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This very simple tutorial will show you how to change the battery in a first-generation iPod Nano. It should also work for other models in a general way, even though some steps and parts might be a bit different.

The bare minimum required tools for this job are:

• replacement battery
• scissors
• tape
• knife

Recommended tools are:

• replacement battery and prying tool
• soldering iron
• wire stripper or scissors
• utility knife (X-Acto)
• electrical tape

A note before you begin: this may damage your iPod. You may injure yourself in this process. This will void your warranty. We are not responsible for anything that happens as a result of you following these directions. Use your head.

The purpose of replacing the battery in your iPod Nano by yourself is to avoid the absurd costs of having Apple do it for you. They love to make loads of money replacing batteries, and refuse to implement user-replaceable batteries in their electronics, even though 99% of other MP3 players let you change the battery with the press of a button. Of course, the reason for replacing the battery in the first place is because it can’t hold a charge anymore. All batteries lose their charge over time and won’t recharge anymore. Follow the steps below to replace your iPod Nano first-generation battery. If you have any questions, ask in the comments below.

1. Buy a replacement battery

This should be very easy and inexpensive. If you go on eBay and search for “ipod nano 1st gen battery” you should see what you’re looking for. Make sure the battery you get is for the first generation Nano (or whichever iPod you are using). They are different in physical size and will not fit if you get the wrong version. You also want a higher capacity battery. The stock battery is 340mAh. eBay has batteries that are 400mAh. These will last significantly longer than the stock battery. This battery should cost you around $5 and most come with tools to help open your iPod. I cannot comment on brands of batteries, as most seem generic. Beware of the risk of fire, leakage, explosion, or any other risks that come with all batteries.

2. Pry apart your iPod

Before you take apart your iPod, discharge any static electricity from yourself by touching a metal object. Also, you should put it on Hold so you don’t accidentally turn it on while it’s open. Now.. The first gen iPod Nano is held together by plastic clips which are located on the inside of the case. To open your iPod, you just need to pry apart the plastic front from the chrome rear. You can use the tool provided with the battery, or a dull X-Acto knife (or anything similar). I found the plastic tool to be no better than using a knife. Either way, you might break pieces of plastic off the case and scratch it. As you can see in the photos, my iPod is in such a bad shape cosmetically that I absolutely didn’t care about getting it scratched. Take your time when you pry it open. It might take a while. You might need to use force.

3. Cut the wires

Very carefully pry the battery out of the iPod using your fingernails. Cut the three wires that connect your current battery to the circuit board. Cut as close to the battery as you can. Don’t worry, the extra wire won’t prevent the case from closing.

4. Strip the wires

You need to strip the wires that are connected to the circuit board, assuming the wires on your new battery came stripped from the factory. If you really don’t know what you’re doing, you need to cut the insulation off the wire, but leave the wire itself uncut. You can use a wire stripper, but due to the small size of the wire, I found it much easier to use scissors. Be careful not to rip the wires from the circuit board. If you still can’t figure out how to strip wires, watch a YouTube video or something.

5. Solder the wires

Now time to insert the new battery into the iPod and twist the wires together. Make sure to match the right colors to each other, and do not let any wires from the battery touch any part of the circuit board, or themselves. This will create a short and will fry your iPod. Now, if you don’t have a soldering iron and really don’t want to spend the $20 to buy one, you might be fine just leaving the wires twisted together for this step. However, this has a decent chance of resulting in a loose connection that might come apart for fractions of a second, cutting power to your iPod. Soldering is highly recommended. If you don’t know how, watch some YouTube videos and Google it to learn the proper technique.

6. Tape up the exposed wires

If you want to test your new battery and its connection at this point, you can plug your iPod into your computer. If you do this, be very, very careful not to let the exposed wires touch anything or short anything out.

Now you need to tape up the exposed connections. If you don’t have electrical tape, regular tape should work. Electrical tape is recommended. Wrap each exposed wire individually and make sure all parts are covered well. Then tape all three together to help with straightening them out and making them fit.

