LATEST ADDITIONS

If you want the latest albums from bands on EMI, you should stay away from indie record stores. The music giant has decided that it will no longer be selling albums to smaller stores, only massive big-block operations. Wal-Mart and Best Buy will...

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/fastfurious.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When tragedy brings fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) back to Los Angeles, his long-dormant feud with FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) threatens to reignite&#151;until they discover a common enemy. Unfortunately, this film is about six years too late&#151;Vin Diesel should have been in the first sequel rather than skipping to the third&#151;but it's quite the demo showpiece. The video encode has excellent shadow detail with bright colors, and the first-rate DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track exhibits outstanding surround imaging and impressive frequency response.

JVC just announced four new headphones, two over-ear and two in-ear models. The HA-M750 (pictured) is the company's newest full-sized, over-ear headphones. It sports 40mm drivers, folds up for travel and storage, and comes with 1.2- and 2-meter...

Gatefold LPs and CDs with copious booklets seduced past generations of listeners with form factors that made them want to buy longform music--and settle down for long, pleasurable evenings playing it. While these formats are not exactly dead, a struggle has broken out over what kind of longform digital music album will succeed them in the age of downloads.