Buried in the mass of press releases that always precede a CES show, we bring you this gem from Tivoli audio. I can only presume that since Nintendo got away with stringing some random letters together to form a product name, Tivoli thought it was safe to assume the same approach Spare a thought for CEO Tom DeVesto though, who has to say things like this:

“With all the `i’ products on the marketplace, it was time to produce the iYiYi, a digital home entertainment system that again distinguishes Tivoli Audio from the others, with the most full bodied music system for every iPod user,” says Tom DeVesto, Chairman and CEO of Tivoli Audio. “That said, iYiYi is much more than a playback system for the iPod, and comes complete with a state-of-the art AM/FM radio, built-in alarm and digital clock.”

Full press release follows…

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On Friday afternoon I heard a rumor that the “iPhone” was coming out on Monday, December 18th. It was an interesting rumor because most people thought that Apple would announce their mobile phone product at the January 2007 Macworld conference.

Well, a new product called the iPhone did indeed come out today but not from the company that everyone thought. Linksys announced the iPhone in this press release, not Apple. So what the hell happened? For almost a year now people have been speculating about the possibility of Apple releasing a communication product called the iPhone. But apparently Linksys, a unit of networking equipment maker Cisco, already owns the “iPhone” trademark. According to BusinessWeek.com, a company called Infogear registered the “iPhone” name in 1996. Cisco then absorbed the “iPhone” trademark when it acquired Infogear in the year 2000. Oops. Score -1 for the bloggers. We really should have picked up on that little tidbit months ago.

Just like the rumored Apple version of the iPhone, the Linksys iPhone a Web-enabled telephone handset is compatible with all major Internet chat services including Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, QQ, and ICQ.

So if Apple really has a mobile phone product in the works, they obviously can’t call it the iPhone. What about a variation of a name they already own like iChat Mobile? While the name of this product may still be in question, a trail of clues about an Apple phone product have been popping up all over the Internet for over a year now:

• In June 2005, the source code of an iTunes update contained multiple references to an Autofill phone playlist function.

• Apple has owned the domain iphone.org since December 1999. It redirects traffic to apple.com.
• In March 2006, a source at BenQ, a Taiwanese phone manufacturer confirmed that an Apple phone product was in the works. Why would BenQ leak info about an Apple phone to the media? Sour grapes. Hon Hai Precision, a competitor to BenQ, allegedly won the phone contract with Apple.
• Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, might have let the ‘cat out of the bag‘ on an Apple analyst 2006 Q3 conference call when he said the following: “As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And [Apple is] not sitting around doing nothing.”
• According to analysts, Apple is rumored to be ready to release an Internet phone product at the January 2007 Macworld conference. “From a technical standpoint, the phone is pretty much done,” said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. “It’s a big endeavor and we believe it’s beyond speculation.” Apparently the rumored existence of an Apple phone has morphed from a question of “If” to “When.”

Here’s the official Linksys press release on the iPhone.

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Who is the best-known hip-hop artist in the fictional land of Chub City? Chub C of course. At least that’s what it says on the box. Just don’t tell Hype. He’s the white version of Chub C (a la Eminem). What the hell am I talking about? That’s a good question.

Both Chub C (black) and Hype (white) are interactive toy characters called i-Playaz from a company called Jada Toys. i-Playaz connect to any music source including your iPod, CD player, computer or even an old school Sony Walkman. Just plug in an i-Playaz character and play some music. The i-Playaz characters will then dance to the beat and even play your music through a built-in speaker in their heads. There’s also an audio output if you want to connect better speakers to your i-Playaz character.

When I first got Hype in the mail, I was already on my way out and brought the box along with me to a bar down the street. I figured I’d just test him out for this review when I got home. But while I was waiting for some friends to show up, the people at the bar kept asking me what was in the box. I was curious to see what my i-Playaz could do anyway so I took Hype out of his box and set him up on the bar. With his sideways hat and flashy bling, it’s no wonder that everyone at the bar started calling him K-Fed, after Britney Spears wannabe hip-hop ex-husband. If you know someone who is trying to pull off the K-Fed white hip-hop thing, Hype will bring you and your friends hours of entertainment.

