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Apple gets more press for products it hasn't even announced yet than most companies get for products they are actually <I>trying</I> to promote. Here's the scoop (maybe) on the gen 6 iPod.

Whether or not Matsumi Suzuki has recreated the voice of the woman who sat for the portrait we call the Mona Lisa, he has already been awarded an Ig-Nobel Prize.

I've never owned a set of headphones. Is that what they're called? Or should it be <i>pair</i> of headphones? Headphones? Earphones? I don't even know. I've stayed away from headphones for a couple of reasons: I don't like having things on my head or in my ears, and I actually do enjoy hearing the sounds around me &mdash; the banjos on the F train, the buses on Madison Avenue, the sirens around the corner, the construction in our hall. Oh, and the birdies chirping, too.

Also in the Belkin room, I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Bruce Edgar who had furnished the room with his Edgarhorn Titan II loudspeakers ($16,000). Dr. Edgar is an experimental physicist. And also a mind reader. I sat beside him, facing the system with its outrageous array of silvery PureAV interconnects and speaker cables jutting out like all sorts of tentacles and arms and legs, thinking: "Any other cables would make this system look ugly," when Dr. Edgar said to me: "Any other cables would make this system look ugly, don't you think?"

There are two tiny omnidirection mics on that sweet little thing &mdash; Belkin's TuneTalk Stereo ($69.99) &mdash; displayed here by Jackie Romulo. You can record stuff directly onto your iPod and play it back later. So, if you're a student at a sleepy lecture or a hack reporter like me, you have an instant cheat sheet.

The assembled media lost in a musical revery listening to Cantus sing "Shenandoah" at the debut of the Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy 8s.

David Wilson remarked that he debuted the original Wilson WATT (Wilson Audio Tiny Transducer) almost 20 years ago to the day. Today, he showed us the WATT/Puppy 8 ($27,900/pair). Wilson, as always, a polished presenter, also noted that it was appropriate for him to give the new speaker its premier in a city noted for producing sequels, although he promised that, unlike Hollywood sequels, the WATT/Puppies have gotten better with each new chapter.