iLounge

In addition to its iGroove SXT, Klipsch has also introduced the iPod-specific RoomGroove speaker system. Part of the new KlipschCast family, the RoomGroove is a transceiver system—it can receive CD-quality wireless audio from the Klipsch CS-700 DVD Entertainment System as well as transmit audio to other RoomGrooves.

The RoomGroove utilizes dual 2.5-inch high-output woofers in a ported enclosure, premium crossover networks and dual MicroTractrix Horn-loaded tweeters. It features a hidden dock that accepts and charges all dockable iPods. The RoomGroove also has an auxiliary input and comes with wall mounting hardware and an IR remote control. The system will ship in April for $349.

Delivered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, this year’s keynote address from Macworld Expo is now available as a free downloadable podcast from the iTunes Store. Despite the fact that it clocks in at a feature film-length 1 hour and 45 minutes, Jobs’ keynote is unquestionably the most engaging public speech iLounge’s editors have ever seen, introducing the company’s new iPhone with a level of oratorical mastery that deserves academic study. The download is 1.21GB, and well worth the transfer time.

According to trademark law experts, Cisco may not be the owner of the iPhone name as it claims in the lawsuit filed this week against Apple. The iPhone trademark, owned by Cisco since 2000, was apparently abandoned in late 2005/early 2006 because the company was not actively selling a product under the iPhone name.

Cisco filed a Declaration of Use with the US Patent and Trademark office days before the trademark’s expiration in May 2006, following a six month grace period, but only provided a photo of one of its previously existing products—the Linksys CIT200 Cordless Internet Telephony Kit—with an “iPhone” sticker affixed over the product’s name.

“If Cisco didn’t launch a product using the iPhone name, their trademark registration would be canceled and they would have no bargaining chips with Apple,” says attorney Jay Behmke. “So in order to keep the trademark active, they had to file the Declaration of Use, and start selling a product under that trademark.”

“It is possible that the Declaration of Use is defective, as there was no continuous use, and the sample that Cisco submitted was for a product not released until 7 months later,” Behmke says. “The fact that the Declaration of Use was submitted only days before the deadline expires gives me the impression that they were scrambling to get a product to market, and had to file the Declaration before the product was ready.”

Celebrating the close of its Illuminator case design contest at Macworld Expo today, Mophie unexpectedly announced that three separate product concepts had won, with each item turned into physical prototype form and planned for release by the company in the near future. One of the winners, Schlep ($30), is a flip-open design that will be produced in two versions - one for iPhone (June), one for iPod 5G (April), adding credit card sleeves and a zippered storage pocket, and suitable for mounting on a bag strap. Bevy ($15, March) is a shuffle-fitting keychain holder-slash-bottle opener, with integrated iPod headphone cable management around its edge. Montage (price and date TBD) is a multi-function digital photo frame with a user-positionable iPod dock. Additional pictures of all three designs can be seen at the company’s Illuminator contest mini-site.

Some financial analysts and legal experts believe Cisco’s lawsuit over the iPhone trademark won’t stop Apple from using the name, noting that the case will likely be settled long before the June ship date. At least one analyst, however, believes Apple will change the device’s name to “Apple Phone.”

“We expect an amicable resolution,” Prudential Securities analyst Inder Singh said. “The most likely outcome, in our opinion, is for Cisco to be a net recipient of financial payment from Apple for use of the name.” Apple “has until May to sort this out and then ramp up marketing, so there is time,” said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray.

Citing sources close to the iPhone situation, Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said he expects Apple to change the name of the iPhone to “Apple Phone” in time for the product’s release in June. Of note, Apple this week renamed its previously codenamed iTV living room device the “Apple TV.”

Tunewear has announced its Prie Tunewallet micro for both iPod nano generations. The nappa leather case features a card pocket which can hold 15-20 business cards or credit cards and cash. The $30 case comes with a Tunefilm screen and click wheel transparent protector, and has an eyelet hole for using a wallet chain (not included). The Prie Tunewallet micro is available in four models—B/R (black leather/red stitch), B/W (black leather/white stitch), W/W (white leather/white stitch), and Sienna (brown leather/yellow stitch).

Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel today announced that they will offer narrative, documentary and animation shorts from the 2007 Sundance Film Festival on the iTunes Store. A selection of short films from the 2007 festival will be available for download at $1.99 each on the iTunes Store beginning January 22, 2007.

