Actually, the battery pack looks all but like an typical hard case, but a little thicker. As you can see, the case itself mimics the actual design of the phone itself, so from a distance you may not even notice it.

While I love my Mophie and think that a battery extender is almost a necessity for any heavy smartphone user, the bulk it adds is cumbersome and sometimes slightly annoying. The fact that the company has been able to shrink down the case to eliminate a large chunk of that bulk is very impressive.

Even more so is the fact that the case has a 1500mAh battery, which is bigger than the 1200mAh battery in the current line of 3G/3GS cases. Mophie claims that this battery will give users about double their typical battery life: about six extra hours of 3G talk time, 36 more hours of audio playback, or an additional nine hours of video.

The company says that the case has also been designed to give some acoustic benefit, redirecting the sound from the speakers that would typically be directed towards the bottom to the front of the device. Any of us that have ever used the “cupping” method to amplify the sound when we’re using the speakers know generally how this works.

The iPhone 4 case is already available through the Apple Store and retailers carrying Mophies line for $79.95, the company says.

As far as I know, the video camera was expected, but this is the first I’m hearing of a microphone or speaker. The size of the player is not changing — although Apple is smartly mentioning that the Nano is a fifth the size of the popular Flip digital video cameras, which the Nano obviously now competes with.

Guess what else the Nano has now? An FM radio. Thought you’d never see that, right. And Apple knows its market for these things: all Nanos come now with built in pedometers, giving those athletes who make up a significant portion of its customer base another reason to upgrade.

An 8GB model would be available for $149, and a 16GB for $179.

Think the iPod Classic is about to die? Think again, it lives on: Apple announced a gargantuan 160GB model for $249, as far as I know the cheapest out there for a portable media player of that capacity.

On it, the form specified that if the family would talk, it would open them up to possible legal action by Apple. Obviously since The Times is reporting on it, they didn’t accept Apple’s terms.

While the Stanboroughs apparently may have some culpability here–the iPod touch in question was dropped shortly before it reportedly exploded–it’s still a little worrisome. There are a lot of us out there who have done the same thing.

This is only the latest reported incident of pressure by Apple to keep folks with defective iPods quiet. Last month, the company did all it could to prevent KIRO reporter Amy Clancy from investigating fire incidents involving the company’s ubiquitous music device.

Documents obtained by Clancy indicate Apple knew about issues with its players and overheating as early as 2005–even though they were telling people complaining years later that it was the “first time” they ever heard of such a problem.

It is believed that the iPod’s lithium-ion batteries may be the source of the problem. But with 175 million iPods sold, how do you go about recalling the devices if it was necessary? That could be a daunting task.

The software update, which HP plans to release late this month, can automatically generate high-resolution and low-resolution MPEG4 H.264 video files from multiple formats (including unprotected DVDs–but not, of course, copy-protected ones). I’ve spent enough time tending to computers that were slowly crunching away at video files to find the idea of a sever silently doing it in background mighty appealing.

The high-res videos that the new software creates are for viewing on PCs, Macs, Xbox 360s, and PlayStation 3s; the low-res ones can be downloaded to iPods, iPhones, PSPs, and other portable devices, and streamed to any iPhone or iPod Touch that has an Internet connection.

Here’s a peek at the MediaSmart video conversion control panel:

And here are some images of the iStream app (which looks very much like Apple’s own media apps for the iPhone and Touch, which is presumably kind of the idea):

At $600 for a 750GB model and $750 for a 1.5TB one, the MediaSmarts cost far more than more basic networked storage products. The more features HP adds, the clearer it is why you might at least consider paying that premium. (Related side note: frequent Technologizer commenter Dave Zatz has an eye-opening post up in which he says that the MediaSmarts’ support for Apple’s Time Machine backup utility doesn’t extend to letting you do a full restore–only file-by-file recovery. Which, uh, sounds like a major omission.)

I’ve been working on a review of the MediaSmart which I need to wrap up and post–but I’ll try to get my hands on the software update before I do.

Meet Twitter-annoying teen Mikeyy.

Prince’s $2100 purple iPod Touch.

Amazon: hiding gay-themed books?

