If there is one thing that changed the world of technology some 10 years back, then it would be Apple iPod and truly the iPod of today make the iPod of 10 years ago look like a total relic.

A Glorious Journey

Today is an occasion worth celebrating as it is Apple iPod’s 10th anniversary today which literally turned out to be a tidal wave of success for Apple. Long back in 2001, the new portable music player gadget was launched in a 5GB and 10GB model which amazed everyone with its storage capacity. With the launch of iPod in 2001, it gave Apple an unbelievable jolt and the company was able to reach to the mass market easily. In a nutshell, it gave Apple a bigger exposure!

iPod and iPhone

After the iPod, it was the Apple iPhone which revolutionized the world of technology and shook the mobile phone industry to the core. Today, every single person wishes to the owner of Apple iPhone and it has become a status symbol. So, it is the 10th anniversary of the music player you can’t live without, whether you are listening songs in your iPod or enjoying the MP3 collection of your iPhone.

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Samsung has released some more details regarding the purchase. Norton Ghost and the Batman will be bundled to consumers purchasing a 128GB SSD or higher.

We’ve heard Samsung bundling a Norton Ghost copy with their SSD but Samsung USA is taking a unique approach by bundling a copy of a game. Users purchasing an 830 Series SSD between Nov 15 to Dec 31, 2011 will get with a free copy of Batman: Arkham City.

The 830 Series SSD supports 6GB/s SATA interface and has a sequential read/write speed of 520/400 MB/s.

It is expected to ship later this week.
[SH]

If you’re thinking about taking a leap of faith and trying the Windows Phone mobile operating system, Microsoft is now giving away free Windows Phone handsets. However just like the saying “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, there is a catch to this deal, which states that you will have to spend at least $499 or more in order to qualify for this deal.

There are several pros and cons to this deal, with the cons being that the phones offered (HTC Surround, LG Quantum, HTC HD7, Dell Venue Pro) are first generation Windows Phone handsets, which means that they aren’t very attractive in terms of hardware specs compared to the newer generation models. The upside is that these phones are being given away to you off contract, meaning that you will not be required to sign on with a carrier on contract, and if it so happens that you’re shopping around for Microsoft products anyway, a free phone will just be icing on the cake.

If the idea of being able to get your hands on a free Windows Phone handset to try before making the leap and purchasing any one of the upcoming Windows Phone handsets, then just head on down to the Microsoft Store and start piling on that shopping cart!
[UG]

You know how incredibly popular a certain device is when accessories for it are being introduced in the market before the very device is yet to be made available to the public. This seems to be the case for the upcoming Apple iPhone 4S. While the iPhone 4S is yet to reach consumer’s hands, there are already accessories like this Slider Bluetooth Keyboard being made available and ready for those future iPhone 4S owners.

The Slider Bluetooth Keyboard from Concord Keystone is designed to give the iPhone 4S a phone case that comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for those who wish and yearn for the more traditional way of typing on their device. It can be paired with the iPhone 4S wirelessly via Bluetooth. The keyboard also comes with its own rechargeable battery so that it won’t be sharing power use with the smart phone. The Slider Bluetooth Keyboard is available at Concord Keystone for US$50.
[GG]

We’ve seen our fair share of pico projectors, so takes a bit to actually get us excited about one, but the Seeser from ESPlus is showing a lot of potential. Inside the tiny black box is a laser-based projection system which, unlike traditional lamps, doesn’t need to be focused and can output a 25-lumen, 800 x 600 image up to 100-inches in size. There’s an SD card slot around the side, which appears to be of the micro variety and it has an integrated 1seg tuner for pulling in broadcasts. All of this is powered by a 1GHz processor running Froyo — so there’s no actual need to hook up an external content source. Sadly it doesn’t appear that it boasts access to the Android Market though, without a touchscreen, you wouldn’t be able to make good use of the apps anyway. The Seeser should be available in Korea soon, but there’s no word yet on how much it’ll cost.
[EG]

Onyx Boox i62 e-reader

Chinese e-reader manufacturer, Onyx, has outed the Onyx Boox i62 e-reader device. Based on the picture alone we can’t help but feel that there are some glaring similarities between the Onyx Boox i62 and Apple’s iPad, but putting that aside, it does look like a rather sleek device. The device will feature a 6” e-ink pearl display with an infrared touch screen sensor. It will sport an 800MHz processor under the hood, 128MB of RAM and 4GB worth of internal storage that you can expand via TF card up to 32GB. It will also support a variety of formats, such as Adobe Epub, PDF, CHM, Mobi, HTML, FB2 among others.

