Digital Trends
Storage vendor Verbatim is continuing to show it’s serious about the hard drive business, today announcing its new SureFire line of external hard disk drives in 250, 320, and 500 GB capacities. The drives pack not only a USB 2.0 port but also a high-performance FireWire 800 port for transfer rates of up to 800 MB/s…something sure to appeal to MacBook Pro owners tired of poking along at USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 bandwidths.
Monster Cable is continuing its push into the audiophile headphone market, announcing a pre-lauch of its Beats by Dr. Dre Tour high-resolution in-ear headphones. The new in-ear headphones are a follow-on to the company’s Beats by Dr. Dre line of enclosed headphones, but these earbuds claim to deliver the same clarity, deep bass, and power as the over-the-ear cans. The company says it’s been working on the headphones for four years…and, if you can believe it, they feature tangle-free cables.
While professionals wrestle with powerful video editing solutions like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere, Apple gave amateur video enthusiasts a new option on Thursday with the release of Final Cut Express 4. The latest version of Apple’s consumer-level video-editing suite keeps the same simplified interface as its predecessors, and adds more flexibility in handling HD video, access to hundreds of plug-in effects, and the ability to import iMovie projects.
To accommodate for the growing number of HD cameras shooting video in slightly different formats, Final Cut Express 4 has been improved to allow editors to mix and match all of them on one timeline. It can handle conventional-resolution DV, as well as the high-def HDV and AVCHD formats in both 1080i and 720p resolutions.
As Steve Jobs announced last week after dropping the price of the 8 GB iPhone by $200, Apple has unveiled details of how early iPhone buyers can receive $100 in Apple Store credit. The credits are by way of apology for dropping the iPhone price so much—and so quickly—after the product went on sale in late June. Although early adopters of any new technology always pay a premium, Apple responded to customer complaints and announced to $100 credit program to soften the blow.
Apple may be facing a hardware issue with its much-vaunted iPhone: it seems some iPhone owners are finding portions of the devices’ touch screens are going “dead,” making some controls and features difficult or impossible to access.
At this point, evidence is scattered and hearsay—limited to postings in online forums and comments from industry analysts claiming to have a handle on the situation. The most common symptoms seem to be a strip about a half inch wide in the lower half of the iPhone screen (as held vertically) ceasing to respond to user taps and drags, but some users report the entire bottom quarter, third, or half of the screen giving up on them. Some users report similar problems on the upper portion of the touch screens, and others report inconsistent dead spots: sometimes the screen works fine, sometimes it doesn’t. Resetting the phone or installing Apple’s recent iPhone software update doesn’t resolve the problem.
Unless you like wires dangling from the now-antiquated cassette deck in your car or an expensive hard-wired solution, FM radio transmitters have become the preferred way to connect iPods to car stereos. In principle they’re easy to use: set the transmitter to broadcast on an unused station, tune your car stereo to the same station, and enjoy. But in practice, finding unused airwaves and keeping them to yourself over a long commute can be quite trying, especially in urban areas where many stations competing for space.
In addition to the surge of iTunes visitors, the Apple Store also showed a large increase of traffic; 110 percent compared to Christmas day 2005.
Probably the most surprising event of the day however was taking place at Zune.net which showed an increase of 1,030 precent in overall traffic. However that number does not count for the number of song downloads from the Zune marketplace, but rather shows the number of people downloading the music "software" for the media player, according to the Hitwise report.
Zune traffic was completely overshadowed by iTunes though which outnumbered visits to Zune.net by 30 to 1.
As we reported about yesterday, Apple’s latest and greatest Apple Store is set to open in a few hours on New York’s Fifth Avenue between58th and 59th Streets. When the store opens, Apple will offer over 100 Macs and 200 iPods for customers to play with. In addition more than 300 Apple employees are expected to be there for the grandopening. To help you get in the mood, here are a few photos (Steve Jobs shot courtesy of Digital Trends reader Jon Simon): 
Steve Jobs as he walks to the entrance of the Apple Store 
Apple is set tomorrow evening to throw open the doors of their “newest and more extraordinary retail store yet†on New York’s coveted Fifth Avenue. Apple is describing their latest retail outpost as their most architecturally innovative as well.
The Apple NYC Fifth Avenue store, said Apple, will let the crowds in at 6 p.m. EDT on Friday so they can set foot in a store which will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Apple will offer over 100 Macs and 200 iPods for customers to fiddle with before they part with their hard earned cash to take a packaged unit home. Close to 300 Apple employees will be available to offer advice and support on helping customers get the most out of their in store experience, with a combined 45-foot “Genius Bar, iPod Bar and The Studio†where customers can get face-to-face support, free advice and work on creative projects anytime they want.
Everyone wants to be an insider, and you can be one too! Choose your poison: sign-up for our Newsletter, join us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. Do all three and you'll be swimming in the the latest news, reviews, videos and more gadget goodness!
Become a DT soldier! Join us on Facebook and share the best news, guides, videos and other cool information directly with all your friends. Some might even thank you for it!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Facebook.
Do you like information in small snippets? Then our Twitter feed is just for you. Follow Digital Trends and you'll be able to catch up daily on our latest content, or even interact directly with our team. Tweet Tweet!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Twitter.
That’s Right, Sign-up For Our Monthly Random Prize Drawings and You Could Be That Winner.
