Ipod Accessories Guide

Should You Get a Skin for your iPod?

noreply@blogger.com (sristore) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:49:00 +0700

iPod came into the world of digital audio player in 2001, and since then, for a short span of five years, the standard for digital audio player has never been the same. If it is not an iPod, it is inferior; if it is an iPod, it should be the latest generation.

Third-party manufacturers of iPod accessories were born and are continually growing in number like bunnies. Speakers, FM transmitters, Voice Recorder, BMW Playlist, these are just among the few iPod accessories that keep our mouth agape with delight and expectation. There is, however, a single iPod accessory that created a niche of its own in the "iPod ecosystem": the iPod skin line.

THE LINE OF iPod SKINS

iPod skins are designed, initially, to protect iPods from scratches, dirt, and getting wet from perspiration. iPod skins specifically shelters the screen and click-wheel. But iPod skins manufacturers do not limit themselves to these basic iPod skin feature; for them, iPod skins should be stylish, innovative, and fashionable.

There are iPod skins available for every generation of iPod, including the shuffle, mini and nano lines.

There are wide arrays of iPod skins to choose from. iPod skins may be made from silicone, hard plastic, thin vinyl, or leathers and comes in various colors. There some iPod skins that even glow in the dark!

Known manufactureres of stylish and innovative iPod skins are Kate Spade, iSkin, Incase, Chums, Speck and Xtreme Iconz,.

www.iLounge.com offers the best iPod skins in the market at low prices.

GO SILICON, HARD PLASTIC OR LEATHER WITH MY iPod SKIN?

- Silicon iPod skins

iSkin has the best line of iPod skins. It offers silicone and thin vinyl type of iPod skins. Its eVo2 line of iPod skins offers all-around surface protection, including screen and click wheel protection.

Silicon iPod skins is cool and soft to the touch and keeps the iPod unit insulated from battery heat. Although silicon felt like soft, gummy rubber, it stays in your hand with its anti-slip grip.

Silicon iPod skins comes with a rotating belt clip or a plastic lanyard (if you like) and spaces for ipod, buttons, jacks, click wheel and dock port were cut out for easy access. If you want a glow in the dark iPod skins, buy silicon made iPod skins.

You can dress up your iPod with silicon iPod skins for $20 to $30.

- Hard Plastic iPod Skins

Hard plastic iPod skins are the next best thing to silicon iPod skins. It is offered in various colors, see through and with a plastic lanyard or belt clip. The best hard plastic iPod skin is from NanShield.

Hard plastic iPod skins, unlike silicon iPod skins, does not have the no-slip guarantee when your hand perspires. If you accidentally dropped your iPod, the hard plastic skin could crack and shatter and might do more damage to your iPod than with your iPod unskinned.

Hard plastic iPod skins are the cheapest iPod skins in the market, offered on the internet for just $9.

Some breaking news. This April of 2006, Gizmondo released The Jimi case, a 100-percent recycled plastic iPod skin. Attached at the back of this iPod skin is a mirror which you can use for make up touch ups or any other purposes that you could think of. This environment friendly iPod skin comes in six different colors.

- Leather iPod Skins

This is the most expensive iPod skin in the market. Priced from $20 to as much as $200, those who think they are in vogue and in style prefer the hot and tight leatherette to skin their iPods. Kate Spade has a line of expensive but elagantly crafted leather iPod Skins.

Some leather iPod skins look more like a case rather than a skin because of a flip-flop top cover. The leathery look, subdued hues and a flip-flop cover are the kind of design especially preferred by the older crowd of iPod users.

A leather iPod skin has cut out to make way for dock connector, jack port, and click wheel. It has a detachable rotating belt clip and a leather lanyard if you prefer to wear your iPod on your neck.

Get Raw With iPod Shuffle

noreply@blogger.com (sristore) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:48:00 +0700

Ever since the release of iPod shuffle, there has been much confusion as to the merits of this ipod series. The original iPod boasted of other features like displaying contacts, calendars, and notes; the ability to play games and to record voice notes through an external microphone and store pictures with the use of a media card reader. All of these were able to capture the high and middle end users of portable audio players. But when you close closely at the iPod shuffle, you’ll see that it was created for the lower end market.

The iPod shuffle is Apple’s smallest, easiest and most affordable audio player of the ipod series. Having storage capacities of 512 MB and 1 GB, it is not only remarkable for it’s size, price and design. It is also unique from the rest of the ipod family because of its lacking LCD display. It is this quality that makes consumers think twice before buying an iPod shuffle.

