Tag Archive for 'ipad'

31
Jan

Use an iPhone FM Transmitter to Make Your Car’s Stereo Into a Music Hub

iphone fm transmitterLove your collection of Apple mobile gadgets? Now you can use an inexpensive iPhone FM transmitter to get the music from your iPad, iPhone, iPod or any gizmo with a headphone jack into your car’s stereo!

For the millions of people in the world today who love and buy Apple electronics, one of them is not enough. In addition to sporting an iMac or MacBook at home, they are also quite likely to use an iPad, iPod, and/or iPhone when they’re on the go.

Perhaps you’re one of them?

If so, then you know that virtually all of Apple’s electronics make for great digital jukeboxes. Loaded with their groundbreaking iTunes platform, everything from a MacBook Pro to iPod Touch allows you to buy, store, and listen to music virtually anywhere. The problem, however, has always been that Apple’s mobile devices are largely designed to play music through earbuds or earphones. While that is an important option for many iPhone, iPod, and iPad users, many others wish they could simply plug in to their car stereo and listen to music through their booming speakers and subwoofers.

Enter the trusty iPhone FM transmitter!

Digital On Digital: iPhone FM Transmitters Broadcast Directly Into Your Car Stereo

Now, for a modest investment of around AUD$20, every mobile gadget in your Apple arsenal can be easily driven through your car stereo, thanks to advancements in digital technology. Early designs for plugging personal music devices into your car stereo involved cumbersome cassette tape inserts that never sounded any good and often managed to break the cassette player function in car stereos. This downside, combined with the fact that few if any car stereos come equipped with cassette players anymore make an iPhone FM transmitter the obvious next-generation choice for converting iTunes-powered music collections into something that can be listened to safely while driving.

The new technology in iPhone FM transmitters is purely digital: just as your car’s FM receiver can digitally tune in radio stations, so too does an iPhone FM transmitter tune in frequencies to broadcast the audio signal from your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. The precision of your car’s stereo and the iPhone FM transmitter both locking in to the same frequency digitally, together with Digital Phase Lock Loop (PLL) transmission technology that helps reduce interference, assures digital-quality transmission of the signal; the broadcast signal itself is not digital, but the tuning is.

iphone fm transmitter

Universal Usability

There are a wide range of different iPhone FM transmitters on the market today, many of which are proprietary and need to be interfaced with the iPhone’s dock. But if you have a ton of different mobile gadgets, look for an iPhone FM transmitter that interfaces with devices using a 1/8″ (3.5mm) connection. While docks, plugs, and connectors can vary from device to device, the 1/8″ (3.5mm) jack continues to be universal for listening to music, from your iPhone 4 to your old Sony Walkman.

The only downside to an iPhone FM transmitter that uses a 1/8″ (3.5mm) connector is that it will most likely need to be powered either through your car’s cigarette lighter jack or a set of batteries — it will not be able to run on USB or any other kind of phantom power. This also means that a universal-fit iPhone FM transmitter might have a few extra cables — one that attaches the transmitter to your device, and one that attaches the transmitter to the car’s cigarette lighter.

But this is a minimal downside considering that an inexpensive iPhone FM transmitter can work with all of your favourite devices!

Thanks for reading our article? Did you know that EW carries some of the best-quality iPhone FM transmitters at great prices? Take a look at all of our iPhone FM transmitters. As an added bonus, use EWBLOG at checkout for 10% off your purchase, plus fast FREE shipping Australia-wide!

30
Jul

Video Reviewer Sprays Water on His iPad Case – With iPad Inside – To Prove It’s Waterproof

Ever wonder if all of the iPad cases that claim to be waterproof actually live up to their claim? This YouTube reviewer put his iPad case to the test and sprayed it with a hose – with his iPad inside!

There’s nothing that poses a bigger threat to your iPad than water. Apple does its best to build sturdy, rugged gadgets that can survive drops (both the falling and water kinds) by using strong PC polycarbonate plastic housings and tight assembly. But the bottom line is this: if moisture gets inside your iPad, it’s fried.

Add to this the fact that the iPad spends a lot of its life outside, and you can start to realize how a waterproof iPad case is an attractive idea for many iPad users.

But do you ever wonder if supposedly “waterproof” products, such as iPad cases, really live up to their own claims? After all, how many people are ever really going to put their waterproof iPad case to the test and risk ruining their iPad?

