iPod

I remember the very first Bang & Olufsen product I ever saw, a Beogram 4000 turntable. It was lightyears ahead of the competition's look and feel in the early 1970s. The design hasn't dated one bit -- no wonder it's on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

It's been ages since I checked out a B&O, so I decided to start small with their brand new BeoPlay H3 in-ear headphone ($249). It's a handsome enough design, but nowhere as striking as B&O's ultrasleek speaker … Read more

Bose is scheduled to hold an event in New York today to show off some new products. I won't be there because I'm out of town, but I was in the Venice airport today (on my way back to New York) and spotted a couple of new Bose products in the Bose store and decided to snap a few photos.

The first is the $249 Bose AE2w, which is the company's first Bluetooth headphone. It was announced back in May and is now available online in the U.S. It's based on the AE2 design but … Read more

iFixit's latest teardown takes a look at Apple's new iPod Touch and finds that despite internal changes, the device received the same repairability score as its higher-capacity counterparts.

Apple quietly introduced its latest iPod Touch last week. The fifth-generation, 16GB iPod Touch features the same 4-inch Retina Display and dual-core A5 processor as the 32GB and 64GB versions but loses the rear-facing camera and LED flash.

The 16GB iPod Touch's slimmer design weighs about 3 ounces, is 4.86 inches tall, and is 2.31 inches wide. The gadget costs $229, less than its higher-end counterparts at $… Read more

I've reviewed a number of portable headphone amps over the years, but they just took the analog output of a phone or MP3 player and made it sound better. Ideally, you want to totally bypass the player's digital converters, but up until recently that was a very expensive proposition. The V-Moda Vamp Verza cuts the price to less than half, and works with iPhones, iPads, and iPods, as well as Androids and computers. I'm really impressed with the little Vamp Verza's sound.

The look and concept were designed by V-Moda's Val Kolton in Milan, Italy, … Read more

Apple quietly began selling a new version of the iPod Touch on Thursday.

The new, fifth-generation 16GB iPod Touch costs $229 -- making it a bit less expensive than the fifth-generation 32GB iPod Touch at $299 and 64GB iPod Touch at $399, both of which were released last fall.

Meanwhile, Apple has stopped selling the fourth-generation 16GB iPod Touch with a 3.5-inch screen, which had cost $199.

The new 16GB iPod Touch features a 4-inch Retina Display and is powered by a dual-core A5 processor.

If you purchase the 16GB version of the iPod Touch, however, you will lose … Read more

Some people love Apple's EarPods and some people aren't so fond of them.

If you're in the latter group, it's probably because Apple's retooled earbuds have a tendency to slip out of your ears while you're doing something as mundane as walking around. That's where products like the EarSkinz 2 (ES2) come in.… Read more

Apple has agreed to pay $53 million to settle a class-action lawsuit related to warranties covering early versions of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2010, claimed Apple had unfairly denied warranty coverage to some customers under an Apple policy associated with devices affected by water damage. The settlement, which still requires the court's approval, will be held in a fund to be distributed among the 153,000 members of the class-action suit, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. … Read more

I've heard most of the world's best headphones, but somehow missed the Sony MDR-R10. Only 2,000 were made. Production started in 1989, and at $2,500 a pair, it was the most expensive headphone in the world. The headphone cognoscenti scooped them all up years ago, and right now MDR-R10s rarely come up for sale. When they do, they usually go for more than $6,000!

The MDR-R10's 50mm "Bio-Cellulose Dome Diaphragms" are credited with producing the headphones' superclear treble and oh-so supple bass. The headphone also sported real lambskin-covered ear pads, and the … Read more

First, a bit of history:

Back in August of last year, I wrote an article titled, "Why I regret buying an iMac." The hard drive in my $2,000 iMac had died after 22 months and when I went into an Apple store to see if Apple would help me out, particularly after the company had already recalled the drives in 2011 iMacs (I had a 2010 model), I was told by the geniuses in the Apple Store that since I hadn't bought Apple Care there was nothing they could do for me except replace the drive … Read more