iLounge

iLounge has posted a full photo gallery showing off the newly colored second-generation iPod shuffles, along with comparison photographs against the same-colored iPod nanos, plus Proporta- and JAVOedge-branded colored shuffle shells designed to offer silver shuffle owners similar results. The new gallery is here.

Additionally, checks by iLounge at Apple Stores across the United States suggest that the new shuffles are still making their way into retail locations, with some stores already displaying the new models and others awaiting shipments later this afternoon or tomorrow. If you are considering the purchase of a silver shuffle, and are concerned about purchasing the newer version - with its superior included earphones - rather than the older one, look for a silver shuffle in a box with gray printing, rather than green printing. All five of the new iPod shuffles come in gray-printed boxes, leaving the classic green shuffle coloration behind.

Apple is now offering a free demo version of its Vortex iPod game on the iTunes Store. An updated variation of the classic Breakout game, the demo of Vortex (iLounge Rating: B+) contains two sample levels. “Vortex is an intense, futuristic 360º brick-bashing arcade-style game,” says Apple. “Maneuver the bat around the edge of the Vortex to block the ball and keep it in play. Smash bonus bricks for power-ups. Destroy all of the bricks to enter the Vortex and advance to higher levels.” iPod games only play on fifth-generation iPods with iPod Software 1.2 or later.

Apple today announced that its second-generation iPod shuffle is now available in four new colors—blue, pink, green, and for the first time in iPod history, orange—in addition to the original silver. Like the iPod shuffle introduced last year, the new models feature 1GB of flash memory storage, an aluminum design with a built-in clip, and weigh just half an ounce. However, they are now packaged with Apple’s most recently updated iPod Earphones, rather than the predecessor model that shipped with prior shuffles. The new iPod shuffle is available immediately worldwide for $79.

Update: iLounge this morning posed several new iPod shuffle questions to Apple Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing Greg Joswiak; the answers can be found below.

Update 2: iLounge’s editors are weighing in on the new shuffle lineup in this Editorial. What do you think?

The Clothes Off Our Back Foundation is auctioning off a limited edition engraved iPod nano signed by stars from NBC’s hit comedy “The Office.” The nano, which has a current bid of $300, was signed by Leslie David Barker, Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery, Angela Kinsey and Phyllis Smith at the Platinum Guild 2007 Golden Globes Suite. According to the foundation, proceeds from the auction benefit the Children’s Defense Fund, Cure Autism Now and the emergency relief efforts in Darfur (specifically Friends of the World Food Program, Save the Children and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF). The auction ends on March 15th.

Harvard Extension School is making select content available for free to iTunes users. Free public access is being offered to video previews of 15 of the 50 distance education courses that are available this spring from the university. Previews are in the fields of computer science, management, environmental science, history and the liberal arts. Audio of each complete two-hour introductory lecture is also available for downloading. Course previews include Harvard professor Mikael Adolphson’s Japan: Tradition and Transformation; Harvard professor Shaye J. D. Cohen’s A Thematic Introduction to the Hebrew Bible; Harvard’s Scott Bradner’s Advanced Topics in Data Networking, and Suffolk University professor Robert J. Allison’s The History of Boston.

iLuv has announced its i182 video recording dock, which allows users to record real-time video content to a fifth-generation iPod or various media cards for playback in other devices. The iLuv i182 ($230; March) can record from various A/V sources, including live or recorded TV, DVD players or camcorders, via composite or S-Video inputs. The unit consists of a dock for direct iPod recording, as well as an adapter for recording video to Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo cards, MultiMedia cards (MMC), Secure Digital (SD) cards, PMPs and USB storage devices.

“A simple user interface of just two buttons on the i182 dock allows users to make simple choices,” says iLuv “One button is to adjust the timer to record in increments of 30, 60, 120, or 180 minutes with resolution up to 640 x 480 at 2.5 Mbps for your iPod and 720 x 480 at 5Mbps for other PMPs. The second button on the device is to start and stop recording. The device automatically stops recording at the end of the specified duration. The next step is to transfer the video files to your digital player, memory card or other device. When using an iPod, iLuv software included with the i182 makes it possible to  automatically register the recorded video file with iTunes and sync to a PC or Mac.”

