FreedomPop ships its 4G-enabling iPod touch case, lets us nearly go phoneless for $99 (update: plan clarifications)

FreedomPop ships its 4Genabling iPod touch case, lets us nearly go phoneless for $99

FreedomPop's gamble on free WiMAX data launched in beta at the start of month, but early adopters had to be contented with conventional hotspots and modems at first; those of us with a fixation on data-only cellular handsets had to keep waiting. We can stay slightly cooler-headed now that the provider is shipping its iPod touch 4G Sleeve. Shelling out $99 grafts a 4G hotspot to the back of the fourth-generation media player that gives it independence from WiFi as well as connection sharing with eight other devices -- at least, for anyone willing to burn through that 500MB of free monthly data in record time. About the only catches are the $10 per gigabyte overage fee and a design that's just slightly behind the times for iPod addicts. While some of us will still cling to smartphones for coverage or legacy reasons, others who mostly communicate through Instagram food photos could have that excuse they need to drop cellular phone service once and for all.

Update: Thanks to reader (and early adopter) Penn who pointed out that overages are $20 per gigabyte if you're on the free plan -- it's only $10 if you're a regularly paying customer.

Continue reading FreedomPop ships its 4G-enabling iPod touch case, lets us nearly go phoneless for $99 (update: plan clarifications)

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FreedomPop ships its 4G-enabling iPod touch case, lets us nearly go phoneless for $99 (update: plan clarifications) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Distro Issue 62 arrives with Apple’s iPod duo, a superslim PS3 and Wacom’s multi-touch display

Distro Issue 62 arrives with Apple's iPod duo, a superslim PS3 and Wacom's latest pen display

At its event in San Francisco a few weeks back, Apple had more up its sleeve than just an aluminum-clad smartphone. In the latest issue of our weekly, we put both the new iPod nano and iPod touch through their paces to find out how they fare against their elder siblings. If a duo of PMP reviews doesn't snag your attention, we also throw down the review gauntlet on Wacom's Cintiq 24HD touch and this year's slimmed-down PlayStation 3. Eyes-On peeks at an ultrathin ultrabook, Weekly Stat examines emoticon use and Time Machines tallies up some more gadget history. The week's end is mere hours away and the usual download links that follow can help you settle in for a bit of leisurely gadget reading.

Distro Issue 62 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro APK (for sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

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Distro Issue 62 arrives with Apple's iPod duo, a superslim PS3 and Wacom's multi-touch display originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Distro Issue 62 arrives with Apple’s iPod duo, a superslim PS3 and Wacom’s multi-touch display

Distro Issue 62 arrives with Apple's iPod duo, a superslim PS3 and Wacom's latest pen display

At its event in San Francisco a few weeks back, Apple had more up its sleeve than just an aluminum-clad smartphone. In the latest issue of our weekly, we put both the new iPod nano and iPod touch through their paces to find out how they fare against their elder siblings. If a duo of PMP reviews doesn't snag your attention, we also throw down the review gauntlet on Wacom's Cintiq 24HD touch and this year's slimmed-down PlayStation 3. Eyes-On peeks at an ultrathin ultrabook, Weekly Stat examines emoticon use and Time Machines tallies up some more gadget history. The week's end is mere hours away and the usual download links that follow can help you settle in for a bit of leisurely gadget reading.

Distro Issue 62 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro APK (for sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

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Distro Issue 62 arrives with Apple's iPod duo, a superslim PS3 and Wacom's multi-touch display originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fifth-gen iPod touch and nano now in stores and in the mail

Fifthgen iPod touch and nano now in stores and in the mail

If you've been waiting impatiently to get your hands on the latest cellular radio-less iOS device, we've got good news. The fifth gen iPod touch with its elongated screen and colorful backplate is available today in Apple stores across the country. And, if you preordered the slinky aluminum and glass media player, it should already be in the mail. The latest edition of the nano, which is becoming more and more like its larger sibling the touch every day, is also popping up on shelves. The seventh generation of the tiny player, complete with multi touch screen and 16GB of storage, is cropping in Apple stores for $149 starting today. Let us know in the comments if you decided to pick up either device.

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Fifth-gen iPod touch and nano now in stores and in the mail originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Parrot Zikmu Solo reaches US in November, makes a tower of wireless sound yours for $999

Parrot Zikmu Solo reaches US in November, makes a tower of wireless sound yours for $999

Parrot has taken some time trotting out the Zikmu Solo speaker since we first saw it at CES, but those enamored with very vertical audio can rest easy now that the unit has a North American release schedule. Both Canada and the US can buy the Philippe Starck-crafted speaker in November, when it will cost $999 for Americans in its black and white guises (sorry, no red for now). While that's a lot to pay for a 100W speaker, Parrot is counting on the unique acoustic design, a conventional iOS dock and a mix of Bluetooth, NFC and WiFi to tempt people away from the land of horizontal sound. It's undoubtedly one of the easiest ways to make a speaker dock the focus of a room -- and that's part of the point, isn't it?

