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Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
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iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
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Genre: Rock
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Discover New Music

  • Pretty Hate Machine

    • 8 out of 10
    • Nine Inch Nails
    • For years I wanted to make music that sounded like something between Love and Rockets and Ministry. In 1989, Trent Reznor beat me to it with this genre-defining album, and it smacked me upside the hea
  • Perverse

    • 8 out of 10
    • Jesus Jones
    • When you think of Jesus Jones, chances are you can't remember them at all, or you vaguely remember "Right Here, Right Now" because it has been use

  • Haunted

    • 10 out of 10
    • Poe
    • Dropping like a bomb on some of the blah musical offerings of her contemporaries, Haunted was one of the best albums of 2000, obliterating the competition.

      Ostensibly a tie-in to her brot

  • Album Of The Year

    • 10 out of 10
    • Brother Love
    • Killer grooves, catchy riffs, edgy vocals with oh-so-just-right layered harmonies, and a drive that will move even YOU out of your chair, Brother Love's initial release is what rock and roll should be
  • Spanks for the Memories

    • 8 out of 10
    • Asylum Street Spankers
    • The Asylum Street Spankers are...well...The Spankers. Hailing from Austin, where I saw them live dozens of times, the band played entirely acousti

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News

Gartenberg: Zune Phone Unlikely

A Zune Phone is unlikely, according to Michael Gartenberg with Jupiter Research. In his blog, he explained that the business model for Windows Mobile is totally different than for Zune. Even so, Microsoft may still be mulling over the idea as a way to better compete with Apple.

Mr. Gartenberg explained that while Microsoft’s harwdare partners on the music side were taken aback by the Zune, ultimately they were still comfortable with the licensing. However, with a Microsoft phone, Mr. Gartenberg noted:

"The phone is different. WinMo is a core platform and OS. No one has ever been successful licensing technology platforms to others and then competing with a device of their own. Apple failed (twice), Palm and Nokia all tried it and it just can’t be done. Microsoft now has traction with more than 20 million licenses out there and a great stream of partners and new phones for consumer and business use. A Zune phone from MSFT would potentially hurt all that."

In addition, Microsoft would face all the same problems Apple did before Apple finally sought a major wireless partner in AT&T. It’s possible Microsoft might forge ahead, but the Jupiter Research technical director thinks it’s more likely that some Zune functions will get folded into Windows Mobile.

If rumors are true, Microsoft has been holding exploratory interdepartmental meetings to discuss a Zune phone. On Wednesday, Steve Ballmer sent an e-mail to Microsoft employees describing how to better compete against Apple.

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