Apple has announced the availability of the iPod 4th generation. The new iPod features a new click wheel and up to 12 hour battery. There are now 2 iPod : iPod 20 Gb (349 euros) and iPod 40 Gb (459 euros).

New iPods are available on the Apple Store.

Sound Quest (www.squest.com) is now shipping Midi Quest 9.1 ($199) and Midi Quest XL ($299) for Macintosh OS X and OS 9. Midi Quest 9.1 and Midi Quest XL for Macintosh both include support for over 600 instruments from more than 60 different manufacturers and feature an unparalleled collection of tools to backup, create, edit, organize and tweak the settings of your synthesizers, effects units, drum machines and other MIDI devices.

Product Price & Category: $199 / $299 USD

Defective Records Software has updated VSTi Host for OS X to v3.1. In addition to adding support for ReWire, many new features and fixes have been implemented:added patch name drop down menus for all VST plugins, MIDI port names now reflect custom port names entered into Audio MIDI Setup application, scanning of VST plugins on startup is now more robust , display of plugin currently being scanned on startup now reliably displayed in startup window, added status window menu option, to display application startup and status messages and updated addendum document.

VSTi Host costs $35 USD and a demo is available. The update is free for registered users.

MidiPipe is a Midi utility which allows you to modify in real time MIDI messages. This new version features : MF Player - plays up to 128 MIDI Files; handles Song Select, Start/Stop/Continue messages, added "Save" to the file menu , "MicroTuner" tool now uses channel 1 to 9 and 11 to 13 (skips channel 10 that some synths reserve for drum kit).

MidiPipe download is available in the brilliant MacMusic softwares section, skilfully managed by our friend June Bug.

SoundFont Synth is an Audio Unit component plug-in designed to make the synthesis of natural instruments using Sound Fonts, available to GarageBand and other Audio Unit hosts. This new version adds a check box to remove internal reverb.

SoundFont Synth is a 15$ shareware.