Into Tech

It’s great that the mainstream media has switched on to videogames as an inventive and exciting form of media rather than the work of Beelzebub and all his techno-demons. The only problem is, every new trend is being eulogised as some sort of minor cultural revolution. If you believe everything you read, Wii Fit is going to solve childhood obesity, brain-training games have crushed idiocy, and online casual gaming could eradicate boredom and loneliness by 2012. Global warming? Games will probably have that fixed within the decade.

The latest example involves the rock music sims Guitar Hero and Rock Band - both of which allow users to download new music tracks to twang along to. It turns out this is going to save the music industry. Admittedly, there are some compelling stats doing the rounds - Guitar Hero players have now downloaded over 15m tracks, while Rock Band users are at the 12m mark. Furthermore, when the ageing glam rockers Mötley Crüe recently debuted their latest single on both Rock Band and iTunes, sales were five times higher on the former. Music industry execs everywhere are crawling back from 20th-storey window ledges to their desks.

But let’s look at the groups using Guitar Hero and Rock Band as a distribution platform for new material. So far, Mötley Crüe have been joined by Aerosmith and Metallica, both of which are set to have special editions of Guitar Hero based around them. We’re hardly at the chalkface of contemporary music here. It reminds me of that period in the late 90s when artists such as Peter Gabriel and David Bowie started making awful websites and interactive CD-Roms. Call me back when Crystal Castles, MGMT or No Age start launching songs in this way and maybe we can talk. And no, the fact that Coldplay has just released three tracks for Guitar Hero III doesn’t count.

Most recently, we discovered that the latest Guitar Hero sequel/cash cow, subtitled World Tour, is set to include an “innovative” studio mode, allowing players to “lay down” their own tracks. Amazing. A revolutionary concept. Except, 10 years ago, Codemasters introduced its Music series of sampler/sequencers on PlayStation, and later PlayStation 2. Cheap, yet powerful, these games were employed by a generation of urban artists - Dizzee Rascal for example - to create their first tracks and gain the attention of record labels.

This latest interplay between the game and music industries … well, it’s interesting, but certainly not new or world-shatteringly pertinent. Just as videogames are unlikely to destroy civilisation, they’re probably not going to save it either. At least until Little Big Planet turns us all into brilliant game designers. Or Spore makes us gods.

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Sony Ericsson recently announced a total of five new handsets to the market, spanning the range from budget throwaways to feature-packed behemoths.

We’ll choose one of the latter for this particular report since it offers what we believe is the highest resolution camera on a mobile phone in Europe to date.

The C905 sports no less than 8.1 megapixels, which is set to be the new standard for existing 5MP models to follow. Whether or not we’re getting into ’silly’ territory now is for the consumer to decide. Personally we think that if you’re a good enough photographer to need more than 5MP you’ll also know that you’ll need a proper camera to get the best out of the pictures.

The PSP has been undergoing lots of changes in terms of its functionality this year and Sony has now just confirmed that it will be adding Google Internet search to the handheld with the next software update.

Version 4.00 of the firmware, which is due ’soon’, will deliver Google Internet search directly to the XMB (XrossMediaBar) interface making it snap to search the Web, as long as you’re hooked up via Wi-Fi. The search bar will operate just as it does on your PC, delivering the same search results and keeping a search history of up to 20 items - so that Mum & Dad can see what you’re really looking for.

Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Eric Lempel, director, PlayStation Network operations, wrote:

There’s been no shortage of leaks on the new F305 motion gaming phone from Sony Ericsson but it’s now official.

Boasting ‘fun and entertainment’ as its key goals, the F305 slider boasts motion control that allows you to control the on-screen gaming action with a swing or a swipe of the handset. Just keep a good grip though as I don’t see any Wii-styled wrist strap and HDTVs ain’t cheap.

The F305 arrives with a batch of new Sony Ericsson phones, that includes the sexy 8.1MP C905 camera phone.

The latest PS3 firmware update is cementing the fact that the PS3 is the most capable Blu-ray player on the market.
Firmware 2.30 is due out next week - in Japan first - and adds support for DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, bringing what DTS calls ‘studio-quality’ audio to your HD movies. [...]

In a surprise hook-up, the BBC has announced that it will be porting its iPlayer catch-up TV service to the Nintendo Wii console.

The insanely popular iPlayer service, which has just reported 42 million downloads and streams in the last 3 months, will be a channel on the Wii’s Internet Channel.
Once the iPlayer service for Wii [...]

In a surprise hook-up, the BBC has announced that it will be porting its iPlayer catch-up TV service to the Nintendo Wii console.

The insanely popular iPlayer service, which has just reported 42 million downloads and streams in the last 3 months, will be a channel on the Wii’s Internet Channel.
Once the iPlayer service for Wii [...]

Sony always charges extra for its TVs compared to other manufacturers. Sometimes it’s worth it and other times it not. The company will probably charge more too for its new high-end LCD TVs but it’s banking on some new sexy features to justify the extra layout.
The Bravia W4000 are to be the flagship tellys [...]

Hot on the heels of Amazon MP3, social networking site MySpace has announced plans to launch a music download service to rival iTunes.
Called MySpace Music, the service has the backing of Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal which will act as partners in the venture. It will offer DRM-free downloads, paid for videos, free music [...]

Sony has confirmed that owners of the PSP will be able to transfer copies of their Blu-ray movies to the device later this year.
The company is working on a technology called Portable Copy that will allow PS3 owners to transfer Blu-ray movies - a standard def version only - to their PSPs. Still, [...]