Gibson has decided to employ the Tronical Powertune automatic tuning system in a new line of guitars. Although it isn’t the first, and maybe not the best, Powertune gives a guitar player some appealing options. Guitarists who’ve been playing for any length of time at all should be able to tune their own instrument, but consider the advantages of a self-tuning system.

In performance, any downtime can be bad. The audience isn’t particularly interested in hearing the band tune when they walk on stage, yet a lot of groups do that. Even using a digital tuner in your line will still take a bit of time that would better be filled with something else. Enter self-tuning. Pop the tuning knob and strum the guitar, wait until the light flashes blue and pop it back in. The audience missed it.

Music players are evolving slowly but surely adding features here or there, miniturizing etc. This particularly small MP3 player has a good feature set for what it is. For musicians, this device would work perfectly as a scratch pad during the writing process with its built in voice recorder to name just one of the interesting features.

The 2 tone LCD is adequate for its purpose and the navigation screen is simple. The player includes a built in speaker for when you’d rather not be wearing headphones, and hosts a 7 mode EQ to adjust the output of your WMA or MP3 files and the WAV files recorded via the built in voice recorder.

The MOSMC1319P by Ministry of Sound provides almost everything you’d want in a desktop music station. Twin speakers, disconnected from the control unit, provide a total of 20 Watts (2 x 10Watt RMS speakers) and kick out sounds from a number of sources. Hook up your iPod or inject tunes in MP3, WMA or WAV formats stored on a SD or MMC flash card or via USB device.

The micro station also includes an FM/MW PLL digital tuner for streaming radio and is compatible with all CD types and includes a 30-track programming feature. And as you’d expect these days the unit is controlled via a wireless remote.

Illustrated right is a render of the Meizu M7 touch screen miniPlayer geared to compete directly with iPod Touch. The media player is targeted for a March 2008 release with a price tag that could draw business away from Apple for all but the most die-hard iPod users. The tentatively named M7 will sport a 2.8 inch touch screen with a 16:9 480×228 resolution and supports H.264 playback. At $100, $110 and $150 for 2GB, 4GB and 8GB models respectively, the M7 is likely to be a very popular iPod clone.

While a cheaper alternative to the Apple iPod MP3 player, its lower price likely indicates this Chinese manufactured Miezu clone will lack the quality and attention to detail that the Apple players have become known for. The design concept has only recently and hurriedly been announced so stay tuned for any updates.

This little wooden spherical-shaped device is home to an 18-key chime that’s permanently set inside with nothing escaping aside from the music it plays when you wind it up. Using a classic wind-up key the orb will chime out the famous Austrian composer’s Voi, Che Sapete from The Marriage of Figaro with the wood giving it a naturally unique sound.

The music plays equally well if the music ball is sitting still or rolling across the floor, making an interesting conversation piece to have around the house. This musical orb has a diameter of 3.5″ and comes made out of either Beech or Oak natural wood along with the necessary key, all encased in a box donned with the Mozartkugel name from which a similarly-shaped, Mozart-inspired confection was named.

It’s being touted as the world’s first pocket-sized DJ system. The Pacemaker is a digital music player that lets you create your own music by mixing between two separate audio channels all from a device the size of a mobile phone (the actual dimensions are 164×69x23mm.)

Created by German-based company Tonium, the unit has a ton of mixing features that you can use to spin your tracks like fades, loops, filters, bends, pitch and even add audio effects into the mashed-up song. You control the mixing by pressing a P-button located on the side of the Pacemaker and the circular touchpad, essentially creating your sonic message using just your thumb.

If space travel were as easy as driving to the local Kwik-E-Mart then this is the device that would have to be in our ship’s cockpit. Say hello to today’s new sexyness, the Eagle Neo-Retro CD Player from Loit, a Singapore-based electronics firm.

Designed by Art Lebedev, the same house that brought us the $1,500 OLED keyboard Optimus Maximus, this CD player looks more like a nice piece of art than a means to play your tunes. I mean, just look at it: if that doesn’t say “HAL, play me something like Dirty Vegas meets Justin Timberlake and make it fresh,” what does?

Sony has lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding its musical robotic egg, the Rolly, that we first reported to you a week ago. The 300 gram gizmo is a moving MP3 player that is motion sensitive; give it a spin in one direction and the Rolly’s volume will go up, the other way and the tunes will lower down. Pushing the Rolly forwards, backwards or giving it a shake will allow you to change songs. While it’s moving about the side corners of it will “flap” and a cascade of pretty blue and green lights will undulate from the bottom of the Rolly.

