This is a bit of a head-scratcher, but Belkin has gone to the trouble of building a mixing board that records music onto Gen 5 iPods (those that support video). The TuneStudio is the first four-channel mixer for iPods, claims Belkin (and we're inclined to believe it, since the idea never even occurred to us). It supports 16-bit, 44-kHz audio, and each channel has a three-band equalizer.

Why you'd want to record your next indie music hit onto an easily losable, low-fi handheld with a fragile hard drive instead of onto a nice Mac or PC computer is a mystery. And if you do, make sure your iTunes is set for manual synching, or else it will erase your precious creations whenever you dock the iPod.

Anyway, it's a swank-looking device, judging by Belkin's artist rendering. The TuneStudio goes on sale this summer, for $180. – Sean Captain

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