interview by McClain Johnson

Brother Ali is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based rapper, whose latest release is the album “Us.” “Us” is being released September 22nd on Rhymesayers Entertainment.


What inspires you lyrically?


I take my inspiration from life. I try to write songs that are important to me. I try my best to focus on the things that move me in some big way. Whether it be things I’m in love with, or things I hate, or things that I’m sad about, or things I’m troubled by, or things I’m inspired by. You know, the everyday stuff in life.

Your new album is “US.” Why did you choose to title it “US?”


Well, all of my other albums have been about me, especially my last one. “The Undisputed Truth” was really, extremely autobiographical. All of my work leading up to “Undisputed Truth” had been getting more and more personal. I didn’t want to feel like I was going to do that for the rest of my career. I wanted to open up a little bit and still be personal, but not necessarily my stories all the time. Not only just my life being in the focus, but people around me, people that I love, and my close friends and family. So, this album really deals with less of my personal things and more about things that I live because of the people that I care about. I’m dealing with friends being murdered, and issues that loved ones of mine are going through. Not necessarily things that I go through directly, but I go through it because I care about them. 

Did you change lyrical approaches on this album?


No, not really. The way that I write songs is still to try to capture the mood I’m in. Ant makes a lot of music, and I just listen to that until something really moves me. It’s a mood thing. The mood of the music will make me write certain things. That’s the way I did it when it was my stories, and that’s the way that I’m still doing it now. So, I didn’t really change the approach. It’s still personal, it’s just not my personal stories. 

Do you find yourself writing lyrics all the time. Do you find yourself just writing rhymes all the time?


No, I wish that I did that. I have friends that do that like an exercise, where they just write songs all the time. I’m not that guy. I write when I have something I need to say. Sometimes, people will reach out to me and say:’Hey, I really want you to be on this. It would mean a lot to me. ‘ So, I’ll do it then. I’m not the guy that just writes all the time.

You really have to be inspired by something to start writing about it, right? That’s how your process works?


Pretty much. Yeah. I have to feel ready. I have to feel that a song is inside of me, and I kind of develop them, and I know where I want them to go. Once I pretty much have the blueprint of the song kind of mapped out, then I go in and sit down and put the words in. 

Has that process pretty much stayed the same?


I used to not write my songs down. I used to not write my songs on paper. That’s not to say that I was freestyling, I wasn’t. I used to have a lot of blue collar, menial jobs that didn’t really use any brain power at all. I would load trucks or stock shelves, or something like that. I would just be making songs up in my head. Then I would go to Ant’s house, and I would have those words already in my head. I would try to find the music that worked with the words. When I started working with him, I was able to kind of settle down and do it the other way. Now, I find the music that’s the mood, and write the words based on the mood. I like it that way a lot better.

How did you first meet Ant?


I kind of just got the know the Rhymesayers guys all at the same time. I met all of them through my DJ, who had a radio show, like an underground, independent radio show at the University of Minnesota. It was like the first and really only place to play our kind of music in the Twin Cities. I heard his show, and I went down there. I hung out with him, got to know him. I was also hearing about Rhymesayers from other hip-hop friends of mine. It was that radio show where I actually met them.

What do you love about the Minnesota Hip-Hop scene?


I think that we’re so isolated from everywhere else, that we support our own. It’s more than just being involved in the music scene. It’s an overall arts scene. There’s community development, community organizing kind of piece, that a lot of people from that scene are tied into s well. It’s a community in the realest sense of the word. The majority of the hip-hop artists here who are really working and part of the network, they all perform together, they all do songs together, they all go to each other’s shows. Almost all of them teach children, work at community centers. It really is a community vibe. It’s a really special thing. I just did a video for my new single, called “Fresh Air.” I have a bunch of people in there from the local scene. It’s just really positive, and good, and strong, and supportive. It’s a great place to grow. It’s a great cave to be nurtured in. 

You feel that it’s a really positive scene?


There’s negative people, like everywhere else. There’s just negative people in the world. The negative people end up uncomfortable. People are always talking about haters, and that’s a real thing. Haters don’t feel comfortable for very long, because there’s just not room for that. They eventually end up burning all their bridges. Rhymesayers is, hands down, the leader by a huge margin. Atmosphere is really way ahead of all of us. Me, P.O.S., and a few others are out here doing stuff nationally and internationally. We haven’t caught up with Atmosphere, but we’re still kind of out front in a way. There’s people that our jealous or somehow feel like us being successful is keeping them from being successful. That we’re just supposed to give them the success that we’ve earned. I’m supposed to spend my life, and sacrifice all my personal life to build this things. I’m just supposed to hand it over to somebody because they rap too. Those people do exist, but the scene becomes a very lonely place for them. We do reach out. We have a festival that we throw every year, called Soundset Somewhere in the area of 15,00 people come to it every year. There’s a lot of Minnesota talent that’s on there. I wasn’t always a part of Rhymesayers. I was doing my own thing, and I was excelling. I was ready to go to the next level, but I didn’t have the resources. They extended their hand to me. The same thing happened with P.O.S. The same thing happened with Toki Wright. The reality is that Rhymesayers is here to be a vehicle for people that are really, honest to God, ready to take the next step. Everybody kind of knows that. Everybody is kind of extended family of Rhymesayers. 

You’re going on a massive tour. You’re playing everywhere in the states, you’re doing some international gigs too. How do you feel that the international audience responds to your sound?


I’ve headlined a tour in Australia, and that was really cool. I’m doing just a really quick week in Europe leading up to this tour. This will be my first time headlining shows over there. I’ve opened for Atmosphere a bunch of times, but I’ve never done my own thing over there. It will be interesting to see Somebody that goes to a show to see somebody else, but they enjoy you too. They went there to see Atmosphere, they went there to see Rakim, or whoever I’m opening for. I feel like I’m good at what I do, so they’re going to enjoy what I’m doing, but will they actually come and see me? That’s how you know if they really support you or not. I’m about to find out. I’m guessing that it’ll be like it was in the states a couple of years ago. It’s not the hugest follow, but the following that is there is enthusiastic. They get excited, and that means the world to me. They don’t have to care about me, they got their own rappers. Any love they give me is extra to me in my mind. I’m happy to get any response at all. 

The thing that really sets you apart is that you’re so different lyrically. You don’t shy away from talking about political topics. What would you like to see changed in this country?


