Vienna

8 Google Reader alternatives for your PC

It's no surprise to Google obsessives that the company announced yesterday that it will draw the curtains on its popular RSS-managing Reader service. So what are you supposed to do with your 60 bazillion feeds?

First off, you can export them using Google Takeout. That's an important step to take so you don't lose track of any of the sites you're following. It lets you download your feeds output, called OPML, as a ZIP. Then you extract it all to a folder, and upload them to your prefered Reader replacement service. But which one do you … Read more

Dazzling audio designs from Europe and the U.S.

Unless you're a regular reader of hi-fi magazines, you're probably unaware of some of the most innovative designs coming out of Europe and America. That's why from time to time I highlight a small sampling of the exotic high-end gear that catches my fancy. I think it's a shame that the major consumer electronics brands like Denon, Pioneer, and Sony are content to sell only the blandest designs year after year.

The Elipson Planet L is an 11.4-inch spherical speaker available in red, white, or black painted lacquer finishes. A few other brands have dared to make spherical speakers, but Elipson claims to have been the first; they've been perfecting round speaker design for more than 70 years. The Planet L has received glowing reviews, and I think it looks great. Considering its small size, the Planet L can make a fair amount of bass. The speaker is the culmination of two years of research and development, and the Planet L is fitted with a special two-way woofer-tweeter driver. Elipson is based in France; L'Atelier Audio is the North American distributor.

The Kuzma Stabi S turntable's unique shape and construction provide an extremely rigid platform for its platter, bearing, and tonearm. The motor is housed in a separate tower to ensure the lowest possible background noise. The turntable's bearing is fabricated from highly polished, fine-grain carbon steel and has a one-point contact.

The Kuzma Stabi S and matching Stogi S tonearm have been in production for more than a decade. Kuzma turntables and tonearms are designed by Franc Kuzma; his small work force handles the machining, polishing, assembly etc. on-site and at various vendors in Preddvor, Slovenia. The turntable sells for $1,750, plus $1,000 for the Stogi S tonearm. Kuzma products are imported by Elite Audio Video Distribution.

The Jeff Rowland Design Group, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., has been making state of the art electronics for more than 30 years. … Read more

The 404 434: Where we don our Paper Raincoat

Today's guest on The 404 Podcast is The Paper Raincoat, a local band of the "experimental rock ambition" genre, as Jeff calls it. Amber Rubarth and Alex Wong have both garnered musical recognition for their individual acts, but only recently came together to form The Paper Raincoat. The release of their first EP, Safe in the Sound, ushered in an international fan following and an impressive list of accomplishments, including the iTunes Indie Artist Spotlight. We're very excited to have them in the studio with us today, and they come bearing instruments for a live acoustic show!

As we talk to more bands, we're starting to understand the long process of dreaming, writing, playing, and touring with your music in the current music business scene. With outlets like Facebook, Myspace, Last.FM, and many more, artists can easily cast a wide net over an audience that would normally require a major label contract to reach. We talk with The Paper Raincoat about the naming of the band, their recording process, their fantastic DIY album art, and their upcoming tour.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, there are a million places to stream their music live, but the best thing you can do to show your support is to preorder a CD. One-hundred percent of the preorder money will go to printing the record, and you can pick between three packages, the highest of which lands you a limited edition CD, two signed posters, a T-shirt, and a custom USB wristband drive with a personalized video "thank you" and exclusive video content from the band. In the meantime, you can also follow the band on Twitter, attend their CD release party at Joe's Pub in NYC, and download their brand new song, "Right Angles."

EPISODE 434 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 407: Where we pack Vienna Teng's lunch into the PS3 Slim box

On today's show, we've got Vienna Teng--singer, pianist, and former computer programmer. But before we get to her music, we have the PS3 Slim in the studio. Afterward, we talk to Vienna about her journey from software engineer at Cisco to touring musician.

At the top of the show, we do a little unboxing of the new PlayStation 3 Slim. While Vienna and Justin may not care too much about the game console, Jeff and Wilson don't particularly like its new finish. In almost all respects, however, it functions just like the original 80GB model that it replaces, plus it comes with a 120GB hard drive. (No Linux for those homebrew fans out there.)

The star of the show is Vienna, a singer, songwriter, and pianist from the San Francisco Bay Area who graduated from Stanford University. Vienna later took up a job at Cisco as a computer programmer and made the leap to musician during her time there. We end the first half of the show with a track from her first album "Waking Hour," called "Gravity." The song is about the ups and downs of her roommate's relationship.

On the second half of the show, we listen to her song "Radio" from her current album "Inland Territory." And we talk about how now one in four songs sold in the United States is through iTunes. Finally, we end the show with her song "Augustine." You can find her music on iTunes, Amazon, MySpace, Last.fm, and her own Web site. (Editor's note: Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET.)