I love the iPhone, save for one thing. It sits on my desk every night, right near my computer, and the speakers I've got hooked up to it. And every 15 minutes, when the iPhone checks email for me, I get that buzzing -- the sound of radio interference flying across my speaker wires. And almost every night, I have to jump out of bed angrily just to shut off the speakers and stop the buzzing. Little did I know, all I've ever needed was an empty can of Red Bull.
Yes, someone has fashioned a "shield" out of an emptied and carved up Red Bull can, and supposedly it works like a charm -- just fashion it around the dock that came with the iPhone, use a little doublestick tape to make sure it stays on there (and I would maybe put some around the edges, too, so you don't slice your fingers open every time you pull the iPhone off the dock), and no more buzzing sound.
The maker does wonder if it would affect the actual signal of the iPhone at all, but it hasn't so far. If you've got a Red Bull can around to cut up and are driven as nuts as I am by that buzzing noise, here's your makeshift solution. The other option is to buy speakers that don't buzz, of course, but this seems a lot cheaper.
One of the features of a lot of iPhone wannabes is a built-in FM radio so you can listen to your local stations. Why limit yourself to local stations? FlyTunes is a free streaming radio service that gives you access to over 375 channels of music, news, and sports on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Most of the channels are EDGE-friendly, so there is no need for a WiFi connection. To sign up for the service, all you need to do is point Safari on your iPhone or iPod Touch to flytunes.fm, and then follow the on-screen instructions to sign up.
How well does it work? Pretty darned good! It took me a minute to figure out that I needed to tap on the play button twice - once to bring up a small arrow and another tap to bring up the QuickTime player and start the stream. It only took about 5 seconds for the stream to queue up and start playing, and I didn't hear a hiccup once during about 5 minutes of listening over an EDGE connection.
Head on over to flytunes.fm and get your fill of free tunes today!
How I miss the days of Ramen noodles, sleepless nights and self-indulgent college rock. If you're like me, check out the updated "College Radio" section of iTunes. Just click the radio icon in the sidebar (not the iTunes Store) to reveal the College Radio section (it bore a beta tag until I checked again this morning).
Just a dozen stations are represented, including WLMU at Le Moyne College and WMHB from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
Unfortunately for me, my own alma mater's fantastic station is not in the list. That's too bad, as I like a side order of nostalgia with my morning coffee. Thanks, Perceval!
Picture it: you're riding in the car and a great song comes on the radio. You're dying to know what it is so you can go buy it ASAP but there's no satellite radio receiver to tell you what's playing. How can you find out what song it is? Whip out your iPhone, put it near the car speakers, and watch the screen. Poof! There's the song, artist, and album.
No, I am not kidding.
Our own Erica Sadun was inspired by someone who came up with the original idea, she set off to make it happen, and the result is Listen. It's still "very beta" but, hey, it's still one of the coolest iPhone hacks I've ever heard of. Go check it out and let us know in the comments how it works for you.
As I continue exploring 1.1.1, I keep running across unexpected changes in the way the iPhone handles certain things I've taken for granted. I was aware that under 1.0.2 that SpringBoard scanned a non-supported /Widgets folder in addition to /Applications. However, two more folders have joined the team in 1.1.1: /AppleInternal/Applications and /Accessories.
I am in pure speculation territory, but perhaps the Accessories folder will relate to those com.apple.mobile.radio and com.apple.mobile.nike references I found in LingoToAccessoryMap.plist.
Rejoice, British motorists! No longer will you need to cower when you spot police while listening to your iPod through an iTrip. The once illegal activity of using FM wavelengths to listen to your music on your car stereo is illegal no more, thanks to impending relaxation of a decades old law.
The iTrip and other low-power radio transmitters were verboten under the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1949, which was this week amended to allow them after what the BBC calls "strong consumer demand". The transmitters will come off the black list on December 8th (also Wii launch day, if you're in the UK).
There is, however, still one small problem. You need to tune in the device to a spare FM channel, and these aren't so easy to come by in heavily populated areas such as London, where pirate radio thrives.
Of course, if you're driving around Congestion Charge-addled London in the first place, you're no stranger to constant struggle.
CenterStage and BackStage make up a dynamic duo which gives FrontRow a run for its money. The free software suite reached version 0.6 today, bringing with it some exciting new features and Intel support. Media management app BackStage got madeover with a new unified UI, while FrontRow-esque component CenterStage now features support for the Apple remote, Elgato eyeTV, and Griffin RadioShark, as well as a new UI for photo browsing. While the programs might not be as polished and feature rich as MediaCentral, the price can't be beat, and new features are being added rapidly.
