Fitting your home or office with a multi-zone digital music system can be a very expensive proposition. The music server alone often costs thousands of dollars not counting installing speakers and wiring. CasaTunes today has unveiled a pair of new music servers that are low profile.

The servicer both allow the streaming of music from Windows, iTunes, and iPod devices as well as Internet radio stations. The XLi music server can handle a total of five streams and six zones. The XLe can handle up to nine streams and 12 zones with expandability to 48 rooms.

Google has updated it’s Google Earth iPhone app. The updates come about a year after the original Google Earth iPhone App was released. Google Earth 2.0 will play nice with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the new version has a bunch of new features, like the ability to view maps that you create on your PC on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

That one should prove most convenient. Another feature is the updated icon selection, which makes it easier to use. When you touch an icon on the app it will glow, and if you touch more than one icon at once it will take you to a list of icons so you can select the right one.

Vestax has introduced the Spin, a DJ music mixer for the Mac. It measures in at 14 inches x 9.5 inches x 1.5 inches and weighs just 3.2 lbs, so you won’t throw your back out lugging it from gig to gig. It’s a combination of a DJ control surface, an audio interface and DJ software.

The device connects to your MacBook or MacBook Pro via the USB port and lets you select songs from your iTunes library. The Spin will be available in Japan this December for 30,000 Yen or about $330.

Until now, if you wanted to get HD Radio in a portable, handheld you had to buy a Zune HD. But Gigaware is leveling the playing field by opening up HD Radio to every iPod touch and iPhone user in the US.

The adapter allows any iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.0 or greater the ability to listen to HD Radio and local FM stations. It’s available now for $79.99 exclusively at RadioShack. The accompanying app has a manual tune wheel or auto-seek, social network integration, bookmarks and iTunes Tagging and can be downloaded for free.

And one ring shall rule them all. Want to connect your computer to your home TV, so you can enjoy TV shows, movies and more? Now you can navigate Hulu, Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube and Netflix, play your own videos and music with iTunes or Media Center without a keyboard or mouse while at the couch.

Instead use the Hillcrest Labs Loop pointer, the in-air mouse, which doesn’t look awkward at all. It’s a motion-sensing mouse that moves your cursor much like a Wiimote. It has just four buttons and a scroll wheel and uses your computer’s USB 2.0 port.

Word is that Google is planning to launch a music service and according to sources quoted by TechCrunch, the company is securing content from major labels right now. One source calls the service “Google Audio”.

It’s unclear if this music platform will be download-based like iTunes, or streaming-based like Pandora, but apparently it will be available to “at least” the US. Google already has a music service in China that lets users download tracks for free, and it has a music search engine that can be accessed by typing “music:” before your query in the search box. However when you access a song that way they aren’t available to listen to.

AC/DC knows how to rock and they have never slowed down. Only a super hard rocking band like them could put out a Box Set like this, which has to be the best Box Set ever. AC/DC’s Backtracks package obviously looks like a guitar amp. But take a closer look.

The top of the box is actually a working 1-watt guitar amplifier. This mini-amp won’t Shake Your Foundations, or even bother the neighbors, but who cares. It’s a real amplifier. You can’t get that on iTunes people. For $199 you get three CDs and two DVDs of rare tracks from the band, a 12-inch vinyl LP, a bunch of memorabilia and a 164-page hardbound book.

What better way to celebrate Halloween then with an iPhone app or 10. Below are 10 of our favorites. All are ghoulishly good fun and will get you in the Halloween spirit. Plus, these will give you something to do while you are hiding in your house, pretending you aren’t home and eating all the candy yourself. You disgust me. But if you share some of that chocolate, I won’t tell.

Vonage, a provider of VoIP home phone services, has announced a new mobile application designed specifically for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and RIM’s Blackberry devices providing alternative discounted rates for international calls. The application is a free download available today available from the Vonage site or through the iTunes App Store.

The application will allow mobile users to dial international calls as they normally would with no extra steps or special numbers to enter, and those receiving the calls will see the mobile number in their callerID just like a regular international call. In the future Vonage plans on extending the offering to a monthly flat rate, but for now the discounted per-minute charges will apply.

The legendary rock band Queen has a new Absolute greatest hits album coming out soon. The band and Logitech have teamed up to offer an exclusive deal to Queen fans who buy the new Squeezebox Radio Wi-Fi music player.

Buyers of the Logitech Squeezebox Radio Wi-Fi will be able to listen to the new Queen Album before it ships to stores in November. The special deal also offers unique Queen photos and audio commentary recorded by the band.

NetGear has now jumped into the consumer NAS market with a 1TB offering dubbed Stora. It’s basically a “dumbed down” version of their business NAS devices, compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows platforms. It should work pretty good as an iTunes or DLNA server.

It’s also ships with a two-bay configuration which is auto-set to mirror data. The NetGear Stora MS2110 will retail for $229 and comes with a 1TB drive.

Camcorders are very popular today despite the fact that many digital cameras can take HD resolution video. Many people realize that a dedicated camcorder offers much better video resolution that what you get from a digital camera.

JVC announced a new high-end camcorder called the GZ-HM400 that offers full 1080p HD video recording and Face Detection for up to 16 faces. The camera has the ability to export video with one touch to YouTube or iTunes.

It appears that with the recent release of iTunes 9, Apple has once again cut-off direct access for the Palm Pre’s iTunes support. We had seen it before with the release. It shouldn’t be too big of a surprise to Palm owners however, since Apple said the connectivity wouldn’t last long and they’ve thwarted Palm’s access in the past with iTunes iTunes 8.2.1.

It’s easy to see arguments on both sides of this issue, as frustrating as it might be for Palm owners. On one side Apple would like iTunes users to use Apple products to connect directly to iTunes, such as iPods or iPhones. But, they also have been a proponent of non-DRM music and are essentially making it difficult for other devices to get access to the music through their application.

It looks like Jobs and Apple have saved the best for last today as usual with the announcement of the new, updated 5th generation iPod nano. The new and improved nano has a host of new features including a not just a camera but a video camera, Genius mixes, FM radio with Live Pause, Voice Over and a Fitness pedometer that works with Nike.

Even with the tight-lipped Apple team we had heard the rumors that a camera was coming to the iPod and today it is finally here. Apple has implanted a video camera into the iPod nano that can record in either landscape or potrait and can record audio along with it so we’re not making silent movies here. You can then play back the video instantly and hear the audio through a built in speaker! It even comes with 15 cool-looking special effects that can be applied to the video such as Thermal, Mirror, X Ray and more.

Apple announced a new packaging concept called iTunes LP. Basically you can buy an entire album including things like liner notes artwork and other extras, making the package similar to old vinyl albums.

Too many of you aren’t old enough to remember albums, but when you bought the entire album you got a bunch of bonus material as an incentive to buy it. And iTunes LP is the digital version. The album covers are cool, plus pages for songs that feature lyrics, all that stuff. Even liner notes. We aren’t sure if it will mean more sales, but it’s cool.