...We're re-launching our coverage of MP3 players here at AnandTech, and to start things off we have a roundup of high-end MP3 players from juggernauts Apple and Microsoft, who between the two control the vast majority of the high-end high-margin market for MP3 players in the United States....

The MP3 players we will be looking at today represent the shifts in product styles that come with that maturation. From Apple we have the old guard and the new guard; the iPods Classic and Touch respectively. From Microsoft we have the Zune 80, a product that is both the old and new guards at the same time, striving to fix what ailed the first Zune in the process. How do these MP3 players stack up? Let's find out....

Nilay Patel at Engadget has a fascinating post about Apple's $20 charge for Mail, Maps and a few other apps on the iPod touch, allegedly because doing otherwise would run Apple afoul of Sarbanes-Oxley Act accounting requirements. Essentially, the argument goes, Apple is required to charge for any "major" features that aren't enabled upon shipment for any product that doesn't have its cost spread across a recurring subscription business model, as the iPhone and AppleTV are.

In its post-earnings conference call, Apple (AAPL) noted that iPod unit sales in the U.S. were flat year over year; the company said it is possible that cannibalization from iPhone sales were a contributing factor.

iPod peripheral manufacturers are eyeing up a newly emerging market. 31 per cent of children have MP3 players - and half of those are iPods, a report claims.

According to a report on AdAge, the market for child-focused media content for MP3 players across the board - including for the iPod - is exploding, and accessory makers can't be too far behind in considering this emerging market.

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