In a recent report from MacNotes.de, unlocking an iPhone sold by T-Mobile Germany is simple, done in only a few seconds and is handled by none other than Apple’s own iTunes. Due to a temporary injunction against Apple, the company has been forced to sell the iPhones with the ability to be unlocked in Germany. Apple will also be forced to sell them unlocked in France in six months after their launch on November 29.

In case you’re not familiar with what “unlocking” means exactly, it prevents the iPhone from being “locked” to a single network provider such as AT&T in the U.S., and allows the phone to accept any SIM card. Up until now there have been a number of hacks to unlock the iPhone and allow it to be used on other networks and other countries, and Apple has been in a constant battle to thwart the hacks and keep the phone locked-in with only approved providers.

This could be a huge pain in the Apple for…well, Apple. The MiShare allows iPods to share information without a computer. Say your friend has pictures, playlists or mp3s on their iPod, that you would like to have on yours, but you don’t want to go through the trouble of getting out the laptop, charger cable, and iPod reverse transfer software.

MiShare makes it easier with direct iPod on iPod action. Just attach both iPods and press miShare’s button to start the transfer. It won’t disable iTunes DRM, but if you have regular MP3s you can now share away. The miShare is battery powered, and can be charged with an included AC adapter.

RealPlayer. You remember that multimedia application, right? That’s the other program besides iTunes or Windows Media Player which lets you enjoy media files on your computer. RealNetworks, the company behind the program, is officially out today with the latest incarnation known as RealPlayer 11.

RealPlayer 11, depending upon if you are using the free or pay for version, lets you do a number of interesting features. You can, for example, transfer video content to iPods, which means RealNetworks is now encroaching upon Apple territory. The software will also let you now do “one-click” downloads of video you might otherwise normally stream so that you can watch it offline later.

As a joint venture between NBC and News Corp., Monday brought the beta launch of Hulu, a new online video service offering television sitcoms and movies to users for free, provided they don’t mind watching some ads along with it. Although most people might first think of YouTube as competition when discussing online video, the service offered by Hulu will be more likely to cause trouble for those that are making money by selling similar content such as iTunes video downloads or cable companies that offer paid on-demand services.

Hulu is currently in beta and only available by invitation and offers television shows and feature films from places like Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, MGM, Sony Pictures, Bravo, E! Entertainment, FX, Sci Fi, USA and of course NBC who just recently pulled their content from YouTube. NBC had also removed content from iTunes last month in a highly publicized spat over pricing and now iTunes is the company that could be threatened the most by Hulu. Unlike video sharing sites that hold video clips uploaded by users, iTunes and Hulu both offer full movies and television sitcoms for sale, although in Hulu’s model some of these are free due to the included advertisements in the video similar to what viewers would see on television.

The folks over at Retro Thing have recently done an impressive comparison of Apple’s iPod player and Lloyd’s V128 8-track player with some surprising similarities, despite the 40-year age gap between the two “white plastic music dynamos”.

Some of points of comparison we found most interesting include the price of music between the two players. When you can get 8-tracks at a flea market for a dime-a-dozen it’s tough for iTunes to compete, even with a DRM. Both players also will display the current playing track, have a big round thing on the front and hold the distinctive white colored design we’ve all become all too familiar with.

Looking for something radically different in iPod speaker system design? Here’s a new item which looks to buck the trend: the Boynq WakeUp. It’s on sale for around $130.

The Boynq WakeUp consists of a series of integrated LCD displays attached to a an iPod dock and speakers. This dock also holds a remote control for your alarm clock when an iPod is not attached. With the WakeUp you can set alarms to wake up to your favorite iPod music. There’s also FM radio support, a bass and treble equalizer and data pass through so you can sync your iPod with iTunes while the player charges.

Get ready for the launch of Hulu which is expected to take place as a private beta possibly as soon as next week. NBC, who is in a joint venture with Fox to create the online video download site today pulled its video clips from Google’s YouTube site and closed a channel in what was confirmed by an NBC spokesperson as a move to help the launch of Hulu, a new online video site.

Although the new online service doesn’t appear to be a video sharing site, it could be seen as a direct competition for YouTube and having NBC pull its content from YouTube only enforces that idea. However NBC insists that the move is not making a stance against Google, but only to lessen the competition when NBC’s own new video download site launches. According to a YouTube spokesperson, Google and YouTube were informed about the plans as early as Friday.

