Taking a holiday drive with the music blaring is a very American thing to do, but getting your iPod or iPhone to take part has often caused a world of confusion and crude jury-rigged solutions.

Apple has reported that 90% of all current cars are iPod/iPhone enabled, but I have never met anyone who bought one of those cars, so this short article will give you an overview of what's left for the rest of us.

There have been many ideas slung around on how to best integrate your car stereo with an iPod or iPhone. Some time ago we covered a 'complete solution to iPhone car integration. The solutions provided in the referenced iLounge article tells of many combinations of power adapters, FM transmitters, Bluetooth earpieces etc. But that's not the best way.

There is a much more elegant (if expensive) way of doing it, and I would like to scratch the surface on that topic.

If the rumors are to be believed, then cameras and the iPod are getting it on lately, because in about nine months (or whatever the gestation period is for gadgets -- you're welcome for that mental image) we'll be seeing lots of iPods with lenses in them. First up is the fine folks at iLounge, who claim they've seen the newest iPod nano, and it's got a camera right where your finger usually is. They also say the new version has a lower click wheel and a smaller action button. You may laugh (it does look pretty silly), but on the other hand, I just saw the nanos during a trip to the Apple Store the other day, and I held it by its corners... while I was watching video. Add that to the rumor that Apple is adding in video recording to the iPod lines, and it becomes slightly more credible.

In fact, we're not the only people who've seen that line of reasoning: Computerworld's Seth Weintraub follows the same path, speculating that not only is Apple beefing up the camera capabilities on their iPod lines, but they're set to branch the iPod touch off into a digital HD camera/"photography computer": "Imagine an iPod Touch with a good camera and lens. That's about it." All rumors, of course, but he says it's very easy to see happening, and we have to agree.

What's nicer than to come back into a nice, cozy space shuttle after a hard day fixing the Hubble Space Telescope, taking off your sweaty space suit, and the listening to some tunes on your iPod?

TUAW reader Brandon pointed out a photo (below) from the latest mission that showed Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel grinning in the shuttle mid-deck after the third extravehicular activity (EVA). Plastered to one wall with Velcro are an iPod and some sort of speaker system.

Naturespace [App Store] for the iPhone and iPod touch is a free app that lets you sample very natural and realistic sounds to relax to. They come from the folks at Holographic Audio Theater, who produce some very serene audio tracks for meditating, relaxing, or helping you sleep.

The app itself is attractive and easy to use. It provides 5 different audio environments for headphone listening. While there are some other nice apps that provide similar features, I thought this had the best audio and the most enveloping sound I had sampled. I especially liked the sound of waves lapping on a beach because of the gentle right to left movement.

I listened on both regular headphones, and iPhone earbuds. The software has a switch to turn earbud equalization on, and it did seem to deepen the bass and improve the realism of the presentation.

The app is very well thought out, and if you change to one of the other ambient recordings the sounds slowly fade down and then the new selection fades up. You can go to sleep using these sounds and turn on the iPhone sleep timer. The developers will be glad to sell you additional low cost ambient recordings, but the free app is not crippled in any way and has no advertising. The positive reviews at the App Store are a pretty good indication that this is a well conceived piece of software.

This app will be worth a couple of bucks to many people, but since it is free, I think it's a no-brainer to try and see if you get swept into the sonic environments that are provided. The loops are seamless, so there is nothing to interrupt your reverie as you s l o w l y... r e l a x... a n d... b e g i n... t o... n o d... o f f ...........

Here are some screen shots:

Contemporary soldiers are fighting what Newsweek calls "Networked Warfare." Portable electronic devices and other equipment keep them connected to each other, weapons systems and real-time intelligence where ever they may be. In Iraq, the iPod touch is finding a role with the US military.

In one scenario, touches with language software have replaced much pricier translation units. In fact, soldiers are finding that iPods can replace several devices, lessening the burden of gear that must be carried around. Indian development firm Next Wave Systems is reportedly developing a system that would allow a soldier to receive intelligence almost instantly from a picture snapped with the iPod. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Defense is developing software that will let soldiers monitor video from aerial drones.

As for the iPod's durability, Newsweek reports that it's held up to military life with the proper outer casing. What's more, most of today's soldiers have used or already own an iPod touch, so training time can be kept to a minimum.

