iPod Expo (and some Mac stuff too)

I migrated our the last of our clients’ sites onto the new server this morning, so now that’s out of the way I hope to find the time to finish off World of Badger very, very soon ( as handy as this spell-check-as-you-type feature in Firefox 2 is, it’s not very self-aware - it’s offering me ‘Firebox’ and ‘Fire fox’).

Although work’s incredibly busy at the moment, Rob and I did take yesterday afternoon off to pop along to the Mac Expo at Olympia. There was definitely more of interest there this year, although admittedly of a personal rather than professional nature. Google had a big stand there, but as we have no particular interest in putting our content on Google Earth, we gave their presentation a miss. Also new this year was iStockPhoto; we had a brief chat with a photographer on their stand (she’s making money from it, which is good to hear, and was kind enough to let us have a pile of free credits) before went to have a play at the Wacom stand. My Wacom graphics tablet is 9 years old and showing its age, so I’m tempted to replace it (sadly I think the £255 Intuos3 A5 Wide is more realistic than the rather impressive Cintiq 21UX at £2116).

Last year’s ‘gadget of the show’ was definitely the Solio solar powered iPod/phone charger. This year two products stood out: the iTango dock and the GEAR4 BluEye.

The great thing about the iTango range of docks for iPods and nanos is that they’re designed to allow you to dock your iPod without removing it from any silicone or hard case you may have it in (Apple’s docks are too snug a fit). Arguably the curved iTango docks look nicer than Apple’s own, plus they let you store unneeded cable inside it. Unfortunately they were launching the iTango at the Expo, and didn’t actually have them on sale. Think the chap said they’d cost about £14 though.

The other product that caught our eye(s) was the GEAR4 BluEye, another gadget for iPods. It looks and works very much like the standard Apple iPod remote, but in addition to volume and playback controls, it features an FM radio and can be used to make and receive calls using your iPod, via a Bluetooth connection to your mobile. The remote has a built in microphone, and will pause your music when you make or receive a call. Caller ID is displayed on your iPod screen, as are recent numbers for when you want to make an outgoing call (or you can voice-dial). So, keep your phone in your pocket or bag, and not have to worry about missing any calls when you’re nodding along to the Best of Wings. Yours for about £50.

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