Hey, broham, hitting the waves today? You better go pledge $49 to get the Proof Nano case, a case that turns your Nano into a waterproof watch. Designed by the folks at Boombotix, the watch will completely protect your Nano and even supports a small Bluetooth adapter that will stream tunes to your wireless headphones automagically.

The Kickstarter project will be funded at $17,000, so get cracking.

You can also pledge $99 to get the watch and all of the connectors, including the Bluetooth dongle, and $149 gets you a Bluetooth speaker as well. The Proof is IP68 water resistant and includes a waterproof headphone adapter.

The Proof is constructed for durable polyurethane coated with a thick silicone wrapping. The touch screen on the iPod Nano retains full functionality with the use of an ultra thin polycarbonate lens. The strap on the Proof is made of ultra thick, yet flexible silicone. With this engineering, we’ve managed to create an IP68 grade seal to protect the nano up to a 3m depth. With The Proof, say goodbye to water damage or impact casualties and say hello to doing everything you love with the convenience and control of your music right on your wrist.

Project Page

In a moment as historic as Alexander Bell’s call to his assistant, an iPhone hacker wrote on Twitter that he had successfully ported Siri to the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch.

The hack requires a jailbroken device. By copying the app onto the device, the iPhone 4 can call up Siri and, more important, connect to the Siri servers. You can follow these instructions to install the app yourself and it seems to currently also work with the iPod Touch 4G although those instructions are forthcoming.

Mark Gurman at 9to5mac interviewed Steven Troughton-Smith, another iPod Touch/iPhone 4 hacker, answering a few questions about the feat:

Mark: Do you ever see Siri showing up in Cydia (or another jailbreak store) for non natively supported devices?

Steven: No, I could not be a part of that. I have no doubts that others will package this up and distribute it quasi-illegally, or try and sell it to people. I am only interested in the technology and making it work; proving that it works and works well on the iPhone 4 and other devices

Mark: So, you also got Siri working on the fourth-generation iPod touch, how is that working out?

Steven: We got chpwn’s iPod touch up and running with Siri after proving it works on my iPhone 4. Unfortunately the microphone on the iPod is nowhere near as good as the iPhone – you will notice that the Siri level meter hardly moves when you talk to it. While it does work, you have to speak loudly and clearly to the iPod

We’ll give it a try this weekend and report back.

But he’s also recently lost his former boss and long time friend Steve Jobs. In this final segment of our sit-down interview with Fadell, he talks about the Steve Jobs he knew. He also talks about the future for Apple, and what he hopes Apple’s legacy will be for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

Even if you read our story earlier tonight on iPod Godfather Tony Fadell’s new company Nest Labs and its new Learning Thermostat, you may still be wondering how anyone could make a thermostat an object of beauty. So we sat down with Fadell to get a video demo of the device that brought him out of retirement and has been eighteen months in the making.

True to the Apple aesthetic it’s one big dial you can spin and push to control a sophisticated array of features.

It’ll be the first thermostat marketed directly to consumers. Can they get excited enough to plunk down a couple hundred dollars? My husband and I are finally putting a new heating system in our drafty San Francisco Victorian. After this demo, I was sold. How about you?

For the last eighteen months, the tech world has been anxiously awaiting news of what iPod godfather Tony Fadell is up to. His staff has been sworn to secrecy since word got out he was leaving retirement to do something new. Despite reporters camping out in front of his office with cameras, the news somehow stayed a secret– no small feat in the ever-leaky land of Silicon Valley.

No doubt the anticipation raised expectations in fan boys’ minds that the next great entertainment or communication device was going to be unveiled by the former DJ who oversaw 18 versions of the iPod and the first three versions of the iPhone.

Fadell is well aware that those fan boys may be in for some confusion or some disappointment today. Because he’s announcing what finally got him to come out of retirement and start a new company: A desire to reinvent thermostats.

That’s not a moniker for some cutting edge game device– Fadell’s new company, Nest Labs, is bringing Apple-level design and cool to the those little boxes on the walls of a quarter of a billion US homes and offices that control the internal temperature. Why? Because all the ones on the market are ugly, they are too hard to use and they control a whopping 50% of the average American home’s energy budget. His goal is to take something we never think about and make it more than just sexy– he wants to make it a “beloved” object in the home.

