MP3, you better watch yer back. MusicDNA is the new music file-format in town, and it's here to take your crown.

Or at least that's what developer Dagfinn Bach hopes. His new file type can contain complete artist packages that include videos, pictures, merchandising links and access to official band blog and Twitter feeds. And, of course, music too.

"We can deliver a file that is extremely searchable and can carry up to 32GB of extra information in the file itself," Bach explained. "And it will be dynamically updatable so that every time the user is connected, his file will be updated."

Tons of labels have already signed up to get involved with the new format, including Beggars Group, which owns Rough Trade (The Strokes, Mystery Jets), 4AD (The Big Pink, TV On The Radio), Matador Records (Sonic Youth) and XL Recordings (Vampire Weekend, MIA).

It'll be interesting to see how this one shapes up against the iTunes LP format, which likewise groups together videos, songs and artwork. But to be honest, I still prefer to own something I can hold.

Via: NME

While we sit patiently waiting for the Zune HD to hit our shores, it looks like Philips are about to sneak around the back and pop a sweet 720p outputting PMP under our noses.

The old Muse has undergone a bit of a facelift. Silver is in and black is out, with a 3.2 inch touchscreen, SD card slot and HDMI output meaning you can get 720p quality video on your flat screen from just this tiny device alone.

Also getting a bit of an update is the Philips Cam. A small, still-and-video camera packing MP3 player, this 8GB PMP looks to go head-to-head with the iPod Nano.

US readers can pick up the new Muse for $149.99 (around £92), with the Philips Cam weighing in at $99.99 (£60).

With a blatant gap in the market left by the Zune HD, will Philips capitalise and send the Muse PMP in the UK's direction? It seems a missed opportunity not to.

Via: dapreview

Another day, another Tech Digest CES 2010 round-up. Fancy Tweeting hands-free in your car or controlling your PC by breathing? Check today's top stories below and find out how.

Twitter coming to Ford cars
The digital equivalent of drink-driving?

Motorola announce Backflip Android Phone
Hinged smartphone is Motorola's big CES 2010 offering

Ion launch the iType full QWERTY keyboard add-on for the iPhone
Making the portable unwieldy

Vuzix demo Wrap 920AR Augmented Reality visor
Turning your trip to the shops into a scene out of Robocop

Zyxio's new breathing-based PC controller, the Sensawaft
Affordable accessibility gadget, perfect for disabled PC users

3D gaming headed to the Palm family
Apple isn't the only mobile now capable of some hardcore gaming action

Is the Viliv P3 the underdog tablet to look out?
Dual-booting tablet is looking very tasty indeed

Razer and Sixense bring motion gaming to the PC
But will it catch on within the incredibly competitive PC gaming peripheral market?

UK getting the Dell Mini 3i
Android phone hitting UK shores in the not-so-distant-future

Video- Armour Home Q2 Tilt Internet radio
Innovative and simple radio from Brit-based Armour

Video - "World's smallest Windows PC" the UMID M Book 1
It makes a gnat's bum look big. Well...not quite. But you get the idea

Video- Casio's Digital Art Frame
Making all those dodgy Facebook snaps look good

Video - The coolest retro iPhone hi-fi ever, Lasonic's i931
Bring 80's boom box street-chic bang up to date

Video - Toshiba's Cell TV that is controlled by hand gestures
Innovative tech, but it makes you look a bit of an idiot; not sure I want a work out in front of the telly

Video - Sony's BRAVIA XBR-52HX900 3D TV
Their flagship 3D set is a stunner

Video - Panasonic's 3D camera
Bet the adult-entertainment industry cant wait to get its mitts on this one

Click here for more CES 2010 coverage from Tech Digest

Tech Digest at CES is sponsored by Best Buy. For more CES stories and videos go here

With CES 2010 now well under way, it can be pretty tough keeping track of all the latest announcements. Here's Tech Digest's round-up of the of best Day 1 at CES 2010 so far, including all the news from the LG and Toshiba press conferences.

