As recent reports have shown, using your MP3 player with the volume switched up to high for an extended period can severely damage your hearing. This has been proven, and campaigners are lobbying for more understanding and education among MP3 player and iPod users about the dangers of turning the volume too high on their portable audio players.

Deafness Research UK has just released its list of top tips to minimise the risk of damaging your hearing when using your MP3 player, and they urge any MP3 player user to take heed and pay attention to their findings.

According to the CEO of Deafness Research UK, Vivienne Michael:

Our research shows that too many people are putting their hearing at risk by listening to their MP3 player too loudly and for too long. There are simple ways to minimise the likelihood of damage and reduce the risk of hearing problems in later life. Our tips apply to the whole population but we are especially worried about young people, who are generally the heaviest users of MP3s and other mobile music devices - and often the most at risk because they don’t understand the dangers.

The top tips for protecting your hearing when using your MP3 player, according to Deafness Research UK, are:

Always use the noise limiter on your MP3 player

Parents should look for a locking feature on the player and use it to set the maximum volume using a special code

Check that your player is not one with a maximum volume that exceeds statutory and Health & Safety limits - see the Which? website for details

Adopt the 60:60 rule - only use your MP3 player at 60% of its maximum volume for 60 minutes a day

Never have your MP3 player so loud that you can’t hear the noise around you

Never have it so loud that those around you can here your music!

Ear bud headphones are less efficient at drowning out background noise so it’s tempting to turn up the volume. Use the older muff-type or noise cancelling headphones instead

If you listen to your MP3 player too loudly, you’re in danger of damaging your hearing. Ensure that you look after your ears otherwise you won’t be able to enjoy your music for your whole life, whether you use an MP3 player, an iPod or listen to your favourite bands live.

There are many celebrities you’d associate with being keen gamers, such as footballers, TV presenters and musicians. However, comedian and renowned egghead Stephen Fry isn’t one of them. You’d be wrong though, as Stephen is a very keen gamer and an avid fan of his ‘pink’ DS Lite and his Nintendo Wii.

Although Stephen Fry owning a DS Lite might be something of a surprise, his DS being pink is perhaps less so.

My DS Lite is pink. There was so much demand earlier this year that they couldn’t be had for bribes, sexual favours or worse. Unless you accepted girly pink. The moment you open it, you are taken back to the old Game & Watch days but can see why the DS has succeeded so well with the middle class, the middle-aged and the Hello Kitty/My Little Strawberry Shortcake Pony set. You set up in a twinkle and then play on two screens, one of which accepts stylus input and touches.

Like many gamers who have realised that the simplicity of the DS Lite more than makes up for any technical inadequacy compared to the Sony PSP, Stephen Fry is firmly in the DS Lite camp.

The DS is nothing like as feature rich as the PlayStation Portable, but it isn’t trying to be. You can feel admiration and even awe for the big power boxes, but for the DS you feel affection - and that, in marketing terms, is worth a whole heap more.

The DS Lite is technically inferior to the PSP, yes, but just like the Nintendo Wii is to the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, it’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that counts. The DS Lite and the Nintendo Wii have done so much with what they have.

Nintendo’s Wii console has become the best selling consol of its generation, out selling both the technically superior Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 dramatically. In fact, in terms of worldwide sales, the Nintendo Wii has almost sold as many units as the Xbox 360 and the PS3 combined.

The arrival of the Wii Fit created even more of a buzz around the Wii as people were cottoning on to the health benefits of playing on the console, something not normally associated with games consoles and the people who play on them.

People are beginning to use the Wii to keep fit instead of using more conventional exercise equipment such as bikes, rowing machines and treadmills. Some gymnasiums are even using the Nintendo Wii as part of their equipment.

The Wii Fit gives players the opportunity of choosing from 40 exercise games in the categories of aerobics, yoga, balance and strength. The question is though, how much can the Nintendo Wii really help people wanting to keep fit?

Joseph Donnelly is the director of the Energy Balance Laboratory, University of Kansas:

Electronic games like the Wii are not substitutes for regular exercise. They cannot give you the same workout as a regular workout.

Some health experts have stated that you would need to have an eight hour workout on the Wii to replicate the effects of a normal 15-30 minute workout in the gym.

