Sure, you could dismiss this round of iPod rumors -- so carefully culled by the fine folks at 9 to 5 Mac and AppleInsider -- as baseless speculation, but we'll have none of your dowdy skepticism. We're talking about rainbows here, people. AppleInsider claims that retailers are seeing current iPod models being switched to "discontinued" in inventory systems, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says to expect iPod refreshes across the board, including a slightly redesigned $200 iPod touch, and meanwhile 9 to 5 Mac has it from an unnamed source that the new iPod nanos will have enhanced features, double the storage and rainbow color schemes. It's almost like somebody in Cupertino is reading our mind! We'll know for sure when new iPods arrive mid-September filled to the brim with "Run's House" episodes and bedecked in rainbow-hued gummy bears. It's going to rock.

[Thanks, Kiwi616]

Read - AppleInsider
Read - 9 to 5 Mac

Just as we'd envisioned, the Invision candybar (if a phone this stubby can, in fact, be called a candybar) from LG is now a reality for AT&T. The phone becomes just AT&T's third to support its MediaFLO-based Mobile TV service, taking a similar line to Samsung's Access by stuffing a landscape display, 1.3-megapixel camera, and HSDPA into a squarish case that's sure to make minimalists and traditionalists swoon; what's more, it also takes the honor of being AT&T's smallest Mobile TV-equipped handset to date. It's available today for $99.99 with a $50 rebate and two years' worth of commitment -- just be sure to factor the cost of the Mobile TV add-on into your budget.

So Archos still seems to be struggling a bit matching the design curve of the industry, but boy oh boy can they pile on those specs. The new Archos 5 and Archos 7 "generation 6" players offer capacities as high as 320GB, well-res'd screens and just about every codec we'd ever need -- plus available plug-ins to cover the rest. But that's not even the exciting part. The Archos 5g adds in that 3.5 HSDPA data we were hearing about, providing true on-the-go surfing, and all three players sport WiFi as well. Sizes start off at 30GB for the Archos 5g, which runs a 800 x 480 4.8-inch touchscreen. The Archos 5 bumps that up to 60-250GB, while the Archos 7 does up 160GB and 320GB, with a 7-inch touchscreen that sadly matches the 5 series' resolution exactly. All three players can record VGA video through an optional DVR Station dock or the DVR snap-on accessory, and Archos will have plenty of other accessories in the offing as well. As for player design, Archos has made considerable strides in thinness, with the Archos 7 at 0.63-inches thick, and the Archos 5 as slim as 0.5-inches, depending on drive size, but we're not crazy about the new look -- though we're sure opinions will vary. No word on price or availability just yet, but stay tuned.

If Archos.com happens to be a regular haunt of yours, you might've noticed that the site went down last night, with only a simple message remaining: "Coming up soon..." If you can ignore the awkward phrasing, it sounds like Archos has more than a new website in the works, and most people are pretty sure a generation 6 line of players is being prepped, including a flagship 606 device. A tipster says the site is due back at midnight CET (a bit over 9 hours from now), but that hasn't been confirmed. Archos did have a little teaser graphic up for a few days before the site went down (pictured) , but that's about all we've got to go on, at least officially -- rumors naturally abound.

[Thanks, Ziplepingouin]

Craving some more room for that season of Avatar you've been trying to cram onto your Zune without dropping your Mega Carrie Underwood Workout Mix? It looks like Microsoft is one-upping its 80GB model with a 120GB version, which just blew by the FCC, and should allow all your media to live in harmony. As might be expected, there's not much other than that new hard drive to set this new model apart -- the drive size is the same, as is the 2.5 firmware. The FCC tested this out on June 19th, which helps us exactly none in pinning when this will ship to stores, how much it will cost, or how they'll ever top those Joy Division designs.

We're (so) looking forward to the day when we Americans don't have to look longingly at the amazing navigation units that pop up every month or so in South Korea, but until that fateful day arrives, we'll continue drooling courtesy of the Easycar U7. This screen-dominated conglomerate features a 7-inch LCD, DMB TV tuner, 19-millimeter thick frame and an integrated multimedia player / text viewer. All that for just ₩199,000 ($191)? Nah, we're not envious at all.

[Via Techie Diva]

A whole new slew of Walkmans have hit Sony's New Zealand site, and we've got the goods on them. The new models, dubbed the NWZ-E435, NWZ-E436, and NWZ-E438 all sport a 2-inch QVGA LCD display, FM tuner, codec support for MP3, AAC, WMA, and Linear PCM files, and clock in at a very petite 8.5mm / 50g. The players will be available in 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB variations, with various color options for each model (except for the NWZ-E438, which only comes in black). Apparently, the PMPs play nice with both Windows Media Player and iTunes, offering drag and drop management for files. No word yet on price, regions, or release date, but we'll be keeping our eyes peeled for these sweet babies.

