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As predicted last week in the Boing Boing agricultural almanac, Apple this week releases three new varieties of iPods for the fall crop.

All three bear improvements over earlier generations of this familiar fruit, but some of the new additions—and in some cases, what's missing—may surprise you. Following are snapshots of the new iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano, and iPod Touch, with taste-test notes.

You can find them all in your local farmers markets soon, or order them now at the online Apple store.

Above, the reverse face of the 4th-generation iPod Touch ($229 for 8GB, $299 for 32GB, or $399 for 64GB). It's thinner and lighter, with a much slimmer profile than iPhone: 0.28 inch (7.2 mm) thick, and 3.56 ounces (101 grams). It's also the highest-resolution iPod yet, with a 960x640 backlit LCD display and 326 pixels per inch, and includes some of the new features introduced with the iPhone 4's launch, such as FaceTime video calls made possible with a front-facing camera and a rear-facing HD camera. In tests performed over the past few days with the device, video capture performance seemed on par with the high expectations set by the iPhone 4.

For still snapshots, the camera is solid, but falls just a bit shy of the very high bar set by iPhone 4. The rear-facing camera on iPod Touch can shoot video at 720p, with maximum resolution of 1280x720. For still photos, maximum rez is 960x720 (720p at 4:3 ratio). Unlike iPhone 4, the Touch doesn't allow you to to tap-focus on specific spots in the photo you're about to take, because its camera is fixed-focus. Tapping allows you to tweak exposure and white balance, but that's all. And, alas, no flash.

On the upside, the Touch now includes that same A4 processor that makes the iPhone 4 so zippy: as a result, speed and responsiveness are similarly delightful.

Above, the 4th-generation iPod Shuffle, now navigable by clickwheel or voice controls. It's the cheapest music player in the Apple lineup at only $49 for 2GB, and seems like a solid deal if a bare-bones music player is all you need.

Below, the new sixth-generation Nano (8 GB for $149, 16GB for $179, available in seven different case colors). That little display's pretty crazy, about an inch and a half in both directions, give or take a smidge. The screen seems visually identical to the crispness and resolution of iPhone 4's "retina display." A device this tiny isn't going to be used as a primary photo display device—but sharing baby photos at the gym, or quick references to visual tokens while you're out and about? Sure.

The notion of storing and showing photos on the Nano becomes more plausible with the new high-res display. But the lack of ability to zoom in or expand "landscape"/widescreen format photos is a bit of a bummer.

No video in this iteration: video playing has been removed from this new generation of Nano. But who really watches video on a wristwatch-sized display? I use a Nano at the gym a lot, and I don't think I'll mourn this feature. The Nano is a music device at heart, and performs solidly.

The radio tuner on the Nano works great: reception was what I'd expect from, say, my car radio, and the tuner interface mimics a conventional radio dial (mine's always set to KCRW). Photos, music, radio, podcasts, pedometer and run history for running/jogging: All this in a device small and lightweight enough to wear on your wrist, as a neck pendant, or clip on your t-shirt. It weighs less than a single ounce (.74 ounce/21.1 grams, to be precise).

Above and below, music and photos on the new Nano. You navigate the menu, and songs or photos within, using multi-touch swipe and tap.

Flick your fingers one way or the other to shift orientation, and various tap gestures allow you to go deeper into options, or back your way out. Took me a little getting used to before I felt like I knew my way around with the new UI, but the new display and lack of button cruft sure feel nice. You'd think something this small would be frustrating to use for touchscreen input, and two fingers at a time might sound impossible—but I didn't find that to be the case.

Below: At left, the new iPod Touch next to a third-generation iPhone. At right, the new Touch next to an iPhone 4. The Touch really is quite slim, and has a more tapered silhouette, compared to the iPhone 4's more rectilinear form.

Below: A Boing Boing Video episode (Markets of Britain, by Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper) on the Touch. Video playback performance is as solid on the new iPhone 4, and I can imagine spending many spare moments YouTube surfing while in transit. No surprises there: it's a powerful little multimedia device, with a number of evolutionary advances over its predecessor.

Below: FaceTime on the new iPod Touch. Others call you using your email address, instead of a phone number, since the Touch is not a phone.

