Lest you judge too quickly, let’s take a look at the Geek Squad’s latest service in their own words:

CD conversion requires care and expertise. We’ll rip your CD collection into MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA, WMA-Lossless, or OGG formats, and return it to you (along with your CDs) on DVDs

Translation: We’ll take whatever is on your disc and put it on another disc.

We pull quality, accurate metadata from multiple sources such as AMG and GD3 and rip your CDs with the finest error correction software. We also hand-groom your digital music collection making searching and organizing your collection a breeze and ready to play as soon as you receive it.

Translation: We have iTunes.

Wondering where we are with your conversion? Simply login on our website and view the status of your order at any time.

Translation: This is going to take a while.

Have a few CDs with peanut butter and jelly on them?

Translation: You are clearly an idiot.

Need an iPod, hard drive, or music server with your CD Ripping? Add it to your cart and we’ll transfer (load) your entire collection to the selected hardware FREE of charge.

Translation: And now that we know you’re an idiot, we would like to steal from you.

I’m sure there’s a market for this—old folks? the chronically lazy? someone’s been paying for this shit for years—but really, you’re paying a dollar for someone to click on a few buttons, and pass it off as something that you can’t do yourself. Or hey, maybe I’m being unfair. Let me know! Just email me your thoughts, and I’ll post them as comments for, let’s say $US0.50 a word? Great. [Consumerist]

We had a few complaints that the MP3s of our last record wasn’t encoded at a high enough rate. Some even suggested we should have used FLACs, but if you even know what one of those is, and have strong opinions on them, you’re already lost to the world of high fidelity and have probably spent far too much money on your speaker-stands.

It’ll be interesting to see if this philosophy holds up as the band moves into more digital-only releases, as they’ve done with a couple of single tracks in the last couple months. It’s all fine and good to not care about MP3 quality when audiophiles can just buy the CD instead, but what about when it’s the only option? It’s not just super nerds who would prefer at least a -v0 bitrate instead of 160CBR.

The whole interview is worth reading (it’s a short one), as Greenwood discusses his personal listening habits and how the band listened to a bunch of 90’s hip-hop via AirTunes while they recorded In Rainbows. [New Yorker via Kottke]

How Many iPods Have You Owned?

How Many Non-iPod MP3 Players Have You Owned?

What Is The Mix Like?

What Do You Do With Your Old MP3 Players?

The whitoken theme hasn’t been released yet, but its creator promises that it’ll be available for the iPod touch sometime tomorrow. No word on iPhone availability. [MacThemes]

The final reveal for the Zune HD was how well it handled when docked on a high-def TV. As you can see in this video, it blows away anything else in its class.

I was trying to figure out what it was about the Zune HD’s TV interface that I was enjoying so much, and then I realised: Unlike every other device of its size and capacity, this thing is a true portable media centre. It’s not as fast as a fully fledged PC running Windows Media centre, but it is zippy as hell for a pocketable, portable player.

Zune HD goes dark when it’s docked, like you see in the gallery. This isn’t like an iPod—you dock Zune HD, and suddenly it’s invisible, the power behind what you watch or listen to. The remote is the key. I bopped around, browsing music, scanning for radio stations (that HD has a few meanings, including a HD radio receiver, so you can see the “what’s playing” data and everything) and even watching a short full-screen video on this 152cm Samsung. The demo Zune only had the one video—I can’t wait to see what it’s like to fill a 32GB one with great movies and TV episodes.

As we showed you months ago, the player itself takes the PMP user interface to a new level. When you select something, all the screen elements move at different vectors, creating at times a 3D effect, as you can catch up close in the video below. (Pardon the glare, but that’s one hazard—for better or worse, it’s a shiny shiny screen.)

I don’t want to say more—this is not a review, and I won’t be the reviewer when we do pass judgement—but let me say that, as someone who’s never been terribly excited by past Zunes, this one took me pleasantly by surprise.

Update: Pics pulled, cases “available September”. Hmmm?

A recently rumoured September keynote (when iPods tend to be announced), supposed iTunes 9 screenshots, mounting case leaks? New iPods are a comin’, and my it’s looking more and more like they’ll have cameras.

New: JIVO TPA Case Blue for iPod Touch 3G

New: JIVO TPA Case Blue for iPod Nano 5G

One of more than a dozen case shots that Cult of Mac obtained:

[Obrigado fanático das maçãs]

To be fair to Microsoft, iPod video format support is pretty horribly limited, but wide codec compatibility would’ve been something of a coup for the Zune HD. As it stands, here’s what it can handle:

Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv) – Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync.
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video3– Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync.
H.264 video – Baseline Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync. DVR-MS4 – Zune software will transcode at time of sync.

720p playback will only come by means of an external dock connector—not that the 480×272 screen could display it anyway, or that it would matter on a device this size. In any case, this is fine—transcoding video is something we’re used to for portable devices, and past Zune software has been serviceable. About that battery life, though:

Music, up to 24 hours (wireless off); video, up to 4 hours*

24 hours is plenty for music playback, though it’s well under the iPod Touch’s (admittedly inflated) 36-hour claim, and we’ll have to see how well the battery holds up during radio playback and, most importantly, web browsing. The video figure is concerning though, not just because it’s kinda low, but because that asterisk points down to “320×240 WMV9 500 Kbps” video—well below that maximum possible playback quality. Is Tegra a little bit of a battery hog? [Microsoft via Engadget]

The wonderful Improv Everywhere just posted the report from its 6th MP3 Experiment, where 2,000 people all got together and listened to the same instructional MP3. It looked like a crazy amount of fun.

You may be familiar with some of Improv Everywhere’s other pranks, such as Frozen Grand Central and the No Pants Subway Ride, but the annual MP3 Experiment is one that looks like it may be the most fun to participate in. I mean, come on, watch that video and tell me everyone doesn’t look like they’re having a blast. [Improv Everywhere]

The service is set to cost £10-15, or about $US16-$25, per month, and it would allow users to either stream or download as many tracks and albums from Universal’s catalog as they want.

It’s a great first step, but not one I would sign on for just yet. While a flat rate for unlimited MP3 downloads is amazing, having it only work for one label’s catalog limits the value, even if it is a gigantic label such as Universal. If I’m gonna pay $US20 a month, I want that to cover everything, not just some songs.

If you were looking for the catch, it’s this: Virgin has agreed to be really strict about searching for piracy and cutting off the service of offenders.

It’s a great precedent, however. If other labels jumped on board and the selection was more all-encompassing I can’t imagine many people would be able to say no to legit all-you-can-eat music for a reasonable monthly fee. And if that existed, the excuses for piracy would be harder to justify. [Reuters]

After all, it makes sense to power Bluetooth headphones with a small solar panel stretched across the headband—an area that could be easily exposed to the sun. Outside of that, the Q-Sound would also be able to handle calls or plug into a 3.5mm jack should the need arise. All-in-all the Q-Sound is a great idea—a concept I can definitely see transitioning into a real-world product. [Ecofriend via Gizmag via Ubergizmo]