Skype should sell to founders.

Vizio may face import ban.

iPod Shuffle is 72% profit.

Palm readying inductive-charging accessories?

Two potential Pre shipping dates.

Windows 7: securest operating system?

Microsoft kills on-campus bar.

About one out of every five teens are planning to buy a new music player in the next 12 months, down from 34 percent in the fall survey. Of that group, 100% say an iPod.

For whatever reason, Zune’s share has collapsed — probably due to the fact the players have gone without any update for quite awhile. In the fall, 15 percent said they were considering a Zune. If this is true, Microsoft may find itself being forced out of the digital music player market as the youth is what drives this industry.

There really isn’t much untapped potential here either: 92 percent of teens own a player, up from 87 percent in the last survey. So even if this is exaggerated, the growth potential is slipping away for Microsoft — I’ve often heard them argue about the untapped market as its salvation.

I just can’t see with the increasing amount of negative data for Zune how it is worthwhile for the company to stay in the market. We are hearing that the wagons are circling in Redmond and talks are ongoing with partners on the next Zune model, which should come out in the fall if what we are hearing is correct.

However, will it even be worth it?

The “Apple tax” has been somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek joke in the tech world for a long time: where the consumer pays a higher price for a product simply because it bears the Apple logo.

Well, that concept may be coming to Shuffle headphones as well. Amid giving the Shuffle its first-ever “no” recommendation for an iPod/iPhone product, Apple enthusiast site iLounge also dropped a bombshell: Shuffle headphones are essentially DRM protected.

iLounge claims that the headphones add some type of  ”authentication chip,” which means that standard headphones will not work with the device. Obviously they wouldn’t, since all the navigation is done via the iPhone-like pushbutton device on the right earbud wire.

But if third-party headphones add playback controls but don’t have this chip, they won’t work either. That means no volume, no voiceover, and no navigation. Nada. You’re S.O.L. To make them work, iLounge says a $20-30 to-be-manufactured adapter is needed, or approved headphones, which so far are no cheaper than $49.

Seeing on my end how easily those headphones short circuit at the pushhbutton unit causing them to malfuction on my iPhone, this should be something Apple users should be concerned with. If they bring this technology to other devices, God knows owning an iPod will become more expensive.

I’ve played with the Shuffle. And frankly, my experience was nothing like Harry’s, and more like iLounge’s. I struggled to get the thing to move from track to track–instead i was nearly blowing out my eardrums cause the volume was getting louder. Count me in as one of those who prefer their controls on the device.

I was watching others in the Apple store with me. Quite a few were having trouble with it. I really do see this Shuffle as the iPod line’s version of the Cube–kinda cool idea, but just not necessary.

When Apple updates other iPod models, the change is usually about two things: better features (such as the bigger iPods’ addition of video) and slicker industrial design (such as the Nano’s evolution from a blocky plastic device to a gracefully curved metal one). The Shuffle is fundamentally different–it’s on a track of ever-decreasing size and ever-increasing minimalism. What Apple would like, I think, is for the Shuffle to be invisible. Not in the ha-ha manner of SNL’s iPod Invisa, but in the sense that the music matters and the gadget itself is sort of beside the point. The new version takes a major leap in that direction, and not just because Apple shrunk its size by almost fifty percent.

Of course, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the company did shrink the case, so much so that there’s not much room left for ornamentation. The $79 third-generation Shuffle has a somewhat stark personality that’s a shift from the candy-colored exuberance of the second-generation version. It’s a simple aluminum rectangle–available in silver or black–that contains 4GB of memory, enough for approximately 1,000 songs. Any panache comes from the Apple logo-engraved clip on one side.

You know a gadget is on the smallish size when it’s dwarfed by its own USB cable–even though that cable is the shortest one you’ve ever seen.

But the thing about the new Shuffle is that you just won’t think about it that much. Other than the music, iPods are about user interfaces. And except for a battery light (Apple rates battery life at ten hours on a charge, down from twelve hours for the last Shuffle) and a tiny switch that lets you set the Shuffle to shuffle songs, play them sequentially, or power down, the Shuffle’s interface isn’t on the sliver of aluminum itself. You can make a case that the “iPod” in the new iPod Shuffle is made up of two things:  the new text-to-speech system that helps you navigate your music, and the tiny remote control that Apple has embedded in the earbud cord.

