Will Apple Knock-Off iPods Classic and Shuffle?

Apple will launch its latest smartphone iPhone 5 on October 4, 2011 but it appears that something more is connected with this event. Apple will abandon iPod Classic and Shuffle on this event to  redirect its efforts more effectively to iPod Nano and iPod Touch  according to a statement from TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog). But Apple doesn’t mention about iPhone 5 in its announcement.

iPod Shuffle doesn’t have the screen so its a good thing to remove it from Apple product list. So by doing this, all Apple iPods will have touch screens and apparently Apple wants it that way. The previous iPods had platter-based memory while the  new ones have flash-based memory which is more convenient.

So basically Apple is converting ‘past’ iPods to ‘future’ iPods. But  still if you want to buy iPods Classic and Shuffle then you better hurry up because the sooner the better. 160GB iPod classic’s recent price is  $249 while that of iPod shuffle is $49. When these iPods are abandoned  then the ‘future’ iPods will replace them. But how far will Apple go futuristically?

Gowalla 4.0: A Considerable Upgrade

When I last year penned the review for Gowalla 3.0 I really liked the changes and the considerable update to the interface. Back then, it felt like it was a major upgrade to the whole platform. Well, this time around they are going further at Gowalla, releasing both the 4.0 version of the app and their website itself and there are a lot of news.

Interface Update

This is an update that once again features a re-design of the entire app interface. With the shift that Gowalla is making to become more of an experience network, helping you to see and find new things in new cities, this was certainly necessary. As much as the interface is stylish and visually beautiful, they are making it much harder for me to just check in somewhere and use Gowalla as I have always used it: Sharing where I am if it is important across my social networks.

Guides

Gowalla has introduced city guides for a lot of cities in the world (don’t just think New York and San Francisco, yours is probably there). These guides basically contain a list of spots that they suggest that you go to. My guess is that this list is based, apart from the featured spots, on frequent check-ins by Gowalla users. The next time I go to visit a new city on vacation or have a few hours to spare when somewhere on business, I am sure to give Gowalla a chance to see how well it works to experience something new based on the spots that they suggest in the city guide and the already present lists.

Conclusion

I am torn. Part of me really likes the new Gowalla while the other part of me just don’t get it. I have a hard time with the fact that they have made it harder for me to check in to a spot, add a comment and share with friends on Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. Instead, the focus on their new stories, while good for the site in general, just takes too much away from me personally. It’s a free update and you should update regardless of what I (or you) think about it since it also contains bug fixes and general improvements as all updates do. If you don’t like the new version, there is always the option of switching to Foursquare instead.

CrashPlan Gives You Complete Access To Your Cloud Backups

I started using CrashPlan as my cloud backup service in January of this year. I'm a bit of a backup freak. I have multiple backups including Time Machine, clones and lastly cloud backup for disaster protection. I always felt that a backup located in the same place as the computer offers no protection in the event of a disaster such as flood, fire, theft, etc. I went with the unlimited Family Plan and have multiple computers backed up to the service. While CrashPlan has always offered the ability to access your backed up files via their website, now they've introduced Universal iOS Apps that allow you to access your backed up data from anywhere you are from your iDevice. 

Complete Access To ANY of your Files from your iDevice

Since all of my computers are being backed up to CrashPlan, this App means that I have access to ALL of my files now from my iPhone or iPad. If there is a document that I left on my computer (and it's been backed up to CrashPlan), I can access that document, view it on my iPad (if it's in a compatible format) or simply email it to someone all from within the App. CrashPlan takes advantage of the "Open In' command to say open a RAW file in an App like Photogene or open an Excel file in Numbers. Image files like JPGs can be viewed right in the App. Once a file is downloaded into the App it remains local and available offline until you remove it. 

It works great! My only complaint is that there is no preview to the image files BEFORE you download them. In my case, say I have a folder of 100 JPGs and I want a particular one, they will be listed by name, but I'll have no way of know which one is which unless I know the names. This means tapping on and downloading each one until I find the one I want. Otherwise, this App more than meets my expectations and it was a pleasant surprise to see it released.

iPhone Download Hub Review

Well it seems we have seen the end of most of the old iPhone download sites like iPhone Nova, iPhone Magic and iPhone Explosion all of which were very good iPhone download sites, but obviously couldn't stand the test of time.

Now we usher in a new era of iPhone download sites with iPhone Download Hub.

The Hub offers very similar features as the download sites of old like movie downloads, music, iPhone software and iPhone game applications (which is just a list of urls anyway). Much like the other iPhone download sites with the Hub you will get a 100% satisfaction guarantee which is redeemable for up to 56 days after your purchase, so if you don't like what the Hub has to offer, just get your money back!

And just like all the other sites of the past, iPhone Download Hub gives you unlimited access to all their iPhone downloads, so you can't go wrong, sign up, if you don't like it, get your money back, but if you do then you will enjoy the best iPhone downloads on the internet!

Check it out for yourself and make your opinion: CLICK HERE