Report: Quanta wins video iPod contract...

Apple may be switching video iPod suppliers or adding more capacity, according to a new report. In its Wednesday edition, The Economic Daily News reported that Quanta Computer has secured contracts from Apple for the manufacture of video iPod devices. Inventec Appliances Corp is the current video iPod manufacturer. Quanta is already the world's leading contract maker of notebook personal computers, according to Forbes.com; the company recently also began manufacturing Apple’s MacBook Pro, according to a previously published report. The new report says that Quanta has won certification for its output and will begin delivery from next month -- the same time frame that some analysts expect a new version of Apple's high-end video iPod.

MS creating portable game, media player

Microsoft is developing a portable device that would play video games, music, and video that the company hopes will out-class Apple's fifth-generation video iPod. The device could debut as soon as the end of 2006, and several top Microsoft executives involved with the portable device's development who also worked on the Xbox 360 game console said Microsoft is very serious about catching up with Sony's PlayStation Portable hand-held game console, as well as Apple's iPod players, according to a report from CNN Money. Microsoft is already a major player in the home console market, and the company's early release of the Xbox 360 could make that device the new dominant player of home consoles. The Xbox 360 launched offering limited connectivity to many digital music players, revealing Microsoft's hope to integrate consumer's home entertainment systems with its own hardware products.

UK adds iPod, iTunes to inflation index

iPods and iTunes downloads have been added to the list of goods used by the UK government as a standard for measuring inflation, according to Macworld UK. "The 650-product list is maintained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and it aims to measure the fluctuations in prices paid by the UK population. ONS collects about 120,000 prices every month for a 'shopping basket' of about 650 goods and services. It uses the change in price of those items to compile its main measures of inflation: the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and Retail Prices Index (RPI). The Bank of England uses the CPI as its inflation target while the RPI is used to uprate many state benefits."