No matter how good a certain product line is, there comes a time when its producer decides to discontinue it and come up with a new line. That would be something absolutely normal, if the nature of global economy these days wouldn't turn it into a nightmare, in some cases. Why? Just look around and think about all those new product lines, or even minor updates, having more problems than previous ones. I don't know about the iPod updates much, but I know one thing - I got a Sansa e250 MP3 player, with a big hope - to install Rockbox on it. Guess what? The updated version doesn't support Rockbox! Well, let's get back to our iPods now, shall we?

According to latest reports from iPod resellers, the current line is drawing its last breath as we speak, since those familiar with Target's inventory management claim all current iPod models, except the iPod Touch, of course, have seen their status changed from "Active" to "Discontinued." Obviously, this is only the end of the current line, and the dawn of a new iPod age, expected to start next month, if all previous hints were correct.<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->

Rumors from the UK are saying that big-box retailer Argos is expected to cut prices of its remaining iPod inventory by the end of the month, or maybe during the first week of September.

In a note to clients, Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes said "We continue to believe Apple will need to reposition the iPod touch line in conjunction with its anticipated new product announcement in early to mid-September now that the iPhone acquisition price is lower," while Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients that "Specifically, we believe Apple will increase the capacity of the iPod shuffles as well as the iPod nanos (but maintain current price points); redesigned form factors for the shuffles and nanos are unlikely. We believe the iPod touch may be redesigned and may enter the $199 price point, in line with the iPhone."

$199 iPod Touch? Sure, bring it on! Just don't change its back with a plastic one, pretty please! I guess we're talking about iPod updates, not iPod downgrades, right? Other than that, I hardly wait to see the new iPod line coming up. Who knows, maybe I'll even drop my Sansa for one of those, if they prove to be that good!

I said it before, and I will say it again: I admire China for proving that, from an economic point of view, communism is not a complete failure, if combined with a little drops of Western concepts. Unfortunately, they still have a lot to do to straighten up their image as a country, and despite succeeding to organize the most impressive Olympic games so far, they also managed to show us once again that Chinese censorship is a few centuries behind the rest of the world. This time, they really did it - could you imagine that access to the iTunes Store has been denied because an album called "Songs for Tibet???"

The story starts with the fact that a bunch of artists, united under The Art of Peace Foundation(http://www.artofpeacefoundation.org/index.php) banner recorded 20 tracks, released on the 5th of August on the iTunes Store, and the physical CD launched on Tuesday, this week. The artists who joined in include Sting, Suzanne Vega, Moby and Alanis Morissette.

"Songs for Tibet" is available via Apple's U.S. iTunes Store for $11.99 here, and all it happened was the fact that Olympic athletes downloaded and "possibly" listened to it as a "subtle act of protest against China's rule over the province," as Stephen Hutcheon reports for The Sydney Morning Herald.

I know it may sound like I am not completely sane to say this, but you should be glad about the entire Chinese censorship thing. Why? <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->I am not saying censorship is good, but here's why is censorship good in China - if this country would completely open itself to the world, in less than a decade, virtually everything would be outsourced to them, including software production, so think about a cheaper India! Don't get me wrong, I am completely against what's happening inside China and Tibet regarding human rights, but think about the impact of a free China on the economy of the entire planet! Anyway, I guess we'll see sooner than expected if now I am only paranoid, or not, but let's finish the story about iTunes Store, and leave the answers to the "Why is censorship good?" question for another time, shall we?

A blogger going by the name "JeninShanghai" posted a reply from Apple's customer support after reporting her problems with the US iTunes Store account in China. Here it is:"iTunes is not being blocked in China from our end, but access to the iTunes Store IS restricted in some areas in China. This would also explain why it's happening to your friends there as well."

The response from Apple continues:"I would advise that you contact your ISP [internet service provider] about this matter. Please also note though that accessing the US iTunes Store outside of the geographic region of the United States is not supported, and that attempting to access it while in China is at your own risk." Risk? Hey, what risk? Oh, well, here it goes...

According to a so-called report published by a Chinese news portal, "angry netizens [internet users] are rallying together to denounce Apple in offering Songs for Tibet for purchase. They have also expressed a wish to ban the album's singers and producers, most notably Sting, John Mayer and Dave Matthews, from entering China." Even more, they are calling for a boycott of Apple products!

Heh...if I think well, Apple didn't make a really smart move to enter China. Really, if it all starts with this, what's the next step? Compulsory red iMacs with the hammer and sickle on them, or no iMac sales allowed???

Once upon a time, Apple was a company with a limited user base, and this allowed them to give everyone good treatment, when talking about customer support. Unfortunately, there's a rule that won't be broken anytime soon by a large number of companies saying that once you increase quantity below a certain level, quality goes down. I know, I know - there could be found examples where this doesn't apply (today's CPUs, for example), but that's not the point. Today, we'll talk about Apple's descent when looking through its customers' eyes.

