By the "i" before the BlueTube, you know it's an iPod accessory. From Thanko Japan, iBlueTube is an amplifier with remote control and also serves as a recharging station for the 3rd Gen iPod and iPod Nano. We're sure there are a thousand other similar iProducts out there so what's new with iTube? It uses 2 Philips "6922" vacuum tubes and gives off a soft blue glow around the amplifier when in use. The iBlueTube also has a USB terminal, S-video out, and a RCA stereo out.

About 295 x 130 x 68mm and 650 grams, practically any table can accommodate it. It will be available in Japan by the end of the month for about $565. Don't worry, it comes with a pair of JBL speakers.

Several weeks ago a family experienced hell when their 11-year old kid's iBook burst into flames. It's not really the laptop but the battery packs that are to blame. As many as 43 laptop fires in the the US were reported in 2001 based on U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission records. No fatalities yet, however, there were severe injuries.

"A burning laptop is a burning laptop, and it can pretty much happen anywhere," said Carmi Levy, an Info-Tech research group analyst. And it did. This month in Osaka, Japan, a Dell laptop set on a table exploded in the middle of a boardroom meeting.

What's causing the battery packs to turn into fireballs? As laptops become faster and acquire more features, their batteries have to work harder. As the machines become slimmer, there's less room for ventilation. This combination increases the risk of a battery meltdown and a fire. "On an airplane, I would be very concerned about this kind of thing happening," Levy said.

Most laptop lithium ion batteries produce electricity through a chemical reaction that releases oxygen. When the oxygen reacts with one of the battery's components, it produces heat hot enough to melt the battery's membrane. That's when things turn ugly. Laptop companies have recalled more than 150,000 batteries since New Year's Day, 2005. Hewlett-Packard recalled 15,700 of them in April alone. Dell recalled 22,000 batteries in December and Apple recalled about 120,000 batteries in 2005.

Dell is looking into the matter but believes the Osaka incident was an isolated case. But George Bulat, director of hardware research at the research group IDC Canada, suggested that laptop vendors educate customers about the potential dangers.
"If you're going to be on a long-distance flight, be cognizant of the heat," he said. "If it's heating up, don't just put a pillow under it."

Do some Apple users have too much time on their hands?

The editors of Tech E-Blog got photos of several Apple mods and recently published this selection of their favorites, showing what some folks do to "spruce up" their beloved Mac computers. The nostalgia buff inside me would like to see one designed like that early television model from the late 1940's that had a round screen (anyone ever seen one of those? They never worked very well, but were extremely cool-looking), or maybe a "Tri-V" from the original Star Trek.

#10: MAME

Not your "Auntie Mame" from the Jerry Herman musical, but a retro-80's arcade game-style cabinet, incorporating a flat-panel iMac and a top of the line sound system. Pac-Man or Asteroids, anyone?

#9: VINTAGE SE 30

This was the very first Mac I remember, running System 6 back in 1989. Unlike that particular model (top-of-the-line for its time, but useless for any applications today), this one - created by a user in Japan - has a new Mac Mini inside. The grayscale monitor is connected via the DVI port.

More of the Apple mods after the jump!

 
 

A guy from Japan was tired of worrying about his iPod while he is riding the train. You see, the guy mentions that when he rides the reliable means of public transportation to go to work, he constantly worries that his iPod will hit one of the steel railings of a train, or that it would be bumped by a big co-passenger. So when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade or if you're over 21, you slice 'em up and buy some tequila (just kidding).

He decided to make a protective casing for his iPod Photo. He made use of a corrosion-resistant material which is Aluminum A5052 and made sure that the Apple logo, the scrolling wheel, the headphone jack, and the sychronizer cable port ain't covered. The case has a 5mm thickness that ensures that wherever he goes - be it a hopping party or a busy commuter train - his iPod is safe and scratch free. It seems like it's bulletproof, but that is yet to be tested.

If you think that the iPod user jeopardized the handy and lightweight factors of his baby, set those doubts aside. When the guy weighed his iPod with the aluminum casing, it only weighed .446 grams -- now that's still a pretty good weight if you ask me. If you're thinking of getting one just like it, you may have a hard time doing so since the guy didn't mention any intention of making a lot of aluminum iPod casings.

The best way to organize, retrieve and edit your photos on your Mac is through iPhoto 6. It boasts of an array of features like a large storage capacity of up to 250,000 photos (which means that you can snap over a thousand photos per month for the next 20 years), full screen editing (that takes advantage of your Mac's wonderfully large and bright screen), one-click effects and printing out personalized calendars, greeting cards and books, which on this update has additional greeting and postcard themes for use with Apple print services. Print services are available in the U.S., Canada, Japan and selected European countries.

