Belkin Sports Wireless iPod Control

By Geoff Duncan Published October 10, 2006

Belkin Sports Wireless iPod Control — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you have trouble coming up with gift ideas for the music-loving (or podcast-loving) extreme sports enthusiast in your life, accessory maker Belkin wants you to know about their new SportCommand for iPod. The basic idea is that users can tuck their iPod away in a jacket, backpack, pocket, or other protected area, and control it via a weather-resistent pad on a fabric armband—perfect for snowboarders, skiers, mountain bikers, climbing, and other outdoor activities.

The SportsCommand offers big buttons for easy control through gloves (play/pause, next/previous, volume), and uses a tough neoprene and velcro strap to latch onto an arm, leg, or nearby sled dog. The command pad is weather resistant, hand-washable, and offers a 50-foot wireless range which Belkin says works through backpacks, jackets, and even walls, Could make for some good pranking: although we assume there’s a receiver accessory which attaches to the iPod (and drains battery power) to enable wireless control, and that might give away any iPod-practical joke you’re planning.

Recommended Videos

The SportCommand for iPod is compatible with most recent iPods (except the shuffle), and carries a suggested retail price of $79.99. It will ship in November in North America, with rollouts in Europe, Australia, and Asia to follow.

Former Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Google is making Gemini and Search work better with the apps you love

Gemini's guest list is growing, and your favorite apps are invited.

Gemini AI on a phone.

Google has been finding more ways to make Gemini a part of your daily routine, from putting together playlists to ordering groceries through your favorite apps. Now it's expanding those capabilities to more services, with Google Search joining in, too.

The company has announced a new Connected Apps Platform that makes it easier for developers to bring their services to both Gemini and Search. Alongside this, Google is adding new partners to its growing lineup, bringing more of the apps people already use into its AI ecosystem.

Emerging Tech

AI bots are now trying to sabotage public health policies, like banning disposable vapes

Thousands of AI bots voted in a public health poll to block sales restriction on disposable vapes. It's like Big Tobacco is back from the dead.

Woman smoking a vape.

In the broad context of AI and its perceived harms, health and medical risks often pop up in the conversation. The warnings even come from frontier AI labs, such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which have warned about misusing AI to cook up bioweapons. Security experts have already spotted a few such incidents in the wild, especially with the usage of AI models without any solid guardrails.

Well, it appears that the risks run deeper. As per an analysis appearing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), AI bots are now being deployed to influence public policies governing health risks to citizens. In this instance, an attempt was made using AI bots to thwart regulations that aim to restrict the sale of disposable vapes, all while disguising the manipulation efforts as a response from real humans.

Emerging Tech

A tiny smartphone gadget can detect some of the nastiest chemicals in your water

Scientists built a tiny smartphone gadget that can spot toxic 'forever chemicals'

Smartphone-connected drinking water safety sensor Featured

What if checking your drinking water for dangerous chemicals were as simple as plugging a tiny gadget into your smartphone? Researchers in Japan have developed a compact sensor that could make that possible, potentially bringing sophisticated water contamination testing out of expensive laboratories and into people's hands.

Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have created a portable device capable of detecting extremely low concentrations of PFAS, commonly known as "forever chemicals." The findings were published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, which demonstrate how an inexpensive sensor and a smartphone could make identifying potentially harmful chemicals in water a lot easier.