We can talk about a million things that need to change. The way that our society is structured, that the elite have all the power. The people on different, varying degrees are servants. They kind of feed the elite power structure. In a broad sense, that’s what needs to change. For that to happen, everyone has got to come together. America is supremely racist. I believe that. I really believe that this race problem is still at the forefront of what’s holding us back. We need all the help we can get right now. We need everybody’s ideas. We need everybody’s input. We need everybody to be on board. You could say, ‘Well, we have Barack Obama. That’s true, that’s an example. of what would happen if we opened it up and allowed everybody to truly participate. His Cabinet, the people he’s brought in, and his ideas, it’s a huge thing. It’s such an improvement over what we had before. That still across the board is not the reality. What we have now are institutions that have their own culture. Institutions still systematically keep anyone out who is not white. Until that gets dealt with, until this notion of white supremacy gets dealt with, until the healing of that really starts to happen, it’s impossible for us to come together. The concept of race in America is the biggest separating, divide and conquer trick that’s ever happened in America. It’s working.

I’m sure you’ve had experience with racism in your own life.


Oh yeah, every day. I deal with it every day. It’s always on my mind. There are people who tell me I focus on it too much. It’s always there. 

You focus on it because it’s important to you.


Yeah. It seems like it’s one of the main issues in order for people to be healed. In order for our society to move forward, that’s what’s going to need to happen. When something like Barack Obama happens people say, ‘Oh, it’s over.’ No, it’s not. It’s almost the exception that proves the rule. We have one individual who is, obviously, the brightest mind that we’ve had in leadership in a long time. He made it, but what about all these other people out there that never have a chance. The fact that, that was such a big shock to everybody, why was that such a shock? it kind of proves where we are at. Some people didn’t see a black president as a reality until last year. There’s still a lot that needs to be dealt with. 

You’re willing to take on these topics. There aren’t enough rappers doing that.

I think there’s a lot, actually. I think there’s a lot doing it and a lot of them are ignored. In terms of revolution stuff, or political stuff or racial stuff. What I’m saying is nothing compared to what guys like Boots Riley, of the Coup, are saying. What I’m saying is child’s play. compared to what they’ve said. Because of what I look like, it feels different coming from me. The truth is the truth. The truth doesn’t belong to anybody. The truth is there for anybody to pledge allegiance to You don’t have to be black, or a person of color, to know that we live in a supremely racist society. But for me to say that, I think it gets a different type of attention. That’s evidence of the problem too. It’s a problem, but it’s also evidence of the problem. Why is that such a revolutionary thing? It’s not the norm. All these things I’ve talked about have been discussed before, it’s just that they weren’t heard by the people who listen to me. These people are connecting with me, and they feel like I speak to them. Never mind the fact that they’ve never heard it before. I can say it now.

Brother Ali’s new album “Us” is available in iTunes now. Learn more at BrotherAli.com

interview by Bill Palmer

When their new album Once Upon A Lie is released next month, The Sunstreak may instantly become the most famous band to ever hail from Rochester, New York – not that they’ve had a whole lot of competition on that front. Lead singer Tony Rebis fills us in on how the band cut their teeth on the Warped Tour (more than once), and just where the name “The Sunstreak” really came from…



What’s it like in Rochester? What’s the music scene there, in terms of growing up there and putting a band together?



Rochester is a lot smaller than even Buffalo. New York has some pretty serious cities, Syracuse and Buffalo and New York City and of course Toronto is close by as well. But Rochester is fairly small, man. When we first started playing, there wasn’t much of a music scene at all. We played a big hand in creating the music scene in this city. There’s a handful of other great bands in this city as well that are really doing their part. But honestly, it’s still growing. There isn’t this hugely established dominant music scene outside of my band and a couple others. The shows are pretty bleak. But it’s cool. I’m proud to be a part of this city. I’m proud to say that we’re one of the reasons that the music scene exists.

A couple of you guys started this band back when you were in high school, when you were about sixteen. Back then, are you thinking “I’ll be in my twenties someday and I’m still going to be doing this”?


If I had any idea what I was getting myself into, I probably would have rethought by priorities. It’s been a very long road, dude. A very hard road, a lot of struggles. A lot of obstacles that we’ve had to overcome. I’m in a band with some of the best dudes in the entire world, the hardest working, most talented guys on this planet. And the only reason we’re here is cause we’ve fought wars together against the world to get where we are. There’s nothing that was too hard, no obstacle that was too big, and there’s no wall that we wouldn’t crush through that was put in our path. Does that mean it was easy? Absolutely not. People have no idea how hard it is to be in a struggling band. No idea. They just don’t get it. Years of dedication, never taking no for an answer, and believing in yourself, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do.

How many times have you guys played the Warped Tour now?


2002, actually, was the first one. The reason we got that in 2002 was because when were eighteen years old we got a tour van and we drove off to California and showed up on [Warped Tour founder] Kevin Lyman’s office steps and walked into his office and asked if we could talk to Kevin Lyman. Somehow he let us back there.



Kevin Lyman being Kevin Lyman, always looking out for up and coming bands, let us in his office and we said “We really want to play Warped Tour,” and he’s like “Sure.” Believe it or not, I swear. A lot of people don’t believe that story, but I swear to God this is how it went down. He let us play the tour, and we set up our own little ten by twenty tent and we had out own little mini stage there, and we had our own little drum stand. We were just a baby band at that point. We could barely even play our instruments. But that’s how the connection was forged.



And then in 2006 he allowed us to be the barbecue band. Every single night Kevin has a barbecue for all the band and all the staff and all the people that are on that tour, and the barbecue band is responsible for the entire thing.



You just recently joined EMI.


Yeah, we just signed the record deal. It’s actually with Merovingian, and Merovingian is a part of EMI. It’s been crazy, it’s been awesome. We’ve been DIY for so freaking long, we’re really really excited to have these guys behind us because they just believe in the band so much. They really go to town for us, and that’s al you can hope for, it’s all you can ask for, that you are affiliated with people who share your attributes. They’re hardworking, honest and believe in what you’re doing as much as we do. And we got that, a hundred percent.



When you have the chance to sign with a major label, is that automatic or is it something you have to think about first?


