.

It’s worth noting that all iPhones now ship with a running app made by Nike, which I omitted from this review because it currently requires an additional $19 sensor that attaches to your running shoes to track runs. A new version of the app that uses the iPhone’s GPS is due out soon. For now, miCoach is the only iPhone app for which I would forsake my Garmin watch.

Walter S. Mossberg is on vacation. Mossberg’s Mailbox will return Sept. 16. Email Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com.

New iPods: Touch Gets FaceTime, Nano Gets Multitouch, Shuffle Gets Click Wheel

John Paczkowski — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:05:27 +0000

Apple’s (AAPL) refreshed lineup of iPods, introduced by Steve Jobs today, looks pretty much as anticipated.

The iPod touch–the No. 1 portable gaming machine in the world, Jobs said–is getting the Retina Display and A4 chip of the iPhone 4, along with HD video recording and a front-facing camera with support for FaceTime video chatting. And there’s a new ad tagline for the touch: “All kinds of fun.” The 8GB is available for $229, the 32GB for $299 and the 64GB for $399. Preorders begin today.

The new iPod nano is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter than its predecessors, thanks to the elimination of all those bulky controls and the addition of a little multitouch screen. A colorful selection will go for $149 for 8GB, $179 for 16GB.

As to the iPod shuffle, Jobs said customers missed the controls on the current buttonless model, so the new version is getting a click wheel. Price is $49 for the 2GB gadget.

Fitbit Sees How You Run, Walk and Sleep

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:28:38 +0000

Everyone knows they ought to be eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep. But when they take the elevator up one flight of stairs, drive six blocks instead of walking and skimp on sleep to watch the end of the big game, it’s their little secret.

Not for long.

[ See post to watch video ]

I’ve been testing Fitbit, a tiny $99 device with a motion-detecting sensor that, when worn, digitally records one’s distance (walking or running), calories burned and steps taken—as well as sleep patterns. The Fitbit wirelessly sends the data to its Web site, fitbit.com, for storing these minute-by-minute details. And the site has space where users add details like food and water consumption so it provides a more accurate picture of calories burned versus calories consumed.

I’ve been using Fitbit almost nonstop for the past week. I occasionally forgot to wear this lightweight tracking device because I was dog-sitting for a friend’s puppy and barely remembered to wear my shoes, much less Fitbit, as we dashed out the door for walks at 5:30 a.m. But after just a couple days of using Fitbit, I got hooked on the idea of keeping digital tabs on myself, and I liked looking back at my activity log over a period of time. I started taking the long way walking to and from my Washington, D.C., Metro stop. Rather than rolling my chair over to the printer to grab a printout, I stood up and walked the four feet over to it so I could log a few extra steps.

The idea of tracking one’s own fitness is nothing new, as anyone with an old pedometer will tell you. But Fitbit’s technology makes it easier to record and store data, and its corresponding Web site analyzes the data in relation to personal information like gender, age, weight and height. Unlike some other products, it attempts to track your body’s activity while you’re asleep and awake, rather than one or the other. For instance, the $29 Nike + iPod Sport Kit specifically monitors running or walking; the $399 Zeo Personal Sleep Coach records people’s brain waves to analyze sleep behavior.

The $99 Fitbit has a motiondetecting sensor and measures distance, calories, steps and sleep patterns.

But the Nike + iPod and Zeo offer Web components that Fitbit currently lacks. The Nike + iPod lets you upload your workout details to see how you stack up against others or to compete against friends. The Zeo, too, lets you upload your data to its Web site, where sleep patterns can be analyzed and daily coaching tips are offered.

Fitbit data is automatically transferred to Fitbit.com, but for now, this site isn’t particularly social and doesn’t offer as much in-depth personal analysis and coaching. The site doesn’t allow you to use your data to interact with a community of other users. The company says it plans to launch its online community by December, giving people a forum for anonymously comparing their data or working with a group toward a goal, like losing a certain amount of weight. And while the Fitbit.com site is free, the company is considering plans to charge a monthly fee for additional personal data analysis and coaching—a feature that may launch early next year.

At two inches high and a half-inch wide, Fitbit reminded me of the rectangular iPod Shuffle that clips onto clothing. It weighs just four-tenths of an ounce. The device also has a tiny holster for a firmer hold. I used this holster just to be on the safe side and the combination was still so small and weightless that I often forgot I was wearing Fitbit. While sleeping, I wore a Velcro wristband that held the device in place. Fitbit Inc. says the wrist is the best place to measure activity during sleep; let’s just hope you don’t dream about conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

A button on the Fitbit shuffles through four blue screens that show calories, distance (in miles), steps, and a Tamagotchi-like flower that grows when your activity increases and shrinks when it decreases. This flower learns your behavior over time, so if you start working out heavily, it raises its standards and won’t grow as quickly.

