Want a chance to win the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers for your very own? Subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave a comment on the video above!

The Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers are a set of A2DP speakers for your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad (or non-Apple mobile device) are different than similar offerings like the Jawbone JAMBOX in that each speaker comes in a separate housing so that you can direct your sound independently, in any which way you wish.

Upon opening the box I noticed what looked like a treatise on clicks and commands handily arranged on a reference sheet. Since I ignore instructions, I never looked at it. And I didn't need to. The Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers were easy enough to control, and since they're separate, I could easily arrange them to fit almost any area, including corners and cramped workstations. If you want sound where you want sound, that's a huge plus.

The Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers come with a decent leather-like carrying case that does look a little like a 1950s hosiery package, which was... disturbing. But it's convenient none-the-less.

The box also contains a charging cable, wall plug adaptor and a user manual that I will never look at either. Just plug the cable into the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers and they charge, and their built-in lithium-polymer batteries hold that charge about as long as they claim -- 8 hours of play time, 240 hours of standby. It does take about 3.5 hours to charge them, however, so if you have a long trip or big party coming up, make sure to plan your charging accordingly.

The left speaker has a power button, mic, volume, and skip forward and back buttons, while the right speaker only has a power button to activate it.

Bluetooth setup is as easy as you've come to expect from iOS, and straight forward once you put it into discover mode by holding the power button for 5 seconds. They have the same range as other Bluetooth devices, about 30 feet, and the speakers themselves can be positioned up to 15 feet apart.

Now here we come to sound quality -- the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers isn't bad except that there is quite a bit of distortion at high volume levels and there is no bass to speak of. That turns me off to these speakers.

Granted the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers are significantly cheaper than the Jawbone JAMBOX, but we're living in a post-JAMBOX world now and we no longer put up with small sound from small Bluetooth speakers. Expectations have been set.

They have a mic, so you can have Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers serve double-duty as speaker phones for conference calls as well. As expected, they sound better than the tiny iPhone and iPad speakers both for telephone and for FaceTime and Skype.

The good

• Right and left channels can be position independently
• Easy to pair
• Less expensive than competitors

The bad

• Some sound distortion at high volume levels and bass isn't great

The conclusion

If you want separate speakers so you can position your right and left channels just exactly where you want them, the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers are the ones to get. However, if overall sound quality is more important to you than a lower price or independent speaker placement, the Jawbone JAMBOX remains a better choice.

Bottom line, while they won't shake the house, if you want a fairly cheap, really flexible sound system for anywhere from the kitchen to the pool, the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers willl do the trick.

$149.95 - Buy now

Giveaway

Want to win the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers for FREE, for your very own? Easy! Just subscribe to our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/iMoreVideo and leave a YouTube comment at the bottom of the the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers video! We'll pick a winner and that winner will get the Qmadix iharmonix Q-i-sound Stereo Bluetooth Speakers!

Ready, set, enter now!!

Jim Keller, up until now the head of chip design operations at Apple, is leaving to return to one of his past employers, AMD. At Apple, Keller was primarily responsible for the A4 and A5 system-on-a-chip lines that are used in iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad. So yeah, important. Keller will join AMD as corporate vice president and chief architect of AMD's microprocessor cores. Arik Hesseldahl reports for AllThingsD:

The hiring is full of historical threads: Keller's primary job had been to work on Apple's A4 and A5 processors, the ones that go inside the iPhone and the iPad. Remember that Apple for a long time relied on South Korea's Samsung — the same Samsung with which it is in an epic legal battle right now — to design and manufacture the chips that went into later generations of the iPod, and then the first iPhone.

Apple picked up Keller back in 2008 when they paid $278 million to acquire Keller's employer, PA Semi. Interestingly enough, Keller's boss at AMD will be Mark Papermaster who also left Apple about 2 years ago. Keller's previous position was senior vice president of iPhone engineering. Back in 2010 Apple also lost another one of their key chip executives, Dan Dobberpuhl, to a chip startup Agnilux who was later acquired by Google. Dobberpuhl was originally a co-founder of PA Semi, and and came to Apple through that acquisition along with Keller.