No, because we feel like we have gone pretty much as far as you can go on your own. We’ve sold almost forty thousand records. We were the second band to ever hit the Billboard charts without a distribution deal. We’ve opened up with Daughtry, played the Warped Tour a number of times. Our online fanbase is huge. We’ve done a lot of things that I’m very proud of, but to really get to the next level you do need that label behind you. And it’s always been “Let’s take over the fucking world,” you know what I mean? It’s never been “Let’s settle for second best.” Not that being DIY is settling by any means, but it’s all about what your expectations are, what your hopes are, what your dreams are. And for us personally, we want to go for the top, and we need the right record label to get there.

I’m curious about where the name “The Sunstreak” came from. It’s one of those names that I’m surprised someone didn’t already grab twenty years ago.


I get this question a lot, and you’ll never guess. During the Cold War there was a government funded operation called Project Sunstreak. They were studying remote viewing, and they were trying to see if it was actually possible. They knew the Russians were studying it, and they wanted to make sure that it wasn’t actually real, or if it was real they wanted to capitalize on it. They would give people pictures of a helicopter that crashed, and they would say “Where did this helicopter crash?”



They tried to see if it was possible for them to accomplish this. To us it means if you put your mind to anything, it’s possible.

Once Upon A Lie will be released on October 6th.

Learn more at TheSunstreak.com

review by Daynah

Remember the classic boardwalk games like skee-ball and knock ‘em over? Now you can have them right in the palm of your hands! Ramp Champ is a new iPhone / iPod Touch game that adds an interesting twist to these classics.

You can journey deep into the ocean, battle space aliens, play with dolphins and unicorns, fight ninjas, and so much more in this exciting new game. Ramp Champ comes with four built-in skee-ball-like ramps. For each ramp, you are given 9 balls to roll. The object of the game is to knock down various objects (clowns, aliens, ninjas, etc.). Each object is worth a certain number of points. Aim for a high score and rack up points for tickets. Test your finger-rolling skills and redeem your tickets for virtual trinkets.

To keep the game interesting, each ramp also has 3 different set of goals that you can accomplish. For each goal you complete, you will get a trophy. When you reach the first goal, you’ll get a bronze trophy for that ramp. When you reach the second goal, you’ll get upgraded to a silver trophy for that ramp, and then a gold trophy for reaching the third goal. You’ll find yourself coming back for more to complete all the goals (which may seem very impossible at times!)

As mentioned, Ramp Champ comes with four themed ramps — Clown Town, Breakwater Bay, Space Swarm, The Icon Garden. Clown Town is like the classic “Knock ‘em Down” carnival game where you throw balls at clowns, cans, and ducks. Breakwater Bay brings you close to the ocean floor where you can see seahorses, clams, and sharks. Space Swarm has the feel of Space Invaders, and The Icon Garden has the feel of your favorite old school Mac icons.

Ramp Champ also has the option of purchasing add-ons within the game for 99 cents. Currently, there are two add-ons available. The Adventure Pack comes with the Ninja Attack & Tiki Island ramps and the Challenge Pack comes with Happy Place (dolphins and unicorns) & Molar Madness ramps. Each of these ramps also add their own virtual trinkets as well as trophies. Purchasing them is also quite easy. Simply click on “Add-ons” at the bottom of the screen, select your add-on pack, and confirm your purchase by clicking on “Buy.”

After collecting your tickets, click on “Redeem” at the bottom and pick an item that you like. Note, you will have one page with 9 trinkets for each ramp you have. Select an item by tapping on it and then tap “Redeem.” This will add your new item to your loot! To view all of your goodies, click on “Loot” and you will see shelves with all of your virtual trinkets. Tap on “Trophies” on the top right and you’ll see the shelves with all of your trophies.

IconFactory (the makers of Twitterific) and DSMediaLabs did an amazing job with Ramp Champ. The selection of music put you in the mood to get some cotton candy and head down to the city fair. And as you change ramps, the music just takes you into the specific scene. The attention to details is quite remarkable as well. The scuffs on some of the ramps were just brilliant, as well as the animation of the tickets rolling out.

Ramp Champ is a highly enjoyable game that’s fun, challenging, yet easy to learn. The user interface is simply beautiful. It will surely put a smile on your face every time you play it. iPhone OS 3.0 is required to play Ramp Champ, and you may purchase it in the iTunes App store for $1.99.

Ramp Champ is available in the App Store.

interview by Mike Strum and Bill Palmer

Releasing a self-titled album is a statement in its own right, even more so when the band had already released a previous self-titled album fourteen years earlier. But Collective Soul’s new album is significant in a number of ways, including a new artist-friendly major label record deal and a more collaborative songwriting effort, all of which have added up to make “Collective Soul” the band’s most impressive effort since the last time they released an album by that name. Lead singer Ed Roland fills us in on what’s got his band in such fine form these days…



The last two Collective Soul records were albums that you owned and released yourself on your own indie label. Now you’re back on a major label. What led to the decision to sign on with Roadrunner?



Because it’s a dual ownership. We still own it. It was something where we always try to think outside the box, and they were too. So it’s a partnership, which is amazing, which is what I think it should be anyway any time you deal with a major. And to deal with a major with radio promotion and a publicity staff, especially as strong as they have, I think just made perfect sense for them to come knocking on our door, us knocking on theirs. It’s a good relationship right now. Everything’s smooth, and we know enough about the business to impress them to a degree, and they’ve been very successful on the rock end of things to impress us. So it’s really working out cool



The industry is always changing, every few minutes it seems lately. Is this a deal that you could have even gotten seven or eight years ago, with the co-ownership?


No, I don’t think so. I just think people are now starting to look at any way to survive in this industry. It’s ever-changing just cause everyone is trying to survive. So seven years ago? No way, cause people were still just hoping and praying that, you know, the old guard would stay there. And it’s since moved on.

This isn’t your first self-titled record, the first one was in 1995. What led you to go ahead and self-title this record?


We kind of felt that we could come full circle again, because the guys had let me go and have fun producing the last couple of records, twist too many knobs, maybe, just letting me have fun and experiment a little bit. This one, before we started, we knew we wanted to just get back and play like we started, in our parents’ basement. So we recorded this in a house, in a big room, and we sat there together and wrote, recorded and mixed it. And it was just more of getting back to where we started, guitars in hand and drums.



What about the fact that the album has the word “Rabbit” in the title, in parentheses? [In reference to the fact that the advance copy of the album was labeled “Collective Soul (Rabbit)”]


It’s not supposed to. The artwork is a rabbit on it, but it’s not titled “Rabbit.” I would like to think I could be a little bit more creative than to call the record ”Rabbit” (laughs).



