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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
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Discover New Music

  • Music Has The Right To Children

    • 10 out of 10
    • Boards of Canada
    • This one will haunt you. From the first notes to the last, their sound surrounds you. BOC has put out a fantastic catalogue, and this album is a great starting point for a new listener. Jump straight
  • 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.
  • Hello

    • 8 out of 10
    • Poe
    • Poe rocked my world with "Angry Johnny" (I want to kill you/I want to blow you/Away) and "Trigger Happy Jack" (Trigger Happy Jack/ You're gonna blow/But I'm gonna get off/Before you go), as powe

  • Aretha Sings the Blues

    • 6 out of 10
    • Aretha Franklin
    • While she didn't always have the best taste in song selection, Aretha Franklin is a must-study for anyone with interest in the human voice. She has the kind of powerful, recklessly passionate deliv

  • Another Day on Earth

    • 10 out of 10
    • Brian Eno
    • In his first proper solo release since 1996's relatively cold "The Drop," Brian Eno has constructed a whimsical and ecclectic masterpiece which is arguably one of the year's strongest records thus fa

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News

SF Chronicle: Zune Reinforces Microsoft’s Dorky Image

Microsoft's new Zune does little more than reinforce the company's "dorky image," according to a blog-review of the digital media device published by the San Francisco Chronicle. Reviewer C.W. Nevius said that the company has done little more than to reinforce the stodgy image portrayed by Apple in that company's "Get a Mac" campaign.

"Either the Micro-guys are clueless dorks -- Zune is as expensive as iPod, bulkier, and is neither as easy to work as iPod nor as cool. Or, worse yet, the boys up north are malicious bullies," wrote Mr. Nevius. Of course, he also mentions the ability to "use Firefox" with the iPod, something that to our knowledge is completely irrelevant to using an iPod (all iPod loading and management is done through iTunes, be it on Windows or Mac OS X).

That faux pas aside, Mr. Nevius extols the virtues of iPod, while criticizing the heavier, less elegant, and harder-to-use Zune. He closes with the notion that the company must be being hurt by Apple's "Get a Mac" commercials that portray them as a "doofus."

"The response to the Zune," he wrote, "which was supposed to be 'the iPod killer,' only convinces me that I am right. Microsoft is probably being hurt by those TV ads which portray them as a doofus. So they went out and proved it by introducing a much-ballyhooed product that only reinforces the image."

Such reviews have so far been common, but The Mac Observer's John Martellaro wrote recently that far from being a mistake, the Zune's lackluster image is specifically the heart and soul of the company's strategy in this market.

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