Ok, this is just cool. Flickr user obeyken had a great looking old radio hanging around and he thought, 'Why not make this into an amplifier and speakers for my iPod?' That's just what he did, and he posted pictures on Flickr charting his progress.
Two hip-hop radio stations, Power 106 in LA and HOT 97 in NYC, have signed on the dotted line with the iTMS to offer an integrated, customized version of the store right in their own websites. The radio stations can design the store any way they see fit, and feature any artists, recent releases and playlists they want. From some quick browsing, I was able to find the iTMS integration at HOT 97's site, but not at Power 106's.
hypebot, the blog where we found this, was quick to point out the vast potential this kind of partnership with the iTMS has for any kind of niche markets, businesses and organizations you can think of: "From skateboard sites selling radical tunes to a museum's site selling period music that matches their exhibitions, this could be a very exciting development for niche and indie music marketers". Indeed, this is a great example of that iPod expansion post Scott had yesterday; it sounds like Apple has plenty of tricks up their sleeve for the iPod and iTMS.
RadioLover allows you to easily record streaming internet radio stations (not just from iTunes) into MP3 format for listening to later or on your favorite portable music player (It's like TiVo for internet radio!). Songs can be automatically tagged with relevant metadata like artist, station, etc., you can schedule shows to be recorded and even record multiple streams at a time. Other features include support for drag and drop, international streams and even Shoutcast streams.
RadioLover is Universal. A demo is available that cuts off recording after 30 minutes, and a license will cost you $15.
When I read this article at Podcasting News, I
immediately saw myself. The very first iPod accessory I really fell in love with was my original iTrip FM transmitter, which I bought a
couple of years ago. I have since replaced it with a RoadTrip, but one thing remains the same: It comes
with me each and every time I get into the car. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've listened to
terrestrial radio in the past 2-3 years.
I don't know about your town, but where I live, radio programming
stinks. Why should I sit through six or seven songs I don't like, not to mention all those extremely annoying ads, just
to hear one I do? Plus, thanks to podcasting, I can get many of the great NPR shows that I enjoy.
Apparently,
I'm not alone. According to Bridge Ratings, terrestrial radio's penetration
could drop from 94% to 85% by 2010. Nearly 30% of respondents between the ages of 12 and 24 stated that Mp3 player use
accounted for their abandoning radio. While I'm not in that demographic, I certainly share the sentiment. My iPod blows
radio away.
So, what's your take? Do you still listen to radio when your iPod is around?
So, I've been using the iPod Radio Remote for a full
two days now, and I'm still very pleased with the device, but I noticed a few new details that I wanted to share. First
off, if your headphones unplug from the Radio Remote while listening to regular tracks, the iPod doesn't pause the
track as it does with the regular jack up top. Also, the audio coming out of the iPod's jack is slightly louder than
the audio coming out of the Radio Remote. I've found my favorite use for this is to have the headphones plugged into my
iPod which is in my inside coat pocket, and then let the Radio Remote dangle down where I clip it to the bottom of my
coat for easy control while I'm commuting. Who needs one of those fancy iPod-integrated jackets when you can use one of
these?
MacRumors picked up on a New York Times report that the
forthcoming ROKR E2 will be dumping iTunes in favor of a new
subscription-based iRadio service, featuring over 400 channels of commercial-free radio. So basically: instead of a
phone that can freely play all of your music, you can pay a reported $7/month for what is basically XM/Sirius in your
phone. For those of you still waiting for an iTunes-based ROKR successor, the recently-announced RAZR v3i sounds like
it won't dissappoint. In my opinion though, following up the less-than-stellar ROKR with a new version that doesn't
even support playing my music is two steps in the wrong direction.
But what do you guys think of
this? Do you want a ROKR phone with a radio-on-steriods in it, or are you already yelling "I want my iTunes
library!"
One of the features of a lot of iPhone wannabes is a built-in FM radio so you can listen to your local stations. Why limit yourself to local stations? 
How I miss the days of Ramen noodles, sleepless nights and self-indulgent college rock. If you're like me, check out the updated "College Radio" section of iTunes. Just click the radio icon in the sidebar (not the iTunes Store) to reveal the College Radio section (it bore a beta tag until I checked again this morning). 
CenterStage and BackStage make up a dynamic duo which gives FrontRow a run for its money. The free software suite 
Two hip-hop radio stations, 
When I read 