Along with its holster and sleeping wristband, Fitbit comes with a base station—a small USB-connected stand for charging. The battery takes an hour to fully charge and lasts five to 10 days. Battery status can be checked through Fitbit.com.

First-time Fitbit setup isn’t as easy as it should be, though. Unlike some USB devices, this one doesn’t come with preloaded software, so you have to go to Fitbit.com/start to download software for the Mac or PC. This allows the plugged-in base station to act as a receiver: Whenever a Fitbit is within 15 feet of a base station plugged into a computer that’s turned on and has Fitbit software installed, its data is automatically sent to Fitbit.com in 15-minute intervals.

The device will hold seven days of minute-by-minute data and 30 days’ worth of daily data, so you don’t have to worry about losing everything if you aren’t near your base station for a while. Using the device is as simple as moving; it’s always on—there’s no on/off button. Setting the Fitbit to record sleep sessions is almost as easy: You press and hold its button for two seconds until “Start” appears; do the same until “Stop” appears when you wake in the morning.

The data that show up on Fitbit.com reflect the device’s 3-D motion-detecting sensor. Rather than simply counting your steps, Fitbit can accurately read your motion intensity and therefore sorts motion into sedentary, lightly active, fairly active and very active. Running with the dog registered as very active movement, as did my power-walking trips to the Metro. Predictably, my time spent writing this column registered as sedentary. I got up and did five minutes of jumping jacks, which were recognized on the Web site minutes later as very active movements. If you change data on Fitbit.com, like your weight, this transfers to the device so it’s calibrating as accurately as possible.

According to my sleep records, I wake up often while I sleep—11 different times in one night—but don’t remember doing so. I wanted to know more about these different sleep states, but Fitbit doesn’t analyze that sort of thing.

Fitbit.com bases its Web-site information on biomechanical studies performed by government agencies and universities over several years. It sets goals for each person according to his or her base metabolic rate, which is determined by gender, age, weight and height—all details that users can opt to enter, or not, during setup. On a typical workday, I met 80% of my calorie-burning goal and 71% of my miles-traveled goal. All of these goals can be adjusted from what Fitbit.com sets. An easy-to-read pie chart displayed my four levels of motion in color-coded percentages.

Extra activities and food consumption can be manually added, and though bookmarking tools make it easier to do this, I opted not to do this.

Fitbits began shipping at the end of September and will continue shipping to customers who pre-ordered the devices. In January, Fitbit Inc. will start delivering new orders and Fitbits will appear in retail stores.

–Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Weekend Update, 3.21.09–March Madness Edition

Beth Callaghan — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:10:23 +0000

Technically, the term refers to the frenzied flow of games and the intensity of the contenders for the NCAA Championship crown. But the NCAA doesn’t have a corner on “March Madness”–those descriptors work well in other instances, too. To wit:

BoomTown posted from various spots in Europe this week, yet managed to follow the geek-tastic goodness of Silicon Valley’s own contender, Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak, who competed while injured this week on “Dancing With the Stars”–and escaped elimination via the love of viewers in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Another founder made the headlines this week–BoomTown noted that Steve Case appeared at a huge pep rally at Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL. Case and former AOL exec Ted Leonsis gave their support (and a lucky green tie) to new CEO Tim Armstrong. Elsewhere, Pure Digital, the maker of BoomTown’s favorite gadget–the ever-present Flip digital video camera–sold itself to Cisco (CSCO) for $590 million in stock, and BoomTown urged Silicon Valley to remember it’s not immune to the recession, to put its nose to the grindstone and to avoid party-hearty inanity.

Guess no one’s taking heed of the warning, though: MediaMemo reports that no one’s getting anything done at work–CBS (CBS) says its March Madness Web traffic is up 57 percent compared to last year. On top of that, television viewership rose various percentages throughout the week. MM wasn’t watching much basketball this week, though–there was plenty to blog about: The New York Times (NYT) cracked down on unauthorized use of its photos; Discovery Communications (DISCA) announced a patent infringement suit against Amazon and its Kindle Reader; Palm (PALM) delivered dismal third quarter results, putting even greater pressure on the success of the Pre; and in a Q&A with BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler, Steve Ballmer said he’s open to a phone call from Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz whenever she’s ready to talk. Oh, and in case you were wondering what happened at SXSW, MediaMemo got a Google (GOOG) guy to explain it.

