Hasta La Gadget!

IFrogz sent through yet another pair of headphones to test and this time, finally, they’re good enough to buy. The Comfort Series CS40 cans are an over-the-head, over-the-ear design and, while they don’t offer the big, detailed sound of even slightly more expensive headphones, they’re competent, tough and, yes, comfortable.

The design is simple and good looking (with one horrible blemish). The ‘phones have a steel band covered with a hard rubber strip up top and two tough plastic sliding sections from which the cups hang. The cups can gimbal inside their rings, which themselves fold up and inside the band. This means that the full-sized headphones fold small for throwing in a bag.

The “comfort” part comes from the deep and very soft cushions which also appear to be sealed pretty well against at least a light shower. These cushions are almost erotic to the touch, and combined with the gentle spring of the steel band and the non-slip rubber grip, the headphones sit very firmly but softly on your melon.

But what about the sound? Not bad. I tested them against a pair of Panasonic RP-HTX7s, the shell-eared, candy-colored retro-cans you see everywhere (and which I bought myself), and also against Apple’s stock earbuds. The iFrogz beat the Apple ‘buds immediately. They have a good bass, very deep and resonant but still well controlled. With lossless-encoded chip-tunes (A Kind of Bloop, if you must know), they came close to the depth of the Panasonics.

But the balance of the music is somehow off. Where the Panasonics give a sense of the music existing around you (the “stereo image”) and the bass, higher tones and voices are both balanced and separated, the iFrogz kind of crams things together. Jack White’s voice on Catch Hell Blues, for example, doesn’t actually sound tinny, but you think it does.

If you just put them on and listen without comparison, though, the iFrogz do a good job, and the build-quality is more than up to the $40 price tag (the Panasonics are $60). They really feel solid, but still lightweight, and the foldability makes them doubly attractive: I have always chosen the earbuds over the Panasonics when traveling because they are so bulky.

And the horrible blemish? The stupid radiation logo on the side. These might be in the “Ear-Pollution” range, but that symbol over your ears mars an otherwise clean and almost classic design.

iFrogz Comfort Series [iFrogz. Thanks, Ashley!]

Photos: Charlie Sorrel

A new iPhone dock and speaker from iLuv offers an unusual twist. A literal twist, even. It turns the iPhone 90-degrees and holds it, charging, in landscape orientation. By day, this isn’t so useful, but by night, it means that the screen can display a big clock so you can know the exact times you wake up cold and sweating from your many fevered nightmares.

The hardware is called the iMM190 App Station and it pairs with a free iPhone application called iLuv App Clock. They collaborate to lull you to sleep at night with your own music library, wake you in the morning with your choice of sounds and all the while tell you the time and weather (so you can decide whether it is worth getting out of bed). The iMM190 can be used upright or horizontally and powered from either the mains or from six AA batteries.

Unless you are the couple in the picture above, who sleep with the lights on, then you may not use the actual clock at night. I have tried a bunch of alarm apps and, while they work to wake me with mellow music, the glow of the screen is too bright. Even with a blank black screen image and the backlight turned all the way down, enough photons escape the screen to illuminate the room slightly. This isn’t a criticism of the iLuv app, just a note on iPhones in general (and on my hypersensitivity to the light creeping into my hermetically sealed bedroom).

We do like this trend of marrying hardware and software, though, especially as the apps (including this one) often come free, a kind of software promo. The speaker will cost you actual dollars, though: Ninety of them.

iMM190 [iLuv. Thanks, Jennifer!]

iLuv App Clock [iTunes]

You’ve pre-ordered your iPad, and you’re impatiently crossing off the days on the calendar until April 3. What can you do in the meantime, apart from obsessively refreshing your Google search to find articles like this one? What about some accessory shopping?

The iPad looks great, but it could also be improved with a few additions that will make it more useful, more often. Don’t worry, we don’t want you to spend much. Most of these picks are free, and all of them will improve your iPad. Here’s a list of what I’ll be buying (or making or downloading) for my iPad in the next few weeks.

A Ziploc Bag

When Jeff Bezos reads his Kindle in the bath, he seals it inside a one-gallon Ziploc bag. If you’re going to be using your iPad in the bath, or the slightly less hostile kitchen, you should do the same. You can see the screen, hear the (slightly muffled) music and generally relax. Amazingly, the multitouch will still work through the plastic. I tried it with my iPod touch a moment ago and it was like the plastic wasn’t there.

Price: around 35 cents

E-Book Software

Now that we know that the iPad will support the almost universal EPUB format, it’s time to prepare some books to load onto the device (as if you’ll be able to sit still enough to read a book for the first few days of your new toy). Many public domain titles can be downloaded in EPUB-form, notably from Project Gutenberg, but what you need is a piece of software to convert any and every text or PDF you can throw at it.

Calibre and Stanza are both E-Book conversion apps, and both work on OS X and Windows. Stanza partners our favorite iPhone e-reader of the same name, and does a good and simple job of conversions.

Calibre is a lot more powerful, and along with handling complex documents a lot better, it also stores your e-books in an iTunes-style library (although this will be moot when iTunes stores them for you). It will also download daily newspapers, free, along with many websites and any RSS feed you choose to add.

Price: Free

Calibre [Calibre]

Stanza [Lexcycle]

A Stylus

I have been ridiculing the poor Pogo Stylus for iPhone for a couple years now: Who wants a stylus on a phone designed not to need one? But with the iPad, the little hollow tube with a foamy metallic tip looks a lot more useful.

