New Katy Perry single pushes her previous album back up the charts

Despite the release of its title track this week, Katy Perry’s new album Teenage Dream won’t be available for another month. But with Teenage Dream (the single) and California Gurls currently battling each other for singles chart dominance in iTunes, another Perry release has also unexpectedly found its way up the digital charts: her debut album One Of The Boys, released back in summer 2008, has suddenly climbed to the number five position overall on the iTunes album charts. The resurgence of Katy’s earlier work, which featured songs such as “Hot n Cold” and “Waking Up In Vegas” is also no doubt being helped by its temporary price reduction to $6.99. But if Perry’s cache is such that her now two-year-old debut album can climb all the way back up to number five, it leaves little doubt that Teenage Dream (the album) will easily debut at number one overall when it’s released on August 24th.

Ed Kowalczyk of LIVE releases solo album Alive today

Ed Kowalczyk, former lead singer of the multi million-selling band LIVE, has released his solo album Alive today in iTunes and elsewhere. Upon first listen, the sound of Kowalczyk’s new album appears to be more closely analogous to 1991’s Mental Jewelry than anything else in LIVE’s back catalog. While the release of the solo album won’t do anything to help the future prospects for LIVE, which suffered from a nasty public split last year, fans of the band will likely be glad to hear new Kowalczyk material one way or the other. The iTunes link for Alive is right here.

iTunes Store hacked, illegitimate books race up the sales chart

In a rare feat, a hacker has infiltrated Apple’s iTunes Store and sent several illegitimate digital books racing up the iTunes sales charts as a result. Instead of the usual familiar list of popular books, the charts now largely consist of bizarre titles like “Conan 11″ and “7 Vien Ngoc Rong R2″ – most of which are from the same publisher. It’s not immediately clear just what’s going on, but there are also scattered reports of iTunes customers being unknowingly charged for the purchase of these books, which would explain why they’ve been climbing the charts. As of yet there has been no official response from Apple on the matter (owing perhaps both to the fact that this is both a weekend and a holiday). In the mean time, iTunes users who are concerned about the apparent breach can simply check their funding source to make sure they haven’t been hit with any unauthorized charges.

Christina Perri ballad “Jar of Hearts” dances into iTunes top ten

Christina Perri’s song “Jar of Hearts” has found its way into the top ten on the iTunes pop singles chart on a day in which most people buying the song had never even heard of the singer-songwriter until her song was featured last night on So You Think You Can Dance. The piano-driven ballad is epic and we expect much more to come from her.

In the mean time, who is Christina Perri? The twenty-three year old Philadelphia native is an unsigned musician who resides in Los Angeles and just happens to be the kid sister of former Shinedown guitarist Nick Perri. From what we’re told, when Christina isn’t making music, she’s an employee at a cafe in Beverly Hills – but we’re guessing not for much longer, if “Jar of Hearts” is any indication.

GeekBeat.tv first episode debuts starring Cali Lewis

The debut episode of GeekBeat.tv, the new tech oriented video podcast show starring Cali Lewis, has just been released. Lewis was previously the host of the popular long running (and now apparently defunct) show GeekBrief, with the new show GeekBeat having a similar format. Shortly after Cali announced her new show, it surged to the number one spot in the iTunes podcast directory; the various available formats of the show now occupy the number four, six and seven spots in iTunes. The inaugural episode of GeekBeat.tv, along with subscription options, is right here.

iPhone iOS 4 update: things you surprisingly can’t do while installing

Today I clicked the “update” button to install the new iOS 4 on my iPhone, then headed to the grocery store – without my iPhone. Today, leaving the house without your phone is considered a bit of a risk: what if someone is trying to reach you with important news? What if your car breaks down? Funny how ten years ago, heading out the door without a cellphone was considered a normal, safe practice. And it’s not that the stores are any less safer or that the odds of breaking down on the way there are any greater; it’s just that the technological advancements in our society have raised the bar such that we now feel a degree of unsafe if we’re out on the road for any length of time without a phone in our pocket.

When I got home from the grocery store, my iOS 4 install was still finishing up and so my iPhone wasn’t available. No worries, it’s mealtime anyway, so I tossed my dinner into the oven and went to set the timer on my iPhone – nope, couldn’t do that either. Do I still have a standard kitchen timer atop my oven? No, that went by the wayside once I had a phone with an effortlessly usable digital countdown timer. So it’s yet another instance in which I rely on my iPhone in a small, mundane, routine manner without even realizing it. While I was waiting for my food to finish cooking I wanted to listen to some music, but I realized that with my iPhone and my iTunes tied up with the major iOS4 install, I couldn’t do that either. I guess I’ll go watch some television in the mean time. Good thing I haven’t already gotten rid of my old fashioned TV remote control, even though there is in fact an app for that too…

app review: Bistromath

Everyone has encountered this problem at least once in their lifetime: you go out for a meal with a couple of friends, and when the check comes, some people try to skimp away by paying less than what they actually owe, or everyone doesn’t know how to find out how to split the check, and on top of it, there’s tax and tip involved! Well, now with the Bistromath app for the iPhone, these types of scenarios are eliminated.

