JVC will this month ship its latest Flash-based digital music players, offer consumers in the US a choice of five female- and fella-friendly colours, and sporting neck lanyards with integrated earphone cables.

Sonos will this month cut the price of its multi-room digital music system. Its latest ZonePlayer wireless playback device, the ZP80, provides the same core functionality as Sonos' ZP100. However, to get the price - and the size - down, Sonos has stripped out the integrated amplifier used to drive speakers directly from the ZonePlayer.

Logitech will next month fill out its iPod-oriented portable speaker line-up with a mid-range set designed to provide up to ten hours' playing time using four AA batteries, though it's bundled with an AC adaptor for on-shelf playback too.

We're not sure how practical these iPod Nano cases are, but with their horns and forked tail, we're sure they'll appeal to music fans whose tastes tend toward the diabolic. At least the "high grade" silicone shell undertakes the saintly task of keeping your digital music player unstained and unscratched.

Apple vs Apple The Beatles' recording company, Apple Corp., was given an opportunity to object to Apple Comp.'s use of the apple logo in association with the iTunes Music Store. But it chose not to, the iPod maker's advocate claimed yesterday. Apple Corp. received an ITMS demo in January 2003 - four months before the service went live, Anthony Grabiner QC told the English High Court.

Is there a Bluetooth-equipped iPod on the way? UK girls'n'gadgets magazine Stuff certainly thinks so, based on a conversation it's had with an unnamed British retailer. If Apple's telling retailers to prepare for such a product, it can't be far off launching the thing.

Apple vs Apple Apple Comp. yesterday rejected arguments made by Apple Corp. lawyers that its iTunes Music Service goes beyond the terms of the two companies' 1991 trademark usage agreement, as the their legal confrontation in the English High Court moved into its second day.

Worried Junior may be listening to his or her iPod too loudly? Apple has added a user-definable volume limit to its latest iPod Nano and 5G iPod firmware. iPods sold in France and other EU countries have a mandatory volume limit, so it will interesting to see whether the update allows Euro users to turn their iPod 'up to eleven'. The updates also fixes some unspecified bugs. The new firmware is available here. ®

US iPod accessory maker Marware has unveiled a docking cradle that's almost as minimalist as the player it's designed to support. The iPod Nano Stand is sculpted to fit the player perfectly, with a dock connector and a back plane to make fitting and removal painless.

iPods and other MP3 players look set to become much cheaper thanks to a dramatic decline in the price of NAND Flash chips. According to memory industry watcher DRAMeXchange, NAND Flash prices on the spot market have fallen by more than 50 per cent since the start of 2006. It said 2GBb and 4Gb NAND Flash chip prices fell by 63 per cent on average. Other parts saw their prices drop by at least 43 per cent.

The iBuzz, the infamous iPod-enhanced vibrator, has...er...come to the US. Already on sale in the UK, the device has now gone one sale to North Americans keen to really 'feel' the music, movies or even video games...

Apple has begun selling music video downloads in DVD-duration batches, an approach that mirrors the way its sells songs as both singles and as album packages.

Sony is preparing to launch a redesigned set of Network Walkman E-series digital music players, this time sporting a range of coloured cases and an integrated USB connector a la iPod Shuffle, a number of websites have claimed.

Analysis Lovefilm.com will next month extend its full-length movie download service from rentals to pay-to-own. It will kick of the offer on 10 April with the latest King Kong remake, charging £20 for a copy of the DVD and a pair of digital downloads, one for desktop usage, the other for portable media players.

Analysis Taiwan's BenQ believes Apple will indeed offer a mobile phone product. One company executive this week said the 'iPhone' is "definitely coming", claiming the iPod maker has been talking to Taiwanese component manufacturers, some of whom also supply BenQ's handset operation.

Sony may have embraced the digital music revolution, but it hasn't left its MiniDisc format behind and today announced that it's fighting back with a new high-density model that will even - well, eventually - offer Mac support and the ability to archive MiniDisc content on a computer.

Apple has denounced France as a sponsor of piracy after the country's parliament backed a bill that, if enacted, will force the company to open its DRM technology to other hardware vendors and online music stores.

Want your fifth-generation iPod to run for longer than two hours when you're playing videos? Accessory specialist Belkin reckons it has the answer: a bolt-on rechargeable battery pack that the company claims boosts the player's playback duration by 300 per cent.

Taiwan's Quanta has won the contract to manufacturer Apple's eagerly anticipated video-oriented iPod, Chinese-language newspaper the Economic Daily News has claimed citing unnamed industry sources.

German MP3 player specialist Maxfield has launched a digital music player for kids. Pitched at children between the ages of six and 12, the primary colour player sports a playground-safe water-resistant shell and limits the decibels lest the young ones' passion for loud metal play havoc with their wee ear-drums.