Fadell got the idea designing his green home in Tahoe. He was shocked there wasn’t a single attractive thermostat on the market so he decided to build his own. The size of the market and the potential impact on the planet convinced him it was a great business. And if he didn’t do it, who would? The unit uses the guts of a smart phone and required someone who knows how to build drop-dead-easy user experiences.

When Fadell left Apple, he promised Steve Jobs he wouldn’t build a device to compete with what he’d done at Apple. Instead, he’s taking the design philosophy to an utterly different industry. Will consumers bite?

We sat down with Fadell for his first video interview about Nest last week. In this segment, he talks about why he feels this opportunity was too good to pass up. Stay tuned for part two of the interview, when Fadell will demo the Nest Learning Thermostat.

On October 23rd, 2001, Steve Jobs introduced the iPod at a special event, showing off a design destined to become iconic. Ten years later, the brand is as strong as ever, though sadly, we have lost its inventor.

Take a few minutes to watch the original product announcement and take a short trip through the evolution of the device that is arguably the most important in Apple’s history.

I say the most important because while the Mac Classic, iMac, and later, the iPhone, are equally as prestigious to some, I think that the iPod was a watershed moment. If the iPod failed, Apple would have remained a boutique computer maker prized by designers and schools but able to be safely ignored by the tech world at large. Instead, the iPod proved to be a powerful wedge, the de facto standard for listening to music for many years; indeed, it still has years to go until it finally gives way to more integrative devices like smartphones. And even then, the brand will endure.

This wedge of Apple’s gave them mass-market credibility, boosted sales enormously, and established iTunes as a market force that would disrupt an entire industry.

The iPod itself has changed over the years. But anyone could look at today’s 160GB iPod Classic and recognize the original as its predecessor. Some say that the current model (available in more or less its current form since late 2008) is due for replacement. It has already been replaced, though, by a number of devices. Apple seems to offer the Classic as a sort of public service, declining to have those sales transfer over to the newer devices, perhaps out of respect for its legacy.

There were missteps: the line of touch buttons from the third-generation iPod didn’t last long, and the puny color screen of the first color models wasn’t particularly compelling. The “fat nano” was, let’s be honest, an object of ridicule. The whole battery debacle was poorly handled. But these problems were corrected and every time, consumers thought “Ah – now it’s complete.” And then, of course, along came the iPhone.

Ten years is a hell of a long time for a consumer electronics brand to endure, much less a form factor or look and feel. I’m betting nearly everyone reading this has owned an iPod of one kind or another, and probably has an iPod memory stashed away somewhere. Personally, I remember receiving a 5th-gen iPod at Christmas of 2005, and whining until we could go to the store the next day and exchange my white one for a black one. Not a proud moment for me, but perhaps it is one for Apple.

So here’s a salute to one of the most important pieces of consumer electronics of all time. Feel free to share your thoughts and memories below.

It’s been a busy morning in Cupertino at Apple’s ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ keynote. The big headline was the iPhone 4S, but no iPhone 5. Perhaps you had a hard time following all the news from Apple on the iPhone, iOS 5, other iOS devices and apps. Apple didn’t offer a live online webcast to the public. But the TechCrunch team, on two continents, has been busy tracking all the Apple news. Click on any of the headlines for more info:

The Live Blog

• MG Siegler’s Live Blog From London

iPhone 4S

• Apple Officially Announces The iPhone 4S: Same Design, All New Insides
• The iPhone 4S—It’s What’s On The Inside That Counts
• Watch: Here’s Apple’s iPhone 4S Video Intro
• The iPhone 4S Camera Upgrade Explained
• Apple Announces “Cheaper iPhones: The Old Ones

iOS 5

• iOS 5 To Be Available To Everyone On October 12th

Siri – Your Humble Personal Assistant App

• Apple Reveals Siri Voice Interface: The “Intelligent Assistant” Only For iPhone 4S
• The Original Siri App Gets Pulled From The App Store, Servers Killed
• Siri: My “Humble” Female Personal Secretary

Other Apps

• Forstall Intros New And Improved iOS Apps: Cards, iMessage, And More
• Apple Announces ‘Find My Friends’ — Which Parents Can Use To Track Their Child’s Location

iPod Nano & Touch

• iPod Nano Updated With Improved Fitness Features
• Apple Drops iPod Touch Prices, Adds iOS 5 And iCloud

The Reaction

• “Access Denied”: Apple.com Goes Down Post-iPhone 4S Event
• Apple Stock Drops 5 Percent After The iPhone 5 Fails To Appear
• TCTV: Is The iPhone 4S A Worthwhile Upgrade?

