SnoopTunes Noestring Attached has been around for some time but is only catching on now. In case you are not so familiar with this gadget, it is an addon device for the iPod which gives the unit wireless sharing capabilities. We're not so keen on adding this bit but, yeah, it's pretty much like the Zune's own wireless music sharing feature.

The gadget was designed by a brilliant 16-year old kid named Kristyn Heath. We wonder now what does Steve jobs, or the rest of the Apple company for that matter, thinks about Heath and her creation.

Anyway, the gadget itself weighs around 10g and it measures 79 mm X 25 mm X 25 mm. There are five available channels as of now and a total number of two channel memories. It is powered by an AAA battery.
If you want to know more about the product, there's a video capture below of SnoopTunes Noestring Attached as recently featured by NBC. The gadget can be purchased over at eBay for US$ 59.99.

 

What might be interpreted by some as cracks in Fortress iTunes, others (more partial to Apple) will rather see it as an expansion of the fortress walls. Tech.co.uk's got a small hare running that Apple might somewhat lift its FairPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions that lock iTunes content to Apple products - e.g., the iPod. Let's just say that wasn't well-appreciated by some quarters who held that the Digital Rights were more like Digital "Restrictions."

The word - still a rumor until the official press release from Cupertino - is that downloaded iTunes content will be made available to partners in Apple's "Made for iPod" program. The FairPlay DRM will be licensed to partners, with the envisioned scenario that their products will be able to upload and play FairPlay-protected content. In addition, another expected announcement is that Apple will open up AAC content streaming via USB. The other word is that this is to undercut the potential for the competition to drift to Zune and its own DRM and digital distribution system, by using iTunes as bait. Quite the bait, though.

The Zune isn't exactly the iPod killer yet (even then the jury has yet to be formed, much less to pass judgement), and Apple enjoys quite the comfortable lead in both hardware and software departments of digital media distribution. Still, if it's willing to open up, and release iPhone and Apple TV, all in the same month, it may be a signal to allies and competitors (and investors) alike: Apple ain't quiting the fight yet. And don't forget who bootstrapped this entire thing to the level it's at today. Them's fighting words.

We really don't want to start a flame war, but offending comments like this is just too news-y to pass up. Time has a report on the launch of the Apple's iPhone, and within that lengthy report is this paragraph:

To witness the iPhone launch from behind the curtain (or under the towel) is to see the controlling hand of Steve Jobs, for whom this is an almost mystically significant year. He's 50 years old. It's been 30 years since he founded Apple (with Stephen Wozniak), and 10 since he returned there after having been fired. In that decade Apple's stock has gone up 1,000%. Neither age nor success (nor cancer surgery in 2004) have significantly mellowed him, though some of the silver in his beard is creeping into his hair. All technologists believe their products are better than other people's, or at least they say they do, but Jobs believes it a little more than most. In the hours we spent talking about the iPhone, Jobs trash-talked the Treo, the BlackJack, the Sony PSP and the Sony Mylo ("just garbage compared to this"), Windows Vista ("It's just a copy of an old version of Mac OSX") and of course MicrosoftÂ?s would-be iPod killer, Zune.

The PSP and the Sony Mylo, garbage compared to the iPhone? To be fair, the Mylo might, and we stress, might, deserve a comparison with the iPhone since they're both in the same category of tech products. But to compare the iPhone to the PSP? Really now.

What? Are there supposed to be games of PS1 or higher quality set to be released for the iPhone? Will it be rigged to play DS games?

The iPhone is a very pretty and very savvy multi-functional handheld device that can be used as a phone. (Yes, we want one ourselves.) The PSP is a very pretty and very savvy multi-functional handheld device that can be used (or is primarily used) to play games, or given the homebrew community, used for a whole lot of things.

Garbage? Someone's being a bit too hasty, or a bit too boastful.

After an entire months-long game of hopscotch, peek-a-boo, and "What Will Jobs Do Next", Apple finally reveals the... iPhone. Steve, you can be quite the stubborn cookie - we shall now have to differentiate between the Apple iPhone and the Linksys iPhone. Anyway, what's probably interesting about the iPhone is not what it has out of the box, but what it DOESN'T have, for a phone that costs as much as a PS3 - 20GB and 60GB.

Let's keep it short: no 3G. As a cellphone, that could potentially be crippling to the iPhone (especially when Steve wants 10 million on the streets by next year). And if he tries to sell the phone to Japan - that country is true-blue (or blood-red) 3G country - it's going to be murder, so we're thinking that Apple might want to keep this as a North American release for now.

Still, the global (let alone NA) cellular industry isn't Apple turf - the iPhone is not going up against late entrants and also-rans (e.g., Zune), but against the monoliths of the cellphone industry: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola. Steve Jobs says that the iPhone is five years ahead of any other mobile phone. Well, not in the 3G department, most definitely.

But we're not going to simply surrender to the belief that Steve Jobs' fair-haired boys didn't think of this when they drew up the iPhone's specs. They could always market it as a luxury product (at that price, it better well be). But for a company that has made its mark as a mass market trend-setter (even given the price of the 5G iPod), that could be a bit odd.

But we still think that the iPhone is, as our gaming cousins in the QJ network put it, FTW!!! 1st post W00t!!!. Find out why after the jump.

"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" from 20th Century Fox and Marvel Comics is the sequel to the 2005 movie Fantastic Four. The actors reprise their roles and new faces will grace the series. Silver Surfer and Nova debuts in this movie.

In the trailer, we see an uber cool aerial chase between the Human Torch and the Silver Surfer. Since we still need to do some waiting to do for the actual movie (US release is June 15), you can watch the trailer at the link below. The trailer is available for download for the PSP, iPod Video, and Zune, among other portable video players.

