DECEMBER 2005 MA XIMUMPCDon’t Forget the Trimmings
There are hundreds of digital-media accessories luring unsuspecting buyers to their doom.
Here are fi ve tempting upgrades for your player, and one to watch out for!OTTERBOX
The waterproof
OtterBox squeezes
more thrills from
your player by letting
you take it places
where it might other-
wise be exposed to
water, sand, or tear
gas. The larger mod-
els can also protect
your cellphone and
Nicorette gum.APPLE IPOD PHOTO CAMERA
CONNECTOR
Our guess is that lots
of photographers
have iPods. And
those photographers
fi ll up the storage
capacity of their
cameras and memory
cards very quickly.
And they’d love to use
their iPod to offl oad
and review their pho-
tos. Shutterbugs, your(^8) day has come.
OTTERBOX
$50 for iPod Photo model, other
cases from $11.50 up, http://www.otterbox.com
9
PHOTO CAMERA CONNECTOR
$30, http://www.ipod.com (check website
for camera compatibility)
SHURE E4C EARBUDS
The easiest way to get the
most out of your digital
audio or video player is by
swapping out the crappy
earbuds for Shure’s E4c ear-
busters. Are they expensive?
Well, yeah, but the luscious
sound is worth every cent.
Plus, we’ve noticed we play
music at a softer volume
when listening with the
E4c—so maybe your insur-
ance will pay for them.
SOLITUDE NOISE-
CANCELING
HEADPHONES
Solitude headphones live up to
their name, thanks to large, comfy
earcups and active noise-cancel-
ing technology. The phones moni-
tor background noise and then
generate reverse sine waves to
wipe it out. Unfortunately, they’re
much less effective at producing
the lush audio we demand from
headphones in this
price range.
7
SOLITUDE HEADPHONES
$200, http://www.solitudeheadsets.com
E4C EARBUDS
$300, http://www.shure.com
9
MA XIMUMPC
KICKASS
CELLBOOST
VALUE PACK
FOR IPOD
When your iPod’s
battery poops out,
you can curl up into
a fetal position and
dry heave, or you can
snap on Cellboost’s
Rechargeable Battery
Pack and avoid the
embarrassing scenario. We got a little more than nine hours from a
single charge, and if that’s not enough for you in between pit
stops, you even get a
disposable, one-time-
use battery charger.
7
CELLBOOST BATTERY PACK
$80, http://www.cellboost.com
LOGITECH MM28 PORTABLE SPEAKERS
The mm28’s clam-
shell design looks
cool, but the unit is
so top-heavy that
a breath of air can
send it tumbling ass
over teakettle. And as
much as we dig the
NXT fl at-panel speaker
technology at the
heart of this system,
it comes off sounding
like castrati without a
subwoofer—there’s
just no “there” there.
3
LOGITECH MM28 SPEAKERS
$80, http://www.logitech.com
OTTERBOX
The waterproof
OtterBox squeezes
more thrills from
your player by letting
you take it places
where it might other-
wise be exposed to
DECEMBER 2005 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC
use battery charger. $80, http://www.cellboost.com just no “there” there.
Don’t Forget the Trimmings
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