“The films available on iTunes are drawn from the 71 Sundance Film Festival short films, representing 19 countries and 4445 submissions from American and international filmmakers,” says the organizers. “Also available on the iTunes Store will be free podcasts that take you behind the scenes of the Sundance Film Festival including engaging panels with filmmakers, journalists and industry representatives direct from Prospector Square and live performances straight from the Music CafA(C) in Park City.”

AT&T will rebrand its Cingular service with the AT&T name starting Monday. AT&T took full control of Cingular, the exclusive carrier of Apple’s iPhone, with its $85.8 billion purchase of BellSouth last month.

“The new name is a step back in time for Cingular, which bought the old AT&T Wireless in 2004 and eventually dropped the AT&T name altogether,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “AT&T executives hope a sole brand will signal to consumers that the company is a one-stop shop for myriad services including wireless, TV and land-line phone. But the coming months may be confusing for some Cingular customers who not long ago were absorbed from the old AT&T Wireless.”

Ads, customer bills and other items will have both Cingular and AT&T logos at the beginning of the transition, with the AT&T name to takeover solely months from now.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs says consumers can expect more mobile applications for the iPhone by the time the device ships in June—but that Apple will control what applications make it onto the iPhone, much like it has done with every iPod.

“We define everything that is on the phone,” Jobs told the New York Times. “You don’t want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers.” Jobs told Newsweek something similar. “You don’t want your phone to be an open platform,” he said. “You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.”

“These are devices that need to work, and you can’t do that if you load any software on them,” Jobs continued. “That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be software to buy that you can load on them coming from us. It doesn’t mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment.”

During the unveiling of the iPhone, which runs a scaled down version of Mac OS X, Jobs showed off applications for email, web browsing, photos, SMS text messaging, and Google Maps, as well as widgets for weather and stocks. Other icons on the iPhone prototype include Calendar, Camera, Calculator, Notes, Clock, and Settings.

Choose Your Own Adventure has announced its first interactive children’s book for the iPod. “Unlike the typical ‘one way only’ story in a narrated audiobook, the CYOA download goes in countless directions as ‘you’ in the role of main character click on links to select the story’s direction,” explains the company. “The video screen allows the user to view full color illustrations, albeit in miniature. R. A. Montgomery, CYOA author and founder, narrates the story in which ‘you’ are a skilled mountain climber on an expedition through the Himalayas in search of the elusive Yeti. Sound effects like the whirl of a helicopter or howling winds enhance the sense of immersion.” Choose Your Own Adventure #1 - “The Abominable Snowman” audiobook is available as a free download until January 25, 2007.

Mophie has announced the Mueva Wraptor case for Apple’s second-generation iPod nano. The silicone case features a clear polycarbonate collapsible cord wrap for iPod earbuds, “putting an end to the dangles and tangles forevermore.” The case also provides full-screen protection and a play-through click wheel guard. The Wraptor case will be available in five colors—black, frost, pink, blue, and green—in February for $25.

The iPhone will require a two-year Cingular service plan, according to reports. “We spoke with Cingular and confirmed that Apple’s new iPhone will require a two-year cell phone plan and will not be sold without it,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle’s Ellen Lee. At a CES press conference in Las Vegas following the iPhone’s introduction, Cingular confirmed that customers must agree to a two-year contract in order to buy the iPhone, even if that requires customers to renew their current service plan with the company. Cingular also said that the company’s exclusive rights to sell the iPhone is a “multi-year agreement in the U.S.,” meaning the device won’t be offered by other carriers anytime soon.

Cisco Systems filed suit against Apple today, claiming that the company is using the iPhone name without permission. The suit comes after an apparent licensing deal fell through this week following years of negotiations over the iPhone trademark, which Cisco has owned since 2000.

“Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name,” Mark Chandler, Cisco’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. “There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without permission.”

As of yesterday, Cisco said it was confident Apple would agree to its latest terms, noting that it was expecting to receive a signed agreement from Apple. Cisco said the paperwork never arrived, and today filed a lawsuit, asking a U.S. district judge for Northern California to order Apple not to use the iPhone name during this week’s Macworld Expo.

Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, dismissed Cisco’s suit. “We think Cisco’s trademark lawsuit is silly,” she said. Several companies already use the name “iPhone” for Voice-over-Internet products, Kerris said. “Apple is the first company to ever use the ‘iPhone’ name for a cell phone. We believe that Cisco’s trademark registration is tenuous at best. If Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we are very confident we would prevail.”

iLounge has just announced the winners of its Best of Show 2007 Awards:

Alpine X001 Digital Media Receiver
Altec Lansing iM600 Portable Speaker System
Apple iPhone
Belkin Bluetooth Dock Adapter for iPod
Belkin Clear Acrylic and Brushed Metal Case for iPod nano
Belkin TuneStudio
Elgato EyeTV 2.3.3
Griffin Evolve Wireless Speaker System
Harman Kardon Drive + Play 2
iSkin Cerulean Bluetooth Earphones
Lenntek Hookup-Lanyard
Macally TunePro Flat Panel Stereo Speaker with AM/FM Alarm Clock
Power Support Silicone Jacket for iPod shuffle
Roxio Toast 8 Titanium

Congratulations to the winners! Full details are now available in this linked article.

Motorola has announced a new Bluetooth iPod adapter for use with wireless headphones. The Motorola Bluetooth Adapter for iPod D650 is compatible with any dock connector iPod, requires no batteries, and features an indicator light for power and pairing. Alongside the adapter, Motorola also announced its Bluetooth Active Headphones S9. The lightweight, behind-the-head earphones work with the iPod adapter or a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. The Motorola Bluetooth Adapter for iPod and Bluetooth Active Headphones S9 are expected to be available in the first half of 2007. Pricing was not announced.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs appeared in two televised interviews following the announcement of the iPhone yesterday. Jobs spoke with both CNBC and ABC’s Nightline. Watch videos at the links.

Fortune’s Peter Lewis has written an article about how Apple kept the iPhone a secret. “Apple didn’t show Cingular the final iPhone prototype until just weeks before this week’s debut. In some cases, Apple crafted bogus handset prototypes to show not just to Cingular executives, but also to Apple’s own workers.”

Despite Apple CEO Steve Jobs playing a Beatles song during his keynote presentation yesterday at Macworld Expo, the band is still nowhere to be found on the iTunes Store.

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, said his company is considering a mobile phone integrated with its Zune media player. “It’s probably on the table of things for us to look at, but not the number one thing we are focused on,” Bach said.

Tunewear has announced its Tunewave FM iPod transmitter/charger. The Tunewave FM—which includes an FM transmitter, 12V car charger adapter and USB charging and syncing cable—allows users play an iPod wirelessly on a car stereo, home stereo or portable radio. It features a blue-backlit LED screen, safety fuse for charging, and works with all dockable iPods. The Tunewave FM sells for $50 and will be available next month.

“Apple’s new iPhone could do to the cell phone market what the iPod did to the portable music player market: crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority. This is unfortunate for anybody else who makes cell phones, but it’s good news for those of us who use them.”—Lev Grossman, Time

“At first blush, it’s the gadget-lover’s ‘genie in a bottle’ fantasy: get three wishes fulfilled in only one wish. But like a mischievous genie, Apple has left us wanting more: a wicked video iPod with trifling storage capacity, a super smartphone that will need to be shipped back for battery replacement, and an highly visual web device that may choke on data when used on Cingular’s current cell phone network. And then there are the prices, known and unknown. Perhaps by design, it will cause envy, yet immediately require successors.”—Jeremy Horwitz, iLounge

“At $499 and $599, it’s a pretty expensive deal. Steve is more focused on not cannibalizing iPod sales than on driving volume of phones. Those are not high-volume prices.”—Rob Glaser, CEO of Real Networks

“I don’t know a single person that likes the phone they have. Everyone feels like a victim of both their phone plan and their phone hardware. Cellphones seem to be one of those things that barely works given all the drawbacks. The iPhone isn’t just a new gadget. It looks like something that will transform the way we think about cellphones.”—Matt Haughey, A Whole Lotta Nothing

“From what Jobs showed Tuesday, the iPhone really does look to be five years ahead of what anyone else has got. Maybe longer. It’s taken rivals five years to catch up with the iPod, which now looks hopelessly outdated and crippled compared to the iPhone.”—Leander Kahney, Wired News

“There’s an interesting tradeoff presented by the iPhone. While the phone can do more, and it’s interface is fluid, in some ways it widens the gulf between human and computer. When you touch it it doesn’t touch you back.”—Jason Fried, 37signals

