SquareTrade

Samsung's S2 Pebble and S3 brick want your iPod money.

They've been on the way for awhile, but Samsung's pulled the lid off their new iPods MP3 players, the Samsung S2 Pebble and S3 (no cute name).  But make no mistake, these are definitely shaping up more as cool budget options than direct Apple competitors. 

The multi-hued S2 Pebble is the more visually interesting of the two, and looks to be aiming squarely for the iPod Shuffle with 1GB of storage, plus an FM tuner.  The light at the bottom changes color to let you know what mode it's in.  Nifty as it looks, the Pebble seems to be lacking the one thing so essential to a Shuffle: the clip.  Hope you have pockets when you go jogging. 

The S3 is pretty much your standard iPody design, with some backlit touch controls instead of buttons or clickwheels.  It's lined up on the Nano, coming in at 4GB and 8GB models that look bigger than any Nano.  Seriously, they couldn't bump it to six and ten just for bragging rights?  Well, they do have commercial-heavy FM radio to make up for it, and offer flash games on that 240 x 320 display.

No prices spilled as yet, but one expects some aggressive undercutting of Apple products when these suckers arrive in June.  Either way, they'll be eligible for a SquareTrade warranty, just in case that Pebble-player isn't pebble-tough.

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with these two, the quality is going to be there and the Pebble looks way cooler than a Shuffle, but it's the little things - and the lack of genuine one-upmanship - that guarantee the king will keep its crown.  Nice try, though, Samsung.  Nice try.

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Panasonic's SV-SD870N brings on da Funk, cuts out da Noize.

We've got nothing on those Other digital music players, but they must be running out of cool things to call them. Panasonic's SV-SD870N isn't exactly a catchy name, but it does have a few interesting features to that non-catchy name.

For example, it's tough to knock a listed 100-hour battery charge... it's tougher not to cast an accusing look Apple's way.  But the latest in the D-snap line won't last nearly that long if you decide to activate its built-in noise cancellation feature, which claims to silence 83% of all surrounding audio distractions at the touch of a button.  It comes with a 2GB SD card in your choice of red, blue, black, white, or silver, and that should just about cover the full range of human desire.

Of course, you might also want to cover it with a SquareTrade warranty, but that's between you and your rough-n-ready lifestyle.  The SV-SD870N is due for release next month.

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The SanDisk Sansa Fuze good for catching iPod run-off.

What do you mean, iPods and Zunes (mostly iPods) own the personal music player market?  Why, that totally overlooks SanDisk's MP3 Players, and their Amazon-leaked Sansa Fuze, which looks sorta like an Zunish iPod, only red.  But it shows its true hipster colors by spelling "fuse" with a "z.'  Hardcore!

It's basically an 4GB update of their 2GB Sansa Clip, with a bigger 1.9" screen to accommodate video playback.  It supports MP3, WMA, and MPEG-4, and has both an FM tuner and voice recording features, which the market leaders don't.  They also don't have the Fuze's microSDHC slot, but with 160GB drives they don't really need one.  Whereas SanDisk tends to make microSDHC cards, so it's small wonder they'd be more willing to accommodate them.

But the big thing it has over the iPod or Zune?  A 24-hour battery life for audio playback.  Booyah!  Beat that, you measly maybe-8-hour Apple pieces of junk!  And it's red!  Red is the color of anger!

Kidding aside, Amazon's taken down all the Fuze pages - whoops - until it gets an official release.  But when it comes back, the Fuze, the Clip, all SanDisk MP3 players and even those lousy has-been iPods and Zunes are all eligible for a SquareTrade warranty.  And seeing how the 4GB Fuze is only going to run about $100, it should make for a good budget MP3 player and a very reasonable 3-year warranty.

UPDATE: Well, it turns out the Fuze will come in three flavors and four colors, only one of which is the color of anger.  The 4GB will be $100, but they're also posting a 2GB and a 6GB for $80 and $130, respectively, all available in  Black, Pink, Blue, and Anger. They'll also support WAV, Audible, and JPEG files, and are due out sometime in April.

