Apple public relations confirmed to Fortune that Steve Jobs will deliver a keynote address on June 9, the first day of the 2008 World Wide Developers conference.

Source

Ai-chan will celebrate her anniversary on stage again.

The 2008 LOVE IS BORN concerts have been announced:

[公演日/会場]
2008年9月9日(火)
大阪城野外音楽堂

September 9, 2008 (Tuesday)
Oosakazyou Hall concert

2008年9月10日（水）
大阪城野外音楽堂

September 10, 2008 (Wednesday)
Oosakazyou open-air concert hall

2008年9月14日（日）
日比谷野外大音楽堂

September 14, 2008 (Sunday)
Large open-air concert hall in Hibiya

Official Website

http://www.avexnet.or.jp/ai/

Source

Japan (JAP)

Official Languages : Japanese
Capital : Tokyo
Area : 377 835 km²
Population : 127 610 00
Currency : Yen (¥)
Time Zone : UTC +9
Instituts : Media Create / Famitsu

Week : April 28th to May 4th, 2008

Mario Kart Wii

Software :

01 (=) (Wii) Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 173 387
02 (=) (PSP) Monster Hunter 2^nd G (Capcom) - 102 320
03 (N) (Wii) Link’s Crossbow Training (Nintendo) - 92 534
04 (+) (Wii) Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 51 851
05 (-) (NDS) Taiko no Tatsujin DS 2 (Namco Bandai) - 42 416
06 (+) (NDS) Pokémon Ranger 2 (Nintendo) - 30 675
07 (=) (NDS) We’re Fossil Diggers (Nintendo) - 26 661
08 (-) (PS3) Valkyria Chronicles (Sega) - 24 422
09 (R) (Wii) Deca Sporta (Hudson) - 24 302
10 (R) (Wii) Wii Sports (Nintendo) - 21 979

Out this Week :

- (NDS) Summon Night (Namco Bandai), 5^th last week
- (NDS) Calligraphy Training (Nintendo), 9^th last week
- (PS2) Warriors Orochi 2 (Koei), 10th last week

Hardware :

01 PSP - 100 870
02 Wii - 71 518
03 DS Lite - 52 542
04 PS3 - 10 177
05 PS2 - 8 802
06 Xbox 360 - 1 725

Source

Hikaru Utada’s latest album, “HEART STATION” has surpassed the million mark in sales.

Released on March 19, it is her sixth Japanese album and continues to sell strongly in its 8th week, coming in at #4 this week on Oricon’s weekly album ranking.

Each of her original studio album (“First Love → HEART STATION”) has been successful in shipping over 1 million units.

All six have become million sellers, with a total of 20 million copies sold among them.

The songs from “HEART STATION” are also faring well digitally, with 15 million downloads achieved so far.

Official Website

http://www.emimusic.jp/hikki/

Source

Compilation album from the July 2008 Nano-Mugen Festival featuring new tracks from Ash, Speace Cowboy, Straightener, Art-School, and, of course, Asian Kung-Fu Generation.

Catalog No.: KSCL-1256
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 1
Release Date: 2008/07/09
Price: 2400<!–US$ &outer.priceindoll;/ –>yen (2520yen Tax incl.)
[EUR 14.93]
Item weight: 120 g

(ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION - presents Nano-Mugen Compilation 200

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=KSCL-1256

Official Website

http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/AKG/

Please support your favorite singer(s) and me in the same time by buying their Cds. Thanks!

Source

As you can read on Manichi Shimbun newspaper, the next live of L’Arc~en~Ciel is already planned for 2011.

This is mean we won’t have any live for 3 years?! So no new album this year or next year? It’s hard to say more…but wait and see. (Starting save money :p)

They still have their 5 days live performing 3 times at Tokyo Dome, 2 at Osaka Dome and this week in Seoul (Korea).

I think that they take the break they need.

This capture reveal also more information about their next single “NEXUS 4“, now we know that “SHINE” will be probably the B-side track. No Pun’k~en~Ciel…

The single is planned for Summer 2008.

