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That's tomorrow, Saturday, Apr. 19. Your day to celebrate the old way of buying music, where you got into your car and drove to a local store and talked to the clerk and sifted through the racks and maybe experienced the delight of finding an old CD you'd forgotten about, heavily discounted or expensive and rare. Or maybe you heard a great tune spinning in the background and bought it, like I did with The Monochrome Set's Strange Boutique and PiL's Second Edition and Wilco's amazing live CD (their best album, in my opinion), Kicking Television. … Read more

Sony wasn't kidding when it said the next PS3 system update was coming in mid-April. Just in time to take the edge off tax day, the version 2.30 of the PlayStation 3 system software is now available for download. As revealed last week, the software update adds DTS Master Audio decoding (to deliver the best audio from compatible Blu-ray movies), as well as a major overhaul of the interface for the PlayStation Store (as explained in the Sony video walkthrough shown above).

The question is: what do you think? Does the DTS upgrade make the PS3 an even … Read more

Sony has announced the details on the next PS3 firmware update--version 2.30, coming mid-April--and the big news for home theater fans is that the PS3 is getting onboard DTS-HD High Resolution and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding for Blu-ray movies. Home theater fans have long lamented that the PS3 could not decode the new DTS soundtracks at their highest resolution, especially since movie studios like Fox have opted for DTS-HD Master Audio on many Blu-ray releases. Without getting too technical, DTS-HD Master Audio offers 7-channels of lossless audio at 96K sampling frequency and 24-bit depths--which means that the sound sent … Read more

Apple has confirmed data leaked from an internal memo showing that it has become the largest music retailer in the U.S.

Earlier Thursday, Ars Technica reported that certain Apple employees had received an internal e-mail with the results of a study conducted by The NPD Group. NPD initially declined to comment on the data, citing the fact that it was leaked from Apple, but Apple distributed a press release Thursday afternoon confirming the data from NPD's MusicWatch survey.

Apple didn't include its market share in the release, but Ars reported that Apple had 19 percent of overall … Read more

Tech blog Ars Technica says they've got their hands on an internal Apple memo that shows iTunes has topped Wal-Mart Stores in total global music sales.

The data in the memo cites a report from the month of January conducted by The NPD Group, a market research firm. NPD's numbers show the iTunes Store leading overall music sales for the first month of 2008 with a 19-percent share, followed by Wal-Mart with 15 percent, Best Buy with 13 percent, and Amazon with 6 percent.

The NPD Group, which reserves certain data for paying customers--like Apple, Wal-Mart, and others--and … Read more

For some reason, the only TV cabinets that aren't black or silver are often limited editions that come at a premium price even when they're just white. And more often than not, they come only in pink.

That makes no sense when there are outfits that will do custom paint jobs on just about anything for a fraction of the cost. A service called "Hu" from the Home Technology Store is trying to fill that need not just for custom-color TV sets but all their home theater accessories, including speakers, amps, and even brackets, according to … Read more

The Hollywood writers' strike might have shortened the television season, but iTunes customers will get some compensation for their losses.

iLounge noticed that Apple has started sending notices to iTunes Store season pass subscribers with good news: they'll be getting a two-episode credit from Apple to make up for the writers' strike.

Apple is also promising to provide partial refunds for shows that won't be delivered as a result of the strike. For example, if 20 episodes were promised when the season pass was purchased, but only 17 wind up getting made this year, it sounds like Apple … Read more

Those crazy guys behind the LimeWire file-sharing application have set up a DRM-free music store--LimeWire Store--where users can choose from 500,000 MP3s, taken from the catalogs of absolutely no major labels. Alternatively, users can download free, lossless versions of millions of songs from every major label using the usual LimeWire "technique." Which, RIAA lawyers would likely argue, is illegal.

If skepticism were a flavor of ice cream, we'd be sitting here with the world's most excruciating brain freeze. Napster managed to redeem itself by having its name bought by another company, having its … Read more

Excessively blinged USB thumb drives are so common that they've become passe, but this may be the first one we've seen from a German manufacturer. The defiantly named "Adamant" comes from a company called Golden Store, a limited-edition gold USB key accented with 3 diamonds and lapis lazuli deposits. There's even a solitary diamond in its lacquered box, according to BornRich. Sure, $5,650 is a lot to pay for a flash drive, but what other accessory would be appropriate to use with a $760,000 gold and diamond PC?