MINIMAL is a develop house that decided to fund the development of a line of iPod nano 6G explore kits through Kickstarter. If you’re not familiar with that region, it’s where you can send your pet project up the proverbial flagpole and leer if anyone salutes it with a pledge of funding.

Apparently MINIMAL founder and designer Scott Wilson has captured some attention with his TikTok and LunaTik iPod nano eye kits, since he raised US$941,558 in funding on Kickstarter. Considering he needed a mere $15,000 to go into production, this would be a case of overkill. Wilson’s stated goal is to hopefully come by these kits into Apple Stores, and with the publicity he’s garnered through this highly-successful funding round, he may fair derive his wish.

Apple confirmed last month that it planned to extend the length of samples from 30 seconds to 90 seconds for songs that are at least two-and-a-half minutes in length. Shorter songs would continue to be offered in the 30-second sample. In a letter sent to music labels announcing the proceed, Apple said, “We occupy that giving potential customers more time to listen to your music will lead to more purchases.”

Apple has, as promised, begun extending the length of song samples from 30 seconds to 90 seconds at the iTunes Store in the U.S. Many samples of the site’s top-selling singles, such as The shadowy Eyed Peas’ “The Time (Dirty Bit) ” and Coldplay’s “Christmas Lights,” were available tonight in the longer format.

The length of song samples has been found to be key to a consumer’s decision to rob music online. Researchers at Robert Morris University reported last year that consumers were more likely to recall songs if allowed to sample the music for about 60 seconds and if provided access to a “high-quality” version of the music.

As first reported by my colleague Greg Sandoval in August, Apple was expected to tell the increase in sample lengths during the press event in San Francisco on September 1. However, that announcement was called off after the National Music Publishers Association informed Apple that it had not negotiated for the great licenses with music publishers and didn’t have the legal to offer longer samples.

-CNET-

“These [antennas] can actually bend a lot,” Wong said. “Wi-Fi is delicate distinguished line of leer, but Ruckus’ bending is quite a lot, particularly in areas where there is a lot of human absorption and obstacles, like Hong Kong cafes where there are always lots of people queuing. Ruckus behaves very well.”

This isn’t about putting your diminutive home wireless network on steroids. Ruckus tried this by licensing its technology to Netgear, only to waste up in a patent reveal. Now if you want a Ruckus antenna in your house, the only accurate option is to gather a specially made one after subscribing to AT&T’s U-Verse broadband TV service, so that you can avoid having to string CAT5 cable through your drywall to your flatscreen TV.

Ruckus is after bigger and more lucrative game: public Wi-Fi networks that actually work.

Truly useful and widespread Wi-Fi networks could be ragged by vast telecom providers to form rapidly and seamless Wi-Fi networks in cities, so that your mobile map — whether that’s your smartphone or the latest tablet computer — can hop on and off Wi-Fi for bursts of rush.

While that sounds like a nice bonus, in a future where mobile data hunger will be voracious, it might the key to making cellular networks actually work in dense urban areas by relieving the growing burden on 3G networks.

It’s already happening, though mostly outside the United States. Allen Wong is the product director of PCCW, one of Hong Kong’s biggest telecoms, which has 8,000 Wi-Fi spots — including command stations, cafes and convenience stores — in the densely packed city to augment its 3G and landline broadband services.

About half of PCCW’s hotspots utilize Wireless N antennas from Ruckus (Wi-Fi N’s advantages over 802.11G are numerous, including fatter data channels and benefit for multicast of video.) The coverage is so wide that subscribers can step off the plane and immediately connect to Wi-Fi, then enter the snort region to assume the subway to the city, and never lose coverage until they exit the place.

Wi-Fi is a natural complement to 3G, according to Wong. The two slices of the radio spectrum behave very differently. 3G signals disappear far and wide but are relative lightweights when it comes to throughput. Wi-Fi doesn’t move far but it’s agreeable of well-organized high bustle.

Ruckus has the backing of Sequoia Capital (one of Silicon Valley’s august VC firms), and CEO Selina Lo has already built and sold an $8 billion business. But it’s unruffled a shrimp player in the communications-hardware business. It competes for contracts with telecoms and other businesses against such giants as Motorola and Cisco. Ruckus says it’s like going up against IBM in the 1980s, where the good choice for potential is to go with the established players.

