I was offered to do a review for earbud JACK, a seemingly normal piece of plastic for organizing your earbud cords. Tons of these stuffs out there. But, upon closer inspection, JACK stands out from the rest as both clever and cute!

The whole point of JACK is to keep your earbud’s cord from tangling when not in use. Most of the time, this happens after we dump our DAP together with the earbud into our bags without rolling up the cord.

Stowing your earbud with JACK is easy.

• Throw the earbuds over his shoulders
• Pull the cord under his foot
• Wrap the rest around his head and feet
• Place the plug in his hand

Simple! And you can now put away your earbud without having it entangle. You’ll be glad the next time you whip out your iPod.

And what makes JACK such a clever design, is how you can hook it to your cords with his hands while your earbuds are in use. No need to keep him in some pocket, he’ll be happy to hang on your cords until you’re ready to use him again.

Verdict

Ease of Use: 5/5
It was really easy to wrap your earbuds around JACK. I can stow my cord within seconds.

Usefulness: 5/5
It is really useful beyond any doubt. Tangled cords are frustrating. And compared to many other smaller cord organizers, earbud JACK is large enough to require less rounds around it. Having to wrap too many small rounds would result in a really curly cord after prolonged storage.

Attractiveness: 4/5
JACK has such an interesting design. I’m sure you’ll get a pleasant smile or two as you walk down the street while JACK grips on to your cord for dear life.

Value for Money: 4/5
For just US$9 (earbud JACK on Amazon), it is a pretty cheap investment.

In response to Apple announcing the iPhone being launched in Canada, the SmashOurStuff team assassinated an iPhone on the main stage (just prior to the 420 countdown) at the Toronto Freedom Festival/Global Marijuana March.

The fans were so hyped that somebody actually threw their iPod onto the stage to be destroyed as well!

The Glo Pillow is an alarm pillow that wakes you up gently with a gradually intensifying light. No more screaming alarm clocks! The LED light gradually increases in intensity for 40 minutes, simulating a real sunrise.

And when you lift your head off the pillow, it displays the current time in easy-to-read dot matrix fonts.

The pillow is still in prototype stage.

To stay loyal to the Apple gods means you have to live with the non-removable batteries on your iPods and iPhones. Bringing the USB cable along with you everywhere is good if you expect to have computer access to get some charge from its USB port, but not too helpful if you are out, let’s say, on a safari. In that case, the RichardSolo Smart Backup Battery is an indispensable accessory.

Features

• Made for iPod licensed 30-pin connector
• Compatible with iPod touch and all other iPod devices except for the iPod shuffle
• Gives you up to double the battery time
• Small and lightweight for pocket, purse or briefcase
• High-quality aluminum case virtually scratch-proof
• Snaps on to iPod instantly — no bulky cable
• Begins to charge your Apple device immediately
• Battery pack includes both AC adapter [110-240V] wall charger and USB retractable charging cable
• USB retractable cable connects Smart Backup Battery directly to computer’s USB port or AC wall adapter for convenient charging
• Charge the Smart Backup Battery and iPod together [the iPod will charge first and then the backup battery — the next morning both are completely charged]
• Lithium-ion technology does not develop “memory” so you can charge often
• Smart, automatic on/off charging technology protects the battery from overcharging
• Advanced circuitry keeps battery cool to touch
• Blue, green, red LEDs indicate charging status
• 90-day warranty from RichardSolo.com

Test Results

From a fully charged RichardSolo battery, it took about 1hr 18min to finish transferring all its power to the iPhone. Not too shabby in my opinion, as its compact size allows you to plug it in and put your gadget aside. And the charge brought the iPhone from about 5% of battery life to about 60%. Not as much as advertised, but useful enough.

Conclusion

So now, I have more battery life on my iPhone than before, allowing me to watch more YouTube videos and surf the internet for longer hours. I find it particularly useful for watching videos, as we tend to forget about the battery life as our eyeballs get glued to the videos, and you may run into the problem of a flat iPhone/iPod unintentionally. With the battery, you get an emergency reservoir of power to tap into.

