That's one hot iPod you've got there!

PCWorld is reporting that an Atlanta, Georgia man had his 2 year old iPod Nano burst into flames in his pants! The man works at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to his mother, is quoted as saying "If TSA had come by and seen me smoking, they could have honestly thought I was a terrorist,". The flames are said to have lasted about 15 seconds and reached chest height. PCWorld says "The iPod contains a lithium-ion battery, which has a history of catching fire in laptops." Apple sent him a packet to return his iPod in... I think he should use a Scottevest next time!

Nike your workout partner?

c|net's crave blog brings to our attention the Nike Amp+ Sport Remote Control, Nike says "it's a watch and a remote for the Nike+ experience. Hear instant voice feedback of your time, distance, calories and pace when you add the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit and Nike+ Ready shoes." Though it looks like something out of Star Trek, it's reasonably priced at $79, but when you consider the $29 for the iPod Sport Kit and $90 for shoes... etc. the whole collection starts to add up. If you're going to put your self through the torture of running you might as well be geeked out! I especially like the "Power song accessed through left-side button for quick motivation".

Multiple choice in the digital age

The University of Manitoba has introduced the iClicker to about 30 classes on campus. The device looks and acts a lot like a remote control only the clicks are in response to the questions posed by the professors. "What it does is it gives the student a relative anonymity in answering the question," Kumar Sharma, a physics professor at the university told CBC News. "There's no stigma attached to making the wrong answer, and some people who were too shy to put up their hands generally respond." Some professors at the university have made the iClicker mandatory in their lectures, they are sold at the university's bookstore for about $40, and the cost has irritated some students.

Research In Motion sees profit double despite iPhone

Research In Motion released it's second quarter results yesterday and Jim Balsillie and company had plenty to smile about. "RIM's second quarter results were exceptionally strong on all metrics including revenue, subscriber account additions and net income," said Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM. "This growth is fueled by the depth of the BlackBerry product portfolio and the continued diversification of our business across market segments and geographies. With over ten million BlackBerry subscriber accounts and over twenty million handsets shipped, we are pleased with our position in the market today and we expect recent product and market initiatives to extend our business momentum through the remainder of the fiscal year." RIM certainly has a commanding lead in the business sector and while the iPhone is a pretty device, time will tell whether or not BlackBerry users will see any benefit in switching devices. E-mail integration may dictate the winner here...

Audit Berkeley lectures from home via YouTube

CBC is reporting that The University of California, Berkeley is making it's entire selection of course lectures available free of charge on YouTube. "YouTube's ongoing innovations create a great environment in which students and lifelong learners alike can discover, watch and share educational videos," said Ben Hubbard, co-manager of webcast.berkeley, in a release.

This is exciting news, combine these videos with free course material from MIT and you can see a real trend starting!

HealthVault - Microsoft's Common Health Record Plan

Microsoft is planning a new online offering that will allow you to manage your electronic health records. The plan for "HealthVault" is to allow users "to view information from medical devices, myriad health care providers and insurance companies as well as share that information with health care providers of their choosing or search for information related to their health issues." according to this c|net News.com post. A related health search service is also being launched and it appears as this will be the method of monetizing the venture, "When I am doing a health search I typically have a need," Microsoft's Peter Neupert said. "The ad is a valuable piece of content."

Google has a similar initiative underway and in both cases the sensitive nature of the data and user's trust that the company can ensure security will be a big hurtle to acceptance.

Geek Squad get their man and woman...

ars technica is reporting that two PC owners who chose Best Buy's Geek Squad to do repairs to their PCs have ended up in hot water over their hard drive contents. In one case a young woman who hired the Geek Squad to swap a hard drive out of her machine, is being targeted by the RIAA for alleged file sharing. The second customer finds him self in much deeper trouble after a Geek Squad member found child pornography on his hard drive and tipped off police. The Fayetteville, Arkansas Police found child porn images along with "a commercial video clip of child pornography, and two video clips of minor females changing into swim suits that appeared to have been taken by a hidden video camera," according to the US Attorney's complaint. The man who crossed State lines with the laptop has been sentenced to 135 months in jail and a $10,000 fine. Geek justice is served!

Bungie employees get flaming Halo 3 helmet

If you're on XBox Live, playing Halo 3, and you encounter a Spartan with a flaming helmet you might have your hands full! In fact you are actually playing one of the developers from Bungie. G4's The Feed is reporting that a flaming helmet signifies a Bungie employee and try as you might, you can never obtain one, unless you're resume is up to HR's standards...

Justin.tv opens platform to the masses

Wired's epicenter blog is reporting that Justin.tv is opening up it's platform to allow users to broadcast their lives, with their own equipment. The company had opened up to a select group of beta broadcasters in May, contrary to earlier reports that it wasn't planning on broadcasting the lives of the masses. The move puts Justin.tv in competition with a number of other players, but it comes on the heals of a round of venture capital and cost cutting measures like moving to Amazon's Web Services.

Microsoft not giving up on Zune MP3 player

According to PCWorld, Microsoft is not ready to call it quits on it's line of MP3 players just yet. A new line of Zune Players, the Zune 2, is reported to be coming with 2 flash memory devices and an 80 GB hard drive model. This generation will be equipped with Wi-Fi and supported by new community features and DRM-free music sales at the Zune Marketplace music store. It's a handsome looking device with a familiar looking "click wheel" like control, and while the first generation was not a huge success it had it's fans. With these updates the Zune 2 could become a solid contender in the MP3 player market, though it will be tough even for Microsoft to truly mount a challenge of Apple's iPod line.