Quick, what’s the best way to dress up an otherwise dry piece on how companies can register non-traditional trademarks? If you answered “mention Apple and the iPod,” you’re the big winner — and you’ve gotten yourself published in the Wall Street Journal. We’ll be the first to admit that Apple’s January registration of the three-dimensional design of the iPod strains credulity, but the simple fact is that non-traditional trademarks have been around for a while now — we seem to remember a little kerfuffle regarding magenta recently, but we can’t quite recall the exact details. Similarly, Nokia trademarked the 12 notes of its default ringtone back in September (even though they’re part of a larger piece written in 1902 called “Gran Vals”), NBC has a mark on its ding-ding-ding station ID, and Coca-Cola has registrations for basically every bottle design it sells. Still, you can bet Apple legal threw quite a pizza party when this mark was approved — and we can only imagine the kind of buttoned-down corporate lawyer jam that’ll go down if the company succeeds in getting a mark on the design of the iPhone, which it’s currently applied for. Hope you’re ready for some more funktastic control layouts.
Sure, there are already a handful of options out there for extending the life of your iPhone / iPod battery, but since when have we been ones to gripe about a little competition? Kensington has just introduced a standard and miniature version of its Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone / iPod, which unsurprisingly provides juice to your device’s internal battery and can be recharged simultaneously. As you could likely guess, the only differences between the two contraptions are the size, price and battery life; the 0.22-pound standard model extends play time to up to 100 hours (music) / 6 hours (talk), while the even tinier mini version livens things up for another 30 hours (music) / 3 hours (talk). Each is available now for $69.99 / $49.99.
Here it is copyright bandits, the single biggest reason (besides silicone) to make a Hollywood studio notice you: the MZK-NAS02SG1T network attached storage device from Planex. The main selling point behind the ¥54,799 (about $524) 1TB Gigabit Ethernet block is the claim to “universal access” for all your devices. That little trick comes courtesy of its DigiJuke browser for searching and tagging the BitTorrent and YouTube content you want downloaded in the appropriate PSP and iPod (MPEG-4), Wii (FLV), or TV (MPEG-2) format for in-home or on-the-go viewing. The NAS also streams audio and video to your iTunes laptops or desktops, DLNA TV, Xbox 360, or other compliant device in the home. A front-facing USB 2.0 jack offers one-touch dubbing of USB sticks while a second around back offers ready storage expansion. It ships with a pair of 3.5-inch 500GB drive which you can swap out for higher capacity spinners at a later date. That is if the studios don’t shut you down first.
What’s better than having a nice leather or cloth iPod sleeve to show off to your friends? If you’re thinking one made of imitation meat — you’re dead right! Apparently, a company in Japan is under the impression that you want to wrap your music player in a grade A lookalike, undoubtedly to the thrill of your vegetarian friends and family. Of course, don’t just get one for the shock value — this thing oozes pure, sophisticated style. If you’ve got ¥6,800 (or about $66) and dignity to spare, it can be all yours.