It's been a tough week for lovers of retro technology. Following the impending death of Adobe Flash and the downgrading of MS Paint, Apple has "officially discontinued" the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano. If you're an Apple fan who just wants an MP3 player, the only option left is the iPod Touch.

Dear Lifehacker, I was adding some new songs to my iPod, and was wondering if there was an easier way to add song lyrics to all my songs (so that i can sing along on my iPod later) rather than the traditional copy and paste method. Any options on Windows or Mac?

If you're walking in an area filled in traffic, it pays to concentrate, so listening to an iPod or other music player isn't very sensible. But despite that obvious bit of advice, it doesn't follow that we're at a greater risk of being run over simply because portable music is so popular.

Nowadays, most of us seldom use our optical drives since everything is downloaded. If you'd like to see your optical drive get some love, turn it into an iPod dock with some scissors and an old CD, while still keeping it usable.

For regular pedestrians, an iPod can be a useful tedium-buster. However, Victorian police have tied an increasing number of road deaths to walkers being distracted by MP3 players and text messaging.

Variable pricing might not have made much difference to what's on sale in the iTunes store, but there are ways you can get music without endlessly coughing up $1.69 a track.

iPod-love's got you stuck with iTunes, but you'd prefer to cut down on the extra bloat iTunes requires on your hard drive? Here's how to install iTunes without QuickTime, Bonjour, or that pesky iTunesHelper.

iTunes has always filled the iPod shuffle with music to capacity without asking for much intervention from you, but Apple snuck the same very handy functionality for all iPod models in the recent iTunes 8.1 release.

If you'd like to enable AutoFill with your iPod or iPhone, Ars has the details.

Options for in-seat entertainment on planes have improved dramatically in recent years, but for the most part still restricts you to whatever the airline chooses to program. While planes like the A380 have upped the ante, it's still relatively rare to be able to view your own content on a screen bigger than your portable media device. However, the situation should get better. As I report for APC, Airbus expects options for plugging in iPods and other forms of content should increase in the next few years, as airlines seek to differentiate themselves and attract the fickle traveller dollar. What would you ideally like on in-seat tech menu? Share your dream configuration in the comments.
Airbus: why in-seat tech is so tricky

The declining Australian dollar might be bad news if you're planning a US trip, but it turns out to be good news if you want to buy an iPod. Australia now ranks as the cheapest place on the globe to purchase a basic iPod, according to CommSec's quarterly iPod index, reports Susannah Moran at AustralianIT. That's a dramatic change from the previous quarter, when Australia ranked 14th for buying the then-entry-level model. iPods are generally hard to acquire at a discount (save for Apple's own occasional sales), so any opportunity to save money is helpful.
CommSec to unveil 'iPod index'

Mark Gladding (who created previously mentioned Text2Go as his day job) blogs about the ways in which you can use an iPod for in-car entertainment, covering all the options from the extremely low-tech (listening through the supplied earbuds) Like Mark, I'd concur that it's a waste of money to buy an in-car FM transmitter; you're better off getting a replacement car stereo that supports audio input. If you want to keep your iPod in place, check out this DIY car iPod dock. Got any other tricks to get your iPod rockin' roadside? Share them in the comments.

Telstra's BigPond Music arm has started selling music in unprotected MP3 format, making it a much more appealing rival to the iTunes store than when it was a Windows Media-only shop (which blocked any iPod users for starters). All four major labels have signed up for the store, and tracks are available encoded at 256Kbps or (in some cases) 320Kbps. Telstra is currently still selling WMA formats as well, but we'll be surprised if this lasts too long. Pricing starts at $1.69 for individual tracks (BigPond ISP subscribers get a discount of 12% on individual tracks or 9% on albums, and don't have downloads counted against their quota). (Thanks Shane G!)

iPhone/iPod touch only: You may be familiar with Orb for its music or TV-streaming abilities (it can even turn your Wii into a media center), but now the folks at Orb have taken on the iPhone and iPod touch with a new application called OrbLive. You can now stream live television to your device, in addition to music, videos, photos, and everything else Orb is known for. Hit the jump for a look at Orb's live streaming in action and a guide for installing OrbLive on your iPhone or iPod touch.

The Driinn Mobile Phone Holder declutters your charging portable device by providing both a place to store your device and a method for controlling its long cable while it charges. This charging holder about half the price of the previously mentioned Socket Pocket and charging hammock, and the wrap-around for long cords really cleans things up. The Driinn Mobile Phone Holder comes in a variety of colours and will set you back around $7 at Amazon. Driinn Mobile Phone Holder

If you've been waiting for Apple to officially open the iPhone and iPod touch for development, you may have been disappointed to find out that you won't get third-party applications until June. That means that if you've been aching for those killer third-party apps already available to folks with jailbroken iPhones or iPod touches, you've still got a few more months of waiting to go. However, by downloading and running one simple application, you could be up and running with a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch in just under a minute. Sound appealing? Here's how it works.

Web site Pediaphon turns any Wikipedia article into an MP3. The site plugs the article into a text-to-speech synthesis app, and while the synthesis isn't the best you've ever heard (what is this lif - eh - hacker, anyway?), it's very fast, meaning you could plug in an article and sync the MP3 to your MP3 player in about a minute before you head out the door. If you plan on putting Wikipedia to heavy use on your iPod, I'd recommend installing Wikipedia on your iPod or browsing iPodia on your iPod touch or iPhone.
Pediaphon

Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote was today, and among a bevy of new hardware announcements, Apple has pushed out two very significant updates for iPhone and iPod touch users. Apple has added multi-recipient SMS (iPhone-only), faux-GPS on Google Maps using cell tower triangulation, Web Clips (i.e., bookmarks of web sites on your home screen), and home screen icon customisation via drag and drop. iPod touch users can now get the Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather apps that came standard on the iPhone for a $24.99 upgrade (these features will come standard in new iPod touches). Hit the jump for a closer look at the new and improved features.