So what does the rabbit represent, then?


It means rebirth. There’s all kinds of meanings to it. It’s part of the astrology symbol, the luckiest of all signs, and my take on it is that it kind of looked cool, to be honest with you. I’m the shallow one in the band.

Was this the first time you’ve brought the band into your home to make a record?


We’ve always been, I guess, recording in my house since Dosage. Well, the first one was a batch of demos, you know, it was recorded in a basement. The second one was recorded in a proper studio, and then the third one I recorded in a cabin, a cow farm. Then the next one was recorded in a proper studio and my house, and from that point on they’ve pretty much been recorded in my home. If not half of it, at least most of it.



Let me ask you about the song “Welcome All Again.” Does that have something to do with you guys congregating at the house?


It was. We had a lot of fun making this record, maybe too much fun at times. Its was the last song we recorded. The guys were saying “We’d like to have an intro song for the record, for us to do live also.” So we kind of came up with that, and we recorded with friends popping by, our friends dropping by, so it was really an open house in a sense. I kind of based it off that, if that makes sense. Just the whole attitude of recording the record.



The songs “You” and “Understanding” are the first you’ve ever written with the full band. What’s that process like?


I tell you what, it took a lot of pressure. And for me, the song “You” is one of the better songs we’ve ever done. Joel and Dean were in the other room outside the control room and I heard them playing that chord progression. Will and I were in there doing a little work and we heard it and ran in there and we said hey, just keep playing that, and I started humming and Will was playing the piano. It was a pleasant undertaking.

And then on “Understanding” I already had the music. That was three songs that I decided I’d just put together and see if it would work if I added all three different types of songs together. We did it in one day, and then that night I gave each member a sheet of paper and I said write your thoughts, write words, write whatever you want to on this sheet of paper. And then the next morning I took everybody’s sheet of paper and I made the lyrics from that.



Last time we talked you were on the verge of getting an iPhone. Have you gotten your iPhone?


I do. I have my Tiger Woods application. Actually I wrote a lot with the iPhone because of the little recorder it has, so when I was in the back of the bus I could just record all of these ideas down.



Do you use any other iPhone apps professionally?


Oh yeah, we’ve got the guitar tuning on there. We tuned using the guitar app the whole record. That was our tuner. We’re too lazy to buy tuners (laughs). We’re scared to leave our iPhones too far away from us. So everybody just had the same app, and that’s what we tuned our guitars to.



You guys as a band are really active on Twitter, replying to people, you follow people back. How much of that is you?


I do every once in awhile, but my brother Dean is all over it. Will’s all on it too. But Joel and I will post something every once in awhile, or Dean will come up and say “Hey, you’ve got to post something” and we’re like, okay. But it’s Dean and Will, they’re really on it. They love it. And I get it to a degree, I’m still to the point where it makes me nervous for my own privacy (laughs). I don’t want everybody to know exactly what’s going on all the time.



And yet you did post, or maybe you’re not the one who posted it but you’re in it, a TwitPic of you and and your newborn baby.



Yeah, my wife did that and I didn’t even know she did it, and all the sudden people are going “I saw that picture,” and I was like, what picture?



The band is obviously still going really strong. I was wondering what your criteria is for going forward as far as continuing to want to do this.


Well just hopefully you take it one step at a time. So we’ve got to concentrate on this record, hopefully the fans we have grow a little bit more, and Collective Soul just keeps growing. And from there, then after a year you think about what to do next.

Collective Soul is on tour in the United States and Canada in September and October.

Collective Soul’s new self-titled album is available in iTunes now. Learn more at CollectiveSoul.com

by Christine Chan

So Apple had their annual iPod/iTunes event on September 9, 2009 and with that, introduced improved iPod Touches, along with a totally revamped iPod nano, with iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1, as well as the new iTunes LP format (codenamed “Cocktail”).

I did become attracted to the new iPod nano, so much in fact, that I have actually bought one about two days after the announcement. Yes, I have an iPhone, and yes I also have a 120GB iPod Classic. So why did I pick a nano to add to my collection?

First, I primarily use my iPhone for everything but a music player. I do have music on it, yes, but I would prefer to conserve battery life (since it’s so crappy already) and consume on my ‘unlimited’ data, calls when needed, and unlimited messages to my friends. I use my iPhone much more as a social networking tool, and a way to keep in contact with people I care about regularly. So with this in mind, I’d rather not waste the battery by playing music on it. And besides, my iPhone cannot hold my entire music library, which is what my iPod Classic is for.



But as much as I love to have my iPod Classic for holding every single song, music video, podcast, movie, TV show, i feel that the Classic’s physical size is much too bulky for girl’s small jean pockets. And as much as I like having my entire media library with me on-the-go, I haven’t exactly had time to listen and watch every single thing that is on my device.

This is where the nano comes in.

What I am loving about the nano is that it is so lightweight and portable, that it really feels like I’m carrying nothing! Although this can be a problem for those that tend to lose such small things, I am loving how portable the nano is. A real difference as far as the iPhone and iPod Classic goes.

I’m not sure how many people are like me, and slip their iPod in their pocket so that the top of the device is on the bottom, and the bottom of the device is closer to the pocket opening. So if I do that with the Classic, or iPhone, then the headphones end up on the inside, and to me that just feels weird. So I appreciate the that the headphone port for the nano is on the bottom (left this time instead of right of the dock connector), and allows it to fit in my pocket comfortably, and can be taken out easier in case I want to change up what I’m listening to.

The nano now has a video camera, and for some reason, it even has more effects than the iPhone 3GS. If you have any familiarity with Photo Booth on Mac OS X, then that’s what one can expect from the nano’s video cam, which shoots in low-quality VGA. The video the nano produces though, is comparable to that of the iPhone 3GS, and even the low-end Flip cams. This is exactly what Apple was aiming for, as it is now giving away cameras in the nano for virtually ‘free’. It’s great for spontaneous point-and-shoot moments, since you’re more likely going to have the nano with you instead of a full-on camcorder, and especially those that don’t have an iPhone 3GS.

The only problem I have with the camera is the odd placement at the bottom left, but I have remedied this by holding the nano horizontally with the click wheel on the right, and having my fingers under the click wheel, so that my finger does not intrude on the camera. They really should have picked a better place for the camera, but I’m guessing with the nano’s hardware, that’s the only place it could fit.

