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Engadget: When you’ve got the brand cachet of a Bowers & Wilkins, the decision to launch your first-ever headphone will be met head-on with plenty of pre-defined market expectations.

But with products spread wide across diverse audio tastes and prices, well, pretty much anything goes. So it’s probably no surprise then to find B&W prostrating itself to the dollar with its P5 Mobile Hi-Fi Headphone.

These Made for iPod noise-isolating cans with speech and device control are meant for use far beyond your carefully constructed “critical listening” audio nest at home.

You can, however, swap out the iPod cable for the B&W supplied gold-plated cable by popping off the magnetically attached ear pad. Mind you, the P5 does not offer electronic noise cancelation, instead, the listener is isolated through a combination of the P5′s closed-back design and sealed leather ear pads.

They also bring the promise of “unfatiguing performance” thanks to B&W developed ultra-linear neodynium magnets and Mylar diaphragms. Naturally, we’ll reserve judgment until these babies ship sometime in January.

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Techradar: One of the biggest criticisms of the new camcorder-equipped iPod nano is that the lens isn’t placed where you’d expect it to be.It’s not on the back at the top behind the LCD screen like a mobile phone or a Flip Video. It’s actually on the back, at the bottom behind the clickwheel.

The practical upshot of this is that if you hold the iPod nano like normal, with your thumb on the clickwheel, the rest of your hand ends up obscuring the camcorder sensor.

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iPodNN: Bose has upgraded their SoundDock line with a new, particularly high-end model. The SoundDock 10 adds a dedicated subwoofer to reproduce the low end and has two large transducers that borrow the same technology as found in the Wave radio to project upper- and mid-range frequencies.

Fresh for any Bose system is a completely interchangeable dock: it can not only accommodate different iPhones and iPods but can fit an optional $150 (€100) Bluetooth receiver for wireless stereo or, in the future, recognize non-Apple players.

The system has GSM shielding to prevent the “buzz” interference of a nearby phone and a remote to steer docked equipment from a distance. Bose plans for the SoundDock 10 to reach stores on the 21st and is pricing it well above the SoundDock II at $600 (€600).

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iPodNN: Harman Kardon has brought out a trio of new AV receivers that, in one case, may hint at future iPod features. The AVR 3600 comes with a new Bridge III universal dock that the company claims can play HD videos directly from an iPhone or iPod.

It’s not clear whether the company expects the Apple devices to handle decoding the videos themselves or if it provides the work itself; officially, current iPhone and iPod touch devices will only play 640×480.

Users have reported the iPhone 3GS capable of playing 1080p at a moderate bitrate and thus have raised the possibility that the feature is simply locked out in software.

A part examination has shown that Apple is using a processor that could decode 720p without depending on extra hardware for help, albeit not at the iPhone’s actual clock speed. It’s likely HD would require a combination of the CPU with the graphics core to achieve the feat.

Besides this feature, the 3600 takes standard definition videos on Apple devices and upscales them to 1080p while also letting users control the iPhone or iPod through the home theater. It acts as the flagship and can take 7.1-channel input at 80W per satellite (including Dolby, DTS and Logic 7 formats), auto-configure the surround through a microphone, and render video with HDMI 1.3a Deep Color support.

The AVR 2600 handles 65W per satellite and drops Deep Color, while the AVR 1600 is Harman Kardon’s starter and drops power output to 50W per channel while also taking the number of total digital and analog inputs to three and four respectively (down from four and five on the 2600 and 3600).

All three receivers arrive this month at prices of $600 (€411) for the AVR 1600, $800 (€548) for the AVR 2600, and $1,200 (€822) for the AVR 3600. The company has been contacted for further answers regarding HD video support for iPods but hasn’t yet had an opportunity to respond.

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CNet: Apple has some new iPods. The most interesting of the bunch is the revised iPod nano, as it now has a video camera.

And we just spent the last couple of hours playing with one so you don’t have to. Size-wise it hasn’t changed, although the screen is slightly larger and the colourful chassis is glossier than before.

It works just like the previous model, but you’ll notice the main menu now has the option to fire up a camera and record video.

Clips are recorded at 640×480 pixels in H.264 MPEG-4, and with monaural audio that you can listen to through the new built-in speaker.

There’s no option to take still images though, which seems like quite a remarkable oversight.

On-screen the recorded clips look great, but we’ll save our final word on quality for tomorrow when we get one in the office to poke and abuse more thoroughly. But it took just one button to start recording, another to stop — simplicity derived from the likes of the Flip mini-camcorders, which Apple effectively named in its keynote as the inspiration for adding a camera to its MP3 players.