How The Predictions Fared

• Apple iPhone 4S/5 Rumors: What Was Right, Wrong and Just Plain Crazy
• Where Was Facebook At The Apple Event Today? Not There. Stay Tuned.

Apple’s Latest Stats

• Six Million Copies of OS X Lion Sold, Outpaces Snow Leopard
• iTunes Now Has 20M Songs; Over 16B Downloads
• Apple Has Sold 300 Million iPods In Ten Years, 45 Million Just Last Year
• Tim Cook: 250 Million iOS Devices Sold, Huge Retail Traffic, Record Numbers Everywhere
• Tim Cook: 250M iOS devices Sold, The iPad Is The Undisputed Best-Selling Tablet In the World”
• More Than 1 Billion iOS Apps Are Downloaded Each Month
• Tim Cook: iPhone Has 5% Of Mobile Phone Marketshare Worldwide, “An Enormous Opportunity”

This page will be updated.

Apple’s on an unveiling spree right now, and the next thing on their list is a slightly tweaked version of the iPod Touch.

First things first, Apple dropped the price down to $199 for the most basic 8 GB model, down from $229. The price drops have hit across the board, with the 32 GB model going for $299 and the hefty 64 GB going for $399.

That’s it — no new processor, no radical redesign, but at least the iPod Touch now packs a Retina Display and a rear camera that shoots video in 720p. Fashionistas may also enjoy the fact that the iPod Touch now comes in a handsome white.

The software front is where most of the changes are occurring: the Touch will soon begin to ship with iOS5 and support for iCloud. All said, it’s a compelling little holiday package: lower price and more functionality means that the refreshed iPod Touch will no doubt find its way to the top of many Christmas lists.

Update: edited the post to reflect the addition of a Retina Display. Sorry folks, it got lost in the shuffle.

It’s only been 10 years since the iPod launched, and since it’s become the number one selling music device in the world, according to comments made by Tim Cook at Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” event in Cupertino this morning. He mentioned that market share in the U.S. has been over 70 percent “for a very long time” (at 78 percent now), during the course of which 300 million iPods were sold around the world.

Cook gave a little perspective to the numbers by adding that it took Sony 30 years to sell less than 250,000 Walkman cassette players. Of the 300 million iPods sold since the product’s birth, 45 million of them were sold in the last year between July 2010 to June 2011. Cook said that almost half of those sold this year are going to iPod virgins.

One end of this cable connects Apple’s proprietary 30-pin connector and the the other end connects to an audio jack or mini USB port. You can then hook up any PMP or phone to any set of Apple speakers, thereby turning what once was an iPod-only party into one that supports Archos, Android, and anything else you can think of.

It will be available for $30 on September 28th and should help folks who may want to send sound to their Bose SoundDocks or built-in car iPod docks. While the utility is limited, I do love the name: DockBoss. When I read it, I imagine the guy from the JEGS commercial is screaming it in an echo chamber.

Product Page via Giz

Following Google’s stellar earnings last week, Apple has today announced their own earnings for their Q3 period. As expected, they’re good. Massively good.

Apple set several new records in terms of both revenues and sales. Most notably, Apple’s revenue was a staggering $28.57 billion — over $5 billion ahead of their (always low) guidance, and almost $4 billion ahead of the $24.92 billion that Wall Street had been expecting. What’s perhaps craziest about those numbers is that they’re a new record for the company, and it comes in a non-holiday quarter (typically the best for consumer electronics companies). Apple’s last holiday quarter earnings, Q1 2011, saw revenues of $26.7 billion.

As for some other key numbers, Apple saw net quarterly profit come in at $7.31 billion — also a new record, by a long shot (last holiday quarter was $6 billion). Earnings per share were $7.79, far, far ahead of the $5.03 EPS guidance, and way ahead of the $5.80 Wall Street had been looking for.

