SiliconBeat

Altec-Lansing inMotion Max

At long last, I wanted to write an updated review of the Altec-Lansing inMotion Max iPod speaker system.

As some readers may recall, I planned to test out then-new inMotion Max last spring. However, I soon abandoned the idea of writing a full review of the product, because I ran into a serious glitches.

At random intervals, the device would seize up, stop working and stay that way until I unplugged and reset it. At least one reader experienced a similar problem with the device, so it looks like the glitch might have been with a particular batch of the speaker systems.

But it doesn’t look like the problem was endemic with the device. Altec-Lansing ended up sending me a replacement unit to test out, and I played with that speaker system quite a bit over the next several months. The problem didn’t recur with the new unit. So I don’t feel I can fairly mark the device down for the problem. Just be aware that it can occur. Read the rest of this entry »

(updated below)

My colleague John Boudreau is feverishly writing a story about Apple’s earnings. But here’s my quick take:

1. Very good quarter for the Mac. Apple sold 2.6 million Macs in the quarter, coming within spitting distance of the most the company has ever sold in a quarter. Unit sales were up 4 percent from the same quarter last year.

That may not sound like much, but given the terrible economic environment in general and the slumping PC market in particular, the Mac results are solid. Read the rest of this entry »

JBL On Stage 400P

I just swapped out the Altec-Lansing inMotion Max iPod speaker system I’ve been testing for JBL’s new On Stage 400P.

Like the inMotion Max, the 400P works with — and will charge — iPhones and iPods. But at the 400P has a different set of features than the inMotion Max.

Unlike the inMotion Max, the 400P doesn’t include and LCD display or an FM tuner (it does have an auxiliary port, though). It also doesn’t have a rechargeable battery pack, so unlike the Altec-Lansing device, it’s not portable. Nor does it have the inMotion’s “Expanded Sound Stage” technology, which is supposed to “fill a room with sound” (but which I found underwhelming in my tests).

Read the rest of this entry »

Altec-Lansing inMotion Max

As I mentioned before, I’ve been testing out one of Altec-Lansing’s newest iPod speaker systems, the inMotion Max. I was hoping to write up a full review of the inMotion Max this week, but I now plan to postpone it. The reason: The device has repeatedly had the same glitch I reported before, and I don’t think it’s fair to judge it on what might be a single faulty unit.

The glitch is pretty annoying. At seemingly random intervals, the inMotion Max will seize up, no longer responding when I press buttons on the remote control or the device itself. Instead, it repeatedly turns itself on and off until it’s unplugged and reset. 

When I first experienced the glitch on the inMotion Max, I chalked it up to bad luck. But I’ve now experienced it four or five times, seemingly every time I spend a decent amount of time with the device.

Read the rest of this entry »

Altec-Lansing inMotion Max

As I forecast on Friday, I started testing out the Altec-Lansing inMotion Max iPod speaker system over the weekend. As might be expected, it was easy to set up.

I haven’t really put the device through its paces yet, but my initial impression is somewhat mixed. The sound quality seemed fine. Unlike many iPod speaker systems, it’s fully compatible with my iPhone, meaning that not only will it charge my iPhone, but it doesn’t prompt an annoying incompatibility message on the iPhone that asks whether I want to turn off the iPhone’s antennas everytime I plug my iPhone into it. So that’s nice.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I mentioned in a review that ran on Monday, I generally liked iHome’s iH15

iHome iH15

iPod speaker system. It offers nice sound for a relatively low price.

I’m getting ready to box up the iH15 and ship it back to iHome, but there is one thing I don’t like about it that I neglected to mention in my review. In order to turn up or down the volume on the iH15, you have to press the volume control buttons multiple times. You can’t just hold them down to raise or lower the volume.

I know that’s a nit, but I still found it annoying the more I used the device.

Speaking of Altec-Lansing, I’ll likely be playing around this weekend with a new speaker system from the company, the iPhone-compatible inMotion Max.

In coming weeks, I also plan on testing out a handful of new headphones, including a pair of new models — the 200 and the 300 — from SoundID.

Finally — and I realize I’m a little late to this — but I’ve been playing around this week with Apple’s new iPod shuffle. My first take: I love the ultra-slim size, and I generally like the new VoiceOver feature, which uses a computer-generated voice to tell you what song is playing or what playlists are available.

But I hate that Apple’s decision to incorporate the volume, VoiceOver and play/stop/fast-forward/reverse controls into a button on the headphone wire means that I can’t use my noise-isolating headphones with the shuffle.

Read the rest of this entry »

Altec-Lansing iM600

In a blog post I made last week, I mentioned my experience with my Altec-Lansing iM600. To recap, the iPod speaker system stopped working with my iPods and iPhones and, because its one-year warranty had expired, Altec-Lansing said it couldn’t do anything about it.

Soon after I published my post, Patrick Beck, Altec Lansing’s marketing manager, e-mailed me about it. This began a long exchange between us about the problems I ran into, both with my speaker system and with Altec-Lansing’s customer service.

Read the rest of this entry »

At 33, Apple is getting younger.

Or at least its consumers are, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. PJ’s 17th bi-annual teen survey – a national study of the buying desires of 600 young people – found Apple has got their attention.

The highlights:

Sixteen percent of students surveyed expect to buy an iPhone in the next six months.

Apple’s iPod market share nudged up to 86 percent,  from 84 percent six months ago.

Of the 40 percent of teens who legally purchase music online, just about all of them said they use iTunes, up from 81 percent one year ago.

“Apple’s dominance in the (consumer electronics) and online music markets is going seemingly unchecked,” Munster writes.

It’s an iPod bottom-lift that has twice the storage capacity of the latest iPod Classic.

And it doesn’t come from Infinite Loop.

Rapid Repair is selling a 240-gigabyte hard drive upgrade for iPods.  So iPod lovers can cram 60,000 songs, 300 hours of video or 50,000 photos on their devices. But the self-installed Toshiba drive, which sells for $294.99, is only compatible with fifth-generation video iPods. Each hard drive comes with an installation kit.

There’s a waiting list for the new hard drives. To sign up, go to http://www.rapidrepair.com/shop/3119-hard-drive-disk-mk2431gah.html.