I also find the radio feature in the new nano to be a great addition. Yes, you may think ‘who still listens to radio?’. Well, it’s a great way to find new music, and with the new ‘Live Pause’ and fast forward and rewind feature (up to 15 minutes), you can skip over those pesky ads that are probably the main reason why most people don’t like radio. There’s also the iTunes Tagging [for stations that support this] which will let you tag certain songs that you want to remember for later, and next time you sync, iTunes will pull up these songs in the iTunes Store.

Despite the iPod nano having a tiny external mic and speaker (due to the camera), you’ll still need to plug in your headphones for listening to radio since it acts as an antenna. The speaker is primarily there to playback your spontaneous videos, so it’s a given that the speaker is not the best for music playback, but it’s convenient to be able to still listen to your music if you happen to forget your headphones (it’s happened to the best of us at some point I bet…), though best to not disturb others around you as well. Use sparingly!

The pedometer is something I probably won’t use so much, but since some people that would look at a nano are the workout-type, they’ll be pleased to know that the new nano has a built-in pedometer to keep track of your steps while running/jogging and walking. The pedometer seems smart enough to know what counts as an actual step, as I sampled this for a bit around the house.

The 2.2′ screen brings with it more space to view video and photos, which results in a crisper image than the 4th gen nano. Watching a video on a nano is also much easier than holding an iPhone or iPod Touch, since those do weigh a bit more than the lightweight nano. You won’t feel the nano in your hand, so it takes no effort.

Overall, the new nano is an amazing piece of today’s advancement in technology, if you consider all the features it packs in such a tiny package (no bigger than several sticks of gum). It’s way portable, and I believe it will make a fine addition to my iPhone and iPod collection.

Yes, the iPhone is supposed to be that one device that eliminates the need to carry other devices, but that doesn’t mean that nano should be totally ignored. Plus, the nano is so lightweight you won’t even notice it’s on you, so what’s the harm in carrying it around with you even if you have an iPhone? The iPhone itself is great for the always-on connectivity (unless you’re in a spotty AT&T area), but the new nano just adds many features that can’t be ignored this time around.

I’ll be using my iPhone for the data and connectivity, my iPod Classic for playing my large music library in the car, and my iPod nano for having a small collection of absolute must-haves from my music library for easy-to-go portability in a sleek package, with fun video effects as the icing on the cake (Cyborg mode is awesome).

by Bill Palmer

Back in the early days of the iPod, there were portable dockable stereo systems and then there was Altec Lansing’s iM7, a giant all-white $249 cylindrical tube shaped system that ran on batteries and could be hoisted on your shoulder like a ghetto blaster and was bigger and badder (and better sounding) than any other portable dockable system on the market.



But like so many iPod accessories from the early days, the iM7 eventually went by the wayside and was never really replaced by anything comparable, either from Altec Lansing or from anyone else – until now. The MIX, also known as the iMT800, may not look much like the old iM7, as the MIX has a black body with silver handles (two on the front, one on the top) and the same gold trim currently featured on the company’s earbud line, but it embodies the iM7’s original spirit. Shaped trapezoidally from the top, rectangularly from the front, and feeling a bit lighter when you pick up than you might have expected, the MIX is an intimidating monster of a system. And that’s before you turn it on.



Any product like the MIX is going to require a necessary amount of potential skepticism right out of the box, not only because it costs three hundred dollars (at a time when most vendors are scrambling to produce less expensive versions of their most popular products), but also because the company is asking you to carry around something this large: is it easily carried? Does it offer enough battery life for the portability to be put to good use? Is the included remote decent? And, of course, the most important question of all: is the audio quality strong enough to make any of the above even matter, or is this one of those products that throws in the kitchen sink in an attempt to hide the fact that there’s no kitchen?



Eyeballing the MIX, I expected it to weigh fifteen to twenty pounds, so I was relieved when I picked it up and found that it weighed closer to ten. The handle on top allows you to carry it in one hand at your side (or if you really want to, on your shoulder), while the pair of handles on the front allows you to carry it front of you with both hands. But perhaps more important than than flexibility is that you can carry it around with your iPhone or iPod docked in the unit, thanks to a metal roll bar (padded on the inside) that slides down onto the top of your device and holds it securely in place, within what is otherwise a standard Universal dock. This feature drew immediate skepticism as I recalled how the proprietary secure enclosure on the old iM7, which worked flawlessly with the iPod models that were on the market at the time, ended up being increasingly unusable with later iPod models that just plain didn’t fit into the enclosure, and ultimately likely led to the iM7’s early demise. But the roll bar here on the MIX is a different beast. Instead of trying to contain your device within the unit as the iM7 did, the MIX allows your device to be on the outside of the unit but still securely in place. After having tested it with everything from the iPhone to iPod nano, I’m left to conclude that the roll bar is designed such that any future iPhone and iPod models will also be fully compatible with the MIX, provided they’re not physically larger than the largest current models. For those of us who never could quite get the iPod nano to work satisfactorily with the iM7, the importance of the MIX’s apparent forward compatibility cannot be overstated.



But there are sexier features to talk about than a roll bar, and plenty of them. The orange LCD screen displays track information for your iPhone or iPod, as well as any track info provided by the FM radio station you’re listening to, along with an old school pull-out metal antenna for said radio purposes. And the feature that Altec Lansing is promoting the heaviest is the pair of line-in ports on the top of the unit that allow two additional audio devices to be attached. Such ports have traditionally been posited merely as a method of connecting a non-dockable device such as an iPod shuffle or a non-iPod, and are usually buried quietly on the back. But Altec is taking an entirely different tack here, instead promoting the idea of using the MIX at a party and allowing a couple of friends to connect their own iPods or iPhones while yours is in the dock, and using the on-board controls or the included remote to toggle between them at will. As such, the top well for the handle can be used as a makeshift quasi-dock, or the devices can simply be laid on top of the unit.



Speaking of the remote, the portability motif is extended here with a spring-loaded belt clip at the end of the remote itself which will allow you to carry it around at a party without losing track of it. And borrowing a good idea from the old iM7, the MIX‘s remote can be tucked away into a slot on the unit itself when not in use. Also on the remote are four preset buttons for the radio, along with an EQ adjustment button (the latter of which is also built into the on board controls).



