For some time now Apple has dominated the portable music player industry with its iPod, by making the most user-friendly system on the market. They recently entered the mobile phone with the iPhone and made a massive impact immediately. Later this year they’ll be releasing a new, improved iPhone that should make even more waves among the major mobile phone manufacturers.

One market though that Apple have yet to fully enter has been mobile gaming. That so far has been the domain of Sony with the PSP and Nintendo with their GameBoy over the years, and now the Nintendo DS.

Apple though has plans to muscle in on their market, by increasing the gaming capabilities of the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

Apple is expected to unveil the next generation iPhone shortly, as well as a new section of iTunes where iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be able to download software, and games, from the website.

With Apple’s marketing power and the technological power of the two products, they could pose a serious threat to the Japanese Nintendo DS.

Like the DS, the iPhone and iPod have touch screen capabilities, but the Apple products will also have motion sensor functionality much like the Nintendo Wii.

All of this predicted technology is fine however, but Apple still have to realise it. They also have to challenge the games industry itself which is full of Nintendo loyalists and fanboys. Technology alone will not be enough for Apple.

Games such as Mario and Zelda are Nintendo exclusive. Apple will have to start from scratch if they’re going to compete on the gaming front.

According to rumours coming out of the Singapore based company, Creative, they’re planning to release a new MP3 player within the next two months. The inside word on the new mp3 player is that it would be called the Zen Share and would enable users to share music between MP3 players using wireless technology.

Originally this player was intended for release either in May or June, but rumours now put the intended launch date somewhere inside the next two months. However these new rumours suggest that the MP3 player will not be called the Zen Share after all.

Jan Hvidberg, Creative Nordic product manager, said in a recent press conference that they had tried to develop an MP3 player that allowed the sharing of files, but the designs had to be shelved because of technical difficulties with the process.

He did say though that a new device is in development and the emphasis has been on the design aspect. He also said there was an end to Creative’s development of hard drive based MP3 players, instead they would be focusing on flash drives.

Creative themselves have neither confirmed nor denied the statement.

Transcend are a Taiwanese firm who make MP3 players and flash memory cards. They claim that due to the stabilising of microchip prices and a growing demand for MP3 players their profits are due to increase, giving them a double digit profit margin. This is good news for Transcend after they an initially slow start to the year with a poor first quarter.

Steve Chang, Vice President of Transcend said in an interview with news agency firm Reuters:

The first quarter was a bottom and the gross profit margin already rebounded to above 10 percent in April and May.

Steve Chang claims that Transcend’s margin will hit the double digits in terms of percent by the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Apparently Transcend expect the numbers of MP3 players that are shipped this year to be double that of last year.

40% of Transcend’s revenues from the DRAM (Dynamic random access memory) chips that the company manufactures. The chips are then used in servers and home computers.

Transcend have been in business for just 20 years and also manufacture flash cards for mobile phones and digital cameras.

Monopoly, the game that has caused so many arguments in so many households throughout the world, is finally coming to the iPod.

Whether you love or loath the game, you can’t deny the popularity of the board game that allows players to but up parts of London for just a few quid, and then extort rent from their family members for landing on their coloured squares.

Now, thanks to video games giant Electronic Arts, Monopoly is coming to the iPod, the iPod classic and the iPod nano. The classic game, with the full rules that are often argued over, is available from iTunes for the bargain price of just $4.99.

The game allows you to build your own property empire buying up locations based on colour coding, and to build houses and hotels. The original game is owned by Hasbro and was licensed to EA to release for the Apple iPod.

Players are able to play against the iPod (which means no complaining when you lose) or with up to four friends using other iPods.

The game is available for 3rd generation iPod nanos and 5th generation iPods.

In today’s society it’s become more and more apparent that teenagers have a massive amount of disposable income, more so than their parents seem to have. Is it any wonder that marketing companies have been targeting the youth market with such vigour? It’s a very affluent market, and one that generate huge profits for companies smart enough to capitalise on it, such gadget and technology companies.

Because of the way family structures and family units have changed over the past few years, the wealth that seems to have befallen the teenager has increased. This has led them to spend more on goods, services and disposable items.

Recent research has suggested that the teen market in Canada is 4 million strong, and they spent a staggering $14 billion in 2006.

This means the average Canadian teen has roughly $500 per month to spend. When you consider that they have diverse income streams such as pocket money from parents, part time jobs, money from grand parents and stepparents, it’s not hard to see how they manage to amass such spending power.

The biggest market teens are spending their money on is in technology, such as mobile phones, iPods and MP3 players. Teens are even acting as council for their technophobe parents, so when the teen isn’t actually buying the technology product, they’re the decision maker in any purchase.

This means that any company looking to drive sales of technology products needs to appeal to the youth market. If they’re not buying the product themselves, they’ll most likely have the final say in the decision.

Recently Apple filed for a patent for a solar powered cell within an iPod, under the screen; prompting speculation that the technology giant was looking at bringing out a solar powered iPod. However, as we look at the practicality of such a device, it does seem that this is unlikely.

The problem is, that although solar powered technology has been around for some time in equipment such as watches and calculators, they require considerably less juice to function than a modern day iPod. In fact, to power an iPod on the same technology you would be looking at the power of approximately one million watches.