Continue reading Parrot Zikmu Solo reaches US in November, makes a tower of wireless sound yours for $999

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Parrot Zikmu Solo reaches US in November, makes a tower of wireless sound yours for $999 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behringer iNuke Boom Junior shrinks a giant iOS dock, won’t trigger as many earthquake warnings

Behringer iNuke Boom Junior shrinks giant iPhone dock, won't trigger as many earthquake warnings

As enraptured as we might be with Behringer's monolithic iNuke Boom, the 8-foot-long frame and 10,000W output don't really lend themselves to a home installation. Not unless we want to produce false positives on the USGS' earthquake meters, anyway. We're happy to say the company has addressed that domestic oversight with the iNuke Boom Junior. The iOS- and iPod-capable speaker dock won't launch nearly as large-scale an audio assault at 50W, but it's also less than a twentieth of the size of its parent; no one will need a forklift to get Junior into the living room. In spite of the less than ego-inflating dimensions, the smaller system appears balanced with discrete woofer, tweeter and mid-range components as well as separate bass control. We just wish it was slightly more futureproof. As glad as we are that the iNuke Boom Junior's $180 price at Costco spares us from raiding our retirement funds, the speaker is still using a pre-Lightning dock connector and lacks any wireless audio -- iPhone 5 owners will have to turn to an adapter or the aux-in jack. At least we won't be violating any local noise laws in the process.

Continue reading Behringer iNuke Boom Junior shrinks a giant iOS dock, won't trigger as many earthquake warnings

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Behringer iNuke Boom Junior shrinks a giant iOS dock, won't trigger as many earthquake warnings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 08:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Early iOS 6 adopters report problems getting Exchange push email: are you affected?

iOS 6 Mail

We all know about the central issue surrounding iOS 6. For the suits and ties among us, however, there's a potentially more glaring problem with Exchange support. Some users quick to upgrade to Apple's latest mobile OS report losing automatic push delivery of their email, requiring that they check for themselves to get any fresh messages. The issue isn't carrier- or device-specific, and attempts to reboot, reconfigure or restore devices are at best temporary fixes: what flows smoothly at first runs dry several hours later. Apple technicians are aware that the flaw exists, but it's tough to know if and when engineers will have a fix -- the company typically waits until it has a solution in hand before it goes on the record. We've reached out to Apple for a possible comment all the same. In the meantime, let us know if your Exchange access (or push data as a whole) is going awry.

[Thanks, Daniel]

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Early iOS 6 adopters report problems getting Exchange push email: are you affected? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple updates nearly every app for iOS 6, sneaks in key GarageBand, iPhoto and Podcasts updates

Apple Podcasts app hands-on

If you didn't already know that iOS 6 was out in the wild, Apple just delivered a torrent of mobile app updates to make it perfectly clear. Virtually every app that isn't preloaded now has explicit iOS 6 support to keep it running smoothly, and some of the upgrades are thankfully more than just skin-deep compatibility tweaks. Among the highlights are Podcasts' new subscription list syncing through iCloud, ringtone creation with GarageBand and iPhoto support for 36.5-megapixel image editing on the latest devices -- you know, for that moment you need to tweak Nikon D800 photos on an iPhone 5. We're including direct links to a few of the juicier updates, but we'd recommend checking AppleInsider's comprehensive list to see everything that you're missing.

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Apple updates nearly every app for iOS 6, sneaks in key GarageBand, iPhoto and Podcasts updates originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PSA: iOS 6 expected to arrive at 1PM Eastern, get your downloads ready

iOS 6 review Passbook

Apple tends to release new iOS upgrades like clockwork, which gives us a good indicator of when it should push iOS 6 to early adopters: 1PM Eastern, or 10AM Pacific and 5PM GMT. At that point, you can likely get your turn-by-turn and Passbook fixes through at least iTunes. The real question is whether the upgrade will be available directly from an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch -- we've seen delta updates arrive over the air for iOS 5, after all, but not major OS revisions. There's only a few hours before we find out.


September 19, 2012 1:00 PM EDT

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PSA: iOS 6 expected to arrive at 1PM Eastern, get your downloads ready originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s new iPod touch, nano and shuffle now up for pre-order on Amazon

Apple's new iPod touch, nano and shuffle now up for preorder on Amazon

Sure, all the talk of late is about Apple's shiny new iPhone 5, but let's not forget the company also unveiled a slew of fresh iPods back at the Yerba Buena Center this past week. And while the Cupertino outfit's had the music-friendly lineup for pre-order on its website from day one, folks can now start placing orders through Amazon as well. The only bad news is the revamped iPod touch shows an estimated shipping time of 3-5 weeks, while the "renanoed" nano and the tiny, colorful shuffle are both expected to be shipped in 2-5 weeks. As far as pricing goes, the MSRP tags are the same as Apple's -- though there is a better chance you could get them a bit quicker thanks to one of Amazon's renowned shipping options. Either way, you'll find 'em all at the source link below.

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Apple's new iPod touch, nano and shuffle now up for pre-order on Amazon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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