Apple Cuts iPhone, iPod Touch Production

Mac sales appear to be rising, but Craig Berger of FBR Research says Apple, Inc. has reduced orders for iPhones and iPods for the second time in two months. Apple's iPod Touch may have the weakest sales since it is less than an Apple iPhone. Another report finds that Apple iPhone calls are coming from countries without Apple contracts.
Are Apple sales in trouble? Two research analysts have reported in recent days that Apple is aggressively cutting back production on iPods and iPhones, while increasing production on Mac computers.
Craig Berger, an analyst with FBR Research, told clients in a research note this week that Apple has reduced orders for iPhones and iPods for the second time in two months. Berger concludes that Apple is experiencing weak sell-through in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007 or in the early going this year.
"For both iPods and iPhones, we believe Apple was previously targeting a roughly 50 percent quarter-over-quarter decline for first quarter units, whereas we now think the firm is targeting a 60 percent quarter-over-quarter unit decline for first-quarter units," he wrote.

iPod Touch Weakness

It seems that the iPod Touch may have seen the weakest sales. Berger reported production orders for the Touch have fallen the most. The device may suffer from being less than an iPhone, since it has no phone capabilities but is substantially more expensive than Apple's music-playing iPhones. The touch relies on Wi-Fi for connectivity, so users who aren't in range of a Wi-Fi connection simply can't get online.
Berger also said MacBook chip orders in the first quarter look to be down 50 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2007. But iMac orders are up 35 percent compared with previous checks.
Apple just announced new, higher-capacity versions of both the iPhone and iPod Touch, so the production cutbacks may have been in preparation for the new models. Another possibility, more remote, is that Apple is scaling down production of the current iPhone in preparation for a 3G version. AT&T, Apple's exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., announced it is building out its 3G network to more locations around the country.

Mac Production Up

Meanwhile, Banc of America said its checks of Asian production facilities indicate that production is going up for Macs, down for iPods, and the iPhone situation is volatile.
For MacBooks and iMacs, production has moved up more than 20 percent so far this quarter, Banc of America said, which indicates Apple is replenishing inventory and seeing solid demand. Banc of America predicts continued growth through March.
But Banc of America agrees with FBR that iPod production has been cut some 10 percent to 20 percent since January and 30 percent since December. Where the firm had been predicting 5 percent year-over-year growth, it now looks like Apple will see as much as a 10 percent decline in iPod sales.

iPhone Usage Is Global

After severe production cuts in December and early January, production is now up for iPhones. Banc of America expressed concern that production and demand for the innovative phone remain lackluster.
Meanwhile, Net Applications released new numbers on its operating-system statistics, which revealed that Macs accounted for the largest percentage of Internet traffic ever -- 7.57 percent. iPhone-based traffic nudged up from 0.12 percent in December to 0.13 percent in January. More importantly, Net Applications' numbers show that iPhone traffic is coming from many more countries than have official wireless carriers for the phones, indicating substantial gray-market sales.
"We've heard the rumours that many iPhones are being used outside the officially sanctioned countries. So we decided to check it out and surprise, surprise, it's true. The iPhone has a presence in almost every country on Earth," Net Applications wrote in its report.

Get the most out of an old iPod

It will never cease to amaze me how quickly the latest, coolest, and sleekest iPod starts to look old, clunky, and just plain obsolete once Apple releases a new 'pod. My fourth generation iPod (yes, poor me, I'm one whole generation behind) just hasn't looked the same since the 5Gs came out.

But there is hope, aging-iPod owners! If you're not happy with your old iPod as it is, there are a few ways you can tweak and pimp your 'pod that should (hopefully) dispell all (or at least some) of that new-iPod envy!

Not all of these little tips are exclusive to your older iPod, but if you're looking to take your iPod's functionality to the limit, a few of these tips should prove very useful.

iPod your trips

If you've got a photo-capable iPod you can use iWay to generate directions for your iPod. iWay integrates with Yahoo! maps to get step-by-step directions to where you're going.

However, if public transport is the way you roll, iSubwayMaps offers downloadable subway maps for cities from Berlin to Hong Kong to New York, all optimized for your iPod.

iPod your dinner

The PodGourmet offers downloadable recipe databases. The original PodGourmet offers 260 gourmet recipes; if animal products aren't your thing, you can get 277 gourmet vegan recipes. The PodGourmet offers a free version of each, along with the full versions for $7.50.

