Here’s a roundup of portable media news for Sept. 17th:

• EMusic offering MP3 audiobooks – eMusic is offering more than a thousand books for download, with many of them cheaper than on iTunes. For example, ‚ÄúThe Audacity of Hope,‚Äù read by author Barack Obama, will cost $9.99 on eMusic compared with $18.95 on iTunes. This is good for portable media owners, because you’ll see better prices. It also shows that content providers are wary enough of Apple’s dominance in the area of digital media downloads that they are open to using unprotected formates like MP3.
• The iPod touch isn’t a phoneless iPhone – when Steve Jobs introduced the iPod touch, we asked why Apple had crippled its capabilities, removing Google Maps, Stocks, Notes & Weather, and¬†handicapping other features. Now others are starting to pick up on this. iProng has a nice rundown of the iPhone features that are missing from the iPod touch.
• Linux users will get to use the new iPods – hackers have cracked the encryption that limited new iPods to working with iTunes. This is great for Linux users, because it means that you’ll be able to use the new portable media players with Linux systems. It also means that there will be more free software for working with iPods on Windows and Macs.