For sale online at US$49.95.

The long-awaited WWDC 2007 Keynote is finally upon us! For the millions of unfortunate souls who can’t attend the event, here are the various sources to check out for live coverage. Be sure to bookmark this page in case the source that you go to gets overloaded by immense traffic!

1. iPhoneAlley (Audio)
2. MacRumors (Text)
3. MacScoop (Text)
4. WorldOfApple (Text)
5. Gizmodo (Text)
6. AppleGazette (Text)
7. Engadget (Text)
8. AppleMatters (Text)
9. macnn (Text)
10. MacObserver (Text)

The keynote will begin at 10AM PST. Click here to check the current PST time.

Halo 3 fans sit tight, ’cause Microsoft has announced the launch of a special Halo 3 edition of its Zune portable music player! Available for pre-order now exclusively from GameStop, the player will cost $249 and ship from June 15, 2007.

The Halo 3 Zune comes with:
Videos:

• Halo 3 “Starry Night” advertisement
• Halo 3 E3 2006 announcement trailer
• Halo 2 theatrical teaser trailer
• Three Halo 3 “making of” documentary videos
• A custom episode of Red vs. Blue – just for Zune!
• The first six episodes of Red vs. Blue Season 1

Music:

• Halo Original Soundtrack – Complete Album
• Halo 2 Original Soundtrack, Volume 1 – All tracks by Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori
• Halo 2 Original Soundtrack, Volume 2 – Complete Album

Artwork:

• Over 120 different images, including game concept art, storyboards, paintings, and conceptual marketing imagery

I must have underestimated the almighty Jobism religion and its impact on retailers and product designers.

But hell no, I’m certainly not complaining about the new Retro iPod Alarm Clock from Firebox.com. This charming little thing allows you to wake up to your favorite tunes in your iPod playlist every morning, and serves as a charging dock for your iPod.

Who needs boring alarm bells and beeps?

Now that we have iPod compatible vibrators, cool MacBook skins, flashy gold-plated iPods and the retro iPod alarm clocks, I wonder what’s gonna be next.

But honestly, I’d prefer this to the Hello Kitty wave. Anytime.

Product retails at £39.95 and is available for shipping within UK only.

I cannot help but smile in wonder if Creative meant its “Rock in color”, with pun intended, or not.

Some 2 years after Apple launched its iPod Shuffle, Creative launched its own plug-and-play, drag-and-drop, ultra-compact 1GB mp3 player Creative ZEN Stone today, rivaling the former. Available in 6 colors, the Creative ZEN Stone does look pretty neat with its smooth curves, glossy finish and no display. It will (also) have its own unique docking speaker system, the Creative TravelSound ZEN Stone, which will be available in black or white in July.

The Creative ZEN Stone MP3 player can be purchased at US$39.99.

With two (terribly) similar products now on the market for the music shufflers, tell me, which would you choose?

Everyone’s talking about Amosu’s 24 carat gold iPod!

For those who aren’t fascinated by the arty skins we just talked about and definitely have a lavish of cash, try getting one of these to feel the gold rush from its hardened mirror gold.

The downside? Turning over and staring into the (same) black or white face seems quite an anti-climax.

Gold-lovers, prepare to shell out £299.00 (US$600) for the 8GB iPod Nano or 30GB iPod Video, and £399.00 (US$800) for the 80GB iPod Video.

Great news for the ladies who loves pink and hates iPods. Microsoft has confirmed its shipping of new pink Zunes this coming May 1st!

Not very good news for those who bought the limited edition pink Zunes off eBay at exorbitant prices.

The pink Zune will sell at US$249.99 and is available for pre-order now from EBgames. It comes with the same 30GB storage capacity and hopefully with v1.3 firmware.