Last week, iLounge published the inaugural edition of iDesign, a new series of articles designed to spotlight impressive industrial designs in the iPod and iPhone world. Our first iDesign focused on the Vibe family of earphones from V-Moda, a Los Angeles-based company that has focused on making fashionable audio accessories. Response to the Vibe edition of iDesign has been overwhelmingly positive, and as promised, we contacted the company after publication…

Similar to an earlier Capdase design we tested and didn’t much like, Tekkeon’s new Hard Case with Soft Touch for iPhone ($30) combines a hard plastic shell with a hinged, flip-open hard plastic screen protector. The case comes in five colors, each with a soft touch rubberized coating, and unlike Capdase’s design comes together in two total front and back pieces. Its top, left side, and bottom are substantially open, and a detachable ratcheting belt…

Compatible with the late 2007 iPod classic, iPod nano, and iPod touch, as well as earlier iPod models, Tekkeon’s new NavDock ($130) enables users to plug their iPods into a docking station and use an Infrared remote control to navigate its music and video content on a standard-definition TV. The company’s interface can be recolored with four color schemes (green, blue, orange, and pink), and loads album art onto the left side of the screen while navigation…

According to data from Nielsen Online, iTunes has passed RealPlayer in unique users to become the second most popular streaming media player on the market, trailing only Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. The data shows that iTunes was the only player with a positive growth rate over the last year, growing nearly 27% from Dec. 2006 to Dec. 2007 to an estimated 35.7 million unique users. Windows Media Player grew only slightly over the same time…

A new report from the NPD Group has found that nearly half of U.S. kids download music from iTunes. The group estimates that up to 70% of U.S. kids aged 9-14 download music in a given month, with 49% using iTunes. Another 26% use Limewire, while an estimated 16% download music from MySpace. The NPD Group blames parents who let their children use the web unsupervised for the high percentage of illegal downloads. “The music industry hoped that…

Amazon.com has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Audible Inc. for approximately $300 million. Audible.com is the leading online provider of digital spoken word content, and is the preeminent provider of audiobooks for the iTunes Store. “Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry,” said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com’s senior vice…

Version 1.0 of Apple TV wasn’t a success. And version 1.1, a free software update that added a YouTube browser to the prior interface, didn’t gain Apple any traction. So the company is preparing to release version 2.0—also called Apple TV Take 2—as another free upgrade to try and increase interest in the 40GB and 160GB living room media players. Announced in mid-January and originally scheduled for release this week, the enhanced…

Comverse, the company behind Visual Voicemail for iPhone, has announced that the feature has been selected as a finalist for the 2008 GSMA Global Mobile Award in the Best Mobile Messaging Service category. According to Comverse, which bills itself as “the world’s leader in visual voicemail,” the feature was chosen based on its “innovativeness, interoperability between devices and between networks, ability to generate new revenue…

With over 3,000 votes counted, our most recent poll—“Are iPod touch’s 5 new apps worth $20?”—is now closed. Though the results changed a little from day to day, the proportion of voters saying “yes” and “no” stayed close during the last two weeks, with 40% of responding readers voting yes, and 60% of readers saying no. Interestingly, users who actually own iPod touches were somewhat more likely…

Apple has announced that its anticipated Apple TV 2.0 software update, expected to be released this week, will be delayed. In a press release, the company said that the “Apple TV software update, which allows users to rent high definition movies directly from their widescreen TVs, is not quite finished. Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two.” Announced during…