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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

  • Physical Graffiti

    • 10 out of 10
    • Led Zeppelin
    • This album bears every flavor of genius from the five records that came before. It is, I believe, the band's finest. With Physical Graffiti, Zep came raging back to their musical home territory -- har
  • Every Day: The Best of the Verve Years

    • 8 out of 10
    • Joe Williams
    • Joe Williams was Figure Two in my three-man education in singing. A brilliant vocalist, scatter, and interpreter of jazz and blues, Williams produces music that's totally unique, yet sounds so effortl
  • Life's Rich Pageant

    • 8 out of 10
    • R.E.M.
    • In the long series of R.E.M.'s evolution, this album (finally?) showcases their ability to capture on tape what had been happening in the live for years: heartfelt, sweat-filled performances that just
  • Jagged Little Pill (Acoustic)

    • 6 out of 10
    • Alanis Morissette
    • Ten years after the original release, comes the traditional celebratory acoustic re-recording. The album has held up remarkably well. While it is not as meaningful to me as it was when I was sixteen,
  • The Last 5 Years (2002 Off-Broadway Cast)

    • 10 out of 10
    • Jason Robert Brown
    • The soundtrack to this moving off-broadway musical is heart moving. The lyrics follow a couple in a relationship for five years, one point of view going forward in time, and the other tracing time fr

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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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