Combine the little pen with a big-screen iPad and some drawing or painting software and you have an amazing sketchbook. Most of us draw easier with a pen than with fingers (unless we are still in kindergarten), and the good-size screen, combined with an undo function, may even make the combo better than pencil and paper. The only downside is the lack of pressure sensitivity.

Price: $15

Pogo Stylus [Ten One Design]

A Case

This one might seem obvious, but I suspect many people are planning to buy the Wi-Fi iPad and leave it on the coffee-table or nightstand (or down the back of the couch). Don’t! This device begs to be thrown in a bag and taken with you, wherever you go. You can read, write, draw, paint, watch movies and all that stuff, all when you have a few minutes to spare. If you’re worried about scratching your precious iBaby, you’ll miss out.

Don’t, however, buy a laptop-style pouch, or anything that zips shut. You want easy, fast access or you’ll never take it out. At the very least, consider a slipcover. Better is a notepad or book-style cover, something that can be flipped open in a second, and preferably one that can double as a stand. Worried that it doesn’t offer protection from dust and spills? That’s what the Ziploc bag is for.

Price: Variable. Free if you use an old padded shipping envelope.

That Little iPad Camera Connection Dingus

If you have a camera and an iPad, you should buy the iPad Camera Connection Kit. Consisting of both an SD card-reader and a USB connection cable, the kit lets you load your photos onto the iPad without the computer middleman. Why would you care?

Think about what most of us do with our cameras. We take a lot of pictures of a day out, a family gathering or some other social event. Then we all crowd around the back to look at the tiny three-inch screen. Now think about the alternative: A 10-inch screen, pinch-to-zoom, a wide viewing angle, slideshows with transitions and music, plus an instant, in-the-field back up.

The iPad also supports RAW photos. That’s right. If you prefer to shoot your pictures now and ask your editing questions later, you’re not excluded from the iPad. Apple: “iPad supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW.” This alone will make every pro photographer reading this article go out and order one now (here’s the pre-order page if you want it). I expect that there will soon be a lot of RAW photo-editing applications in the App Store, too, but for now, the ability to quickly view and edit pictures on a slim, portable device with a long battery life while shooting will be worth the money on its own.

Price: TBA

iPad Camera Connection Kit [Apple]

That’s my list. What about yours? Do you have a favorite Bluetooth keyboard, an awesome idea for a homemade stand or some weird use-case that nobody else has thought of? Hit us up in the comments.

See Also:

• Stanza v2.0: The iPhone's Best E-Reader Just Got Better
• Pogo Stylus: The Most Useless iPhone Accessory. Ever
• Leather Cases Turn iPad into a Book

Ziploc photo: tamakisono/Flickr

In a support document, Apple tells us that when you eventually send your iPad in to have its battery replaced, Apple will just send you a new iPad instead. The Battery Replacement Service will cost $100.

Ever since Apple ditched the floppy-drive with the original iMac, people have kicked up a fuss about each new hardware “omission”, calling it a “deal-breaker” (as in “No built-in dial-up modem? Sorry Apple. That’s a deal-breaker.”) The latest has been the steady euthanization of user-removable batteries, which started in the iPhone and ended in the MacBook Pro (although nobody moaned about the iPod). Those complainers have now shut up, realizing that the slew of third-party external batteries are both more powerful and less messy to use than actually swapping batteries, but Apple, it seems, is still a little gun-shy.

You won’t be able to use the Battery Replacement Service to replace a broken machine. The support page includes “accident, liquid contact, disassembly, unauthorized service or unauthorized modifications” among the things that will prevent eligibility. And if you are sending the machine in to Apple, the turnaround is a week (make sure you backup first).

The replacements will, we assume, be refurbished models, and its likely that Apple will just hand you one if you take your juice-impaired iPad to a Genius bar. I’d prefer to keep my actual machine, though. I recently swapped an iPod Touch with a dodgy home button for a new unit in the San Francisco Apple Store. The transaction was fast and easy, but the new unit has an even worse problem: a dodgy accelerometer.

Battery Replacement Service – iPad: FAQ [Apple via Apple Insider]

Photo: swanksalot/Flickr

Analog TV was shut off in Barcelona [UPDATE: the analog TV is inexplicably still on] yesterday, so today seems a perfect time to mention the new miniature Elgato’s EyeTV Hybrid. The USB-stick is essentially a shrunken-down version of the old Hybrid, and will let you tune into both analog and digital TV channels.

We reviewed the original Hybrid almost exactly a year ago. It plugs into your computer and pairs with the EyeTV 3 software for tuning in, watching and recording TV broadcasts. With the included one year subscription, you get listings for local and national programming, and offers intelligent DVR functions, like automatically recording all episodes of your favorites show. You can also hook up a cable box through an adapter and view it from within the software.

So what’s new, apart from being smaller? The new Hybrid also works with Windows 7. You don’t get the EyeTV software, but you can use it with the already great Windows Media Center. And if you do have a Mac, you can send live TV streams or recorded shows direct to you iPhone or iPod Touch (this also works with the older, bigger dongle, but is a new features since out review).

Elgato thankfully hasn’t messed with a winning product. The Lady stole my EyeTV soon after I bought it and uses it often. If your analog signal is off and you watch most of your TV and movies on a computer anyway, I’d recommend picking one up. $150

EyeTV Hybrid [Elgato via TUAW]