Basic iPod mutating away

Apple anticipated what would replace the iPod practically when it came out with the first model, if we're to believe Arik Hesseldahi at BusinessWeek.com. And I do. I remember Steve Jobs talking about the iPhone as a great music player at a conference of tech execs a few years ago. "Anticipation of the [iPod's] drop-off is 'one of the original reasons' Apple developed the iPhone and the WiFi-enabled iPod touch, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said on a July 21 conference call with analysts," Hesseldahi writes. The iPod needed to become a full-blown connected platform, and it is already – a platform for apps, games, video, and Web info-gathering as much as for music-playing. Also needed now, Hesseldahi says (predictions, probably) are: a mic (for talking via Skype and making recordings without the pesky headset) and a still and video cam. What all this says and what Apple apparently got long ago is that the future is sharing (and producing) as much as consuming media.

New study on earbud hearing-loss risk

Further evidence this week that earbud users who like the volume turned up high are seriously at risk of hurting their ears. Parents, get your kids to listen to this as well as music! A European study found that people who listened to music on MP3 players "for five hours a week at high-volume settings exposed themselves to more noise than permitted in the noisiest factory or work place," the New York Times reports. The study - by a team of nine specialists on the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks - "threatens permanent hearing loss for as many as 10 million Europeans." The Times adds that in the EU's 27 countries "an estimated 50 million to 100 million people out of about 500 million may be listening to portable music players daily." I'm sure the percentage isn't much higher than that in the United States. The study "also warns that young people do not realize the damage until years later." The maximum safe decibel level is 89, which - on iPods - is about the 60% volume level (see "iPods & ears" and "New earbud risk study"). The iPod manual includes a warning about hearing-loss risk.

Mobile socializing via MP3 player

There's another kind of mobile social networking developing - mobile but not on phones. For Microsoft, it's about socializing around music, and it's aimed at the iPod market but will also have some things in common with MySpace music community and iLike in Facebook, which of course are also giant competitors. Stiff competition, but a worthy idea, analysts are saying. "Along with the three new Zune players, including Microsoft's first-ever flash-based model, Microsoft announced a new community site dubbed Zune Social that it will fire up as beta in November," PC World reports. "According to Microsoft, Zune owners can automatically share their current playlists with friends using a Zune-to-Zune Social sync." The syncing involves user profiles called "Zune Cards." Users view each other's Cards and play samples of the Card owner's favorite tunes, which they can then go buy in the Zune MarketPlace online music store.