Keller's main position will involve taking some of the technology we see in mobile processors and bringing it back to the PC arena.

Apple will no doubt get someone talented and passionate to take over system-on-a-chip design. But this also marks yet another fairly prominent departure in the last few months, including senior vice presidents Bertran Serlet and Ron Johnson. Others who joined Apple through acquisition, like Andy Miller of Quatrro Wireless (iAd) and Dag Kittlaus of Siri have left as well. Some have retired, some have changed companies.

It's possible we're just hearing more about these lately, and certainly major executives like Tony Fadell, Jon Rubenstein, and Avie Tevanian left years ago. Is this just the normal comings and goings of any large company, or with new CEO Tim Cook on board, could we also be seeing a changing of the guard?

Source: AllThingsD

The iMore Show returns LIVE tonight and we'll be talking all about the rumored September 12 iPhone 5 event (to say it'll be a big show is like saying Apple has a few bucks in the bank). Add to that iPad mini, iOS 6, Mountain Lion, and your questions answered, and we're in for one jam packed hour.

So join Rene, Georgia, and Seth, and the best damn chat room in mobile, LIVE tonight at 6pm PDT, 9pm EDT, 2am BST for all the action.

Seriously. Set an alarm. Bookmark this page. Be there.

(We'll also have a fresh ZEN and TECH for you tonight immediately thereafter, so stay tuned!)

Want to go full screen? Head to iMore.com/live. Want to watch via iPhone or iPad? Grab the Ustream app and search for "mobilenations"!

This is how MobileMe ends, swallowed in iCloud but not in darkness.

Our information and documents will live on -- the stored and pushed and streamed content of our iPhones and iPads and Macs, unto the next generation.

Apple has created the service we would have wished for MobileMe.

And now its servers spin down for the last time.

(With apologies to J. Michael Straczynski)

There's an interesting story over at Businessweek talking about the possibility of Apple splitting its stock price, and possibly even earning a coveted spot as one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). This is all due to a research piece that Toni Sacconaghi, the Apple analyst at Bernstein, published recently.

The gist of the story? Sacconaghi makes the interesting point that Apple is the only dividend-paying company with a market cap over $215 billion that isn't included in the Dow. But if it were included in the index, its would command a large weighting. This is because the DJIA uses stock price as the weighting mechanism. The solution is for Apple to split its stock in order to improve its chances of being added to the index.

Other technology companies in the index include Cisco, Microsoft, HP, IBM and Intel. Given that Apple is the largest company in the world (by market cap), shouldn't it be included?

You know what? Maybe Apple should be added. But I just don't see why it matters beyond the short term gyrations of the stock market.

Does being included in an index make your company more valuable? Not really. Smaller companies that get tossed into the S&P 500 might get more credibility for being part of a serious index. But a company of Apple's size and stature? Nobody is going to buy a Mac or an iPad because Apple's in the Dow. It doesn't change a darn thing with respect to the business.

And how about a stock split? Same thing. There is no long term evidence that a stock split creates value for shareholders. If you're reading this and wondering what a stock split really means, think about ordering a pizza and getting it pre-cut into 12 slices. If you took that same pizza and cut each slice in half, you'd suddenly have 24 slices. Does it change the size of the pie? Rhetorical question.

Stock splits used to matter when stock exchanges were less electronic and stocks traded in 100-share lots. These days if you want to buy a single share, you place a buy order online and it gets done in a nanosecond. Stock splits are essentially irrelevant unless the price of a single share goes beyond the reach of a potential shareholder.

I haven't seen the Bernstein research note discussing this whole concept, but I hope it contains more than just a discussion on stock splits and DJIA participation. Because, honestly, none of this really matters at all to shareholders beyond a bit of short term waves created as index funds buy into a newly-added stock. It isn't exactly what I would consider value-added research.

