Digital Trends - This new iPad dock from Alesis is the first of its kind, designed to make the iPad a portable and easy-to-use interface for creating, producing, and performing music. The iO Dock ($399) transforms your iPad (or iPad 2) into a professional tool for musicians, producers, and recording engineers, allowing users to create and produce music with connected instruments and professional gear, or all alone with one of the numerous iPad music-creation apps. Almost any instrument or professional gear can be connected to the dock, which also includes Core MIDI support and two combination XLR and 1/4-inch inputs. A convenient guitar-direct switch lets the guitarist play and record right into the iPad’s amplifier- or effects-modeling apps. We’re not going to say we know everything about the technical mumbo-jumbo, head on over here to get all the details, but we’d say that this is a pretty smart way to combine the functionality of creative apps with traditional recording methods.

Digital Trends - Market research group NPD has released on update to its Music Acquisition Monitor survey, and finds that the number of U.S. Internet users getting music via peer-to-peer file sharing networks has reached an all time low. According to the figures, just nine percent of American Internet users got music via P2P services in the fourth quarter of 2010—that’s down from 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. And NPD doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence that the decline in P2P music downloading corresponds to the court-ordered shutdown of LimeWire.

Appolicious - A just released Android and iPhone app from Color.com is a new photo-sharing tool that streams images based on two layers: location and social. The revolutionary application of photo-sharing and consumption comes from Bill Nguyen, the brain behind the music service Lala, which Apple (AAPL) acquired in 2009. He’s pulled together a legendary team, which includes the company president Peter Pham, founder of BillShrink, and DJ Patil, the former chief scientist at LinkedIn.

PC Magazine - The royal wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton on April 29 will be recorded and immediately released in digital format in May, Decca Records said late Wednesday.

Mashable - At the beginning of March, Berkleemusic -- the online division of the Berklee College of Music -- and Grammy-winning guitar player Steve Vai set out to reach the Guinness World Record for most massive online guitar lesson. The whole deal went down at Livestream Studios in New York City and was streamed using that service.

Mashable - International memecore sensation Rebecca Black got the Conan treatment Wednesday night, when the Internet-savvy comedian released his new song, Thursday -- a cover of her unexpected hit, Friday.

AFP - The founder of an online music service snapped up by Apple more than a year ago is out to weave smartphone users into spontaneous communities through instant image sharing.

Appolicious - Looking for a more PC-style web browsing experience on your iPhone? You might want to have a look at Ultimate Browser, a new web browser that just hit the App Store with a host of features. We’ve also got a line on a couple of other interesting new apps, like the food-filled Vegan Recipes, and a Twitter-enabled music-sharer called airTweet Pro. Have a look and start downloading below.

Digital Trends - One of the only problems that continues to plague iPhones, iPods and other portable music players is that when it comes to sharing your music with others around you, you’re stuck with either the device’s crummy speakers or a relatively large portable dock. At less than two and a half inches long, this tiny wooden speaker joins the category of smallest portable ways to make the most of your music. The Motz Wooden Speaker ($60) is made of apricot wood and includes a built-in FM radio, plus USB and SD card inputs for playing MP3s. Plug in your iPod with its USB cord and you’ve got a tiny portable speaker for showing off your superb music taste to all your friends. While we assume its function as a portable speaker is the most desirable quality, the handmade Motz Wooden Speaker also includes a standard headphone jack, should you want to listen alone from your SD card or… the radio. Do people do that anymore? A rechargeable lithium-polymer battery means you can get about five hours battery life from the speaker, or ten using earphones.

AFP - A group that advocates curing gays of same-sex attractions said Wednesday that its iPhone application had been yanked from Apple's online iTunes shop.