Hasta La Gadget!

Now that we’ve all had a chance to settle down from the holidays and CES 2009, I think it’s high time MP3 Mailbox Monday rings in the new year. (Am I the only one who’s insanely happy to have finally made it to the end of January?) If you picked up a new device in these past several weeks, it’s the perfect time to think post-purchase.

For MP3 players, music services and accessories are just where to start. But which music service should you to use? And do you really need a computer on hand every time you want to recharge your player? Find out below.

(Credit: SanDisk)

Q: I bought myself a Sansa Fuze MP3 Player for under 90 dollars. I finally want to get into this MP3 thing more. I figure this would be a good one to start out with according to CNET and consumers. However, I’m kind of at a loss on how to load it. No, I haven’t read the manual. (Do techies–even unemployed ones–ever read manuals?) What music service is best for this player? My cousin gave me his first-gen Nano once. It was OK except the battery kept dying. So I have an account on ITunes. May I use iTunes to download CDs to put on my Fuze? Should I try Napster? Rhapsody? WinAmp?

Being unemployed for the time being, I want to use a service where I don’t have to pay a monthly fee, if I can. Can I use Amazon or Walmart with out having to use a monthly fee? Pay by the download is OK with me. What do you suggest?
–Carol, via e-mail

A: Well, I try not to read manuals unless absolutely necessary, so I feel you there. As far as music services go, you have a few options if you are looking to purchase individual MP3s or albums. Unfortunately, iTunes is not one of them, so the account there isn’t going to do you much good with the Fuze.

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Originally posted at MP3 Insider

Apple has a new weapon when it comes to the iPhone.

(Credit: U.S. PTO, via MacRumors)

Apple has been awarded a patent that appears to cover much of the iPhone’s multitouch user interface.

World of Apple (via MacRumors) spotted the patent, which was awarded last Tuesday to several …

Originally posted at News – Apple

There’s already similar laws in place in Japan and South Korea, and New York Representative Pete King is hoping that the US will soon have a law requiring that all cameraphones make a noise when they snap a picture as well. To that end, King has re-introduced the so-called “Camera Phone Predator Alert Act,” which was actually first introduced in 2007 but went nowhere at the time. The bill, as the name not-so-subtly suggests, aims to prevent folks from taking cameraphone pictures without others people’s knowledge by forcing the phones to make a sound that’s “audible within a reasonable radius” and not able to be disabled. Somewhat curiously, however, the bill apparently wouldn’t apply to digital cameras and, as blogger Thomas Hawk points out, it also doesn’t take video into account, or do anything to address the millions of camera-equipped phones currently in use that are able to snap pictures silently. No word on any movement of the bill just yet, but it has picked up one co-sponsor and, on the odd chance it actually becomes law, it’d be enforced by the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Filed under: Cellphones

Proposed bill would require all cameraphones to make themselves heard originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iconoculture: Open your mind wide! Dutch tech tank Philips introduced a smart iPill that monitors temperature and acidity as it travels down the digestive highway and drops its drug cargo right where it’s needed. It was developed to reduce dosages and side effects with targeted treatment.

Packed in the plastic pill are a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio and the drug. Doctors and iPill communicate via computer.

Some concerns about the iPill are the cost — currently $1,000/pill — and the, er, end game.

The precedent in ingestech are pill cams that send back photos from deep inside the colon.

The iPill delivers drugs directly to the disease [Iconoculture]

President Barack Obama dominated the headlines last week with his inauguration as the 44th U.S. chief executive. But that didn’t stop the gadget world turning — in fact, much of the week’s gadget news centered on whether Obama will get to keep his BlackBerry (he will , with some reservations) and what other wired or tired tech the White House has.

In this week’s podcast we also discuss Apple’s surprisingly good holiday sales, and the company’s inexplicable refusal to take netbooks seriously. We also review the INQ Facebook phone and the Asus Eee PC 1002HA, a netbook with a 10-inch display.

This week’s crew includes Dylan Tweney, Danny Dumas, Priya Ganapati and Brian Chen, with audio production by Fernando Cardoso.

If the embedded player above doesn’t work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3.

Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes. Do it now!

Like video? Aim your browser at the Gadget Lab Video Podcast — available on iTunes and the Gadget Lab blog.