Guitar Hero Gone: What Went Wrong?
The premiere plastic guitar game just flamed out. Activision, beset by falling sales, has decided to shutter the division that created Guitar Hero and its sequels. It’s an ignominious exit for a title that was once touted as the first great game franchise of the 21st century. Guitar Hero was created in 2005 by indie studio RedOctane, in collaboration with Harmonix, which had previously found su
8 Musical iPad Apps for the Digital Maestro
Peter Meyers is a digital book producer and the author of Best iPad Apps (O’Reilly Media). He’s covered the intersection of writing and technology for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired and blogs at anewkindofbook.com.Early iPad critics were sure about one thing: This gadget was going to be for consuming, not creating. iPadders, the argument went, will spend all their time feas
“Def Jam Rapstar” Raises the Roof Just Short of Greatness
SingStar or Guitar Hero for hip hop and rap is an obvious idea, but nobody’s done it right — or really at all — before today. Now PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii gamers have Def Jam Rapstar, an intriguing mash of hip hop sensibilities and social media savvy.Def Jam Rapstar is better than 2004’s Get On Da Mic (the only other release in the category) and leaves little to be desired for rap
The Future of the Hotel Industry and Social Media
The Future of Social Media Series is supported by Gist. Gist provides a full view of the contacts in your professional network by creating a rich business profile for each one that includes the most news, status updates, and work details. See how it works here.Unlike many modern industries, most of what a hotel does needs to happen offline. It’s hard to deliver room service or make beds with a cl
From Accelerate 2010 In Singapore: List Of “Asia’s Top 50 Apps”
Earlier this week, I attended Accelerate 2010 in Singapore, a two-day tech and mobile industry event that attracted no less than 2,000 international attendees. Organizer and major telco SingTel (which boasts around 350 million customers worldwide) offered up a slew of presentations and panels. But giving in to my penchant for discovering Asian startups, I will just focus on Accelerate’s so-called
Last.fm Partners With MXP4 To Make Music Ads Sticky
Is it possible to make online ads "sticky" so that users engage with them longer? That's the aim of a new partnership between CBS-owned Last.fm and MXP4, the interactive music startup. Using MXP4's technology, Last.fm is to begin offering brands the option to create ads that users of the music streaming and discovery service can interact with, such as remixing a track in realtime or "singing alon
TechKaraokeSF Afterparty Keeps the #SummerMash Party Going
The San Francisco Summer Tour event may be sold out, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on all the fun. We’re inviting everyone to TechKaraoke, the official afterparty for the Mashable Summer Tour event.Our favorite Karaoke Jockey, Roger Niner, will keep the mic rockin’ with singers all night long at The Parlor. And thanks to Yahoo!, we have prizes for the Best Singer, Best Duet, and Best
The Most Social Music Game Yet: “Def Jam Rapstar”
The new game Def Jam Rapstar from Konami and 4mm Games isn’t just a hip hop karaoke game or a challenging performance simulator like Rock Band 3. It’s a social media platform for building connections, promoting yourself, speaking your mind and maybe (just maybe) becoming an actual rap star.We were given a behind-close-doors tour of the game by representatives from Konami, 4mm Games and Def Jam Ent
Startup Battlefield Round 3: The Final Disruption
We’re down to the final five companies at the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield: Betterment, Movieclips, Publish2, Soluto, and UJAM. This afternoon these companies are all making their last appeals to a panel of expert judges, explaining how they disrupt their respective markets. My live notes from the session are below. The judges: John Borthwick Ron Conway Marissa Mayer Sam Schwartz Quin
Nearly 28,000 Audition for “Glee” via MySpace
Last month, MySpace announced that it was hosting an online casting call for the hit TV show Glee. Well, nearly a month later, close to 28,000 people have submitted auditions and 85,090,415 votes have been cast for these acting hopefuls. As a result of this overwhelming turnout, MySpace has chosen to reopen auditions — they closed yesterday — on Wednesday, April 28 at 12 p.m. PT through Thursday
“Glee” Holds Online Casting Call on MySpace
video Today, MySpace announced that it is officially hosting the casting call for the hit TV show and is accepting submissions from now through April 26. Would-be Gleeks between the ages of 16 and 26 can submit their audition video either by uploading their own pre-recorded video or choosing from a selection of MySpace Karaoke Glee hits on the Glee Auditions Official MySpace Profile. The songs that us
For all your digital guitar playing cheat sheet needs, there's i-Tab
Admit it, you're not really working remotely from home on a Friday. We know, you're sitting at home with your six strings of seduction jamming out to Ryan Adams albums. Well, just in case you need to clear some of that monitor space for actual work -- or a memory jolt during that gig you booked at the local cabana -- i-Tab's got you covered with what it's calling "the world's first electronic son
Gadget Deals of the Day
Get your spending cap on because today's dealz features a fantastic bargain on a 12-month subscription to Xbox Live, a nice discount on one of HP's most portable offerings, and a free version of the new and catchy Yeasayer single. Top Deals: • 14" HP dv4 Core i5 Laptop for $649.99 plus free shipping (normally $740 - use this form). • Xbox Live 12-Month Gold Subscription Card for $34.99 plus free
YouTube Caroling: YouTube Launches $5,000 Singing Contest
video Who doesn’t love carolers? They show up at your door, sing a holiday favorite, and leave, imparting you with Christmas cheer. If caroling is your thing, but you’re not brave enough to bear the winter weather and go door-to-door, YouTube has a rewarding incentive for you to take your tunes to the Web and carol online instead. YouTube Caroling, a new channel from the video site sponsored by Marshall
