By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

Just when I thought Apple had done everything it could possibly do with an iPod, they go and cook up the 5G Nano. Looking at specs for the latest Nano, Steve Jobs apparently has quite a few tricks up his sleeve. And when I saw the first screenshots of the techie goodness,  I had never been so happy to be wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

Unless you’ve been under a rock the past year, you’ve at least heard of social networking site Twitter. Chances are you have an active account or at least tried it. Celebrities, politicians, heck, even your Mom and Dad are getting their tweet on. Face it, it’s that cool thing that all the cool kids are doing. At the end of the day, any tech worth it’s OS is only as good as the third party apps and merchandise it proliferates. Apple’s iPhone, is the proverbial device that launched a thousand apps.  The iPhone and all its incarnations has sent developers scrambling to make the next big application. Twitter is having the same effect with apps like Tweetdeck and Twitcam. But Twitter and its avian mascot has hit the big time with the recent launch of a clothing line dedicated to Twitter fashion. Read the rest of this entry »

By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

Once upon a time, people used to buy whole albums instead of cherry-picking singles and leaving the rest in limbo like so much musical flotsam. In those glory days, people not only brought albums for the music, but for the cool liner notes that came with it.  Whether it was cool art, bonus music, or some other effect to make the music experience that much more special. One such album was the late “King of Pop’s” Invincible which featured five different album covers.

Apple who has helped to put the music industry in a tailspin is hoping to give a much needed kick in the pants. The project, codenamed “Cocktail,” brings Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and EMI, four of the largest record labels together with Apple to create interactive bundles exclusive to full album purchases. These “booklets” will contain bonus artwork, photos, liner notes, and other content.

While this is a good look for music in general as it will encourage artists to return to a time when musicians worked to perfect their craft from the music to the liner and everything in between, the question remains can this model work for today’s music consumer. While we all love extra content, will it be enough to encourage people to invest in laying down their hard-earned cash for an entire album? For battle-tested artists like Prince, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, and Beyonce that have a loyal fan base this a great model since but for flash-in-the-pan ringtone artists, where the formula has been make a hot single and run, this could be a problem (which in the grand scheme of things could be the best thing that’s happened to the music industry in a long time, but that’s another post).

Sources have “Cocktail” releasing anytime from this September to sometime in 2010. Why the big time window? It’s been rumored that the project is set to release alongside the as of yet unconfirmed Apple tablet that’s had techies atwitter with excitment for the past week. Ultimately, “Cocktail” has the potential to change the way music lovers engage their music, a simpler time when the music was the focus. But without more details, it seems a little too early to hang the weight of a sagging music industry that has systematically done everything it could to dig itself into such a deep hole.

BlackWeb20.com covers website and application launches; culturally relevant Internet industry news; and mainstream Internet industry news from an African-American perspective.  They also analyze emerging web trends and how they apply to web properties that target African-Americans or African-American culture.

By Leon Scott, BlackWeb20.com

As many of you may already know, Apple made a number of major announcements early last week at WWDC 2009, the biggest involving the red-hot iPhone. Below is a guide to what features are new, what’s remained the same, and just about anything else necessary to assist those who may be considering purchasing one.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Hudson Makes Return
Jennifer Hudson is set to hit the road with Robin Thicke this spring. Find out when and where she’s performing, here!

 Apple’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, is taking a medical leave of absence from the company until the end of June to deal with personal health issues.  Jobs, 53, reported last week that doctors had recently diagnosed a “hormone imbalance” that was depleting proteins in his body and causing extreme weight loss over the last few months, The New York Times reports. Tim Cook, Apple’s longtime chief operating officer, will take on the responsibility for Apple’s day-to-day operations. “As C.E.O., I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out,” Mr. Jobs added in a letter to employees. “Our board of directors fully supports this plan.”