touch

A faucet that all germaphobes want to get their hands on

Did you own a touch lamp? You know what I'm talking about--the type that turns on by touching it anywhere along the body? I've never owned one, but I vividly remember my great grandmother's.

I used to visit my extended family when I was a kid, and even though they made a sincere effort to stock their houses with enough toys to keep us occupied during our stays, I still remember getting bored. It was then that I discovered the touch lamp, and I remember wasting time pretending that my great grandma's house was inhabited by … Read more

Score a refurbished iPod Touch for $199 shipped

The online Apple Store is clearing out 8GB iPod Touch refurbs for $199 shipped. That's a pretty sweet price considering that they sell new for $299. And I'm here to tell you: The Touch is the single greatest thing since sliced bread.

Essentially an iPhone without the phone, the iPod Touch does music, videos, photos, e-mail, Web browsing, and tons more, and looks Jessica Alba-sexy while doing it. The new 2.0 software update adds support for games, e-books, Internet radio, the New York Times, and countless other applications. (My current favorites: Aurora Feint, Bejeweled 2, and eReader.)… Read more

MP3 Insider 105: iPhone killed the radio star

Donald and Jasmine discuss Pandora and AOL Radio applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Also: sporty headphones made just for the iPod Nano, Apple's new remote control for iTunes, wet tech, and predictions for September. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Episode 105

iPhone/iPod Touch applications:

http://www.download.com/iPhone-apps/3150-13592_4-0.html?tag=fd_morefeatured

Pandora for iPhone, iPod Touch:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-6490_7-9987201-49.html

Radius Atomic Strap Earbuds:

http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones/radius-atomic-strap-earbuds/4505-7877_7-33141795.html?tag=links;review

Waterproof tech:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6490_7-6626989.html?tag=links;coco

Bloomberg's iPhone app a window onto Wall Street

The world of finance is sober, serious business, ever more so in a struggling through economy. Bloomberg's freeware application for the iPhone and iPod Touch gives information-seekers a clear view of the moment with financial headlines, a ticker finder, and a fleshed-out index of world markets.

An appealing dark-themed application, Bloomberg contains a read-only newsfeed and statistics on various exchanges in global markets. Highs, lows, and a graph of yearlong performance are displayed for each exchange--further charts and tables are available for industry and stock movers.

To discover individual stock performance, users simply enter the company name into the … Read more

Five great free apps for the iPhone and iPod touch

Over the weekend I updated my iPod touch to the 2.0 software, and I consider that $10 well-spent. Now I can access all the same great apps as iPhone 3G owners. Thankfully, many of them are free; I've rounded up five I really like. (Note that all links require iTunes.)

AOL Radio Stream radio from over 200 stations spanning 25 music genres. It can even round up local stations. Who needs an FM tuner now? eReader As a longtime fan of reading e-books on my PDA, I'm overjoyed I can now do the same on my touch. … Read more

iPod Touch firmware leak

Thursday's leak of the free iPhone firmware update may have given Apple a little heartburn, but the iPod Touch firmware upgrade making the rounds might induce a coronary in the company's accounting division. Apple hasn't released specific sales figures on how many iPod Touch models are in circulation, but assuming the device makes up a modest slice of the 22.1 million iPods sold last year, Apple stands to lose a fair chunk of money if users find their way around paying the $10 upgrade fee.

What do you guys think? Is Apple's $10 upgrade charge … Read more

FCC gives HTC Touch Diamond, Touch Pro thumbs-up

Yesterday, it was the RIM BlackBerry Bold, today it's the HTC Touch Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro. Both Windows Mobile smartphones got FCC approval today, and it looks like they will be headed to a CDMA carrier as rumored. No word on when and whether it will be Sprint or Verizon Wireless, or both. At least, it's a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Source: Engadget Mobile]

iPhone and iPod Touch updated with security patches

Updated 12:05 p.m. PDT Friday to correct where the update is available. It is available through iTunes.

On Friday, Apple released iPhone 2.0 and iPod Touch 2.0 firmware that includes several security fixes for Safari and WebKit. Several of the Safari fixes have been previously issued for Mac OS X and Windows. The update, APPLE-SA-2008-07-11, is only available through iTunes.

This update will not appear in your computer's Software Update application or on the Apple Downloads site. The patches may take up to one week to be detected, depending on the day a device checks. … Read more

Shazam on iPhone could change music discovery

Shazam has been around for a few years now--CNET U.K. took note of the service back in 2006--but with today's launch of Apple's App Store, it could become a whole lot more popular. It has the potential to change how people discover and buy music.

The concept behind Shazam is simple: whenever you hear a song playing and can't identify it--on the car radio, at a friend's house, at a bar--you activate the Shazam application on your mobile phone. It "listens" to the song for about 30 seconds, then sends a text message … Read more

Why I won't spend money on the App store

Now that Apple has officially launched the App Store, everyone seems excited about the possibility of expanding the functionality of their favorite cell phone and doing more with the same old hardware. I can't fault them for feeling that way, but I don't see any reason to spend money on it.

Undoubtedly, Steve Jobs will come out in January at Macworld and discuss how well the App Store is performing, thanks to strong iPhone app sales and even a few iPod touch sales thrown in for good measure. He'll discuss the benefits of using the App store and why we should all buy up "some of the best applications in the world."

It makes sense -- Apple has a vested interest in the success of the App store and certainly wants to see you buy more software than download for free because it gets a piece of the pie on all profits.

But as for me, I don't see any reason to spend money in the App store and I definitely won't. It's not that I'm protesting anything or trying to stand my ground, it's just that I think there will be so many great free apps in the store that I won't even need to worry about paying for software.

It may sound a bit radical, but trust me, I don't think you'll be spending too much money in there either.… Read more