I'm signing off to open a cold drink. Perhaps I'll pour the contents into two glasses. Then I get more, right? #sarcasm. Source: Businessweek

Apple is rumored to be working on a way to pass data between iOS devices over BlueTooth 4.0, allowing everything from notifications to communications to be seamlessly transferred from iPhone to iPad, or theoretically even an iPod nano watch... This type of connectivity has been dreamed of/speculated about for over a year, but now iLounge's Jeremy Horowitz says it could be planned for as early as iOS 6 this fall.

The feature would enable, say, a future iPod nano to display iMessages received by an iPhone, record voice memos that could be shared via the iPhone, and even initiate phone calls through its own headphones. It could also conceivably let you make iPhone calls from your iPad (or possibly even recent Macs), assuming the iPhone was paired with the computer over Bluetooth.

iOS features are typically harder to predict than hardware specs, since Apple doesn't have to worry about manufacturing or supply chain leaks, but iLounge has a good track record and Apple needs a couple iPhone 5 specific features to show off at their rumored September 12 event.

We've previously speculated that Phil Schiller snapping fancy panoramic photos could fill one slot and, If NFC is on board, easy payments at Starbucks or Target could fill another.

Direct device-to-device data sharing, however, would not only make for a great, geek-centric demo, it would further increase the combined value of Apple's multi-device platform. Increasingly it's no longer about what your phone can do, or tablet can do, but about what everything working together, from software to hardware to services to content, can do.

iLounge is also offering an alternate take on the new, miniaturized Dock connector iMore reported on back in February. We learned it was getting significantly smaller, but didn't learn anything specific about the pin configuration, post 30. Recently John Biggs of TechCrunch offered 19 pins as the new normal. Horowitz is now saying 8.

Likely the rumors will only get more intense from here on out, what with the big day just under a month and a half away...

Source: iLounge

Readdle is celebrating their 5th birthday, and to celebrate, they're having a huge sale on all their apps beginning today! The sale is only for 48 hours, but the sales are good (up to 70%). Because we know how much you love highly discounted apps, we've gathered up some of Readdle's best apps for you!

• PDF Expert - $4.99 - Download Now
• Scanner Pro - $1.99 - Download Now
• Calendars - $1.99 - Download Now
• ReaddleDocs - $0.99 - Download Now
• Remarks - $0.99 - Download Now
• PDF Converter - $1.99 - Download Now
• Shakespeare - $1.99 - Download Now

To see all of Readdle's apps, visit their developer page in iTunes.

Happy Birthday Readdle!

Amazon Instant Video is finally -- finally -- available for iPad in the U.S., and with it comes the entire movie and TV catalog. That catalog includes over 120,000 videos available for purchase or rent, thousands of which can be streamed for free if you're an Amazon Prime member. Here's the official blurb:

Watch thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with an Amazon Prime membership and over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by installing the Amazon Instant Video app. Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library for offline viewing on airplanes, road trips, or any time a WiFi connection is unavailable. Keep track of movies and TV shows to watch later by adding them to Your Watchlist. A selection of top Prime Instant Video titles is included in the app, and you can visit Amazon to add other Prime titles to Your Watchlist. Start watching a video on an iPad and Whispersync technology automatically syncs your place between devices, allowing videos to be resumed from where you left off on a Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or hundreds of models of connected TVs and Blu-ray players.

Thanks to Amazon's WhisperSync, the same thing that keeps all your Kindle books on the same page, you can start watching on iPad and keep watching right where you left off on Kindle Fire, PS3, Windows, Mac, and compatible TVs and entertainment boxes like Blu-Ray players. Or vice-versa.

Sadly, there's no iPhone or iPad version yet, and Amazon's content availability outside the U.S. remains pathetic. (Meanwhile Apple's making billions internationally -- go figure?). There's also no Apple TV version yet or even AirPlay support, though given Hulu Plus' recent move to the Apple TV, hopefully Amazon's appearance isn't too far behind.

