To accessorize means to personalize. So, choosing the right accessory for an iPod owner literally puts the “I” ahead of iPod. This roundup of very personal iPod accessories covers touch-screen gloves (men’s and women’s), watch bands, arm bands, GPS and remote control add-ons, speaker docks, portable speakers, wireless (Bluetooth) receivers and headphones, a microphone, a MIDI interface, a piano keyboard and a variety of wired headphones.
Gloves
Mittens and winter texting go together like blunt instruments and detailing. That’s why a pair of
Print on paper may not be entirely passé, but thin-screen devices that store hundreds of books—images, music and sometimes video, too—are clearly gaining cachet. While B&H doesn’t sell every brand of e-reader, it does offer a select group of capable models. Most employ touch screens. The displays range in size from 5 to 7 inches, and each model is considerably less expensive than a full-fledged tablet computer.
All these e-readers enable you to transfer media from your computer via an included USB cable and all but one let you download
There’s a sea of iPhone accessories available, but how many of end up in the hands of people who love photography, video and pro audio? The right iPhone accessory could prove to be the ultimate holiday gift. In this guide we’ll help you navigate the iPhone waters and introduce you to gadgets that dramatically improve the optics of your iPhone’s camera, audio upgrades that give you recording-studio-quality sound, and battery extenders that have enough juice to make it through the entire shoot.
Camera Lens Upgrades
No matter how you use the
Relying on the tiny speaker embedded in your smartphone or handheld player is an underwhelming experience at best; an effort in futility at worst. Don’t even try using it to share the musical delight when it’s noisy inside or out, or expect much satisfaction even for yourself when setting the device down to provide a sound track as you attempt to labor, unfettered by earphones. Consider instead bringing along a companion speaker that’s portable, rechargeable and wireless, too.
About the size of a hardcover book, the
Dr. Dre, one of the world’s most influential hip-hop artists and producers, teamed up with the good folks over at Monster to create high quality, stylish headphones specifically designed to take advantage of the painstaking detail that goes into the music of today's digital artists. Available in around-ear and in-ear models, I took both for a spin to see just what the Doctor has ordered.
Beats Circumaural
The model I tested out in the Beats series were the black
Let me start by saying I am not an audio specialist. I spend my days writing about cameras and related photo gear for the Photography section of InDepth. But like the majority of our species, I enjoy listening to music while I work, and especially when I go out for my evening run. Despite my amateur ranking in a world of all-knowing audio aficionados, I know what I like and I know what I don’t like.
My first MP3 player was a small, black rectangular job from iAudio that resembled a cross between a base-line Pez dispenser and a cheap
Imagine if you could have a personal media player, or PMP, with a big widescreen display, 160GB of storage space, a built-in FM radio, recording capabilities and more, all for less than $300. That sounds good, but you don’t have to imagine it. The Cowon X7 is real, and B&H sells it. The X7’s feature set and price point are compelling enough to make it a serious contender in the PMP arena.
I own a 160GB iPod classic. I use it to listen to
What’s environmentally friendly, made out of wood and designed to stick in your ear? Thankfully, the answer isn't tribal style earlobe-stretching discs. The wooden objects I stuck into my ears were the thinksound ts02 In-Ear Stereo Headphones. They sounded great, and inserting and removing them was completely painless. However, if you’re shopping for new in-ear headphones, you may find the dizzying
Even though B&H doesn’t carry the iPhone itself, we do stock a good number of accessories to help you get more out of your phone. Regardless of whether you have the latest iPhone 4, an iPhone 3G, or are still content with the original version of the phone, you may want to consider one of the following items to enhance its functionality.
Macally Portable Battery Charger
Of all the technical innovations that Apple has added to their iPod line over the years, perhaps the dock connector is the most overlooked. Its design has remain unchanged since it was introduced in the 2nd generation iPod, and is present on all models save the shuffle. The dock connector has standardized the connection for accessories, and has served as an interface for digital audio output, FM radio tuners and transmitters, external microphones and external battery packs over the years.An extremely popular dock-based accessory for the iPod
If you took the last generation iPod nano and sliced it cleanly in half with a laser, you’d wind up with one new iPod nano and one new iPod shuffle… or at least something that resembles them. The new Apple iPod nano is a screen with no click wheel—and the new iPod shuffle has buttons.
The new iPod nano is a slick gadget. It’s about half the size of the last-generation nano and it has lost its click wheel. A 1.5-inch multi-touch screen with a resolution of 240 x 240 pixels replaces the click wheel functionality. If you thought the last nano
With its front- and back-firing cameras, improved Retina display, A4 processor and new OS, the new Apple iPod touch is like a futuristic science-fiction gadget that traveled back in time to the year 2010. It's got all of the desirable improvements found on the iPhone 4, without the commitment of a contract or the annoyance of a telephone.
Well, sort of. Your friends and family could potentially interrupt you with an
Touch screens are great until they get touched by greasy fingers or inadvertently scratched by jewelry or a sharp object. If you've invested in an iPhone 4, the price of adding a layer of protection is almost negligible compared to the repair or replacement costs. One of the most popular protectors is the Zagg Invisible Shield
, available in three different configurations for the Apple iPhone 4.
All of the Invisible Shield protectors are
As drivers increasingly use their car stereos to play their iPods rather than radio stations or CDs, enabling accessories are becoming ever more sophisticated. The Griffin Technology iTrip AutoPilot FM Transmitter is as sophisticated an enabler as they come.It includes a feature called SmartScan that automatically scans the FM airwaves for the three clearest frequencies and saves them to preset buttons.