Old NES controller, meet iPhone. An enterprising individual over on the iPhonefr.com forums (careful, everything is in French!) has turned one of the most iconic controllers of all time into something that holds one of the most iconic electronic gadgets of the present day.

Wee Scott Campbell of Aberdeen, Scotland is 13 years old and sent us an email last week asking if he could write for us. What he lacks in physical age he makes up for in chutzpah. And so, much to my surprise, I wake up this morning to discover young Campbell on BBC comparing an iPod to a Walkman with his mum and generally impressing the heck out of us.

The bairn writes:

My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.

He had told me it was big, but I hadn’t realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book.

When I saw it for the first time, its colour also struck me. Nowadays gadgets come in a rainbow of colours but this was only one shade - a bland grey.

So it’s not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player. If I was browsing in a shop maybe I would have chosen something else.

From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets. It comes with a handy belt clip screwed on to the back, yet the weight of the unit is enough to haul down a low-slung pair of combats.

Tokyo-based electronics company Lancerlink has announced the iJector [JP] today, an LCOS projector that you can use with your iPod or iPhone. Shaped like a dock, the device makes it possible to watch video stored on your iPod on the go via its built-on stereo speakers (3W×2ch).

I don’t think you have to be a craftsman to appreciate the beauty of this handmade iPod. It’s a tad large and bulky, but it’s still beautiful in its own right. The outside casing is Australian red cedar, the working touch-sensitive click wheel is Camphor Laurel, and brass makes up the rest. Gorgeous. Now where is a wooden iPhone?

Japanese super geek Akio has single-handedly designed what he calls a digital signage bag specifically made for iPhones. It’s essentially a bag with three pockets that fit an iPhone or iPod touch each and can serve as a promotion tool. At least in theory.

Now, the smart thing to do when faced with the prospect of a long aeroplane flight is to load up on Benadryl (or Ambien, if you have money and a cooperative doctor) right before boarding. That way you sleep for the duration of the flight—no having to worry about crying babies for you! But, for the sake of this here post, let’s say you want to, or have to, stay awake for a certain amount of time. You know who’s got your back in this instance? Panasonic, of all people, what with its “iPod merge” in-flight thingamabob

It’s officially official: the iPod is the number one media player in the known universe. The number two media player is the entire Sansa line from flash maker SanDisk. Eli Harari, CEO of SanDisk, admits that he’s content to sit at the number two spot. And why shouldn’t he?

So, as we recall, the Palm Pre is supposed to have some sort of iTunes syncing feature built-in. With the Apple pedigree of most of its programmers, this isn’t surprising. When you plug in your Pre, it seems, it will show up as an “iPod.” But how did they do it? John Gruber smells a rat:

If you’re still holding out any sort of hope that Palm is using some sort of heretofore sanctioned, semi-sanctioned, or even maybe-sorta-kinda-sanctioned-if-you-squint-your-eyes means for a third-party device to sync with iTunes via USB, note that the Pre, when connected to iTunes, is labelled as an “iPod”. If you think Apple would ever allow the use of “iPod” to describe anything other than an actual iPod, you’re nuts.

Belkin, and others, have been making similar car docks for a while now so your probably know how this new model works. There are two versions coming: the TuneBase FM has a FM modulator and the TuneBase Direct outputs via a 3.5mm jack. Both will get your iPod/iPhone hooked up to your car’s speakers while simultaneously charging it and providing a speakerphone for the iPhone.

If you have ever wanted to plug in a pro-quality microphone and headphone to an iPhone or iPod touch, pay attention and read on.

I’m writing this up because of how delightfully ham-handed it is, which suggests their tactic worked. Basically, some “gadget matchmaker” service called Retrevo ran a study asking newlyweds what gadgets they wanted as wedding gifts. 38% wanted a camcorder, 24% wanted a digitial camera, and 2% wanted an MP3 player. I suspect thats because anyone at marriageable age right now - including those weird states where you can marry your cousin at 16 (looking at you, Delaware!) - already has an MP3 player.

Note there is no sample size mentioned so they probably asked their immediate family, making the entire process slightly statistically unsavory.

If we are to believe an iLounge tipster, this is what the next iPod nano will look like. The screen ratio will change from 1.33:1 to 1.5:1. the click wheel will be shifted down and shrunk a bit. And yes, it will have a camera. All this in a less scratchable plastic (eww, plastic) matte body. The same tipster states that this new nano will be released with the iPod touch which should be sometime between July and September.

Say what you want about the cult of Apple and the insane proliferation of the iPod, but the little devices can take a licking and keep on ticking. Or rather, they can take a freezing, and keep on pleasing! Andrew Robulack found an iPod frozen into the ice, and pried it free. To his surprise, it worked!

After 15 years at Microsoft, Richard Theversam has left his role as senior director of business, insights and strategy. Theversam accepted an education-related role at Apple’s European office. Between 2005 and 2007, Theversam was the director for platform and marketing for Xbox.

Apps on the iPhone are huge. We know that. As if we needed more proof, Apple moved its billionth app earlier this afternoon. But some recent data from Compete suggests that smartphone owners who don’t have an iPhone, apparently don’t love apps. Or at least, don’t download them.

If you look at the graph below, you’ll see that iPhone owners are very diversified in the number of apps they download. Some have only 1-5, some 6-10, some over 31 (that’s me — several times over), etc. But look at the other phones surveyed. A lot of them haven’t downloaded any apps. And those that don’t have zero, seem to prefer downloading only 1-5.

This is the Fusion Electronics CA-IP500. It’s an aftermarket car stereo that has a slot for your iPod. That is, you open the radio, slide in your iPod, and then listen to your iPod’s contents to your heart’s content. Why bother with such a device when you can accomplish the same thing with a $10 tape adapter? Because tape adapters leave unseemly wires hanging about. You don’t wake up in the morning and go to your job for that, now do you?