Toshiba Press Conference
Amazing new Cell Tvs promise to deliver real-time 2D to 3D conversion

Samsung ready N-range netbooks
Massive battery life makes this Samsung range stand out from the pack

LG Press Conference
3D tech is as big on LG's agenda as expected

Immerz KOR-FX acousto-haptic gear lets you "feel" your gaming experience
Slightly creepy, sort of cool new tech promises to fully immerse you in games and movies

Sony NW-A845 Walkman finally gets European release
Super-slim MP3 player hitting stores in February

Microsoft to unveil new HP built tablet?
Rumour has it Microsoft may be preparing to square up against the Apple iSlate

Brits get the Amazon Kindle DX from January 19th
Too little too late from Amazon?

PassivSystems heating control
Economise with this hot Brit-built energy management system

ZOMM Bluetooth leash for your mobile
Never lose your mobile again thanks to this Bluetooth alert system

Saygus VPHONE
New Android handset enters the smartphone fray

Parrot's AR Drone Quadricpoter
Augmented reality app controls this fun gadget copter

Iriver Story e-reader goes wireless and gets a proper launch
A long time coming, but finally the Story gets a happy ending

Six of this year's hottest products
Featuring such gadgetry delights as the Skiff e-reader

Why Apple is the real star of the show
Have Apple stolen the lime-light yet again, without even appearing in Vegas?

Will it be any good this year?
In a recessionary year, Ashley Norris gives his views on what to expect from this year's show.

Click here for more CES 2010 coverage from Tech Digest

Tech Digest at CES is sponsored by Best Buy. For more CES stories and
videos go here

Sony's super-slim, super sexy NW-A845 Walkman has been wowing music lovers in Japan for some time now, and now Sony are finally unleashing the flagship PMP upon European audiences.

Measuring just 7.2mm thick, the music player features a 2.8 inch OLED screen and is bundled with a premium set of EX earphones.

Perhaps best of all, the NW-A845 has a mammoth 29 hour battery life, more than enough to work through an entire one of those Time Life "Sounds of the Sixties" box sets always advertised on the telly.

The NW-A845 will be hitting stores in February. No word on pricing yet, but we'll let you know as soon as we do.

Click here for more CES 2010 coverage from Tech Digest

TechDigest at CES is sponsored by Best Buy. For more CES stories and
videos go here.

A new EU restriction may see the volume levels across all iPods and MP3 players capped.

EU officials believe that as many as 10 million EU residents risk permanent damage to their hearing from listening to music played too loudly from personal music players.

Officials are looking to bring the maximum volume level for all music players down to no more than 85 decibels, which they claim is equal to the noise produced by a busy city street.

However, Tony Graziano of DigitalMusic has dammed the restricitons. He said: "85dB would not be appropriate because noise coming from traffic, engines and so on would obliterate the sound. The solution must lie in a balance between safety and enjoyment of the product by the consumer."

However, the plans suggest that while such lowered volume levels would be the default setting for new players, users could override the cap in the system settings.

Apple has already lowered the maximum volume levels on its iPod range once before, bringing the maximum volume level down to 100db.

Via: T3

Logic3 today unveiled their new line of portable speakers, the iStationGo range.

The fold-away iStationGo speakers come in pink, blue, silver and black, with rounded edges that should make the speakers go easy on the lining of your bag. The speakers ship with a protective cloth carry case and four AAA batteries.

Thanks to a 3.5mm headphone jack, the iStationGo speakers will be compatible with a whole range of MP3 players and mobile phones. The four included AAA batteries will power the speakers for 15 hours, a pretty reasonable amount of time for portable speakers. The speakers also feature a cradle to place the iPod Touch, iPod Nano and iPhone either vertically or horizontally which should be useful for movie lovers.

The iStationGo speakers cost £19.99 and are available here directly from Logic3.

If you're looking to get your MP3 player or iPod out of its civvies and into something a little more battle-ready, check out Headfunk's Sidefunk Speaker bags.

Powered by 2 AA batteries, the camouflage-styled speakers have a frequency range of 20-20,000 Hz, connecting up to your player via a 3.5mm universal headphone jack. A durable EVA lining should protect your player from scratches or other mishaps, whilst a karabiner belt clip lets the speakers hang hands free whilst you're out and about.

They're not the prettiest casings out there, but camouflage on the front line was always intended to be frightening rather than fashionable we suppose.

