Hasta La Gadget!

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]

Just one month ago we brought innuendo-laden news of the Korean sausage, a meaty snack that was being used by commuters to control their iPhones whilst still wearing gloves. It turned out that the meat-sticks worked just like a human finger, even while still inside their plastic covers.

Now, you too can join those innovative cold-weather commuters with the iPhone Sausage Screen Stylus from Case Crown. The $1 wiener can be gently stroked across the capacitive screen to control, well, anything you like. The gold-wrapped sausage is marked on the product page as “not for consumption”, but we have a feeling that this is just a legal matter, or because the folks at Case Crown maybe don’t have the refrigerator space to store all those meaty snacks. What’s not to like? A iPhone stylus and a tasty emergency snack, all for a dollar!

If you’re a vegetarian, don’t worry. In the interests of science, I just went to the kitchen and grabbed a chunk of Cheddar cheese. Even in its tastefully rustic, paper-mimicking plastic-wrap, it managed to unlock my iPod Touch. You’re welcome.

iPhone Sausage Screen Stylus [Case Crown via Cult of Mac]

See Also:

• Korean iPhone Stylus: It's Made of Meat

This week’s first power-strip comes from Woods Ind., supplier of cable-based products to, well, anyone. The six-outlet strip is rated to 1625-Watts and offers a ground-pin for each plug. This is, of course, not reason enough to get onto Gadget Lab. What the strip does have is a big foot-operated power-switch so you can stamp down under your desk and kill everything simultaneously.

Unfortunately, it sports a rather nasty “comedy” illustration of a foot on the switch itself. On the other – um – hand, it only costs $21, and has the added advantage of lacking the blinkenlights that so often blight anything with a power-plug. I’d suggest you don’t plug your actual desktop computer into this device, especially if you are one of those obsessive, foot-tapping types (actually, maybe you should hook up your delicate machine to this hair-trigger power-breaker as punishment for your annoying habit).

For the kind of junk that you should switch off, but leave powered up because you are too lazy to reach under the desk, this looks like a great solution.

Woods [Coleman Cable]

Woods Ind 6 Outlet Power Strip With Foot Switch [Amazon via Lifehacker]

We’re still holding out for the deluge of hardware/software accessories that will use the iPhone’s dock, but for now it seems like the only widgets out there are IR universal remotes. The last one we saw was the L5 iPhone Remote, but the problem with that was an ugly interface and the lack of pre-programmed codes: you have to tech the device by pointing your other remotes at it.

The FLPR looks a lot better, although it is also $30 more, at $80. For this you get a pre-programmed database of 14,000 codes, the ability to learn any that aren’t already there, plus a macro function. This will let you press one button and have, say, the TV, home theater and DVD-player all switch on and go to the right settings.

What isn’t any better is the interface, an ill-conceived and ugly mess. Contoured “buttons” sit atop hideous “skinned” backgrounds and closely mimic the already bad design of your physical remotes. This is surely an area where touch-screens could shine. Imagine something as simple as the new Windows Phone 7 interface, just plain squares with symbols. And where are our multi-touch, swiping gestures to skip and flip around music and movies?

The FLPR is available now, and the fugly iPhone app is a free download in the US. If you lose it, check down the back of the sofa, just as you normally do.

FLPR [New Potato Tech. Thanks, Sarah and Eliot!]

FLPR app [iTunes]