When the app first launches, the screen will be titled “Checks” and be blank. Good, that’s what you want. When you’re ready to add a new ‘check’ into the app, hit that friendly + button in the top right corner.

The first thing that you enter is the price of the items (called Dishes in the app), and as you enter the price you’ll see options to target that price to yourself or you can add a guest on the check. Once the price is entered, the Dishes screen will show it as “Your Main” (Or ____’s Main, etc) with an icon of a chicken. Don’t worry, if this item is selected, it will bring up an Edit screen, where you can edit the Price, Description, Icon (Drink, Side, Main, Dessert, and Alcohol), and if this item is shared, there is also a Split Cost section where you can add guests (make sure you’ve entered their name before on the previous screen to have the app remember it). If this is the wrong dish, it can also be deleted. You will have to repeat this for everything that was ordered.

The last part of the check would be the “Plus tax and __% tip” that will be found at the bottom of the Dishes screen. Tapping this will bring you to the final part of the check and it’s the screen that breaks everything down into terms that everyone can understand. There are fields for automatically calculated subtotal, sales tax, total bill, and tip. Beneath this, there will be a screen that shows exactly how much everyone owes, with this number including tax and tip, so that it’s even and fair across the board.

If someone else has an iPhone and the app, you can enable wireless editing. I was unable to try this for the review since not everyone I go out with has an iPhone. I did however, try the ‘email receipt’ option, which sends an email to all recipients with the breakdown of the total receipt. In the app it will display on some fancy receipt paper imagery, however when I look at it in Gmail, it seems to be in text only. Whichever the case may be, it’s nice to be able to email the breakdowns to anyone that may argue against you when it comes to paying the bill.

There are no additions needed in this app, it seems to be perfect the way it is for what it does.

rating: five stars out of five • App Store Link

Lee DeWyze achieves two top ten singles, top twenty album

Lee DeWyze has scored two simultaneous song in the top ten pop singles chart in iTunes, a rare feat for someone who hasn’t yet recorded his major label debut album. His studio version of Hallelujah, the song which in hindsight was likely what won him the American Idol title, is currently at number six on the pop chart (at the time of this article’s publication, 6:00am U.S. Eastern Time) while his “official” single Beautiful Day is above it number three on the pop chart. DeWyze has a third entry on the pop chart with his Crystal Bowersox duet Falling Slowly coming in at number twelve at the moment. He’s also seeing sudden Billboard chart activity for his earlier independent album Slumberland, which is currently at number twenty on the iTunes rock album chart. Whether all of this is merely a carryover from Lee’s Idol victory, or a positive sign for his commercial viability, is a topic likely to be debated to no end by Idol viewers on all sides of the equation between now and the time that his debut album is released.

A note to commenters: keep in mind that iTunes sales charts are cyclical and are updated multiple times per day, and may have changed by the time you look at them.

Lee DeWyze U2 Beautiful Day debuts in iTunes behind just Katy Perry

Lee DeWyze’s first post-Idol single has been released in iTunes, and it’s already soaring up the pop singles chart. Lee’s studio rendition of Beautiful Day, the U2 song which he performed on Idol this Tuesday night, is now selling for $1.29 after having been available as a pre-order earlier in the day. So far the song has been rated by 760 purchasers for an average of four and a half stars out of five. The DeWyze single has debuted at number on the iTunes pop chart, behind only Katy Perry’s California Gurls. Interestingly, Lee’s “winner single” had been getting significantly outsold by Crystal’s single earlier today when they were both available as unnamed pre-orders, but now that both songs have been released, Lee’s song is significantly outselling Crystal’s song. In any case, Lee’s song is right here and Crystal’s song is right here.

Crystal Bowersox [no longer] outselling Lee DeWyze on iTunes charts today

American Idol voters had their say last night when they awarded Lee DeWyze the title over Crystal Bowersox, but iTunes buyers are painting a different picture this morning as Crystal’s“winner single” is at number two on the iTunes album charts while Lee’s winner single is at number six on the same chart. Both songs are being sold as pre-orders for the same $1.29 price and are both expected to be released on Saturday May 29th, making for a rare Saturday iTunes release. It’s not clear why the singles are being classified as “albums” in the charts, as they are listed as only containing one song each; perhaps it’s due to the lack of a song title associated with each. According to what was announced on Tuesday’s final performance episode, Crystal’s “winner single” (which is apparently still being released even though she didn’t win) is Patty Griffin’s “Up To The Mountain (MLK song)” while Lee’s is “Beautiful Day” by U2.

