By Brendan I. Koerner
I'm by no means an audiophile, but I've never quite gotten the appeal of low-end iPod speakers. I mean, it's definitely a sign of mankind's genius that $8.99 can now buy you the means to pump audible music—cavemen would've no doubt killed for that sort of powersorcery. But the sound quality is invariably pretty abysmal, either annoyingly tinny or obscured under a soupy dither. Your typical cheapo iPod speaker system is really just one-and-a-half steps above the ChipCorder.
But I'm obviously in the minority here, because few low-end product categories have flourished like iPod speakers. I noted this $4.99 unit in last week's column, about the panoply of gadgets on display at Bed Bath & Beyond. But those speakers were only the iceberg's tip—the sector's current taxonomy is a wonder to behold, and a testament the creativity of low-end designers. If you thought the Lords of Guangdong Electronics were only good at knockoffs, y...

In a nutshell, Apple made a ton of money, beating Analyst expectations: $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million.
That's..., or $.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $4.36 billion and net quarterly profit of $410 million, or $.47 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
A lot of that came from them selling Macs of all things: 1,517,000 of them, which is more like the number they sold during the Holiday quarter. A lot of those through Apple Stores. The total mac sales were 57% of their total revenue. Ironic since Apple dropped "Computer" from their name.
iPod sales, pumped by Color Shuffle sales, jumped 24%, but I'm not sure if that's from last quarter or from the same quarter of last year.
Business 2.0's liveblog says this about the iPhone "Apple is going to keep introducing new software features for free". That's a relief because I really worried that widgets would all be sold by AT&T and Apple for a great deal of mo...

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video
When questioned at a USA Today event yesterday, Steve Ballmer sort of (emphasis on sort of) put the rumor
about the Zune phone to bed -- apparently it's "not a concept you'll ever get from us," but this of course doesn't rule out a phone with Zune functionality. He went on to mention how Microsoft's focus is on Windows Mobile but added that Zune could be put into Windows Mobile as could Xbox (this kind of talk thrills us over here) but that he wouldn't define their phone experience by music alone. While all this could mean something or nothing at all, we're optimistic 'round here and are hoping that the lack of a definitive "no" means there may yet be something in the wings. Xbox-Zune-Windows-Mobile device, anyone? 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio

As if there weren't enough reasons to want to be a kid again, the European Space Agency is holding a contest for children 18-and-under that requires crafting the perfect playlist for astronauts floating around the International Space Station -- and the lucky winner scores a trip to South America to watch an iPod loaded with his/her tunes launched aboard the agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle. In a twist on the old "What would you bring to a desert island" question, the contest -- which is only open to residents of EU countries participating in the ATV program -- asks entrants to envision what ten songs they'd want to listen to (guess they're only sending up a shuffle) as they orbited 400 kilometers above the Earth, and although they rules don't specific prohibit it, we imagine that entries which include "Major Tom," "Free Fallin'," or "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (not to mention anything by the Beatles) will be immediately disqualified. Now when the...

Not that this would be the first time an exec was caught lying through his teeth about future products, but for the time being Ballmer is sticking to the idea their won't be a Zune phone coming from Microsoft.
Interestingly enough, he does say that they could toss Zune (And Xbox) functionality into Windows Mobile. Sneaky, Sneaky. I guess they'll just let the phone manufacturers assume the risk, while reaping the rewards.– Ben Longo

Ballmer: No Zune Phone [WMExperts via Seattle PI]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds
It looks like Microsoft has more than just games on Zune in store for the future, with a recent patent filing revealing the company's plans for a "multi-component gaming system" that would incorporate of an array of devices, including game consoles and handhelds. Apparently, the various devices would be connected either wired or wirelessly, with the processing capabilities and functionality of the devices "augmented" when used in combination. Some of the potential uses given include devices sharing storage space with another, devices running games stored on other devices, and handhelds "taking advantage of the console gaming device's greater processing speed." Of course, this being a patent application, there's no indication as to when any of this may actually see the light of day, nor is there any details on the "dedicated handheld gaming device" that Microsoft refers to throughout the application, though we're pretty sure what it's not.
...

Microsoft's latest patent filing is finally giving us a deeper look into what they plan to do with their Live Anywhere service. Even though it's been a year since Microsoft first demoed the Live Anywhere concept—which promises connectivity from all devices into the same Xbox network—at E3 2006, the only advancement we've seen is the ability to play a handful of Xbox Live games on Vista with your buddies on Xbox 360. All the really cool stuff—playing XBLA games from your cellphone, playing games from your Zune, and communicating anywhere with your Live buddies—has yet to materialize.
In the filing, Microsoft's planning on supplementing weaker devices (in terms of processing power) like mobiles and the Zune, with stronger processors, like Xbox 360 and PCs. That way, through wired and wireless connections, already-rendered video and audio can be streamed to your devices out there in the world. Although we probably still won't see Live Anywher...

Two years ago, Fujitsu announced that it had come up with the world's first film substrate-based bendable color electronic paper featuring image memory function (snappy name, fellas). Well, now they've made something to put it in: The FLEPia (that's a bit better, but I'm still not convinced). it comes in two sizes, A4 (480 grams) and A5 (320 grams) and both are just 12mm thick.
It's easy to operate - put a 4GB memory card in the SD slot, and the content downloads as quick as you like thanks to its high-speed wireless LAN connection. There are six function buttons and a scroll key and, once charged, the battery goes for 50 hours. As well as the silver and, *cough*, pink pearl - which looks suspiciously like Zune pink to us - the FLEPia comes in white pearl. There's a couple of shots of the handy bendy filmy paper after the jump, plus how much the things cost.




Hang onto your huevitos lads, the sharp intake of breath may just be to ...

Two years ago, Fujitsu announced that it had come up with the world's first film substrate-based bendable color electronic paper featuring image memory function (snappy name, fellas). Well, now they've made something to put it in: The FLEPia (that's a bit better, but I'm still not convinced). it comes in two sizes, A4 (480 grams) and A5 (320 grams) and both are just 12mm thick.
It's easy to operate—put a 4GB memory card in the SD slot, and the content downloads as quick as you like thanks to its high-speed wireless LAN connection. There are six function buttons and a scroll key and, once charged, the battery goes for 50 hours. As well as the silver and, *cough*, pink pearl—which looks suspiciously like Zune pink to us—the FLEPia comes in white pearl. There's a couple of shots of the handy bendy filmy paper after the jump, plus how much the things cost.



Hang onto your huevitos lads, the sharp intake of breath may just be ...

David Pogue of the NYTimes saw so much potential in the Sansa Connect, the WiFi music player that can tap into Yahoo!'s big online database without a PC in sight. But it disappointed him. And you know what happens when daddy is disappointed. Spankings.
Sansa's chief ingredient: instant real-time flat-fee access to anything in Yahoo's catalog of two million songs. The spontaneity would put the iPod to shame. The song-requesting feature would put satellite radio to shame. And the Wi-Fi freedom would make the Zune crawl back into its hole. Unfortunately, no matter what SanDisk says, you do not have access to all of Yahoo's two million songs -- because the Sansa doesn't offer any way to find them. There's no Search command, no master list of bands or albums -- no direct access at all.
In fact, you can download only a tiny fraction of Yahoo's catalogs: just what Yahoo decides to offer you on three sampler platters. The first sampler is Yahoo's set of 200 Internet radio ...