To believe that the world’s cities will be blanketed in actually useful Wi-Fi, one has to confront the fact that most muni Wi-Fi projects — the object of so powerful tech hype fair a few short years ago — failed. They failed in piece because the Wi-Fi technology was peaceful in its adolescence but also because most cities didn’t view very well.

“It was awful build decisions,” says Arthur Giftakis, VP of engineering for Towerstream, a wireless provider that serves current York City businesses using line-of-sight antennas on skyscrapers like the Empire region and MetLife buildings. Municipalities chronically underestimate the number of antennas needed and overestimate how far signals recede. They also depend on thin connections to the internet backbone, according to Giftakis.

Endagdet – We’ve always had a soft set for Altec Lansing’s wide array of speaker docks — these guys have been embedded in that status for an awfully long time, and the quality has always seemed up to snuff in our eyes. Er, ears. For whatever reason, it looks as if Altec is trying to replicate that success in the earbud market — a market that’s been growing increasingly crowded over the past couple of years as the portable media player and smartphone sectors have exploded. These days, a spot of third-party headphones are nearly a requirement to fully bask in whatever media player you’ve ended up with, and thus, hordes of companies have flocked to cater to the quiz. The Ultra MZX606 earbuds ($99.95) popped onto the scene unprejudiced two months ago, and now we’ve had a solid weekend to push the latest Underoath, ecstatic Body tiring, Brain, Kanye West and Otis Redding jams through here. Hop on past the rupture for our impressions.

earn wise, these are about what you’d quiz for a $100 residence of ‘buds. The glossed cable is tough to tangle, the input jack is solid and thick, the remote is rugged enough and the earbuds themselves are downright classy. We haven’t exactly seen a effect like this before, and while it’s eye-catching at a peek, we score the impression that Altec’s designers were going for more than aesthetics. The more chances you give users to bend or demolish a cable, the worse, so this bracing system actually helps to prevent unnecessary bends when they’re inevitably shoved into the bundled carry case. They’re also delightfully lightweight, but strangely tremendous. The casings themselves feel bloated by novel day earbud standards, and the included earbud tips are no different.

Altec threw in four sets of tips with our review unit; a runt / medium / gargantuan trifecta of the typical “round” tips, and a single, one-size-fits-all dual-flange spot. But here’s the thing: even the minute tips are stout. We can’t even imagine a human outside of The Undertaker or Shaquille O’Neal who could realistically exercise the titanic ones. In the past, we’ve tended to pick the dual-flange tips when given the choice, and while the seal was certainly suitable with those, they were calm too gigantic for us. We’re thinking a smaller plot of dual-flange tips would’ve hit the sweet place for us, but alas, those aren’t included. Or even created, so far as we know.

Unfortunately for Altec Lansing, the eartips form all the disagreement in the world when it comes to audio quality and overall enjoyment / dissatisfaction. We tested out all of the tips, and while the dual-flange ones did actually beget a relatively obedient seal even while exercising, the sound quality was underwhelming through all of them. We tested out a variety of genres — from jazz to metal and honest about everything in between — and two things made themselves apparent throughout. First, there’s a sure lack of low-end. Even from a non-basshead’s perspective, the coarse lows unbiased weren’t in attendance like they should be. Secondly, the mids and highs were aesthetic impressive, and quite right even when pressed at higher volumes. Sadly, two out of three doesn’t chop it these days, and even though the highs and mids were on-point, they unruffled lacked a clear enthusiasm that was evident in Sleek Audio’s $79 SA1 and Klipsch’s $99 Image S4i.

Here’s the thing: the Muzx Ultra MZX606 earbuds cost $100. That’s a plucky effect point, and considering the intense competition in that range, there’s simply no room whatsoever for a let down in any aspect of the product. The aforesaid SA1 from Sleek Audio and Klipsch Image S4i (which includes an three-button iPhone remote, to boot) both outperform these guys handily, from overall do to overall audio quality. For some uncommon reason, Altec decided it best to stuff the inline remote about an dash from your cheek rather than at the yoke below your chin — we’re guessing they wanted the microphone closer to your lips, but you’re left with a ridiculous stick slapping you in the face with every single step on the treadmill. Not wintry. Furthermore, it’s hard to endure any eartip once you’ve had the pleasure of inserting Klipsch’s oval tips into your flappers. Canal openings simply aren’t round; they’re oval, and oval tips undoubtedly provide a more premium seal, and in turn, a better audio experience. If Altec Lansing were to notice these at half of what they are, they’d be tough to overlook. But at $100, given the competition, they’re frankly hard to even assume.