The iPod is nearing the end of the road. Apple news blog TUAW broke the story. They claim a reliable source told them the company will kill the iPod Classic and iPod Shuffle later this year. For anyone who follows Apple, this should be no surprise. The Classic was last updated way back in 2009. Once the flagship product, it's become the black sheep of the iPod lineup. Apple is looking to replace older, non-touch models with it's iPhone derivatives. Despite a higher storage capacity, the Classic is no longer cost competitive against smartphones. At $279, it seems expensive and archaic compared to the virtual Swiss Army Knife that is the iPhone.

For those who really love music, the death of the iPod marks the end of an era.

The 6th generation iPod Classic may be the last. It hasn't been updated since 2009.

The original iPod first launched in 2001. While it wasn't the first MP3 player, it marked a major paradigm shift for the music market. Apple considered contemporary players to be too big, too clunky to use, or too small to be useful. The company wanted something that could fit 1,000 songs comfortably in your pocket, complete with Apple's trademark user friendliness.

The original iPod was smaller, lighter, and could store an incredible amount of music for the time. The innovative scroll wheel made navigating your music collection a breeze. The first iPod had a 5gb hard drive, which could store roughly 1,000 MP3s. Its rechargeable battery lasted about 10 hours, which was on par with its AA contemporaries.

The iPod and iTunes changed the way we consume music

While Napster had already kicked off the digital music revolution, the iPod supercharged the trend. When the iTunes store launched two years later, putting the CD on death row. Apple quickly rose to become the largest music retailer on the planet. While other companies tried their hands at MP3 players, iPod is still synonymous with the devices.

Smartphones killed the iPod, but it's contribution to music history was legendary.

Update: I'll be restoring a 5th generation iPod Classic. Stay tuned for that tear down.

For today's computers, thin is in. Desktops are dead, laptops are writing their last will and testament. It's all about tablets. The smaller the better. Some folks even think the 10'' iPad is too large. You'd almost think that nobody dreams big anymore. Then you lay your eyes on Martin Drashkov's monstrosity, the MegaPad. The world's first 23'' Android tablet.


 

"The Android MegaPad is then the next logical step - a modern touch-based computing device with with a screen size that will enable a whole different set of experiences. Unlike tablets, devices like this will make simultaneous use by two users a practicality and will let users more fully immerse themselves in apps and games. In the demo video below, you can see two apps that, while written for phones and tablets, nevertheless demonstrate the usefulness of such a device."

Calling it a tablet is a bit deceiving though. The device is not yet portable. Mr. Drashkov claims he built the device for $600, using off-the-shelf parts. That's as much as the "puny" 32gb iPad.

The MegaPad runs a modified version of Android Gingerbread, which was used due to its adaptability. A video shows it running Google Earth and Fruit Ninja quite well. Martin is a fellow member of the Anandtech Forums, so I'm trying to pry some specs out of him. In the mean time, please bathe in the awesomeness that is the MegaPad.


UPDATE: Martin says he used a Pandaboard for this build. The company bills it as a low cost development platform for mobile software. The processor is a 1ghz Texas Intruments OMAP4430 running at 1ghz. It's based on the ARM Cortex A9, similar to the CPU used in the iPad 2. Graphics are fuelled by a PowerVR SGX540, also similar to the iPad 2's. It also features 1gb of DDR2 RAM, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and can handle encoding and decoding of 1080p video.

There's no word on which screen he used, though I'm guessing it's an Acer T231H, as it's the only full HD touch screen monitor Acer currently sells. 

Image copyright Marvel Productions/20th Century FOX

Sony's changed the PSN terms of service to include a "don't sue us" clause. Basically, by agreeing, you're now forced into binding arbitration should you have a dispute with any Sony entity.

According to the new user agreement for the Playstation Network...

"Other than those matters listed in the Exclusions from Arbitration clause (small claims), you and the Sony Entity that you have a Dispute with agree to seek resolution of the Dispute only through arbitration of that Dispute in accordance with the terms of this Section 15, and not litigate any Dispute in court. Arbitration means that the Dispute will be resolved by a neutral arbitrator instead of in a court by a judge or jury."

Of course you can opt out, by doing things the good old 1950s way.

"RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER WITHIN 30 DAYS. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THE BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IN THIS SECTION 15, YOU MUST NOTIFY SNEI IN WRITING WITHIN 30 DAYS OF THE DATE THAT YOU ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT. YOUR WRITTEN NOTIFICATION MUST BE MAILED TO 6080 CENTER DRIVE, 10TH FLOOR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90045, ATTN: LEGAL DEPARTMENT/ARBITRATION AND MUST INCLUDE: (1) YOUR NAME, (2) YOUR ADDRESS, (3) YOUR PSN ACCOUNT NUMBER, IF YOU HAVE ONE, AND (4) A CLEAR STATEMENT THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO RESOLVE DISPUTES WITH ANY SONY ENTITY THROUGH ARBITRATION."

In order to keep using PSN, Sony is making you agree to these new terms. It's pretty sneaky for them to bury this at the bottom of the terms of service. That whole security breach really stirred up a legal hornet's nest, so looks like they're trying to cover their asses. Naturally, this is the likely result of the class action that emerged after all those credit card numbers were stolen.

This is a good example of the problem with EULAs. Long winded, convoluted contracts that people are expected to "sign" without really understanding what anything in them means. Mind you, this won't effect most people using the service. It just seems a tad unethical to sneak things through like that without first consulting consumers. As if Sony needed a legal advantage if they screw up. What with their legions high priced lawyers crawling out of every crack.


Phoenix Wright copyright Capcom