Along with all the cool new stuff announced by Apple today the company also unveiled a new upcoming, wireless music download service called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music store.

The Wi-Fi Music store allows owners of the iPhone or the iPod touch to access and download over six million different songs through any Wi-Fi hotspot directly to their mobile device through a new iTunes button.

The Sony Rolly is something that’s got a lot of people talking about Sony, which may be the whole point of the device, whether its real or not. This Miuro look-a-like (which interestingly we reported on exactly one year ago), appears to respond to music by rolling and “dancing” around on the floor. From the video it looks football shaped and can move forward or back, turn, spin, has some “wings” that open on the sides like little arms when it dances along with some glowing lights that change color as it moves.

There really isn’t any information about the Rolly available aside from this strange video, which again might be intentional by Sony. Engadget was able to contact at least one Sony representative about the product who neither confirmed nor denied any information about it. They did however say that it had nothing to do with any recent product releases from Sony. Take a look at the video after the jump and see what you think:

This funky looking device is Yamaha’s Tenori-on, a sci-fi looking musical sequencer that lets you create sounds and songs by merely fooling around with its buttons. Designed by Professor Toshio Iwai at the University of Tokyo (the same guy that came up with the “Electroplankton” game for the Nintendo DS) the Tenori-on is an aluminum frame with 16 x 16 rows of rubber padded LED switches arranged within.

By pressing one you not only create a noise but a burst of light as well, food for both your ears and eyes. The device recognizes how long you depressed the button as well as the angle of you holding it, both of which can effect the sound and light streams that are subsequently created. There are a couple of other buttons and a jog dial which allows you to alter the tempo, beat, effects and so forth.

Targus has been well known for making computer bags, backpacks and other small computer accessories such as mice and keyboards. Today the company announced the SoundUP, designed to work inline with your headphones to improve the sound quality of compressed audio media.

The SoundUP device itself measures about the same size if not bigger than many MP3 players with dimensions of 3″ x 1.5″ x 7/8″ and a weight of just under 2 ounces. Targus says it uses a High Definition Sound Enhancer to “separate and reprocess digital music files, providing a three dimensional sound envelope from your MP3 player”. The device promises to improve the overall sound of files that are compressed for size, bringing out instruments and music that normally would not be heard otherwise.

The device plugs into any standard 3.5mm headphone …

Apple has announced that 16 solo works by John Lennon through EMI are now available for download through iTunes. These songs will also be offered as part of the iTunes Plus program where you can pay an extra 30 cents to get the songs DRM-free and at 256 kbps AAC encoding.

“John would have loved the fact that his music will now be available in a format suited to a new generation of listeners,” said Yoko Ono in the Apple press release

Lennon marks the second of the Beatles artists to allow iTunes to sell their solo albums after Paul McCartney, and rumors have it that talks between Apple and the widow of George Harrison are in the works as well. Apple so far has had no luck however with bringing Ringo Star or the collective Beatles …

Universal Music Group has announced that it is going start offering 99 cent downloads of its online music without any copyright restrictions as somewhat of a trial starting August 21 through Jan 31. UMG says it will be offering the music tracks in the MP3 format but individual retailers will be allowed to sell them in whichever DRM-free format they wish. This comes after last month when UMG decided not to renew its contract with Apple iTunes, and although iTunes is currently the largest online music retailer it will not be one of the retailers to offer UMG’s 99 cent DRM-free tracks.

According to AP: “Among the online retailers that will be selling the tracks are Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Best Buy Co, RealNetworks Inc’s Rhapsody, …

A German company called Sonoro has a CD/clock radio that feature a compact, stylish look in an array of 7 different high gloss finishes and 3 wood grains to match almost any decor. The Sonoro Cubo measures only 230mm wide and 210mm deep making it able to fit tight places or take up minimal room on a nightstand.

The petite Cubo houses a CD player that can play back standard CD’s, CD-R’s and CD-RW’s. It also has an FM radio with 6 station presets, a digital alarm clock and an auxiliary port to play back from a portable media player or other audio device. It also has a stereo headphone jack but unfortunately only one built-in speaker.

All of the Cubo’s are made with a wooden casing whether they have the gloss or wood grain finish and contains …