Appletell

The leaves are falling, the air is crisp, and we’re heading towards that time of the year: Halloween. Time to put a little horror on your video-capable iPod, courtesy of the fine folks at The Internet Archive. And, our first link of the season is the classic horror film, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Arguably the most famous zombie film ever made, this low-budget fright fest features a group of mismatched people who barricade themselves in a house on a night when the dead rise to feast on the living. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, quickly they begin to turn on each other.

Video and links after the break.

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Speaking to UK newspaper The Telegraph, Steve Wozniak said that the iPod’s time is limited.

“The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one. Things like, that if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while,” Woz said. He certainly has evidence supporting him. You may remember the recent quarterly results call after which stock dropped because iPods had seen little to no sales growth. I pointed out in an article at the time that it was no reason to panic, as stockholders are apt to do, as by now pretty much everyone and their dog has an iPod. They are no longer new devices, and demand just won’t be as high. The iPod touches, along with iPhone breakout sales are what are keeping the iPhone/iPod sector growing at this point, and it’s because it is new technology.

Woz also talks about a change in how computer comanies do business: “It is time for the whole computer industry to maybe have a bit of a slowdown. For twenty years we have been in this replacement and upgrade market. It is very easy to postpone that when there are financial irregularities.”

Read [The Telegraph]

As the 2008 presidental contest heats up, the candidates are increasingly taking advantage of technology and social media to connect with their supporters. Today, the Obama campaign released an iPhone/iPod Touch application which will allow supporters to track and coordinate their volunteering efforts, as well as receive updates regarding their candidate. 

What’s interesting to me is that the app also adds a competitive element, allowing users to track the calls they’ve been making against a leaderboard.

Jump past the break to see the full list of features.

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Got an Airport Express Base Station or an AppleTV? Got a whole mess of music on a central computer? Then you, my friend, could be streaming your music through your home stereo system, and Macworld tells you how:

If you have an AirPort Express Base Station, string an audio cable between its audio port and an input port on a stereo receiver or powered speakers. Launch AirPort Utility (found in /Applications/Utilities), select your AirPort Express, configure it so it’s part of your network, and click the Music tab. In this tab enable the Enable AirTunes option and click Update. Your AirPort Express is now ready to receive music streamed to it from iTunes.

And there’s even more, including how to set up your AppleTV to stream music, and how to use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a remote control. It’s the world of tomorrow, today!

Via [Macworld]

Online retailer Amazon has teamed up with the 800 lb. gorilla of search engines, Google, to announce a new online music store that will allow users to purchase MP3s from Amazon via mobile devices using Google’s new “Android” operating system. Apple immediately announced it would be discontinued, as it “replicates functionality found in iTunes.”

Okay, I made that last bit up.

From Wired:

Owners of the device will be able to browse, search, preview and purchase music on the Amazon MP3 store using the phone’s cellular connection. In order for purchased MP3s to download, the phone must be connected via Wi-Fi. (The mobile iTunes store, on the other hand, remains completely offline without WiFi.)

Oooh, burn!

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Hey, Apple, thanks for not mentioning these at that big, fancy event you held.

Seems either Steve forgot to mention a product, or retailers are the mistaken ones. A 4GB iPod nano has been showing up in several places. First at a Dutch store, then at Amazon Germany, and now on the Canadian Best Buy site, the 4GB 4G iPod (the fours are confusing, I know) are mysteriously popping up batch by batch all over the world. The only explanation, recently provided by an Apple spokesperson, is that Apple made limited amounts of this shrunken iPod specifically for international markets. However, it remains strange that Apple has not made an official announcement.

If you can live with carrying around only a portion of your library at a time, and want to feel special, this nano sells for $139 on the Best Buy Canada website.

Via [Engadget]

Steve Jobs has been touting the recyclability of the new iPods, but is the just how “green” is the new iPod nano?

Smart Planet looked into the issue and found out that while Steve says the nano is made from “highly recyclable aluminium enclosure,” Apple UK wasn’t able to tell them what, exactly, that meant.

The verdict from Greenpeace, however, is positive…

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In a recent article on his personal blog, Adam Fisher-Cox has details on how he thinks (and now how I think) the new Grid View in iTunes 8 should work. I personally have had issues with the Grid View (details in my review of iTunes 8), and this has the potential to be the perfect fix for those issues. Take note, Steve Jobs, as this may be a great idea for you to take in to consideration for iTunes 8.1.

Read on for more thoughts on the fix.

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Digg co-founder Kevin Rose practiced a slick bit of nerdvoyance with his predictions for the Apple “Let’s Rock” event. Not only did Rose get every “prediction” right, he also had leaked product photos.  The gang at Gizmodo figure that Apple’s looking to plug some leaks right about now, as Rose obviously had inside info.

Details after the break.

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As expected, today Apple launched a new version of iTunes to go along with their revamped iPod line, and during the Apple Event, Steve Jobs simply could not shut up about the newest iTunes feature: “Genius.”

What Genius does is analyze the music and video in your iTunes library (provided that you opt-in to the service, that is), and recommend other music and shows you might like, based on other users with similar tastes. It’s similar to the recommendation feature used by movie rental site Netflix and online “radio station” Pandora to help users find new movies and music.

Some very interesting details (including an odd reaction to the Beatles) after the break.

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