Headfunk's Sidefunk speaker bags cost £24.99 and are available here.

Klipsh are ready to launch a new updated version of their popular iGroove SXT dock. This latest incarnation of the speaker system can accommodate all the latest iPod and iPhone models, including the iPhone 3GS.

The iGroove SXT employs dual long-throw 2.5-inch woofers in a ported enclosure and dual 19mm horn-loaded tweeters. Each driver is individually amplified to lessen distortion and Klipsch has also re-tuned the bass ports on the sides of the system to remove any "port noise".

The dock also has S-video out, allowing users to play videos on their TVs, and a 1000mA charger built into the dock to keep your Apple gadgets powered up.

"The iGroove SXT has always been our smallest, most affordable dock speaker," said Don Inmon, Klipsch director of marketing and product development for personal audio. "And even with all its new updates, we're keeping the original system price of £129.99. I think consumers will be really pleased with the results."

The iGroove SXT dock is available here from Amazon, priced £114.99.

If you're looking for a new iPod dock and want one unit to play music throughout the house, then the Evolve Wireless Sound System from Griffin could be just what you're after.

Completely wireless, the Evolve iPod dock features two speakers that can be used up to 150 ft away from the docking station. The speakers charge wirelessly too once placed on the dock's base, nicely removing the need for any unsightly chargers.

There's also a remote control, allowing you to play, pause, shuffle and control volume from any room. It's not a bad looking piece of kit either, with the simple box-shaped speakers fitting in in most homes.

You can pick up the Evolve Wireless Speaker System here, priced at £249.99.

Sennheiser's new Bluetooth headphones, the MM 100 will use multi-point connectivity to connect to two devices at once, perfect for those who always have their phones and MP3 players on the go.

Using Bluetooth V2.0 EDR, the headset can connect up to a MP3 player and a mobile phone, allowing quick switching between both devices.

The headphones will also support hands free and have a battery life of 9 hours, rechargeable via USB.

Sennheiser are always pretty reliable when it comes to sonics, with the MM 100 set to feature a wide dynamic range and natural sound reproduction.

The MM 100 will cost around £129.99, and will be launched by O2 in November.

For more details, click here.

A by-product of the digital age we live in is the need for untold different chargers for each device we own. Mobile phones, MP3 players, gaming systems; you name it, they each come with their own cupboard-filling charger. The Powermat is set to revolutionise the world of chargers, wirelessly powering a wealth of gadgets.

Requiring only a single mains connection and using wireless energy transfer, Powermat pairs an ultra-thin mat with a receiver that connects to your device. By simply placing an enabled device on the Powermat, the mat and receiver will work together to charge up to three devices at once. Incredibly, charging occurs at the same rate or faster than if the device was using a standard charger plugged into an electrical socket, even when multiple devices are placed on the Mat.

Price however may prove to be a big draw back. If you are the sort of person looking to buy a Powermat, then you will likely have at least two or three compatible devices that need charging. When you consider that many devices need a unique receiver to charge with the mat, each roughly around the £30 mark, a couple of charger leads suddenly don't look all that unattractive.

The Powermat is available from John Lewis, The Carphone Warehouse and Amazon. Powermats cost from £69.99, with individual receivers starting at £29.99.

Need convincing? Check out the demonstration video below.

YBA, the French designers behind 25 years of high end audio-manufacturing, have turned their attention to the iPod with their new iDW1 docking station.

Featuring a minimalist design inspired by architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, the dock is made completely of aluminium and hides no plastic parts.

The iDW1 YBA iPod docking station features composite video output, a remote control with support for browsing playlists and albums as well as having the regular play, pause, stop, rewind and fast-forward commands and also includes an Apple Universal connector to hook-up the whole range of iPod products.

The iDW1 is in shops now for around the £150 mark.

For more information, check www.ybadesign.com.

Archos's rather cool eight gig touch screen personal media player has now hit the stores. Here's what we made of it back at its launch in August.

I love the Finis SwiMP3 player. It's fantastic for relieving the boredom of swimming up and down the pool and sound quality underwater is surprisingly good thanks to its use of bone-conduction technology.