Clips are then saved in folders organised by date of capture. You can browse these while listening to FM radio — something we couldn’t understand the nano not having before now — or while counting how many steps you just took from the Apple store, since the player now has a pedometer for some reason.

So in many ways Apple’s made this nano something of a jack of all trades, but kept the pricing reasonable — £115 (€130) for the 8GB version, £135 (€153) for 16GB.

We like the design a lot and love the video-recording option, and have no doubt it’ll be a hit. But a couple of questions remain: why no option to capture still images? And also, no really, why no option to capture still images?! Pick up the new nano in one of several glistening colours from right now on the Apple Web site, but check out our hands-on photos first.

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Pioneer: Pioneer are previewing their new iPod Speaker Systems at IFA.

The XW-NAS5 and XW-NAS3  systems, due to hit the shelves from December, feature a 2.1-channel digital amplifier and provide precise sound reproduction with warm acoustics, while a down-firing subwoofer supplies dynamic and powerful bass.

Both systems offer a direct digital audio connection and incorporate unique features that are not available on other high-end iPod speaker systems.

They come in a characteristic shell-shaped housing, in a choice of four quality metallic-finish colours: red, black, silver or white (XW-NAS3 in metallic white only).

All the official information and pre-release pictures are here.

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Electronista: At its IFA show presence added a pair of 2.1-channel PC speakers, including what it claims as a first for integrating iPhones and iPods.

The 60W SRS-GD50iP has its own dock in the central controller to play audio from any of the dockable Apple devices or just to keep it charged.

A toggle button lets users switch between this and the regular sound output from the computer. The speaker set is already available and, in the US, officially sells for $200 (€140).

A second system part of Sony’s Muteki line, the SRS-DB500, is a conventional setup but skewed towards power: it produces 300W, half of which is generated by the subwoofer. The amp is also based on the same pure digital technology borrowed from many of Sony’s other devices and allegedly improves audio quality by skipping the analog-to-digital translation process. These too are already shipping and cost $200 in the US  (€140).

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Electronista: Apple’s rumored September 9th iPod event has gained credibility with a second purported confirmation on Wednesday afternoon.

The tipsters speaking to AppleInsider claim that Apple has settled on the 9th after weeks of debate and that iPods will form the backbone of the introduction. It’s now virtually certain that both the iPod nano and iPod touch will include cameras, but it’s also said that the photo and possible video functions will be “just one piece” of the iPod updates.

What this would mean isn’t said. The camera function has been heavily leaked, but virtually no other rumors have surfaced that would point to other features. Capacity upgrades have already been expected as a matter of course.

Many now also anticipate iTunes 9, many of whose features (if accurate) may be known. Alternating rumors have pointed to the jukebox app adding Blu-ray support and other movie disc playback, while others have alluded to social networking integration and possible syncing with third-party devices.

This last claim has been called into question given Apple’s tendency to block the Palm Pre. More radical introductions, like a tablet device or Mac introductions, aren’t considered likely. Apple typically restricts music events to iPod and iTunes-related products.

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Engadget: As the torrent of new gear continues, we’re now faced with another pair of iPod sound systems desperately attempting to knock the “me-too” status and contribute something positive to the world.

The Rechargeable Speaker S315i is the larger of the two, boasting a rechargeable battery that’s supposedly good for up to 20 hours of listening. The unit is fully compatible with dock-connecting iPods and iPhones, and there’s even an auxiliary input for those who aren’t down with Cupertino’s wares.

The smaller Portable Speaker S125i plays and charges any iPod model and can be powered by an AC adapter, four AA cells or 8.43 tablespoons of Jobs’ favorite fairy dust.

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HardwareSphere: The Philips HF3490 is a Wake-up ‘light alarm’ that will act as your own ‘Sun’ in your room. It will slowly and gradually increases its light and will wake you up gently using the light.

You can also spice it up using FM radio, natural sounds or even music from your iPhone or iPod. This is very nice if you compare to the noise conventional alarm clock.

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AkihabaraNews: The RA-P50 is JVC-Victor’s latest iPod and iPhone friendly dock that’s also an alarm clock, plays tunes stored on your iPod / iPhone and includes a an FM/AM tuner.

The RA-P50 works with batteries or an AC adapter, and will be released in Japan in August for around 15,000 Yen (€112).

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Apple: Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended June 27, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion.

Gross margin was 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter.

International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 2.6 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a four percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing a seven percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Quarterly iPhones sold were 5.2 million, representing 626 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

“We’re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.”

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