Thinking about being a DJ feels complicated. You think about the turntable, and then the countless vinyls that you have to collect just to make the music you want. However, thanks to Numark's new toy, the iDJ2, all you need is the iDJ2 and a loaded iPod.

Not that we couldn't DJ before with our iPods, but Numark's new iDJ2 lets you make your own re-mixes with just one iPod. The new iDJ2 will let you scratch two tracks at the same time, rather than iDJ which requires you to have two iPods to make some music.  Not only could you put your iPod in iDJ2, but you can also attach other devices to its usb ports, to make your music more varied. The iDJ2 supports mp3, Ogg Vorbis

The price hasn't been released so far, but this new toy will certainly be something that iPod DJs would look forward to. Once you've got this down, all you need to do is book the club!

Apple is finding news ways to offer customers music videos in bulk on iTunes. The company is moving into higher margin packages to sell to their customers by offering video albums, which consist of six or seven videos from an artist that have not been released as a collection before. The service is not meant to replace people buying individual songs but an added feature for those well established artists who have a large enough fan base that there will be a demand to purchase the artist's music collections instead of one or two songs. The cost will depend on several things but for an example, a music video collection by Tori Amos released by iTunes sells for $24.99 as a complete package.

So it's been a few years since Apple started offering free music downloads on Tuesdays.  Nice way to find some new music and get a few free songs in your pocket.  There were always a couple 'hidden' freebies each week, and over time I lost the iMixes that pointed them out, and would occasionally look on my own.  But that takes too much effort. 

Now featuring video content, Apple has begun making limited-time video downloads available for free.  I've grabbed a few, and they've done their job in whetting my appetite for the network-viewable edition of the show.  But again, finding them can be the trick.

Well no more, friends!  There's a site that offers the free content, description, and an iTunes link to the show!  Grab the RSS feed and be notified when there's a new freebie to be had.

The Times Online tells us that a company owned by the former Beatles and their heirs is dragging Apple to court over the iTunes Music Store, in the latest episode of one of the longest-running battles in the history of British corporate law.

The Apple Corps, owned by former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, is claiming that iTunes' creation runs counter to their $26 million agreement with Apple in which Apple agreed not to get into the music business.

The lawsuit is all about the logo Apple uses - which, unfortunately, closely resembles the Apple Corps logo that appears on their records, a ripe apple on one side and a sliced apple on the other. The Apple Corps debuted their logo in 1968; Apple's first appeared in 1976. Five years afterwards, Apple Corps sued Jobs and accepted an $80,000 settlement, as well as a promise that Apple would stay out of the music business. In 1989 another lawsuit was filed when Apple introduced a music-making program; Apple again settled, this time for $26 million, and was legally allowed to make and sell goods and services used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver [music].

Apple will argue that the iTunes music service is merely music transmission and doesn't run counter to what's legally allowed it. That sounds like the end of the story to us, except that one never knows what strange twists and turns a legal case like this can take. More on this when we get updates.

We've been writing about this brewing mess for days, and only now has Apple seen fit to issue a statement about it.

As quoted by the BBC, Apple said - If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers...  iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with "interoperable" music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy.  There's a good stern response for you.

Although they do admit that it would be possible for iPod sales to increase as a result, in the same breath they say that it's likely that not only music but movies will end up being distributed illegally. Which makes sense if you think about it. 

Now we wonder how the French will respond to that.

We've just stumbled upon a very easy, efficient way to back up your entire iTunes music library, one that even accommodates those of you who have MP3 lists that are kilometers in length. 

It's dynamic, too, in the sense that it even provides a way of tracking new music, which really eases backing new additions up.

Click away and see if you find it as great a solution as we do.

The guys over at onedigitallife have created a cool tutorial for how to back up your music using iTunes. iTunes will automatically burn your backup across multiple CDs or DVDs, and can track what has already been backed up so that subsequent backups are quick and easy. Click the Full Article link below for the tutorial.

If you use Winamp with your iPod through the winamp iPod plugin, you should probably hold off on updating your Winamp player.  This user talks about his unfortunate experience with the upgrade, which wreaked havoc on his iPod's playlists.  In the end, he lost about 18GB of music from his iPod.  Luckily he was smart enough to have backups, and the only thing that was really lost was time.  It appears there may be a fix, but no confirmation on that.  In the meantime, if you're a Winamp user, be cautious before upgrading if you use it with your iPod.

Consumer Reports has taken a stab at Apple's new boombox, the Hi-Fi, and finds a product that it describes as 'so-so.' Surprised that a company as innovative as Apple, which usually surpasses, or at the very least matches it competition, has made a product like the Hi-Fi, Consumer Reports finds some trappings that make other choices on the market much more desirable -- and for a lot less.

First up is the look of the unit, which Consumer Reports describes as, "Rectangular and unadorned, the Hi-Fi resembles an elongated white breadbox." Okay, so she isn't going to be Prom Queen this year, but what about her personality? Consumer Reports writes: "The unit's performance is mildly disappointing. Though it sounds decent enough, the Hi-Fi didn't match the audio quality of the best-sounding (and lower-priced) iPod boomboxes from our past tests."

Consumer Reports does like the power-saving features of the unit, as well as remote. But is it enough? "Why go to such trouble when the Altec iM7, $250, offers better performance for $100 less?" I have a feeling that this will be one Apple product that will fade into obscurity.

One of the things about Apple everyone admits, is how their ads are able to capture your attention seemingly without trying all that hard. That advertising campaign with the dancing silhouettes, for example, has been both ridiculed and praised for its simplicity, which fits very well with Apple's overall design concept.

Anyway, Apple has a new advertisement out for its iPod Nano. The advertisement takes its cue from the iTunes Artwork screen saver, which takes album art and plays it on your computer screen in curious designs. If you're interested, head on over to the Apple website and play it on your computer. It is available in different resolutions to 'enhance' your experience.