The Vaux Dock (£399) from the UK-based Vauxhall VX Collective is a limited edition iPod dock by jewelry designer Daisuke Sakaguchi. The trendy dock was created to store your iPod, car keys and change. It is designed to slip over a standard Apple iPod dock and is crafted from sterling silver. “Daisuke is a member of Vauxhall’s VX Collective, a group of like minded up and coming British talent from the worlds of film, design, cooking, clubbing and sport brought together by the car company to produce a range of collaborative and stand alone projects focused on style, design and driving excitement.” [Via Autoblog]

Verizon Wireless rejected Apple’s offer to be the exclusive distributor of the iPhone almost two years ago due to Apple’s demands. According to Jim Gerace, a Verizon Wireless vice president, Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly service fees, say over where the iPhone could be sold, and control of iPhone customers. “We said no. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone,” Gerace said. “We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial.”

The Verizon executive said only Apple Stores and Verizon stores would have sold the iPhone, much like the current deal with AT&T/Cingular. But Gerace said that would have put Verizon’s distribution partners, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, at a disadvantage. Gerace also said that Apple wanted sole discretion over whether to replace or repair a malfunctioning iPhone. “They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat… on hardware and service support,” Gerace said.

iSkin today announced the availability of its new Duo protector for the second-generation iPod nano. The Duo case combines a silicone inner layer with an impact resistant screen and face protector that’s metallic coated. The Duo also comes with a bottom silicone docking port cover, a removable rotary belt clip, an adjustable lanyard, and a universal dock adaptor. The iSkin Duo is available in five colors and sells for $30. [See iLounge’s First Look at the Duo 2G nano case]

Apple has been met with another fight for the iPhone brand name by a small company in Canada. “Comwave Telecom Inc. has used the iPhone brand since 2004 to sell Internet phone service to its customers, and filed documents opposing Apple’s motion to take the name,” reports Bloomberg News. “The dispute expands Apple’s legal woes over the brand, which Cisco Systems claims to have trademarked in the U.S. The spat also may lead to delays in getting the phone to Canadian consumers.” Comwave president Yuval Barzakay said, “It’s a crucial brand for us… Our legal folks believe we’re certainly in the driver’s seat.” As previously reported, Apple is currently battling Cisco Systems over the iPhone trademark in the U.S.

New accessory developer Belch Co. has introduced the Carbon Fiber Case ($50) for the second-generation iPod nano, a modified carbon fiber design intended to look good and offer a higher degree of protection than prior carbon fiber cases. Founded by two Purdue University Engineering students, Belch made these cases so that protective tabs on the top and bottom keep the iPod inside while at the same time providing access to the player’s controls and docking port. Similar cases for other iPod models are planned to debut later.

Google has again beat out Apple for the top spot in an annual global brand ranking. The survey by online branding magazine BrandChannel.com asked 3,625 branding professionals and students “Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?”. Globally, the top five were Google, Apple, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Starbucks. The North American results, however, saw Apple in first place, followed by YouTube, Google, Starbucks and Wikipedia. “The poll does not take account of economic brand value, the murky science of assigning a financial value to brand, which regularly puts Coca-Cola in first place,” says Reuters. “Neither does it ask respondents to consider whether the brand’s impact is positive or negative.”

The expected popularity of the iPhone could create challenges for some of the device’s parts suppliers. According to analysts, Asian handset-component makers may see shortages of key components if the iPhone takes off quickly. “While niche firms from chip maker Toshiba in Japan to Germany’s Balda, a touch-panel supplier, stand to gain from the phone’s debut, analysts say parts makers need to be prepared to quickly ramp up output or risk shortages if the product is a quick success,” reports Reuters. “Companies at the greatest risk are makers of the NAND-style flash memory that will power the phones, as well as makers of product-specific components like the special touch panels that will set the iPhone apart from other more traditional cell phones.” Apple the iPhone in the U.S. in June, with a target of 10 million units in 2008.

Rogers Wireless has confirmed that it will be the exclusive carrier for Apple’s iPhone in Canada. “Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada as soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in Canada,” the company said this week in a customer service email. Rogers Wireless is the largest Canadian wireless communications service provider. An exact date and service pricing were not mentioned. Apple is set to release the iPhone in the U.S. in June.

AT&T/Cingular plan to aggressively push Apple’s iPhone to new customers, offering them 18 months of free service, according to Jim Cramer, director and co-founder of investment site TheStreet.com. “The company made it very clear that it’s going to use Apple’s iPhone to get customers from Verizon Wireless by giving away its service for a year and a half to those customers who buy the phone,” Cramer said after speaking with executives from AT&T/Cingular.

