Nissan, Mazda and Daihatsu to offer iPod integration...

Apple today announced that Nissan, Mazda and Daihatsu in Japan have joined BMW, MINI, smart and Alfa Romeo in Japan to deliver iPod integration with their car stereos for 2006 model lines. "Seamless integration of iPods in cars allows music lovers to enjoy high-quality sound through their car's stereo system, easily access their entire music library and take their music with them everywhere they go," according to a statement released by Apple. "We're delighted to have such a wide variety of car companies in Japan offering iPod integration," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing.

iPod demonstrates value of digital audio at Duke

Duke's iPod First Year Initiative has helped the university realize the value of digital audio and technology in the classroom and other facets of college life. In an interview with Duke's CIO and vice president for Information Technology, Tracy Futhey said that the iPod project has made it "made clear to many of our faculty and in many of our courses, the value of digital audio in a whole host of domains. And those who have started to use the iPods have said, in a large number of cases, that this has been an important enough experiment that they absolutely need and want to continue it. And we’ve had interest from other courses that haven’t yet tried it." The university is also looking to expand beyond digital audio into digital video, tablet computing, and collaborative areas and is shifting the project from class-based to course-based, according to Campus Technology.

Creative offers video-capable music player

Creative today announced the Zen Vision digital music player with a 3.7-inch SharpPix high-resolution 640x480 262,144-color screen for photo viewing and digital video playback. The 30GB Zen Vision stores up to 15,000 songs, tens of thousands of photos, or up to 120 hours of video. Available in either pearl white or black, the Zen Vision measures 4.9 by 2.9 by .8 inches and weighs only 8.4 ounces. It carries a retail price of $400. Speculation continues about a similar video-capable iPod from Apple.