Sandwiched between the Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze releases on the iTunes album chart are new releases from Stone Temple Pilots and the Black Keys along with the Sex and the City 2 soundtrack. It’s worth pointing out that the iTunes sales charts fluctuate several times per day.

Update: the two official singles have been released, and interestingly, Lee is now outselling Crystal.

Lee DeWyze to release debut album October 26th, pre-orderable now

iTunes has made Idol winner Lee DeWyze’s debut album available for pre-order, with an expected release date of October 26th, 2010, according to the online music service. While not technically his debut album, as DeWyze released two previous independent records before Idol, his first post-American Idol album will be widely regarded as his “debut” nonetheless. iTunes is pre-selling Lee’s album for $11.99, listing it simple as “Debut Album” – and while no information has been given about any of its contents for the obvious reason that it hasn’t been made yet, the album is already at #27 on the iTunes pop albums chart, where it’s competing with albums that are available today. Lee DeWyze’s debut album pre-order page in iTunes is right here.

Who won American Idol? Patty Griffin did, according to iTunes

Patty Griffin has seen her three year old song “Up To The Mountain (MLK song)” surge in iTunes to become her best-selling song in the online music store, after American Idol contestant Crystal Bowersox performed the song for the show’s final. In fact, purchasing attention for the song has been so great in the past twelve hours that Patty’s second best selling song is a live concert version of the same song. The exact chart impact on the song is difficult to measure due to the fact that iTunes doesn’t list the top selling songs in the “singer-songwriter” genre under which Patty Griffin’s 2007 album Children Running Through is filed, but while we’ll still have to wait until tonight find out who officially “won” American Idol, it appears that Patty Griffin has won already.

With Pac-Man, Google inadvertently proves web apps are not the future

Thanks, Google, for reminding me that I was never very good at Pac-Man in the first place. And thanks for inadvertently helping to demonstrate that even when done properly, web apps are still crap in comparison to real apps. It’s perhaps ironic that Google, the only major technology company that thinks browser-based apps are the future (even as a phenomenon like Apple’s App Store is proving the opposite) helped injure its own cause by offering up a free Pac-Man game on its home page in honor of the outdated yet iconic game’s thirtieth anniversary. While it was fun, and more importantly free, Google’s browser-based Pac-Man was a piece of junk. It sometimes froze up for half a second for no reason (making my gameplay results, which were going to be bad no matter what, even worse). You couldn’t mute the volume until after gameplay began, there was no pause button, and – the achilles heel of all browser based apps – accidentally hitting the wrong combination of keys on the keyboard (such as command – left arrow) meant that the game was irretrievably over, as I helplessly watched some other web page load as the game I had been playing went poof.

Earlier today Google pulled the plug on the Pac-Man game, but by then I had already gotten so frustrated at the limitations of being trapped in a browser that I’d already given up. But, feeling like I might finally be turning the corner from terribly under-skilled PacMan player to blessedly mediocre, I went ahead and did the smart thing: I hit up the App Store and spent four bucks to get my hands on a real PacMan app. So thanks, Google, for reminding us that A) web apps aren’t the future any more than Pac-Man is, B) Apple’s App Store is the future, and C) you get what you pay for. Not that the free gameplay wasn’t appreciated.

Incidentally, Google Pac-Man also helped demonstrate that web apps are crap even when they’re not Flash. That’s right, the game was not a Flash app – here’s proof.

And too bad the Super Mario Bros were too busy being unconstitutionally detained to enjoy it.

UPDATE: the Google Pac-Man game has been reinstated on a hidden page.

Travis Garland sees major iTunes spike after Idol performance

Travis Garland saw his new single “Believe” jump from being ranked in the triple-digits on the iTunes pop singles chart all the way to #67 after the east coast airing of his performance of the song on American Idol. The surge, which sees Garland song just behind The Glee rendition of U2’s “One” on the charts and just ahead of Kevin Rudolf, is likely to continue to grow as his performance airs on the west coast as we speak. Travis Garland is also seeing backing from blogger Perez Hilton, who has stepped into the music industry himself, with Garland being his first official protege. Thus far, Garland’s “Believe” has been rated 226 times by purchasers in iTunes, with 184 of them giving it five stars out of five.

Travis Garland, who is signed to Geffen Records, hails from Texas and was once part of the boy band NXT.