At one point, the article notes that, "Apple devices make it easy to shoot, store and play video." Of course, neither the iPhone nor iPod touch we all know can shoot video, though it's possible the Newsweek author is thinking of another Apple product (or just maybe there's a milspec iPhone that does video in advance of the 3.0 release). It's interesting to see a consumer product being used in such an important role. Good luck and be safe to everyone who lifts one in service.

Photo via tikigod at Flickr (here's the story behind it).

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

RadTech manufactures a lot of accessories for the iPhone and iPod, but one recently caught my attention. The recently released ProCable Shortz cables are handy in tight places where you need a USB to 30-pin connector cable. I use mine in my car to hook up my iPhone to the stereo via a USB cable. Before the ProCable Shortz, I had a regular sized 30-pin cable and it took over my glove box with a tangle of wires. These cables can also come in handy when you want to charge or sync your iPhone/iPod with your MacBook, but don't want a tangled nest of wires sitting beside you on the desk.

The RadTech ProCable Shortz come in many flavors, but the most recently released USB to 30-pin iPod connector cables come in two sizes and two colors. You can pick up these cable in either 7-cm or 20-cm lengths, and either in white or black. The build quality is similar to Apple's own cables, and in some ways the cabling seems stronger. Prices are not terrible either: Only $7.95-US for the 7-cm cable or $8.95-US for the 20-cm cable. Compare that to Apple's $19.00 US dock connector cable. The ProCable Shortz are available on the RadTech website.

The paint wasn't even dry on the Laptop Hunter ads and Microsoft is after Apple again, this time with a 30 second TV spot [YouTube link] complaining about the costs of filling an iPod, and what an absolute bargain the Zune Pass is.

Claiming that it would cost $30,000US to fill a 120 gigabyte iPod with music, and only 15 dollars a month for a Zune pass, Microsoft wants to make a point that in these trying economic times, Microsoft products make the most sense.

Of course, a lot of the math here is fuzzy, and if you stop buying the Zune pass you lose all your music, except for the ten tracks you get to keep a month. It also doesn't address how many people, like myself, use their iPod. I have a large collection of music on CD going back to the 1980's. I want it to be portable, and to have in the car, so I rip the music in iTunes, and it costs me nothing additional to have about 500 CDs at my beck and call.

For a company as dominant as Microsoft is, they seem plenty worried about Apple. Of course, the Zune hasn't exactly been a world beating product, and who can forget the little New Year's Day present when a lot of Zunes simply expired?

I give Microsoft props for trying. It keeps the Apple fans riled up and on their toes, and certainly choice is a wonderful thing in consumer electronics.

Thanks to Maggy for tipping us to the new ad.

[H/T to Ars Technica]

The iPhone Blog has posted a screenshot of a warning screen that the iPhone 3G produces when it's over heated. According to Apple, it's totally legit. From the Knowledge Base:

"Operate iPhone 3G in a place where the temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F) ... If the interior temperature of iPhone 3G exceeds normal operating temperatures, you may experience [the] Temperature warning screen."

Here in New England, we don't see temperatures above 95º F often. Still, I have felt it heat up pretty good after playing music for two hours straight during a summertime commute. It does get cold, however, and two weeks ago we saw a frozen iPod come back to life. It's nice to know that these devices can survive (or protect themselves from) temperature extremes.

[Via Macenstein]

Brian Brooks, associate dean of the University of Missouri's Journalism School, knows how his students learn. "Lectures are the worst possible learning format," he told Columbia Missourian. "There's been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of that lecture."

I can distinctly remember a former French instructor giving us cassette tapes of lessons from week to week (this was long before iPods, kids), and walking around with the voices of Mireille and Robert in my ears. Even all these years later, I can still manage marginally useless phrases like, "The red shirt of my brother is on the dresser."

The point is repetition increases retention, and that's why Mizzou is requiring incoming journalism students to have iPod touches or iPhones to carry audio versions of class lectures. Mr. Brooks points out that students who lack an iPhone or iPod touch won't be punished or miss out on anything, but they've described them as "required" so that students with financial need can include their cost in aid.

Apple has historically offered a laptop/iPod combo as a back-to-school special that these students could potentially take part in, provided that the touch is included (the iPod is typically a nano in the bundle).

The good news is, if you're going to Mizzou next year for journalism, you've got an excuse to buy a shiny new gadget.