You'll notice two other new socially-minded additions to the Touch this time around: Game Center, for social gaming; and Ping for social networking around music. More on those in future Boing Boing posts.

All photos shot on iPhone 4, by Xeni Jardin; screen capture at bottom of post was captured on iPod Touch.)

• Apple event, September 1: The Liveblog


• Hands-on with new Apple TV and iPods; and notes on Ping, the ...

Look at this squid's eye. Just look at it. See anything eerily familiar?

Squid, along with the rest of the family Cephalopoda, haven't shared a common ancestor with us vertebrates in some 500 million years—long before the evolution of our camera-like eyes. And yet, there the cephalopods are, flagrantly swimming about with eyes that use a lens to project an image onto a retina. Call it Squid Eye for the Vertebrate Guy. So, how's it work?

Convergent evolution, my friends. Convergent evolution. We happened to hit on similar solutions to the same problem of sight, even though the eyes of vertebrates and cephalopods evolved separately, in very different ways, at different times. Today, we can see that legacy in cephalopod and vertebrate fetal development. With vertebrates, the eyes grow on stalks, reaching out from the brain. In cephalopods, the eyes start as a clumping of cells on the surface of the skin and reach backwards, into the head, to make brain contact. Similar destinations. Very different road maps.

This lovely illustration—featuring dissections of the head, funnel, mantle and eye of a Thaumatolampas diadema—comes from The Cephalopoda Part I: Oegopsida and Part II: Myopsida, Octopoda Atlas written in 1910 by zoologist Carl Chun following a German expedition to the Indian, Atlantic and Great Southern oceans.

You can see more of Chun's detailed, passionate illustrations at the BibliOdyssey blog.

MapEnvelope (via Make)

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Shotgun Shell Candles (via Make)

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I find this site, full of coloring-book images of dinosaurs altered into pretentious cool kids, incredibly charming.

Thanks to the awesome Ashley Stubblefield!

Video Link.

(via BB Submitterator, thanks Antinous!)

An assortment of 1970s cover scans from the motorcycle magazine Easyriders.

Articles included: "How to Get Rid of Your Woman," "Trouble With Twats," "Why Men Wear Beards," and then: "Positive Prison Reform Plan."

Above, the cover art for an issue which contained a feature article titled "How to Select a Good Ol' Lady." Apparently, the courtship ritual involves strangling her. Then, meth!

Some of the images on the aforelinked link are not work-safe.

(Submitterated by MikeOliveri)

I was going through my photo archive and came across this sign for funnel cakes that I photographed in Austin a couple of years ago. Doesn't it whet your appetite?

This video of a cruise ship in heavy seas is intense, and the Rod Stewart soundtrack doesn't make it any less so. I bet it was quite scary for the folks onboard. (Thanks, Mathias Crawford, via Dangerous Minds!)

猫が土下座しながら寝てた, via The Frisky.

Why all beverage bottles aren't shaped like pigs is beyond explanation. (Thanks, Rob!)

Imagine Peace

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After a 7 month beta test period, we're sad to report that we've reached a decision to cease operation of Makers Market and Boing Boing Bazaar. Although the concept of a marketplace for indie makers invited by the staffs of Make and Boing Boing received strong praise from sellers and customers alike, in the final analysis it is not generating the kind of sales for our sellers that we expected, nor generating the revenue we need to "keep the lights on". Working in close collaboration with Boing Boing we attracted over 150 wonderful makers with creations so magical we frequently found ourselves pulling out our own wallets to buy gifts. However, our model was predicated on a highly cooperative premise: that a marketplace of indie makers actively engaged in their respective communities would quickly begin to draw its own critical mass. In spite of our best effort, this dynamic simply hasn't evolved. Too many sellers have confided in us that they are heavily committed to other projects or too pre-occupied promoting their own sites or preexisting stores to effectively tend to their Makers Market/Boing Boing Bazaar storefront. Which means that on any given day, the only product(s) that sell well are those that Boing Boing and Make have blogged that day.

October 8th will be the last day to sell products on Makers Market and Boing Boing Bazaar. Thereafter, we will keep the market open through November 9th to facilitate communications between sellers and their customers. We will publish a full-width graphical announcement on all marketplace pages explaining that the marketplace is closed, but that orders already placed are being fulfilled, and that customers can continue to access their account and order details and can communicate with sellers as through November 9th. On November 10th, we will replace the marketplace with a static page with a message from Make and pertinent contact info.