When In Doubt Throw A Party, And Turn PR Up To 11
Something is up at MySpace. Everything was quiet for a long while as they went through executive turnover and mass layoffs. But suddenly they are back seeking the limelight. CEO Owen Van Natta is making his first public interview next week at the Web 2.0 Summit. The Wall Street Journal, which is owned by the same parent company as MySpace (News Corp.) wrote a glowing if somewhat vague turnaround s
Karaoke Startup PureSolo Gets A Boost With Idol-like Deal
PureSolo, a UK startup which has developed an online music store which lets people record and share their own versions of well-known tracks, will this week launch a special service with hit UK TV show The X Factor, the American Idol-like show. The branded version for the official website will let fans record themselves singing to all those cheesy tracks the show’s contestants are forced to sing fo
Epson's PowerLite 705HD Projector Clocks 720p For Under $750
Today Epson announced two new projectors aimed squarely at budget conscious consumers—the PowerLite Home Cinema 705HD and the MovieMate 60. If you can stand the drop from 1080p, the PowerLite 705HD still brings something to the table when compared to their 8100 model. Most notably, it's less than half the price. The 705HD is 3LCD-based, it delivers 2,500 lumens brightness, 3000:1 contrast and Comp
Yahoo’s New Artist Pages Aggregate Online Music From Across the Web
The Web has transformed and spread around music content - people can find music at Last.fm, iTunes, and YouTube, among dozens of other services. MySpace has become the epicenter of the music scene and the preferred platform for artist web pages, but it doesn’t bring together all of the platforms for music distribution available on the Web. Yahoo’s relaunched Artist Pages, however, do just that.
Lightning Review: The Ultimate Karaoke Experience Kit
We've all seen Karaoke kits, but few have beheld the sheer awesomeness of The Ultimate Karaoke Experience Kit, an online Karaoke service for Mac and PC. The Pitch: It's web karaoke with access to 5,300 songs online, complete with YouTube-esque song recording and sharing. The Price: A $40 kit includes 2 mics and a base unit (free with a year's subscription to 5,000 songs) and $10/month for the ser
The Karaoke Kit: everything you need to be a singer, save for courage
Eager to add a little spice to your weekly "family night?" No, we're not talking about forcing your kids to hack your DS into a MIDI controller while you and the spouse race to see who can eat the most frankfurters in ten minutes, we're talking about karaoke. The KARAOKE Channel ONLINE has just branched out by introducing its first hardware kit, which includes a pair of microphones, a vocal mixer
The 10 Best Android Apps of 2008
Following only two months behind iPhone 2.0 (but at a significant installed-base disadvantage), Android still has a long way to go. But there is definitely some early potential. Here are our favorite apps of the year. I still think Android, and its openness toward developers, can do some magical things and give iPhone a run for its money. But as we stated before, a lot needs to happen first—Andro
'Funny Band' Combines Keyboards, Drums and Guitar Into One Unusable Controller
Sick of all those fake instruments cluttering up your living room? Try Korean-made Funny Band, which takes a guitar and shoves drums on the back and a keyboard on the front for some insane reason. Yeah, I'm not quire sure how you're supposed to use this Rock Band ripoff, but it sure is ambitious. Oh, and you really owe it to yourself to read the press release, which is a masterclass in the art of
Holiday Games: The GigaOM Gift Guide
The holidays and Black Friday are rapidly approaching. If you’re looking for video games to give your friends and loved ones, here’s a cheat sheet of must-have titles, categorized by giftee: for the hardcore gamers you know, for your family, and of course, for your high-tech industry colleagues:10 For High-Tech Execs (And Other Grown-Up Gamers) Age of Empires: Mythologies Available Platforms: Ni
The Karaoke Channel Launches Online Hub
The Karaoke Channel, a video on demand karaoke service that is available through cable in 30 million households, is launching its own online karaoke hub. The site offers a catalog of over 5000 popular karaoke songs, including songs available in a number of foreign languages. If you’d like to try out The Karaoke Channel, the first 500 TechCrunch readers who follow these instructions will be able
SonicSwap Puts Your iTunes Library On The Web For Streaming And Sharing
Since the launch of YouTube’s API and the release of Seeqpod, we’ve seen many sites emerge that allow users to create playlists of their favorite songs that can be streamed free of charge. Unfortunately, this can be a tedious task - oftentimes users are forced to recreate the playlists they already have in iTunes because the sites lack an upload function. SonicSwap, a startup that launched this
New HP Notebooks Boast Hi-Def 16:9 Screens
HP has dropped two notebooks catering to portable home theater addicts. Both computers run Windows Vista SP1 and come with Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processors, Nvidia GeForce 9600M graphics chips, 4GB DDR2 RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a DVD±R/RW drive. The HDX16 has a 16-inch 1366x768 pixel Brightview display and comes with a 320GB hard drive while the HDX18 boasts an 18.4 inch 1920x1080p LCD screen
Improving Accessibility with Ajax/Javascript - Christian Heilmann, @Media Ajax
Blogging from @media Ajax. Christian Heilman is talking about the interaction of Ajax/Javascript and accessibility. BTW Christian's arranging an accessibility event, including a hack day, this Friday/Saturday in London - Scrpting Enabled. Tickets are free, but booking is required. Legislation is not the (only) answer. Smart developers can find ways to work with the technology to improve experience