Apple unleashed some new products for the masses today, but unfortunately they don’t live up to the high expectations Apple sets for itself. Frankly, the “fun new products” didn’t impress me at all.

So what did the Apple faithful get? They got the iPod Hi-Fi, which is basically a docking system with speakers, not unlike the myriad of other such items on the market, and arguably not as good as some of them to boot. It also has support for the Apple remote.

At $349.99, this is something that doesn’t include enough features to warrant the high price tag. Where’s the wireless? The ability to stream my iTunes music library from my iMac would have been nice.

Rather than adding wireless capability, Apple says you can “play music anywhere” by popping in six “D” batteries and physically moving the iPod Hi-Fi to another room. I’m waiting for the iPod Wi-Fi-Hi-Fi. Now that would have been great. As it is, the iPod Hi-Fi is just another piece of technology you can live without.

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After purchasing The Velvet Underground & Nico on eBay, I decided to add another “white” album to my famed, framed collection. This time around, it’s Love’s “Forever Changes” (1967). With another in my sites, you may see part III in the very near future.

Judged by music critics as one of the best albums of the sixties; Rolling Stone calls it “one of the most distinctive masterpieces in that era of masterpieces.”

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Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 3 video game console might not appear in key markets this year and could cost the company $900 per unit to produce initially, according to Merrill Lynch analysts quoted in the Financial Times on Sunday.

Sony has indicated a spring launch for its console in Japan and the industry is not expecting a North American launch until November, the FT said. But Hitoshi Kuriyama of Merrill Lynch in Japan said there are reports that the PS3 could be delayed by between six and 12 months.

Merrill Lynch analysts estimated that the initial bill of materials for the PS3 could approach $900, dropping down to $320 by three years after launch.

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Artist: Led Zeppelin
Album: Houses Of The Holy (1973)
Song: Over The Hills And Far Away

This song file will only be available for the week of 02.20.06.
Learn more about Led Zeppelin.

Bryant Gumbel hung himself out to dry when he recently made comments about this year’s Winter Olympics, and the astonishingly apparent fact that everyone there is white.

Here is the complete text which contain the comments:

Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them. Because they’re so trying. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won. So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness, for God’s sake, let the games begin.

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We all know that Dick Cheney shot a guy. We all know that Dick Cheney is an idiot. Need I say anything further? No!

Special thanks to RebeLeader for the “Lizard” logo. I’m surprised he found time away from WoW!

I can’t wait to start working with Adobe Illustrator!

On the road to instant music downloading, more legal than not these days, something was lost in the shuffle; the sound quality.

Everyone just loves downloading music. It’s easy, and usually only a few mouse clicks away. However, that ease of use has brought with it a problem: the sound quality is poor compared with uncompressed CD recordings.

Rin Tin Tin-Ear

Many people will tell you that you can’t tell unless you have a good ear, good equipment, or are a downright audio nut. But that’s not the point. We are losing quality. Sure, some of it’s due to limitations in bandwidth and the speed of our connections. It’s easier selling an album that takes five minutes to download rather than one hour.

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Artist: Weezer
Album: Weezer (1994)
Song: Say It Ain’t So

This song file will only be available for the week of 02.13.06.
Learn more about Weezer.

Call Of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 is the worst on-line experience you could ever wish upon anyone; friend or foe. Mere words can’t describe the trials and tribulations one must go through just to get the chance of playing in a game. Just the chance that is, as getting in a game is not the same thing as being able to play a game.

Infinity Ward, developer of the Call Of Duty franchise for the PC, and now Xbox 360, slapped this game together from what looks like rough pieces of computer code, salted with a nice soundtrack.

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