Music

We've seen an official Lego Sydney Opera House set before as part of the toy company's Architecture range, but let's be honest: an awful lot of detail got lost in the model's tiny size.

Lego's about to do something about that, though. On September 1, Lego fanatics will be able to get their hands on an insanely detailed 2,989-piece model of the iconic building designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon in the 1950s. And, at 11 inches by 25 inches by 15 inches, it's going to be huge.

The model is offering a few neat perks for Lego brick collectors: rare dark-tan Lego bricks, tiles, and sloped bricks, as well as the company's first-ever 48x48 stud baseplate in blue -- and the curved white pieces that form the Opera House's sails. … Read more

Samsung just got its hands on the holy grail of hip-hop. Actually, it's "Magna Carta Holy Grail," the new album from rap icon Jay-Z that will be made available for free to the first 1 million Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, and Galaxy Note 2 owners who download a special app.

The app, which can be downloaded starting on June 24, is said to provide an "unprecedented inside look into the album personal stories and inspiration," and will also unlock the new album on July 4, three days before it officially goes on sale for the non-Galaxy owning world.… Read more

As the passions and justifications swirl around the revelations concerning the NSA, the rest of the world sits and wonders.

Is only the U.S. involved? Or might, perhaps, every government on Earth be rather keen to use all technological methods to protect its interests?

What do ordinary Americans think (apparently, we don't mind too much)?

But, more importantly, what does Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak think?

It so happens that Latin American tech site FayerWayer happened upon Woz as he sat at San Francisco airport.

So often known to be obliging and spontaneous, Woz offered his thoughts. Essentially, he … Read more

I covered the best-sounding new digital recordings last Sunday; this time it's the choicest new vinyl.

'The White Stripes' Most tracks are stripped down to the basics, just Jack White on vocals and guitar, and Meg White's minimalist drum kit. An amazing debut record, not exactly an audiophile classic, but it wins points for emotional honesty. It feels right, and White's analog loving roots are on full display.

The Pastels, 'Slow Summits'A beautiful new record from an old band. These pretty, melodic, but definitely not pop tunes unfold one after another before your ears. The thing … Read more

Technology can be frustrating, especially when it's designed to oust you from your sense of being.

Who better, then, to offer a jaded human's perspective than Lewis Black, a man who makes lemons seems remarkably sweet?

Appearing on "The Daily Show," Black looked through a glass darkly at what he called the latest "space toys." You know, things like Google Glass that excite space boys.

You might imagine that Black's observations are both predictable and curmudgeonly.

You might conceive that he isn't the wisest commentator when it comes to new technology.

However, … Read more

Is an album a more substantial work of art than a single? Or is a well-crafted single all we need? There were always singles, but in the days before the Internet, fans were sometimes "forced" to buy albums to get the music they wanted, even when most of the album's tunes weren't great. The hugely entertaining "The Great Debate: Singles vs. Albums" held last Monday at the New Music Seminar in NYC covered the issue in depth.

Robert Christgau, one of the first generations of professional "rock critics," was there to defend … Read more

Songbird, an iTunes alternative that originally combined music playback and management with Web-based music discovery, will exit stage left permanently at the end of the month.

CEO Eric Wittman revealed in a blog post that Songbird will no longer be maintained as of June 28, and that its parent company, Pioneers of the Inevitable, also would be closing down.

"[T]he company has found ourselves unable to fund further business operations," he said. The open-source desktop version of Songbird, its mobile apps for Android and iOS, and its music discovery service Songbird.me will all go dark. Wittman … Read more

Who wears short-shorts...with gadget-charging capabilities? Attendees to the U.K.'s Isle of Wight music fest, that's who.

At the outdoor festival in Glastonbury, England, this weekend, mobile carrier Vodafone will try on its new Power Shorts, which harvest movement to boost the battery life of mobile devices. Need more power out there in the open field? Start dancing!

The shorts -- created with help from scientists at the University of Southampton -- incorporate a Power Pocket that contains foam-like ferroelectret materials with pockets of permanently charged surfaces. When the material gets squashed or deformed through movement, kinetic energy gets produced. Vodafone says a full day's walking and dancing will charge a smartphone for more than four hours (not much, but way more than campers can expect from those hawthorn-tree outlets). … Read more

iTunes chief Eddy Cue unveiled Apple's iTunes Radio at the company's big developer conference in San Francisco this week, and it didn't take long before a chorus of rivals and pundits dismissed the product as, well, no big deal, especially considering that so many streaming-music services already exist.

The current king of Internet radio, Pandora, made sure the press was aware of how large it was, with 200 million registered users, 70 million of whom are regular listeners, and 5 billion stations created. Even Nokia -- that's right, Nokia -- trotted out a VP who suggested … Read more