According to The American Customer Satisfaction Index, Apple's customers are no longer happy with the support they receive as they were a few years ago. As Professor Claes Fornell, head of the ACSI at the University of Michigan says, "The American consumer has long been the single biggest force propping up the U.S. and the global economy, but declining customer satisfaction combined with weaker demand for U.S. exports may make it difficult for American households to shoulder the burden of being the locomotive for world economic growth."<-250x250 Square - right->

Well, at least things aren't going too bad for Apple, since sales are now extremely high, but the problem is that customer satisfaction growth is much lower than sales growth. This is like a time bomb - if the situation continues to stay this way, one day Apple may find itself right in the middle of a customer satisfaction crisis, as it happens with Microsoft and Windows Vista these days.

The interesting part is that we're not only talking about Apple going down here, since the entire personal computer industry is facing a customer satisfaction drop. Anyway, we should also consider that Apple is more than just a personal computer manufacturer, and the satisfaction of iPhone customers is a very important piece of its future. For now, there are plenty of iPhone 3G problems, and plenty of happy customers, so we should wait a little longer for things to become clearer.

"It’s hard not to be impressed with Apple. This is product extension at its best where the new products, iPod and iPhone, are helping bring new customers to existing computer products. The fact that Apple is not dependent on the Windows Vista operating system hasn’t hurt either," concluded Fornell.

So...what's your opinion? Is Apple going down, or is this just a temporary problem?

If you still have an old iPod Nano, then you have more chances than others to run into trouble. Although the first generation was introduced in 2005, the Nano already ran into trouble more than just a few times, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're talking about a bad player - after all, the iPod Nano became the best selling MP3 player in history shortly after its release, so where there are plenty of sales, some problems will also occur. When thinking about the iPod Nano problems, I think the most notorious are those cases when these players exploded, melted, or even started to emit sparks!

Yesterday, we were talking about one recent explosion proof, and I must confess I was stunned to see Apple had such a quick reaction to this event. Well, I guess they didn't react to my article, but since user reports regarding the first generation iPod Nanos on fire also reached them, it was the right time to do the right thing, and that is replacing for free the defective devices.

In a statement to the press, Apple made things very clear, as you can read below:

"Apple today responded to statements reported by Japan’s METI regarding batteries in the first-generation iPod nanos. Apple has determined that in very rare cases, batteries in first-generation iPod nanos sold between Sept. 2005 and Dec. 2006 can overheat, causing failure and deformation of the iPod nano. Apple has received very few reports of such incidents (less than 0.001 percent of first-generation iPod nano units), which have been traced back to a single battery supplier. <-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod nano model.

Any first-generation iPod nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Any other customers who have concerns about their first-generation iPod nano battery should also contact AppleCare."

Obviously, they tried to minimize the gravity of the issue, but it's good to see them admitting it, although this comes at the end of a investigation by the Japanese government into reports of the Nanos melting and popping open, especially when plugged into a computer or docking station for recharging.

As we were able to see in the last years, this is not a problems limited to Japanese iPod Nano users, since there have been enough occurences of the problem in the US and Europe, too.

For now, it's only the iPod Nano, but I am really curious about the percentage of similar devices from the same period set ablaze by their batteries. I have no information about this for now, but as soon as I hear something, be sure you'll be the first ones to know!

Exploding stuff is nothing new to the tech news freaks, I am sure. A few years ago, a movie with an exploding Dell laptop(the laptop's battery, in fact, a battery that was manufactured by Sony, if I recall it well) scared all those who owned such a thing, but things got much better in the meantime. Anyway, no matter how safe is technology these days, you can't absolutely avoid such things, especially when quantity is the main goal for most producers. Even more, I have seen a flaming iPod in somebody's pocket a few years ago! Fortunately, that also happened in a news video, and not next to me... but this time, it's the old iPod Nano again, with one explosion proof available below!

I know, there's no video, but I guess the owner of the iPod Nano in this picture didn't try to cook it, so probably the battery simply heated up, heated up, heated up, and so on, until it all ended with a little explosion. I don't know what Apple will say about this explosion proof, but no matter what they say, things aren't looking that good, especially since the batteries of older iPods(and new ones, as well) are not user replaceable, and their price is, usually, a bit too high to worth changing your old player's battery instead of buying a new one.<-250x250 Square - right->

Now, more and more reports about iPod Nano problems are showing up, as it happened with the one in the picture above, who started to emit a sizzling sound only 10 minutes after being connected to the owner's notebook. In a matter of seconds after starting to produce the noise, the Nano exploded open, as you can see in this detailed article, the ultimate explosion proof for today.

Smoke and sparks for free from Apple's iPod Nano, how cool can be that? Obviously, not too cool. While you buy fireworks for this purpose, and you know they can only be used once, the iPod Nano is supposed to last a few years, and allow you to enjoy your music, and not set your house on fire!

At last, you should also be very careful with these players when going to a country where terror bombings occur on a regular basis - if it blows up in your pocket, you may end up with a bullet in your head, fired by some policeman thinking you had a "dud..."