7. Put it back together

Make sure the wires are out of the way of the two connectors to the right. Push them as far left as possible, and make sure they are flat against the circuit board like in the photo above. Now carefully put the other half of the iPod Nano case on. Make sure the Hold switch on the iPod is lined up to the position you left it in. This might take some time if you don’t want to scratch your iPod. Be careful not to bend it too much, as it’s much easier to bend without the two sides connected. This might take some force. Just push the two together until the two sides clip onto each other all the way around. If it doesn’t work when you try to turn it on, the battery probably needs to be charged. Plug it into your computer and it should start charging as usual.

And that’s it, you should now have an iPod Nano with a brand new battery, for less than $5.

Where can I even begin? Apple just announced their very own tablet PC. Called the iPad. Let’s start with the name – it’s absolutely terrible. And I’m not even complaining about the stupid “i” scheme. Even iTablet would have been better.

Moving on. This thing is just an oversized iPod Touch. Even the software is almost the same, just on a bigger screen. The screen is 9.7 inches, which is way too big to fit in your pocket, and way too small to type on with both hands. Of course there are no physical keys. And when you type, the giant on-screen keyboard blocks a huge amount of screen.

And then, how do you even type on it? It’s too heavy to hold with one hand and type with the other. You can’t put it on your lap because you won’t see the screen. You can’t put it on a table because you’ll have to look down over the iPad, which will hurt your neck, shoulders, back, etc. The only way you will comfortably be able to type on the iPad is through an external keyboard and a stand for the iPad to prop it up like a normal computer screen. And all of that costs a lot of money if you buy it from Apple.

The screen will get scratched. Where are you going to put the iPad? In your backpack or briefcase. It will get scratched unless you get a cover for it, or protect it very very well. And a cover costs a lot of money coming from Apple.

Speaking of money, the iPad starts at $499. With only 16GB of flash storage. And no real operating system, unless you consider a slightly adjusted cell phone OS an operating system suited for a netbook or laptop. And that also means there’s no flash support. Oh but there’s over 100,000 apps! Well, with a real netbook, there are literally millions of apps.

So what do you get for almost $500? 16GB of storage, a glossy (meaning unreadable with other light sources present) 9.7″ screen that’s only 1024×768 resolution, and a 1GHz Apple processor. There are no USB ports, and Apple doesn’t even state how much memory (RAM) the iPad has.

What did I get with my Acer Aspire One for $314? A 1366×768 screen that’s 11.6 inches, a full sized keyboard, a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. It also has USB ports, a camera, and it doesn’t need a case. Where does the iPad beat my Acer? It has a touch screen, an accelerometer, and a compass. Apple claims the iPad has 10 hours of battery life. My Acer claims 8, but can actually do 10. Oh, and I almost forgot, the iPad can’t multitask. You can only do one thing at a time. Amazing.

Now time to wait and watch the Apple fanboys camp out in front of Apple stores to buy this useless giant iPod.

Here is a basic technique to use when you want to take a closeup picture of something with a point-and-shoot camera, and have to use the flash.

If you’ve ever tried to take a picture of something too close to the camera with the flash enabled, you would know that a lot of objects reflect the flash. A solution to this is simple. Move back from the object you are trying to photograph, and then zoom in with the camera. This might sound like common sense, but more and more people today lack common sense. But that’s not all – when zooming in, make sure to only zoom using your camera’s optical zoom. You know it’s using optical zoom when you hear or see the lens moving and focusing. It’s using digital zoom when you’re still zooming but it’s not moving or making any more noise. The point in only using optical zoom is image quality – you will most likely get the best quality from a point-and-shoot camera if you do not use digital zoom. And you don’t need to stand that far back from the object anyway. Digital zoom only comes in when you’re out of optical zoom.

When using this zooming technique, try to hold the camera steadier than you would normally. Place it against your chin, stomach, chest, or anything that will allow the camera to shake less in your hands. The picture is more likely to come out blurry if you the camera is shaking while taking a picture zoomed in.

In addition, something else you could try is taking the picture at a slightly different angle. For example, if you’re taking a picture of a piece of paper head-on and it comes out too bright, take a picture of the paper not from head-on (90 degrees) but from something like 75 degrees. This should cause the flash to reflect away from the camera rather than reflect at the camera.

Below is a picture taken using no zoom (about 1-2 feet from the object), and after it is a picture using the “stand back and zoom” technique (using full optical zoom, about 5 feet from the object).

