Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (Pitchfork)
On Merriweather Post Pavilion everything that's defined Animal Collective to this point is refined and amplified, resulting in an album (released tomorrow on vinyl and digitally, and in the next week or two on CD, depending on your location) that puts the group's quirky and forwardly expressive style in its most accessible light. [ Best New Music ] read more

What Apple can teach Nintendo and Sony (Macworld)
Nintendo and Sony can learn a thing or two from how gaming has developed on the iPhone platform, PC World’s Darren Gladstone says.

Bright Ideas for 2008 (BrandWeek)
Marketing is about solving problems. Young people aren't buying our cars. Mothers think their diapers are better. The cheaper store brands are eating into our profits. In the course of solving problems, marketers often stumble onto ideas.

Special: The Top 10 XNA Community Games Of 2008 (Gamasutra)
[Gamasutra and its sister console digital download info site GamerBytes have been following the Xbox 360's Community Games project since its launch in November, and is proud to present the Top 10 XNA games of 2008, in association with independent site XNPlay.] For the first time ever, a major console company has allowed hobbyists to create peer-reviewed console games, and publish them directly ...

Bright Ideas for 2008 (BrandWeek)
Imagine an advertising campaign where the pitch is so covert that the advertiser is all but undetectable. That's the thinking behind "dark marketing," a term that seems to refer to ninja-type martial arts applied to shilling products.