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The iPhone and iTouch get Enterprised, 3rd Party Support, Love.

Where there any big surprises at today's Apple iPhone SDK press conference?  Well, it started on time... Steve Jobs was at the podium at 10:00 a.m. sharp.  Oh, and they're building out the iPhone for enterprise use.  And opening up 3rd party development for iPhone applications.  Happy Day!

Starting today, Apple's opened the same native APIs and tools they use to build iPhone applications.  We're sure you'll all miss jailbreaking your iPhone every other month to keep up with the firmware updates, but as demoed by Scott Forestall, VP of iPhone Software, it's going to be ridiculously easy to build, debug, and push native 3rd party applications.

For examples, they trotted out reps from EA (demoing a two-week build of the highly anticipated game Spore, from Sims creator Wil Wright), Salesforce, AOL (AIM is coming to the iPhone), and Sega, showing off Super Money Ball... a game played entirely by tilting the iPhone.  All third-party apps can be submitted to sell of the all-new App Store. Expect that icon to appear on your iPhone with the next update.  It's a straight 70/30 split between the app's developers and Apple.  No hosting fees.  So a lot of developers to jump on this big-time.

As for the enterprise build-out, they started by licensing Microsoft's ActiveSync, and MS is tailoring the architecture to the iPhone so it works directly with the Exchange server without adding new applications that you wouldn't want anyway... like Microsoft usually does.  It's all done from the iPhone's old email, calendar, and contact apps, as God intended.  That direct link makes updating and adding meetings and new employees happen very, very fast, and when you're "let go," your friendly IT department can remote-wipe your iPhone before you get your two checks.

It gets especially fun when you start putting enterprise functions together with Salesforce applications.  And Steve's One More Thing: it all goes live for the iTouch, too (though there will be a mild upgrade charge for those).  Otherwise, iPhone Firmware 2.0 should be live by June.

And least we forget, if you want to keep your iPhone safe from all the dangers in the world, there's only two options: Apple Care and a SquareTrade iPhone warranty... and ours costs lest, lasts longer, has optional Accidental Damage coverage, and has the best reviewed service in the world.  Your call, really.

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Apple bumps the iPod Shuffle to 2GB.

Okay, so maybe we got it backwards yesterday.  Amazon's not giving out free 1GB Apple iPod Shuffles with every iPod Touch to boost Touch sales... they're doing it to make room for the brand-new 2GB Shuffles.

That extra gig runs an extra $20, so you'll have to shell out a whopping $69 for the new Shuffle and $8 to protect it for 3 Years with a SquareTrade iPod warranty.  Or you could give AppleCare $39 for 2 Years.

Oh, and least we forget, we're chopping 20% Off all warranty prices from now through March 2 for everyone who uses Coupon Code: MARCHSALE on the checkout page.

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Amazon passes out Free iPod Shuffles with Not-Free iPod Touches.

Bam!  Unlike Palm's stingy swag, Amazon just busted out a nice piece of Free by offering a complementary 1GB Apple iPod Shuffle with every 32GB iPod Touch purchase.  They'll even let you pick the color.  If you think that's still a bit weak, consider that we've never seen a legitimate "Free iPod!" offer before that didn't involve signing up for a bunch of stuff.  And then never getting the iPod.  Curse you, lying internets!

So why are they doing this?  Our guess is to move some iPod Touch stock, which isn't doing as hot as its iPod brethren... though we seriously doubt it's prelude to dropping the SKU entirely, given how much play the 32 GB got in the JobNote a month ago.  But any way you slice it, you'll get 3 Years of protection with a SquareTrade iPod warranty on the Touch over 2 Years with AppleCare, for the same amount of money.  If you're talking the Shuffle, you can get 3 Years from us for $6.  Apple wants $39.  Your choice.

This is Amazon, so the offer's good until they take it down.  Which could be a month from now or sixty seconds ago.  They're a tricky bunch over there.

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iPod Valentine's Sales Abound.

Ye Gods.  If we're to believe all the Valentine's sales going around, women apparently want crappy movies like Across the Universe and Failure to Launch, and lots of perfectly good electronics that are all painted pink.  If we pulled something like that, we'd end up sleeping on the couch.