Apple sold 20.24 million iPhones in the quarter, a new record. The Street had been hoping to see sales around 16.5 million. The iPad numbers were just as bright, with 9.25 million units being sold. Wall Street had been looking for 7.8 million there. The iPad sales were also basically double what they were last quarter.

One slight dim spot were Mac sales, which came in at 3.95 million, blow the roughly 4.2 million Wall Street was hoping for. And, as expected, iPod sales continue to fall. Apple sold 7.54 million for the quarter, which was down 20 percent year-over-year.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave the following statement in the release:

“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent. Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”

Wall Street is obviously reacting very favorably to these results. Apple’s stock just surged past $400 a share in after-hours trading. My Exxon prediction is looking better each day.

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer’s guidance for next quarter is $25 billion in revenue and EPS of $5.50. In other words, Apple fully expects to blow through those as well.

Update: The Key Subtle Notes From Apple’s Earnings Call

Below, some live-notes from the earnings call:

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple CFO

• Highest quarterly revenue and profit ever.
• Record iPhone and iPad sales
• June quarter record for Mac sales
• Mac sales strong in the Asia Pacific region in particular
• Excited to launch OS X Lion tomorrow.
• iPod touch continues to account for over half of iPods sold
• over 70% of market still
• iTunes revenue up 36% year over year.
• 225 million iTunes accounts
• 15 billion songs downloaded
• iPhone 20.3 million sales
• iPad 9.2 million sales
• “we sold every iPad we could make”
• iPad 2 launched in 36 countries. Now in 64 countries.
• 86% of Fortune 500 testing or deploying iPad
• 222 million cumulative iOS device sales through June quarter
• iOS 5 – 200 new features — looking forward to launching it this fall
• iCloud also previewed in June — also released in the fall
• 425,000 apps and 15 billion downloads to date
• Over $2.5 billion in cumulative payments to devs — far ahead of competitors.
• Revenue grew to $3.5 billion in Apple Stores
• Opened 4 new stores in the quarter, 327 total Apple Stores now
• 73.7 million visitors last quarter.
• Gross margin 41.7%. On strong iPhone sales, lower commodity costs, and leverage on higher revenue.
• $232 million in stock-based compensation.
• Cash now $76.2 billion — wow. Gained $10.4 billion
• Continue to charge for major OS and iLife sales. But sales will be deferred and recognized over a period of 3 years
• Mac users get iCloud in the fall, this will be valued at roughly $22. We’re now deferring that for each new Mac sold (again over 3 years)
• Same with iOS devices, now $16 in revenue for iPhone and iPad, $11 for iPod touch.
• $25 billion next quarter (guidance)

