In the current climate of credit crunches, impending recessions and falling house prices, it can be difficult to decide what to invest your money in.

For example, if you can get a mortgage you could buy a house, as the prices are quite low at the moment. But wait! It might be better to just buy an MP3 player instead. Let’s look at some ways that an MP3 player is a better investment than a house.

You don’t need a mortgage to buy an MP3 player
This one’s obvious. If you want to buy a house these days you’ll need a mortgage, if you can get one, with an interest rate around 6% mark. You’ll also need a 10% deposit or you’ll be paying even higher interest. To buy an MP3 player however, you just need to pay the small fee the player costs, which is…

Considerably cheaper than a house
That’s right, MP3 players cost between £10 and a few hundred pounds. Even though house prices are falling sharply, they’re still quite at the level of MP3 players. You’d need a considerable amount more to buy a house than an MP3 player.

Better storage capacity
It may be surprising to most, but MP3 players have more storage than houses when it comes to keeping your music. For example, you can hold thousands of tracks and albums on a 20 Gig MP3 player or iPod, but you couldn’t store thousands of records in your house, unless you had a very big house… and that would cost even more money.

Stability of the price
It’s true, buying an MP3 player is unlikely to be an investment that will make you rich. However, it also won’t break you financially. With great investment comes great risk, and as house prices are falling now some homeowners are losing tens of thousands of pounds in equity. No one has ever lost that much on an MP3 player, so while your iPod may not hold its value when you buy it, it won’t lose you too much in depreciation, probably just a few quid in fact.

So if you’re thinking of buying a house, just buy an MP3 player instead. It’s a much safer option.

Microsoft announced a new game for their Xbox 360 console at E3, the video games conference in LA last week, which would appeal to MP3 player owners. The game is dubbed ‘Lips’ and is a karaoke game where players can sign along to their favourite tracks, though rather than having to rely on the music already on the game, you’re able to plug in your own MP3 player to the Xbox 360 and sing along to your own music.

Lips is, according to Microsoft, an answer to the SingStar games that Sony have made so successful on their PlayStation consoles. The SingStar series has sold in huge numbers worldwide and makes for an excellent party game, Microsoft will be hoping to move in on some of that success.

As mentioned earlier, Lips will allow players to plug their MP3 players and their iPods directly into the game and sing along to their own music. So long as your choice of music is in the games database, you’ll be able to see the lyrics and earn points for your singing accuracy.

Traditionally playing on games consoles, handhelds and computers is a lonely way to spend the day. Children who spend all day playing on their PlayStation are stereotyped as having poor communication skills. However that’s not the case with the Nintendo Wii.

According a recent survey by GfK NOP, 83% of those questioned within the UK believe that playing on the Nintendo Wii “increases family interaction”. This is due to the fact that the games on the Nintendo Wii all tend to be very simple party style games, which anyone of any age can play. The Wii appeals to the elderly and the toddlers alike, something the Xbox 360 could never hope to do.

50% of those questioned believed the Wii and the Nintendo DS had a positive impact on their children, which is good news for Nintendo. Only 28% of those questioned thought the Xbox 360 had a positive effect on their children.

A potential agreement between the G8 nations that would set up an Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was feared to lead to the frisking of people’s iPods and MP3 players at airports. The idea being that they intend to crack down on the illegal sharing of music and video, which is costing the music industry billions each year.

However the potential agreement is unlikely to lead to airport security frisking people for their iPods and examining the music they contain, looking for stolen or copied tracks.

A document that was leaked last year warned that ACTA might push for the law to be changed so that airport security and customs staff have the powers to search people’s MP3 players, iPods and laptop computers looking for illegal music and anything that might infringe on copyrights.

A document released by the G8 however makes no mention of such powers, instead referencing methods to improve:

an efficient and well-functioning IP system.

The document states that they’ll be focussing on ways to track down and catch those who distribute illegal music.

We commit ourselves to strengthening cooperation and coordination among customs and border enforcement administrations through facilitation of information sharing,” said the document. “We have identified two principle areas for further progress: the exchange of data among G8 members through appropriate mutual assistance provisions … and the elaboration of a rapid alert system to exchange data on a more informal basis.

The Wii Fit sets out to help adults and children alike stay fit, lose weight and have fun in the process; however it’s come in for some criticism of late for branding children obese when they’re perfectly healthy.

Obesity experts have complained that by branded perfectly healthy children as obese, the console could be leading children towards eating disorders.

When players use the Wii Fit, the console assesses each player’s fitness level and labels them depending on their body mass index. The body mass index (BMI) is a method for measuring someone’s weight, in relation to their height. The trouble is that the Wii Fit, on the Nintendo Wii, doesn’t take into consideration a child’s age. Therefore it’s branded children obese when there’s really nothing wrong with them.

Nintendo freely admit that the BMO calculations used on the Wii Fit were based on adults, so results for children wouldn’t be accurate.