Apple iPod Nano 4GB – 2nd Generation enables you to create a music library from which you can easily access the songs and hear it again and again. Maintain your own personal DJ playlist and make a favorite playlist where you can store a lot of selectable songs. It has a unique feature called Genius click that helps you select the frequently visited songs. Album art could be viewed through a cover flow feature and it has intuitive and easy to operate control buttons that help choose your song quickly. When you keep pressing the center button, this iPod Nano lets you to browse by artist and albums.

The display screen shows the videos and songs in both landscape and portrait form when you flip over the iPod in any direction. When the right song is reached during search of an artist or albums you can easily add the file to your playlist. It is easy to shuffle through the playlist and move on to the next song. This iPod automatically shuffles your music list in the library when you give it a simple shake. It quickly responds to your touch and lets you freely move and tilt for interactive game play. This iPod Nano is built with special intuitive controls for playing games.

This iPod shows photos with 320 x 240 of display resolution and you can download games from iTunes. It features a 2 inch screen that shows high quality images.

The Apple iPod Nano 4GB is available in 9 different colors and is made with an aluminum body structure with a glass curved design. This Apple iPod 16GB Nano features in-ear headphones with mic and remote. It looks both beautiful and intelligent, and can be carried in your pocket wherever you go.

This iPod Nano has a calendar, volume limiter, Cover Flow, Motion Sensor, Nike with iPod support and is designed with USB 2.0. It features a built-in alarm & stopwatch, digital clock, and shows the battery level using an indicator light. It supports Windows Vista and has 3 hours of recharge time.

Visit iPod Reviews exclusive website for detailed reviews on iPod Nano, iPod shuffle, iPod classic, and iPod Touch.

I recently made this helmet cam out of parts I had lying around the house. I used packing foam, hot glue, duct tape, velcro, and a piece of plexiglass (acrylic).  I used an X-Acto knife to cut the foam, hot glued it together, and then used duct tape to create a better seal. The plexiglass goes against the camera lens. It’s big and ugly but it works, and it’s free. This was a concept that was made without any plans, so a lot of improvements can be made. But it still works well.

I can mount it to my helmet, handlebars, or almost anywhere you can use two straps to hold it. Since this was a prototype, I made it for my phone instead of my real camera, to test the sturdiness. The phone is an Ericsson P1i, and the quality of the video is better than most $50 helmet cams. Below are pictures of the prototype case and a video of it attached to an RC car. This case offers protection similar to the $30 cases found online or in stores, and with those you most likely won’t find one that you can mount anywhere and have it be compatible with your camera.

The next version will look much nicer, be more compact, more waterproof, and better overall.

Apple’s new iPod Shuffle uses controls located on the headphones. Everyone knows that the stock headphones that come with all Apple products aren’t that good. However, is having easier to reach controls worth it? No, but it’s still a great idea.

It is annoying to reach into your pocket every time to you want to pause the music or change the volume. It’s more annoying when you have a bunch of things in your pocket. Having controls on the headphones themselves fixes the problem of reaching into your pocket to take out your iPod. And that is about the only problem with the controls on the iPod itself.

Having fixed the problem of reaching into your pocket, the issue now lies with the quality of the stock iPod headphones. They’re not as bad as the Sandisk Sansa e250 headphones, but they’re pretty bad and a lot of people upgrade them. Having controls on the headphones won’t let people upgrade, and a lot of people are already complaining about this.

However, according to Gizmodo, Apple will sell an adapter for third party headphones. This fixes the controls being in your pocket problem and the bad quality problem. The adapter will most likely cost at least $20, so that might put a few people off. But even with a price tag, it will be worth it to some people. And Apple will never give a free adapter with the Shuffle or any iPod, because it would cost them money.

So while the stock headphones having controls is a not-so-good tradeoff, third party headphones with controls on the headphones will be a great feature of the new iPod Shuffle. No more digging around in your pocket to find the buttons. Good job, Apple.

On a side note, Apple yet again oversimplifies controls and makes the interface complicated for no reason other than looks. (Apple+click, one button mouse, anyone?)

The Sandisk Sansa e250 is a budget MP3 player that can be had for under $30 if you know where to look. I got one from Woot.com for $34.99 shipped. I have had this MP3 player for almost eight months.

