Guess Dell isn’t done making portable multimedia devices after all, and has announced plans to acquire Zing:

In a move that reflects the renewed interest and energy being directed at its Consumer business, Dell plans to use ZING and its capabilities to continue improving the entertainment experiences it provides its customers.

What makes this doubly interesting (and perplexing) is that Zing helped design/create the Sirius Stiletto (and Stiletto 2?), Sansa Connect, and upcoming Pandora device. I doubt they’ll continue this contract work under Dell…

Knowing my love for Pandora, Dave sent me a link to Slacker a couple weeks back with a little nudge suggesting I try it out. The service has been getting ridiculously positive press reviews, and apparently the company will be launching its own hardware devices in the near future.

So how does Slacker stack up? The Web application is fabulous. It is extremely easy to set up customized radio stations based on any range of musical artists. Any artist in your list also brings up recommendations for other artists in the same genre that you can choose to add to your station. Then there’s a nifty little function called fine tuning. Fine tuning lets you decide the levels of music discovery you want to include in your channel, as well as how popular the songs should be, how often your personal favorites should be included, and what musical eras can be referenced. It sounds complicated, but in reality the fine tuning function is simple, fast and very powerful.

I’ve had some issues with Slacker crashing on me, but not enough to deter me from using the beta application. My bigger issue is that right now, I’m addicted to the Squeezebox and being able to access customized radio without my PC. We’ll have to see what happens when the Slacker hardware comes out later in the year. Whether I think it’s worth converting to Slacker will probably depend on two things:

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Metallica’s in and supposedly The Beatles are on the way over the hills and far away, so I’m glad to hear Led Zeppelin is going to California in November. Though limiting their collection to 24 tracks is still something of a communication breakdown. I’ve got a whole lotta love for these guys, but they’re leaving money on the table — Two discs in my ~15 year old box set have warped and can’t be ripped. So the song remains the same… and I’ve still got Pandora.

Facebook got a whole lot more interesting last night… Pandora launched an integrated app allowing folks to share their stations. And any changes made in Facebook are reflected in your Pandora account. Sweet!

Pandora on Facebook will let you enjoy music you already know and help you discover music you’ll love. Find your favorite songs or artists and create personalized stations that play full songs, keep tabs on your friend’s musical interests, and fill out your profile with music samples and favorite artists.

In other Facebook Application news, my pal Jeremy Toeman whipped up a community-based ranking service while the Tech Crunch interns listed their favorites.

Prevent theft by hiding your iPod in a Zune?

It has come to this… Universal Music was somewhat overzealous in filing a DMCA complaint with YouTube regarding the toddler who danced on camera to a ~20 year old Prince song. So the EFF responded with a lawsuit seeking damages (cash?) and relief:

“Universal’s takedown notice doesn’t even pass the laugh test,” said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. “Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video.”

Offending 29 second video after the break… and let me warn you that while it may or may not infringe, it’s most definitely guilty of mundaneness.

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A survey from across the pond suggests that illegal music downloading has skyrocketed, at least in part because of the “democratizing” force of social networks. On the other hand, a survey earlier this year in the U.S. by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Harris Interactive found just the opposite. According to the BSA, illegal downloading has decreased significantly among 8- to 18-year-olds over the last three years. Why? Fear of downloading a computer virus (62%), fear of legal trouble (52%), fear of downloading spyware (51%) and fear of getting in trouble with mommy and daddy (48%).

I certainly can’t refute the findings of either survey, having not spent the time interviewing thousands of Internet users. However, I can add an anecdote from a lunch discussion I had last week. My favorite financial analyst related a story about an associate of his, an author and copyright expert, who spoke with many college students about their music downloading habits. Apparently it was a point of pride among these students that most of their music had never been paid for. It was actually embarrassing for them to admit it when they purchased a song.

Are these just the morals of our misbegotten youth? Or is this a trend starting with a new generation? (And yes, I really just wanted to use the phrase “misbegotten youth”)