New giants in the music retailing business are clearly iTunes, Amazon and Google and recent events have seen these tech wizards fight each other in court and online. Amazon became the first of the majors to offer music in the “cloud”. This meant any digital music you had bought legitimately could be uploaded onto Amazon’s systems, and downloaded as and when you wanted it, and how you wanted it. Google was quick to follow with its Google Music Beta, Apple which had almost single-handedly changed the music industry with the launch of iTunes a decade ago, followed with iCloud, which allows online storage and synchronisation of users’ data on all Apple devices.  The music industry is certainly changing.

Amongst the tops this festive season will probably be: Apple iPad, a knockout to look at, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, giving maximum portability, or the Apple iPod Touch 2010, there’s a lot of fun to be had with the latest generation of the iPod. These are only three of what we expect will be a bumper, hot Christmas for tech gadgets.

Apple has never given a detailed explanation about the reason for the ongoing delay with the white iPhone 4. The company said that the device was “more challenging to manufacture” than it originally expected, but did not elaborate on why. It is thought in some quarters that Apple’s factories are finding it difficult to match the colour of the home button with the back and front plates on the device, while others say the issue is related to the device’s backlight, whatever the reasons, it will not be on sale until 2011.

Smokin Buds deliver the frequency range and fast response found in full-size headphones in a direct-to-ear package all the while isolating you from external haze. The Skullcandy comes with a stylish travel case so you can always keep them neat and tidy and make sure that the cable doesn’t get tangled when they are not in use.

Being a music phone, the X6 has a 3.5mm headphone socket and an internal hard drive with a capacity of 32GB. The built-in multimedia player plays most music and video formats and the rear mounted camera has autofocus and dual LED flash for low light situations.

All in all the X6 is a step up from the 5800 XpressMusic, but is substantially more expensive; this may put some people off, but Nokia fans will love the sleek looks and small form factor.

The Nokia X6 is available now from free on contract or around £249 on Pay As You Go.

The JayBird SB2 headphones can be used with any Bluetooth music device and have built in buttons to play, pause and skip tracks. What’s more there is also a built-in microphone and a button for answering calls should you be using your mobile phone, simply push the button and the music will be paused and will resume when the call has finished.

Don’t worry if your music device doesn’t have Bluetooth, as JayBird also sell Bluetooth adapters. The iSport adapter is designed for the iPods, iPhones and iPads, and the uSport adapter is for any device with a 3.5mm headphone socket.

The JayBird SB2 Bluetooth headphones are available now for $99 each, the iSport and uSport can be purchased separately for $50 each.

The Sony Walkman B153 has a 4GB internal hard drive and direct USB input that makes it easy to drag and drop any of your favourite songs from any computer and boasts a large jog wheel for easy control. It also features a range of equalisation settings as well as bass boost, but probably its best feature is the quick charge option, which means that a 3 minutes charge can give up to 90 minutes of playback time.

The Sony Walkman B153 will be available in June and will come in black, red, pink or blue. There is no word on price yet.

The Skinput armband also features a pico-projector that creates an image of a scrolling menu on the users arm or hand which can be navigated by tapping the skin. Check out the video below.

This sort of technology really opens the door to what we will be using in the future to control our mobile devices and could also be utilized by other sectors as well.

Visit the Skinput website for more information.

Each Powermat is capable of charging three devices at the same time as well as an additional device via a USB socket and once the devices are fully charged the Powermat switches off to preserve energy. There are two ways to connect your device to the Powermat, with the Powermat Powercube, which has all of the main socket adaptors including mini and micro USB, or if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or Nintendo DS you can get a Powermat battery door which replaces your old battery for seamless integration with the wireless mat.

The home and office Powermat is ideal for a static charging bay, but if you travel a lot then there is also a portable version which folds up neatly to fit into a brief case or backpack.

The Powermat home and office mat retails for £69.99 and the portable version for £79.99 with each wireless receiver costing around £30. This may seem a bit steep, but Powermat is currently in talks with various manufacturers to embed their receivers in a range of electronic devices and batteries, and if they succeed this may well be a viable way to charge all of your portable electronic devices.

Spotify are now working on an update that will allow users to buy tracks, whilst still being in the Spotify music application. The new deal will initially be available for single songs and albums, but the company hopes to add entire playlists for download in the future.

The new feature will be available in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy to start off with, but Sweden, Finland and Norway will follow a few weeks later. No prices for each of the 320kbps MP3 files have been given yet.

The Spotify application, which is similar to those offered by Last FM and Imeem, lets users build and make their own playlists, which are then steamed to their computers via the internet. The service can be used free of charge, but will be interrupted by advertisements in between songs or can be listened to ad-free by paying a subscription of £9.99 a month.