According to a rumour that's been getting a little traction on the Mac sites, the new iPod nano will be multi-coloured. Notice that we said "nano" and not "nanos." Because while the current nano line is offered in multiple colours, 9to5Mac is claiming that the next nano will have more than one colour on each model. In addition, the storage capacity is said to be doubled alongside the inclusion of "new features." [9to5Mac]

Microsoft just confirmed that Lips is not just an awkward prerelease codename but the final title of the Xbox 360 karaoke game with motion-sensing, rhinestone-encrusted microphone we've been hearing about. Most interesting though is integration with your Zune or--gasp!--iPod for loading your own songs into the game. No more complaining that your local 'oke joint isn't indie enough for you. [Gizmodo's E3 Microsoft Liveblog]

Read More »

You know how it is: you're camping in the wild, and your iPhone suddenly runs out of juice, just as you get bored stiff with the music selection you've got aboard it. Previously you'd've had to carry a bunch of stuff around to sort this out, but Macally's PowerLink has come to the rescue. With USB plug on one end and 30-pin iPod connector on the other, it acts as a sync cable, but has a battery inside to give you a squirt of extra power if you're in a pinch. It also packs a 2GB flash drive, but you'll need to get mp3's off that via iTunes, sadly. No info on how long the battery lasts, but as a 3-in-1 gizmo it's pretty useful. Out "soon" for US$49.99. [OhGizmo]

Read More »

Channel 7's new ad for TiVo has hit the airwaves (and YouTube), and it's not too bad an effort - towers made from videos build up around an animated TiVo icon, which then sucks them all down inside it at the end of the ad.

The problem is, like Sony's bunny ad before it, this one borrows pretty heavily from someone else's work. In this case though, it's not some obscure artist that's been ripped off, it's Apple.

Read More »

The iPod touch 2.0 firmware is now available from Apple for US$9.95, officially. In reality, Apple's having a busy day, so they're not quite firing on all cylinders yet. It should be up any minute, we expect. [Apple]

Read More »

Many portable media players have audio recorders built in so you can record audio directly to them. The iPod does not. Interested in adding that feature? Say hello to Belkin's crazy, US$120 solution to this problem: the GoStudio (initially announced as the Podcast Studio. Essentially, it adds an audio-in to your iPod, but it also has a speaker for playing your awkward voice notes back, dual-XLR microphone inputs and a bunch of knobs and stuff for tweaking your recordings. And even though it's expensive and looks all professional, it only records in 16 bit, and we all know that true audio nerds demand 24 bit. It's mucho overkill for people who just want to make voice notes, but if you want to record your band's demo directly to your iPod for some reason this could work for you.

Read More »

Audiophile megabrand Krell's Papa Dock (companion to the US$1500 Kid Dock, which snaps into its new daddy) boosts the Kid's output to 150 watts, sports a gigantic power supply along with isolated stereo channels, and will set you back another US$2500 on top. I would say our jury's still out on spending US$4000 on serious audiophile gear to amplify a consumer-level source input, but this thing looks like it could take a bullet for you, if that's your thing. And naming your product after a brutal Haitian dictator is always a great way to stir up some interest. [Krell]

Read More »

Square Enix has just made an iPod--not iPhone--game called Song Summoner that takes the songs stored in your library and makes soldiers out of them. The gameplay is very much Final Fantasy Tactics, which is turn-based, and you control your guys with the click wheel. Out today at US$4.99 for RPG and music fans everywhere. [Square Enix via Wired Games]

Read More »

Surely at least a few of our readers have encountered the dead iPod icon, and now one crafter has taken it upon themselves to immortalise the moment in cross-stitch. No longer will the sad music player invoke the agony of money lost, but the joy of afternoons at grandma's and the smell of freshly baked cookies. (It's just too bad that we listened to our iPod while eating those cookies.) [Crafster via technabob]

Read More »

In a recent study by British Music Rights, 14- to 24-year-olds were polled as to how much stolen music they carried around on a daily basis. The finding was that almost half of said music was never purchased. 842 of the 1,770 tracks held on the average digital music player were reported as stolen--that's 48 percent.

Read More »