The picture was taken at Le Zénith on May 9th, 2008 (L’Arc Paris’s venue) the title says:

“The French says they are great artist as great Europeans artist”

“L’Arc~en~Ciel is enter in The Legend of Rock”

Official Website

http://www.larc-en-ciel.com/

Source

Previous: 2008.5.04 Chung Shan Soccer Stadium - Taipei
Current: 2008.5.09 Le Zénith - Paris
Next: 2008.5.17 Olympic Gym in Olympic Park - Seoul

Preview

5月9日に行なわれたL’Arc～en～Ciel、初のパリ公演のライヴ速報が到着！

会場はLe Zenith de Paris。ライヴの4日前から熱烈なパリジャン＆パリジェンヌが列をなして「布団持参」で入場待ちをする景色も見受けられ、待望の初来仏に対する熱の高さをまざまざと感じさせた.

会場には約5500人 が訪れ、ライヴが始まる前から手拍子や歓声が上がり続ける興奮状態。その歓声や足踏みは楽屋にいるメンバーにも大きく届き、ヴォーカ ルのhydeは歓声に合わせながら叫び声をあげたり、バンド名として考えると故郷にあたる地で（L’Arc～en～Cielとはフランス語で「虹」を意味 する言葉）、特別な時間を楽しんでいた。ちなみに今回のライヴは衛星生中継で日本各地の映画館へ中継されており、深夜3時からの「レイト・ショウ」を多く の人々が楽しんだ模様だ。More

Simply phenomenal! Read my complete report of the event.

It’s under my “Live Report” section:

http://listentheworld.wordpress.com/live-report/larcenciel-tour-2008-l7-trans-asia-via-paris-zenith/

Tracklist:

01. get out from the shell -asia version-
02. Driver’s High
03. Killing Me
04. DRINK IT DOWN
05. DAYBREAK’S BELL
06. winter fall
07. 花葬
08. My Dear
09. forbbiden lover
10. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
11. Caress of Venus
12. REVELATION
13. SEVENTH HEAVEN
14. Pretty girl
15. STAY AWAY -member change version-
16. READY STEADY GO
17. NEO UNIVERSE
18. HONEY
19. Link
20. あなた

Merci L’Arc~en~Ciel

Official Website

http://www.larc-en-ciel.com/

http://www.myspace.com/larcenciel

Source

Jzip is based on the open source 7-Zip, which delivers the 2 most important features you would want out of a compression program (a) very high compression ratios, meaning that your compressed files created with this program will be as small or smaller in size than many comparable compression programs out there, and (b) excellent compression speed.

The most consistent criticism of 7zip has always been its rudimentary interface, and Jzip offers the kind of user friendly interface for managing files/archives that 7-Zip’s interface lacks (and that is offered by many archive utilities); such as:

• Display folder trees on the left-pane, explorer-style.
• Create folders/subfolders and drag files into these from within the Jzip interface.
• Switch between icon, thumbnail, list and detail view, explorer style.
• File sorting. Also supports sorting by clicking on column headers in detail view.
• Wildcard select (e.g. select all .jpg files within an archive)
• The ability to view compressed files without having to extract them from the archive first.

Where jZip and 7Zip do not differ:

• Both will compress and extract archives in 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR formats and will extract RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS formats.
• Both will extract multiple archives into their respective folders through the context menu.
• Drag and drop files to/from the interface available in both
• Right click context menu looks exactly the same. Altogether not a bad thing since it is very simple and functional, although I would have liked the ability to customize it.
• That wonderful simplicity. Part of the reason why 7Zip is so popular, apart from its performance, is its economical simplicity. I am glad to report that Jzip retains that feeling even when it enhances the user experience.