Shirley Alexander is a specialist in children’s weight at Westmead Children’s Hospital:

Anyone that’s even overweight can actually be fit, [although] the more overweight you are the less likely you are to be fit.

But with children they have more fatty tissue at different periods of their life and they have a larger body surface area relative to adults. The BMI is still worked out on height and weight but the age of the child has got to be taken into account.

He’s one of the most successful recording artists of all time, has the biggest selling album ever in the shape of Thriller, and has a career that spans five decades, and he’s still under 50 years-old. He’s Michael Jackson, and the Sun newspaper is offering up a special Jacko branded iPod, laden with 100 of his tracks as the prize for a competition.

The iPod is engraved with the words King of Pop, the name Michael’s fans gave him in the Nineties, and is numbered between 1 and 100 – as only 100 of these limited edition Michael Jackson iPods has been produced.

It’s not clear what tracks will be on the iPod, but you can bet the music will come from his bestselling albums Thriller, Bad, Dangerous and History.

You can enter the competition on the Sun website here, all you need to do is answer the question about Michael’s pet monkey.

How much do you love your iPod? Carlos Olivero is one of the members of the new boy band ‘Menudo’ that was put together on an X-Factor style reality TV contest, was thrown off an airplane for using his iPod.

According to the People magazine, he was asked by security to store his iPod away, but he refused. As a result, the 18-year-old was asked to leave the plane.

He was on the flight to Knoxville, Tennessee, with his mother and his band mates on his way to a gig.

According to the People’s source:

A flight attendant accused Carlos of having an attitude after she asked him to turn off his iPod in preparation for takeoff. Carlos complied and turned his iPod off, but the flight attendant then demanded he stow it. Carlos showed her again that the iPod was turned off, but he refused to stow it.

He was then escorted off the plane by security before takeoff.

A spokesman for Menudo stated:

We can confirm there was an incident on the Delta flight. The members of Menudo are on a plane nearly every day flying from one concert appearance to another so this took us totally by surprise. We’ve never had a problem before.

Menudo were originally a band formed in the Seventies, who featured Ricky Martin among their line-up.

Microsoft are so scared by the popularity of the Nintendo Wii, which has sold 28.5 million units worldwide compared to the Xbox 360’s 13.8 million, Microsoft announced at E3 a few developments for their console that seem a little too close to those of the Wii.

Firstly, despite the Xbox 360 supposedly being the console for the serious gamer, and representing the closest experience to that of a PC game, Microsoft are looking to win over families by introducing more family orientated, Wii style games. Among these family games are a karaoke game and a new online game arena that allows families to compete against each other in a quiz show environment.

The karaoke game is named ‘Lips’ and was presented by singer Duffy at the games event. The game will allow players to hook up their MP3 players to their Xbox 360 in order to use their own music, and sing along to it during the game.

The second way that Microsoft are aping Nintendo’s Wii console is with the introduction of player Avatars, which just like the Wii are cartoon characters each player creates, and can customise in their own image.

An Xbox spokesman stated:

We’re entering a new age in entertainment, and Xbox 360 is uniquely positioned to become the heart of the living room.

He also stated that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 would outsell Sony’s PS3, which it currently is doing… however they’re both being beaten by Nintendo’s Wii, by some considerable margin. In fact, the Wii is almost outselling the two combined, which is bad news for Sony and Microsoft.

Microsoft and Sony are currently at the video games biggest event of the year, E3, trying to convince anyone that will listen that their Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 respectively are the best things since, well, the Xbox and PS2 I imagine. However they’re fooling nobody, as while they be technically great consoles with superior technology, it’s the Nintendo Wii that’s changed the face of gaming forever.

The Wii has become something that Microsoft’s chunky box and Sony’s sleek hardware could never become, a breakthrough in gaming that appeals to people who would have never considered buying a games console in their lives. Sold out everywhere last Christmas, the same looks likely to happen this year as more and more people who think games consoles are for obese, pale children, come into contact with a Wii and realise just what a remarkable machine it is.

If retailers don’t order their stock for Christmas early, they’ll lose out for sure.

Plus, as if the Nintendo Wii didn’t already have the other two quivering in fear at the very sight of it, Nintendo announced the Wii MotionPlus at E3… which promises to give even more control and sensitivity to players.

Volatile TV chef, Gordon Ramsay, won’t be allowed to utter any ‘F Words’ in his new video game for the Nintendo Wii, about his TV show the ‘F Word’. Any swearing done by Gordon during the game will be bleeped; so younger gamers can play the game.

During the game players will be competing with other would be chefs and cooking up menus instructed by Gordon, and any mistakes made by the players will lead to a severe telling off from the Scottish chef. However, when he scolds players for their mistakes, there’ll be none of his usual colourful language and his usual tirade of four letter words.

Ramsay is known for his bad language and strong opinions on his shows such as ‘Kitchen Nightmares’, ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘The F-Word’.

The video game for the Nintendo Wii is released in September.