The report from Project Bar-B-Q 2006 is now online, and its annual predictions are as provocative as ever. Bar-B-Q (I'm on the advisory board) is a four-day conference designed to shape the future of music on computers. Hosted by the Fat Man on a Texas ranch each October, it brings together 50 experts in chip design, music software, game music,...

Friday has rolled around once again, and this week many of you have new digital music players to enjoy. Load 'em on up with this fresh heap of Napster freebies. "Make Love" by Jess KleinEven with six albums under her belt, Jess Klein's latest is her most revelatory. City Garden, which features today's free download, is an emotional work which...

Brad Fuller's article "Inside Pandora: Web Radio That Listens to You" went behind the scenes of the Internet radio station with the human touch. As Brad explained, Pandora's playlists are shaped by a staff of expert music analysts. Now one of those analysts has launched a podcast that goes inside the music itself. The working title Pandora Podcast is the...

Despite all the cool features we're discovering in the Photoshop CS3 public beta, one of the most talked about items seems to be the replacement of the "feather" icon with a simple 2-letter "Ps" on a blue block. Because the public beta also gives us a glimpse of the "Br" icon that comes with Bridge CS3, we can extrapolate that...

One of the most intimidating audio interfaces for beginners is the conventional mixing board -- the Neve console at the studio where I used to work had well over a thousand knobs, buttons, and faders. (We used to record settings by snapping Polaroid photos.) At the same time, having one control for each function can make a device easier to...

Here's a dozen of some of the most popular (and arguably among the coolest) consumer electronics goodies available this Holiday season: -- Sony PlayStation 3 -- Nintendo Wii -- iPod Shuffle (1 GB) -- iPod (80 GB w/video) -- Zune (30GB) -- Creative Zen Vision: W (60 GB) -- SanDisk Sansa MP3 players -- Motorola Q -- Blackberry Pearl --...

Here's this week's edition of Napster Freebies. To sum up the feedback from the last few weeks, these links seem to work internationally and do not require a Napster account to use. If you find otherwise, let me know by email or add a comment below. I hope you enjoy the music and that you discover an artist or two...

Fresh from the press release: Getting a Zune for Xmas? For only $7.99, you can get the real scoop on Zune in "Eight Great Ways to Get The Most Out Of Your Zune" by Erica Sadun in a 70-page PDF Short Cut.You'll learn:How to get the most out of your Zune.The best methods and secrets for managing your media, loading...

Zune is now Vista Friendly The 1.2 firmware update now plays nicely in Vista's sandbox. Leo Laporte on Zune Let's just say that he's not a big fan. Zune Games on the way? Microsoft may be considering the Zune as a possible (and limited) gaming platform....

I stumbled across this little Windows tech support article on Mercury News. I suppose it wouldn't occur to me to copy the raw files from CDs onto Windows rather than use a program like iTunes or Zune Software to do the rips, but apparently there's a built-in security feature in Windows that automagically sets copied CD-ROM files to read-only. If...