For example, a game of Wii tennis uses up 179 calories per hour for the player, but actually playing tennis uses approximately 270 calories per hour.

So perhaps the Wii Fit isn’t going to replace regular exercise, it’s still better for you than the Xbox or PlayStation. Plus it does act as an introduction to exercise, or as a supplement to regular exercise.

With Christmas just around the corner the same situation looks like emerging this year as it did last year in relation to the Nintendo Wii. Everyone will want one, but you’ll struggle to find one anywhere. Stocks will be extremely limited and you’ll have to order one early if you’re intending on playing with one on Christmas morning.

So why are they so limited? Has Nintendo go it badly wrong and continually underestimated the demand for its motion sensing consol?

Some analysts, like Michael Pachter from Wedbush Morgan, believe Nintendo have failed to anticipate the success of their Wii.

Clearly they failed to anticipate the demand that they got.

However the real reason may be something more sinister. Perhaps Nintendo are deliberately keeping in short supply in order to fuel the demand for it. After all, if you could walk into any high street store and buy one off the shelves, would it have the interest it has now?

The website ‘Geeksugar’ wrote on its blog in May this year:

Conspiracy theorists are saying that since Nintendo has already met their end of March goals (with 6 million units shipped), and are building up supply, continuing the demand, and ensuring awesome second quarter sales. Unfortunately, with American retailers now running at 2.5 percent availability, some are expecting the Wii shortage to continue through 2009.

However still Michael Pachter insists that Nintendo made a mistake. He claims they underestimated demand and the price of their consol, as nobody at Nintendo could have predicted that demand for the Wii would outstrip demand for the PS3. Least of all Sony themselves.

I think that Nintendo, figuring that their technology was kind of last generation, were just not just thinking about going higher than $300. They certainly could have charged $400 until they exhausted that demand, then cut the prices to $300 and exhausted that demand, and they always would have been able to supply them.

It never occurred to them that the demand for the Wii would outstrip demand for the PS2. It didn’t even sound possible. It didn’t sound possible to anybody.

Thefts from children and teenagers on the streets of Essex are becoming commonplace. In the past two years over 500 mobiles have been stolen, including dozens of MP3 players, iPods, games consoles and even laptops. Children as young as eleven have been the victims of crime in a spate that has seen technology such as MP3 players targeted by thieves.

The findings show that owners of gadgets are not safe to display their technology on the streets, but the police insist that Essex isn’t a high risk area when compared to other parts of the UK. According to Essex police, thefts of mobiles for instance are falling from the figures from the last two years.

Brighton and Hove is a particularly bad area for thefts of mobiles and laptops however. Figures have shown that teenagers are being targeted for their mobiles and MP3 players. The most likely age-group to be mugged in Brighton is the fifteen to sixteen age-group. According to Sussex Police, the increased visibility of mobiles and MP3 players as a status symbol and fashion accessory had led to the increase in thefts.

On the subject of mobile phone theft, he said:

Police and the communications industry have been working together to find ways to make the theft of mobile phones worthwhile. One particularly effective method has been immobilising equipment.

They advise that anyone with technology such as MP3 players and laptops should try and avoid showing them off in public places.

According to recent research, in 2005 – 2006 40% of muggers in the UK were aged between eleven and sixteen.

Reports are emerging that Apple’s iPod nano could be a fire hazard as it’s been reported that it’s emitting sparks. Apparently this is something reserved for the first generation iPod nanos, so if you have an old iPod nano you should be careful with the MP3 player device.

According to reports coming out of Japan, two iPod nanos emitted sparks and overheated while they were charging. Apple claim that instances of their iPod nano MP3 players overheating are ‘very rare’. When the devices overheated they caused damage to nearby items, such as paper and a straw mat on one occasion, but no one has been injured. The devices were rendered unusable however.

Reports of iPod nanos overheating first emerged in March when Apple admitted that an iPod nano had given off sparks and overheated. The models concerned are: MA099 and the MA005.

According to Apple, the affected units were sold between September 2005 and December 2006.

According to Apple’s website:

When you’re using iPod or charging the battery, it is normal for iPod to get warm.

The exterior of iPod functions as a cooling surface that transfers heat from inside the unit to the cooler air outside.