Now that you've got the dinner taken care of, move on to the drinks with the free iPod Bartender. The iPod Bartender offers a whopping 230 drink recipes to match nearly any iPodGourmet recipe you can cook up.

Your iPod controls the world

If you're willing to put in a little time and money (around $25), you can turn your iPod into a universal remote [1G iPod and up] or make your iPod useful for school or work by running presentations. [iPod photo and up]

This functionality doesn't take much more than what you're iPod's already got, but a lot of people don't know that you can also use your iPod as an alarm clock.

Hack your hardware

Of course, nothing makes your iPod seem more dated than busted up hardware. Luckily, the older your iPod gets, the more willing you're likely to be willing to crack it open and take matters into your own hands.

Since your 'pod is a little old, chances are your disk may be pretty fragmented; if so, you might be able to speed up your iPod with a disk defrag. (Note: this has worked better for some than others - personally, I've noticed improved performance after a much-needed disk defrag.)

One thing that unites most iPod-owners, old and new, is scratches. No matter how careful you are, you've probably garnered your fair share of scratches. But with a little know-how and some elbow grease, you can make those scratches a thing of the past.

If you're having battery problems, you've still got some options. Finally, for the real diehards - if all seems lost and your hard drive has failed, you can still get away with a relatively cheap fix (cheaper than a new iPod, for sure) by replacing your iPod's hard drive.

Accessorize your iPod

So let's get down to it - there are a lot of things that you can do to spice up your iPod - a lot of them great, and a lot of them cheap/free. But when it comes to accessorizing, you might have to consider shelling out a little dough (remember, if the alternative is a new iPod, you can do a lot of spending before you've crested the new iPod purchasing price).

The first is the Smartdeck from Griffin. While I have had varying results using the SmartDeck (it doesn't always skip tracks as it should), I can attest to one thing that it has always done well for me: when I turn off my car or stop my car's tape player, my iPod stops. When I get back into my car and my cassette deck starts up again, my iPod starts playing. That alone has been well worth the buying price, which is little more than the price of a regular tape adapter.

The second is the Logitech Wireless headphones for iPod. With a pricetag of $120, these headphones aren't cheap, but they do something for your third or fourth generation iPod or iPod mini that can't yet be done for the 5G iPod - add Bluetooth wireless connectivity with the ability to remotely control the iPod from the headphones. For my money, I'd much rather be able to listen to and control my iPod while it's sitting comfortably in my go-bag than making the big upgrade to the video iPod - but then again, that's just me.

Put the penguin in your 'pod

The iPodLinux Project lets you install and run a Linux OS on your iPod, allowing you to install and run applications/games on your iPod. If you're really looking to hack and expand the abilities of your iPod (including the ability to record audio), the iPodLinux project is a very cool way to go.

Get a new iPod?

As you may have noticed, many of these hacks and tweaks aren't an option for all generations of the iPod. Unfortunately, at some point, if you want more you may just have to upgrade. If you've tweaked and hacked your iPod and you're still not happy with the results, you can always trade a bunch of your old CDs for an iPod.

So there you are - if your old iPod needs a little spice to keep it interesting in the world of the 5G video iPod, give a few of these options a go. That said, I'm sure that there are a lot of you who have found many other ways to squeeze as much as you can out of your iPod, old and new.

The self-sustaining iPod

Anyone with an iPod knows that being locked into your iTunes library can be a very annoying thing. And though there are a lot of solutions for working through this, I've never been entirely happy with the results.

What's more, if you're not a big fan of iTunes in the first place (or you're just not a fan of firing up that memory hog just to sync your iPod), it can be that much more annoying when iTunes puts its stranglehold on your iPod.

Unfortunately you can't really get that far with your iPod if you don't use iTunes, right?

Wrong! By the end of this little tutorial, you'll be able to rip a CD, sync the MP3s to your iPod, then play any music off your iPod from any computer without ever having to install anything on that computer - and not once will you have to open iTunes to do it.

That's right - add MP3s from any computer. For example, if your SO insists on ripping MP3s on her laptop rather than straight to your shared library, you can still easily sync her MP3s to your iPod. Or maybe you're on a public computer and you're eager to rip and import the CD you just bought to your iPod. Without installing any software on that computer or ripping any MP3s to its hard drive, you can rip and sync your new CD to your iPod.

