World's Most Expensive MP3 Player

Amazon is selling what they claim to be the world's most expensive MP3 player selling for $19,999! It's 18-karat gold, encrusted with jewels and endowed with 1GB of memory for your favorite tunes.

Amazon.com Product Description
The TrekStor i.Beat organix Gold MP3 Player is built for every person who loves digital music. Okay, scratch that, this MP3 player is built for every millionaire who loves digital music. TrekStor received a special order from Russian-Canadian billionaire and owner of the Midland Formula 1 team, Alex Shnaider, to develop the world's most expensive MP3 player. What you're looking at is TrekStor's answer to the order. This unique, custom-made device is based on TrekStor's widely successful, award-winning i.Beat organix, but with a little extra bling.

Just don't try taking this guy on your morning run. It would be a shame to lose a gem from the casing. Although I guess for most people who would purchase this ludicrously expensive gadget, the only running they're doing is to their personal jet.

DJ Ditty History

Dell announced that it will no longer sell the Ditty, a flash-based music player that was launched to compete with the iPod Nano. Given the stronghold Apple has on the market, it's no wonder the folks in Texas decided to call it quits. However, given Microsoft's Zune news, could it be that Dell saw the writing on the wall and realized that competing against the two would be a no-win situation? Unfortunately for consumers, more and more device manufacturers may come to the same conclusion, leaving us with a dearth of choice when it comes to playing our music on the go.

Dell stops selling Ditty music players [USA Today]

Apple to pay $100 mln to Creative in settlement

Creative has taken a huge bit out of Apple by winning a $100 million settlement for the patent litigation which arose from Creative's hierarchical navigation model used in both companie's portable music players.

I love the iPod, but it's nice to see the underdog win for a change!

Apple to pay $100 mln to Creative in settlement [Reuters]

iPod Nano rival from Sandisk offers twice the memory

Yet another iPod killer is unveiled. This time, Sandisk is offering an 8GB music player, which is twice the memory of a Nano, for about the same price. The new player will retail for just under $250. By comparison, a new 4-gigabyte Nano is priced at about $249.

SanDisk is the second largest seller of portable music devices behind Apple. They are also the world's largest provider of flash memory.

SanDisk unveils new music player, cuts prices [Reuters]

New Treo coming next month

Palm and Vodafone just announced plans to release the Treo 750W on September 12th.

The Californian-based firm said in July the new version will operate on Vodafone's (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research) high-speed third generation (3G) network and be powered by Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Windows Mobile operating system, however details about the handset's functionality remain sketchy.

For now, the 750W will not be available in the U.S. But perhaps it will include some nice new features that we can look forward to.

Palm to unveil new Treo model next month [Reuters]

Headphone organizer (at last!)

I recently spent 10 minutes trying to untangle a pair of headphone cables the other day. Techie Diva uncovered the Tetran Cable Winder which could be the solution I need. Looking something like a blowfish, this can also be used as a stress ball for those really bad days. Just stick the earbuds into the mouth and wind the cord around the body.

Product Features

• Store your Earbuds Neatly
  
• Squeeze for Stress Relief
• 2.25" x 2.4" x 2"

Earphone Organizing Stress Ball [Techie Diva]

iPod Flower Power

Target is selling these cute Flower Pods which are speakers for your mp3 player. They're reasonably priced ($12.95) and perfect for those of us who don't have a green thumb! The Flower Pod is not yet available, but you can pre-order from the Target website.

The Flower Pod, a flower-power boost to tunes [Gizmodiva]