Change within technology is about as sure as the sunrise, and it looks like change is about to sweep the iPod line-up from Apple. According to many retailers, the current iPod line is about to be replaced!

It appears that retailers across the US are preparing for Apple’s current range to be replaced with new models. Apparently the news has leaked from retailers in the US that has seen iPod models being scanned in stores with barcode readers having their status changed from ‘Active’ to ‘Discontinued’.

It’s not just the US that has reported news of iPod models being discontinued, the retailer Argos in the UK also looks to be clearing its stock of old iPod models in anticipation of new models arriving in the next few weeks. With this news, if you’re looking to pick up some cheap iPods this could be the month to do it.

According to Wall Street analysts, Apple have to make these moves now in order to keep their position as market leaders.

Ben Reitzes, an analyst for Lehman Brothers, noted that stock of the 16GB iPod Touch has been scarce of late:

We continue to believe Apple will need to reposition the iPod touch line in conjunction with its anticipated new product announcement in early to mid-September now that the iPhone acquisition price is lower.

As the Olympic Games come to a close, a recurring factor has been discovered in the preparation of the most successful athletes. Those athletes who have won Gold at the Beijing Olympics all seem to have one thing in common, they’re all avid iPod users.

Simon Whitfield, who competes in the triathlon, listens to his iPod right before competing:

I watched the guys warm up and it’s hot out there. I just sat there with my cooling vest on listening to music and just chilled out. I think that really paid off.

It did pay off for Whitfield, as he won Silver at this year’s Olympics.

Penny Werthner is a sports psychologist at the Beijing Olympics. She says that athletes use music to psyche themselves up and to free themselves of distractions before competition.

The majority are using it to block out everything else that’s going on around them. Essentially what they’re doing is really not thinking at all. They’re just listening to music and being in a space before they actually get ready to narrow their focus.

Sadly for Whitfield his iPod went dead just 20 minutes too early on Tuesday last week as he’d forgotten to charge it up the night before! He was able to roll with the problem though, as it could have effected his preparation badly:

I roll with it. I’m pretty casual about all that.

You have to also plan for contingency if you forgot your music or something happens. Ideally, you don’t forget it.

In these times of heightened interest in green matters, and people leaving their cars behind for other forms of transport such as cycling or walking, it was only natural that someone would come up with a battery for MP3 players and iPods that was charged by the motion of walking. So instead of plugging your iPod into the wall, or into your computer via USB, simply go for a walk!

The new power source is called M2E Power, and means you won’t need to plug your MP3 player or mobile phone into the wall if it’s running a little low. It saves energy and money, which is good for the environment, it helps to keep you fit and it’s more convenient. How many times has your MP3 player gone dead in the middle of a track, or your mobile run out of power in the middle of a call? No more, not with the M2E Power, it’ll recharge with every step.

Still in the concept stage, the M2E Power gets charged by kinetic energy as you walk. It doesn’t generate huge amounts of power, just enough for a MP3 player, iPod or a PDA.

The makers of M2E have high hopes too, as they say it will create anything from 300% to 700% more energy than any current kinetic energy power on the market today.

It’ll be a few years before we see this on the high street though, but the military are expected to receive it very soon.

Since the Olympic Games started in China two weeks ago, the country’s strict laws blocking certain websites from being accessed have been lapsed slightly. However it is believed that iTunes has been blocked by the Chinese government over some pro-Tibet lyrics contained on the website.

Over 60 people have complained on Apple’s forum since Monday that they haven’t been able to download certain tracks from iTunes for use on their iPod MP3 players. Recently an album titled “Songs for Tibet” was released by The Art of Peace Foundation for download on iTunes.

There have been widespread protests and demonstrations across China just before the opening of the Olympic Games, as a result of the riots in Tibet in March. This has been very embarrassing for China and for Beijing, also for the Olympic committee.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritualist leader for Tibet, said he received unconfirmed reports that 140 people had been killed when Chinese soldiers opened fire on a peaceful protest in Eastern Tibet earlier this month.

It is believed that the Chinese government has blocked access to the music download section of iTunes because of the nature of the tracks.

Liu Bin works for the consulting firm BDA, based in Beijing:

The possibility of a block is high, and I’d say it should be due to a content issue.