Well, this crazy YouTube tech reviewer did!

Zain Sehgal, also known as “iglaswegian” on YouTube, actually took a garden hose and sprayed his Uniea Omniverse iPad case with water – while his iPad was in it!

Is he crazy? Brilliant? You decide.

Thanks for reading our article! If you’re ready to purchase some iPad accessories, rechargeable batteries, battery chargers, or any other electronics accessory, then visit the Electronics Warehouse website and use promo code EWBLOG at checkout for 10% off your entire order, plus FREE shippingAustralia wide!

28
Jul

The Facts Don’t Lie: Most People Hate the iPad

Chart and poll courtest of MyType.com

A revealing new study indicates that the vast majority of people in the world either have no interest in the iPad or think it’s a piece of junk.

Since the release of the iPad in the Autumn (or Spring, depending on where you live), everyone in cyberspace has weighed in regarding the groundbreaking tablet. You could even say there’s as many opinions as there have been iPad sales worldwide. But until now, no quantifiable study has been done about iPad users, iPad critics, and the rest of the people who are somewhere in between.

Today, however, MyType.com’s scientific poll has spun off a wave of new reports on the kind of people who love the iPad as well as those who loathe it. While most people are debating the voracity of the poll’s juiciest and most controversial findings — that iPad users tend to be “Selfish Elites” while its critics are identified as “Independent Geeks” — most of the news coverage has missed an even more startling find: a vast majority of people just aren’t that impressed with the iPad.

Continue reading ‘The Facts Don’t Lie: Most People Hate the iPad’

23
Jul

Apple’s Own iPad Case Sets Trend For Other iPad Case Designs

New iPad case designs continue to pop up on the consumer electronics market each month. But how much influence does Apple’s own homegrown iPad case have on other companies’ designs?

Apple's own "homegrown" iPad Case

You’ve probably read all about Apple’s recent iPhone 4 snafu, and how Steve Jobs has generously given all disgruntled iPhone 4 buyers a free iPhone case. Nevermind that the free iPhone bumper probably costs about .4 cents to produce — I’m sure that a bit of silicone rubber will make the new iPhone’s shortcomings disappear in the minds of Apple disciples.

But there has already been enough written about the iPhone 4 to fill the blogosphere for years. Instead, I’m wondering what kind of ripple effect that Apple’s now-free, el cheapo iPhone 4 case will have on the rest of the new iPhone 4 cases due out for the remainder of 2010?

Continue reading ‘Apple’s Own iPad Case Sets Trend For Other iPad Case Designs’

20
Jul

New Louis Vuitton iPad Case Begs the Question: Is the iPad a Status Symbol?

There’s an iPad case for everyone on the market today, but is a designer iPad case that costs almost as much as the iPad itself really necessary?

Photo courtesy of dmarge.com

Louis Vuitton, the heralded, hallowed designer handbag maker, recently made news in both the fashion and tech world with the announcement of its new iPad case. Clad in its trademark Louis Vuitton leather print, the simple leather iPad sleeve will retail for around A$ 420 ($366 USD). While Louis Vuitton isn’t liberally shipping out review samples of its designer iPad case to tech reviewers such as myself, a quick look from an expert eye reveals a complete lack of any features, protective or otherwise.

Basically, the Vuitton iPad case is just a big slab of status symbol — a case for either a spendthrift who is desperate to wallpaper themselves with as many designer brands as possible in order to impress their family, friends, and passersby, or for the desperately wealthy class who would never even consider an iPad case that didn’t have LV’s print or Chanel’s interlocking Cs emblazoned on the front.

Continue reading ‘New Louis Vuitton iPad Case Begs the Question: Is the iPad a Status Symbol?’

18
Jul

The Case of the Netbookish iPad: How Jobs Said He’d Never Build a Netbook, Then Built One

Image courtesy of Gadgetell.com

When Steve Jobs famously said, “We don’t know how to build a sub-[USD]$500 computer that is not a piece of junk,” the tech media unanimously interpreted this to mean that Apple would never get into the netbook business. After all, what is a netbook? Essentially is a small, compact mini computer that is constructed mainly for the purposes of surfing the ‘net, checking e-mail, social networking, and light gaming. However, there is nothing innovative about the netbook design — it only exists because, more important than any of these defining features, netbooks are usually really cheap. Thus, they were developed not as product leaders in the tech market, but as price leaders; they give people an opportunity to enter the computing world on a shoestring budget.