Digital Daily’s March Madness started with a liveblog of Apple’s St. Patrick’s Day press event to unveil version 3.0 of its iPhone OS, a chronicle of the myriad features displayed onstage and a live photoblog to back it up. DD noted that sales of the iPod touch and iPhone have outstripped RIM’s (RIMM) combined BlackBerry sales by a factor of… well, by a LOT. Kind of supports the data that say mobile Web use doubled over the last year. Which is good, because Mac sales were no good in February.

In Personal Technology, Walt Mossberg reviewed the latest release of Microsoft IE8 (MSFT), its most comprehensive release in many years. His verdict? Mixed, of course. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt talked to readers about the many models of BlackBerry phones and how they differ from one another, the new iPod shuffle and its earphone compatibility and upgrading Vista to Windows 7. In the Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret reviewed the Ee Top, Asus’s first foray into the all-in-one PC market.

More next week. Go Woz!

How BlackBerry Models Differ

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:12:02 +0000

Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

I get confused by all the different models of the BlackBerry — Bold, Storm, Curve, Pearl and so on. Can you briefly explain the differences?

There are too many models to list here, because RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, makes varying versions for competing wireless carriers, and these may have different features, even if they look the same. However, here’s a quick breakdown of the main flavors.

The Bold is the top-of-the-line BlackBerry, relatively large and costly, with a wide keyboard and a big, vivid screen. The Curve is its little brother — still sporting a good, full, keyboard, but lower-priced, smaller and lighter. The newest Curve, called the 8900, has a beautiful screen and is even sleeker than its predecessor.

The Pearl is a slimmer, low-priced, more fashion-oriented model with a truncated keyboard that has two letters on each key and relies on software to guess which one you meant to hit. The Pearl Flip is much like the Pearl, except, as its name implies, it’s a flip phone.

The Storm is the BlackBerry line’s most direct competitor to the Apple iPhone. It’s the only BlackBerry without a physical keyboard, instead relying on a large, beautiful touch screen for typing and navigation. Unlike on the iPhone, however, the Storm provides physical feedback each time you press down on the screen.

I’d be interested in the new, tiny iPod Shuffle, except that I dislike Apple’s earbuds. And, because they have now moved the playback controls to the earbud cord, I can’t use my favorite third-party set. What are my options?

Well, one option is to buy the old model of the Shuffle, which Apple is keeping on the market. It’s larger, but still very small, and has the controls on the player itself, rather than on the earbud cord, so you can use plain old earbuds or headphones from other companies. Plus, at $49, it’s $30 less, though it has only 25% of the capacity of the new one and lacks the new model’s voice features.

Another, costlier, option is to buy better earbuds that have the new controller built in. Apple sells a pair of $79 in-ear buds with a control module on the cord. They were designed for the iPod Touch, but the company says they work perfectly with the new Shuffle. Several other headphone companies, such as Klipsch, have announced plans to offer either headphones or adapters with Shuffle-compatible controls in coming months.

Is it safe to upgrade my Vista PC to the beta version of Windows 7?

Since it is a beta version, there is always some danger of problems. But I have upgraded a couple of Vista computers with no special tricks or help, and with no significant problems. Still, there are a couple of caveats. First, Microsoft will be replacing the beta with a more polished “release candidate” that could involve a re-installation process, so you may want to hold off. Second, Microsoft isn’t guaranteeing that every hardware feature on every computer or peripheral will work properly under the pre-release versions.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

iPhone 3 Rumors Upgraded to Outperform

John Paczkowski — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:07:59 +0000

Apple’s (AAPL) plan to preview iPhone OS 3.0 tomorrow is a sure sign that the company is on track to debut the next iteration of the phone on which it will run this summer. That’s the word from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who has high expectations for the OS and device both. “In the past two weeks Apple has introduced new Mac hardware and a new iPod shuffle, for which the company simply issued a press release,” Munster wrote in a research note. “The fact that Apple is hosting an event for the iPhone OS 3.0 shows that it will likely involve meaningful changes to the iPhone feature set. Apple may be settling into an annual summer hardware refresh cycle with the iPhone, similar to the iPod’s fall refresh cycle.”

Just what does Munster mean by “meaningful changes”? Like others, he anticipates the addition of universal search, background processing/multitasking and the long pined-for cut and paste.

