Mufin has released a new standalone music player designed to compete with Apple’s new iTunes Genius feature. The Mufin player imports all the music off your hard drive onto it and then provides your standard music player, except with Mufin you can also check out related tracks. Mufin currently doesn’t have an integrated way to purchase music, so if you find a track you want to buy you’ll have to hit up iTunes or Amazon to purchase it, which brings up the question of why you weren’t using iTunes in the first place. Regardless it’s nice to see some competition out there, even if it’s a little sub-par at the moment. What features would you like to see in a music player? [via ArsTechnica]

Nokia has plans to add Skype functionality to two of its new smartphones, and carriers in the UK are none too happy about it. The idea is that if customers were able to make VoIP calls on their mobiles rather than traditional voice calls they would, thus driving down the profits the carriers make on voice plans. Currently AT&T allows Skype to be used on Apple’s iPhone here in the US, but it can only be used when the user is on a Wi-Fi connection, not using AT&T’s data services. T-Mobile also offers T-Mobile@Home that allows customers to make VoIP calls through their mobile phones while at home. Calls through that service automatically switch over to a voice plan when the user wanders out of the Wi-Fi area. O2 and Orange has threatened to not carry the Nokia phones unless they remove Skype functionality. What do you think, would having Skype on your phone make you reduce your traditional voice calls? [via Electronista]

Abee Japan has released a new PC case that looks a bit more like a table than a computer. The casing is available in either silver or black and is created completely out of aluminum. What makes this case peculiar is that it’s designed to be sort of a raised platform that you can put your monitor on and store your keyboard under.  The casing supports both Micro ATX and Mini ITX motherboards, can hold a 2 3.5-inch HDD and one additional 2.5-inch HDD, and has an eSATA and DUAL USB port on its front panel.  Currently, the case is available in Japan only for the equivalent of about $300 US. [via AkibaharaNews]

The UK government is apparently looking to embrace open source software in order to save costs. The new government policy would encourage the use of open source software wherever possible in order to save taxpayer money and use money it already has in the budget more efficiently.

Earlier this month the Canadian government also indicated it would like to start using open source software as a way to shave of some of its operating costs. The move to open source would help decrease the countries dependence on the US for software needs, and could help them save a pretty substantial amount of cash in the process.

What do you think about governments switching to open source software? Do you think it’s a good idea? [via ArsTechnica]

Marantz is showing off a new luxury hi-fi all-in-one music system. The Marantz CR502 has two stereo amplifiers with 2 x 25W outputs and has a CD and DAB tuner. Like a lot of similar music players the device has a USB 2.0 port so you can connect up other devices and has a clock radio with alarm if you want to rock it bedside. The player is currently available in Europe only with a price tag right around $1000 US, which puts it well out of the price range of most of us. [via SlipperyBrick]

Wouldn’t it be nice to just project a movie onto the wall whenever you wanted to? What if you could do it from a projector that fits in the palm of your hand? Mini projectors are definitely cool, but as of right now are also pretty expensive. Syba just announced a new projector this week that plus directly into your notebook or DVD player to play back your favorite films. The only catch is, the device costs a whopping $400, and it only projects a maximum of 25-inches, so you might even be better off using a computer screen or your television if it’s nearby. A full-size large projector typically only runs around $500, so if projecting is really your dream you might be better served to just drop the extra cash on one of those instead.

What do you think about mini projectors? How much would you be willing to pay for one? [via Wired]

Memory card readers are starting look a lot cooler these days. Sandisk has announced two pretty stunning looking new card readers. The ImageMate All-in-one and ImageMate Multi-card are both designed to read a pretty substantial amount of different types of memory while looking pretty badass. The ImageMate All-in-one reader has card-to-card copying functionality and supports SD, SDHC, miniSDHC, MMC, MS, MSPD, xD and CF. The Multi-Card reader on the other hand only reads xD, MS, SD, SDHC and MMC. Both are available now for $30 or $20 respectively and  are sleek enough we’d keep them on display on our desktop any day. [via SlashGear]

Well that didn’t take long. The guys over at iFixit got their hands on a Kindle 2 and have already managed to dissect the thing. One huge thing the site noticed was the device has an empty place for a SIM card, which may mean we’ll see more features pop up in the international debut of the kindle 2 than we’ve heard about so far. Also in the teardown iFixit pointed out the Kindle 2 e-ink screen has no sort of screen protection over it, so if you’ve got one headed to you in the mail you might want to make arrangements for that as well. [via Engadget]

It looks like we may see a redesigned PSP some time this year. A “highly-trusted” source at VG247 has indicated we’ll see a PSP 4000 by the end of the year. The PSP-4000 would in many ways be exceptionally similar to the PSP-3000, except it would have a sliding screen rather than one fixed in place. The new design would represent an aesthetic overhaul of the device, and would potentially bring new users to the device simply because of its sleek look. Sony has not commented on the possibility to a new PSP, so it could all be just rumor- these do look pretty sweet though don’t they? [via Electronista]