News Archive for 07/06/05

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Alpine iPod-ready stereo

06/05, 5:00pm

Alpine ships stereo with iPod connectivity

Alpine Electronics today began shipping its iDA-X001 digital media head unit with built-in iPod connectivity. The head unit features a USB connection, allows users to navigate through all of the digital content on an iPod, and is designed with the same screen ratio as the iPod itself with a 320x240 color TFT screen. The screen displays artist, album, and track information as well as album art from the iPod while offering three screen-view options. Users can choose to view album art as well as the song name and track information; larger album art and the song name only; or clock and calendar information. Apple's fifth-generation iPods with the latest firmware can link directly to the iDA-X001 via USB, while its Ai-NET BUS platform allows the head unit to connect to a variety of digital media sources and formats such as XM, SIRIUS, and more. Alpine's iDA-X001 digital media head is priced at $450.

iPhone touch screen trend?

06/05, 12:25pm

25% of handsets to follow iPhone by 2009?

Apple's forthcoming iPhone will likely result in the significant adoption of capacitive touch screen technology in future cellular phones, according to component manufacturer Synaptics. Apple's handset uses capacitive touch screen technology to help achieve the "revolutionary" user interface touted by company CEO Steve Jobs, which Synaptics believes will provide a big market boost to such technology moving forward. The manufacturer predicts that almost 25 percent of handsets will offer built-in capacitive touch screens by 2009, and points to forthcoming notebooks from Dell, HP, and Toshiba that will make use of capacitive touch screen technology in the second half of this year, according to DigiTimes.

EU extends Apple deadline

06/05, 11:30am

EU pushes back Apple's deadline

The European Commission has extended its deadline for Apple to respond to antitrust concerns over the iTunes Store, which center around restrictions that bar iTunes customers from purchasing tracks offered to countries other than the one they are connecting from. Thosee restrictions result in price differentials between intra-eurozone and extra-eurozone, which equate to more costly tracks for some European iTunes customers compared to other nearby countries. The original deadline -- with which Apple failed to comply -- set by the EU was midnight on June 4th, but today that deadline was pushed back to June 20th, according to Thomson Financial. Apple in early April denied that it violated European Union laws regarding the pricing of songs on its iTunes Store, saying that the company would continue to work with the EU to resolve the matter.