Mark Papermaster is the replacement for iPod creator Tony Fadell, who quit Apple last week. Fadell’s loss will be sorely felt by Apple as his vision was responsible for the creation of the iPod, the developments of the iPhone and the inception of iTunes, the music download website.

To replace Fadell, Apple brought in Papermaster from IBM. However IBM aren’t too happy about Papermaster jumping ship to work for what they believe is a rival business. Now a District Court judge in New York has ruled that Papermaster must cease work for Apple as it’s possible that he is breaking a ‘non compete’ clause in his contract with IBM.

Last week Apple announced that Papermaster was to replace Fadell on their iPhone and iPod range and would be reporting directly to Apple boss, Steve Jobs. However on Friday last week they announced that he would have stop work based on the rulings of the court.

Apple will hope to get the situation resolved quickly as they’ll be looking to move forward with the iPod and iPhone after the loss of Fadell.

Apple’s failure to make their iTunes music download store compatible with other MP3 players besides the iPod could land them in court in Norway. The consumer mediator for Norway has said that it will take Apple before a government agency as Apple’s failure to make the digital download website work with other MP3 players breaches rules on competition within Norway.

Bjoern Erik Thon, the Consumer Ombudsman, stated:

iTunes has shown a lacking will to comply with our demand and we are now preparing to try this case in the Market Council.

Thon issued Apple with a deadline in September to open up iTunes to other MP3 players, and that deadline passed on November 3rd. Norway insisted on Apple breaking the link between iTunes and the iPod in 2006, but so far Apple has declined to do so.

Apple has made some attempt to open up its store to MP3 player users by explaining how customers could transfer tracks downloaded from iTunes to CD and convert them to MP3 format, but Thon claims this doesn’t go far enough.

iTunes maintains its previous views in its response to the Consumer Ombudsman. The company is in other words unwilling to make changes to make music in the iTunes Store available to all music players.

Illegal music downloading has been the scourge of the music industry for many years, and now the UK’s biggest Internet Service Providers are uniting to tackle the problem. Six ISPs, namely Virgin, BT, BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse, Tiscali and Orange have teamed up with a government initiative that will see hundreds of thousands of Internet users receiving warning letters about suspected illegal file sharing.

Anyone suspected of downloading and sharing music illegally could find their Internet connections heavily restricted.

Geoff Taylor is the chief exec of the BPI:

All of the major ISPs in the UK now recognise they have a responsibility to deal with illegal file-sharers on their networks.

The BPI in the UK has tried to educated people on downloading illegal music, in sharp contrast to the approach taken in the US where tens of thousands of Internet users have been taken to court over file sharing.

Geoff Taylor continued:

The focus is on people sharing files illegally; there is not an acceptable level of file-sharing. Musicians need to be paid like everyone else.

File-sharing (of copyright tracks without permission) is not anonymous, it is not secret, it is against the law.

If you’re into downloading MP3 music from the Internet you’ll be interested in the new UK service from Datz. They’re offering an ‘all you can eat’ style service that allows you to download as much music from your iPod and your MP3 players as you want. The service costs £100 for a year, which gives you unlimited access to its music lounge.

It differs from its rivals, such as Napster, because the music on Datz is in MP3 format, which means you can play the music that you download on any iPod, MP3 player or even burn them to CD.

Even better, when your subscription to the service expires you still get to keep the music that you have downloaded.

Michael Richardson, the man behind Datz stated:

The real target market is young teenagers who are downloading illegally.

The family won’t have to worry about getting nasty letters from the solicitors and the son or daughter gets all the music he or she wants.

We are not trying to judge ourselves against iTunes. We’re taking on [peer to peer networks] BitTorrent and Limewire.

Currently Datz has EMI and Warner signed up, but is still waiting on Sony BMG and Universal.

Fans of the Beatles have always been disappointed that you can’t get their music from iTunes, so you’re unable to download their tracks for an iPod or MP3 player. Recently a commemorative Beatles iPod was released, but it still didn’t come with digital versions of the tracks, it comes with CDs instead!

Now however Beatles fans will be able to get their music digitally, but it’s not from iTunes, nor is it for your MP3 player. No, instead the Fab Four’s music is being released in a version of the MTV video game series, Rock Band.

The Beatles version of the game, which will allow you to play along to their music, was produced with input from the surviving members of the Beatles, Ringo Starr and Sir Pail McCartney.

