Apple have troubled the sheets of gadget-heads once more by unveiling the fourth generation iPod Nano at a US press conference, to add to the 160m already sold. It has new shuffle and library features, but also environmental credentials, including arsenic-free glass and a mercury/PVC-free body that makes it “highly recyclable”. Apple’s new Genius function allows you to create automatic playlists from the iPod’s library with the click of a button. It also houses a “shake to shuffle” mode, which sends the gadget to shuffle mode with the flick of a wrist allowing you to go backwards and forwards on your playlist. Er…great. The new contraption is also super skinny – hang on: super skinny and the shakes: it’s not inspired by Amy Winehouse is it?!

Tags: Apple growth, Apple job security, Apple products, new iPod nano

What have Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and George Clooney all got in common? No, not prostate cancer, they’ve all reserved the new £92,000 Tesla Roadster - the new sports car from the US company, being made right here at the Lotus factory in Norfolk. Why is this of interest, because while the roadster is a high performing penis substitute like every other sports car, unlike the rest it is entirely electric. It takes three hours to charge up and can then run for 220miles. The company is already working on a four-door family version, while developing a more affordable vehicle with an unnamed major manufacturer. One thing this boy’s toy lacks is noise – it’s completely silent when running, so no throaty revs at the traffic lights. It also means, if you’re a passenger in one of the 250 available in Europe, you’ll have to listen to the driver drone on about how green he is, and how small his cock is.

Tags: automotive, cars, electric, engineering, low emissions, Talking point, Transport

Its not often people have something bad to say about Apple, so forgive me if I leap at the chance to report that the company is investigating a possible defect on their iPod Nano. Two of them have overheated, causing minor burn damage – a defect in the lithium-ion battery while it charges is suspected – and a single battery suppier for the first generation Nano has been blamed. As always, both cases happened in Japan and Apple have said if your concerned you should contact them. While they put you on hold can I suggest you download the following: Disco inferno; Burning Down the House, and anything by Sparks.

Tags: Apple, iPod, Music, Products, Reputation, Technology

An estimated 5m Apple iPhone handsets have been shifted around the world, but only 350,000 of them in Europe – barley scratching the cheek of the global market of 1bn handsets where Nokia rules supreme. Well, not anymore…the new iPhone, paraded before drooling geeks this week, is marketed specifically to help boss Steve Jobs achieve his target of selling 10m by the end of the year. Apple’s original approach gave the company an estimated 15% per cent of the operator’s average revenue per user (exclusively O2 in the case of the UK). Now, operators will fork out to cover a proportion of the cost of the phone, and Apple will take a smaller share of that revenue but take more of a cut of any applications sold through the handset. The phone launches across 11 countries, including the UK, tomorrow at a strting retail price of £99.

Tags: Apple, Blackberry, Communications, iPhone, IT, Mobile, O2

If you fancy heading east there’s a couple of opportunities peeking over the once iron curtain: Branson’s Virgin Atlantic is poised to buy into the local Russian airline industry after the appointment of a former Virgin director (William Boulter) at low-cost Russian airline Sky Express (don’t eat the on board Sushi). As the country opens up and the wealthy flash the cash, Mother Russia wants to expand its aviation industry. Meanwhile Coffeeheaven is bringing western-style coffee bars to Eastern Europe (lucky them) and has gone to the City to raise £3.5m to open new stores. Give them a call – wouldn’t you have liked to have been part of Starbucks at the outset? No? Please yourself

Tags: Airlines, Aviation, career opportunities, job prospects, new brands, Retail, Russia