The Silver Surfer is an intergalactic herald for Galactus, a powerful being who devours worlds. He arrives on Earth and does so in the worst of times - during Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Sue Storm's (Invisible Woman) wedding. That's the least of their problems as their arch nemesis Dr. Doom returns to do what normal villains do: get revenge and laugh maniacally.

While we like the influx of interesting third-party gadgets that follows every new console launch, there are times that we have to sit back, take a deep breath, and go, "You gotta be kidding."

For those wondering what's caught our fancy, we're talking about 22Moo's Ultra-Light i-Vision video eye-wear, which is apparently compatible for the Xbox 360, Wii, iPod Video and Zune. And for those wondering what exactly this long-named device is, it's basically a pair of monitors attached to an eyeglass frame - the whole thing resembles something between a VR helmet, Nintendo's Virtua Boy, and La Forge's visors. Could this be a spin-off of another helmed horror?

The set comes in three different version:

• i-Vision 230 - 35-inch display, 320 x 240 resolution, 72g, $250 USD.
• i-Vision 922 - 48-inch display, 640 x 480 resolution, 84g, $350 USD.
• Argo+PC VGA video glasses - compatible with a PC, Mac, PDA, and any device which carries AV or VGA output.

Yeah, we know - we just realized that the cheapest set is gonna hack off as much money as a Wii bundle, which brings us to our next thought: the fact this doohickey works with a Wii. We've already seen the broken TVs, shattered windows, and sudden killings that have been following the Wiimote's strap...now we're blindfolding them?

Hmm, we're thinking there are two ways to make the gadget work: Either master your force abilities while blinded as Luke did in Episode 4, or just get ocular implants - worked for La Forge.

Universal Music Group is hoping to strike a deal with Apple wherein the music company will seek a royalty fee for every iPod sold. That's yesterday's news alright, so the question is would Apple jump at the prospect of giving Universal a piece of the iPod  financial windfall?

ITWire's Stan Beer's opinion: Not likely. We know full well that iPod is the MP3 market leader and Zune is, well, let's just say a new fish who got lost in the iPod sea. Having said that, it's highly unlikely that Apple would see the benefit of sharing the company wealth to Universal.

Universal got Microsoft to sign the deal because it seriously thinks that in doing so, it would succeed in driving "a wedge between the music industry and Apple".  We're not discounting the possibility that it will work, but Microsoft has to successfully get a significant market share in the legal music download department. The way things are, it's going to be an uphill climb for Microsoft and Zune.

We tend to agree with Beer when he said this: "The clear message for Doug Morris and Universal is that their best bet of getting a piece of the action on iPod sales is to buy some Apple shares."

The iPod killer, the future-proof MP3 player, the cool-looking portable Hard Drive. The Zune's been called a lot of things (we'll omit what the iPod dudes have to say for now), and while we do like the functions that it's been churning out, and Bill Gate's exceeding expectations for his (other) little black box, we were beginning to wonder just how people took to it as compared to the iPod.

"I have never heard of the Zune," came the reply of one sales clerk when asked about the Zune, at least according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Munster had conducted a survey on at 40 major retails stores, and found in his results that only 8% of the sales clerks ever recommended the Zune, with 75% recommending the iPod for customers.

"In fact, some MP3 player salespeople had not even heard of the Zune, despite the fact that they sold it in their store," Munster also writes in his report. Ouch. As of Tuesday, the Zune's on the #22 spot for Amazon's most sold MP3 player, the 30-gigabyte ipod taking the #1 spot, the 1-gig iPod shuffle at #3, and the pink 4-gig Nano at #5.

And what of marketing for the Zune? "our checks show that Zune ads are being placed more selectively than iPod ads," Munster said, adding that the Zune "is off to a slow start; from sales perspective as well as the marketing perspective." Given the season's just starting up, we're going to have to see what lies in store for the Zune.

Vivendi-owned Universal Music Group is at again. After striking a deal with Microsoft where Universal gets a fee for every Zune sold, Chief Executive Doug Morris is on a mission to make a similar agreement with Apple and its iPod.

Morris said, "It would be a nice idea. We have a negotiation coming up not too far. I don't see why we wouldn't do that...but maybe not in the same way."

Though no figures were disclosed, the Microsoft deal must have given Universal's revenues a boost, prompting the company to push for a royalty deal with Apple. If the agreement pushes through, it wouldn't be surprising if other music companies follow suit. It's very possible as music companies are finding ways to increase revenues while competing with the insanely popular pastime: music downloading.

Apple's jump to portable video not being appreciated much? As Ars Technica reports, owners of video-enabled iPods haven't been using the video capabilities of their iPods much. Based on Nielsen Media Research's findings, only 15.8% of vid-iPod owners actually played even a single video on their iPods. And for those who actually watch video on vid-iPods, it only took up around 11% of their iPod time.

Nielsen's theory is that most who purchased a video iPod simply purchased them for the extra gigs of memory rather than the video playback function. Another probable reason is that portable video isn't taking off as fast as the market hoped it would (Insert implications for Microsoft's Zune here). Nielsen did admit that there had been some "technical difficulty" in collecting this research data, which led to instances of incomplete data in their presentation.

On the other hand, video sales on iTunes are taking off, despite this apparent low portable video usage from vid-iPods. The probable conclusion drawn (we don't know if it was by Nielsen or by Ars Technica - they weren't specific) from this is that watching video on the boob tube pwns watching video on the small screen of an iPod any day of the week. Nothing earth-shaking about that discovery, come to think of it.