All you cool kids with your iPods beware - the Apple digital music player may lose some street cred following the news one American college is planning on using them to store students' academic work.
According to the Financial Times, Duke University will distribute iPods to 1800 freshers this year. The devices will be used as portable hard disks, carrying 'orientation information' and an academic calendar. Students will then be able to download study materials to their iPods on a regular basis.
Of course lecturer's powerpoint presentations will have to compete for disk space with the latest Linkin Park and Blink 182 downloads, so the plan may as yet be flawed. But if the scheme encouraged legal downloading as well as digital study then presumably the music industry would approve.