However, there's a bunch of normally-colored stuff on sale all over.  Circuit City's fairly lame iPod sale prices from way, way back are still largely in place, though saving five bucks does equal five more songs off iTunes.  The biggest deal to be had at the moment, and it's live at Amazon and Circuit City and Best Buy, is a $25 off deal on the recently released 32 GB Apple iPod Touch.  Amazon's prices on all other iPod tends to be a few bucks better than CC and BB's, too.

We've heard the Apple iPod Touch isn't doing so well, sales-wise, and we're not terribly surprised.  C'mon now, it's basically an iPhone without the phone (or, admittedly, two unending years of constant AT&T hassle), but it still costs the same... or more, depending on how which model you're buying.  It's really just a matter of what you want out of your mobile devices, and if you want a top-end iPod to watch widescreen movies on while calling you buddies over Verison's network on a Nokia, then the iTouch really is your thing. 

And for a limited time, you can get 25% off your SquareTrade iPod warranty, with or without Accidental Damage coverage, just by using Coupon Code IPODLOVE25 on the checkout page.  Not sure it's the best deal for the best service?  Read our reviews and get an instant quote with our Quote Widget in the sidebar.

The coupon expires the Monday after Valentine's, and it's good for any model iPod, but but not iPhones.  Gotta save something for next time, after all.

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Valentine's Sale: 25% Off on All iPod Warranties.

Nothing says lovin' like handing your baby an Apple iPod Nano pre-loaded with Barry White's Greatest Hits.  Except maybe saving a few bucks behind her back on the deal.

We found a few iPod Sales going on - generally not big, but enough to cover the cost of You're the First, The Last, My Everything - and they're all really pushing pink this year, but we couldn't just sit back and not contribute to your love life.  From now until 2/17, you can get 25% Off on a SquareTrade iPod warranty for any iPod model, with or without Accidental Damage coverage. 

Just use Coupon Code IPODLOVE25 on the checkout page. 

Oh, and flowers might help, too.  No warranty available on those, more's the pity.

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Sony releases the Mylo 2.

Hey, want to spend $300 on a pocket PC that does everything a top-end smartphone does, minus the phone part?  Sony's just released the slick-looking Mylo 2 for immediate preorder.  First units ship in just three days. 

Don't get us wrong, we're sure the new update to 2006's PDA works just fine, and the new Mylo adds the 1.3 megapixel camera that its predecessor was lacking. The music and video media playing and web browsing is all there, like it should be.  You can put a SquareTrade warranty on it for not a lot of money, and even protect it against Accidental Damage if you want.  We're just not sure that the Mylo 2 - which only has 1GB of internal memory, no touchscreen or GPS (or even GPS Lite map functions) - is really enough versus all the possible alternatives. 

If, on the other hand, you text more than you call, and you don't mind paying Skype to call non-Skype people, and you don't have an iPod or PSP, and you really like getting McDonald's Wi-Fi network access for free, then don't let us hold you back.  Owning a Mylo 2 is your God-given right.

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Best Buy offering a $25 gift card with any Zune.

Clearly, someone feels bad that the Microsoft Zune got shut out of the gift card giveaways during the Christmas iPod price wars, and is now looking to make up for it.  Specifically, Best Buy, and specifically, you'll get a $25 gift card with any Zune.  None of that graduated amount nonsense they pulled on us when it was the iPod on the table.  It's a flat number whether you get the 4GB Zune or the 80GB Zune.  Oh, and free shipping if you buy it online, too.

Given how well the gift card discounts worked, we'd expect to see more deals like this show up in future, especially as it keeps all the money in the store.  It's not like we weren't going to spend $25 on "stuff" there anyway.  But if you want to save even more cash, then you'll want to bypass their warranty and get ours for literally half the price.  You can even add Accidental Damage coverage if you want.

And while we're on the subject, the Zune's new tag line is "You make it You."  No, Microsoft.  No.  You're not Apple.  Trying to act all cool when you're not cool is so uncool. 

Brown Zune, Zune warranty, Zune insurance