Q&A Time with Oppenheimer and COO Tim Cook

• Q: 12 percent revenue downtick next quarter is much more conservative than you usually state. Why will it be better?
• PO: Education buying is part of it, best lineup of Macs ever. iPhone sales should raise, and iPad too. iPod will decline though. But a lot going on this fall, iOS 5 and iCloud. And a future product transition that we’re not going to talk about today.
• Q: Thoughts on iPad 2 cannibalization?
• TC: We do think some people chose to buy iPad instead of a Mac. But even more went iPad over Windows PC. There’s a lot more of Windows business to cannibalize than the Mac. And the Mac has other good attributes to make it appealing. We grew year over year and well ahead of others’ pace. We were selling every iPad we could make. Into July, we now have increased supply further. Some SKUs in some countries are in balance for supply/demand. Sales of iPad 2 have absolutely been a frenzy, for people to get one. We feel good about our progress ramping up.
• Q: Talk a bit about China?
• TC: Good question. China was very key to our results. We define greater China as mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Year over year is was up 6x, revenue $3.8 billion during the quarter.
• Q: Gross margins?
• PO: We think we’ll lose some component leverage, lose a bit on back to school transition, and a product transition.
• TC: Most components are good, but solid state hard drives are constrained.
• Q: More color in one-time benefit in gross margins?
• PO: We saw benefits in settlements, not huge, but it offsets other loses.
• Q: What about the patents disputes?
• TC: We have a very simple view here, we love competition, we think it’s great. But we want people to invent their own stuff. We’re going to make sure we defend our portfolio.
• Q: What drove iPhone strength? New carriers? New countries?
• TC: Great question. We did add 42 new carriers in 15 new countries in the quarter. Over 100 countries now. Real improvement was due to developing markets, China, Latin America, Middle East, all a big part of it. That’s great for Apple, because normally we’re not as strong there. But now we’re seeing the fruits of our labor.
• Q: Any milestones you hope to hit?
• TC: Nothing to share. But it’s of great focus to us.
• Q: iOS activations were up 20% but that’s behind Android?
• TC: The Android numbers are tricky. Remember, we have the iPod touch for iOS devices too. We have over 222 million overall. We think it’s incredible. Our numbers are straightforward. iPhone is up over 2x versus rest of smartphone market. We sold every iPad 2 in the quarter we could make. There’s no shortage of demand. Gaining traction in enterprise too. Largest app store, over 100,000 iPad app. The other ones have only hundred. The other tablets aren’t getting any traction to speak of. And remember, $2.5 billion paid to developers. We’re very confident. Great numbers, great reception, and our roadmap is great. iPhone is the clear leader in customer satisfaction.
• Q: Any update on Apple TV?
• TC: Apple TV continues to do well. I don’t want to mislead, we still call it a hobby here. We don’t want anyone to conclude that it’s another leg of the stool — it’s just not in the size market that iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod. We love it, customers love it. We really got it right with new Apple TV last fall. But right now it’s still a hobby status. We’re continuing to invest in it because we think there’s something there.
• Q: The trajectory of iPhone growth has been astounding. Trying to understand thinking to sustain that growth. Does pricing have to change — form factors? Especially with Android out there?
• TC: On tariffs, Apple doesn’t set it, the carriers do, better question for them. At a macro level, if you talked to carriers, virtually all of them want a smartphone that will use data on their network. I firmly believe there is no better device than the iPhone for people to move from any phone to a smartphone. I think there’s a good alignment there. I mentioned the key driver was emerging markets, so you can see we’re putting more and more energy there. I think we have a good focus here, we can compete with anyone.
• Q: What about pre-paid?
• TC: Those markets in emerging world, there are some percentage of post-paid, but in aggregate they’re pre-paid. In some cases, we’ve gotten ones to do a post-paid plan, it’s better for customer, carrier, and us. But we’re not avoiding pre-paid. We know we need to play there, to get the volume we want.
• Q: Mac growth about 5% sequentially, in past few years it has been higher. Was it cannibalism, or pull-backs in anticipation of Lion?
• TC: I’d look more year-over-year than sequential. But I’m proud of the numbers. To grow 14% when market is growing 2.6% is certainly something to be proud of. But why isn’t it higher? We always focus on that. Three things: 1) some cannibalization of new Macs by iPad — we sold over 2x iPads versus Macs. 2) Some customers have delayed until Lion becomes available. That will be tomorrow. It’s a fantastic product. 3) In year-ago quarter, we launched new MacBook Pros, this quarter we did new iMacs. Both well-received, but MacBook Pro makes up majority of sales in the Mac area. Those are the three key things why the number isn’t bigger. This is the 21st consecutive quarter that we beat the market.
• Q: Will Lion help growth next quarter?
• TC: We don’t predict unit sales. We think iPad will continue to grow year over year, the rest you can conclude.
• Q: A bit more color about iPad ramping up issues?
• TC: Demand is fantastic. It’s not the supply side that’s the huge issue. It’s a good problem. I usually wouldn’t do this, but in July supply has further improved. That has led up to be in balance in some countries. We’re working very very hard to get as many units to customers as we can.
• Q: Is there anything you’re doing differently in enterprise sales space?
• TC: We train and provide a lot of help for carrier forces and we do some sales our self. Last quarter we sold more iPads in K-12 than we did Macs. That’s shocking. We wouldn’t have predicted this.
• Q: How about iCloud?
• PO: We can’t wait to get iCloud and iOS 5 to customers in the fall. We think we did it right with iCloud. In the ChangeWave results, we think this is driving future demand.
• Q: Competitive edge?
• PO: We’re good with delivering things over the Internet, iTunes, the App Store, etc. We probably have some things to learn, but we’re excited.
• Q: China Mobile said it has a lot of iPhones on their network already, but it doesn’t sell them yet, so pre-paid or unlocked are there clearly. Can you talk more about that?
• TC: Phones without a contract are very key in China – and a number of the emerging markets where the credit systems aren’t as established. I’m not saying we have figured out how to play perfectly in that environment, but we’re growing. We have more to do, more to learn. But I feel very good about our progress. China is far passed our big hopes already.
• Q: Some stats say you’ve lost share with iPhone in some places — how important is growing share?
• TC: Share gain is important. We don’t want to go the opposite way and we’re working hard to change that. In terms of different price points, we have the iPhone 3GS in the U.S. for $49 with a contract. But we will only make products we’re proud of. It has to be the best in the world. If we can do that and the price is lower, we’ll do it. Like the iPod shuffle, it started higher, but now it’s $49. In China, it’s also up to us to get people to pay a bit more for a better product. People will do that, we’ve seen.
• Q: What about media consumption on the iPad so far?
• TC: We love that people love using it for a whole variety of things. That’s the beauty of the iPad. You talk to 10 different people, they’ll all give you a different reason why they love it.
• Q: Why aren’t there more movie titles on iTunes?
• PO: We have a very broad library of movies and TV show, particularly here in the U.S. It’s less in some other countries. Look for some more content later this quarter, across the various stores. We have some neat stuff coming.