Also, Phil Nickinson of Android Central says not all episodes of some shows, like West Wing, are currently available on iPad the way they are on Kindle Fire. Since Amazon reportedly doesn't even break even on Kindle Fire sales, and their business model depends on content sales, this might simply be an issue of them not getting their virtual shelves stocked fast enough for iPad.

Still, it is nice to see all these content deals line up before the rumored "fall product transitions".

If you load up Amazon Instant Video on your iPad, let me know how it works for you. How's the Amazon experience on iPad compared to Kindle Fire, and compared to Netflix on the iPad?

Free - Download now

Say what you want about Apple vs. Samsung and what it reveals about the state of the U.S. patent system, but when it comes to revealing the history of Apple's iPhone and iPad design process, it's turning into the biggest historic win to date. Dozens of prototypes, which might have spent years, decades, or an eternity locked up in the vaults beneath Apple's design labs, have now been presented into evidence, showing us more clearly than ever how iOS devices evolved, which ideas Apple ran with, and which ones they shelved. Dieter Bohn reports for The Verge:

Some of the newly revealed phones do appear to have more in common with Sony's design aesthetic than Apple's, for example "Apple Proto 87" goes for a flat, black metallic look with all the major buttons and ports on the side of the device.

"Apple Proto 0874," an iPad prototype, was particularly interesting in that it didn't go with a simple slab design, but included a thinner rail around the entire device that curves around the back on the top and bottom.

Unlike the previous "Purple" prototype, these designs are far more varied. It's admittedly surprising that the normally ultra-secretive Apple chose a litigation path that allowed all of these designs into evidence. Does it mean no elements of any of these rejected designs will ever find their way into future Apple iPhones or iPads? That Apple doesn't care if people see the past even if it one day cues the future? Or does the desire to beat Samsung in court simply trump everything else at Apple, even their traditional secrecy?

The Verge has compiled a couple of galleries worth of iPhone and iPad prototype images. Check them out via the source link below, and then come on back and tell if you like any of what you see, and if you think Apple should consider bringing any of them, or parts of any of them, back into the production pipeline.

Source: The Verge

Today Only: Buy the OtterBox Commuter Series Case for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 and save $15.00!

Safeguarding your screen from scratches and the corners from bumps and shock, the OtterBox Commuter Case offers a unique design with reliable strength. This case features a silicone core with a durable polycarbonate shell on the exterior to shield against impacts.  There's access to all the features of your iPhone including the screen, camera, ports and buttons. Comes in black, grey, yellow and blue.

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List Price: $34.95      Today Only: $19.95

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UK Satellite broadcaster, Sky has just launched its Now TV apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Now TV is a UK-only service that offers movies on the go without the need for a subscription to Sky satellite services. The apps compliment the roll out of the service for Mac and Windows PCs in mid-July and look to bring some stiff competition to Netflix.

NOW TV customers can 'pay & play' for instant access to an extensive range of over 1,000 movies through Sky Store including the very latest 'now on DVD' releases and much-loved classics. From launch, 'now on DVD' titles will include recent releases such as We Bought a Zoo, The Woman in Black, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, This Means War and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. 'Pay & play' movies on NOW TV range from 99p for classic titles to £3.49 for the latest blockbusters.

If you are a big watcher of movies, Sky is also offering an all you can eat subscription service which it is calling Sky Movie Pass. This will cost £15 a month and those who sign up will receive the first 30 days for free. This is more than double the cost of a monthly subscription to Netflix. At the moment the apps don't really offer much more than what is already available through Netflix and one or two other movie streaming services. Where this app might excel is in the promised future roll out of additional content. Sky should add in live action from the Barclay's Premier League, UEFA Champions League, England Test cricket, Heineken Cup rugby, ATP tennis and the Masters from Augusta. If this content becomes available on a match by match basis, Sky could be onto a real winner!

