Earlier this month, LEVEL-5 released their first game for iOS: Liberation Maiden. Originally an eShop title for the Nintendo 3DS, Liberation Maiden is a sci-fi shooter directed by critically acclaimed developer Goichi Suda (SUDA51) from Grasshopper Manufacture. We fired off some questions to LEVEL-5, and received answers from CEO Akihiro Hino, and the producer on the project, Takeshi Ogura.

Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, who will portray Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the upcoming film jOBS, came to MacWorld/iWorld yesterday for an interview about making the film, and what drew them to the project. The two addressed the recent criticism that Woz leveled at a clip of the film, with Gad getting another laugh by saying “I hadn’t heard that, what did he say?”

Feral Interactive continues to provide Mac gamers with some of the biggest titles in the gaming industry. We’re now on the edge of the Empire: Total War – Gold Edition release, and took this opportunity to speak with Edwin Smith, executive producer at Feral Interactive, about Total War, digital distribution, rabid fans and the strength of Mac gaming.

“I personally think iTunes does so much more for a band than having physical CDs, unless you are playing a show. We’d love to have our music in more stores, but without iTunes, we wouldn’t have any way to share our music. The Internet is the only reason we do anything as a band. The Internet has rediscovered music and made it widespread, and for that, we are thankful.”

“The digital realm is weird. I don’t know what to think of it yet myself. Capitalism is based on consumerism, and now we’ve got a whole generation of people trained to the idea that they’re buying something that doesn’t really exist. They’re buying something that’s in a cloud. And I don’t know if that’s going to fly for too long.”

If you don’t already listen to The Tech Night Owl LIVE with Gene Steinberg, you should tune in. Billed as “Your ultimate tech radio resource,” Gene runs the gamut on tech topics and guests, and Apple is almost always a main point of discussion. This week I spoke with Gene about Tim Cook’s appearance at D10, what’s ahead at WWDC, and the non-existant app that burns Appletell headlines into your morning bagel.

“When Jobs came back, he single handedly saved the music business. I know iTunes was a way for him to sell iPods, but he came up with the perfect invention to make sure the out of control pirating was laid waste with one fell swoop, and legitimized (online music) and made sure we artists and songwriters got paid. We, as an artist community, owe a debt of gratitude to Apple for solutions to a lot of the problems that plagued us and were about to put us out of business.”

Appletell speaks with Jake Ward, head of communication at the Application Developers Alliance, a nonprofit services organization that launched in January 2012 during CES. The Alliance supports independent developers across every language by providing access to collaboration, education, networking and business matching resources.

“The Music Business is a living, organic thing that changes all the time; parts of it live, parts of it die, it adapts because it has to absorb new technologies. Personally, I don’t think iTunes has helped or hurt musicians, we’re still in the same boat, trying to stay afloat. It’s easier for us to distribute our own music, but now the amount of music available to everyone is massive. I think iTunes actually hurt the listener!”

From its introduction in April of 2003, the iTunes Music Store has changed the way we buy and listen to music. Some say for the better, some say for the worse, but no one can downplay its importance. In this series of Articles, Appletell talks with musicians about the birth of iTunes, the death of the CD, the life and afterlife of the LP, and plenty more.