Unbelievable as this may seem, there are those who find the iPod shuffle fitting right in their lifestyle. There are those who prefer to keep low about their players and just concentrate on their music. Those consumers are the primary targets of the iPod shuffle. So despite the sacrifice in display, it is also one advantage for the device.

Stripped down of its accessories and naked on its functions, the iPod shuffle is nothing more than a simple music player. How bare is it? Aside form the lack of LCD display; iPod shuffle only has three simple toggle switches on the back for the power switch, continuous play and shuffle mode. The green stripe below the switch helps the user see what position its switch is on.

Apple’s iPod shuffle communicates with the user through two LEDs under the plastic housing out front of the player. If you don’t know what that blinking yellow light is, Apple has included an iPod shuffle “cheat card” that translate what the different blinks and LEDs mean.

Some of the blinks are fairly easy to understand. The iPod shuffle shows a steady green LED when it is fully charged. But there are times when some lights are better without it on the iPod shuffle. For example, the only way to know if the unit is activated is to plug it in. Unless you’re sure to turn the iPod shuffle off when not using it, you’ll soon be surprised to know that the battery is drained after being accidentally activated as pressure is applied through a pocket, purse, or backpack. There are dangers to over charged batteries too.

Now it’s not an iPod without the kind of click-wheel controller, and the iPod shuffle gives that to ipod fans as well. Because navigation is impossible with iPod shuffle, there’s no spinning wheel controller or even a Menu button. In its place is a device that includes a round controller, which offers a Play/Pause button in the middle and the four-way click ring on the outside for volume control, Fast Forward/Next, and Rewind/Back.

For the iPod shuffle to communicate with your computer, there is a USB connector on the tip of the iPod shuffle. This can also link to an optional third-party power supply. Having the connector built in the iPod shuffle has its pros and cons. It is convenient because you don’t need to bring along a cable to download music on your computer and move it to your iPod shuffle. But at the same time, you must charge the unit with your computer.

Another problem is the size of the iPod shuffle. Since it is bigger than the usual key drives, it won’t fit some computers like the Apple iMacs. In come the accessories especially made to resolve the iPod shuffle’s limitations: the iPod USB Power Adapter, the External Battery Pack and the iPod shuffle Dock. Another great feature is the ability to specify amounts of storage space on the device for music and data.

The iPod shuffle is as good as any of the iPod models. The petite size, it’s about a pack of gum, gives the user a chance to hide it under the shirt while walking along the streets. The weight of it though is less appealing. Not to mention that the lanyard for the iPod looks inadequate to support the weight of the unit.

Reviews on the iPod

noreply@blogger.com (sristore) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:45:00 +0700

There are many things that people say about apple ipods. iPod reviews are posted all over the Internet and there will always be good or bad reviews available for the interested reader.

Here are some of the summarized iPod reviews available on the Internet:

Pros of iPod

Throughout the years, music lovers have acknowledged the crisp sound produced by the Apple iPod. iPod reviews have always attempted to describe the different music experience is always felt by the listener and every record song seems to be played live. Aside from this, here are the features that people have written in their iPod reviews. Things that they love about Apple iPod:

1. Apple iPod reviews claimed that the hard drive can hold more than five thousand songs. Now, this number of songs is enough that a user would not be able to listen to the same song twice.

2. Apple iPod reviews reveals that the hard drive boasts of a forty gigabytes of storage space.

3. Apple iPod reviews comes with an ergonomic design which is the Click Wheel. Using the Click Wheel, users can easily browse through the controls of either fast forward, play, reverse, pause and stop. Apple iPod users can even access the menus using the Click Wheel.

4. Apple ipod reviews also counted the long battery life of up to 12 hours as very helpful to the image of Apple iPod. What is the use of storing about 5 thousand songs inside teh Apple iPod if the battery would not last until all the songs have been played.

5. Apple iPod reviews also listed the capability of users to set up play lists on the Apple iPod.

6. Apple ipod reviews also lists the shuffle function as one of the most notable function of the iPod. It creates a sense of randomness in the play list avoiding boredom for the user.

