This week at iLounge: We take an in-depth look at Apple’s latest iPod game iQuiz, finding the movie, music, and TV trivia title expandable via free software, and well worth the minimal $1 price tag, despite small technical problems. The JBL Radial Micro Superior Loudspeaker Dock for iPod also arrived this week, and while it looks like a mini version of the cool Radial, it sounds more akin to JBL’s cheaper, older On Stage II. We also reviewed the latest version of HandBrake, which is the simplest end-to-end tool for converting DVDs into Apple TV and iPod-ready files.
We got our first look at two new Griffin speaker systems this week; reviews are being posted today. The Amplifi 2.1 Sound System for iPod sports two 2 3/4″ neodymium drivers up front with a down-firing, ported 5″ bass driver, all in a sleek little package with a Powermate-esque blue light ring around the volume knob. Journi (formerly known as Voyager) is a portable speaker system for Dock Connecting iPods, and features a “Wrapstand” to protect the iPod during travel, as well as SRS Labs’ SRS WOW digital signal processing. We were happy with the improvements in both size and speed found in the Harman Kardon Drive + Play 2 Mobile Media Manager, the successor to the original Drive + Play, and also took a look at ventureDESIGNworks freeHAND, a case-like “a pocket for the back of your hand.” Think Power Glove minus the NES.
Backstage this week was all about the impressive new Harman Kardon Guide + Play, a sleek portable GPS device that not only offers an easy to use, Apple-worthy interface, but also plays MPEG-4, WMA10 and WMV9 format videos on its large touchscreen, along with MP3 playback. Although most folks in the target demographic for such a device likely already have a GPS unit and/or and iPod in-car solution, the terrific GPS interface and multimedia capabilities of the machine have us curious all the same.
In The News: This week was almost all about Apple’s quarterly results and surprises from the accompanying conference call. Apple shipped 10.5 million iPods in its second fiscal quarter, helping to drive the Mac maker to the most profitable second quarter in its history. Later, during the conference call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealed that iPhone and Apple TV will be placed on a subscription accounting model, which allows Apple to add new software features and applications to the products at no charge. Word surfaced that AT&T plans to market the iPhone to business users, despite Microsoft CEO Ballmer’s claim that “it doesn’t appeal to business customers.” Finally, Apple confirmed that films will be heading to the European iTunes Store by the end of the year, which is great news for all those content-deprived European Apple TVs.
