Reuters reports that Londoner Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of design, has been awarded the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the Queen.

According to Wikipedia, King George V established the Order "to honour the many thousands of people who served in numerous non-combatant capacities during the First World War." "Commander" is the 3rd of 5 classes in the Order; only the top two qualify for knighthood. Still, the guy is a product designer. It's not like he saved septuplet babies from the mouth of a lion.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm ignorant of the trappings of old-world royal honors. However, it seems to me that some of these honors are handed out like candy.

Jim is now a CBE. The two lower classes are "Officer" (OBE) and "Member" (MBE). What does it take to be an MBE? Showing up for work on time?  

Predictably, several iPod-related products and services are being announced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Most of them are pretty ho-hum, so I won't bore you with them. (You can read about some here.

Newsworthy to FreeiPodGuy is TiVo's reiteration from CES that they will have their TiVoToGo product available for the Macintosh in mid-2006. TiVoToGo will bring iPod conversion of TiVo content to Mac users.

Speaking of Mac compatibility, ATO announced at CES that the video conversion software accompanying their iSee 360 product (mentioned in FreeiPodGuy's previous entry) will be Windows-only at first, but it will be available this month. (Not later in the quarter as previously reported.) However, the Mac version will be available within the quarter.  

Here's an interesting device. The iSee 360 is a sled-shaped device a little larger than an iPod photo, into which an iPod photo (or with an adapter, a mini or nano) can be slid.

The device allows the recording (via video inputs; it doesn't seem to have a camera) and playback of videos on a 3.6" LCD screen.

While it might be tempting to call this a cool iPod accessory, in reality, the iPod is an accessory to the iSee. The iPod seems to serve little purpose except for storage.

Some might argue that the iSee + iPod photo will be superior to the video-capable 5th generation iPod, because it adds features the 5G lacks: recording from TV, larger screen, and a slightly longer battery life (4 hours).

There is no word as yet on Mac compatibility, though I presume one could load video content onto the iPod from the Mac in disk mode. The iSee will be available at $249 (ouch!) in the first quarter of 2006. For more information, see ATO's website.  

For Christmas, FreeiPodGuy got a Griffin radioSHARK. It's been fun experimenting with and worth the steeply discounted price from Amazon.com, though I wouldn't pay retail, mainly due to it's poor AM reception. It's worth the $44 anyway.

Over the past week, I've been experimenting with various antenna configurations. The radioSHARK has an internal AM antenna with no external AM jack, so other than positioning the radioSHARK for optimal reception, there's not much you can do. (Except maybe position a wireless antenna next to the 'shark.)

However, for FM, in addition to the USB cable, which the radioSHARK uses for an antenna, there's a built-in headphone jack that also serves as an antenna jack. Into this, one can plug in just about any wire connected to a 1/8" mini plug. I tried many things: 3 or 4 different sets of headphones/earbuds (not for listening--just for the antenna value), and even purchased a dipole FM antenna from RadioShack and attached it to a compatible plug, with dismal results.

Interestingly, the best solution is Apple's earbuds packaged with iPods. (I have a pair with one crushed bud. It's useless for listening, but still works as an antenna. I knew there was a reason I save EVERYTHING.) Not only does it work; it works fantastically. I get many FM stations clearly, that I cannot receive with any other radio. The earbuds not only work better than other headphones, but better than an FM antenna designed specifically for the purpose of improving FM reception.

I can't help but wonder whether Apple engineered the earbuds specifically for the purpose of use as an antenna. Could it be that a future iPod will include an FM tuner?

Perhaps a sign of things to come.