Sony's new NW-HD5 touts long battery life

Although Sony's new NW-HD5 "looks suspiciously like one of those Mattel handheld football games that got taken away from you regularly during homeroom in the eighth grade," it has potential to chip away at the iPod's market share, The Motley Fool says. "While it may not be the long-awaited, silver-bullet iPod killer, it could at least eat into the gigantic market share that Apple Computer currently enjoys in that particular -- and particularly profitable -- category." While Apple claims a battery life for its 20-gig iPod models of up to 12 hours, Sony's new device can reportedly keep on keeping on for up to 40 hours. The device will play music files encoded by the user, but when it comes to buying online, it only supports downloads offered by the Connect music store. "Based on its reported battery life alone, the NW whatchamacallit ought to pique the interest of portable music fans everywhere, all the while causing the fat and happy execs over in Apple's iPod division to wring their hipster hands, if only just a little."

Briefly: LifeDrive; piracy; iTunes review; Coldplay

In brief: PalmOne's new LifeDrive, a $500 PDA with an internal 4-gigabyte hard drive, is a "very, very good idea" and could become the "iPod of Everything."... The music industry considers the seemingly innocuous act of duplicating a music CD for someone else ``casual piracy,'' a practice that surpasses Internet file-sharing as the single largest source of unauthorized music distribution.... Its rivals are getting stronger, but Apple's iTunes continues to be the leader, BusinessWeek says in a review of the service.... Coldplay's new album, "X&Y," topped the sales charts in the U.S. with nearly 740,000 copies sold in its first week, 62,000 of which were downloaded from online music stores.

Speck offers wallet style rubber iPod case

Speck Products today announced the Portfolio Skin ($35), a Rubberized wallet style case that offers protection and modern fashion for the iPod or iPod photo. Portfolio skin features a super-soft, smooth rubberized body and 4 interchangeable colored straps. "The Portfolio Skin features the same fun rubberized material as your basic skin, but it's molded to resemble a high-end leather wallet." The Portfolio Skin features all-around protection when the case is closed, protecting the screen, clickwheel and body of the iPod with soft, shock absorbing Kraton material. The bottom port, headphone jack and hold switch are always accessible. The Portfolio is available in two color combinations- Pink (includes white, black, green and dark pink straps) and Clear (includes blue, black, green and orange straps).

Prosoft to offer "Pod Genius" software utility...

Prosoft Engineering today announced Pod Genius, a new iPod utility that will be on display at MacExpo Germany in Cologne, June 16-18. Pod Genius is the a comprehensive software utility geared specifically toward iPod users. Recover lost or damaged music, repair corrupted data structures, backup your iPod to an exact copy, permanently delete unwanted files, or optimize the file layout of your music. Features include Backup, Optimize, Undelete, Shred, Duplicate, Scan, and Info.

Belkin may recall Power Pack for iPod shuffle

Belkin faces a major recall of the Power Pack for iPod shuffle, following several customer reports that the device simply doesn't work. An iPodNN reader reported buying two of the devices at a campus computer store, and neither successfully charged the Shuffle. "Both the AC and DC adapters fail to charge the Shuffles indicated by no charging light (yellow or green) as well as the shuffle still showing a red light on the battery indicator button after more than two hours of charging." A Belkin representative confirmed that several units tested did not work. The representative said the company would likely "quarantine all units out there" and contact customers when the problem was identified and resolved.

Cableyoyo cleans up cable clutter...

Bluelounge in June began shipping Cableyoyo, a device that it calls "the paperclip of the new millennium." Cableyoyo is a cord management device that "suits everyone with fixed & mobile electronic devices," including the iPod. The device features a stylish design that "blends seamlessly with any electronic device and so discreet it can disappear in-between products." It is also designed to protect cables from damage due to twisting and tangling. Cableyoyo effectively conceals up 6-feet (1.8 meters) of electronic cord. Cableyoyo may be used in transit, as a stand-alone container, or fixed, to neatly store unsightly cables at home and in the office. Cableyoyos are $5 each.