Touch Arcade has a slew of new screenshots from an upcoming free update for a game I've been coming back to more and more lately on my iPhone: Zen Bound. When I first installed it, I thought of it as more of a tech demo than a game, but as you load it up more and more, you really do start uncovering layers of competition -- "if only I twisted the statue that way I could cover more ground, or maybe if I started from that leg I could wrap around closer on that side." It's pretty addictive, and it's one of those games that starts tugging at your mind even when you're not playing it.

The update probably won't help free my mind -- not only will it have a whole set of new objects to wrap up (featuring some fun retro-gaming themed pieces), but it's getting some bugfixes and some performance tweaks as well. The paint spread by the rope will be smoother, and the problem of the rope crossing through objects should be better (while that happened from time to time, it wasn't a huge complaint).

Still, especially for free, it sounds like the update will only make a great game better. Zen Bound is available right now in the App Store for $4.99 (with the free update available "soon"), and there's a lite version to try out as well.

Got a new iPod shuffle? Hook up to iTunes and check Software Update, because there's a holiday surprise waiting there for you. The revised VoiceOver Kit 1.0.1 corrects artist name pronunciations and includes a few other fixes.

If you've downloaded the update let us know how it's working for you.

[via Macworld]

Since I often listen to music while falling asleep (especially on trips -- maybe it makes me feel more at home), I was happy to see this tip, sent to us by reader Mark S. He points out that there is a sleep timer on the iPhone, but it's not in the iPod app. It's hidden over in the Clock app -- once you've got your music playing, you can then exit out and go over to the Timer app in there, and under the "when timer ends" option (where you usually choose a ringtone), you can choose the "Sleep iPod" choice.

Then, when your timer stops (and you're off into dreamland), it'll stop the iPod for you. Very nice. Of course, there's still the issue of headphones, if you're wearing them, but I usually am able to push those off in a fit of dreamless sleep (or, of course, you could just use the external speaker on the iPhone).

All of the sleep tunes, much less worry. This tip's been going around for a while, but it's the first I'd heard of it. Thanks, Mark!

Now that everyone is getting used to the new iPod shuffle, the accessory makers are already pumping out the third-party additions (or at least announcing them). Some of the more interesting ones I've seen so far are:

• the Dexim Shu-Lip (right) that basically offers a streamlined 1/8" plug to USB dongle that turns the new shuffle into a thumb drive ($10).
  
• Headphones with included button controller as well as an adapter for existing headphones that just adds just the button controller from Scosche ($49.95 - $99.99 coming in "the Spring").
• Headphones with controller from Klipsch ($99.99 "this summer").
  
• Headphones with controller from Etymotic (pdf link) (availability not announced).
  

In any case, if you're interested in dressing up the newest tiny iPod, it looks like the third-party makers have got your back (or at least they will by this summer).

[via Gizmodo, Macworld, iLounge]

The store is back, and the rapid rumor ramp-up is vindicated: Apple introduced a new iPod shuffle this morning, billed as 'the first music player that talks to you' -- it features a VoiceOver interface that announces artists, songs and playlists on demand (the iPod nano features spoken menus as well, so that tagline may need some work).

Interestingly, the VoiceOver UI concept was mused upon by John Gruber last month. The shuffle now supports multiple playlists, which would have been difficult to manage without some sort of UI for controlling which one is playing.

The new shuffle expands to 4 GB of storage for the same $79US, but in the course of shrinking the overall size of the microscopic MP3 maven down to 1.8" high, 0.7" wide and 0.3" deep (45mm x 17mm x 7.8mm), the player controls were moved onto the headphone cord. This may not sit well with buyers who prefer other earbuds.

The shuffle is available in black and silver and is shipping in 3-5 days.

Back in December, I wrote up a little piece on Infectious, a company that produces adhesive art for laptops and the iPhone. The company has just expanded its options to include art options for the current iPod Nano, Touch, and Classic models, priced at $9.99USD. In addition to this, the company is running a contest where they are giving away five free skins every week.

Infectious has also greatly expanded the variety of art available, with ongoing submissions for potential artists. The added art for the iPod models greatly closes the gap between it and GelaSkins, and I'm happy not only to see this company grow, but amazing creative talent that is being displayed on both sites that enables you to turn your iPod, iPhone or laptop into a piece of art.