If you want to give the app a go, you need to firstly set up an account at nowtv.com. Once you have done that, you can download the app from the link below. It is a universal app so works on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. You must be running at least iOS 5.0. If it is anything like other Sky streaming apps, you may have trouble using it if you're jailbroken.

Free - Download Now

Would you consider watching movies or sports events on a pay and play basis with Sky's Now TV?

FreedomPop has announced that it will soon offer the Freedom Sleeve which is an iPod touch case that includes a WiMax mobile hotspot. The idea is to enable iPod touch users to have continuous access to a data connection and be able to make and receive phone calls through VoIP services like Skype. It looks to offer the younger generation a way to have a connected device without the need for a hefty call and data phone plan.

Turn your iPod Touch into an iPhone with the FreedomPop Sleeve: 4G data for your iPod Touch, Wi-Fi hotspot for up to 8 other devices, stream video and music anywhere, and you can even use Apple's FaceTime wherever you go!

The Freedom Sleeve only runs on Sprint's WiMax network so is only suitable for areas where there is WiMax coverage. FreedomPop does have plans to launch another version in the future which will run on Sprint's LTE network. When it comes down to pricing, this is where it all gets very interesting. The Freedom Sleeve for iPod touch will cost an initial $99.00. Once you have paid that upfront cost, you then get 500 MB a month of data free of charge. If you blow through that, you can then get additional data for $10 a GB. There is no contract and no commitment so the whole thing can be cancelled at any time.

The FreedomPop Freedom Sleeve may be a great option for younger children who probably don't need a full cell phone plan. It would be really handy to be able to contact them when needed plus give them access to all of their iPod touch's features when away from a WiFi network.

Would you consider a case like this for the iPod touch? Could you see it saving money on a cell phone plan for younger family members?

Source: FreedomPop via TechCrunch

Apple shocked a lot of us back in 2010 when they announced iMessage, probably none more than the carriers who for years changed an absolutely obscene amount of money to send short text messages to and fro. When Apple made iMessage free (except for the data change, if you were on cellular) that carrier gouging was put to an end -- presuming everyone you texted used iOS. But is that the case? Do enough of your friends, family, colleagues, and contacts use iMessage to really put the kibosh on SMS?

For me it's still a very mixed bag. Some of my friends use iPhones, so iMessage is easy. Many of my family and the people I work with still don't even use smartphones, let alone iPhones, so iMessage is a non-starter. Also, with the just-released OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has brought iMessage back to the Mac, and you can quickly send and receive texts, pictures, locations, and contacts right on your computer. It's really fast, but it's also messy. Right now my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air are all in a constant race to see which can beep and buzz first and most often.

iOS 6 promises to make some things better, letting us combine our phone numbers and Apple IDs, so at least we won't have to wonder which message is going to which device any more.

But that still leaves us stuck on the old SMS system for all our Windows, Android, BlackBerry, and other non-iOS or OS X using friends and family, with no real future in sight. (Because the odds of Apple creating iMessage clients for those platforms are about the same as the odds of them putting a keyboard and kickstand on the next iPhone...)

So given all that, when you're typing away on Messages all day, are most of the ones you send and receive good old iMessage blue, or cold hard carrier cash green? Do most of the people you text with have iMessage, or do most of them not? Hit the poll up top and then give me the details in the comments below!

Microsoft has released Outlook.com, what they consider to be the next-generation of email. And much to their credit, Microsoft have gone above and beyond to make sure you can access it not only on the web, but from any and all of your devices, including the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Here's how.

How to access Outlook.com on your iPhone or iPad via the web

You can login to Outlook.com on your iPhone or iPad, the same as you can login to it on your Windows or Mac PC.

1. Go to http://www.outlook.com
2. Enter your Outlook.com email address and password.
3. And you're in!
4. If you'd rather use the full site than the stripped down mobile site, scroll down and tap on PC Site (why "PC Site" and not "Full Version"? Ask Microsoft!).