Humans normally hear through air conduction, but because there is no air underneath the water, Finis claims that bone conduction provides the clearest sound quality possible. Instead sound vibrations are transferred from the cheek bone to the inner ear, giving the swimmer much better sound quality. Certainly audio quality is much better than other underwater MP3 players I've tested including Speedo's much cheaper Aquabeat.

There's just one small problem, the 256Kb model I've got can only fit around 45 songs on there. But now Finis has upgraded the SwiMP3 with 1Gb memory - enough for up to 200 tracks I reckon. Finis claims that a single USB charge of the lithium ion battery can last up to 10 hours, enough for even the most exhaustive of swimming workouts (unless you are swimming the channel that is). The SwiMP3 is compatible with MP3 and WMA files.

I thought it was underwhelming, the US financial community declared it pants and pulled a few % off Apple shares to show its displeasure and even the fan boys had trouble getting excited.
Yep, Apple's Rock and Roll, event on Wednesday turned out to be a as fluffy as a cotton wool factory.

So why did Apple screw a product launch do badly? Well the conspiracy theories are already kicking in - here's our top five

1 It was about Steve and not the product - Fair play to the fella. He has just come back from a liver transplant and is back running the company again - now that has to be worth a standing ovation or two. So maybe it was felt that a cracking new redesigned touch would overshadow his comeback.

2 The Fab Four (really ought to be deadly duo now) turned out to not be so Fab - So Apple announces its launch on the same day as The Beatles have theirs and Apple calls the event Rock and Roll. Doesn't take a Sherlock to realise that some Beatles deal (Fabs on iTunes, Sergeant Pepper iPod) was on the cards quite possibly until earlier this week. Yoko even told Sky News there would be Beatles tracks on iTunes as late as Tuesday. All very odd.

3 The Netbook/Tablet still isn't ready - Apple were all set to unveil a groundbreaking new product, but the R&D guys told Jobbsie that held have to wait a little longer as things weren't quite ready. In the case of the tablet that's probably a good three years in then pipeline now.

4 Apple is slowly killing off the iPods - Well this one is almost believable. The Classic could well be pensioned off next time round and surely it won't be long now before the shuffle drops out of your Corn Flakes packet. Apple's future surely has to focus on the touch and the iPhone.

5 Don't' upset the touch bandwagon - The Touch is selling very nicely thank you so why bother going to the expense of adding a camera when it probably won't bring about a huge uplift in sales. Also the camera is likely to be fairly pants, so leave it a year or so and put something half decent in there.

A few others

• John Lennon couldn't make the event - he was otherwise engaged
• Derren Brown was threatening to reveal the new products last week. This involves a trick with mirrors, screens and odd shaped balls
• Apple were being nice to Palm and Motorola who also had product launches this week. Both are in dire straits at the moment and if they do go down the only US phone manufacturer left would be Apple, which isn't necessarily a good place to be.

Ipod accessories company GEAR4 certainly doesn't mess around. Just hours after Steve Jobs' announcement of a new iPod nano, it's unveiled a new iPod nano case range.

The new GEAR4 range for the updated iPod nano includes silicon skins, hard plastic shells, leather cases and a sports armband, all with the new larger screen and including a hole for the all-important new video camera feature. One of the highlights of the 2009 range is the JumpSuit Pro, a tough, shock resistant rubber case with blue detail on the reverse.

Established cases in the GEAR4 range such as the JumpSuit Plus, IceBox and LeatherJacket Flip will all be continued, with slightly reworked and updated versions.

For more details, go to www.gear4.com
Buy Gear 4 products from Amazon

Related stories:
New Nano complete with video camera
Apple's new iPod gallery

Here's a quick gallery of the new iPods along with details and prices.

Click on the pic to kick start the gallery

Steve Jobs - complete with new liver from 20-something car crash victim - announced several new iPod models at the Apple launch in San Francisco this afternoon. Of most interest is the new iPod nano which now comes with video camera, mic and speaker as well as several new colours (now available in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, silver and black).

It comes in two versions - 8 Gig for $159 and 16 Gig for $179. UK prices yet to be announced. Says Steve Jobs: "Video has exploded in the last few years...All those streams are coming from solid-state video cameras." He adds, "We want to get on this," as he shows the enthusiastic audience a picture of the Flip Video and its 4GB $149 price point.