Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

ShootOut posts

Filed under: iPod Family, Reviews

O'Reilly posts iPod microphone shootout

Over at O'Reilly, Mark Nelson tested all three major iPod microphone add-ons and wrote about his results. He tried out the Belkin TuneTalk stereo, the Griffin iTalk Pro, and the XtremeMac MicroMemo. When all was said and done, all three solutions performed well despite the fact that they were all horrible battery hogs.

The $50 iTalk Pro offered one-touch recording and three input levels but its built-in microphone picked up a lot of hard drive noise. The $60 MicroMemo used a handy boom that avoided picking up iPod noises but had no level controls and could only record mono audio. The $70 TuneTalk Stereo offers a USB port that allows you to record while your iPod is docked and charging but had stability issues for positioning and the microphone, like the iTalk Pro, picked up iPod hard drive noises.

TUAW readers: have you bought an iPod mic? Which one did you buy? And are you happy with your purchase? Let us know in the comments.

Full disclosure: I write for O'Reilly.

Filed under: Hardware, Mac Pro

System Shootouts: Mac Pro vs Dell Precision 690

System Shootouts has pit a Mac Pro against a Dell Precision 690 workstation in an in-depth feature-for-feature comparison to see who gets to go home with the prom queen. This match is of particular interest in part because of how detailed the feature criteria is (it included extra drive/bays like a floppy or memory card readers, as well as any included backup solutions and even web authoring software), but also because of how ultimately mismatched these two machines are. One machine is so overpriced that System Shootouts opted to break traditional policy and include a display and/or extended warranty program in the name of mercy for the losing contender.

In case you can't tell, I'm trying not to spoil this particular match because I think it's such an interesting upset, especially in light of how Apple did their own hardware match-up on stage at WWDC 2006. Check out the shootout for yourself to see whether the Mac Pro or the Dell wound up spending prom night home alone.

Filed under: Hardware, iBook, Apple, MacBook

MacBook vs. iBook



Everyone has gone MacBook crazy (or is it just me?)! However, let us not forget the honorable iBook that the MacBook has replaced in Apple's product matrix. System Shootouts hasn't forgotten. They have, in fact, pitted the MacBook against the iBook in a point by point comparison. Who comes out on top? I'm not telling, but I think you might be a little surprised.

Tip of the Day

To get an instant map to any address, just go to your Address Book and right click on the address field of any one of your contacts and select "Map Of." The address will then be revealed in Google Maps on Safari. You can do the same if a data detector determines there is an address in an e-mail in Mail.


Follow us on Twitter!
 TUAW [Cafepress]

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Google Earth for iPhone
Podcaster
Storyist 2.0
AT&T Navigator Road Test
Bento for iPhone 1.0
Scrabble for iPhone
Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase
Apple Vanity Plates
Apple booth Macworld 07
WorldVoice Radio
Quickoffice for iPhone 1.1.1
Daylite 3.9 Review
DiscPainter
Mariner Calc for iPhone
2009CupertinoBus
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
MLB.com At Bat 2009
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor

 

More Apple Analysis

AOL Radio TUAW on Stitcher