Dr. Dre has set the trend for quality headphone lines with Beats by Dr. Dre and has inspired rapper 50 Cent to get into the business too. He showed his headphone line, SMS Audio at the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday.

The first models are the wireless Sync by 50 headphones , which run for $399.95  and  the wired Street by 50 headphones  for $299.95.

According to USA Today, 50 Cent gives credit to longtime producer Dr. Dre and his Beats By Dr. Dre headphones as an inspiration and adds branching out into headphones is an example of the way the music business is changing.

It’s no doubt that 50 Cent is a business man and music is a big part of that, but will it compete with Beats by Dr. Dre?

Some proceeds from the headphone sales reportedly will go to anti-hunger charity Feeding America.

Once again House of Marley is making news at CES. This time the Bob Marley inspired electronics line is providing speaker docks with a new boombox called Bag of Rhythm.

Bag of Rhythm combines design, sustainability, and technology to provide a fashion forward, portable iPod and iPhone speaker system made from sustainable wood and cotton.

Son of the late Bob Marley, Rohan Marley attended a press conference at CES to promote the earth-friendly line of headphones and speaker systems.

House of Marley isn’t just about making electronics, but about giving back and preserving the earth.

House of Marley gives five percent of its profits to 1Love.org, a non-profit group supported by the Marley family that helps raise funds for various causes, such as building a school in Uganda or buying musical instruments for disadvantaged schools.

According to the San Francisco Chronicles, Rohan Marley says “There’s nothing wrong with being an innovator, but how do you innovate, are you just destroying the place or are you protecting the place?”

The company also plans to sell earphones made with recycled plastic or covered in “earth-friendly fabric.” Bag of Rhythm will be available for $349.

(Photo: WashPost)

Beats by Dre’s Studio headphones line has been Dr. Dre’s most popular headphone. But they recently reviled a new line called Beats Executive for the sophisticated and mature crowd.

The Beats Executive has the same premium headphones technology, but with a sleeker look and a list of new features.

New features include: noise cancellation that helps block out the sound of the outside world, and a built-in shutoff feature to preserve battery life, a more refined look with a brushed metal finish, elegant accents such as leather pads, and a swiveling design to make them ultra-compact when not in use.

They are expected to retail at $399.95. A release date has not been announced.

We’re guessing that by now the harsh reality has sunk in: The iPhone 4S is physically more or less identical to its predecessor. If you want to be special, however, there is a way to make your new toy stand out from the rest and shine in many magnificent colors.

ColorWare, the company known for its custom-colored Apple products, has added the iPhone 4S to its roster.

Read the rest of this article at Mashable

Did you hear that iPhone 4S, the device that was dismissed as “meh” by many of our media brethren saw pre-bookings of a million devices on day one? That’s not only good news for Apple, but also for its partners: AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, which is betting it all on the iPhone. But they aren’t the only ones cashing in on the iPhone 4S bonanza. Folks from UBS Research put together a list of companies it believes are “potential key suppliers” for the iPhone 4S.

Read the rest of this article at GigaOM

So maybe you’ve heard that a new iPhone was announced. Maybe you heard that it wasn’t the “iPhone 5? but rather the iPhone 4S, which is essentially iPhone 4.5. People wanted the iPhone 5. They were let down when Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook announced in his first public presentation that they were giving the world a better version of what they were already selling, and what most people in the audience most likely already were using. They were so disappointed that Apple’s stock fell $17 dollars as he was talking. That’s harsh.

If you follow how Apple’s product release cycle for iPhones work you wouldn’t have been surprised to hear about an 4S phone instead of a complete hardware redesign with a 5. With Steve Jobs, the God CEO himself, stepping down due to his failing health the public, and stock holders, were expecting Cook to unveil the blueprint for Jesus’ return and a miracle cure for Steve Jobs in Apple’s first product announcement under new leadership. It’s been 16 months passed since the last iPhone release so rumors were flying every which way with speculation. Bigger screen! Curbed glass! Infrared keyboard!

Read the rest of this article at The Smugger

It’s official: sixteen months after the launch of the last iteration, Apple CEO Tim Cook has just taken the stage to announce the next iPhone. It’s called the iPhone 4S.

… and it looks exactly like an iPhone 4.

Uncharacteristically for Apple, official word of the iPhone 4S actually crossed the wire a bit early when the page for Apple’s store in Ginza, Japan mentioned the device.

The whispers around the rumor mill constantly contradicted each other regarding Apple’s next iPhone. Some foresaw the iPhone 4S; others saw an iPhone 5 on the way. Some claimed it’d be both. If an iPhone 5 is on this year’s launch calendar, it hasn’t been mentioned yet at this event.

Read the rest of this article at TechCrunch

At its next major media event, on October 4, Apple will likely announce the next iPhone, but it may also discontinue some of its popular products — the iPod classic and iPod shuffle.

Citing a source who is not an analyst, but someone familiar with the situation, The Unofficial Apple Weblog claims that the two legendary products are getting cut from Apple’s product portfolio sometime this year.

Read the rest of this article at Mashable

Consumers love their iPads, although more than a few are frustrated by the device’s onscreen keyboard. But rather than buying a separate, tactile keyboard, two inventors have another idea.

Christian Sax and Hannes Lau at the University of Technology in Sydney showed off a “Liquid Keyboard” at the Tech23 conference Tuesday in Sydney. As the video explains, normal touchscreen keyboards only let you use one or two fingers at a time. That makes typing slower than it would be on a traditional keyboard, where you can use all your fingers.

Read the rest of this article at Mashable

United Airlines announced Tuesday that it is replacing its pilots’ flight decks with iPads.

Rather than carry around 38 pounds of operating manuals, charts and logbooks, the 11,000 pilots at United and Continental will use a pre-loaded iPad. United started distributing iPads to pilots earlier this month and plans to have devices to all pilots by the end of the year.

United joins a growing list of airlines that have started converting some or all of their pilots to using electronic flight bags. Alaska Airlines announced in May its intentions to switch from paper to the iPad. Last week, Delta and British Airways started testing the use of iPad and other consumer tablets as replacements for traditional paper flight bags.

Read the rest of this article at Mashable