Planning your wedding can be an expensive, stressful event. Not if you go down Microsoft’s route however. They believe you can do the whole thing for just a few dollars, or pounds if you’re in the UK, by using your own computer and MP3 player.

Microsoft claim that be using their suite of office tools, photo editing software, MP3 players etc you can plan your wedding, create the invites, organise the music and generally do everything that would otherwise cost you tens of thousands to have.

Microsoft, so sure about their claims, recently held a ‘Wired Wedding’ event to demonstrate how their suite of tools and their equipment could be used to plan your wedding on the cheap. They showed guests how to design and create their own greetings cards, invitations, edit wedding photos and even create a video to DVD of their wedding.

Microsoft even showed users how to create a virtual electronic guest book that converted digital writing into real text.

Guests were even shown how they could create their own bridal website after the wedding to show everyone their photos.

Then of course Microsoft plugged their own MP3 player, the Zune, to demonstrate how it could be used to provide the music for the wedding day, instead of paying for a disco or live band.

iTunes has been ruling the online music download arena for five years now, without any serious rival. However that may be all about to change as digital music download retailer Rhapsody is looking to compete with the Apple owned giant. In a $50 million assault Rhapsody will be offering music, not just via its own website, but through media partners such as Yahoo! and Verizon Wireless.

The music will be offered in the MP3 format, meaning that iPod users will be able to download and use them as well.

Previously Rhapsody offered a subscription model for users who would pay fees of between $13 to $15 in order to access music, rather than the pay-per-download system that iTunes employs.

Rhapsody realised though that they needed to embrace the iPod and make their service compatible with the market leading player in order to compete. Rhapsody VP Neil Smith said:

We’re no longer competing with the iPod, we’re embracing it.

Rhapsody are also planning to hit the social networking scene on sites like Facebook, as they provide music for the website ‘iLike’, which is a popular Facebook application.

How many times has your iPod developed a fault? Have you ever had to send it back to Apple for repairs, only to find it would cost more to repair than it would to buy a new one? Have you ever lost all of your tracks in one moment of sheer panic?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you’ll need a doctor, the iPod doctor.

Naturally, this is in the United States.

Demetrios Leontaris is the self proclaimed ‘iPod Doctor’ and makes a living being on call to fix the iPods of anyone who needs his services, which when you’ve spent months ripping all of your CDs could be a real time saver!

Demetrios Leontaris works in Manhattan, New York, and travels from client to client performing emergency repairs on iPods for what he calls a very reasonable fee. A typical fix of the headphone input jack would cost around $70 for example. Cheaper than replacing your iPod, and of course you’re paying for the specialist knowledge of someone who knows how to fix it.

Demetrios Leontaris runs just one iPod repair service, though there at least three services offering iPod repair in New York alone. It’s hardly surprising though as Apple has sold 150 million of their iPods since 2001… that’s a lot of potential customers.

Leontaris may well be onto a good thing, as it believed among iPod owners that Apple deliberately make their repairs and servicing charges expensive because they want sell you a new iPod, rather than repair your old one.

It may seem too unreal to be true, but in a bizarre twist of fate the MP3 file has somehow managed to save the vinyl record from extinction. You may wonder how, as surely the advent of digital music must have merely accelerated the process of driving vinyl records from the shops?

In fact you’d be wrong. It was the compact disc, or CD, that drove vinyl from the shops. The compact disc became the format of choice for the music buying public, forcing vinyl into the realm of the specialist shops, market places and car boot sales.

Now that digital downloads are the main way to buy music, and MP3 players and iPods have replaced CD players, it’s the CD market that’s taking a huge hit. The boot is firmly on the other foot now, and CD is a dying format.

However, there are still those music fans that like to have a physical format they can touch and feel. As CDs never fuelled their desires, vinyl was always their format of choice. Plus, now that CDs (which were always the darling of the mass market) have been replaced with digital downloads, there is no demand for them anymore. Therefore there is now a gap in the market, which the vinyl lovers are all too happy for their format of choice to fill.

Jay Millar is the sales manager for United Record Pressing, who manufacture vinyl records in the USA:

It really started picking up when iPods started coming onto the scene. Everything got so sterile with digital that people were not spending time with the physical manifestation of their music.

It’s the ultimate irony. The format that vinyl fans loathed so much, the MP3 download, has saved their format from the scrap heap.

As previously reported, the level of technology being taken by revellers to Glastonbury this weekend is going to be such that insurance for the items is a must. Zurich warns that failure to take out adequate insurance on the items being taken by festival goers could lead a substantial financial loss on their part.

According to Zurich Insurance, some £3 billion worth of technology, including MP3 players, iPods and mobile phones will be left lying around at various festivals this year, and will be tantalisingly on display in people’s pockets in tight festival crowds. This makes for an obvious target for thieves looking for an easy score.

Zurich conducted research that showed almost one in ten people had been the victim of theft at live music shows such as festivals and concerts. They also showed that the average attendee at Glastonbury would be carrying over £260 worth of technology on them during the festival. The technology being sported at festivals includes mobiles, 82%, digital cameras, 63%, MP3 players and iPods, 16%.

This isn’t to mention the cash being carried as well.

Despite all of this, according to Zurich over 75% of festival goers have no form of insurance against theft of these items.

Mike Quinton, from Zurich Insurance, stated:

One in four British adults said they were planning on attending a festival this summer and it would be all too easy to get swept up in the summer spirit and forget to take even the simplest of precautions with their belongings.

