This is quite possibly the most useless invention ever, but definitely one that’s worth talking about. Some Japanese scientists, presumably with far too much time on their hands, have invented a solar panelled bra that outputs enough ‘juice’ to power an MP3 player, iPod or a mobile phone.

Hmm, interesting.

The bra is being touted as being very ‘green’, as being solar panelled it’s kind to the environment. The bra comes equipped with a detachable solar panel that the woman proudly wears around her stomach.

Yuko Ishida is one of the girls who have been modelling the bra:

It is very comfortable and I can really feel involved in eco-friendly efforts as well.

As you can probably imagine, there are one or two drawbacks with this invention. For it to actually work you would have to go outside, wearing just your bra, in the sun. There aren’t too many women that do this, sadly.
Also, because of the material used on the bra it is easily damaged by water.

The Photovoltaic Bra, as it has been dubbed, is still in the concept stage so it’s unlikely to be on sale any time soon. You’re probably best just charging your iPod in the conventional manner before this invention is released and revolutionises the market of underwear rechargeables.

One of the best things about the iPod and the iPod range is the level of accessories you can buy for them, such as earphones, covers, clips and even speaker systems that turn an iPod into a full fledged stereo system.

However not everyone wants to spend money on the accessories, preferring to buy their iPod and spend their money on iTunes downloading their music, the reason for having an iPod after all.

Therefore if you want to turn your iPod into a stereo system without buying an extra set of speakers or an iPod dock, you’ll be interested in what the Instructables came up with. They’ve invented a new iPod speaker system, made from a Tupperware box. It looks cheap and simple, largely because it is, but it makes for a great speaker system.

Using the box, and the sound that it can reverberate, you’re able to create a sound system for your iPod. Check out the full instructions on how to make one at their website here.

You can’t help but have noticed the latest series of Big Brother on channel 4. Love it or hate it, and most of us have an opinion one-way or the other, it’s hard to escape it everywhere you look.

This series even comes with a wealth of merchandise that you can buy, and pretend you’re one of the housemates yourself… if you’re in to that sort of thing.

One particular piece of merchandise is the Big Brother Lanyard, which is a material strap that you can put around your shoulder, neck or wrist and carry things such as ID passes, car keys, or even small MP3 players.

The Big Brother Lanyard comes adorned with the BB logo, showing all of your friends just how much you love the show. With some MP3 players being so small these days, it makes sense to have something to attach to them so you don’t lose them.

The BB Lanyard is available from the official Big Brother website.

If you know someone who has a swimming pool, an iPod and generally everything, what do you get him for Christmas? It’s the age old question of what do you get the man who has everything; why, a floating iPod speaker for his swimming pool of course!

Grace Audio have just released a waterproof iPod speak system which connects wirelessly to your iPod (obviously) and not only survives a few splashes from over excited pool dwellers, it actually floats in the pool. What better way to provide music for your pool party than to toss the speaker system directly into the pool?

It’s even submersible, so you can play with it in the pool, toss it around and even dunk it under the water. Don’t expect the sound quality to be particularly crisp when it’s under the surface of the pool though. You can actually take the speaker under the water down to a depth of nine feet, for half an hour.

It’s the perfect way to bring the music directly into the pool party, just in case your normal speaker system isn’t quite loud enough at its ‘safe’ distance from the water.

It has a range of 150 feet from the music source, and will last 6 hours on its battery. The cost in the US is reported as being $150, and you can even buy additional speakers for $100 each, creating a network of up to 10 speakers for those really noisy pool parties.

No doubt you’ve always wanted a speak system for your iPod that you can listen to in the garden, in all weathers, without the need for wires. You have? Then you’re in luck, because Grundig have the answer. They’ve just launched a new, all weather (and by that we mean waterproof) wireless iPod speaker system that’s sure to make any party go with a bang, even with the British Summer weather.

The new wireless, weatherproof speaker system from Grundig is called Emanate, and comes with a rechargeable battery that Grundig say will give you up to eight hours of musical playback. The wireless speaker system also comes with a carry handle so you can move it easily from the house to the garden, and back again should the rain become too much even for your party.

The speakers are apparently able to produce a very clear stereo sound.

The Emanate also charges the iPod in its inbuilt iPod dock, which can also be covered in a weatherproof cover.

The system even comes with a remote control, so you don’t have to disturb your partying by walking over to turn the volume up.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if you lived in a world where everything was tiny, where all of the equipment in your house had shrunk and you were a giant, the Japanese may be able to make your dreams come true.

The new iPod Touch dock, called the iClooly, is a miniature iPod dock that makes the iPod Touch look like a tiny iMac. With the new dock you can fool your friends into thinking you have a very small iMac, or that they’ve magically grown.

The dock is a portable device that weighs just 55 grams, and comes with a hole in the back for the cables that your real iMac would need. The iPhone Touch slides into the aluminium dock horizontally making it appear just like an iMac.

You’re also able to rotate the iPhone 90° so that you can have the phone in landscape or portrait ratio.

If design and style are important to you (and let’s face it if you’re a Mac user who owns an iPod Touch, they probably are) then this stand will make your iPod look incredible when sat on your desk.

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.

You may not have realised it but the places you can now purchase music are changing drastically. It used to be the case that if you wanted to buy a record you would have to go into town and visit your local record store.

Now that digital music has taken off you can download music via websites. Not content with resting on their laurels, and keen to capitalise on consumers on the go, it was inevitable that you’d then be able to buy music tracks from Internet enabled mobile phones.

Now, as video games are such a prominent part of our culture, and playing them online has become so popular, it perhaps also inevitable that you’d be able to buy music through your games consoles, via video games.

Games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero for example allow games players to purchase tracks direct through the game, for use within the game. They are becoming hugely popular, even though the music bought cannot be transferred to another device for playback.

Allen Kovac, CEO of Tenth Street, says that video games are a new market that allow music labels to sell their product without fears of privacy, to a new, otherwise untapped market.

We do research on every artist we have, and the research said that the people who bought Motley Crue music and tickets play ‘Rock Band” and video games … (so) it was our inclination to go there. As marketers, it’s our job to find the audience. If our audience tells us they’re sitting at Xbox and PlayStation, that’s our job to do that.

The video game Rock Band has sold a staggering 10 million music tracks in a little over 6 months, whereas the Activision game Guitar Hero has sold more than 15 million tracks.

What is even more interesting to record labels is the fact that over 75% of tracks sold through the video game Rock Band are older catalogue tracks. This means that music labels can sell old music over and over again to a new consumer on a new format.

This makes for very high profits indeed.

The long awaited Monster iPod bridge is now about to ship. The iPod wireless Audio Bridge named as iSoniCast is a device that features proprietary 2.5GHz technology, which enables music lovers to wirelessly stream music from their iPod to their home audio systems. Like many similar devices, this one also includes a dock connector-attached transmitter that enables the use of the iPod to act as a wireless remote.

This two-piece audio bridge features some minor changes, including intelligent frequency level that minimizes interference and high-bandwidth of 4Mbps streaming eliminating compression artefacts. It is currently specified to have a range of 30 feet and is priced at approx £50.