Effective immediately, we will waive any new fees other than commissions for those sellers who wish to continue selling through October 8th. For sellers who continue to sell though Oct 8th, standard sales commissions will continue to apply.

We sincerely appreciate your investment in time and energy into Makers Market and Boing Boing Bazaar. We want you to know that we have spent countless weeks evaluating the underlying circumstances, talking with sellers, and analyzing various options. In the final analysis, we are unable to sustain the marketplace without many times the traffic we are generating. We welcome your comments and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Please write us at help@makersmarket.com

One of the most important issues to address in car interfaces is how to deal with upset drivers, as negative feelings are among the primary causes of accidents on the highways. Unfortunately, there is little known about effective strategies that passengers can use when dealing with an upset driver. In particular, should a passenger -- real or virtual -- in a car with an upset driver sound happy and upbeat or depressed and morose?

As an experimentalist, I decided to obtain upset drivers, combine them with either a happy or upset passenger, and see what happened. While one might want to do the study with real passengers, it's often much more effective to study people's reactions to interactive media directly.

My lab and I had participants use a driving simulator with a gas pedal, brake pedal, and force-feedback steering wheel. Along for the ride was a "virtual passenger," a recorded voice played by the car. The voice was of a female actress and made light conversation with the participant throughout the drive. The passenger's remarks encouraged the driver to talk back. For example: "How do you think that the car is performing?", "Do you generally like to drive at, below, or above the speed limit?", and "Don't you think these lanes are a little too narrow?" While the voice said the same 36 remarks to all the participants, its tone of voice was clearly happy and upbeat for some participants, and clearly morose and downbeat for others.

The sad voice sounds almost laughable to most people, and it would seem obvious that these upset drivers would prefer and benefit from the happy voice. To check this, using the simulator and coordinated technologies, we recorded the number of accidents the participant had and how much attention the participant paid to the drive. We also measured people's social engagement with the virtual passenger by recording how much the participant spoke with the agent. After the driving was over, we asked participants a number of questions about their feelings about the car and their driving experience via an online questionnaire.

What happened to these upset drivers? Did the happy passenger help cheer up the drivers? The simulator results suggest an emphatic "no." The happy voice in fact worsened upset participants' driving: upset drivers hearing the happy voice had approximately twice as many accidents on average as the upset drivers hearing the depressed voice. Upset drivers with the happy voice were also less attentive to the road than those with the voice that was clearly flat.

The questionnaire results also suggest that upset drivers were happier with a subdued, rather than happy, virtual passenger. Specifically, upset drivers enjoyed driving more, liked the voice more, and thought that the car was of a higher quality when the virtual passenger was upset. In addition, even though you might think that an upset passenger and an upset driver would avoid conversation with each other, upset drivers spoke much more with the depressed "passenger" than they did with the happy one. Why didn't the upset drivers benefit from the happy voice? When people try to process and pay attention to emotions that differ from their own, it takes a great deal of cognitive effort. As a result, the drivers were distracted, uncomfortable, and performed worse. Furthermore, when the virtual passenger continued to cling to her initial emotion, drivers felt the lack of empathy, even if it was only a technology that was hurtful.

While it is satisfying to inform the design of the car's interface to make drivers safer and more enjoyable, it turns out that there was another benefit. In over one hundred experiments, research emerging from my lab has shown that social behaviors and responses appear in full force when people interact with technology. That is, people treat computers as if they were real people. As a result, just as we can use the most successful social behaviors to inform technology design, we can use studies with computers and other technologies to derive rules that will teach people how to win friends and influence people. Indeed, in my new book, The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us about Human Relationships, I describe almost one hundred rules for social behavior that can be derived from experimental studies of how people use technology and that can make people more likeable, effective, and persuasive. The current study gives us two principles to guide interactions with people (as well as technology): telling upset people to "look at the bright side of life" can be off-putting, and "misery loves miserable company."

Buy The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships on Amazon

Exclusive free BB event in Los Angeles: screening of Catfish documentary