Appletell

Popular iPod accessory maker ezGear has announced a new video cable that will work with current generation of iPods and the iPhone. The ezGear video cable for iPod lets you connect your iPod or iPhone to a television or ezVision Glasses to play movies, music, TV shows, YouTube Clips or view pictures.

These video cables are sealed with shielded cables for better image and design and even includes Apple’s authentication clip which is incorporated into Apple’s Dock Connector under the made for iPod program. It is proven to work with iPod Touch, iPhone, iPod Classic, and iPod nano G3. In addition to being a video cable for iPod, this iPod accessory doubles up as charger through its female USB connector.

The ezGear video cable for iPod and the iPhone is slated for June release at an SRP of $40, but you can score one for a discounted introductory price of $20 if you pre-order soon, as inright now.

Product [ezGear]

Want to put the external disk option in your iPod to good use? I mean, your iPod Shuffle, Nano, and 5th generation with with video models are all good as portable disk drives, right? So why let a good feature go to waste because of Apple’s closed system? With a new product called miShare, you can kiss the problem of file swapping between iPods goodbye. Simply attach one iPod on one end, and another on the other end, et voilà! The first iPod can now save the files to the second one on its hard disk, and vice versa. The only catch is that you have to add all the files, whether they be music, photos, notes, etc., via your PC because as mentioned previously, the data is only saved on the hard disk. But really, isn’t that forgivable given the convenience that this product brings?

miShare is available now for only $99.

Product [miShare] Via [CrunchGear]

Something went wrong in the Apple iTunes/iPod world, which has created havoc among the 5G iPod user community. Well, not really. However, the old but still loved media player is having some issues. Videos purchased from iTunes simply will not play, which includes any and all type video purchased from Apple’s iTunes store. After several posts on the Apple Discussion forums, the company has decided to look at the issue and hopefully fix it. Well, fixing it meaning a huge update. Apple has reported that a “huge” update will hit sometime soon, which will supposedly fix the issue. Sadly, all 5G users with purchased video can do is wait for this update to be released.

Via [MacUser]

Computers.  Displays.  Cell phones.  Music players.  Online music.  Storage.  Networking.  Apple is already in a ton of markets, many of which, unfortunately, are tightly tied together.  However, Apple is still a relatively young company and can branch out so much more.  The questions is, if at all, where?  Will they enter the digital camera market?  The gaming market?  The GPS and auto market?  Or maybe even video cameras?  It could be any of the above, especially given the fact that Apple has applied for so many patents lately.  It will be interesting to find out, but heres my thoughts:

MORE »

Apple has just released an update for Apple TV.  This update, 2.0.2, is the second one since the Apple TV Take 2, but there is no word yet on any big changes besides the normal bug fixes.  It appears that this update came at a perfect time as you can now use your newly updated Apple TV to buy PBS content from iTunes.  Also quietly released, this new content includes video, as well as teacher guides, from stations such as WGBH, KQED, and WETA.  There are also some NOVA episodes up, making this a great resource for teachers.

There are over 200 tracks up on iTunes including interviews and radio shows, so feel free to go check them out and let us know how it is.  Also be sure to tell us if you find anything new or interesting in the Apple TV update.

The iPhone hackers just won’t take a break; it appears iPhone firmware 1.2 has been somehow found and hacked already. It has all of the features that Steve demonstrated in the iPhone SDK Roadmap event. The features you’ll notice in the video include:

• New calculator design with squared buttons
• The iTunes Wi-Fi Store is now simply called “iTunes”, and has a new icon
• Time Zone support in Calendar
• Microsoft Exchange in the new Mail accounts
• Parental controls
• Cisco VPN support

Unfortunately what is not shown is the AppStore, the major new feature that we’ll be seeing in June. This could be because the AppStore just doesn’t work from outside of Apple right now, or that if they were to launch it, the IP would be shown to Apple, and it would be a security risk.

Watch the video after the jump.

MORE »

It’s been a while since anyone has talked about the 5G iPod. But today, the 5G iPod gets a new firmware update: 1.3.  Of course, this update contains the usual “bug fixes” - that’s about all we know about the update so far - no new features have been discovered. If you have a 5G iPod, when you connect it to iTunes, you will see a message reminding you to upgrade; however the software is not on Apple’s website yet.

My guess is that these are probably minor fixes to some new iTunes features like movie rentals, possibly for future movie rentals in other parts of the world. If any of our readers have installed the update on their 5G iPod and discover anything different, please let us know by commenting.

Via [TUAW]

The QuickTime stream of Apple’s iPhone SDK Roadmap event was available not long after the event itself. But some people like to have a download copy of the event, rather than streaming - usually because of slow internet connection, or because they want to watch it on an iPod. Like the Macworld Keynote video, the SDK Roadmap event has been uploaded on iTunes and is available as a free 796.5MB download.

On another note, if you’re on an iPod Touch or iPhone connected to Wi-Fi, you will be able to visit the QuickTime stream website and actually stream it directly from your iPhone/iPod Touch. The quality is just as good as on a computer. It works in exactly the same way as the BBC’s new iPlayer for iPhone.

Via [TUAW]

The earlier leaks are now confirmed to be true by the BBC themselves, who have launched a special version of the iPlayer website for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As of today, users on an iPod Touch or iPhone can browse to bbc.co.uk/iplayer through Safari, and view specifically-encoded videos for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Right now there are only a limited number of shows that will work on this mobile version, but shows are being added constantly. The video is encoded at 400Kbps H.264 video, with a 116Kbps AAC soundtrack. Because of this relatively large file size, the iPhone can only access content through Wi-Fi, as EDGE speeds will be too slow.

I tried this out on my iPod Touch, and I was impressed by the video and audio quality streams. Of course, I was using Wi-Fi, but there was very little time between buffering and starting the video stream. Make sure you turn the screen orientation to landscape, or else the video will play portrait in a 4:3 format.

Via [MacNN]

YouTube has been quietly re-encoding some of its videos, users have found. Where possible, they have increased the videos’ resolution from 320x240 to 480x360. They have also made improvements to the sound, including AAC audio instead of the mono sound on previous encodings. These up-conversions are happening mainly to newly uploaded videos, but they are also selecting older videos, such as the skateboarding dog video, to re-encode.

YouTube, though the biggest and most prevalent of video sharing sites, is falling behind in features, and this re-encoding might be an attempt to catch up with other video sharing sites that have begun offing 720p HD video options. It might also be influenced by Apple, who was behind the conversion to H.264, allowing for iPhone playback without Flash.

Via [Electronista]