“This goes beyond smart phones and should be given its own category called ‘brilliant’ phones. Cell phones are on track to become the largest platform for digital music playback, and Apple needed to make this move to help defend their iPod franchise as well as extend it beyond a dedicated music environment.”—Tim Bajarin, Creative Strategies

“It’s not just candy. These are entirely useful, new ways to use your phone.”—Mike McGuire, Gartner

“This thing will go through the roof, exactly according to Apple’s master plan. Prepare for a replay of the iPod lifecycle: other cellphone companies will rush out phones that match the iPhone’s feature list, but will fail to appreciate the importance of elegant, effortless, magical-feeling software.”—David Pogue, New York Times

“We are focused on the ‘pro-sumer’ and business customer, where e-mail, Microsoft Outlook and easy text entry for messaging and Web navigation is required. A full QWERTY keyboard is essential, so you can compose and edit documents fast and round-trip them back to the office rather than trying to navigate a cursor up and down and sideways.”—Marlene Somsak, Palm spokeswoman

“What you cannot appreciate looking at iPhone photographs on your computer display is how amazing its screen is. 166 DPI is an amazing resolution—tiny, tiny text is amazingly legible. And the device itself is very thin. The battery policy, though, is exactly like that of other iPods: it’s sealed inside the case, and is not swappable.”—John Gruber, Daring Fireball

“Prospects for the new device are positive, but it is not a given that Apple can win against a slew of wireless providers, phone manufacturers, and Microsoft, all of whom are similarly motivated to raise their flag on the same territory.”—James L. McQuivey, Boston University professor

“At the risk of playing into the hype of the iPhone, seeing is believing with this device.”—Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray

“Apple’s bothersome tradition of non-user-servicable batteries continues. There’s no reason to do this, frankly, aside from the kind of implied ‘we’re aesthetic obsessives’ claim that Apple still gets away with.”—Rob Beschizza, Wired

“This product could not have been done two years ago and come to market the way that it has. Yes, I know other devices can do a lot of what the iPhone can do but that’s like saying there’s a lot of other music players out there as well.”—Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research

“It just confirms our message, and it’s good to have others preaching the same message. The best company will win in the end, so I think it’s good news for us. It’s not a threat, although of course it’s hard competition, but that usually makes you perform better yourself.”—Pekka Pohjakallio, VP of Nokia Nseries Computers

“OS X. On your phone. Damn.”—Merlin Mann, 43 Folders

“While its $499 and $599 price points appear high, they are highly functional devices and best-in-class. We would not be surprised to see simpler cell phones in the future at much more aggressive price points… Apple will likely follow its iPod strategy, which is to start out at the high-end and then trickle down to mid-range and low-end.”—Shaw Wu, American Technology Research

“I’ve already ordered two. I don’t know what the cost is and I don’t care. The higher it is the more I like it as a shareholder.”—Nick Kaiser, Saturna Capital

“Wireless is hard. Success in this industry has confounded other companies like Microsoft and even Motorola at times.”—Mike Abramsky, RBC Capital Markets

“The iPhone is a lot of things: A widescreen iPod, a smart phone and a mobile web browser. It also might be the death knell of the current iPod.”—Pete Mortensen, Wired News

XtremeMac has introduced a line of home audio and video cables for the new Apple TV streaming media device. The XtremeHD product line also includes a four-port HDMI switcher designed to complement the Apple TV. The XtremeHD cables include: HDMI to HDMI ($20), HDMI to DVI ($20), Component Video ($20), Toslink Optical Audio ($20), and RCA stereo ($15). The XtremeHD four-port HDMI switcher, which will be available next month, enables users to connect up to four HDMI sources—such as Apple TV, DVD players, satellite systems and DVRs—and then connect to a single HDMI input on a television. Any one of the connected video sources can then be selected using the button on the front of the HDMI switcher or via the included remote control.

iPort, known for its Apple iPod focused in-wall music system, unveiled today a hardware and software upgrade for their IW (in-wall) and FS (free-standing) music systems. These Authentication IC upgrades offer expanded iPod 5G support including video output and browsing of the iPod video menu including playlist and view list data, via RS-232 control systems. Upgrades to existing systems can be performed to replace the RS-232 circuit card found in level 4 and 5 iPort models that incorporate RS-232 serial control for integration with remote keypads or touchscreens.