Revolution Portal: Because it won’t be televised.

The iPod Shuffle is cute as a button and cheaper than a high class massage, but it’s always been a tad ”blah” in silver.

Apple has corrected this aesthestic faux-pas by announcing four new colors to the lineup: blue, pink, green, and orange.

Now it’s pretty much perfect.  The announcement from Apple follows.

Apple today announced that the world’s most wearable digital music player is now available in five brilliant colours: blue, pink, green, orange and the original silver. A hit with customers since its initial shipment three months ago, iPod shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs just half an ounce and features a stunning aluminium design with a built-in clip, making it the most wearable iPod ever. Based on Apple’s pioneering shuffle feature which lets music fans enjoy a continuous mix of their favourite songs anywhere they go, iPod shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory, holds up to 240 songs and is available in all five colours for just £55 (inc VAT).

“iPod shuffle is the world’s most wearable digital music player”, said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “Music fans can now choose iPod shuffle in one of five brilliant colours, or they can buy one of each”.

iPod shuffle features up to 12 hours of battery life* and lets users shuffle their songs to listen to them in a random order or simply flip a switch to listen to their songs in order, such as when listening to a new album.

Users connect iPod shuffle to their PC or Mac with the included dock, and iTunes’ innovative AutoFill feature automatically syncs the perfect number of songs from their music library. Seamless integration with iTunes 7 and the iTunes Store allows customers to choose from a selection of over four million songs from the world’s most popular digital music store.

With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights, the iTunes Store is the best way for PC and Mac users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability:
The new iPod shuffle is available immediately worldwide through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorised Resellers for £55 (inc VAT). iPod shuffle includes an iPod shuffle dock and earbuds.

iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0.2 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0.2 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.

Apple’s got a bit of egg on its collective face today; the company announced that there’s a minute number of Video iPods that have shipped with an unwanted bonus — a worm. The worm is called RavMonE.exe and Trend Micro describes what it does thusly:

“This worm propagates via mapped drives. It lists all mapped drives on an affected system and drops several files in the root folder. It also propagates via removable drives such as flash disks and floppy disks. It has backdoor capabilities. Using random ports, it connects to a remote user. Once a connection is established, the remote user issues commands on the affected system.”

Strangely, Apple used the opportunity to take a potshot at Windows, saying that they are “upset” about the OS’ lack of hardiness against these sort of viruses.

We recently discovered that a small number - less than 1% - of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.

Instructions on how the virus can be removed can be found here.

Sony shares drop after PS3 overheat reports

After reports that the PS3 was overheating Sony’s shares dropped about 3 percent.

From PunchJump:

Macquarie Securities analyst David Gibson wrote in a report Monday that the machine may have stability problems due to overheating.

“We have heard that at the TGS PS3s had stability problems and had to be reset often. While the reason for this is unknown we suspect it may be due to overheating as a result of enclosing the units and the high temperatures at the venue. We understand that Sony is investigating the issue and has not determined the cause as yet,” Gibson wrote.

“We are concerned that such a problem has occurred so close to full production (end-Sept) and is clearly negative news for the company.”

Zune vs. Ipod - Let’s get it on!

The Microsoft Zune versus the Apple Ipod:

The Zune is the long awaited release by Microsoft to comete with Apple’s Ipod.

The Zune will be out for the holidays, but as time goes on it will be released with more features as they are develpoed.

The Zune is going to be released with many features and will only get better, some of the features that the Zune will offer are:

• WiFi
• Drive-Based
• Community to discover other artists, etc.
• Releases on November 14th
• Will cost $249.99
• Share files from Zune to Zune
• 3 available colors
• 3-inch LCD video screen that works in portrait or landscape mode
• 30 GB Drive (7,500 song, 25,000 pictures, or 100 hours of video)
• FM Tuner
• Subscription to download all the songs you can instead of pay-per-song
• May be able to play games in the future

As of now the Zune looks to have the brighter future with more in store, but right now the Ipod beats the Zune with:

• Ipod is slimmer in size
• Ipod’s click-wheel is easier to use for navigation
• More available music, songs, video, etc.
• Supports both Windows and Mac
• Longer lasting battery, by about 2 hours

The Ipod seems to have more “content” available through Itunes, and other media distributors. As fasr as the Zune we are still unsure of what will be available. The features of Zune-to-Zune sharing, WiFi support, FM Tuner, and 3-inch LCD screen may give the Zune the upper hand this holiday season.

MTV is acquiring Harmonix, the creator of Guitar Hero

MTV is acquiring Harmonix Music Systems, the creator of Guitar Hero, for $175 million in cash.

The deal is set to help expand MTV greatly by changing the way their web site looks and functions, adding new virtual worlds, and add upon planned mobile services as well as remixing songs and such.

�It is about people coming to MTV who are passionate about music and wanting to interact on deeper and deeper levels,� said Christina Norman, the president of MTV. �It�s not just about wearing the T-shirt.