But in the end, what matters above all else is audio quality. Judging the MIX’s audible output is best done by comparing it to other similar products on the market, and frankly speaking, there are none. It’s tempting to try to draw parallels between the MIX and iHome’s new iP1 because they share the same price tag and roughly similar size, but the two products really have nothing to do with each other, as the iP1 is a stationary system based purely on impeccable audio quality, whereas the MIX is a portable system that takes the kitchen sink approach. That the iP1 sounds better than the MIX is as expected as it is irrelevant for review purposes, other than to emphasize the self-evident fact that features like portability and built-in radio do cost money, and as such products with those features should only be purchased if you plan to put those features to use.
The more relevant comparison is whether the MIX is really worth a hundred dollars more than Altec’s own $199 MAX, and the answer there is a resounding yes. While the MAX sounds great for its size, the MIX blows it away with four front-facing speakers and a side-firing subwoofers. The short of it is that the MIX is by far the best-sounding portable stereo system for iPhone and iPod currently on the market at any price.



And I suspect that’s what will ultimately make MIX users the happiest. The “party” angle, with the extra aux ports, while it makes a great marketing push, isn’t going to make or break the product; even those who buy the MIX with partying in mind will still likely log most of their hours with the MIX back in their office or dorm room. But regardless of whether you plan to put the party aspect to use or not, the bottom line is that would be a category-killing five star product even without the partying angle.



So what puts the MIX over the top? In an era where more and more portable stereo systems are coming with built-in lithium batteries, something I generally favor, a unit of this size wouldn’t last very long on a lithium battery (as evidenced by the MAX’s paltry three hour battery life, and it’s not nearly as big). But the MIX, which runs on eight D batteries? Thirty hours of real-world use, which makes me pleased that, in this instance, they didn’t go the lithium route after all.

Learn more about the Altec Lansing MIX (iMT800) at AltecLansing.com

review by Bill Palmer

Dual-device chargers for iPhone and iPod have become increasingly commonplace over the past year. But until now, the idea of a dual dock on a stereo system had gone untried, presumably if for no other reason than the potential complication involved in using one set of playback controls to manage two devices. iHome’s new iP88 alarm clock, then, comes as a potential boon for those couples who each want to wake to their own music from their own device at different times of the morning, as well as for individual users who have an iPhone and an iPod and simply want to keep both of them fully charged and immediately playable.



This isn’t the first time iHome has offered a $149 “premium” version of their standard (and best on the market) $99 alarm clock, which in its current iteration is known as the iP9. Last year the company sent me the iP99, priced at $149, which sounded a little better, looked a bit sleeker, and squeezed in a few extra features, none of which justified the extra fifty dollars and ultimately left the iP99 which a lower comparative star rating than the cheaper iP9. But this time around, the iP88 is immediately identifiable as being a potentially fifty-dollar-superior product based on the dual dock, based on the dual dock alone, at least for those users who can put such a feature to good use.



I’ll say this about the styling of the iP88: it is what it is. What it looks like in the picture is what it looks like in real life. It’s boxier than the iP9 or iP99, and is in fact a perfect rectangular solid, with the exception of the front grille angling forward toward the center clock – and even it has defined lines. Some users will see the iP88’s squareness as a sign of refinement, while others will see it as just plain square. It strikes me as being more of an individual matter of preference than anything else. The brushed grey metal of the top and sides does match the look and feel of iTunes itself. Then again, there’s no black, blue, pink or purple option here as there is with the iP9.



But you’re going to buy the iP88 for the two docks, not for the styling, as the only option for couples up to this point would have been to buy a pair of iP9 units for a total of $198, as opposed to a single $149 iP88 unit. And what I found while testing out the iP88 with both an iPhone and and iPod nano docked simultaneously is that, for the most part, iHome has managed to pull it off without creating the kind of interface confusion that I thought would be automatic with a product like this. The remote is perhaps the more flawlessly implemented interface, as a pair of buttons near the top allow you to toggle between controlling Dock 1 or Dock 2, much like the buttons on a TV remote control allow you to toggle between your TV, VCR, and cable box. Fortunately, the iP88’s remote is nowhere near as impenetrable as the typical cable box remote, as the company has essentially only had to add one button in order to offer full control of both devices.



Surprisingly, the on-board playback controls are a bit more of a challenge. Left and right play/pause buttons appear to be each encircled in their own volume wheel. But as it turns out, the left wheel controls the volume of whichever device is currently playing, while the right wheel is for setting the alarm. This leads to the awkward scenario of hitting the play button for the unit that’s in Dock 2, then instinctively spinning the wheel surrounding that button in an attempt to adjust the volume, and only then remembering that the volume wheel is on the other side. Much as I tried, this is simply not something I could get used to while I was testing the unit.

That having been said, it’s a comparatively minor complaint, particularly in comparison to what I might have feared going in. The dual alarms work exactly like one would hope, so the bit of confusion only really applies when you’re listening to your music later in the day and two devices happen to be docked simultaneously. In that sense, it’s more of a concern for an individual user who routinely keeps two devices docked (for instance, a stuffed-to-the-gills iPhone along with an iPod classic that holds the rest of the user’s music library) and wants to be able to play music from one or the other; couples are less likely to both have their device docked at the same time, unless it’s close to bedtime.



In all, the dual dock implementation on the iP88 is better than what I was even hoping for. Perhaps I was being too skeptical going in; then again, it’s not as if this has even been attempted up to this point, so it would seem that the industry has been as skeptical as I have. That having been said, now that iHome has shown that it can be done, and done very well (if not quite perfectly), perhaps others will now follow.



As to the iP88’s other premium features, the story here is similar to what it was with last year’s premium model, the iP99. The audio sounds perhaps twenty dollars better, to put it into buying terms. And the LCD can be more finely tuned, with eight dimmer settings instead of the usual three or four. You can set three different alarms (assignable to any combination of docked devices, radio, and/or buzzer). And the day and date display on the clock face. But the real difference here is that the iP88 actually offers a feature worth paying the fifty dollar price premium, in the form of the dual dock.



And of course the iP88 includes all of the features that make the standard $99 iP9 such a great product in the first place, including the gradual wake, the full iPhone/iPod menu control built into the remote, the built-in AM/FM radio, the ability to set the alarm differently for the weekend, the EQ and spatializer settings, and everything else that’s right about the iHome alarm clock line. The iP9 is still your best bet if you only plan to dock one device at a time, as the rest of the iP88’s features don’t add up to make the price premium worth it. But if you’re going to put the two docks to good use, particularly if you had otherwise been considering buying a pair of iP9’s, then the iP88 suddenly becomes the product you never knew you always wanted, and a great value.



