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Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Pressure Chief

    • 6 out of 10
    • Cake
    • Pressure Chief, Cake's latest album, didn't immediately grab me. In fact, it took perhaps half a dozen listens before I started truly enjoying it. Any

  • Guero

    • 10 out of 10
    • Beck
    • Beck is the modern master of the groove, and Guero is merely the latest example of this. From the opening power chords of "E-Pro," to the Pac-Man cuteness of "Girl," to the dirge-like lullab

  • Bowie at Beeb: Best of BBC Radio 68-72

    • 10 out of 10
    • David Bowie
    • The companion CD to a BBC television concert, BBC Radio Theatre has some of the best renditions of many of Bowie's best songs throughout his career. "I'm Afraid of Americans" is substantial

  • Goodbye Jumbo

    • 8 out of 10
    • World Party
    • Released in 1990, World Party's

  • Gimme Fiction

    • 10 out of 10
    • Spoon
    • Gimme Fiction by Spoon is a terrific album by an Austin band that I was lucky enough to catch on an Austin radio station during a Christmas visit.

Reader Specials

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News

Will the Video iPod Hasten Movie Theaters’ Decline?

As film critic Mick LaSalle pointed out this week in an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, box office ticket sales have been in decline for the past three years, with overall revenues down in 2005 for the first time in a decade. On the other hand, DVD sales are on the upswing, and, as Peter Howell noted in an article for the Toronto Star, the video iPod presents a new threat to Hollywood.

"We may look back on this year as the beginning of the end of movie-going as we know it," Mr. Howell wrote. While the past century offered a "magnificent ritual ... whereby film lovers congregate in dark public auditoriums to gaze upon a silver screen reflecting wondrous images," he saw "technological and cultural innovations of the past 12 months" that will turn movie watching into "a hermit's pursuit."

Mr. Howell acknowledged that the new iPod's small screen and battery life don't make it useful for watching full-length feature films, but he noted that Apple will likely improve on both features in the future. Such changes will "make it much more feasible for owners to watch a feature-length film whenever and wherever they feel like it."

"Just as the audio iPod has changed music appreciation," the writer added, "before 2006 is out, you'll be seeing people watching movies on iPods in cars, trains, restaurants and bars -- just about anywhere but in a movie theater."

To back up his claims, Mr. Howell noted two panel discussions scheduled for next month's Sundance Film Festival: "Stay-at-Home Movies: The Home Theater Experience and the Future of Exhibition" and "Going, Going, Gone? The Culture of Movie-going."

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