albums

Virtual DJ for Mac is a virtual music-mixing program, the capabilities of which vary greatly depending on what version you're paying for -- from the free "Home" edition on up to the $299 "Virtual DJ Pro Full."

That is to say that Virtual DJ for Mac is serious software, and experienced turntablists and club DJs will almost certainly want to check out one of the more full-featured packages, which offer extras like practically unlimited decks (up to 99), full-screen video output, and support for MIDI/HID controllers. For DJing neophytes, being plunged into the overwhelming … Read more

Glenlay Gallery is a supereasy photo gallery program that can display your albums inside its interface, in your Web browser, or online using free Web storage space. With built-in templates and layout color schemes, it creates photo albums in three easy steps. You can edit images, rotate them, write and edit descriptions, and display EXIF data. A built-in FTP client makes it easy to publish your albums online to store or share them.

Glenlay Gallery's installer walks new users through the three steps for creating a new album. Step 1 involves choosing a layout template and color theme. The … Read more

Are you sitting on a stack of LP and/or 45 records? Or maybe you've gotten swept up in vinyl's resurgence, and you're looking for a way to convert some new platters to a more mobile format. Whatever the case, you need a USB turntable.

In other words, a record player that feeds audio not just to your stereo, but also to your PC. In the past (and, in some cases, the present), these gizmos sold for around $100, but Geeks.com has the Vibe Sound VS-2002-SPK USB turntable for $32.99. Shipping adds around $8.… Read more

The time has finally come, and iOS 5 will be available to the general public October 12. During the last four months, we have been covering some of the key features of iOS 5 to ensure we were prepared to help you on the first day of iOS 5's release. Below you will find 15 tips and tricks to help you master iOS 5, and maybe even allow you to show off a bit to your friends. … Read more

Given its size, the iPad 2 is a better photo viewer than photo taker (unless it's acting as a photo booth). And as a photo viewer, it's fantastic. Flipping through photos on the iPad's touch screen pulls you closer to the images than clicking through photos on a laptop or desktop with a keyboard. I recently tried out three photo-browsing apps, a photo-processing app, and a photo-booth app on the iPad. I offer you my thoughts on each.

First up, two apps for browsing Instagram images. My favorite of the duo is Instagallery, which lets you view … Read more

Perhaps the question should be, "Did Steve Jobs help or hurt the sound of music?" He did not invent digital music or MP3 players, but that didn't stop him from redefining the way people buy and listen to music.

Then again, Napster was around before iPods and iTunes, and it allowed people to amass gigantic music collections at zero cost, which I don't see as something to be proud of. Having 10,000+ songs on an iPod is one thing, but do people ever really listen to all of that music? Record labels could not compete … Read more

While iPad owners still await the arrival of a Facebook app, your choices for Facebooking on the iPad boil down to using third-party apps or accessing the site through Safari. For the specific purpose of viewing and commenting on Facebook photos, there's a new app that lets you browse your or your friends' photos as if you were flipping through an old photo album. Let's take a quick spin through the free and appropriately named Facebook Photo Album app, which was released only last week.… Read more

If you're one of the thousands who snapped up the HP TouchPad during its brief $99 liquidation sale (or one of the unfortunate hundreds that paid full price), I've got some good news and some bad news.

First, the bad news. If the tablet market were a horse race, you just bet on a steed that's been carted off to the glue factory. Abandon any expectations of software updates, or of exciting games and apps filtering their way into the WebOS store. What you see now is what you're stuck with.

The good news is that … Read more

Not every album is a song cycle or designed to be listened to as a complete work of art. But the songs were more or less recorded in the same time frame, and someone tried to create a musical flow, from one song to the next.

Some musicologists cite Frank Sinatra's 1958 album, "Only the Lonely," as the first "concept" album, for its sustained theme of late-night moods and melancholy. There were probably earlier pop song cycles, but it was definitely the Beatles' "Sgt Pepper" and the Who's "Tommy" that … Read more