Caroline McCarthy from CNET has blogged about the almost 0.2 Songbird release. She’s still tied to iTunes but likes Songbird’s potential.
Meet Songbird, the Mozilla-made music mashup | News.blog | CNET News.com
Blogged with Flock
CNET has an article on research Intel is doing into tiny robots that can work together to assemble themselves into any shape. This is it folks. The robots will take any unsuspecting shape to blend in before they attack. The end is nigh. Be prepared to choose the form of the destructor!
Attack of the killer prototype robots | CNET News.com
Blogged with Flock
Major dilemma in
California
Songbird 0.2 RC1 is up on digg. Lot’s of discussion so far. Yeah, it looks a lot like iTunes, but there’s so much more to it. Did I mention that there’s a Songbird eMusic extension?
Are you addicted to the game play of Grand Theft Auto? Do you feel guilty popping the hookers? No? Then this is for you. But for all you humans, check out the Simpson’s Hit and Run game. The game play is the same as Grand Theft Auto but with Simpson’s level violence and humor.
There are lots of good puzzles to solve and the range of vehicles is great — sports cars, rocket cars, monster trucks. The Simpson’s humor is also great. I have to admit, I liked it so much, I let the kids play with me so I could get more time in…with the kids…really:)
I’ve posted a Songbird eMusic Extension. It allows you to play eMusic sample tracks without having to download them into your library first. It also downloads full tracks directly into your library using the Songbird download manager.
Laura and I really like eMusic. It has a surprisingly large music selection, including our friend’s alternative/punk/psych band Alientar. All the tracks are non-DRM’ed MP3, so they play nice with our favorite media player and device. Give it a try!
Agere has announced a chip set for mobile phones that promises CD quality audio. It provides an ARM core and is priced at $30. It is also designed so that the audio processing does not interfere with the communication processing.
Just as with digital cameras, mobile phones are likely to eat into the stand alone music player market. However, one size doesn’t fit all. Super small music players and video/audio players with large screens will continue to have their place.
Are you an aspiring karaoke singer? Are your kids? Mine are, and they love Karaoke Revolution. I’m too old for that kind of thing (yeah, right:). There are a number of karaoke games out there, but this one is unique in that it measures your pitch. Not only does it show you the words to sing, but it shows you the note you should sing and the note you’re actually singing.
The game scores you on how well you hit the notes. It displays your character on stage with a band singing in front of an audience. If you sing well, the audience grows and cheers more. If you sing poorly, the audience shrinks. If you really stink, they’ll boo you off stage.
The song selection is pretty diverse, and there are several different versions of the game to choose from.
My daughter’s singing has improved appreciably from playing this game (mine hasn’t). I wish her song selection improved more. I can only listen to Cher’s “Believe” so many times.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.
Eirk
It seems music stores are coming out of the woodwork. Sony-Ericsson just announched they’re going to do one and tie it into the Walkman phones. This follows Samsung’s announcement of their music service. With the Motorolla’s success (not!) with iTunes and iPhone rumors, one has to wonder if we’ll hear a similar announcement from them.
This is all good news for Songbird. The more music stores, the more reason for an open player that can bring them all together.
Of course, there will likely be some consolidation of stores in the future, as there are probably too many offering too much of the same stuff for all of them to succeed.
Sony Ericsson to launch music download service | CNET News.com
Blogged with Flock