Hardly practical.

It is possible however to power an iPod by solar power, but you would require something like Brunton’s Solaris i6, which would give enough power for the job. The problem with this is that it’s larger than an iPod and costs in the region of $210, which is about the same as an iPod.

So doubling an iPod’s price and increasing its size just to make it solar powered? That seems unlikely.

The other problem of course is charging your iPod. How much damage can you expect to do to the storage drive by leaving your iPod baking in the sun?

There are a great many patents filed by companies such as Apple for whenever one of the engineers has an idea; this looks like it could be one such case.

Many reports recently have highlighted the problems of teens damaging their hearing by listening to their MP3 players too loudly. Concerns from parents and government seem warranted; as many teens readily admit to knowing about the dangers, yet seem unwilling to actually turn their volumes down because it hampers their enjoyment.

They simply think it won’t happen to them.

It’s not just damage to hearing that is faced by teens, they’re also susceptible to injury from accidents as a result of not being able to hear what is around them, especially when out in the street.

CoreMicro, a Canadian company, have an answer though as they’ve just launched what they term ‘ear saving technology’.

The product in question is ‘SafeVolume earbuds’ that will retail for just $19.99, and promise to limit the volume of portable digital music players such as MP3 players and iPods. They’re proven to work as well, winning a 2008 iParenting Media Award.

Dr. Blake Papsin, Cochlear Americas Chair in Auditory Development, stated:

When hearing is damaged or lost, there’s no way to get it back. These earbuds will reduce the numbers of hearing impaired children coming to see us in the future - and we can only imagine how many kids will be grateful to their parents for protecting them against a preventable source of hearing loss.

Hearing loss is a big problem in Canada as 1 in 10 Canadians experience hearing loss, partly attributed to MP3 players.

The earbuds cap the volume at 85 decibels, meaning users will not damage their hearing while using them.

The long running dispute over proposals to slap a levy on digital audio devices such as MP3 players and iPods has reached boiling point this week in Brussels, as the EU Internal Market Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy called for a forum to resolve the problem.

The issue surrounds the fact that because MP3 players and other digital audio players can be used to pass recordings easily from peer to peer, artists are losing out on revenue. The proposal is to place a tax on the MP3 players themselves so that the music labels can recoup some of the lost earnings.

Some of the big electronics manufacturers such as Philips, Nokia and HP are pitted against the authorities who are responsible for collecting the levy.

McCreevy wants to diffuse the ‘passion’ from the discussions and instead wants a forum to calmly debate the issue and to finalise a decision going forward.

McCreevy stated:

It’s time the parties speak to each other directly. I have a simple wish, I would like this hearing to be the start of a process through which the main partners can sit down and calmly discuss a number of issues.

According to the EU, the levy, which already exists in some EU states, raised 400 million Euros in 2007. The levy was introduced in the 1960s for blank recording formats such as cassette tapes, but has been changed to include other media such as blank CDs and Mini Discs over the years.

Currently the UK is one of the countries where there is no levy on MP3 players. If the levy is extended to the UK you can expect the cost to be passed onto the consumer at the point of sale.

As we recently reported, crimes against youths carrying gadgets are on the up in the UK. Out of those crimes, theft of mobiles phones and MP3 players are among the most common. Last week a 22-year-old man in Reading was mugged in the street for his wallet and his iPod.

The muggers attacked the man, punching him in the face as he listed to his iPod, before stealing it and fleeing.

The incident happened on Palmerstone Road, Earley, in Reading. The man was listening to music as he made his way along the road, before three men attacked him.

One of the attackers was white, aged 20-25 and was 5ft 11ins - 6f. He punched the man in the face, resulting in him needing stitches in his lip. There were no descriptions released of the other two attackers.

Loddon Valley police force’s Stuart Keys said:

I am keen to speak to anyone who was in this area of Earley in the early hours of Thursday or anyone who saw three men acting suspiciously in the area.

We are carrying out house to house inquiries in the area and posting witness leaflets through doors.

This trend of theft against youths for their MP3 players and iPods is becoming more and more common, so anyone using a portable digital media player in the street should be careful and be on the lookout.

We all know the iPod is the most successful portable digital audio player on the market today. Apple saw that gap years before anyone else and dominated it with a great product and a slick marketing campaign, now the other companies, Sony included, are just playing catch-up.

Apple though are not resting on their well padded laurels, they’re increasing production of the iPod product, ready to enforce their grip on the market.

Capital Market analyst Craig Berger has recently completed a check on Apple’s products and their NPD sales data. Berger found that Apple are actually decreasing production of their Mac line, but are increasing production of the iPod.

The production of iPods has increased by 15% since March as the iPod Shuffle has accounted for most of the extra units. Meanwhile the iPod Nano and the iPod Classic have witnessed a small boost in production. Production of the iPod Touch has fallen however, which Apple believes is due to the consumer waiting for the new 3G phones.

Mac production has fallen by an equal 15%, showing the shift in emphasis from Macs to iPods for Apple.

The iPhone has seen a slight decrease in production, but just like the iPod Touch this is largely due to the new 3G version that is expected later this year.