Wish list (or how this program can be even better):
For a program whose entire reason for being is to deliver a better interface, it makes sense for Jzip to offer the following:

• Skins
• The ability to customize the context menu.
• Provide zip icon alternatives. The one Jzip provides actually looks really cool, although I’m not too sure about its yellow-ochre color. Would have preferred more orange/red color myself (note: if you would like to change your deault zip icons or the icons for any file type, you can use Icon Phile).
• That wonderful simplicity. Part of the reason why 7Zip is so popular, apart from its performance, is its economical simplicity. I am glad to report that Jzip retains that feeling even when it enhances the user experience.

What’s new?

1. Added “webmail compression tool” - compresses file attachments on-the-fly.
2. Fixed a bug in which the shell context menu wasn’t shown, when working on 64bit operating systems.
3. Fixed text cut issue on the “action” stroller (in “add files” dialog), under windows 2000.
4. Fixed issue with wrong text being displayed, when clicking on “more” button on the “add files” dialog.
5. Status line now shows information regarding split archives (Actual size, archive size, number of parts).
6. Added estimated number of split parts, when trying to split existing archive.
7. Fixed issue in which “save location” wasn’t saved, when creating new archive from the shell context menu.
8. Fixed file association problem, which occurred after running CCleaner registry scan.
9. Added “promotional link” feature.
10. Added more sorting options to the “view – sort” menu.
11. Re-arranged the sort list, under “configuration – style – sort by”
12. Added “time remaining \ time elapsed” to the progress bar, when compressing or extracting archives.
13. Installer now includes an option to add a “quick launch” icon to the jzip application.
14. Fixed an issue in the command line support, which causes the default compression size to be set to none.
15. Progress dialog now shows actual number of files being extracted, instead of total number of files in archive.
16. Set global standard to all jzip dialogs, to use same button order and placement.
17. Fixed issue which causes the text on the “add with wildcards” to be cut, when choosing different action.
18. Added more settings: watermark removal and full-row selection
19. Extra windows firewall warning removed

Official Website

http://www.jzip.com/

Source

One of Oricon’s latest survey asked 500 womans: “By which artist would you like to be woken up?”

1) Masaharu Fukuyama
2) Hiroshi Tamaki
3) Teppei Koike (WaT)
4) Hiro Mizushima
5) Kouichi Doumoto (KinKi Kids)
6) Yuusuke Kamiji (Shuuchishin)
7) Mokomichi Hayami Shun Oguri
9) Hyde (L’Arc~en~Ciel)
9bis) Jun’ichi Okada (V6)

Source

Guests for the next Music Station are revealed !

Next Program :

おかえり / 絢香
スペシャルメドレー / KAT-TUN
ウクイウタ / かりゆし58
NOBODY KNOWS / スガ シカオ
Hi-Five / Superfly
Dreams come true / Hey! Say! JUMP

Official Website

http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/music/

Source

Hey! You was there? I’m collecting photos!

Unfortunately my camera run out of battery, I couldn’t take photos…That’s why I want to see yours!

You can send me by email or just put just a link to your photos I’ll collect them.

I want to make a big Photo’s album.

Here is Photobucket Album:

http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/nn166/TheSoldatRyan/Laruku%20Trans%20Asia%20via%20Paris/?albumview=slideshow

Let’s share our photos!

(Soon…)

Credits to respective authors:

• Kei-o
• makoenergy
• MOPIOU Kun
• Yaourtboy
• maiiya
• Dlyan / dirYx
• Aalen
  

YUI National Tour has started on May 5th in her birth place “Fukuoka”.

05/05 - 22nd street - Fukuoka Sun Palace

Tracklist:

Laugh away
My Generation My Generation
Find me Find me
[MC]
CHE.R.RY
feel my soul feel my soul
Understand
I will love you I will love you
[MC]
Namidairo
My friend My friend
TOKYO
[MC]
How crazy How crazy
Rolling star Rolling star
[MC]メンバー紹介 Members
No way No way
Daydreamer
Love is all Love is all
Highway chance Highway chance
Am I wrong? Am I wrong?

