With crimes against teens for their mobile phones and MP3 players on the up in the UK, the USA is also experiencing a similar rise. iPods in particular are a sought after loot as they are small, recognisable and easy to pass on for a decent price.

Anyone that steals an iPod won’t have any problems in selling it later.

Earlier this week in San Diego, two men threatened to shoot a teenager in order to steal his iPod from him, such was their desire to make some quick cash from the robbery. The teen in question was 16, and was on his way home from school at 3pm in Carlsbad, North County.

Two men drove up to the teen as he made his way home, listing to his iPod, and jumped out of the car demanding he hand over his music player. The teenager cried for help, prompting the men to threaten to shoot him.

Luckily for the teen, the men fled leaving him unharmed. Police later caught the two men, identified as Robby Leverton, 27, and Michael Leone, 23.

This again shows the dangers of listening to your iPod in public. You need to be wary of who is around you and what is happening. Don’t flash your latest MP3 player around like a status symbol because you could be attracted some unwanted attention.

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.

Every music format has its day, its peak time, before eventually being surpassed by something else. Now it looks as though the undisputed king of the music formats for the past decade has finally given up the ghost and is beginning to die off slowly.

The humble CD, compact disc, is finally being withdrawn from stores by the retail giant Woolworths. Woolies will now only be stocking CD singles in half of their 820 stores nationwide in the UK. Music downloads are being cited as the reason for the decision, as nobody it seems is interested in CD singles anymore.

Woolworths say they will still carry stock of special occasion singles, such as X-Factor CDs, which they believe will justify their retail space by selling in huge numbers. However all other CD singles are to be removed from half of their stores.

Woolworths commercial director, Jim Batchelor, stated:

Digital downloading is now the true customer choice for listening and purchasing single music tracks.

CDs are alive and well for album sales, but unfortunately the physical singles market is in terminal decline.

In tandem with this decision Woolworths have worked on their own website to offer a better selection of musical downloads for devices such as mobiles phones and MP3 players.

Woolworths believe they are now in a position to challenge retail giant Tesco, who themselves recently launched a music download store on their website.

The EA video game Rock Band has just been revealed as having outsold iTunes for the Motley Crue single ‘Saints of Los Angeles’. This represents a massive heads up for the music industry as music fans are getting more and more involved in video games as a medium in which to purchase music.

Motley Crue placed the single, the title track from their latest album ‘Saints of Los Angeles’, on Rock Band for purchase in advance of the actual release of the album. The places the song could be purchased was either Rock Band, or on iTunes and similar music download destinations.

The band’s management, Tenth Street Entertainment, claims that the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band accounted for more than 47,000 downloads of the track within the first week. It should be noted that MTV, the publisher of Rock Band, have yet to verify the figures, and figures for the PS3 version of the game were not made available.

On iTunes and Amazon in the same period the track only managed 10,000 downloads.

The real surprising thing about these figures is that when a customer downloads a track through Rock Band they cannot transfer the music to an MP3 player or iPod, nor can they transfer the music to a PC. It can only be played through the game.

This shows that video games are becoming a viable means of selling music to hardcore fans; something that more and more music companies will be buying into.

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.

Cruise holidays have always been very popular, especially with the older generation. One thing they all tend to have in common though is that they’re usually very expensive. If you’re planning on a trip aboard a cruise ship, expect to pay a princely sum.

With the money spent though comes the perks, and each season new perks come into play, with WiFi being one of the more recent developments. However now some cruise companies have come up with the notion of offering iPods to its guests.

These iPods come fully laden with music and tour information about the locations they’re visiting, meaning they make excellent guide companions as well.

Each cruise line has its own take on the iPod incentive.

For example, Holland America Line is offering an iPod that comes equipped with information about the ship they’re travelling on. Meanwhile Princess Cruises offers an iPod that is loaded with relaxation music so that the guests can take it easy in their spas and relaxation areas.

Some cruise lines are actually using podcasts on the iPods they hand out so that guests can learn more about the destinations they’re visiting.

Solar powered MP3 players have existed before, though they’ve not exactly been the most successful items in the portable digital audio market. However that might all change very soon as Apple, the biggest player in the MP3 player game, looks to capitalise on solar power for its iPod and iPhone products.

If Apple are doing it, it’ll be a success. How could it not?

This would mean that iPod and iPhone users could recharge their devices by leaving them out in the sun, instead of plugging them in or using their USB.

A patent for a unique technology that allows for a layer of solar cells to be fitted in the iPhone, just under the touch screen, has been filed by Apple.

This will make the iPhone truly portable as it won’t ever require plugging in again.

The problem with adding solar cells to MP3 players in the past has always been the fact that they’ve had little room for them after the buttons and the screen have been taken into account. Placing the cells under the touch screen will negate this problem and allow Apple to maximise their technology.

This means that the whole glass section of the iPhone, 2.4 x 4.5 inches, would be a solar panel.

This also means that the battery time of the two devices would be drastically improved, making it better for the environment and better for the end user.

Just as the first ever MP3 player came out of Korea, the newest evolution in the field of portable audio players also comes out of Korea. The new MT9 from the Korean company Audizen is a six-channel format that promises to give the listener far more control over how they listen to their music.

For example, you could mute the audio and create a karaoke track out of any of your music tracks.

With a conventional MP3 player you can control the EQ and the balance which gives you limited control over the way the music sounds, but the new MT9 will afford the listener the ability to adjust the volume of six individual audio tracks, which can contain separate instruments and lyrics.

The plan is to have separate sliders on the MP3 player to control aspects such as the voice track, the guitar, bass, drums, sound effects etc.

While still in the development stage, the concept is sound and the standards body who control audio and video standards will convene in Germany in June to discuss the format.

There are already some albums in the MT9 format for sale in Korea for just $2 per album. If the format does work and take off it will take time for a full rollout because every album will need to be remastered.

The MP3 player has proved one of the most popular and successful technologies of the last decade, proving as much of a hit with teens as with adults.

However, recent trends have suggested that the MP3 player, including Apple’s all-powerful iPhone, could be losing popularity with consumers. One of the telling factors could be the fact that prices are on the decline, which usually points to a down turn in consumer demand. Married together with slower sales and the future could be bleak for the MP3 player.

This applies to the iPod as well, which at one time stood toe-to-toe with the Mac as a serious rival for Apple’s most popular product. It too has seen sales on the decline.

Ross Rubin, an analyst for market research company NPD Group, says about the MP3 player market:

Has slowed down a bit, there’s a strong argument for saturation

The problem seems to have stemmed from the fact that new technological advances such as video players and Wifi features added to newer MP3 players have yet to convince the majority of existing MP3 player users to upgrade their devices.

The main problem seems to be with mobile phones, particularly Apple’s iPod, as the features contained on them are catching up fast, in some cases surpassing, those found on MP3 players.

The same thing happened with the PDA some years ago. Consumers realised that there was little need for an expensive PDA when everything it could do, could be done on a mobile phone, for a fraction of the cost; and in many cases for free with a contract.

What the MP3 player does have to its advantage over the phone is the storage capacity. Currently they beat any mobile phone with a built in MP3 player hands down, but as technology improves you can expect that gap to close drastically.

What is more likely is that we’ll see a complete amalgamation of all of the portable media devices into one product. MP3, games console, phone, sat nav, all together rolled into one.

It’s only a natural progression. After all, who’d have thought a mobile phone could play music when it was first invested all those years ago?