Gearfuse

Want to know why Apple has so much cash in the bank? It’s due to the innovation of Steve Jobs combined with the cost-efficient microeconomics of Apple. The company’s latest version of the iPod, the iPod Shuffle, apparently only costs 28-percent of its retail price, $79, to make. That leaves Apple with nearly $57 profit for each player sold. That tiny, tiny battery inside the Shuffle? It costs a mere $1.20.

I’m curious to see what kind of profits Apple is making off its computers. The real money is obviously in its iTunes digital music service and the accompanying iPods, but nonetheless, Apple is probably banking off every $10,000 Mac Pro being sold.

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Oh quit crying, you two. You have enough money to wipe your asses with $100 bills for the rest of your natural born life. In a recent interview with Vogue, Melinda Gates stated that she keeps iPhones and iPods out of the hands of her children. The direct quote sez:

“…there are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. but ipods and iphones are two things we don’t get for our kids.”

So is this a veiled attempt at keeping Apple products out of the house or just the way the Gates family approaches parenting? I’m going to say it’s a little bit of column A, a little of column B. I’m sure the Bill has an iMac lying around his insanely large house somewhere. No iPhone, though? Someone call child services.

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Music Skins (a.k.a. GelaSkins) collaborated with streetwear label Lemar and Dauley to create a line of covers for laptops, iPods, iPhones, and plain old cellphones. All of the skins are emblazoned with Lemar and Dauley’s rainbow skyline logo. I dig the skyline drawing on the skins, but I don’t see why anyone besides a major label whore would want two other dudes’ names on their electronics.

These Lemar and Dauley skins are made with specialty 3M vinyl that’s less than 2mm thick with residue-free adhesive that allows for worry-free removal when you want a new look for your gear. Music Skins also has downloadable wallpapers so you can match the screen of your device to it’s skin. After the jump, check out more photos the Lemar and Dauley line for Music Skins.

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Everybody has their own Apple predictions and this announcement will do nothing, but add to the speculation. It’s being reported that Apple is planning to order 500 million Samsung NAND flash drives by the end of the month. Now, what could they be doing with all of that damn flash?

Sources say that the acquired flash drives will be used in the iPhone and the iPod, which would confirm the appearance of a flash drive in the ever-popular media player. Specifically, the source sites iPods made between June 2007 (around the release of the iPhone) and December 2007 (just in time for a new iPod model release for Christmas?). One theory points at a 6th generation video iPod, another points towards an iPhone without the phone part. Perhaps a touch screen iPod? Whatever it will be, we are eagerly awaiting. — Andrew Dobrow

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This is a paradox we’re sure both Microsoft and Apple don’t want to find themselves in. With the better part of their advertising campaigns trying to show the differences between the two companies, the Zoom vending machines used to distribute iPods, run on the Windows XP operating system.

Isn’t it ironic? Don’t ya think? Of course, it would probably be more fitting if the display was blue-screened. — Andrew Dobrow

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The great outdoors become all the more great during the warm days of summer. Though for us, the outside poses the obstacle of finding a source of energy to power our electronics. While we might not go as far as to wear a Solar Powered Bikini, we would thankfully use our girlfriends to supply our beloved electronics with power. Made with a series of 1″ by 4″ photovoltaic film panels which can produce 6.5 volts from 1.5 amps, the Solar Powered Bikini allows woman (and maybe men?) to not only enjoy the sun and get a tan, but to power their iPods and keep their drinks cool.

Designed by Andrew Schneider as part of a design like called iDrink, comes equiped with an included USB connection to create a whole new gadget experience. One day, maybe solar panels will be embedded into cloth to produce a clothing line of power clothes. Not that…we would wear. — Andrew Dobrow

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“Now any true gangsta’ knows, nobody be messing wit’ our iPod and shit.” That’s probably something like the mentality these kids at Germantown High School were under when they beat the living hell out of a teacher who had taken away their iPod. We’ve talked about the lengths at which people would go for their iPods before but we can not get over this. A 17 and 15 year old boy either punched or helped trip Frank Burd, 60, where he then hit his head . Burd was taken to Albert Einstein Hospital where he is being treated for two fractures in his neck, which luckily do not involve paralysis. The two unknown little squirts who committed the crime were arrested for aggravated assault, simple assault, and reckless endangerment. Whereabouts of the iPod are unknown at this time, but we fear the worst. — Andrew Dobrow

Philly Teacher Assaulted Over iPod [PhysOrg]

Are you the type of guy that has both a love for gadgets, but also likes to have the class of Mahogany stained furniture? If you are, odds are that most charging stations are not very fit to have a place in your home.

With the Frontgate Mahogany Charging Station, style just happens to be a nice extra touch. Don’t think that it lacks at all in the actual tech side of its architecture. The Station has 4 charging ports, made to charge cellphones, iPods, PDAs, and other portable media devices.

The Station also has 4 drawers for you to shovel all your crap into, along with a little storage pit (we’re sure there’s a more elegant name for it that we just don’t know). The surge-protecting power strip is conspicuously hidden within the Mahogany, which is actually Cherry Wood with a Mahogany stain.

The station weighs a meager 7 lbs, so it’s pretty easy to transport if a move is in order. The largest part about this thing is probobly its price. A whopping $150 for pieces of wood and a surge-protector. — Andrew Dobrow

Frontgate Mahogany Charging Station [via 2dayBlog]

What is the world coming to? iPod vending machines?! Yeah..sure it’s ridiculously cool to be living in a world where you can grab an iPod from a vending machine, but who in their right mind would invest $400 in a machine that most of us are afraid to put $2 in to get a back of chips or cookies? Another question. How long until a curious hacker discovers how to trick the vending machine? Surely not long. We are not surprised in the least that iPods are now being sold through automated vending merchants, but is this idea really going to take off? Or are we just bearing witness to a marketing strategy that strikes while the iron is hot? — Andrew Dobrow

iPod vending machines rake in the moolah [Newlaunches]