【Encore】
Tomorrow’s way Tomorrow’s way
HELP
OH YEAH OH YEAH
LIFE
[MC]メンバー紹介 Members
Good-bye days Good-bye days

Report

YUI’s has posted their diary for this live, you can read (in Japanese) it here:

http://playlog.jp/yuistaff/blog/2008-05-06

The translated version by uchihamel.

“Nationwide tour starts!

Good day everyone!
To fans in Fukuoka, thank you very much for yesterday.
It was a wonderful first performance.

There were many people who came to the concert,
and we managed to see many smiling faces.

First day of tour.
It was an eventful day of encounters (with fans).
There were many heart-warming cheers from YUI’s Fukuoka fans,
hence it was really a joyous and fun occassion.

With such a brilliant start marking the end of yesterday,
We pray that all will go well with the tour which will be continuing for more than 2 months.
We even performed a little “ritual” during the rehearsal before the start of the concert!
(The altar is on the stage! Woah!)

The “musical journey” has begun!
By the time of the last performance in July, it will really be full summer.
YUI will be overcoming and dashing through the seasons~~! (lol)
To people all over the country,
Let’s all get high!

Oita is tomorrow!

Wait for us~~ (lol)

As such,
Adieu”

You can also read a very nice report by a fan who was there:

http://driftwood.blog3.fc2.com/en/blog-entry-1501.html

You don’t have many news about Hikki last weeks, she’s fine it’s just she went to New-York last week. I guess, it was for her second English album.

In the same time her upcoming single “Prisoner of Love” reach 1.4 million digital copy sold. The recent add of the “Quiet Version” has considerably boosted sales.

The song is ranker N°1 on iTune Japan, same for her latest album “Heart Station”.

It’s already a success for Utada Hikaru!

Reminder: Her single in CD format will be release on May 21th, 2008.

You’re still waiting for the full version of the PV which should be on air on M-ON soon.

Official Website

http://www.emimusic.jp/hikki/

Source

New Maxi Single*~YUI

Release Date Jul 02, 2008
Artist YUI
Genre J-Pop
Version Japan
Catalog No. SRCL-6817/8

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-cw-49-en-70-2qvc.html

A rumors said this single should be a 80-sh Rock Song~

It will be also the main theme of a new movie.

*Maxi single is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks.

L’Arc~en~Ciel in Paris, Press conference, Thurday, 8th of may, 2008

Bonjour L’Arc~en~Ciel, welcome to Paris.
First of all, could you please introduce yourselves?
hyde: “hyde desu”.
ken: “Bonjour, ken desu”.
tetsu: “tetsu desu”.
yukihiro: “yukihiro desu”.

Thank you very much. I’m sure you haven’t had time to look around yet, but what is your first impression of Paris?
ken: We didn’t do a lot. We took a walk to the Tuileries, it’s a nice place, that was yesterday. It looks like a Japanese park called Yoyogi Koen, it looks very nice and it was very relaxing.

Is it your first visit to France?
hyde: It’s my first time.
ken: It’s the third time for me.
tetsu: First time.
yukihiro: It’s also the first time for me.

Do you have any particular places you would like to go while you’re in Paris?
hyde: There are many places I would like to go, like some small and retired island like Mont Saint-Michel. I really hope I could find some time to go there.
yukihiro: Yes, I would like to see the Mont Saint-Michel too.

“L’Arc~en~Ciel”, the band name, is French. Do you have special feelings for France?
hyde: I’ve always wanted to come to France. I’m really happy to be here.

In comparison to your previous international tours, you are visiting more countries ; you are doing a Trans Asia tour via Paris. Is there a special theme for that tour?
hyde: Well there is a big ship called L’Arc~en~Ciel and it’s shipping to all the countries. We fell like we are on board of this ship.

On this tour you have performed in Shanghai and Taipei already. You also have chosen to perform in Paris. Why this choice?
ken with lots of enthusiasm: We had a lot of opportunities and we talked a lot about it. At first we were saying “Maybe we should go to Stockholm, or any other German cities, we could visit many countries…” Then suddenly it became clear: “no, no, no, that’ll be Paris ! There’s only Paris, right!?” Of course there are other cities, but in our minds, it was Paris. Paris, and nowhere else. Plus, there’s the link between our name, L’Arc-en-ciel, and Paris, L’Arc-en-ciel in Paris, all that, it sounded great.
hyde: Absolutely!
ken: So we thought “This is it! We have to come to Paris at least once!” So that’s why we chose Paris as the first place to ship on the boat.

