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Release Date: August 05, 2009
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  • Suspended Animation

    • 8 out of 10
    • Fantomas
    • Mike Patton may well be one of the hardest working men in showbiz these days, and his latest with Fantômas underscores just about how far out he is willing to travel.

      Suspended Animation

  • Billy Miles

    • 10 out of 10
    • Billy Miles
    • Take the voice of a young Billie Holiday and stuff it into a svelte, petite body with the face of an angel, and you have some idea of what it's like to experience the music of Billy Miles in her self-
  • The Printz

    • 8 out of 10
    • Bumblebeez 81
    • Part white rap, part alternative, part pop, and part rock, the Bumblebeez grabbed a hold of me with "Pony Ride," and didn't let go.

      This group does a marvelous job of moving seamlessly be

  • 8:30

    • 10 out of 10
    • Weather Report
    • This is Weather Reports quintessential line-up captured live. Jaco Pastorious and Peter Erskine join Wayne Shorter and, of course, Joe Zawinul to create this masterpiece.
  • King James Version

    • 4 out of 10
    • Harvey Danger
    • The sophomore effort from Harvey Danger, I was really looking forward to this followup to "Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?" Unfortunately, "King James Version" failed to deliver any of the bri

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News

Columnist Calls for Apple to Decouple iTunes U from iTunes

Jon Udell of InfoWorld wants Apple to decouple its iTunes U project with Stanford from iPod, QuickTime, and even iTunes itself. In short, he wants for Apple to offer Stanford's content in an open manner using formats supported by other digital media devices (namely MP3) from a Web-based front end accessible by anyone, anywhere.

As it stands now, Apple offers Stanford lectures, addresses and speeches, and even Stanford music through iTunes in the AAC format with FairPlay DRM supported by iPod. It's all free, but Mr. Udell is criticizing Apple for only offering it through iTunes, and making it playable only on iPod.

"Here's my first gripe," he wrote. "Podcasting is based on open (HTTP, RSS) and vendor-neutral (MP3) standards. But Apple's iTunes U is, quite unnecessarily, a walled garden. Among mainstream programs, only the iTunes client can download the talks. Among mainstream players, only iTunes, QuickTime, and the iPod can play them."

His second complaint is one based in error, that Apple makes it difficult to get URLs for lectures and other iTunes U downloads. In reality, right-clicking on any particular download gives you the option of copying the URL.

That, however, is not Mr. Udell's main point; opening up of iTunes U with a Web front end and MP3 downloads is. You can read Mr. Udell's thoughts at his InfoWorld blog, and in an earlier editorial he wrote in mid-January.

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