[Via Sony Insider]

Now that the Zune's most vocal (and deranged) proponent has apparently jumped ship, Microsoft is looking for some other method of gaining market share. The most recent report on reinvigorating the portable media player has Redmond execs looking low and high at talent agencies and production companies in hopes of "licensing exclusive original video programming." According to Richard Winn, director of entertainment development at Zune, the company is searching for "non-conventional programming that can capitalize on the device's social networking platform." Details are unsurprisingly scant at the moment, but Winn also noted that the outfit was looking for something that "iTunes or any competing service" couldn't provide. We hear Vongo's going for a song... just sayin'.

Vongo gave it a solid go there for a while, but a supported device list that totaled seven (and was missing a certain white whale) combined with lukewarm support and lackluster marketing always spelled doom for the scrappy video-on-demand service, and it looks like Starz has gone ahead and pulled the plug. If you're one of the, uh, dozens who were paying the $10/mo fee, you can still use the service until September 30th, but after that there'll be nothing left -- literally, since all your Vongo content will be deleted. Yeah, that's a fun way to make customers check out the new, seemingly-identical Starz Play service. Anyone still intrigued by this kind of subscription video model? We're pretty over it.

Steve Jobs, presumably speaking from a hyperbaric chamber where he's being nourished with an infusion of liquefied developers-souls before his next public appearance, had a few interesting tidbits about the AppStore for the Wall Street Journal this morning. Namely, users have downloaded some 60 million programs for the iPhone representing sales of about $30 million since the launch last month -- a 30/70 revenue split between Apple and developers, respectively. "The thing's going to crest a half billion soon," Jobs added, "I've never seen anything like this in my career for software." He went on to say that phone differentiation is no longer about radios and antennas (or uh, battery life) but about software. Steve also confirmed the controversial iPhone application kill switch in the event that Apple inadvertently approves a malicious program for distribution. Jobs said, "hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull." As to the $999.99 I Am Rich application, the dubious download that displayed nothing but a glowing red gem, pulling that from the store was a "judgment" call. Sure, but that doesn't explain how it made it through the vetting process to begin with.

We can't (with a clean conscience) carelessly fling Newsmy's M521+ into the KIRF pile -- though we'd sure love to. It's hard impossible to miss the design cues ripped directly from SanDisk's Sansa Fuze, though the unit does have just enough uniqueness to keep it from being a bona fide clone. Reportedly, the device packs an FM tuner, FM transmitter, support for MP3 / WMA / APE / FLAC / AVI formats, a photo / text viewer and an interface that we wouldn't let our worst enemies use. Oh wait, is that the iTunes logo? Is it too late to reconsider that whole KIRF eligibility thing.

[Via PMPToday]

There's still a great chance that this thing will completely underwhelm, but those willing to give it a shot without reading so much as a single review can now secure their place in line. For $179.95, to-be owners can pre-order Kodak's Zi6 HD pocket video camera in either pink or black, but there's no mention of how soon it'll ship. Anyone taking the plunge (and willing to admit it)?

[Via Gadling]

It's Thursday evening -- do you know what that means? Besides being the unofficial start of the weekend (party people, what's up?), it's time for another round of Ask Engadget. This week we've got a college freshman who's scared to death about 8-hour flights between his hometown and his new school... without gadgets.

"I'm about to start college all the way across the country from my hometown. What this means for me, other than unprecedented freedom, adulthood, etc. [and a dose of this thing called the "real world," might we add] is lots of long flights back and forth. I'm looking for a device to entertain me during these trips. Is there anything out there that the readers can find that can play DVDs (ideally from any region, but that's not a deal-breaker) along with my AVI files and maybe some audio formats, too? The biggest issue here is battery life. I'm willing to spend $300 - $400 if I have to. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!"

We're not so sure there's a portable DVD player / PMP hybrid out there that's extra longevous, but you can always get those discs onto a vanilla PMP with a little work. So, jet-setters -- what's the best solution here? Video playback really takes a toll on handheld battery life, but are there any hidden gems that just keep going and going? Hook a brother up, and then send in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com.

Apple's experimented with allowing iTunes to stream over the internet as well as your LAN in the past and quickly removed the feature (probably due to RIAA pressure), so we're not placing too much stock in this, but AppleInsider's unearthed a patent that seems to describe a way to stream music over the 'net to your iPhone / iPod touch. The goal is to prevent you from having to selectively sync content to your device -- instead, you'd sync just the metadata and stream whatever you wanted direct from your machine as though it was all stored locally. There are some obvious problems here -- it wouldn't work if you didn't have service (or over EDGE, really), most home upstream connections aren't that fast, etc., etc., -- but it's certainly interesting, and a welcome addition to local storage if it ever makes the scene. In the meantime, how about working in some of those new UI elements from the Remote app into the iPod app?

[Via Macrumors, thanks Mark]