7. Apple iPod reviews revealed that the Apple iPOd is an excelent audio player. This is due to four reasons:

a. The menu system of the Apple iPod is super-intuitive.

b. The sound quality is great. Although, other users contend that the Apple iPod would be better sounding through the use of other headphones.

c. The storage size for the Apple iPod relative to its size is a bonus.

d. Lastly, but definitely not the least, they consider this the most important; thousands of accessories of the Apple iPod to choose from.

Cons of iPods

1. Apple iPod reviews revealed that post sales services of the Apple iPod are not good. The service warranty of Apple iPods does not cover "abuse," which by itself is a very general term. Service stores of the Apple iPods sometimes argue that the malfunctioning of the iPods was caused by the abuse of the user.

2. Apple iPod reviews have also revealed posts that after the warranty of the iPod expired, weird things started to happen to the iPod. The Apple iPod is supposed to be skip-free, with enough battery life to last and a robust hard drive.

After the warranty year, however, it was reported that the ipod started skipping, the hard drive usually failed and the battery life suddenly became somewhat shorter.

3. Apple iPod reviews have also revealed that the Apple iPod seem to have a software bug or design flaw. Tracks being played are meant to flow continuously from one track to the next. The Apple iPod, however, sometimes blanks out for a moment between tracks.

4. Apple iPod reviews also revealed that users wish that Apple would make the video player more perfect. Doing so would shatter the competition and make Apple iPod the number one music player.

5. Apple iPod reviews also mentioned that users have an occasional problem with the iTunes. Also, the computer which has a MAC OS sometimes have difficulty recognizing the iPod when plugged. It also occassionally freezes up.

6. Apple iPod reviews also revealed that Apple iPod are easily affected by static inside a coat pocket. This cause the Apple iPod to randomly switch off occassionally.

7. Apple iPod reviews also discussed that the battery life expectancy of the Apple iPod is realistic only if the user would avoid using the back light and the equalizer of the device.

Based from the Apple iPod reviews, the music lovers uses other products simsilar to the Apple iPod such as Creative Jukebox 3, Nuvo MP3 players, Archous Jukebox, Rio, Fist MP3 player, Creative Muvo2. Creative Zen Xtra, Creative Zen Touch, Sony minidisc player, Siemens SL-45 MP3 player, and Sony

iPod Repair Service Centers

noreply@blogger.com (sristore) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:42:00 +0700

If you are contemplating on putting up your own business, why not try to learn the ins and outs of iPod repair service center? If you will scout the net, you will find that very few offer iPod repair service. In fact, your State doesn't even have one.

Although Apple have some offices in some States that offer iPod repair service, third party are not discouraged to put up their own iPod repair service center.

* About the Apple iPod Repair Warranty

Apple iPod offers one year warranty for newly purchased iPod nano, iPod mini, iPod video and iPod shuffle. This warranty includes replacement of the entire unit for iPod nano, iPod mini, iPod video and iPod shuffle that has factory defects, iPod repair service for screen repair and circuitry repair, and refurbished unit replacement for battery repair.

When the one year warranty expires, owners of iPod nano, iPod mini, iPod video and iPod shuffle may avail of the $59 battery replacement service. This is not a battery replacement service, actually. The $59 serves as your fee for receiving a refurbished iPod with a new set of lithium batteries.

If you require other iPod repair services other than battery replacement, you have to pay at the cost of almost half of the cost of a brand new iPod. For instance, if you would like your first generation iPod to be repaired at the Apple iPod repair center, the iPod repair service fee is as much as the cost of a brand new third generation iPod. So some iPod owners just buy a new one instead of having their old iPod repaired.

With this costs, this is the reason why many iPod users are looking for iPod repair service center that can do the job that Apple iPod center does, but at a cheaper cost.

* Why Not Put Up Your Own iPod Repair Service Center?

You can offer iPod repair services such as battery replacement, screen replacement or microdrive replacement.

Some online iPod repair service centers offer iPod screen repair service for just a hundred bucks for fifth generation and iPod video and fifty to seventy bucks for first to second generation monochrome iPods.

This is much cheaper compared to the $200 plus iPod repair service fee that Apple iPod center offers.

If you want to tap the repair market which still has a few competitors to spar with, you might learn the iPod repair market by studying the activities and services being offered of your future competitors.