I can’t give the iP88 five stars for the simple reason that the dual playback controls aren’t quite perfect and need one more round of refinement to reach the perfection that I expect iHome will achieve on their next attempt at a dual dock alarm. That having been said, if you’ve ever looked at an iPod/iPhone alarm clock and thought that it would be perfect for you if only it worked with two iPods and/or iPhones, then the iP88 is your winner.

Learn more about the iP88 at iHomeAudio.com.

review by Bill Palmer

Ask most people what they want from the future, and they’ll say “flying cars” – but with our lives becoming ever more filled with portable devices that need frequent recharging, that answer is quickly changing to “a product that can magically recharge itself.” If you’re looking for a solution that allows your iPhone to juice itself while you’re walking around with it, simply by grabbing up random electrons around you, then you’ll be waiting awhile. But if you’re willing to settle a rubber iPhone skin that allows you to recharge your iPhone simply by setting it down on a pad on your desk, without having to connect any wires, then say hello to the WildCharge.



While “wireless” typically implies some empty space between devices, the WildCharge is only wireless in the sense that there’s no connector cable needed to connect the skin to the pad. The skin has a hidden docking plug inside that runs from the iPhone’s dock connector port to four tiny electrodes on the back of the skin; setting the skin-clad iPhone onto the pad allows the the iPhone to charge.



The idea is that you carry your iPhone around in the skin all day, which aside from the impressively small bulges on bottom and up its back, resembles any other medium-thickness rubber iPhone case – and then when you get home, you simply pull your skin-clad iPhone out of your pocket and set it onto the charger. And based on my tests it works as advertised. As soon as you set it down, you’ll instantly hear the familiar charging chime from your iPhone. This is in contrast to having to remove your iPhone from a typical rubber skin and then either drop it into a dock or plug in a sync cable. Eighty dollars is a LOT to pay for this privilege. But if uncasing your iPhone so you can charge it is something that aggravates you on a daily basis, then it could be worth the investment – particularly if you’re a multi-device household, as you can buy a second skin for $35 and charge both on one pad. Also available for iPod touch (not tested).



The Wildcharge seems like an expensive solution to something that isn’t that much of a problem. When they can make it work so your skin-clad iPhone can recharge while it’s still in your pocket, a few feet away from the pad, then I’ll be drooling all over it.

Learn more about the WildCharge at WildCharge.com.

review by Bill Palmer

Somewhere along the line at one of the industry trade shows our staff came up with the internal terminology of “JAIC” – short for “Just Another iPhone Case” – which meant that the iPhone case we were looking at was just like the last ten we’d looked at and it was time to move on in search of iPhone cases that actually offered something that the last ten didn’t. At this point, with the iPhone’s body having not changed shape in more than a year, any new iPhone case has qualify as not being a “JAIC” just to get covered by us at all, as we don’t want to bore you to death. Which brings us to the Voi Lorem case which, if not emphatically so, manages to avoid being a JAIC with a few tricks up its sleeve.



Consisting of a two piece hard-body plastic design, the Voi Lorem allows you to set your iPhone into the back piece before snapping a small trim piece onto the front which holds the iPhone inside and protects its metal bezel. And that’s mostly it. The colors are pretty blatant (red, pink, black, grey), with those first two in particular ensuring that your iPhone will stand out. The tricks? One is a tiny metal bar over the iPhone’s Apple logo that allows for the attachment of an included handstrap, which leads to the obvious question: does anyone really carry their iPhone hanging from their wrist? But in my testing I did find that it was a useful way to hold your iPhone, knowing that the handstrap would ensure it doesn’t go splat on the ground if it falls out of your hand (and some of you will be pleased to know that the handstrap can be left off entirely with minimal impact). The other trick, this one more widely usable, is that the little square on the back is actually a push-through that allows you to easily nudge the iPhone out of the case in a way that isn’t always automatic with hard plastic cases. But that’s only after you snap off the front plastic piece.



So does the Voi Lorem offer something you can’t already get from ten other vendors? Yes and no. The soft padding inside is a nice touch, and the $24 price sounds favorable until you realize they’re charging $5.95 extra for screen film. The Voi Lorem may not add much to the existing iPhone lexicon, but it’s a well done product overall. You can decide whether it’s right for you.

Learn more about the Voi Lorem at 4voi.com.

review by Bill Palmer

iPhone shields are all the rage here in 2009, as the represent a nice compromise between carrying your iPhone in a full-on case which can feel like overkill considering how sturdy the iPhone is, and carrying it without a case it all which leaves the iPhone’s most scratchable (the rear surface) and dentable (the four corners) wide open. Shields essentially cover just the iPhone’s rear and corners, along with parts of the left and right sides, and typically offer some kind of stylistic flair along the way. In the past year I’ve seen everything from $9 thin plastic shields to fancy-looking $60 shields made from exotic materials and everything in between.
with screen film.


More-Thing’s $32 Metallic Series Engraved Edition splits the difference, both in terms of price and material. It isn’t actually made of metal (and I’m not sure I’d want it to be, considering the sharp edges involved), but the hard plastic is painted up to look like silver metal with a choice of interspersed red patterns ranging from a criss-cross to a lattice stripe.
with screen film.


This shield looks nice. In fact you might even initially think that it actually is a thin slide of metal when you first start using it (although the ability to faintly see right through the red on the back does eventually give away the fact that it’s not metal, unless you’re talking Scotty’s “transparent aluminum” from Star Trek IV). So essentially you’re paying thirty-plus dollars for a really pretty-looking plastic iPhone shield. Granted, it’s a thicker and sturdier than the typical nine dollar cheap-o plastic shield. But buying the Metallic Series over a more generic competing product still comes down to more of a fashion decision more than anything else. Is it worth it? I’ll let each of you decide. The patterns really do look cool from the back, though, particularly where the red stripes cross your iPhone’s Apple logo and make the logo appear to be red. The Metallic Series comes bundled with screen film.

Learn more about the Metallic Series at More-Thing.com.

interview by Bill Palmer

To fully appreciate Amy Kuney’s uniquely styled new album Bird’s Eye View, one might be best served by a glimpse into her past, which included a childhood split between Oklahoma and Honduras, along with an instance in which she was (no joke) kidnapped by rebels. But if that leaves you expecting Bird’s Eye View to be a morose tale of sadness, you’re in for a surprise. Often upbeat, at times satirical, and not so easy to describe as a whole, the album is, in a word, fun. But about that past of hers…



You lived the first thirteen years of your life in Tulsa, and that was I’m guessing a fairly normal childhood up to that point?



