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With more references to Justin Bieber than a Valentine’s day party at an all-girls Canadian middle school, Music Hackday rolled into New York City this past weekend. Event organizers John Britton and Dave Haynes noted this had been the biggest Music Hack Day yet, with 72 demos. Hundreds of hackers showed up and a waiting list of hopefuls swelled to 300. Hacks included invisible iPhone instruments, Kinect hacks, web-based sequencers and SMS valentines day tributes.

Remember when music was cool? Back in the days of Napster, it was music that defined file-sharing; millions of people raced to listen to the most obscure artists found in the libraries of friends and strangers. But that was back when music came on CD, was sold only by the album, and was a chore to rip to computers and (gasp!) transfer to the new MP3 players.

It seems like just about everyone is getting a reality show. "Real" housewives, ex-strippers, repo-men, Hawaiian bounty hunters, power gays in New York, and folks competing to be videogame testers are just a few of the folks that have TV crews following them around these days. Now, hackers can be added to the ever-growing list, as a computer security firm has just announced that it's signed a deal for a documentary-style show that its promising will thrill audiences everywhere.

The Pirate Bay crew is preparing to launch a new new service dedicated to sharing music files, according to reports.

The outfit registered a web site called themusicbay.org some years ago but the site has remained dormant ever since. It currently redirects to the The Pirate Bay, as those who clicked on the link will have quickly realised.

Music is taking to the clouds after Sony said it is expanding its cloud-based digital Music Unlimited service around Europe to enable fans to access music on their digital devices.

After being launched in the United States, Britain and Ireland, Sony's "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" service, is being extended to France, Germany, Spain and Italy, Sony said in an announcement to coincide with Sunday's opening of the MIDEM music industry convention on the French Riviera.

The Digital Entertainment Series is supported by the Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X10, the seriously entertaining smartphone that knows how to have fun. Check it out here.

It's a great time to be a tech geek with a love for the cinema. Not only is film technology evolving at a breakneck pace, the subject matter for films is also targeting tech audiences in a more nuanced, fulfilling way.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I debuts in theaters this Friday, November 19, but apparently three days just isn’t enough for some people. According to Torrent Freak, a copy of the film has already leaked online and hundreds of thousands of people are already downloading it. This is a bad move for multiple reasons, including the fact that it might be a cover to bring viruses and trojans onto your computer.

Think how awesome it was the first time you saw a lightsaber in action. Or how your mind was officially shredded when Neo mastered the Matrix. Technology in movies is cool. When artfully filmed, gadgets, gizmos, robots, and computers can captivate and amaze audiences.

But for every thrilling example of cool-ass tech, Hollywood seems to produce a tired, dated cliche. There's the obligatory no-cell-phone-service scene in horror flicks. There are robots with ATTITUDE in science fiction. There are impossible user interfaces in action films. The list goes on and on.

By modding a geeky toy and connecting it to a vintage synthesizer, an indie rocker/hacker has created a trippy instrument that lets him make music with his mind.

Robert Schneider, singer/guitarist for The Apples in Stereo, made his Teletron by cracking open a Mattel Mindflex, a mind-control game that employs an EEG sensor to let players move a small ball through a maze using nothing but brain waves.

Kanye West doesn't like... hackers. The fashionable MC announced last night (September 29) that he's suspending his "G.O.O.D. Fridays" series — in which he planned to provide fresh tracks every week through Christmas — this week after a track from his forthcoming album, the Bon Iver-sampling "Lost in the World," hit the Internet on Wednesday (September 29). Despite your resounding vote that the song was amazing, West wasn't crestfallen.