McCartney stated:

The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music.

Ringo added:

How wonderful that The Beatles’ legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerised world we live in.

Let the games commence.

The word of god has been spread in many different ways over the years, now it could be coming to iTunes and an MP3 player near you. That is, if a think tank of bishops from the Vatican have their way.

The Vatican has always been at the forefront of technology when it comes to preaching the word of god, and even had one of the very first websites every built in the early nineties, but the think tank wants to step up the pace and make use of newer, more widespread technologies for preaching about god; namely users of MP3 players.

A statement from the Vatican’s think tank read:

The voice of the Divine Word must resonate over the radio, on Internet channels with virtual distribution (and by) CDs, DVDs and iPods, and on television and cinema screens.

The Vatican wants to act fast to address the decline of church going, particularly in the UK, and believes that by taking advantage of iPods and MP3 players they’ll be able to do just that.

You could soon be listening to the sermon on the mount, on the bus, with the use of your iPod.

Have you ever been just about to board a plane and thought that you need more music on your iPod? You’ve got your luggage, your passport, your suntan lotion… everything except an extensive collection of the latest tunes on your iPod to see you through the flight.

Never fear, EMI have the answer. They’ve struck a deal to install iPod kiosks that will contain MP3 downloads for your iPod in 20 different airports throughout the United States. The kiosks will allow you to use your credit card to download any music contained in their databanks to your iPOd, all DRM Free.

Prices for the downloads are said to be $11.99, but sadly they’ll just be music from EMI initially, which means no Michael Jackson!

Eden Goldberg is the vice president for Business Development at InMotion Entertainment, who have partnered with EMI for the design and installation of the kiosks.

This is a great new opportunity for us to help connect the artists with fans. By offering a ‘fueling station’ for their portable devices, consumers now have an easy way to discover and buy new music they can enjoy on their travels.

You never need to board a plane without fresh musical content again!

Anyone who’s played with Google Earth while bored in work will know the brilliance and power of the system. You can enter pretty much any postcode in the UK and zoom in on someone’s house using a network of satellite photos. Google Earth allows you see almost anywhere in the world from the comfort of your own home, and you can even add your favourites, such as your house, your girlfriend’s house or your place of work.

However, Google Earth is now coming to the iPod Touch and the iPhone, so you’ll be able to locate anyone’s location and zoom in on their house from anywhere, at any time.

Is it the stalker’s paradise or a great tool for finding things?

For those who think that the portable version of Google Earth will be a reduced, half fat version, think again. The iPod Touch version will have its own unique features.

For example, using the unique Apple functionality you can zoom in and change the angle with the ‘pinching’ touchscreen control.

Best of all, Google Earth for the iPod and iPhone is free to download from iTunes, right now!

iPhone users have been able to use Shazam for some time. The unique product, which can be downloaded from iTunes, has the ability to recognise music simply by holding the device up to a track. This makes it invaluable during the pub quiz for example!

However now Android users will be able to use Shazam, but not connect to iTunes. No, on the Android Shazam will work with Amazon’s MP3 download store, and the MySpace music download store.

This means that if you hear a song you like, your Android device (using Shazam of course) will be able to identify the track, tell you who it is, the name of the track and the album, and allow you to download the music immediately for your MP3 player.

Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher says about the product:

Shazam aims to help users to create and share unique music moments and long-lasting experiences, and the Android application combined with our link to the Amazon MP3 store and MySpace enables us to deliver on this vision.

So far 1.5 million people have downloaded Shazam for the iPhone.

As we reported earlier this week, the BBC has opened up its iPlayer service to other forms of MP3 players so that you can download and watch programmes such as Top Gear and Doctor Who on your MP3 player, rather than previously just iPods.

Now that they’ve done that, Sony has jumped onto the bandwagon and has announced that their new Walkman models, the S and E series, have the capacity to play the BBC iPlayer material. Using a new Sony Walkman you’ll be to watch the Doctor in his Christmas special this year while you get the bus home from college, or wait patiently at the train station for the inevitable announcement that the trains have been cancelled.

All you need to do to download BBC programming to your MP3 player (including the Sony Walkman series) you just visit the BBC website and choose which programme you want to download and watch. Then you can transfer the show to your MP3 player to watch at your leisure.

Sony is the first to jump on the availability of the BBC iPlayer, but others will follow just as quickly.