After two recent incidents in Japan where the first-generation iPod overheated and caused minor fires; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has issued a warning to the music player. In total, there have been 14 incidents relating to the iPod Nano’s exploding battery, according to news sources in Japan, and the ministry has ordered Apple to investigate.

The investigation has determined that the batteries in the first-gen iPod sold between September 2005 and December 2006 were to blame, and has said that the company had received very few reports of such incidents - saying less than 0.001 percent of the units - all have been traced to a single battery supplier.

Apple is advising that you should contact AppleCare for a replacement battery - if the battery should overheat. This follows similar incidents in the US, but no recall notice has been made.

After losing the format war against Sony (remember, the HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray thing), Toshiba has released its new XD-E500. The good things is that it uses Toshiba’s new eXtended Detail Enhancement technology (EDE) - which basically upconverts to fill the void between those upconverting players and Blu-Ray; and it costs US$150.

However, it does not play Blu-Ray; and Toshiba did not try to compare the new player with a Blu-Ray player, but compared it with a unnamed $70 upscaler.

Source: Engadget

Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren has said that the popular web radio service, with 1 million listeners daily and a popular iPhone application, is on the brink of collapse.

"We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision," he said to the Washington Post. "This is like a last stand for webcasting."

This comes as web radio stations will pay music royalties higher than their satellite counterparts; with the terrestrial radio stations pay nothing to play songs from the record labels. By 2010, Pandora and other internet stations will need to pay 2.91 cents per hour per listener. Satellite royalties are 1.6 cents per hour per listener.

According to Westergren, Pandora pays around 70% of their $25 million in yearly revenues just to pay for the royalty fees - and that is driving them out of business; with the music industry saying its the radio stations fault and suggest that they find other ways to make revenue - which is kind of funny, because its not true.

Of course, this is just another way that the record labels are ‘compensating’ for their ‘lost revenue’ because of the internet. As well, this is also ridiculous as there a different pricing plans for terrestrial, satellite and internet radio. At least internet broadcasters are doing something legitimate and legal, because many others just don’t give a crap about royalties.

Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager, has something to complain to all the web users today. Four songs from U2’s upcoming album ‘No Line On the Horizon’ have been leaked online after Bono was playing them too loudly on his stereo - and somehow, a fan recorded the tracks.

The four songs include the title track, the first single from the album - ‘Sexy Boots’, ‘Moment of Surrender’ and ‘For Your Love’. Of course, the track is most likely to be poor, but many U2 fans are likely not to care about it. Hey, at least its better than a leaked album …

… which is, again, most likely to happen before the release date - in November.

Pay TV provider Foxtel has said that it had posted a 17 percent lift in revenue, meaning that its total revenue is at $1.7 billion; and has said that there has been an increased take-up of additional services by the existing subscribers - increasing the average revenue per user (ARPU) to nearly $85 a month.

As well, its high definition service - released in June of this year - has been a major success; with nearly 40,000 subscribers joining the service. Foxtel HD+ sees five high definition channels being available, a new Foxtel iQ2 DVR and the Foxtel Box Office in high definition.

As well, there will be additional channels next year; once a new satellite is up and running so more content can be push through. The BBC, via BBC Worldwide, will launch two new channels on Foxtel - BBC Knowledge, a documentary channel, and CBeebies, a education children’s channel.

This will bring the current offering from BBC Worldwide to five - including BBC World News, BBC HD and UKTV.

Bigpond has boosted its digital music profile through a deal with all four major record labels to its online music store to compete with iTunes.

SonyBMG, Universal, Warner Music and EMI; as well as several independent labels such as MGM and Liberation, bring the current catalogue of songs from 20,000 to 1 million-plus by January 2009.

“BigPond now gives iPod users an alternative place to purchase their favourite music in a format that will work on their player," Justin Milne, group managing director, said.

“BigPond is changing the online music game by creating a truly open world that puts consumers in the driving seat.”

Music is expected to be DRM, though its competitor iTunes has a collection of songs from EMI that are available without DRM and on a higher bitrate.

Sirius has said that it has finished its purchase of its rival XM Satellite Radio to form a new company that competes with traditional FM radio and digital audio players like the iPod - after the FCC approved the deal, which was announced in February last year.

The new company will now be known as Sirius XM Radio, and will have a total of 18.5 million subscribers; and will now boast its combined roster of exclusive programming - like Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey and exclusive sports broadcasts, news and music.

Its corporate headquarters will be in New York, while XM Satellite will remain in Washington.

Music lovers might have their laptops and MP3 players searched by Customs officers at airports and may face a jail sentence if there is a large amount of pirated music is present.

This was revealed after a discussion paper were leaked to the public relating to a treaty that is being negotiated by the Federal Government, and even suggests criminal sanctions for copyright infringements on a commercial scale - meaning that a lot of fans may be hit with jail just for downloading songs of their favourite artists.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith’s office has confirmed that the Government was part of negotiations for an international agreement, but it had not signed nor agreed to it.

The ABC has claimed that its iView product has now been visited by 58,000 people since its first 24 hours in operation. The new service allows users to watch and catch up programming on the ABC’s two channels - ABC1 and ABC2.

The new service also contains four additional channels - including one for news and one for its children’s programming - with even more channels being available in the future.

However, it does suck up your internet really fast - so the ABC is negotiating with ISPs to make the service unmetered, meaning that it will allow you to watch an unlimited amount of content without affecting your current usage. This is a similar problem with the BBC’s iPlayer; however, no ISPs in the UK have offered it to be unmetered.

Only iiNet will exclude iView downloads from its customers’ monthly download quota, similar to what it does with iTunes.

The US regulators have agreed to conditionally approve the merger between the only two satellite radio providers in the US, Sirius and XM - and they will pay millions of dollars to settle allegations of past violations on their part.

They will pay $19 million to the FCC to settle compliance issues involving certain radios that include FM transmitters and repeater stations. The new agreement will allow the two companies clear a regulatory marathon after the merger was announced over a year ago, in February 2007.

It will also see the unification of big names like Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern under both providers, which has been criticized for being anti-competitive by the radio industry.