Full Review: i-Playaz Interactive Hip-Hop Toy

Want some positive blogger buzz about your product or service? Maybe you should just buy it like Bill Gates. To help promote the Zune and get some positive Microsoft buzz, Gates coughed up a dozen round trip plane tickets to Redmond, hotel rooms, and Zunes (of course) for a group of gadget and tech bloggers. He then hung out with the bloggers for an hour and answered one question from each of them. Once you factor in the total cost of this stunt, I wonder how much Gates paid per letter for a handful of blog posts?

So what did Microsoft get in return for all of this? Were the bloggers wooed by Bill’s big wallet? Yep.

• Check out the tech-news search engine Techmeme.com. Today their homepage was practically a mural to anything related to Bill Gates, the Zune or Microsoft in general.

• While most reviewers are panning the Zune, blogs like TechCrunch [see post], Micro Persuasion [see post], and GigaOm [see post], are restricting their Zune coverage to DRM issues or posting “feel good” pieces about Microsoft.

Honestly, my criticalness against these other blogs is probably part jealously. Why wasn’t MethodShop.com invited out to Redmond? Oh well, I’m an iPod guy anyway and we’re too small of a blog to make much of a dent for M$. But I do give some of these bloggers credit. Most of them (not Ryan) were upfront and disclosed that Gates gave them free Zunes and paid for their flights out to Microsoft headquarters.

But on the other hand, should corporate blogs like Micro Persuasion and GigaOm, who have venture-capital financing and/or big name PR firms, really be accepting free stuff and sacrificing their objectivity?

How cheap are your personal ethics?

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You’ve got your brand new 30 gig iPod, maybe even the 80 gig version, but don’t feel like paying the money for iTunes TV shows but you really, really, really want to your shows on there. It’s quite the dilemma, especially for the technologically impaired. If you’re a techie and know you’ve got a relative exactly like this, consider getting them the iRecord this Christmas. No computers are involved, and all it takes is the push of a button.
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Nearly everybody and his mother already has an iPod, which is why getting an iPod as a holiday gift idea is not exactly the wisest thing to do. What you can do, though, is to pick up a third party iPod device that will enhance the owner’s experience with the world’s most popular digital audio player. This wish is fulfilled with the MusicJam portable audio effects mixer for the iPod, effectively turning this ubiquitous MP3 player into a recording machine that boasts a host of other functions up its sleeves as well.

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When you hear the words iPod Dock, you think, blah, not another one of these things, there’s been at least 100 released now and they all seem exactly the same. Well the iSymphony is indeed an iPod Dock, but it does do some other cool stuff that separates it from the pack, like the built in CD player, and the card reader that plays music off of your SD cards.
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Looking for a creative way to wind up and manage your headphone cables? The Tetran is a cable wrap for iPods and other portable media players that allows users to wind an earphone cable around Tetran’s body and use her mouth as an earbud holder. Spikes prevent Tetran from rolling away, and a removable ball-bearing style chain is included for attaching Tetran to a belt loop, cell phone strap, or key ring.

According to Tunewear, the product’s manufacturer, Tetran’s 23 rubber spikes can also massage neck, hands, and feet. Really? Sounds like fun but I think I might pass on that idea. Call me crazy, but I don’t really want people massaging their feet with the thing that’s used for holding my earphones.

The Tetran Headphone Cable Winder is a cute and colorful way to manage your earbud cables and accent your lifestyle. It’s available for $9 from Amazon.com. If the Tetran is a little too cute for you, there’s always the cheaper and simpler SmartWrap ($5). The SmartWrap works just like the Tetran, just without the cute spikes. Snap your earphone cord through the top fastener and wrap the length of your cord around the midsection, until you have the desired length.

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