Leslie Shapiro

Shuttered Borders Bookstore

My mom killed Borders (and maybe music too)

Is the shuttering of the bookstore chain another nail in the album's coffin?

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted July 21, 2011

Sad news in the headlines this week. We all mourn the passing of Borders Books, not just one of the last megabooksellers, but one of the last that also sold music. Who’s to blame? I blame my mom.

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Fair Use Ain’t As Fair As It Used To Be

The Copyright Office rules against DVD copying for “space-shifting” applications

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted November 5, 2012

While it’s easy to imagine that the federal government (in this case, the Copyright Office) is a bunch of Luddites, sticking to making laws about ancient or obsolete technologies and ignoring the new, the opposite is actually true.

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Surround at Work — Part 2

Alison Krauss: Comin' Surround the Mountain

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted September 23, 2002

Here's an odd collaboration: Alison Krauss & Union Station, a group that's embraced bluegrass, one of the oldest forms of American music, and Super Audio CD, one of the newest and most advanced music formats.

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The Truth About 6K

'A Star is Born' will be born again, moving from 4K resolution film up to high-res 6K digital video and, eventually, back down to 2K Blu-ray. So is 6K overkill?

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted July 11, 2008
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[Note: After we posted this story, Warner Bros. contacted us to give comment. (As we note in the story, we had made numerous attempts to interview someone from the studio before the story went live.) Skip past the end of the article to read a response from Ned Price, VP Mastering, Warner Bros. Technical Perations.]

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Maxell HP/NC-IV Deluxe Noise Cancellation Headphone

Quick Take

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted August 28, 2008

Air travel is such a hassle these days. Seriously, who really enjoys flying anymore? Any way to make that experience just a bit more pleasant is a welcome relief.

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Thor: Hammer Time in IMAX 3D

Marvel's Asgardian Avenger comes to the really big screen

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted May 6, 2011

When Stan Lee penned the first Thor comic book for what would become Marvel Comics, he probably couldn’t have imagined that almost 50 years later, his Norse superhero (based on the mythological god of thunder) would hit the silver screen — in IMAX3D no less. The result is a big swinging hunk of modern movie myth-making.

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Walmart.com and VUDU, online BFFs

Walmart is putting movie downloads on their website — I stream, you stream, we all can stream now.

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted August 2, 2011

It’s been well over a year since Walmart purchased movie streaming giant VUDU, and until now, the corporate take-over was hardly noticeable. Nothing on VUDU's site mentioned Walmart, and nothing on Walmart’s mentioned VUDU.

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Ford quits the CD: the demise of the "rich man's 8-track tape"

Ford and the CD player: Heading to Divorce Court

If no one is buying CDs anymore, why should cars have CD players?

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted August 4, 2011
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It's a tragic end to a lengthy love story: Ford Motors and the CD player are breaking up after years of happy matrimony. Ford just announced that, moving forward, they will not be installing CD players in the new Ford Focus, with the rest of their models following suit over the next few years.

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Caesar, in Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Listening to the new Rise of the Planet of the Apes

It's the subtle understatement that makes this summer's blockbuster work. Really.

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted August 12, 2011

One of the most anticipated of this summer’s releases, Rise of the Planet of the Apes certainly rises to the hype, thanks to the help of some newfangled technical expertise and a lot of good old-fashioned attention to detail.

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Conan the Barbarian's Jason Momoa

Conan the Barbarian: Bulging Pecs, Beheadings, and Bloodbaths

A surprisingly sophisticated — and entertaining — reboot of the barbaric classic

By Leslie Shapiro
Posted August 23, 2011

Sometimes you go into a movie not knowing how it's going to end. Sometimes, you know exactly how it's going to end. Conan the Barbarian definitely falls into the latter category, but getting there is still worth the ride.

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