The MP3 Players

Apple Computer Inc announced a recycling program for iPod, its famous portable music player. Customer may hand in their old iPod to Apple’s 100 retail stores in the U.S.

Apple will offer a 10 percents of discount on new iPod for those who drop off their old iPod, iPod mini and iPod Photo at the same day. The company will then process the environmentally friendly disposal.

Apple has just agreed to a settlement over complaints on batteries failure in iPods this Thursday.

{ via BetaNews }

The settlement potentially covers an estimated 2 million consumers who bought a first, second, or third generation iPod on or before May 31, 2004. For consumers who experienced battery failure with previous-generation iPods, Apple will offer the $50 store credit or $25 in cash. Customers who have paid Apple to repair their iPod battery within two years of purchasing the device are eligible for a $50 cash refund. Apple charges $99 for such repairs.

The consumers began lodging complaints after word of the allegedly faulty batteries spread.

{ via Reuters; CNET News }

The 70nm process is one step ahead of the existing 90nm process, leading to smaller, faster and less expensive memory chips. Samsung’s 70nm 4GB NAND flash writes data at the speed of 16 MB per second, a 50% improvement over the 90nm 2GB NAND flash.

8GB NAND flash memory is also going be released this summer from both Samsung and Toshiba, but Samsung still leads in process technology. Toshiba stated it will begin producing 8Gb NAND flash memory this summer, their 4Gb NAND flash memory was released earlier last year.

{ via Newratings.com; MobileMag }

The information was given by the Nintendo Vice President George Harrison during an interview with Gamespot. He told to the reporter that the company is considering to bundle Play-Yan extension to allow new Nintendo Game Boys Micro to play MP3 music or MP4 video files. However, the company does not plan to built-in the function as some rumors predicted.

{ via I4U News }

DigiTimes reports Samsung and Toshiba to be, “aggressively planning to ramp up their output of 8Gb NAND flash chips”.

Informatively, the report reveals that this is because of Apple’s plans to introduce 2GB and 4GB versions of its iPod shuffle “this June and August, respectively”.

Apple, Toshiba and Samsung declined to comment on this news.

{ via Macworld UK }

For me, i rather prefer a iPod Shuffle with a LCD display. At least I could know what song I’m playing now!