Yeah, pretty normal, pretty normal. My parents are very conservative and so we grew up in a very strict Baptist upbringing and I was home schooled. But other than that it was pretty normal, yeah.



Then you pack up and move to Honduras at thirteen. Was that as much of a culture shock as it sounds like it would be?



Yes (laughs). Yeah, it was a pretty big culture shock, actually, because they speak Spanish there and Honduras is the second poorest country besides Haiti. We went right after the hurricane, there was a hurricane in ’99 and we went right after that. So the country was just kind of a mess. And so yeah, it was a huge culture shock.


You were already, at that point, playing piano and making music in that way that a kid would do. How did that affect you musically, moving down there? Did you have a piano, were you still able to take lessons?


The first year or so, no. We were getting settled and adjusted, and we were sort of battling with the decision of coming back to the States or not because we went down with a specific organization and they ended up bailing on the whole project and leaving Honduras, and so we were sort of stuck there. So for the first couple months we moved around a lot and we weren’t sure what we were gonna do, so I didn’t do much, to be honest. I learned some Spanish, and didn’t really know what to do with my life. But then yeah, we got a piano finally and my parents got me lessons with a woman down there who was from Cuba. She was actually a really famous Cuban pianist. I didn’t know at the time, but I’ve since seen her pictures in newspapers and things like that.



So I was taking lessons with her, and I joined a salsa band, just doing whatever I could locally that involved music.


And then at seventeen you got kidnapped by rebels. My first thought is that if you hadn’t included that in your own bio, I wouldn’t even know about, wouldn’t be asking you about it. Why choose to make something like that public when you probably could have left it buried?


I think it explains a lot about me and some of my song content. And also, I think part of the reason why I survived that whole incident was so that I could help other people. I’ve been touring high schools, talking about my story. I recently worked for five days last week at a camp for 9/11 kids who have lost family members in 9/11. So I’ve been able to reach out to people that I don’t think would ordinarily listen to me, just cause they don’t think that there’s anyone else out there who’s been through the same kind of situation. And so it’s enabled me to help other people, I think. That’s why I’ve put it out there, I guess.



It doesn’t bother you that people like me come along and see that in your bio, and sort of automatically have to ask you about it, and force you to keep talking about it?


No, I’ve been through therapy and I’ve talked about it a lot, and I feel like a story like that is inspiring to some people. At this point, I was seventeen years old, it’s been some time. And I still am in contact with the man’s family who was killed during the kidnapping. A lot of good has come out of that situation, so it’s no longer just this black hole. A lot of good things have come from it, if that’s possible.



Did you head straight from Honduras to Los Angeles?


I was almost nineteen and I wanted to go to Los Angeles to pursue music, and my parents said absolutely not. And then they changed their mind when I said what if I went to a Christian school, or Bible school, or whatever? There’s a lot of Christian schools out here, especially in Orange County. And they said sure, if you can get in one. So I finished high school and I got into a Christian bible school here in Los Angeles. That’s how I got out there. And then I didn’t actually finish. I went there for as long as I could, and then I took time off to tour and make my album.



Was that an issue with your parents at that point, when you told them you were dropping out?


No, actually. It was to the point where I was playing a lot of shows. I was playing shows every weekend, trying to juggle that with school, with life. I didn’t have a whole lot of friends or any kind of social life whatsoever. I was working as well. My dad is a musician, or was a musician when he was a kid, and there were opportunities that he passed up that he’s always told me that he’s regretted. So when I told him that I wanted to do this, he understood. And by that time they knew a lot of the people I was working with, and they were trusting me more about living out here and stuff like that. So they were cool with it.



When you go to make an album like Bird’s Eye View, or when you go to write a song in general, what’s your songwriting process like?


I don’t have a method, necessarily. I do start usually with the title of the song. I was telling someone yesterday, actually, that I have a folder of Word documents that are all titled and there’s nothing in them. So I usually start with the title of the song, and then I write it around whatever the title is.



Where do those titles come from? Do things just pop into your head, or are they things that you hear in other places?


Just random stuff, like “Rocket Surgery” was sort of a fumble my mom said one time. She home schooled five kids and was always sort of getting things mixed up, and that was something that she at one point accidentally said. And then “Angel Tangled In The Telephone Lines,” I got that from another song I heard called “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground,” I think that’s what it’s called, it’s an Emmylou Harris song. And I just thought if that’s true, they would probably get caught in telephone lines and shit like that, and that’s kind of where I came up with that title. Sometimes I mishear things. I’ve heard this from some other artists as well. They’ll mishear a lyric to a song and think it was something else which is actually more clever than they lyrics, so just different things.



The album has been out for about a year now. How have they evolved live?


Actually the producer of the album is my drummer normally, and so when he’s playing with me, he likes to keep things just like the album. But he’s been on tour with another artist, Pete Yorn actually, and he’s been on tour for the past almost six months, and so I’ve had to find other bands. And so yeah with different musicians they all kind of have their own interpretations and I’m not specific really about having it sound just like the album.



I’ve watched some of your YouTube cover songs, and I’ve noticed that some of them are pretty straightforward and others are just funny, Like with the Colbie Caillat cover where it’s a pretty serious song, what makes you say, “Let me put together a video of people falling down as I’m singing Fallin’ For You pretty normally”?


I’m very sarcastic. I’m very dry. Some people don’t get that. But I don’t know, it just seemed funny to me at the time. And I saw a hundred artists singing that same song the same way with a guitar in front of the camera, and I thought, you know, I enjoy making people laugh. I really do. I have a lot of stories I tell during my shows, and it’s just one of the things that I enjoy doing. I wanted to put together something that was a little different, and that maybe people wouldn’t realize until they’d gotten twenty seconds into it that this was supposed to be funny.



And then there’s the ultimate parody, the Lady GaGa one. Do I dare even ask where you got the idea for “Poke Your Face”?


Honestly, I don’t remember. I think it just came to me one day, and I stupidly told a bunch of people about it and then I didn’t do it for a few months. So I was crossing my fingers hoping that no one would steal it, but they didn’t, so thank goodness.

Bird’s Eye View is available in iTunes now. Learn more at MySpace.com/AmyKuney