When I first read about the external remote, I thought of it almost as a cheat: Apple made the new Shuffle smaller in part by moving the buttons off the device itself. In fact, the move has some practical value. Putting most of the controls on the remote pod means that you can put the Shuffle pretty much anywhere you want to, without worrying about whether you can get at it. (I’m in chilly, rainy Austin for the South by Southwest conference at the moment, and when I went out for a walk tonight I just stuffed the Shuffle as deep into my overcoat as it would go.)

As seen in the above photo, the remote sits on the cable surprisingly near the right earbud; when I wear the earbuds, it’s at chin level, more or less. I felt silly at first reaching up to it to navigate my music. (Take note, subway riders: From this moment on, tugging at one’s right earbud cord will serve as a dead giveaway as to who’s listening to a new Shuffle.) But placing it so high ultimately makes sense, because it pretty much ensures that the controls will remain accessible even if the Shuffle is tucked into a winter coat or looped behind you into a backpack.

How does it work? The plus sign and minus sign adjust the volume. And everything else is controlled by the indentation in the middle. Press it once to pause the music; twice to skip to the next track; three times to go to the last track; press and hold to hear the artist and song title; press twice and hold to fast-forward; press three times and hold to fast-reverse. Oh, and press it and hold for a long time, and the Shuffle starts reading the names of your playlists; release it when you hear the one you want to select it. (This is the first Shuffle to support Playlists, or, for that matter, any form of music navigation other than “play everything in order” and the eponymous “shuffle everything.”)

If the previous paragraph left you confused and/or horrified, I understand: Conceptually, using one button to do almost everything sounds nightmarish. In reality, I was startled by how intuitive it was. I read the Shuffle’s instructions once, and my fingers pretty much remembered what to do to produce the results I wanted.

The remote’s design helps: You never forget which nub increases the volume and which one decreases it, and your finger can find the indentation between them without any fiddling. It’s possible to forget that Apple intentionally designed the remote so you can’t see it when you’re using it. Which also adds to the new Shuffle’s feel of invisibility.

Talk Show

Then there’s VoiceOver, which is Apple’s name for the Shuffle’s text-to-speech music navigation. When you sync music onto the Shuffle from the new iTunes 8.1, the audio files the player needs to speak each track’s artist and title travel down to the player, too. I used iTunes on OS X 10.5 Leopard, and got what’s reportedly a higher-quality voice (a male one) than the one you’ll hear if you use Windows or an earlier version of OS X. It sounded a tad mechanical but entirely understandable–the only obvious mispronunciation it made was when it mentioned the recently departed jazz chanteuse Blossom Dearie, whom it called Blossom De-AH-rie. And the voice’s utter inability to emphasize the words in song titles to convey their emotional gist is…kind of endearing, actually.

VoiceOver tries to identify the language songs are in and pronounce titles and artists properly: Everything I listened to by Antonio Carlos Jobim and/or Astrud Gilberto was spoken by a different, female voice. I can’t say I’m a good judge of Portuguese accents, but I did notice that she pronounced “Jobim” incorrectly.

When the first Shuffle debuted in 2005, its lack of a display was a source of controversy, not to mention predictions that it would flop; by the time the second-generation version showed up, it was a defining feature of the player. VoiceOver goes a long way towards compensating for the limitations imposed by the Shuffle’s screenless design. For the first time, you can identify songs you don’t immediately recognize, and the fact that the Shuffle can now speak is the only thing that makes playlist support possible.

But it’s important to understand that VoiceOver can’t do everything a display can. The Shuffle’s 4GB of memory may be able to hold 1,000 songs, but locating a particular song may still be near-impossible, even if you’re willing to press a button as few hundred times in the process. The Shuffle still can’t sort all the songs it contains in alphabetical order,  it still doesn’t understand the concept of albums, and it only knows enough about artists to tell you who’s performing the current song. In all cases, playlists provide a workaround, since you can order a playlist alphabetically, or create a playlist that consists of the contents of a particular album or all your songs by a cetain artist.