Are the fans reactions different in Japan and in France?
yukihiro: Yes they are very different. In Japan, we have already performed a lot of shows, so we kind of know how our fans will react and what they expect. But for the places that we have never been to… Well we are very excited and we welcome this event.

Tomorrow’s live show will be broadcasted in five theatres in Japan. Is there a special meaning for doing this?
tetsu: This is the first time for us to perform in Europe, so we wanted to share the excitement with the Japanese fans. It’s the first time that a Japanese artist experiment this!

Have you planned something special for tomorrow’s show?
hyde: Well… it’s the first time we are performing in Paris, the first time that European people here will see us on stage. So what we want, is that everybody understand well what is L’Arc~en~Ciel. That’s what we will aim for.

Which song of your new album Kiss (released in Europe a few days ago) is the more fun to play on stage?
hyde: Pretty girl. We have so much fun on this one.

Will we hear the song about Christmas (Hurry Xmas) of the last album?
hyde: Well… we had an issue about the Christmas song: should we play it in summer? [It’s very hot in Paris, today !]

hyde, why is the title of the album “Kiss“?
hyde: A kiss is a beautiful thing. We thought about shaking hands, but to shake hands could have different interpretation, even a political one, or something else. But a kiss is more intimate and more beautiful. I wish that people all over the world can connect and make such magical things as kiss each other. That is what this title means.

Is the concert in France the first one of a long series of concerts in Europe and all over the world, just not only in Asia?
yukihiro and ken begun simultaneously: Hmmm…
Everybody laugh. Finally yukihiro spoke.
yukihiro: We don’t have any plan yet. But yes, this is a great opportunity to go outside of Japan. I think we definitely work on it.

Did you know that you were one of the most wanted and awaited Asian bands in Europe, and more specifically in France?
ken: We check regularly the internet and we didn’t thought we have that much fans in Europe. Are you sure? Can we trust you on this?
Press: Yes! [L’Arc~en~Ciel was top ranking in several categories of the French Asian MUSIC eXtreme Awards 2007, included second best rock album with Kiss, and third most wanted Asian artist/band for a live show in France. The vote was made on a panel of about 800 French people]
ken: So if we have fans, you can tell them to write messages to us, we’ll check them. Please!
Press agrees and smiles.

Does it feel weird for you that European people listen to Japanese music?
tetsu: Well we grew up listening to international music, so it’s the same thing with people who listen to Japanese music. So I hope the people here will accept Japanese music.

You have an old song called C’est la vie. Why did you choose a French title for this song?
hyde: It’s a very old song. It is a very catchy and nice song. We thought that the sound of the expression “c’est la vie!” matched perfectly the dynamic of the song.

Will you play it tomorrow?
hyde opening his eyes wide open: Waoh!
Everybody laugh.
hyde, joking: We’ll have to practice before…

After more than fifteen years of career, what do you musically want? Do you want to go on with the same sound or do you want to re-invent everything?
tetsu: I believe that with the last fifteen years of experience and, time passing by, we feel that it’s really cool at that point. We will continue to find the way to make good stuff. So probably, during the next phase, we’ll always have to find what is cool, what is the right thing to do as a band.

You produce songs for anime and video games sometimes. How do you choose the animes, why do you agree to compose for such and such product? Is it because you enjoy them?
hyde: It doesn’t matter if I create music for an anime or purely for music. When I work for an anime song, I imagine myself as the music director of the anime or movie. So, I’m more into what’s behind the story set, that’s how I make music for it.
yukihiro: I’m not really into games or anime, so I make music for music. However, I don’t dislike it when our music is used for this kind of products. I’m quite happy of it actually.