You can also use your iPhoto for photocasting, so long as you have your .Mac account and a Mac OS X version 10.4.4.

Download: [iPhoto 6.0.4]

Apple is on a roll, opening stores left and right. This time out, Steve Jobs' company is opening its seventh retail store in Japan. This coming weekend will have the Japanese welcoming an Apple Store in Sapporo.

Apple Store Sapporo will be located on Sapporo Ekimae-dori, next to Sapporo Mitsukoshi department. According to the Apple site, the newest Japan store will be a "One-minute walk from Odori station on the Nanboku Subway Line, the Toho Subway Line or the Tozai Subway Line, through Sapporo Mitsukoshi department." Opening of Apple Store Sapporo is scheduled for June 24 at 10 a.m.

And Apple doesn't stop there. Seems like the company is also in the lookout to add to their six stores in UK. Apple is currently recruiting for new shops in Bentall Centre in Kingston, new store at Manchester's Arndale Centre, and staff for its West Quay shop in Southampton. Ifostore also noted that July 1 will see a new Apple retail store in Stamford Town Centre, Connecticut. Moving closer to home, an Apple Store is said to be in construction in South Beach, Miami.

Onkyo continues to make its product iPod-compatible by releasing the CR-D1 CD/FM tuner amplifier with built-in iPod dock. The CR-D1 comes with DS-A1 dock option, which allows the system to connect and control the iPod via remote control. With the D-DIE 2-way speaker, optional UWL-1 module and a USB dongle, PC tracks can easily be transmitted. Connectivity isn't a problem with 1 x optical, 3 x RCA, stereo mini-jack inputs, subwoofer and headphone outputs.

The CR-D1 will be available in Japan on July 15 for 52,500 Yen ($456) and the D-DIE 2-way speaker costs $27,300 ($237).

 

If we are to believe Microsoft spokesmen, then the Bill Gates camp has no plans of competing with the highly popular Apple baby -- the iPod -- for now. Recently, MS reps denied recent rumors alleging that it has partnered with a number of Japanese consumer electronics companies to develop a device to compete in Japan with the iPod.

According to the grapevine, MS was said to be engaged in a partnership with eight other companies to create a thingamajig that will try to steal the thunder from the iPod.

This was denied by a MS rep by saying that "the announcement that came out of Japan this week was simply about the Japanese launch of Windows Media Player 11...Due to translation issues, the announcement was misconstrued to sound like Microsoft was developing a rival to the iPod; that's just not the case."

The wrongly-translated Japanese press release also said that the companies listed in there are those that Microsoft has partnered with in Japan to ensure a good user experience. These companies have all agreed to support Windows Digital Rights Management 10 for portable devices.

The list consists of device partners (iRiver Japan, NTT DoCoMo, CreativeMedia, Toshiba, and Victor JVC) and service partners (The Language Channel, OCN Music Store, and Napster which will be available in Japan in the fall of 2006).

When asked by the media if MS has no plans whatsoever to compete with the iPod, Microsoft reps refused to comment. In addition, they also did not want to confirm recent backfence talks with regards to a portable gaming device dubbed as the "xplayer".

AmphonicDesigns have released a new version of Album Cover Finder for Mac, version 3.3. Album Cover Finder (like the name implies) includes these features:

- Cover Artwork, Album Reviews, and Track Listings for your favorite artists and albums.
- iTunes Integration to see and control what's playing. Listen to entire albums or double click on any track to play.
- Regional Searching for USA, UK, Japan, and Germany helps find more Album Covers.
- Automatically send artwork to iTunes in three different sizes.
- Artwork displays in the Dock for song currently playing in iTunes.

You can get it for Mac in our iPod Download section.

 

Album Cover Finder has been  updated to versions 3.2.1 (Mac) and 3.1.7 (PC).  Enjoy cover art from your favorite artists with Multiple Results and Album Reviews from an Artist's Catalog returned with every search.

iTunes Integration to see and control what's playing. Find more Album Covers with Regional Searching for USA, UK, Japan, and Germany. Automatically send artwork to iTunes in one of three sizes. Listen to entire albums or double click on any track to play. On a Mac the currently playing artwork displays in dock. Plus so much more.

New in this version:

• iTunes Music Library.xml was not being saved in the AlbumCoverFinder Prefs.txt file causing ACF to ask for the file everytime the program was started if the file was not in the default location.
  

You can get it for Mac in our iPod Download section.

You can get it for PC in our iPod Download section.