What you'll need:

1. A Windows PC
2. An iPod (any iPod, from the shuffle and mini to the photo and video)

Here's how to get your iPod slurping up music from any computer or CD, any time, without installing anything on said computer.

1. Set your iPod as a removable hard drive. If you haven't already setup your iPod as a removable storage device, you can do so by plugging in your iPod and opening iTunes. Go to Edit -> Preferences and select the iPod tab. Next select the Music tab and click on the radio button labeled, "Manually manage songs and playlists." Click on OK.

   This will automatically enable disk use, and it will keep your iPod from automatically syncing (i.e. removing music you've added elsewhere) each time you plug it in. You'll want to keep your photo and video settings the same for the time being. [1]

2. Setup CD ripping.

   Now you'll want to download and install the awesome free CD ripping program CDex. But rather than installing it to your computer's hard drive, you're going to install CDex to your iPod. Assuming you've setup your iPod for disk use, just install it as you would any program and direct it to a folder on your iPod. I'll be installing everything in this tutorial to a folder named, "Lifehacker iPod Pack."

   To rip a CD to your iPod, go to My Computer -> YOUR IPOD -> Lifehacker iPod Pack -> CDex_150 and run CDex.exe. You can now get track names from CDDB (you need to enter an email address to do this) and rip the songs to... you guessed it, your iPod. [2]

   Go to Options -> Settings and select the Filenames tab. Change the Recorded Tracks directory to a folder on your iPod (I've chosen F:\\Ripped MP3s for my directory). Click OK and then click on the "Extract CD track(s) to Compressed Audio File(s)" button (the default compression is MP3). Now CDex will rip the CD tracks to your iPod.

   Of course, at this point you've only ripped MP3s - it's going to take a little more to add them to your iPod's database and start playing them.

3. Sync the music to your iPod. Download and install the free Windows iPod music transfer software, vPod.

   vPod is a program for transferring music to your iPod from Windows. It presents a unified view of all of your music and lets you see what is and what is not already on your iPod.

   vPod is the glue that holds this whole process together (and it's an awesome glue).

   Install vPod in the same folder you installed CDex, again to your iPod. When you've finished installation, run vPod. From vPod, go to iPod -> Select iPod Drive... and direct it to your iPod (e.g., My Computer -> ADAM'S IPOD). vPod will read your iPod's database and populate all of your music organized by Artists, Albums, and Playlists.

   Now you can finish the job you started. Go to File -> Add Files To Library, then select your Ripped MP3s folder. vPod will scan your selected folder and any music that isn't already on your iPod will be populated in the list without a check in the checkbox. [3]

   

   Find your imported music and check what you'd like to add to your iPod (or uncheck anything you'd like to remove) then select iPod -> Synchronize.... Your iPod will be updated with all of your added/removed MP3s. If you ripped your MP3s to the Ripped MP3s folder, you can delete them - they're in your iPod's weird file structure now.

4. Play your music. So you've ripped MP3s and you've synced up your iPod without placing one file on the computer you're plugged into - now it's time to play your songs.

   Download the freeware application Pod Player from iPodSoft, a program designed to run and play music directly off your iPod. The Pod Player is a very lightweight program that loads your iPod's music database and plays any song off your iPod in an iTunes-ish interface (it also allows you to open a playlist externally, if you prefer).

   Finally, as if things weren't already good enough, the Pod Player will allow you to easily extract any songs off your iPod onto the computer you're currently connected to in that oh-so-familiar Artist -> Album folder format.

At this point, if you've followed along and installed all of the software, you should have a wonderfully self-sustaining iPod that you can add and remove music from completely sans iTunes. Add music from any music library on any computer, rip and add MP3s to your iPod, and play your iPod's music library on any computer without ever having to install anything.

I know I've been on somewhat of an iPod kick lately, whether it's getting the most out of an old iPod or getting free content for your video iPod, but this time I'm content. My iPod has finally achieved the status of truly beautiful.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The vPod software mentioned later in the article currently supports syncing music only, but the software's author says that a newer version with photo and video support should be released in a month or so.

[2] You don't have to rip the MP3s to your iPod, but in the spirit of doing everything on your "self-sustaining iPod," I'm keeping everything on the 'pod.

[3] If you're only interested in syncing your iPod to the music library on another computer, just select the music folder from the computer rather than your iPod's Ripped MP3s folder.