Incidentally, Munster says he doesn’t expect Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave from the company until June, to attend tomorrow’s event. Tim Cook will be filling the Jobs role for the time being, he says–as much as possible, anyway. Said Munster, “During Jobs’ absence, the pace of innovation at Apple has continued, which we believe will reassure investors. Increasingly, we believe investors are considering the future of Apple under Cook’s leadership as a positive.”

Weekend Update, 3.14.09–Special Roman "Ides of March" Edition

Beth Callaghan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:54:15 +0000

In Silicon Valley, it’s hard to believe that not everyone follows each shiny new thing on the Web, tracks OS versions as intently as the storyline of “Battlestar Galactica” and remains jacked-in pretty much 24/7. But it’s been known to happen.

For instance, BoomTown was in Rome earlier this week attending a conference on business, brand and innovation that happens only once every seven years–and one of the biggest takeaways? Hardly any Italians have heard of Twitter, and those who have don’t really use it. Well, that, and conversations with Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, and several Italian business leaders. Mark Zuckerberg, though, is most definitely plugged into the white-hot microblogging service. This week, he used his Twitter account, plus an appearance on “Oprah,” as a platform to herald the launch of Facebook’s own Twitteresque homepage redesign. In other news, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes laid off AOL President and COO Ron Grant and Chairman and CEO Randy Falco. BoomTown interviewed Falco’s replacement, Google (GOOG) ad sales exec Tim Armstrong, who’ll start at AOL as Chairman and CEO on April 7.

MediaMemo had the full memo from Time Warner on the Falco/Grant-Armstrong transition and also spoke with Boxee CEO Avner Ronen this week. Boxee is the start-up that lets you watch Web video on your TV, basically bypassing your cable box. Which is probably why it’s caught up in a cat-and-mouse game with Hulu, the joint venture between GE’s (GE) NBC and News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox that would much rather have you watch TV on the Internet instead. Guess who’s the mouse? Still, Hulu is down two networks, ABC and CBS (CBS)–though presumably, the aim is to offer all three. (News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones, which owns this Web site.) MediaMemo also noted that Google rolled out its behavioral targeting functionality this week and points out that we all might be hearing a lot more from a man named Rick Boucher in the near future as a result.

Behavioral targeting wasn’t the only thing that Google rolled out this week–it also launched Google Voice, the initiative based on the company’s acquisition of voice communications start-up GrandCentral. Digital Daily covered the story. Elsewhere in the telecom world, major Palm (PALM) investor Roger McNamee made some bold (read: crazy) assertions about iPhone users switching en masse to the Pre, which later needed to be clarified (read: backed away from) by Palm itself. RBC analyst Mike Abramsky is also bullish on the Pre and its WebOS, but in a less crazy way. He gave it a glowing write-up on Friday. For a product that hasn’t yet been given a price or a launch date, it’s certainly building itself some high expectations. Of course, it’ll need to fulfill them to compete with the ever-evolving iPhone, which for which Apple (AAPL) is having a press event Tuesday to announce version 3.0 of the device’s OS.

Walt Mossberg reviewed the new version of Apple’s ever-evolving iPod Shuffle this week, which has the distinction of being the first mp3 player to “speak.” His verdict was in Wednesday’s Personal Technology column. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt answered questions about using a stylus with the iPhone and offered an explanation on how to change Apple’s Safari 4 beta so that it looks and works more like the previous version. And in this week’s Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret took a look at iSkoot’s Notifier, an app designed to endow basic cellphones with smartphone-like capabilities.

More next week. And beware the Ides of March. Or not.

Weekend Update, 3.14.09–Special Roman "Ides of March" Edition

Beth Callaghan — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:54:15 +0000

More next week. And beware the Ides of March. Or not.

First It Talks, Then There's Trouble

Nitrozac and Snaggy — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:45:34 +0000

The Littlest iPod Packs In Songs and Finds Its Voice

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:02:05 +0000

In these days of economic distress, it’s nice when technology companies add innovative features to the products at the bottom of their price ranges. So it’s notable that Apple’s cheapest iPod, the oft-forgotten Shuffle model, is getting smarter.

In fact, the latest iPod Shuffle, announced Wednesday and available now for $79, is the first portable music player I’ve tested that announces what’s playing. Push a button and it will tell you, in a computerized voice, the title and artist of whatever song you’re hearing. Keep holding that button and it will recite a roll call of all your playlists, allowing you to select among them. In my tests, this worked as advertised.