This is only the latest in a series of back-and-forth nastiness between the two tech beasts. Apple started it, filing a complaint in April over “slavishly copied” Samsung products, but Samsung is certainly doing its best to finish it. With every move Apple makes, Samsung is there with a counter-attack. Obviously, after Apple’s initial complaint, Samsung counter-sued citing patent infringement and things only escalated from there.

Shortly after, the two submitted requests to get early previews of the others’ products, although Samsung’s request was certainly overreaching, at best. Just last week, Apple filed a suit on Samsung’s home turf of South Korea, and now reports are coming out claiming that Apple is dumping Samsung as a chip maker, opting for Taiwan SemiConductor Manufacturing Company.

If those reports are in fact true, this would definitely signal a break-up between the long-time partners. Apple is one of Samsung’s largest customers, but when weighed against the opportunity to be a super successful consumer brand in the mobile arena, being a component supplier for Apple doesn’t quite cut it for Samsung. Following the same logic, Apple would much rather protect its intellectual property than get hung up in supply chain issues.

[via FOSS Patents]

Sony’s Walkman may have lost the portable music player market in Japan and the rest of the world to Apple, but that doesn’t stop big S from releasing accessories for their rival. In Japan, Sony announced [JP] two new DSP speakers today, the SRS-GX50IP and the portable SRS-GM5IP.

The bigger model comes with 20W×2ch output, while the portable device features 2W×2ch output. For both speakers, Sony throws in a mini remote control. They support the iPhone 3G/3GS/4, the iPod classic/touch, 5th gen iPods, and nanos (generation 2-6).

The SRS-GX50IP is already on sale in Japan (for $245), while the portable SRS-GM5IP (pictured above) will cost just $99 when hits stores over here on June 21 (Sony didn’t make any announcements regarding international sales plans).

On 28 April 2002, a few months after Apple launched the very first iPod (yes, it’s been that long already), someone registered the domain name iPods.com.

It apparently took the Cupertino company a little over 9 full years to decide that, instead, it should be the rightful owner of the domain name, which until earlier this morning took people to some shady mp3 download site (though it no longer resolves, it seems).

Yesterday, Apple lodged a complaint, positing that the domain name should be transfered over to them. Apple of course owns the ‘iPod’ trademark, so my guess it the dispute will be resolved rather rapidly. The company currently owns iPod.com, iPhone.com, iTunes.com, iMac.com, iWork.com and many other related domain names.

Strangely – and I’ve mentioned this repeatedly in the past – Apple has never formally objected the registration of iPad.com, even though it owns the ‘iPad’ trademark, which it actually acquired from Fujitsu in March 2010.

Will they really wait 9 years again before trying to obtain it?

For your further reading pleasure:

Apple Now Owns FaceTime.com (But Still Doesn’t Own iPad.com)

Did Apple Buy iCloud.com For $4.5 Million?

Product Page

The iPod Nano may have something cool up its sleeve. This patent, discovered by PatentlyApple, describes a dynamic screensaver that will take cues from the outside environment, changing according to motion, light, and the colors around the device.