“Management sounded like kids when talking about the iPhone and how it was going to remake AT&T and that it was the greatest invention they’ve ever seen,” Cramer said in a related article. “Now, AT&T’s all about market share, and if you read between the lines, I think you see a strategy coming where the device’s $500 price point is preserved but the service contract is greatly reduced. I think that AT&T—and not Apple—is the key to this next leg, and CEO Stan Sigman can make it happen.”

Update: According to a Cingular representative, the company will not be offering a free period of service with the iPhone. “The report is nonsense,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve always said the only way you can get the iPhone is with a Cingular rate plan.”

Norway’s consumer ombudsman said Apple must open access to its FairPlay copy-protection technology by October 1, 2007 or face legal action. “They must make iTunes music compatible with other players than the iPod by the end of September, or we will take them to court,” the ombudsman, Bjoern Erik Thon, said. “iTunes is imposing unreasonable and unbalanced restrictions that are not in accordance with Norwegian law.” Last June, Norway’s ombudsman said iTunes violated Norwegian law by only allowing consumers to play purchased music on an iPod. Other European countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, and Finland have joined in the battle. The ombudsman said the courts could impose fines on iTunes until songs could be played on rival devices.

As a fun experiment - still in progress - iLounge has just released the 2007 Guide to New iPod Accessories & More, an iPod-formatted downloadable guide to the major new iPod accessories and announcements from this year’s Macworld Expo and International Consumer Electronics Show. Developed using Mogopop - a web site that leverages Apple’s iPod Notes feature to create downloadable packages of linked text, photos, and videos - the Guide features videos of Apple TV and iPhone, numerous pictures of new iPod accessories, and details on their vendors, all viewable on a fifth-generation iPod. It’s intended as a “carry it anywhere” version of our Expo coverage from earlier this month.

“The Guide is the most ambitious project yet published to Mogopop, showcasing the scope and scale of what the Mogopop system can tackle,” explained Kara Berklich Weber, co-founder/VP Strategic Development, Mogopop. “With photos, videos, and dozens of pages of useful, informative text, the New iPod Accessories Guide is just the sort of content our users want in a portable format. This will dramatically improve anyone’s next accessories shopping trip.”

The new Guide is free for download, and available now from this link. Follow the link, download the Mogopop Manager, connect your iPod, then download the Guide and install it on your iPod with the Manager. To find the Guide on your iPod, start at the main menu, pick Extras, then pick Notes. Please note that limitations of its design - for instance, the requirements that pictures and videos be linked, rather than embedded - are limitations of Apple’s iPod Notes software; we’ve tried to make the Guide as easy to use as possible given these constraints.

Digital Music Group—a “content owner and global leader in the digital distribution of independently owned music and video catalogs”—has announced that Apple’s iTunes Store will begin selling content from its television, film, and video catalogs. Under the three-year agreement, Apple will pay fixed wholesale prices for each downloaded TV program, movie or other video. According to Digital Music Group, the company “acquires the digital rights to media catalogs and digitally encodes them into multiple formats for distribution to online music, mobile, and video stores. Our retailers include: the iTunes Store, Google Video, RealNetworks, Napster, Wal-Mart Music, Yahoo! Music, InfoSpace, Moderati, Zingy, 9Squared, and many others.”

Sakar International recently announced the iView, a new 7-inch portable viewing device for the iPod. Priced at $150, iView promises a high-resolution picture and built-in stereo speakers. Features include a Dock Connector cradle for playing media and charging the iPod while in use, a built-in rechargeable battery which provides upwards of five hours of run time, a thin design, and A/V outputs to connect to a larger screen.

According to internet metrics firm Hitwise, online searches for the iPhone have passed searches for the iPod since the all-in-one device was announced at Macworld Expo earlier this month. “For the week ending 1/13/07, the share of searches for ‘iphone’ was greater than the weekly share of searches for ‘ipod’ at any time during 2006,” reports Hitwise. “The week ending 1/20/07 still showed a greater volume of searches for ‘iphone’ versus ‘ipod.’ This early surge in interest should indicate a rosy future for the iPhone when it becomes available in later in the year. Interestingly, the volume of searches for ‘ipod’ peaked during the last week of the year, rather than before Christmas as one would expect.”