What surprised you the most during your tour so far?
yukihiro: We’ve done two shows in Asia until now but today this is our first time in Paris and I’m really looking forward for tomorrow’s live show.
tetsu: We haven’t done the third show yet but, so far, when we performed in Shanghai it was outside and it was pouring loudly, we were in the middle of a big storm, and I was so afraid that somehow I could have an electric shock.
ken: Well the second show in Taipei it was also outside and it is so comfortable to play outside. But the surprise happened in the plane, during the flight on our back from Taiwan to Tokyo, I watched a movie that I wanted to see for a long time, and the movie was horribly boring. That surprised me.
hyde: Well nothing in what happened really surprised me but during the last two shows, I already felt like “Ok, this is it! We are worthy to go out of Japan because of our hard work”. If you come tomorrow, you will see the best show ever. So please come and see us tomorrow.

Do you know some French bands or music?
hyde: Vanessa Paradis.
ken: Jane Birkin.
tetsu: Charlotte Gainsbourg.
yukihiro: Daft Punk.

Will there be a live DVD of tomorrow show?
hyde: I don’t know when it will be release but yes, there will be a DVD of the show.

Thank you very much for the press conference.

Source

There’s a very preview of “NEXUS 4″ From Subaru CM.

No release date has been announced for the single yet.

Hey! Listen the world blog is back!

Well sorry for the trouble but it’s not from my will… All this because of “One Piece 351″ post…(already removed now)

I don’t know a long it’ll continue but I won’t put “Naruto Shippuden”, “One Piece”, “Bleach” and others Tv shows here, I’m sure you know where to find it faster than looking here. ^_^

Thanks for your concerns, enjoy this rebirth!

Let’s restart slowly but surely.

Here is the same blog but I called it “Backup” in case this blog is suspend again:

http://listentheworld.free.fr/

Seventh single release from Anna Tsuchiya features a combined rock/R&B sound performed in collaboration with Japanese R&B singer AI. Single also includes bonus remix by Fantastic Plastic Machine. This edition includes bonus DVD with the music video for “Crazy World.”

“What you gonna do?” Preview:

Tracklist:

01. Crazy World
02. What you gonna do?

Catalog No.: CTCR-40277
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 2
Release Date: 2008/06/11
Price: 1600yen (1680yen Tax incl.)
[EUR 9.78]
Item weight: 200 g

Vienus Jean CM

Anna’s New Song “What you gonna do?” will be included in the single.

(Anna Tsuchiya feat. AI Single - Crazy World Regular Edition)

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=CTCR-40277

Official Website

http://anna-t.com/

Source

Do like Hikki and YUI switch to Mac!

My favorite female singers, YUI and Utada Hikaru, are both using a Mac!

In her last PV we see Utada writing her song using a Mac. It’s certainly a “Macbook Pro” and the “Apple Cinema Display“.

Here is her keyboard “Roland ED PC-300 USB MIDI Controller“:

For YUI, she received a “Macbook Air” for her 21th anniversary as a present!

She said it looked like “Shiroi koibit“.

H’z #158 YUI Interview

Tanjoubi puresento, Yui talking about her birthday presents.

1. Recent activities
2. Album information
3. Welch
4. 3rd Tour
5. Summer Fes
6. Birthday presents - Martin-ish cake, Mac Book Air
7. Her most nervous moment - Can’t really pick one, too many of it, maybe during the opening of Budoukan.
8. Private life - Have a walk, watch Sakura
9. My boom - Green tea flavoured incense.

Link:

http://www.mbs.jp/hz/20080426/mc.shtml

Now they’ll not lose their songs by a blue screen of the death ^^

Looking for their headphones?

http://listentheworld.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/about-artists-headphones/

Messenger for Mac 7 is an integrated communications client that enables you to communicate with contacts within and outside your organization. Messenger for Mac 7 is a Universal application that is built to run on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs and makes it easy to take advantage of the full power of real-time communications.

Official Website

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/messenger/

Source