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7 accessories to take your iPod to the next level

August 11th, 2008 | 3 Comments | Posted in Gadgetry, The TechWorld

Every once in a while someone comes out with some portable player with a truckload of features and deems it ‘the next iPod killer’. Fact is, no one has been able to accomplish this feat. And that’s probably going to continue till the time the US Army gets to Osama and tickle him till he admits that George Bush is a super nice chap.

Today we’ll take a look at a bunch of iPod accessories that aim at giving you a better experience.

Image Credits aaronsteele

1) Jackets

Some call it foolish, some call it smart and if you’re a hardcore music junkie, you’d certainly want this one. Burton and Spyder make some cool looking jackets, you can just head to Eleksons website, get the fabric controls from them, stick it on to your t-shirt, underwear, what have you.

2) Cases

Gravity attracts everything. Even a shiny new iPod from the hands of an over-excited teeny bopper. So get a rugged cover if you treat your gadgets with as much care as your shoes. Or if you don’t want to screw the look of your iPod, get an invisible cover.

3) Earphones

iPod earphones suck. Everyone knows this and if you didn’t you’ve been totally living under a rock. I vehemently recommend something like the Shure EC3 or Creative Aurvana. Gives you a world of a difference.

4) Sound docks

Sound docks change your iPod from private to public. Some sound docks are loud enough to hold a small bash for 8-10 people. The ones I totally dig are the Bose SoundDock, Harman Kardon Go+Play and the JBL Radial for their rather balanced sound.

Out of all these, the Bose is the most portable and the Harman Kardon, the loudest. If I am not mentioning the Apple Hi-Fi, its because I haven’t heard it personally.

5) Arm bands

If you’re the type who needs some ear-pounding during a work out, get an arm band. You can carry out your proceedings in peace, rather than worry about your darling iPod falling out of your pocket.

6) FM Transmitter

Wireless transmission problem? No problem! Get a FM transmitter and transmit to all the receivers in the vicinity. Have a blast.

7) Battery pack

Out of battery, sir/ma’am? Get a battery pack, connect, reload, replay.

P.S. This article goes without saying that you should be adding a screen protector. And no, iPod’s dont need socks.

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Fantasy technolgy in cars

June 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Gadgetry

This post is going to be slightly offbeat from the regular tech stuff I write. But not very much so, since I am listing out some fantasy cars with fantasy technology, which we have seen in the movies. Cars which make us go ‘Gawd, I wish I had that in my car’.

Speed Racer Mach 5

Speed Racer Mach 5

The movie was rank silly up to the first half and things got better only when the Mach 5 was tweaked to have some really cool stuff like auto jacks to jump over obtrusion’s, tyre shredders to shred the effetes who gave trouble, a bullet proof canopy which also doubled up to make the car a submarine. Who cares for the Bandra-Worli sealink? We’ll take the sea, thank you very much.

The Batman Tumbler

Batman Tumbler

At first sight it did look a bit like a heap of scrap put together by a kindergarten kid, but attention to the movie revealed that it was all made out of military grade bullet proof metal (I still suspect it was put together by a KG kid). But, who cares? It was big, imposing and had rocket boosters. So, there.

P.S. 4 real life models were made. All were caught doing excessive speeds and one was crashed. Life.

Flubber Mobile

Flubber Mobile

Flying cars are always going to be elusive to the man on the street and till the time that happens, let movies like Flubber fuel our imagination. Who wouldn’t want a little green ball of sticky goo, which when put in the car could propel us right into the sky. You could finally reach office in time or make a nifty mid-air date right above the Arabian Sea. Don’t call me when the fuels over though.

Aston Martin DB5

Aston Martin DB5

This was the car that made tech-savvy geeks want to go and watch the Bond movies. I don’t really know about their interest in the Bond girls, but the car had a lot going for it when it was driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger. Enough for said geeks to wet their pants.

Smoke screens, oil slicks, revolving license plates, machine guns (it was cool in 1964, still is), ejector seats, et al. It had everything imaginable to confound the law and then some. It probably spurned the creation of hundreds of other super cars “inspired” by it.

De Lorean DMC 12

DeLorean DMC 12

By the time the car reached the movie, Back to the Future, the company, De Lorean had already filed for bankruptcy. Pity, cause it was more famous than the movie itself. The wedge shaped car became a time machine in the movie, thanks to one Dr. Emmett L. Brown and sped to the future at just 140kmph. I’d love to sit in one and see how what Page Rank this blog has in the future.

This article was originally written for JAM Magazine, issue dated 1st June to 15th June.

The iPhone ‘killers’ list

June 25th, 2008 | 4 Comments | Posted in Gadgetry

Every time Apple comes out with a product, there have to be 5 competitive products that promise to ‘kill’ the said Apple offering. Here’s presenting 5 iPhone killers.

1) Asus Lamborghini ZX1

‘Inspired’ by the edgy-wedgy looks of Lamborghinis’ from Sant’ Agata, this phone makes you go ‘vroom vroom’ at first sight. And like proper full sized Lambo cars, this one costs a relative bomb. 50 grand ones (1400 USD) and only a 100 units are slated to hit Indian shores.
(Asus has promised a test unit very soon. Stay tuned)

2) HTC Touch Diamond

HTC makes handsets for most of the major handset companies and was the first to introduce to finger gestures in the Touch. The Diamond takes things to the next level. With a fast-ass 528Mhz processor (which, BTW, is faster than the first PC I owned), a big-ass 2.8 inch screen, improved jaw drop inducing graphics, 4GB of internal storage and a turn by turn sat-nav guide, this one sure is a killer.

3) Samsung i900 Omnia

Take one look at this phone and you’ll conclude that the designer probably slept with the iPhone for a good month before hitting the drawing board. This one features a 5MP camera with smile (the camera clicks when the subject smiles) and face detection. And, surprise surprise, it’s got a very similar version of Apple’s multi-touch.

4) O2 XDA Orbit 2

O2 seems to have lost the sheen it once had, thanks to the Apple iPhone and more so because of HTC going solo. But the Orbit 2 is a worthy inclusion in this list. And because HTC makes O2’s handsets, it has very similar feature set as the HTC Touch Diamond. Though it looks a bit bulky it should be good for the business man on the move.

5) LG Viewty KE 990

One big touchscreen. Check. Very few buttons. Check. There, that’s all you need to make an iPhone clone (Though, it looks a lot like Sony Ericsson P1i). And it’s got one heck of a Schneider-Kreuznach 5MP camera to satiate those with a need for high megapixel ratings and double cheese burgers. Burp. And it can record videos in DivX. Double Burp.