}

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

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StickWars $0.99
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Discover New Music

  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

    • 8 out of 10
    • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
    • When I first got hooked to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the only place I could get their debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, was through the band's Web site. I listened to the two tracks a

  • The Printz

    • 8 out of 10
    • Bumblebeez 81
    • Part white rap, part alternative, part pop, and part rock, the Bumblebeez grabbed a hold of me with "Pony Ride," and didn't let go.

      This group does a marvelous job of moving seamlessly be

  • Rift

    • 8 out of 10
    • Phish
    • This quasi-concept album (the only of its kind) from these Vermonters finally showcased their ability to convey a message with a studio album, whereas previously they only succeeded in doing so live.
  • Stadium Arcadium

    • 8 out of 10
    • Red Hot Chili Peppers
    • What? Only four stars, you stingy bastard? I'm asking myself the same question, so let me explain myself to myself... If I compare the new

  • 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

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News

NYT: iPod and the Vacuum Tube Sing a Warm Duet

There are lots of devices one can plug an iPod into and listen to music. For those audiophile purists, a throwback vacuum tube system is hard to beat, the New York Times reported.

The sound quality of these modern docking devices depends on a lot of things, but they all have one thing in common. They use modern transistor technology. Now, a UK company is making iPod docking devices that use the old-fashioned vacuum tubes to create a special rich sound that purists say only vacuum tubes can create.


Fatman iTube Valve Dock

" ...Roth Audio, a company based in Reading, England, is appealing to the inner audiophile of iPod users with its Cocoon MC4, a compact docking station and amplifier topped by four vacuum tubes that glow when the power is on. Pop an iPod into the dock, and you have an odd couple: The iPod, apotheosis of the slim, portable and digital, and the flanking vacuum tubes that are fat, stationary and utterly analog," Anne Eisenberg wrote.

The second device, more geared to the living room, the Fatman iTube, has an additional tube that isn't involved in the amplification. It was added just for fun to show the sound level.

In addition to the sheer fun of owning one of these devices, they also tell a marketing story. Jay Rein, president of Bluebird Music who distributes the devices in the U.S. said, "Everybody has an iPod... So anything you can attach to an iPod sells."

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