Hasta La Gadget!

Meet the iTouch 4G–or, rather, meet the first iTouch 4G case. This Hard Candy Street Skin case itself is so brand new that the device that it was designed to protect has yet to actually be announced–that will most likely occur later today during Apple’s long-awaited music at (which, incidentally, Gearlog will be live blogging, beginning at 10 AM PT).

Symbolically, the most interesting thing here is the name. Apple, apparently, has dropped the beloved iPod from the title altogether (ala Apple TV/iTV, another rumor)–no doubt to position the music player closer to its real flagship product, the iPhone 4. The “4G,” meanwhile, almost certainly refers to the device being the fourth generation, rather than any wireless carrier connections.

While we don’t actually get a great picture of the device itself (the shot is only of the case –i.e. the obscured rear of the device), there’s information in them thar holes. Take that big one in the upper left hand corner, for example. It’s a cut out for a camera and mic (in fact, you can see both pretty clearly in the picture–and an aluminum back, for that matter).

The other holes seem like pretty standard fare–volume on the side, power on the top, dock and headphones on the bottom, and a big cut out for the screen on the front (so, you know, no return of the click wheel, or anything).

The device is set to ship September 15th for $30–the iPod touch/iTouch, meanwhile, will likely go as sale as soon as it’s announced.

In spite of Apple’s infamous secrecy, we have seen devices outed prior to their release–including past ipod–by third-party devices. Keeping your own staff in check is one thing–partners are something entirely different. What’s most interesting, however, is the fact that, as of this writing, the device still appears on Hard Candy’s site.

Apple late this afternoon announced plans to live stream its Wednesday music event, where many expect the company to introduce upgrades for the iPod and Apple TV. The stream will only be viewable to Apple customers.

In a press bulletin, Apple said it would be streaming its event using “Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards,” even though the viewing requires a Mac running Snow Leopard, or an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running iOS 3.0 or higher.

Some technology observers speculate the live stream will accompany Apple’s release of a new version of iTunes capable of streaming live video and TV rentals.

Wired.com’s Gadget Lab will be live blogging the event, which commences 10 a.m. PT. Stay tuned for our coverage. Meanwhile, read our predictions of what to expect at the event.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Apple’s fall event is tomorrow, and we’ll be there live! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re anything like me, you have a vehement rage towards iPods. Of course, some people will tell you “you should leave iPods alone, there’s more important things to be doing with your time than hating inanimate objects.” But these people are likely iPods dressed as humans trying to fool you into wavering from the cause. Don’t fall for it! You just scream at them “I’m too smart to fall for your dirty tricks, you iPod wearing a human suit!” And then run out of the room.

Thankfully, we live in an age where no person is forced to suffer their boiling hatred for a piece of hardware in solitude. The Internet can connect you with others who have been wronged by iPods. You can even find those who have gone all Hostel with their revenge on the portable digital device menace. Thankfully, these warrior poets decided to record their retribution and share the results with the world.

You’ll notice we didn’t choose any iPhone torture videos (and there are plenty of them) in this post. That’s because we like the iPhone. They and their smart phone ilk are going to make the very idea of a portable digital player completely outmoded. iPod, meet the true death!

But until that day of complete iPod obsolescence, they will still be among us. And they will have to pay.

Things get medieval after the jump.

Limor Fried’s MintyBoost project is a great example of DIY and commercial tech working together. Take an Altoids tin, a couple of AA batteries, and some very smart hackery, and you’ve got a lightweight USB charger that you can use to charge/run your handheld iWhatever, or almost any other phone, camera, or small device that can take a charge off USB power. About a month ago, she released this video outlining the Apple hackery needed to make this work.

Reverse engineering Apple’s secret charging methods from adafruit industries on Vimeo.

Clive Thompson profiled Fried and her company Adafruit Industries as part of a 2008 feature in Wired on “open source hardware.” The idea is that hackers like Fried can use what they find out about consumer devices to make and sell their own products, but also to produce DIY kits and share information with others who then build their own projects.

As a case study in the value of sharing this information, consider Rob Scott. Before he took his son on a week-long bike trip this summer, he used Fried’s schematic to hack together what turns out to be a really striking-looking solar charger for his son’s iPod.

It’s always nice to see what the maker community is doing to accessorize their retail gadgets; the results aren’t always super-polished, but they generally solve real problems in important use cases that don’t get addressed by manufacturers, either because they’re too unusual or they can’t be easily solved by more plugs, more peripherals, more complex devices that cost a lot of money. And in turn, we all find out a little bit more about how these magical devices get put together and how they work.

See Also:

• DIY Graphing Calculator Is Built From Open Source Hardware
• Beautifully Hypnotic Video Details Canon Macro Lens Hack
• Hacker Stuffs MiFi Inside iPad, Ruins it in the Process