If you're on your iPhone, you'll get a warning saying you need to upgrade your browser to a newer version of Safari. Ignore than and tap on Continue. That's just poor interception (since you can't update iPhone Safari the way they imply.)

How to access Outlook.com on your iPhone or iPad via Mail

Better than the website, you can set up the built-in iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad Mail app to get your Outlook.com email.

1. Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
2. Scroll down and tap on Mail, Contacts, and Calendars.
3. Tap on Add Account.
4. Tap on Hotmail.
5. Enter your Outlook.com email address and password.
6. Select what you want to Sync.

And you're done! You will miss out on any web-specific features, which are what Microsoft is working to make all shiny and revolutionary, but you will get all your mail in the unified inbox, right beside iCloud and Gmail if you use those services as well.

Note: You can also set up Outlook.com as Exchange ActiveSync. Just follow the same steps above but choose the Exchange button and use m.hotmail.com as your server.

If you need any extra help, jump into the Outlook.com setup thread in our iOS 5 Forum.

Digg is back! They've started from scratch, converted into a "startup", and v1 has now hit the web. Alongside the new and improved digg.com comes an updated Digg iPhone app (which is, ironically, version 3.0). For those who are not familiar with Digg, it's a website that "delivers the most interesting and talked about stories on the Internet right now."

The new Digg app is actually very nice. It's a simple vertically scrolling app that shows the titles of articles and the main images associated with them. It has a very clean and clutter-free design and runs great (although I'm hearing reports of the app crashing for many people). Tapping on an article will display it nicely in the built in browser.

Now here comes the not-so-good "feature" of Digg -- in order to login, you must login with Facebook. Now, it's not required to login to consume content from Digg, but if you want to "digg" an article (thumbs up), bookmark an article, or use services like Instapaper, Pocket, or Bitly, you are required to login with Facebook.

The good

• Clean and clutter free
• Great way to find good content to read
• Instapaper, Pocket, and Bitly support

The bad

• Must login with Facebook to use any of the features

The conclusion

The new Digg v1 iPhone app is well designed and a great way to discover popular articles on the web. If it wasn't for the requirement to login to Facebook, I'd be inclined to say that Digg's re-launch is off to a great start.

Free - Download Now

If you're LYNKtec, how do you follow up the incredibly well received TruGlide Stylus for iPad? If you answered with a TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen, then you're absolutely right. The TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen takes everything that was great about the original, and doubles the functionality by adding a traditional ink pen to the new fangled capacitive pen. And it does it with balance and style.

First, I just have to say that the box the TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen comes in is really nice. Sure, it looks a bit like Dracula's coffin, but I'm absolutely going to keep it to store earrings in.

As with the original TruGlide Stylu, the TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen uses woven capacitive fibers making for a very different feel than regular stylus pens -- stronger, more durable, and not as mushy. I've already gone on at length about it in my original TruGlide review, and much of that applies for this new model as well.

I'll explain -- no, no, there is to much -- I'll sum up. The capacitance is very good, and remains one of the best I've tested. But... this one has a slightly crunchy sound when you press down on it. I can't really explain it. It's just... crunchy. Watch the video, you'll hear it.

The new news here is the traditional ink pen. And LINKtec certainly didn't cheap out here. The writing experience is great and the ink flow is smooth and consistent. There's a well constructed cap to keep the pen from leaking when not in use, and everything is just really well built and balanced. And even with all of that, the stylus and the pen, it remains exceptionally light.

The good

• Durable woven tip
• Good capacitance
• Nice design
• Includes traditional ink pen

The bad

• Not as consistently precise as some other pro-level stylus

The conclusion

If you just want a stylus, the less expensive, single-porpose TruGlide, or one of the other pro-level stylus pens will serve you well. If you need a traditional pen as well as a stylus, however, the TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen is the way to go. It's my favorite combination stylus pen to date.

$39.95 Buy now