My iPod Is On Life Support

White Screen Coma

My iPod is currently in the gadget version of an intensive care unit. It’s near death, and I’ve got absolutely no idea what caused it. Everything is playing out like an episode of House, where every treatment come up with by the doctor (ahem, yours truly) only makes things worse. This is no fun.

I use my iPod on a daily basis. I need to walk somewhere? Bam, in go the earphones. I’m driving somewhere? Bam, my iPod gets plugged in, the tunes blast, and away we go. I’m studying and using my laptop would be too distracting? Out comes the iPod, in go the earphones, and Ratatat or Architecture in Helsinki or Norma Jean serenade me. Beyond the basic function of listening to music, I use my beloved iPod Touch (which is named Lisa, by the way) to play games, check email, and scratch out notes for writing ideas. It’s absolutely essential to my always-on lifestyle. Only now I can’t do any of that.

Ever so briefly, I considered turning this into some sort of admission to being too dependent on electronics, that everyone voluntarily cuts themselves off from the world with them, that we need to lose the gadgets every now and again and just appreciate life.

Screw that.

Mobile Gaming: Swingin’ Through Sway

Meet Lizzy. She's pretty cool.

Sway evens comes with a comical backstory.

Have you played Sway yet? If not, you really should. Right now, most of the games available for the iPhone/iPod Touch aren’t particularly innovative. They’re ports or adaptations of standard games and genres, with controls modified to make more sense when the only tactile input you’ve got is a touch screen. A few games, though, are absolutely perfect for the platform – they just make sense with touch controls, and would feel awkward any other way. Sway is one of those games.

Mobile Gaming: A Healthy Dose of RPG

If there’s one game genre that I really, truly love, it’s RPGs. You could take away every other game I’ve got, and I’d be happy for quite a while with the likes of Nethack and Fallout 3.

That being said, I’ve been bummed for a while that there haven’t been any truly good RPGs for the iPod Touch / iPhone platform. Most of the offerings there have been your standard puzzle games that most people like to play, ports of card games, etc. There’s certainly a market for that, but those of us who game for reasons other than burning a few minutes here and there want something more.

That’s where The Chronicles of Inotia: Legends of Feanor comes in.

New iPhone/iPod Touch This Summer

The Apple rumor mill is in full swing once again. Reports are popping up all over the internet, mostly about the speculated release of new, 3rd-gen iPhones and iPod Touches. There’s always a chance that we won’t be getting anything more than a minor revision like increased storage, but it’s more likely that we’re looking at a pretty major update. For starters, Apple has made a pre-release of the 3.0 firmware available to iPhone developers. Additionally, AT&T has reduced the pricing on their no-commitment iPhones, perhaps in an attempt to clear out inventory. There are no guarantees with Apple, but I’m guessing that the combination of these two pieces of information means something. Below, in no particular order, are some of the rumored updates, as well as how likely I think they are.

Apple Apple Mac iPod ZOMG

So… you people are intense. 9 out of the 11 most recent search terms have been for apple this or mac that.

Clearly demonstrative of obsessive behavior 😉

I kid, I kid. This is hilarious.

New iPod Nano, Touch, No Macbooks

Here’s the quick ‘n dirty before I leave for class:

• new nano, with new form factor. thin, oval shape, colorful and pretty and rainbow-y.
• new touch with integrated speaker, volume control. 2.1 firmware available starting today, includes integrated Nike+ and Genius Playlists
• new 2.1 firmware for iPhone, fixes several bugs and generally smooths out experience
• iTunes 8 released, featuring new graphical views of albums, artists, genres, etc, as well as genius playlists and other ways to get you to spend more money. NBC back in iTunes store. SD shows still $1.99, HD shows $2.99.
• More games announced, hype over how awesome all their products are, jack johnson played some music for everyone
• new iPod commercial panning it as the best mobile gaming device out there. Nintendo DS, I give you your newest competitor. More on how I feel about that later

No macbooks, macbook pros, or any hardware larger than a touch was announced. It’ll happen later this financial quarter.

Check out Gizmodo or Engagdet for more information regarding the event.

Apple Event Confirmed September 9th

The analysts/fanboys/macwhores/insiders/whoever were rights, kids: invitations were sent out today for an Apple event on September 9th. Given the graphic that accompanied the invitation, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that new iPods are a lock.

A silhouette! How exciting.

In case that didn’t quite register with you, September 9th is one week from today. I beg you, do not be one of those oblivious fools who goes out and buys an iPod between now and then. You’ll just get pissed when you find out that you days-old iPod is already obsolete…

P.S. 10 AM pacific time is 11 AM my time. I’ll conveniently be in-between classes, seated fimly in front of a computer, posting updates as his holiness Steve Jobs does his thing on stage.

And the winner is…

It’s that time of year again — the Apple rumor mill has kicked into high gear. The upcoming third quarter announcement is traditionally one of several points during the year at which Apple delivers a bevy of new products. In true Apple fashion, there have been absolutely no hints or leads, at least officially, regarding what changes will be made to their lineup. Instead, a flurry of rumors has risen, covering everything imaginable. The following is a run-down of which updates are almost a given, which updates are possible, but not definite, and which updates have absolutely no chance of seeing the light of day.

Updates That Are a Given:

• Refreshed line of iPods: Apple’s vaunted iPod has reigned supreme for more years than I can