Our research shows that many music lovers are taking unnecessary risks by storing expensive goods in tents, carrying pricey items on them and failing to consider protecting themselves from theft. We urge all festival goers this summer to plan ahead, only take what they need to as well as checking their cover before they go.

Do you insurance for your technology if you’re attending a festival this summer?

They’re the most successful band of all time and they’ve topped the charts all over the world. Liverpool’s own fab four, John, Paul, George and Ringo (the Beatles) could be headed to a video game in the near future; but a video game that allows for the download of their music.

Discussions are currently going on to bring the Fab Four to a video game in a deal that could be worth millions, and utilise the extensive back catalogue of the Beatles.

The two video game companies who are interested in producing this game already have a great record of success with music based video games. Activision, who produced the hugely successful ‘Guitar Hero’ franchise, and MTV Games, who’ve made the equally successful ‘Rock Band’.

Both of those games allow the players to download new music for use within the games, although they cannot take the music from the game and transfer it to their computers, iPods or MP3 players.

If the Beatles game does go ahead it will allow the game company to take advantage of the huge Beatles’ back catalogue, which is still half owned by Michael Jackson.

LATEST: KID ROCK has backtracked over his recent controversial comments encouraging people to “steal” his music, insisting he was only joking.

The star - real name Robert Ritchie - posted a bizarre rant on video sharing website YouTube.com last week (ends20Jun08) after announcing he is boycotting paid download website iTunes until they give him more money to sell his music.

In the video footage, Kid Rock claims he is happy to let fans download tracks for free because he’s “rich”. He then urges kids to steal laptops, MP3 players, cars and gas from retailers - because big businesses can afford the loss.

He said: “The whole debate on downloading music has gone too far. There are record companies suing kids. You can illegally download my music, steal it if you will. Because I’m f**king rich…

“What I would encourage you to do? Let’s level the playing field. Steal everything. If you want a new MP3 player or a computer… Do you know how much money Apple and Microsoft have? Go in there, get a new laptop and run. You need a new car? Go steal a Toyota.”

But the 37-year-old is adamant his rant was meant in jest.

It may surprise you to know that MP3 players aren’t just used for entertainment purposes or as educational tools. A hospital in Singapore is using MP3 players to allow patients suffering from asthma to cope with their condition more easily.

Controlling asthma requires a combination of medical treatment and for the patient to be sufficiently educated so that can control their breathing using a form of self-management.

SingHealth are the largest healthcare group in Singapore, and they recently ran a program called ‘Telecare for Asthma’, which was designed to evaluate how MP3 players could be used to help treat asthma sufferers. The pilot scheme was launched last year on World Asthma Day and ran for 6 months.

The idea of projects such as these is to use technology to help educate asthma sufferers to ways to cope with their condition, while overcoming the problems of illiteracy.

The initial trials were performed on two different groups of asthmatics, patients with poor literacy and energetic asthmatics.

Of the patients who had the poor literacy skills, many of them found that by using the MP3 players to educate them on the ways to cope with the condition they were able to better understand it.

Only one of those patients said they couldn’t operate the MP3 player, even though they were given full instructions.

This research shows that using MP3 players and other types of technology in the treating of illnesses is a great way forward for medicine.

Gone are the days when pupils at schools were taught useless subjects that they’d never use in the real world. These days schools are moving with the times and embracing technology, and moving with the times. The NCFE, which used to be known as the National Council for Further Education, is to offer a GCSE qualification in the art of podcasting!

That’s right, pupils will be taught to record their own podcasts on computers, edit them, and upload them to sites such as iTunes for download to MP3 players.

This is the first time that a qualification of this sort has been offered in the UK, and will show students how to record and broadcast their works on the Internet. The new course is set to begin this year, in September.

The course is set to run at level 1, which offers GCSE grades D-G, and will demonstrate the art of planning, preparing and recording a podcast for broadcast or download to MP3 players.

David Grailey is the chief executive of NCFE:

Podcasting is fast becoming a part of everyday life - vicars are delivering sermons via podcasts, police departments are launching ‘crimewatch’ video podcasts and schools and colleges are recording lessons via podcasts. It’s therefore vital that we offer people both an understanding and the skills to utilise this technology.

With the popularity of MP3 players, iPods and MP3 downloads, it’s something that pupils should have the opportunity to learn at school; there is a great demand for the skill set.

These days, politicians will use anything to win votes, whether that is their ‘love’ of football, their association with rock stars or the music on their iPods. US presidential candidate Barack Obama is no different. Like some well oiled political machine, the music on his iPod has been carefully selected to appeal to those voters he’s trying to sway, which means everything except for Garth Brooks.

Maybe he’s not aiming for the Garth Brooks fan’s vote?

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Barack Obama’s iPod collection suggests that he’s aiming at those Americans who were born between 1946 and 1964, the age group typically thought to prefer his presidential rival in the election. This represents some 80 million American voters, a sizable chunk who could be won over by an iPod.

Among the artists from that time frame are Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. He’s also added other artists such as Elton John, to make sure he wins the gay vote.

The only sector Barack Obama seems to be missing is the music that is aimed at the followers of his former Democratic rival, Hilary Clinton. This being the white working class voter. The absence of artists such as Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney could pose a serious chink in Barack Obama’s iPod armour.