Today in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Steve Jobs said that iTunes will be reducing the price of their DRM-free tracks from the current $1.29 down to 99 cents. These songs from iTunes were launched as iTunes Plus back in May and offered a number of titles, mostly from EMI, without any digital rights management restrictions. They also came in a little higher quality for a little more money with 256 kbps AAC encoding compared to the 128kbps encoding for the rest of the 99 cent versions. “It’s been very popular with our customers, and we’re making it even more affordable,” said Jobs in the interview.

This move brings Apple’s prices a little closer to those of Wal-Mart and Amazon who both offer song downloading services with DRM-free music with some titles going for less than 99 cents. This also will make iTunes slightly more desirable compared to new players coming into the online music game such as Doug Morris and Universal Music Group who are looking to make some competition for Apple in a different way.

You may remember back in early July when Universal Music Group (UMG) head Doug Morris decided not to renew a 2-year contract with iTunes, and instead provides content month-to-month on an “at will” basis. Reason particulars were not initially cited but generally revolved around how Jobs and iTunes put restrictions on how UMG could market their music.

It sounds like Jobs is far from hearing the last of Morris and Universal Music. According to a report today in BusinessWeek, the company is gearing up to launch an iTunes competing service of their own to be named “Total Music”. Morris and company isn’t looking into this venture lightly either. Aside from his own company Morris has also convinced BMG Music to join in, and is already having talks with Warner Music Group. Together the three companies music giants would have control of over 70% of all the music sold in the U.S., with Apple iTunes currently holding control of over 70% of the music sold online in the U.S.

The solo work of George Harrison has now been added to iTunes making him the last of each of the Beatles to be available through the site, preceded by Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Star. Unfortunately the Beatles as a group are still not available on iTunes, just the solo work of each artist separately with no word of any Beatles albums as of yet.

Apple made a quiet release of a firmware update for both the iPod classic and the 3rd generation iPod nano on Saturday. The new version 1.0.2 mostly consists of bug fixes according to Apple but ended up revealing a little bit more once installed. Aside from some improvements on calender and contact synchronization MacNN reported installing the new firmware through iTunes updates and finding upgrades to the Cover Flow making it more similar to iTunes 7.4. The new firmware also had another “Ask” option added to the TV output option which allows users to turn on the TV out mode when the iPod is connected to a device capable of showing video output from the iPod. Nothing too spectacular but little surprises like these are always nice.

As the launch of the second generation Zune, or Zune 2, from Microsoft nears the rumors are flying at full steam regarding pricing and the features that the new media players will house. From what we’ve ascertained the launch is scheduled for October 3rd at midnight and will bring three new models of the Microsoft Zune player along with new features and content on the Zune Marketplace (iTunes for Zunes).

Along with some FCC leaks showing 4GB and 8GB flashed-based Zunes (codenamed “draco”), ZuneScene has the skinny on pricing along with some additional juicy details. These are still in the rumor stages mind you, but it looks like a new 80GB version will be going for $249 with an 8GB model going for $199 and a 4GB model for $149. The 8GB and 4GB models are expected to come in black, red, green or pink but the thinner 80GB will come in only black.

Apple released the expected version 1.1.1 update to the iPhone firmware today with fixes for some critical bugs and the additions to support the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. But what makes this release such big news are the less-known things in the update that threaten to brick unauthorized, unlocked iPhones.

Prior to the update Apple put out a warning to those with unlocked iPhones which basically stated that the next firmware update may render these unlocked phones useless, and the result is not covered by the warranty. With the new firmware update iPhone owners were presented on screen with the same message before installing the update:

LaCie has really been busy of late cranking out new storage devices. Its latest product, announced today, is a home version of its Ethernet Disk mini NAS drive. The LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition is priced at around $200 and will be available in October.

The LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition is a 500GB personal media server which offers Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0 connectivity. It allows users the ability to offer remote access to others for files stored on it and can also be used to back up and synchronize a home computer automatically. It also lets one stream multimedia files through DLNA-compatible UPnP media players and acts as an iTunes music server.

Amazon.com went full steam into downloadable MP3s today, unveiling a beta version of Amazon MP3, its new digital music download store. Most songs will range in price from 89 to 99 cents, while albums will run you $5.99 to $9.99.

Amazon MP3 features over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels. All downloads will be MP3s which are DRM-free, meaning there’s no restrictions on what device or music management software is used to play them. Songs can even be burned to CD.