Music And Wine In Hand

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 8, 2006

David Stonehouse

David Stonehouse enjoys some Dirty tunes, rocks to the Zoo and dazzles friends with his wine knowledge.

MUSIC

Melbourne instrumental rockers Dirty Three have attracted the attention of the music editors at Download.com (www.download.com), who gush: "Like a drunken waltz, the Dirty Three creeps slowly into the country moonlight with a menagerie of violins, broken arpeggios, and broken hearts, creating soothing and melancholic folk pieces of stunning artistry." We won't argue, not with the highly original talents of these guys - Warren Ellis on violin, Mick Turner on electric guitar and Jim White on drums - who do a slow burn on these free downloads. Cinder, the band's seventh album in 14 years, is the first to feature vocals and was done in studio rather than the live recordings that have been Dirty Three's hallmark in the past.

MOBILE

Over at the Optus Zoo (www.optuszoo.com.au), customers can plug into the musical power of MTV. The whole catalogue is available - more than 6000 music videos for mobile, and plenty more for your PC thanks to a partnership between the hipsters at MTV and the folks at Optus. Find new acts in the Download and Discover section - last time I was there, there was a free track by the Arctic Monkeys. Others are $2 each.

SOFTWARE

Better than having a pocket dictionary, WordWeb (wordweb.info/free) is a handy free reference tool for your PC. Even if you've already given up on a print dictionary and do all your wordsmithing online, WordWeb will give an extra edge over the web itself. First, there is no need to be on the web - definitions are available offline. It gives synonyms and related words, and looks up words from just about any program running on your machine. Check a word with a simple keystroke - just enable the hot key feature. An upgraded pro version, available for $US19 ($25.75), has more features, including the ability to do wildcard searches, customise your dictionary and perform full text definition searches.

VIDEO

Surf through the latest online TV content with Innertube (www.cbs.com/innertube), a line-up of video downloads offered by American network CBS as it grabs for more eyeballs - and advertising dollars - online. The network, which has already been peddling paid downloads of popular shows such as Survivor, said a recent foray into free basketball was a phenomenal hit with fans, with 5 million downloads. That also spoke volumes to advertisers, hence Innertube's free offerings. Most of the content is behind-the-scenes from shows and interviews with actors, so anyone looking to catch freebies of real episodes will be disappointed.

HANDHELD

Let your Palm or Pocket PC empower you with the knowledge of a wine connoisseur. In its software catalogue, LandWare has a wine guide (www

.landware.com/wineguide) updated for 2006. With a few taps of the stylus, get instant access to reviews, ratings and retail prices for more than 34,000 wines worldwide. Surprise friends by finding the background of vintages on a wine list and tap into more than 1400 wine terms. Download a 14-day trial version or keep it for $US20.

icondownloads@gmail.com

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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