Could Apple have provided more music navigation features? Not without complicating the Shuffle’s remote; it already built in all the functionality it could without asking users to remember too many arcane combinations of pressing and press-and-holding. I am curious whether future Shuffles will rethink the remote to add more functionality, though.

All in all, though, the combination of the remote and VoiceOver is surprisingly successful. The Shuffle is still aimed at people who want to listen to music without a lot of fuss–maybe while exercising or performing other tasks for which a fancier iPod would be too bulky and complicated. But it no longer feels quite so much like a teensy bucket of unorganized, unidentified tracks.

(Side note: The second time I tried to sync my new Shuffle, I got an error message in iTunes telling me that the Shuffle didn’t have enough room for the speech files required by VoiceOver…and the error persisted even when I tried to wipe all the music off the player. I then performed a restore of the Shuffle’s software, and the glitch disappeared.)

The Matter of Headphones

Sometimes it seems like every Apple product has a “Yes, but…” issue–a design decision that some people regard as an outrage and a dealbreaker. Consider, for instance, the new MacBook’s lack of FireWire, or the 17-inch MacBook Pro’s sealed battery. Or more to the point, the new Shuffle’s inability to work out of the box with standard headphones, since it requires the embedded remote to control your music.

As far as I can tell, there are two types of iPod owners on the planet: Those who use Apple’s stock earbuds without giving it much thought, and those who loathe them, either because they find them uncomfortable or because they slip out. In at least some cases, I think the haters are relying on bad memories of earlier Apple headphones–there was a time when standard iPod headphones made my ears sting. For what it’s worth, the ones that come with the Shuffle sounded good, stayed in, and were pain-free.

That’s not enough to satisfy serious fans of third-party headphones such as Shure’s sound-isolating models, of course. Apple says there will be third-party adapters to let any headphones work, and headphone manufacturers are already announcing Shuffle-compatible models. Which is good news, I guess, for anyone who finds the new Shuffle seductive but who has a visceral dislike of Apple earbuds. Although it’s still unclear what you’ll do if you want to listen to the new Shuffle over your car stereo or through one of the ubiquitous speaker docks that work with every other iPod ever made.

Me, I’d stick with the headphones in the box: Having to grapple with an adapter or spring for special headphones–some of which cost more than the player itself–feels like it violates the spirit of the new Shuffe’s minimalist appeal.

Then again, you have to wonder whether Apple’s next move will be to simply build the Shuffle into its own earbuds. This new model is already smaller than some Bluetooth headsets; if the company was able to shave off a bit more heft, it might build an iPod that tucked behind one of your ears, relying on the new embedded remote and speech synthesis for its user interface.

Like I say, the company’s goal with the Shuffle seems to be to make it invisible. The third-generation Shuffle doesn’t complete the job, and it definitely isn’t for everybody. (iLounge thinks it’s the worst iPod ever, by far; if you want to spend $79 for a much more traditional 4GB player–with a display, yet!–consider SanDisk’s Sansa Clip.) But in its own stripped-down way, it’s the most strikingly inventive new iPod since the iPhone. I’ll be fascinated to see whether its distinctly different approach to almost everything you thought you knew about MP3 players makes sense to the people it’s aimed at.

IBM’s assistant general counsel Ron Laureldale would then make a determination “in good faith” whether or not the information may include trade secrets of the company.

Additionally, in July and October he would be required to sign declarations that he has not shared any IBM trade secrets with Apple under penalty of purjury. The agreement expires on October 24, one year after he left IBM.

What does this mean? Big Blue could get unprecedented access by a third-party into Apple’s plans for future products. No doubt, this must not have Jobs and Co. very happy considering the level of secrecy they like to maintain over products, however Papermaster must be such a catch that Apple is willing to sacrifice a little security.

Agreements like this are not unheard of, but are rather rare to be disclosed publicly. No doubt, the media attention this case has made this a little higher profile than most non-compete litigation.

When he joins Apple, Papermaster will take the position of iPod/iPhone developement chief, replacing Tony Fadell who stepped down late last year.