Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs' absence at this year's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, amid rumors that he has a life-endangering illness, threatened to upstage the company's 2009 product announcements. Jobs, whose noticeable weight loss is reported to be caused by a hormone imbalance, did not deliver the keynote address as he has in the past. Last week, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Philip Schiller did the honors.

But the company did have some big news for iTunes shoppers: They'll be able to purchase tracks at three price levels, instead of the current 99-cents-per-song price. Top hits will now go for $1.29, and other tracks will be priced at 99 and 69 cents, with pricing set by record companies.

The sound quality will be improved, too.

Many iTunes tracks are sold with digital right management protection (DRM). In a move to better compete with other music download sites like Amazon and eMusic, iTunes songs will be DRM-free, meaning that users can move them to other computers and copy them. iTunes already offers some DRM-free material. The bulk of its library -- about 8 million tracks -- will be DRM-free this week. By the end of March, the entire 10 million-song library will be sold this way.

People stuck with protected iTunes downloads will be able to convert them to DRM-free files for a 30-cent fee.

www.macworldexpo.com

www.apple.com

Remember when we had to leave our homes and go to the video rental place to get movies, instead of streaming them online or getting them out of our mailboxes? It's convenient, sure, but there's one thing these new delivery platforms can't replace: the incredibly knowledgeable video store clerk, who seemingly had seen every movie ever made and could make suggestions for you based on what you like. Don't you miss him/her?

That clerk is back -- in a virtual form. Clerk Dogs, a new movie recommendation site, has launched in a beta version.

Founder and CEO Stuart Skorman, a former video-store clerk himself who also founded the movie site Reel.com, has reunited some of the Reel.com staff, fellow clerks and movie fans for this project. They've constructed an intuitive database that matches qualities shared by movies and charts each film's DNA.

For example, type in "Silence of the Lambs," and the site's recommendations include "Seven," "Psycho," "Kalifornia" and "Hannibal." This film's DNA ranks high for "character depth," "terror" and "violence." The user can manipulate these qualities -- e.g., turn down the violence level -- and generate a new list.

The number of titles is limited for now: You won't find everything you're looking for while doing a search. Browse and advanced-search features will be added later.

For people looking to rent or buy a film, there are links to Amazon, Blockbuster and Netflix sites, and links to the Internet Movie Database for more information on the films.

www.clerkdogs.com

The Great American Songbook is vanishing from the airwaves, with only a handful of stations still carrying the Standards format. Pittsburgh is one of the holdouts, with WJAS-AM (1320).

But while artists like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett get far less airplay than they used to, they are still popular. And a new generation of artists -- Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr. and others -- have revived the boomer generation's interest in this music.

Web radio station "Martini in the Morning" mixes these old-school and contemporary artists together in a heady musical cocktail that has become a popular destination for listeners.

"Martini in the Morning" has made its way to mainstream radio, too: On Jan. 1, it started broadcasting on KPHX-AM in Phoenix in morning drive.

The show is produced by Standard Media Group, which is headed by former Clear Channel radio programmer Brad Chambers.

martiniinthemorning.com