Continue reading ‘The Case of the Netbookish iPad: How Jobs Said He’d Never Build a Netbook, Then Built One’

10
Jul

In Case You Didn’t Notice, the iPad is Still the Only Real Tablet Device Out There

An image of HP's Slate, courtesy of PC World

Apple’s iPad continues to reign as king of the tablets, launching a whole sub-industry of iPad cases and accessories. But where are all of the competing tablet PCs promised at CES 2010?

It seems that whenever Apple debuts a groundbreaking new mobile device or computer, a whole new market segment opens up in the world of consumer electronics. Like a gadget supernova, new industry niches are formed like new suns and planets spinning out of a massive, exploding star. The latest star has been Apple’s iPad: in addition to the expectation that Apple will sell 10 million iPads in 2010 alone, thousands of iPad apps, iPad cases, and other iPad accessories have already exploded into the marketplace and will continue to do, generating a billion dollar market for products that are completely dependent on the iPad and its platform.

Given the fact that Apple has officially opened the market on tablet devices, why haven’t we seen any viable PC tablet contenders yet?

Continue reading ‘In Case You Didn’t Notice, the iPad is Still the Only Real Tablet Device Out There’

22
May

Lithium Ion Rechargeable Batteries: Great in the iPad & Kindle, But Are They Safe?

The rechargeable batteries in Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle are both Lithium Ion-based. They are proven to be great rechargeable batteries, but are they really safe?

If you have followed the “tablet talking points” for both the iPad and Kindle, then you’ll know that one of the technological features of both of these popular devices are their incredibly long-lasting rechargeable batteries. The Kindle can go for almost two weeks without having to be charged. The iPad has a more modest charge life of 10 to 12 hours, but given the power and productivity of the iPad, this is still an amazing breakthrough in battery technology.

Both tablets, as well as virutally every laptop and high-tech electronic gadget on the market today, are now using Lithium Ion, or Li-Ion as they are commonly known, as the rechargeable battery technology of choice. To date, it has proven to be the superior technology for rechargeable batteries, and many battery experts believe that Li-Ion rechargeable batteries will eventually replace NiMH rechargeable batteries in hybrid automobiles as well as the consumer AA and AAA market.

Continue reading ‘Lithium Ion Rechargeable Batteries: Great in the iPad & Kindle, But Are They Safe?’

17
May

Australian iPad Debut Promises Fewer Bugs and Problems.

The iPad showed some early bugs in the U.S. and Europe. Will Australia benefit from a delayed release?

When the iPad finally makes it debut on 28 May in Australia, it will have been nearly four months to the day that Steve Jobs publicly announced the newest addition to Apple’s innovative line-up of mobile gadgets. Ever since the advent of the iMac in the 90s, Apple has built up a cult-like following of dévoteés who religiously purchase the company’s newest inventions as well as look to the future for what Apple might dreaming up for them down the line.

For quite a few years, Apple prophets had predicted a tablet device, and it has finally materialised in the form of the new iPad.

Continue reading ‘Australian iPad Debut Promises Fewer Bugs and Problems.’

04
May

iPads, iPhones, & Droids: The Future of Mobile Computing Depends On Rechargeable Batteries

3G and even talk of a 4G network may open up endless mobile computing opportunities, but rechargeable batteries will play the biggest role in mobile technology.

We’ve come a long way from the early days of the internet, when a 2400 baud modem was your only ticket into cyberspace. Now, city-wide 3G network coverage is giving people the opportunity to access the internet sans cables or even a local wi-fi hot spot. In essence, the world is fast becoming a hot spot for 3G access.

This is exactly what mobile computing giants like Apple are hoping for; they cannot continue to tout the mobility of their devices if network coverage does not continue to advance as the same pace of mobile gadget technology. So far, however, the ability to connect has remained on pace with the amazing features that you find on the iPad, iPhone, Droid, and top-of-the-line laptops and notebooks. Now, it is not unusual to see people “at work” in nearly any location within a major city. The future is definitely now.

Continue reading ‘iPads, iPhones, & Droids: The Future of Mobile Computing Depends On Rechargeable Batteries’