BBC News reports that movement is underway in the UK among communications regulators to remove the silly ban on FM transmitters such as the iTrip, which transmit signals from portable devices so that they can be heard on nearby FM radios. Such devices are currently illegal under a World War II era law designed to prevent radio interference. The devices transmit just a matter of feet, and not very strongly at that.

This is good news and just plain ole common sense. Everyone has them anyway and they do no harm; they might as well be legal.  

Two weeks ago, analyst Shaw Wu reported that the next round of updates to the iPod line will be delayed until near the end of the year from the earlier precitions of this fall.

However, Reuters reported today that Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Robert Semple believes they will actually be on time.

We'll see!  

AppleInsider rumor-mongered today that nanos, whose release will likely be delayed until late this year, may have iPod mini-like finishes. An insider claims Apple is experimenting with the anodized aluminum finish to create more scratch-resistant iPod nanos.

The artical also reports that the case size will likely remain nearly unchanged, while the capacity will increase to up to 8 GB.  

If you're in France, this is old news. Tough.

Previously FreeiPodGuy reported that France's legislature appeared to be backing down on their stance that digital downloads in France should be interoperable between all players. As it happens, they did indeed pass the law, which will force any company selling digital downloads to do it in a way that allows any player device able to implement the ability to play the tracks. In other words, stores selling WMA-encoded songs will have to allow Apple a way to play them on iPods, and the iTMS will have to allow non-iPods to sell their music.

Many have speculated that France is chump change in the global picture, and that Apple will prefer to close the French iTunes Music Store. That might actually be a good move. The general consensus is that Apple makes very little money off of the iTunes Music Store, and that its main purpose is to sell iPods. If Apple closes the French iTMS and at the same time updates iPod's firmware to allow playing of WMA files, they will (a) increase the market for iPods by allowing them to be open to the WMA format, and (b) they will avoid providing an incentive to non-iPod players by depriving them of the most popular online music store on the planet.  

Denver's Channel 7 News reports that a local metalhead was given the gift of electricity recently, the hard way. He was struck by lightning while using his portable device, which happened in this case to be an iPod.

It is well established that using electronic devices outside in a thunderstorm can increase your chances of getting hit by lightning, as well as the severity of your injuries. The real news was that a person was struck by lightning. The article's headline, which dishonestly implies that the iPod caused his problem, is yet another media attention grab.

So if you listen to your iPod outside in a thunderstorm, you're a big dummy, but at least you'll get a nice headline if the device in question happens to be an iPod and you get zapped.

(Hmmm... Maybe the headline should have read "God Proves He Hates Dreadlocks".)