Apple iTunes Cloud Lala Very Cloudy

Many people expected that Apple would offer your iTunes music and movies over the cloud after it acquired Lala.com last December. That is of course after Apple obtained the appropriate music licenses to do so. Lala, the music serviced, shut down after being acquired by Apple this past May.

The Lala team leadership that went to Apple after the acquisition seems to leaving. Bill Nguyen, Lala’s founder, is known to be press friendly and against Apple’s culture of secrecy. Another founding member has left the company leaving Apple’s media cloud plans in a haze.

Google, on the other hand, hired Elizabeth Moody, an attorney with deep experience negotiating digital-music deals. Record executives expect Moody will help cut the first cloud music licensing agreement. Google has told label managers that it wants to launch a music service this year.

Apple is not worried though since it is still the #1 online and offline music store and jukebox.

However, in this fast pacing media game, tables can turn very quickly.

I almost hate to interrupt the steady stream of Google/AT&T/Apple related topics that have been dominating GadgetMeter these last few weeks (kudos to you, Quang Ly, for fighting the good fight!) but sometimes a break is a good thing.
I’m heading out of the realm of “Serious Corporate Land” into “Eco Friendly Accessories World”.
So, I’m the kind of person that rides my bike most places. I’m also the kind of person who is rarely without my phone and ipod (I’m too scared to take my laptop on my bike because I know the minute I do something bad will happen). Anyway, the other day I was busy texting while laying out by Barton Springs Pool and my phone battery died! If only I had one of THESE:

I could have charged it up right then and there!
These new bags by Noon Solar integrate flexible solar panels into their design. They have several styles of both messenger bags and purses and they are made from either German leather or organic hemp or cotton.
The solar power is stored in a lithium-ion battery pack, weighing about 4oz, found inside the bag. Because the solar power is stored inside a battery pack, cell phones and iPods can be charged day or night.

From their website: Noon Solar bags are made from biodegradable materials so that the bags can skip the landfill and go directly into your backyard without hurting the earth. The bags are safe and non-toxic, and most of the materials will actually nourish the earth if buried. The other materials such as the solar panel and hardware can be removed and recycled or reused.

And after reading their design philosophy I’m about ready to drop the several hundred dollars required to purchase one of their bags.
This is a company whose products AND philosophy I am ready to support. And that in and of itself is a rare thing these days.

VIa Inhabitat.com

I always love it when I find accessories that are made of reclaimed or recycled stuff that would otherwise rot for 1000 years in a landfill. So when I found the iPod Nano cases made from reclaimed tapes I was utterly gleeful.

I love high-tech and low-fi. I’m not sure how that is possible, but it seems to work.
Designed by Contexture Design in Canada, these D90 tapes are gutted, routered and rebuilt to fit the 4th generation iPod Nano and cost $45 Canadian (about $41 USD).
A little pricey in my opinion but still, very very cool.

Via Wired’s GadgetLab
Contexture’s Product Page

It looks like those kawaii-loving, tech savants over in Japan have developed yet another cute iPod accessory. To me they look a bit like LEGOs, especially in the product photo all laid out together in all their multi-colored glory. One to match every color of the iPod nano, apparently.

If I were to guess I would say the speaker quality and output volume would be somewhere in the vicinity of an iMac internal speaker, which is fine if you want to quietly listen to your music at your office, not interrupting the worker in the neighboring cubicle (or the neighboring apartment if you happen to live just about anywhere in Japan, which, incidentally is the only place you can currently buy this product).

It’s cute to be sure and is compatible with just about all the iPod models (iPod 5G, iPod Touch, iPod classic and iPod Nano). And I’m sure has it’s uses and a market, somewhere.

Though for $40 it seems a little puny, even though it does appear to have both left and right channels (wow, tiny stereo!).
I wonder what the drain on the iPod batter is like?

Geek Stuff 4 U is taking pre-orders from people living outside Japan.
¥4000 is approximately $42 American.

It seems like each day we are moving close and closer to the imaginary future world envisioned by the likes of Philip K Dick, William Gibson, and to a degree, Steven Speildberg. This MP3 mirror by Stocco, which is actually in production and not just a concept, is just one more step in the journey. Pretty soon people’s homes are going to resemble Chief John Anderton’s from Minority Report.

Stocco Maitre MP3 Touchscreen Mirror

And that is just fine by me. This mirror integrates touch screen controls for your iPod (or other MP3 player) as well as a radio, clock and barometer (presumably for checking the weather in order to determine which hairstyle will work best in the current humidity).

No word on price yet. And it doesn’t say whether there are built in speakers or if you have to connect to separate speakers through the iPod headphone jack. Hopefully not the latter (see previous post about my aversion to cables).

via Wired GadgetLab

I’ll be the first to admit that my love for my iPod is nearly boundless. And the new Shuffle design has me practically giddy. 1.8″ by .3″ and the new VoiceOver feature is going to be hard to beat.
However, there’s got to be room for more than just Apple style. A new MP3 player is about to come on to the market that while probably not giving the Shuffle a run for its money should at least make the playing field more interesting.
Introducing The Vitamin from iXing

Designed by Sangnam Park, this little pill is actually an MP3 player. It supports only MP3 and WMA files (which means I’m not getting it since my entire library is in AAC format, a far superior format to MP3 imo). It also has a 30 channel FM tuner, though seriously I don’t really know anyone that listens to the radio anymore. Even I get my NPR via the internet these days.
Other than the novelty of its looks I really don’t think it can outdo the Shuffle. But I do think style is a valid consideration when shopping for an MP3 player so I can’t count it out just yet. I honestly like the design. To change tracks you just twist the pill one way, or to go back a track, twist it the other way. I also like the display, which the Shuffle lacks.
I don’t know yet how they are going to manage volume control (possibly on the head phones themselves?).
Also there is no info on the capacity, at least none that I could find. But it should hold a minimum of 1000 songs (or appox. 4 GB) if it wants to be competitive.

via Gizmodo