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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

  • 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

  • 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
  • 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.

  • One Word Extinguisher

    • 8 out of 10
    • Prefuse 73
    • It's an album about a breakup, done with beats instead of mopey lyrics. But the beats are raw, and the emotions are there, even if there aren't many words on top of it. While possibly not Scott Herren
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, with Feeling

    • 10 out of 10
    • Various Artists
    • Most musical episodes of TV shows frankly stink. They are usually little more than ill-conceived vehicles intended to let the stars show off what musical talent they have. Once More, With Feeling,

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News

iPhone Touchscreen a Challenge for Some Women [UPDATED]

Some women with long nails have a hard time typing on the iPhone’s touchscreen because the nail itself doesn’t have the right electrical properties. When Apple announced all the new iPhone 2.0 features on June 9th, there was nothing new that solved that problem.

Right after the WWDC Keynote on June 9th, when many new features for the iPhone 2.0 software were announced, Erica Watson-Currie of Newport Beach, Calif felt frustrated. She told the L.A. Times about her problems typing on her iPhone.

"Considering ergonomics and user studies indicating men and women use their fingers and nails differently, why does Apple persist in this misogyny?" Ms. Watson-Currie wrote.

Of course, one of the key design points of the iPhone is its ability to operate without real plastic keys and/or a stylus. While a stylus would really help for some, it’s just not something Apple wants to do.

The problem stems from the fact that the iPhone touchscreen responds to the electrical charge of the human fingertip -- but not the finger nail itself. Some observers even predicted that might become a problem with teenage girls. So far, however, sales number suggest there hasn’t been a problem, and sales to women are growing faster than to men lately.

There is one solution. Ten One Design sells a iPhone stylus. Another idea from an ergonomic consultant that doesn’t yet exist: nail polish that has the desired electrical properties.

The tenor of the situation was summarized by another woman reader: "Why are they still discriminating against those of us with fingernails? ... Guess it’s a Blackberry for me frown"

[UPDATE: Michelle Quinn at the L.A. Times has written a follow-up story on Wednesday.]

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