[ See post to watch video ]

In addition, this new Shuffle is almost impossibly small. The company has moved the playback and volume controls off the device and onto a small, convenient module built into one of the earbud cords. That allowed Apple (AAPL) to severely shrink the player itself, which, like the two Shuffle models before it, lacks a screen. Apple claims it’s the world’s smallest music player, smaller than a AA battery or a house key.

The result is an iPod that contains four gigabytes of memory and holds 1,000 songs — twice the capacity of its $69 predecessor — yet is just a little blank rectangle of aluminum, available in silver or black. It’s a mere 1.8″ long, 0.7″ wide, and 0.3 inch thick — including a stainless-steel clip that’s built into the back for attaching it to clothing or backpacks.

This player is so small and thin that it reminds me of the popular “Saturday Night Live” skit in which an actor playing Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off a series of tinier and tinier iPods culminating in a final fictional model that’s invisible. I actually dropped the new Shuffle while testing it and it took a couple of minutes to locate it behind a table leg.

After using this new iPod Shuffle for a few days, I can say that I like it. It does a good job at playing back music, podcasts and audio books. I found the speech function intelligible and helpful, and the earbud-mounted controls convenient and easy to master. And its tiny size and weight of about a third of an ounce make it an especially good choice for people who use their iPods while exercising.

Apple’s new iPod Shuffle

Only a single button appears on the iPod itself, as opposed to on the earbuds. It’s a sliding power button on the top edge that has three positions — one for “off,” one for shuffling your music, and one for playing your songs in order. Once you set this button, you never have to touch the iPod itself, until you want to turn it off.

The new speech-based navigation feature allows the Shuffle, for the first time, to handle multiple playlists, just like on the larger iPods.

In my tests, I managed to squeeze in more than the 1,000 songs Apple claims. I filled my test Shuffle with nearly 1,100 songs, plus a half dozen podcasts and an abridged audio-book edition of President Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope,” read by the author. My music was organized into about 15 playlists, and I was able to switch among them easily using the voice system.

To pause or resume a song, you click the large center portion of the earbud controller once, quickly. To skip to the next song, you click the same button twice, quickly. To change to the previous song, you click it three times quickly.

If you want the computerized “announcer” to identify the song, you press the center button for a longer time, and you keep holding it to start the playlist roll call. When you hear a playlist you want, you press the button again. Smaller buttons at the top and bottom of this earbud controller adjust the volume up and down. It sounds more complicated than it is. While the voice function is in use, the music keeps playing in the background, at reduced volume.

The computerized voice, available in multiple languages, is hardly perfect. Like all such computer voices, its cadence can sound robotic, and it clips some syllables, but I found it perfectly understandable.

The spoken names of your particular songs, artists and playlists are added when you sync the Shuffle with iTunes. The voice quality is best when using a Mac with the latest operating system. It is slightly cruder on Windows or older Mac operating systems.

Even on the latest Macs, the voice got some words wrong. For a live concert album, it pronounced the word “live” as “liv,” and in another case, it pronounced the Roman numeral “IV” as “eye-vee.”

There are some other downsides. The claimed battery life is just 10 hours, down from 12 on the prior Shuffle model. You can’t fully operate the Shuffle with regular earbuds or headphones that lack the special controller. And, if you have numerous playlists, it could be tedious waiting for the voice control to say all their names until it reaches the one you want.

Still, Apple has packed a lot of new intelligence into a truly tiny music player, at a pretty low price.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

National Semi Chips Away at Workforce

John Paczkowski — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:22:24 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

New From Apple: iPod Shuffle HAL Edition

John Paczkowski — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:28:10 +0000

The Apple Store went down for updating early this morning and when it returned, it featured an all-new iPod shuffle. Nearly half the size of its predecessor, this third-generation player features a new aluminum design and holds up to 1,000 songs with its 4GB of built-in storage. It also boasts a new VoiceOver feature that enables it to say the names of song titles, artists and playlists outloud in 14 languages (click here to hear an example).

“Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing said in a statement. “The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you.”

An interesting feature for those of us that can’t always recall a song name or its author simply by listening to it. Reminds me of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“Dave Bowman: Tell me the name of the song, HAL.
HAL: I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Dave Bowman: What’s the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do….”

As with most Apple (AAPL) products, the design of the device is impressive–sleek and impossibly small. That said, one of its elements may prove off-putting: The new shuffle lacks a click wheel. Its controls have been moved to the earphone cord. Which means it’s incompatible with third-party earphones until someone comes out with an adapter cable that will make it a bit costlier than its $79 price.