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Apple holding iPhone 3.0 special event next week

Apple distributed invitations Thursday for a March 17 special event in Cupertino, Calif., to discuss the iPhone 3.0 software and a new software development kit.

Next Tuesday's event will come a little more than a year after Apple unveiled the original SDK at the iPhone 2.0 software event, setting the stage for over 25,000 iPhone applications to make their way onto the App Store. Speculation about a new iPhone had mostly centered on new hardware features, rather than software upgrades, but it seems Apple has something up its sleeve.

The invitation did not say who would … Read more

Klipsch, Scosche announce VoiceOver-compatible iPod Shuffle earbuds

Apple said it would have third parties developing accessories for the new third-generation iPod Shuffle, and sure enough, they are. First out of the gate: Klipsch and Scosche. And by the end of the week--if not the end of today--we should be hearing about more.

As Engadget notes, Klipsch's press release was pretty weak--the company only said that it would have VoiceOver-compatible Shuffle 'buds by summer and that they would cost $99.99.

Scosche was a lot more specific. It plans to have three earphone models--the IDR350M, IDR450M, and IDR650M--that feature an integrated control surface and range in price … Read more

Apple releases iTunes 8.1

Apple released an update to its iTunes music management software on Wednesday, adding a host of enhancements as well as support for a new line of iPod Shuffles it released earlier in the day.

In addition to some security fixes, iTunes 8.1 adds new features to Genius--a feature that lets you put songs together in your library that somehow "go great together"--and support for CD imports to iTunes Plus.

Among the other enhancements Apple made:

•  Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ.
 •  Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows.
 •  Improves … Read more

Fusion-io touts 'fastest' solid-state drive

Fusion-io on Wednesday announced the IoDrive Duo, which the company claims is the fastest to date. Fusion-io also claims Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist.

Targeted primarily at business applications such as database servers, capacities range from 160 gigabytes to 640 gigabytes. And by the second half of this year, this will increase to 1.28 terabytes.

The boards are based on PCI Express data bus and can sustain up to 20 gigabits per second of raw throughput--many times the rate of fast hard-disk drives. Sustained read bandwidth is 1,500 megabytes per second, while sustained write bandwidth … Read more

Nokia retains top spot in smartphone market

Finnish manufacturer Nokia shipped the most smartphones in 2008, but its worldwide market share continues to decrease as rivals roll out popular, high-profile handsets, according to Gartner. It also said Apple and Research In Motion commanded some of the biggest year-over-year gains at Nokia's expense, with HTC showing a healthy increase as well.

According to the research firm, Nokia sold 60.9 million smartphones last year for a total market share of 43.7 percent. That's more than double the market share of its closest competitor, Research In Motion, which commanded 16.6 percent.

But even as Nokia continues to claim the biggest piece of cell phone pie, its outlook is mixed. From 2007, Nokia's smartphone sales grew by just 0.8 percent, and its market share dropped from 49.4 percent. While Gartner predicts that the company's low-end smartphones will continue to remain competitive, its higher-end N series handsets are facing stiff competition.

Thanks to devices like the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's market share went from 9.6 percent in 2007 to 16.6 percent in 2008. It also boosted overall sales by 96.7 percent. … Read more

The Digital Home 52: Stop dancing, Woz

In this shorter episode of The Digital Home podcast, Don Reisinger explains why Woz never had a chance on "Dancing with the Stars" and gets into discussions about Apple, Microsoft, and more! Check it out!

And as always, follow Don on Twitter!

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 52 … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: The skinny on the new Shuffle

Apple overhauls the iPod Shuffle with new features and more storage in an even smaller case. Reporter Tom Krazit stops by the podcast studio to talk about where the Shuffle fits into Apple's lineup. Also in this podcast: Google is opening up its Map Maker tool so people can make maps and directions more accurate. At the same time, a California politician wants to blur parts of Google Maps out in the name of national security. And AMD says the problems some users are having with their new MacBooks shouldn't taint the entire graphics chip industry.

Listen now: … Read more

Is Apple wrong about Shuffle earbud compatibility?

While ordering Apple's new iPod Shuffle online, a strange thing happened as I was checking out: Apple recommended some headphones to me that seemed incompatible with the Shuffle. The way I understand it, the latest third-generation iPod Shuffle has migrated all of its playback controls to a remote on the headphone cable, which means that replacement headphones will need to include a similar remote in order to function properly. Sure, you can probably get away with plugging any pair of headphones into the new Shuffle, but if you want control over volume, pause, and skip, you'll need something … Read more

Is shopping site selling pirated iTunes gift cards?

According to Outdustry, iTunes gift cards have been pirated, and China's biggest C2C online shopping site, Taobao, is the platform used to sell the cards.

Chinese hackers have figured out a way to generate iTunes gift card keycode numbers and help themselves to songs from Apple's music store. The hackers have been selling pirated $200 iTunes gift cards on Taobao for as little as 17.9 RMB, or just $2.60--a savings of almost 99 percent!… Read more