As the device is still under development, there is no word on when it will be made available or how much it will cost, but if you’d like more information, head on down to Onyx’s website. [DR]

Doggies don’t give a crap about how they look, let alone where they are. As long as they’re knee deep in no good, or simply sleeping under the shadow of a tree on a hot summer’s day, they couldn’t be happier. However, owners might have something to say about that, and if you’ve ever lost your pooch or feline you know the experience can be heart wrenching.

The Tagg pet tracker is a small device that attaches to your pet’s collar. Using a built-in GPS chip it relays the location of your pet by simply logging into the company’s website. In the event fido has a tendency to run wild, as in beyond his confines, you can setup a zone notification, otherwise known as a “geofence,” which initiates an alert by text and email indicating his whereabouts. Each Tagg tracker has a battery life that is good for up to 30 days and it will automatically notify you by text and email when it needs to be charged. They’re water resistant, so inclement weather should be a non issue, though we don’t know what would happen if Rex took a dive in the local pond.

Tagg sells a master kit, which includes the tracker, a battery charger, USB and AC plug and one year of service for $199.95. Each subsequent year of service costs $59.95 and if you buy more than one Tagg tracker, without a charging station, the price drops to $139.95, or $149.95 if you opt for a colored version.
[GGR]

Sonoma GuitarJack Model 2 For iOS Devices

For guitarists everywhere, the launch of the innovative Sonoma GuitarJack Model 2 is going to get your fingers a plucking, your chords a strumming and your mouth a humming!

This inventive technology is going to allow those who are glued to their guitar in the laborious work of composition the opportunity to record new ideas and masterpieces whilst on the move without the need to have a laptop glued underarm. Those who have ever tried to use a gadget’s built in microphone piece will often experience sound recordings that include all kinds of unwanted noises and background interference which could range from somewhat annoying, amusing, or to downright frustrating.

Here to save the day though is the triumphant Sonoma GuitarJack Model 2 which easily slots into any existing iPhone, iPad or iOS gizmo and gives instant plug ‘n play capability. It transforms a device into an instantly available recording studio that won’t cost the earth to book either!

The cleverly fitted piece of the Sonoma GuitarJack Model 2 has an integrated set of various input sockets all with varying sizes, so plugging in a microphone, guitar cabling, headphones or earpieces is going to be quick and easy. The technology comes with a pre-bundled set of apps on offer that helps apply modifications to tonal quality required and enables the user to record direct singing or playing straight to a device.

Available at a specially discounted price on launch, get your hands on this kit at around $150 quickly as it could well be priced at $200 in future. [GW]

Microsoft finally came out in open and revealed the reason behind yesterday’s Xbox Live Outage. According to the details revealed by Microsoft, Xbox Live outage was due to human error, and the service is already back up and running.

Microsoft’s Eric Neustadter said, “The root cause of this outage was human error. a change resulted in an interruption to normal traffic flow within our datacenters, which logged users out and prevented them from logging back in.”

Microsoft also says that they are already working to fix their system so that the same issue does not happen again in near future.

“We’re sorry for this, and we’ll be updating our processes to prevent this from happening again in the future.”
[GP]

Amidst the product launches at IFA this year, Samsung also announced their new point-and-shoot digital camera MV800. Unique thing about this shooter is that it is equipped with a 3-inch Flip-out LCD. The MV800 is built on the success of Samsung’s DualView cameras that allows users to preview images from number of angles and capture them. On the photography front, MV800 can shoot pictures to up to 16.1 megapixel in resolution and features Schneider-KREUZNACH lens with up to 5X optical zoom, ISO sensitivity up to 3200, 3D still image and panorama support, 720p HD video recording, picture-in-picture and more.
[SH]