Who is newcomer Travis Garland? Just let Perez Hilton tell you…

When newcomer Travis Garland performs on American Idol tonight, many viewers will likely be asking themselves just who Garland is and where he came from. Those who like what they hear tonight can thank Perez Hilton, who’s gone from celebrity blogger to attempted celebrity maker, as Garland is officially his artist. As such, Perez has been talking up Travis non-stop via Twitter of late, and the exposure has managed to propel Garland’s debut single “Believe” to the number sixty-seven spot on the iTunes pop singles chart. The singer will likely see a further boost tonight as he takes the Idol stage to perform the song, making him the only performer tonight over the age of sixteen (the other being Justin Bieber).

Glee Showstoppers soundtrack featuring Neil Patrick Harris debuts

The frequent release of Glee soundtracks in iTunes has yet to create any discernible fatigue among buyers, as Volume 3 entitled “Showstoppers” made its debut atop the iTunes charts this morning. The latest Glee audio installment includes songs ranging from “Hello, Goodbye” from The Beatles to “Gives You Hell” by All American Rejects, and that’s just the album’s first two tracks. Perhaps the most intriguing number is a rendition of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” featuring Neil Patrick Harris, while Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face” and “Bad Romance” also get treatments. The twenty track opus is selling for $13.99, creating the rare occasion in which the top two selling albums in iTunes (number two is the Stones’ $19.99 Exile re-release) are both sporting price tags well above the popular ten dollar mark. In fairness, both albums include far larger than the traditional number of tracks.

Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street re-release debuts at #2 in iTunes

Today’s re-release of the 1972 classic Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street has debuted at number two overall on the iTunes album charts (at least for the moment, as iTunes charts can fluctuate several times during the course of the day). The new version of Exile includes the original eighteen tracks, plus several previously unreleased songs from the era including new single Plundered My Soul, alternate takes of Loving Cup, Soul Survivor, and All Down The Line, plus two Plundered My Soul videos. The thirty-one item package is selling for an eye-popping $19.99, but that hasn’t stopped Exile release number two from jumping all the way to number two on the charts. So what are the Stones losing out to in the number one spot? The new Glee soundtrack.

Ronnie James Dio sees six-figure fan support on Facebook

In just over a day since the world learned that heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio had died, fans around the world have poured onto Facebook that they “like” the late singer and his music – to use the social networking’s new technology, which months ago would have seen them instead designating themselves as “fans.” No matter what you call them, more than a third of a milling people have hit the like button on Ronnie James Dio’s Facebook page. The number is growing quickly enough that repeatedly reloading the page in immediate succession sees count grow by several new fans which each reload. Meanwhile, fans are also paying tribute to the late singer in a more concrete way by purchasing so many copies of Dio’s classic “Holy Diver” album in iTunes that it’s surged to number three on the rock albums chart. While some will likely lament that Ronnie couldn’t be around to witness the outpouring himself, it’s a fitting sendoff for an individual whom many of the genre’s most popular artists have tagged as one of the best heavy metal singers of all time.

Ronnie James Dio’s “Holy Diver” cracks iTunes top ten

Less than twenty-four hours after the death of singer Ronnie James Dio, his twenty-seven year old album Holy Diver which he made with his band Dio has climbed into the top ten on the iTunes rock album chart. The 1983 album, which history widely remembers as having been the group’s best effort, was released after Ronnie James Dio left Black Sabbath to form his own new band. To date, the most popular songs from the album have been the title track and Rainbow In The Dark.

Ronnie James Dio passed away Sunday morning after a battle with cancer. Similar iTunes chart phenomena have been seen after the deaths of various other musicians over the course of the store’s seven years, including Ray Charles’ albums charting after his passing and Michael Jackson’s complete takeover the iTunes charts last year on the day of his death.

Katy Perry scores #1 hit on first day with California Gurls

It’s not quite midnight, even on the east coast, which means that the rise of Katy Perry’s new single California Gurls to the number one spot in iTunes across all genres officially happened on the of its release. In slightly less than twenty-four hours, the new song from her forthcoming album Teenage Dream managed to surpass Eminem’s week-old Not Afraid and Usher’s will.i.am-guested There Goes My Baby to move into the top spot on the singles chart. California Gurls, which features guest vocals by Katy’s labelmate Snoop Dogg, and is an upbeat anthem paying homage to her native southern California. So far the song has been rated five stars by three-quarters of the iTunes buyers who’ve rated the song.

Perry took to Twitter tonight to thank the “tweetfaces” for helping make it happen, while encouraging fans to put their “westcoast in the air.”

Can’t wait til August for the new album? Check out our interview with Katy Perry from early 2008.

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