Services that you can offer:

- screen replacement
- battery upgrades,
- audio jack repair
- hard drive or microdrives upgrades

* Online iPod Repair Centers

-- TECHSTORE

Techstore has opened its iPodRestore program for those those who care for their iPods more than their own mothers. With its Full-Restore plan, a box specially designed to carry your iPod nano, iPod mini, iPod video or iPod shuffle will be sent to you, which you need to ship back, with your iPod unit in it, to the iPod repair center of iPodRestore.

This costs for $29, which already includes the overnight from iPodRestore to your home and then to your home back to iPodStore and from iPodstore back to your home, and an estimate of your iPod's condition.

After iPodRestore receive your iPod, a technician will call and email you within 24 hours with a repair diagnosis and service repair price. You can opt to hire them to fix your iPod or ask them to send your iPod back to you at no extra cost.

They also offer Self-Restore program if you want to do the tinkering by yourself for $10. You have to supply your own iPod repair materials for this.

- iPodMods.com

iPodMods.com works like iPodRestore program but its approach in transporting iPods for repair differ in some ways.

iPodMods.com does not charge any fee for diagnostic testing. They will email you instructions on how to send your iPod to their iPod repair and testing center. Of course, the iPod owner bears the cost of the shipping.

iPodMods.com offers all types of iPod repair services such as battery replacement, hard drive or microdrive repair and upgrades, iPod screen repair, and earphone and jack port repair.

The Clash of MP3 Players and iPods

noreply@blogger.com (sristore) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:20:00 +0700

In the music universe, being number one means having the best of everything. From storage space and versatility to style and functionality, engineers have been moving towards the realization of that need. Not since the mp3 players and ipods have we seen the most amazing array of music devices available for audiophiles and techno rats.

It is interesting to note that MP3 players and ipods have always been mistaken for each other. And as hard as the brand managers try to differentiate their product from competitors, society has the last say on which product makes it and what its nickname will eventually become. MP3 players and ipods started out fairly the same; both are portable, audio players designed to eliminate the need for compact discs. MP3 players and ipods play a variety of music file formats from WAV, MP3, WMA, and MPEG to name a few. Both can also work as file storage devices. However, MP3 players are flash drive storage devices only. They have a limited capacity of up to 1 GB whereas ipods give the user a choice between a flash drive and a hard drive that can store up to 60 GB in memory size.

The competition between MP3 players and ipods extend to the capabilities of the devices. The features offered by MP3 players include an audio player, storage device, voice recorder telephone directory and an FM radio. Though it sounds like a fully loaded car, you are actually limited in terms of accessories. The wildest thing you can do to MP3 players is change the neck strap. Ipods have a wider selection and gives you more freedom to personalize it. Aside from being audio players, there are ipods that can show your pictures with its small LCD display. And with the latest ipods that play videos, you will always have something to keep you company on those stormy nights, alone in the car.

Ipods also give its user the freedom to dress up or dress down their units. There are websites that offer stick-on covers for ipods like the ones at Decalgirl.com or Ipodstyle.com. Ipods can also be used as a slight PDA since some fanatics have tinkered with these digital players and used it to upload their address book and calendar from their computer.

Other accessories available to this device include waterproof cases, headphones, dock, speakers, a home clock/radio system, battery pack, cassette adaptor, media reader and FM transmitters. The list goes on and on as more people find ways to enjoy their ipods.

With technology changing as often as the months do, it is no wonder that the once prized MP3 players are now only second – bit players to ipods. From just being portable audio devices, they have come out of our pockets and have invaded clubs. The most favorite accessories of hardcore music junkies are these docks that serves as a “mixing table” for tunes right from their ipods’ playlist.

Club disc jockeys have a field day with this device since they can create new dance floor beats with their trusty ipods bringing in the crowd thus spawning a new generation of digital mixers. Even club patrons can get into the action by downloading their favorite tunes and taking it to the mixing table for a spin.

MP3 players are not yet obsolete. It still is the next best thing to ipods and as long as there are people willing to make do without the extra features, MP3 players will always be around. If you are tight on the budget but would still like to carry your tunes around without lugging the heavy compact discs then this is the device for you.

Yet, hands down to the winner of this clash of the best audio device – the ipods. More than a just an audio player, ipods have established itself as the icon of the digital age. Its popularity, ease of use and huge potential has taken the music industry by storm. It has taken a life of its own because it has created numerous gadgets and applications that appeal to the geeks, yuppies, artists and fashionistas. As more and more people fall in love with ipods, engineers will continue to work and deliver us the accessories that we can use to fully enhance our beloved toys.