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.
This is fun. iPod Building Block speakers from Perpetual Kid snap into your iPod's connector port and resemble a certain brand of construction blocks that we all know.
Available in five colors, the tiny speakers pull power from your iPod (they won't work with iPhones, unfortunately) and look cool doing it. Our only complaint is that there isn't a model designed to sit flush on an old-school iPod nano. Don't expect theatre-quality sound, of course, but they should spark some conversation. They're $24.95US each and shipping now.
They're certainly unique, but they don't quite crack our list of top five weird iPod accessories
This was going to happen eventually. Altec Lansing has produced the first fully iPhone-compatible speaker docking system. The descriptively named t612 features 60 Watts of power RMS (120 Watts Peak), and connects to your iPhone's dock port.
There are four speakers, enhanced bass, a wireless remote and, best of all, it's immune to that annoying GSM interference noise while the iPhone is docked and not in Airplane Mode.
All this convenience comes at a price -- $199.95US, to be exact. At the time of this posting, no shipping information was available.
It looks like sometime in April, for a mere €249 ($335), you can recharge your U2 special edition (or, if you like, standard) iPod in a color-coordinated dock with bendable speakers that watch every move you make.
I can't decide if the Dragon I iPod dock looks like a post-modernist flower arrangment or a deranged alien with color-coordinated eyestalks. None of my googling turned up any vendors actually selling this baby--presales or actual product. So if you see one of these in the wild, let us know.
Update: Nik Fletcher snapped pics of the dock at September's Apple Expo Paris and shares them here and here.
Did the Lifepop Stereo Pet Carrier really "steal the spotlight" at the Oscars? Unless you believe those wacky PR dudes (and who would?), probably not but it's a pretty cool iPod-compatible accessory. You can use it to carry around your pooch as he or she rocks out to your music, or whimpers in abject misery while listening to your Barry Manilow collection.
It's basically a soft padded bad with built-in speakers and a mini-plug you can hook into your iPod. There's a fully zippered ventilated top so Fido will be able to breathe while groovin'. You might want to put away a few bucks to pay the pet therapist if there's a serious mismatch between your musical tastes and your dog's.
Feeling like something's missing from the digital age of music, with our lists of albums and artists in iTunes and tiny deck-of-cards sized iPods that fit our entire music collections in our pockets? The I-Deck might just be the fusion of old and new school for you. The album art you see is actually a touch screen that allows you to browse your library, right down to flicking the screen to skip a song, and spinning it to fast-forward - all while giving your music's album art the face time (and space) it deserves.
We received tips of this at the cool hunter, but there aren't any details on this being an actual product for sale; they simply end their post with "contact us if you require designer's contact details", so we have no idea if the I-Deck will appear in Apple Stores and Targets near you.
The new iPod Hi-Fi looks really cool, but who has $350US
sitting around doing nothing? Why now whip up your own solution from the parts you probably have sitting around your
house right now?
That's what Phillip over at Make:Blog did.
Buy hacking an iPod speaker unit together with an old pair of Apple Pro speakers, a modified iPod dock and a nano, he's
made himself a working, though slightly unattractive, iPod speaker system. Nicely done. Here is a Flickr set for your viewing
pleasure.
When I think of battery powered speakers for the iPod I usually
picture a white plastic molded dock-type accessory, but apparently there is a market for cuddlier options. One such
example is Brookstone's iPillow Portable MP3 Speakers (pictured here with a Creative MP3 player but compatible via mini
jack with any MP3 player). This device takes six D batteries which probably means it can pump quite some volume in that
huggable housing. Be careful not to use the iPillow in an iPillow fight because the mesh pocket doesn't offer much
padding for that iPod of yours!
The iPillow is only available in silver (but frankly in the picture here
it looks blue to me).
A commenter known only as "David" on my post about the new MiniStore in iTunes noticed a great new
feature that I'm surprised wasn't somehow worked into yesterday's keynote: multiple speaker streaming. iTunes can now
stream music to multiple AirPort Expresses, and even keep playing the music on the originating computer.
Users have been clamoring for this ability since the day the AirPort Express hit store shelves, it finally shows up
in a .0.2 iTunes update - and not a single peep about it? I guess not every new feature, option and button can claim a
coveted keynote mention, but it's good to see you TUAW readers are on your toes when we're neck-deep in news ourselves.
If
you thought those $600 speakers for your iPod were
expensive, you ain't seen nothing yet. Hammacher Schlemmer has released the Studio-Quality Triode-Tube iPod Speakers at
a mere $3999.95. No, that's not a typo, they want you to spend four thousand dollars on a speaker set for your iPod.
Okay, take a minute and breathe. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Better?
Now, at least for the $4000 you
get a nice device. From the product description:
"...the system consists of an aluminum-encased amplifier housing four powerful
Class-A tubes which glow gently as they generate warm, low-octave sound that is virtually distortion-free, considered by
audiophiles to be the most pleasing to the human ear. The tube amplifier smoothes over distortions found in modern
digital recordings while helping to compensate and minimize the quality loss inherent in compressed audio such as
MP3s."
So it's not like it's a $100 "antique" chair marked up to $5000 and being sold
in some Upper East Side furniture store. There's some real tech involved.
If there's one thing I've learned
living in NYC (and consulting for the rich and famous), it's that some people will buy anything if it's marked up high
enough and perceived as a "luxury" item. I have to believe that this falls clearly in that category.
I am not an
audiophile by any means. My iMac is hooked up to some JBL creature speakers which sound just fine to me. However, if
you are an audiophile and a do it yourselfer (another group I do not count myself amongst) then has MacMod got the project for you!
With the help of some tools and
some raw materials you can create your own HiFi computer speakers and be the envy of computer geeks the world around,
or at least have an excuse to use use the word 'tweeter' more than is normally socially acceptable.
This is fun. 
This was going to happen eventually. Altec Lansing has produced the first fully iPhone-compatible speaker docking system. The descriptively named 
It looks like sometime in April, for a mere €249 ($335), you can recharge your U2 special edition (or, if you like, standard) iPod in a color-coordinated dock with bendable speakers that 
Did the Lifepop Stereo Pet Carrier really "
The new 
When I think of battery powered speakers for the iPod I usually
picture a white plastic molded dock-type accessory, but apparently there is a market for cuddlier options. One such
example is Brookstone's iPillow Portable MP3 Speakers (pictured here with a Creative MP3 player but compatible via mini
jack with any MP3 player). This device takes six D batteries which probably means it can pump quite some volume in that
huggable housing. Be careful not to use the iPillow in an iPillow fight because the mesh pocket doesn't offer much
padding for that iPod of yours!
A commenter known only as "
If
you thought those 
I am not an
audiophile by any means. My iMac is hooked up to some JBL creature speakers which sound just fine to me. However, if
you are an audiophile and a do it yourselfer (another group I do not count myself amongst) then has MacMod got 
