Hello, hello - Hola

Well the new album is finally out . . . I haven't heard it yet but will expect a full review from a www.castlebar.ie contributor any day now - c'mon people get them headphones on and get typing.

Of course the new U2 version of the Apple iPod is also out and it's available in any colour you want as long as it's black!

Personally I'm drawn towards getting one of these yokes but I already have a 1 GB MP3 player and would really only get an iPod to make use of the iTunes service that Apple is offering - which is a bit of a problem as at the moment they only offer that service in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, UK!!!

IPod Dubh

I can't believe that Luxembourg made the list before we did - surely we'd purchase more songs from the iTunes service than them (just look at all the ringtones we buy in this country).

Also whilst the U2 iPod comes with the offer of an iTunes Music Store coupon which you can use to save off your purchase of “The Complete U2”. A digital boxed set that brings together 400 U2 tracks. from “Boy” to “War” to “The Joshua Tree” to “Zooropa” to the soon-to-be-released “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”, it includes every U2 album and also has over 25 rare and unreleased tracks - but how are we supposed to avail of this if we can't use the iTunes service to download these songs !!!

I've contacted Apple in Ireland and they say that they've been given no date as to when the iTunes service will be made available in Ireland but that they believed that any hold up was due to complicated licensing on the Irish side of things - I'd believe them too, what's the bet that the Irish music industry forces them to charge a higher price for downloads too !