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December 11, 2003 |
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Are you frantically looking for the perfect gift for that iPod-obsessed loved one? We have a few to choose from in our latest roundup of crazy iPod accessories. Plus, we give you the lowdown on the lies behind K-Lite. |
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iPod
If you're a techie with lots of techie friends, you probably already know a number of people that own an Apple iPod. If there's one thing that can be said for iPod owners, it's that they love their iPods--sometimes to the point of fetishism. Thankfully for those of us shopping for a holiday gift for an iPod lover, there's a crazy cornucopia of iPod accessories out there designed to appeal to that sick iPod devotion. Start with the cases that let you dress up your adorable little iPod's appearance (sort of reminds me of someone putting a sweater on a toy poodle). Then, work your way up to more serious add-ons, such as a voice recorder or a media reader, and cool output options such as car adapters and speakers. There are even purses and cleaning cloths! Just make sure that when cruising this roundup for gift ideas, you find out whether your pal has an old or a new iPod and double-check that the accessory you're giving matches up. |
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K-Lite
Have you read news stories about 12-year-olds getting busted by the RIAA for file sharing, saying that they used the program only because they were told that it was legal if they paid a fee? Chances are they were telling the truth, because it's likely they were fooled by evil hucksters that put out software such as K-Lite. K-Lite's Web site promises that you won't get sued by the RIAA, because "K-Lite is Perfectly [sic] legal. How can this be? It's simple, K-Lite charges a small one time fee to have access to over 80 million songs, movies, games, TV shows, softwares, and much more." But the truth is that all these promises are pure lies. To play it truly safe, stick to the mainstream legal music download services you already know, such as Apple iTunes, Napster 2.0, and Musicmatch. And if you're looking for free downloads, stick to known P2P software such as Kazaa and its spywareless version Diet Kaza. |
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Lyra
On our list of the top 10 products from CES 2003, the number six slot was taken up by the very slick RCA Lyra RD2780 audio/video jukebox, a promising personal video player that's finally come out--just in time for the holiday season. Back in January, our MP3 Insider Eliot Van Buskirk was pretty impressed with its A/V inputs and outputs, which connect to a TV to record shows directly, and its 3.5-inch color LCD for comfortable viewing. Plus, you can pull images from a CompactFlash card without a computer and display them on the Lyra's screen or on a TV. Eliot is in the process of reviewing this Lyra at the moment, and the early word is that it is still very cool. But with other gadgets such as the Archos AV320 Video Recorder already on the market, this Lyra may not seem quite as dazzling as it did nearly a year ago. We'll see when the review posts in the next week. |
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NEC 525
Do you ever look at our 10 most popular phones in Asia list and just drool? Yeah, so do we. I guess we always want what we can't have, and those cool-looking Japanese phones are not all destined for U.S. shores. But if you're an AT&T Wireless subscriber and find yourself having Asian phone envy, check out the NEC 525; we know a lot of you already have, judging by our popular search terms. This NEC handset's name has the suffix HDM, or High-Definition Mobile, and it delivers gorgeous images on its 2.2-inch, 65,536-color display and on its 4,096-color external LCD. Plus, it sports a built-in digital camera. If you like games on your phone, the NEC 525 has two processors: one for phone functions and the other for games, which helps games load and play more quickly--way cool. |
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Sanyo VM4500
First you fickle readers are all over the camera phones; now you want video phones, too? I have to admit that it does sound pretty wild. For an extra $5 per month, some PCS Vision subscribers can use their cell phones to record and e-mail an unlimited number of 15-second video clips. And the first video phone available is the Sanyo VM4500, which went on sale just last week. Apparently, video phones are already a hot commodity in Japan and Korea, where video mail, videoconferencing, and downloadable news clips and sports highlights are popular. Plus, the carriers finally have networks that are fast enough to handle video. Do you need a video-phone fix now, but you're not a Sprint user? Video service is also available to AT&T subscribers through a Real Networks video-streaming service that blasts video to the Nokia 3650 and the Nokia N-Gage. |
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