Because we suspect the new Nano will, in fact, have a camera, this patent would allow it to take cues from the outside – including odd cues like temperature and noise – to change the device’s screen saver. For example, if you were at a dance club with flashing lights, the screen saver would sync up with the lights and make you look like a super raver.

The patent itself is pretty boring, but the potential use cases are quite cool. I could imagine a screen turning purple when you wear a purple shirt or the screensaver lighting up when it hears music. Will it ever appear in a product? Probably not, but it’s nice to know it could.

The report cites a source called “Ray” from California, so if you know any Rays, you might ask them if they know anything. This isn’t the first time we’ve gotten wind of a potential camera on the iPod nano. Back in April, an unverified photo made its way around the web, showing off the newest iPod nano with space in the back for a camera.

Clearly, this has not been confirmed with Apple, but the Taiwanese tw.apple.pro blog has correctly leaked the last six versions of the iPod nano. Still, that picture doesn’t really look convincing.

[via Apple Insider]

And just in case it wasn’t clear whether or not Spotify intends to compete directly with iTunes, Spotify is also introducing its own music store, or “download service”, in which users can buy a range of MP3 “bundles” at 10 songs for roughly 8 pounds. Or 100 songs for 50 pounds. (Roughly the equivalent of $13 and $82, respectively.)

So, not only will Spotify be offering its more than 10 million registered users a music store, it wants its music player to become the default mobile app on its listeners’ devices. To encourage this adoption, Spotify has enabled desktop-to-mobile sync-ing over WiFi. (Something iTunes, cough, doesn’t offer.)

Spotify users have been clamoring for these features now for quite some time, and it’s taken almost a year for Spotify to get all of its proverbial ducks in a row. Following the limitations the company was forced to put on its free service, Spotify is now clearly making a more concerted effort to add significant benefits for its non-premium customers.

Allowing free users to fully take advantage of integration and syncing with mobile devices is important, and the Swedish music company clearly figures that mobile will be the future onramp for new Spotify customers. Again, up until now, mobile access has only been available to premium customers.

“Accessing music on your mobile phone is the future, but today that makes up a pretty small percentage of music fans. We want to open up the Spotify experience to as many people as possible, and in a way where they can get exactly the music they want”, said Spotify Chief Product Officer Gustav Söderström.

Another cool feature announced today is the ability to manage your iPod from within the Spotify desktop app. All you need to do is connect your iPod to your computer via an USB cable, and your Pod will now appear in the “Devices” section of Spotify’s sidebar.

It will be interesting to see if Apple has anything to say about this. Obviously, iTunes will remain the only way to get music onto an non-jailbroken iPhone, and Spotify will not be reverse-engineering or anything like that, just using USB storage, for example. But I could see this potentially raising some eyebrows in Cupertino.

That being said, these new features could be absolutely huge for Spotify; it will make the service’s free users become more regular, repeat users, and will no doubt begin to open the door to new customers. Sure, Spotify is still years from becoming a real iTunes competitor, but it’s moves like this that continue to put that goal within the realm of real possibility.

Next, Spotify needs to work on filling out its sometimes thin catalog — and expand its Euro reach beyond Finland, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.

Then the overall service might be enough to make an American like me jealous. And speaking of that, there was still no mention of when Spotify might reach the U.S. “We’re still working hard on that. We’re getting closer”, a Spotify spokesman said.

They better be. I’m getting anxious over here.

A charming couple in Ottawa, Canada, Chrys and Dom Coballe, is making some handsome, if expensive, iPod Nano watch bands that pop out and even turn at an angle to offer multiple viewing angles. Although I think the hey day of the iPod Nano watch is over, they seem far too charming to just ignore.

The product, called the Deckster, is made of metal and leather and costs $125 to pre-order on Kickstarter-like CKIE. For $500 you can have dinner with the couple in Ottawa or Montreal or “Or an equally enjoyable Skype chat if you’re not nearby.” There’s no telling how wild things can get if you submit $1,000 or more.

Regardless, I’ve seen a lot of iPod Nano watch bands in my day and I’m not sure I’m amazed by any of them but this one looks acceptably solid and usable.

http://www.ckie.com/app/webroot/flash/player/youtubeplayer.swf

Product Page

[via 9to5Mac]