The build quality of the Sandisk Sansa e250 is good. It has a nice, sleek front cover that doesn’t scratch easily, and a matte dark silver back. Four screws are visible on the back. The scroll wheel on the front has a bright blue backlight. It looks like it’s lit in four places, and it’s not a perfectly even glow. This scroll wheel also wobbles a lot, and is the worst part of the build quality section. Everything else is solid. There is also a voice recorded and a slot for a micro SD card if you want to expand the memory. The stock headphones are terrible and belong in your trash can right away. They are worse than airline headphones.

On the software side, the e250 has a radio, and of course an MP3 player. The MP3 player displays the filenames of the songs, not the embedded artist and song name information like an iPod does. The software is also very buggy. It does not want to turn on a lot of the time, and sometimes it doesn’t turn off. When charging, it often doesn’t charge at all and flashes a low battery warning. Also when charging, the backlight on the screen stays on, which can be annoying if you want to leave it to charge overnight. And if you turn off your computer while charging, the backlight will stay on even though it’s not charging anymore – depleting the whole battery.

The software is terrible, and it makes the whole MP3 player terrible. Of course you can load up some custom firmware and software on it, but this review is for the stock MP3 player since most people won’t be changing software. The interface of the stock software is ugly, buggy, and overall crap. If it wasn’t for the software and the wobbly scroll wheel, I would say this little 2GB Sandisk Sansa e250 is a better buy than my iPod Nano 4GB was. Overall I rate the Sandisk Sansa e250 6.5/10. And this is because of the ultra low price. If you put custom software and firmware on it, along with some decent headphones, it would be 9.5/10. Read reviews, compare cheapest prices of Sandisk, Creative, Archos, Philips and Latest MP4 Players at MP4playerreviews.co.uk.

If you’re like most people, your cell phone and mp3 player is probably scratched and banged up. If this is true, I wouldn’t recommend spending $20 on a scratch filler or screen cleaner. Instead, why not spice your gadget up at the same time and get a skin for it?

What might surprise you is that you can get a skin for your phone or iPod for less than half the price you would pay for a scratch cleaner. And the scratch cleaner wouldn’t make it look smooth and it will still have small scratches.

A skin on the other hand will protect your gadget as well as give it a new bad ass look. Some sites you might want to check out that sell these skins are DecalGirl and GelaSkins. These skins can be had for as little as $5.99, and they are top quality and durable. Skins will protect your phone or iPod from scratches as well, giving it a new look and new protection.

Check it out and give your gadgets some fresh new looks.

image from decalgirl

Have you ever dropped a cell phone in a pool or spilled your Mountain Dew all over your keyboard? Here are some steps to save your electronics if you drop them in liquid or spill liquid on them.

1. Rip out the battery. Well don’t actually rip it out, but take it out as fast as possible. And if it’s wired, like a keyboard, unplug it. You want to stop the flow of electricity to prevent a short from happening.
2. Open it up. If you feel you are smart enough to open it up, go ahead and carefully disassemble as much as you can, making sure you will be able to put it back together. If you don’t want to open your laptop, cell phone, mp3 player, or whatever, then skip to the next step.
3. Wipe off the liquid. Use a static-free towel to wipe off any liquid you see. If you did step 2 and opened it up, be extra careful not to damage anything. If needed, use a Q-tip to wipe off the liquid in tight spots.
4. Let it dry, by itself. Don’t use a fan and definitely don’t use a hair drier. Put your item in a warm spot, but not in direct sunlight, and not on top of a heater or anything like that. Let it sit for at least 2 days. I recommend up to 5 days, if you can wait.

That’s about it. If you took the battery out quick enough, it should work. If you didn’t, it probably shorted out and died. It’s worth a shot anyway as most warranties don’t cover water damage.

Also don’t forget to dry the battery itself, if there was one. Hope this helps someone.

Apparently Microsoft France’s Francois Ruault stated in a French newspaper that Microsoft was planning to release the Zune 3.0 in both the U.S. and Europe in late 2009. Those are all the details so far, but exciting info nonetheless.

This concept of the Zune 3.0 was pictured at ZuneScene: