If you're like me, you already have a bunch of wires cluttering up your desk. I've switched over to a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, wireless headset, I've got wireless phones, wireless Xbox 360 controller, wireless PS2 controller, Wi-Fi router, two computers connected by wi-fi, wireless Xbox controller, my PSP is wireless and my DS is wireless, not to mention my Palm, and I still have a bunch of wires splattered all Natural Born Killers style on the floor, dead.

Well, even though the interference from all those devices is about to drive me damn wild, and I think I picked up a signal from beyond the dead last night while I was chomping down on turkey, I still like not having wires connected to all my stuff. Wireless is the wave of the future, man. And I'd like my iPod to be, too.

The fine folks over at ZDNet feel the same way. With two MP3 devices being unveiled at the CES in Las Vegas, they wonder if Apple might be close to announcing wireless compatibility for its next generation of iPods. Though the article said it would be convenient to be able to purchase music on the fly, I would actually be more interested in being able to transfer songs by wi-fi.

"I like the idea. The fact of a mobile device requiring a user to be stationary - such as being at home to sync- is counterintuitive. I mean, consuming music through a portable player is something usually done when you are in motion, right?"

Here's hoping that Apple has more than one trick rolled up its sleeve come Macworld next week.

[Via, ZDNet]

 iTunes v5.0 has been released, here are the changes in this new version:

New Look

Streamlined design makes iTunes even easier to use.

Search Bar

Find stuff fast and refine your search with the handy new Search Bar.

Smart Shuffle

Adjust random playback to hear what you want.

Sync from Outlook

iTunes now supports iPod syncing for Outlook and Outlook Express on Windows PCs.

Playlist Folders

Organize all your playlists into folders.

Parental Controls

Limit kidsÂ? access to the iTunes Music Store and sharing features.

Album Reviews

Browse over 1,000 album reviews.

The Complete Harry Potter

Download all six audiobooks or the Digital Box Set and add the collectorÂ?s iPod with Hogwarts crest.

iTunes for Your Mobile Phone

Sync music to the Motorola ROKR E1.

Red Chair Software has released Anapod Explorer v8.8.2 for Windows. ?Anapod Explorer is the most advanced Windows iPod software available, offering full iPod management through full Windows Explorer integration under My Computer, easy drag and drop iPod transfer and iPod backup, PDA function support, web page interface access to your iPod through a built-in web server, powerful search and reporting capabilities using a built-in SQL database, and much more, all in one compact package.?

 

New Features:

• Anapod PhotoSync
  This release adds the ability for Anapod Explorer to transfer photos to the iPod Photo and iPod with color screen. To access this feature, click on the Sync button in the Anapod Explorer toolbar. PhotoSync works similarly to the photo synchronization feature in iTunes, allowing you to select a photo folder and individual albums to transfer to the iPod. Anapod PhotoSync supports the transfer of JPEG, PNG, GIF, and BMP images, full-resolution original image transfer, album grouping, and the full complement of iPod-supported image types including thumbnails, full-screen, slideshow, and NTSC TV display format.
• Support for Folder-Based Album Art
  In previous releases, Anapod would only automatically assign album art for files with embedded art. This release adds the ability for the user to specify a set artwork filename (e.g. cover.jpg, artwork.png). Anapod will then look for an artwork file by that name contained in the same folder as the audio file when transferring.
• Added "Play on Computer" feature for Anapod Shuffler.
• Added support for extracting album art from MP3 files with embedded BMP images.
• The Comment field is now available for use in MorphLists.

Enhancements and Bug Fixes:

• Restored Xtreamer capability for Anapod Shuffler.
• Fixed bug where connecting in Anapod could cause iTunes to unnecessarily resync some of the files on the iPod.
• Fixed bug where iPod could become unreadable by iTunes after editing podcast files using Anapod.
• Fixed bug where Anapod would remove podcast tracks from regular music browse categories.
• Fixed hang when connecting to iPod with an empty Play Counts file.
• Various stability improvements in reading tag information.
• Further refinements to tag reading routines for M4A, M4P, and MP4 files.
• Fixed crash when reading tag information from certain AAC files.
• Fixed problem where genre was not being read properly from some iTunes Music Store files.
• Fixed problem in auto-playlist creation during transfers where playlists could be deleted instead of updated properly.
• Fixed bug in playlist reordering where track at the move-to location could be deleted.

You can get it in our iPod Download section.

 

Belkin products have announced the sale of the Dock Adapter for iPod Shuffle. According to their website this is what they have to say about it:?

This essential add-on for the iPod shuffle lets you connect iPod accessories with the Dock Connector through the shuffle's USB port. The Dock Adapter for iPod shuffle gives your shuffle the flexibility to work with such enhancements for iPod as battery packs, mobile power cords, iPod speakers, and USB/FireWire cables that have the Dock Connector.

Note:Requires 5V+ of USB power to charge your iPod shuffle. Compatible with power and audio accessories only. iPod photo accessories and car integration kits are not compatible with the Dock Adapter for iPod shuffle.

*Will not sync when used with a FireWire cable. However, power and audio will be compatible.

Operating Instructions:iPod shuffle must be in the ON position (in either shuffle or play-in-order mode) to charge when used with the included AC or DC adapter.

Advantages:

Charges your shuffle using your Dock Connector's power cord
Works with any Belkin TuneBase
Provides pass-through audio

ZappTek has just released iSpeak It v2.1 for the iPod. With iSpeak It, you can take any document or web feed and convert it into an MP3/AAC track in iTunes using your Mac's built-in text-to-speech capabilities (visit Cepstral if you'd like to find better voices). Download news, weather forecasts and driving directions. From there it's a quick sync to your iPod and away you go!

iSpeak It version 2.1

• $14.95 USD, Buy from Kagi
• Requires Mac OS X 10.2 or greater

Here is what is new in v2.1:

• Added the ability to download driving directions.
• Many improvements to web page and RSS processing (too many to list).
• The web feed list now shows the feed name instead of the URL.
• Adding web feeds is now more intuitive.
• Fixed problems with weather downloads, playlist manipulation and system version checking.

You can get it in our iPod Download section.

QuickSync is the easy folder sync utility for PowerBook and hand held owners. QuickSync can be used with jump drives, Hand holds, iPods or users of any other device that mounts as a drive on your desktop. This application can be used to keep your mp3 collection or important files up to date. QuickSync features Single or Bi-direction sync, automatic sync which detects devices as they are plugged in, the synchronizes the selected folders automatically. QuickSync is drag and drop aware, easy to use and cost effective.

Features Include:

• AutoSync feature

• Task Scheduling

• Sync and Burn, burn synced folders to disc

• Bi-Directional or mono-directional sync

• Works with a variety of devices and networked drives (iPod, Hand holds, .mac)

• Save Session data

• Generates a report of copied and synced files

You can get it in our iPod Download section.

Unlike other iPod copy tools, iPod.iTunes checks which tracks and playlists on the iPod are not in the iTunes music library and only adds those seamlessly to the iTunes library, avoiding duplicates, saving your time. iPod.iTunes can also transfer data like "My Rating", "Last Played", "Play Count", etc...

• Simple one click synchronization or...

• Option to choose tracks manually if you don't want to synchronize them all. You can listen to tracks before you choose to transfer them.
• Tracks and playlist entries can be synchronized together or separately. If the tracks on the iPod are already in the iTunes library and you only want the iPod playlists, you can use the playlist synchronization alone.
• With every track synchronization iPod.iTunes creates a date&time stamped playlist in iTunes containing the tracks which were transferred. This gives the option to easily add those tracks to existing playlists or to create new playlists from the transferred tracks.
• Support for the iPod's "On The Go" playlist.
• Copies by default seamlessly to the iTunes music folder and creates a folder structure based on artist/album, as in iTunes (with options).
• File naming based on track number and track name, as in iTunes.
• File formats: MP3, AAC/MP4, Protected AAC (iTunes Music Store), Audible audio books, Podcasts
• Support for Windows-formatted iPods.
• iPod.iTunes can run directly from the iPod, so it's always there when you need it.
• Registration is independent from the computer. You can just connect your iPod to any Mac without registering every machine.

iPod.iTunes can be used to

• Keep music and playlists on different Macs up to date
• Do a full restore of tracks and playlists - i.e. after a hard disk failure
• Revert accident deletion of tracks and/or playlists in iTunes, if these are still on your iPod
• Clone an iPod
• Transfer an entire music library from one Mac to another via the iPod

What's new in this version:

• Version 2.8.7 introduced two bugs which could lead to the wrong message "No tracks on iPod" or copying tracks from the iPod already in the iTunes library. If this happened to you the copied tracks can be removed by sorting the iTunes library by "Date Added", then remove the tracks that where added during the last synchronization.
• PC-formatted iPods: since the iPod name must not exceed 11 characters, iPod.iTunes renames the iPod to match the iPod's disk volume name automatically now.
• Tools: The function to fix ID3 tags on the iPod could fail with "Parameter error -50". Fixed.
• Improvements in the user interface.

Product Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
• iTunes 3.0.1 or higher
• iPod

Registration

iPod.iTunes was and is a lot of work and is therefore not free. If you like it, you can register [here]. iPod.iTunes can be tested without a registration to see it in action. The unregistered version skips about 50% of tracks during synchronization (the exact rate depends on the contents on the iPod). When registering later, iPod.iTunes will transfer the rest of tracks and/or playlists seamlessly to the iTunes library, without duplicates.

Registered users of iPod Free File Sync or iPod2iTunes 1.x may purchase iPod.iTunes 2.x for an upgrade fee.

You can get it in our iPod Download section.