Posts Filed under: Music Hound

You're buying so many tech gifts this year, so wouldn't it be nice of those companies actually gave you a present in addition to their products? Yes, we thought so, too.

We saw an interesting deal between Sharp and new video-on-demand service Vudu, where the purchase of a new Aquos LCD display gets you a free Vudu set-top box and $50 in download credit. You'll put that to good use, for sure.

But instead of melting your brain on all that video, wouldn't it be nice if you actually read a book now and then? Click your way to Sony's site, where you'll find a deal that will put 100 classic books in your hands when you buy one of its Readers, a competitor to the Amazon Kindle. The books offered include such classics as Mark Twain's 'Huckleberry Finn' and H.G. Wells' 'The Time Machine.'

Finally, if you're looking for an audio experience, buying the Microsoft Zune will garner you a $20 gift card from Best Buy or $15 in downloads from Amazon.com.

Let's see, that's video, words, music... looks like we've covered our bases.

Related links:

• Video Downloads Coming to PlayStation 3
• Amazon's New Kindle Displays eBooks and Newspapers
  
• Zune Originals 8-Gigabyte (GB)
  

Samsung P2
$250, samsungusa.com

Most so-called iPod-killers hardly live up to the name, much less Apple's digital audio player, but Samsung's P2 is pretty darn close. The size of a pack of Dentyne, and yet boasting a three-inch, 16:9 touchscreen, the P2 is a perfect alternative for iTunes haters, or just somebody who's got a lot of WMA or cell-phone-music-store-purchased tunes on their PCs. The elegant and kinetic onscreen interface is playful and surprisingly responsive, which makes browsing for everything from pictures and non-iTunes songs (Napster, Rhapsody, and the like) to TV shows purchased from Amazon Unbox and Wal-Mart a pleasurable cinch. Oh, and volume goes up to 11.

Sony HD Radio
$200

Sick of the same-old, same-old chart-based tunes and endless ads you hear on the radio? You're missing the party, or the talk-orgy, that's happening on HD radio, which is the technology that allows more than one programming feed to broadcast on the same FM frequency. Provided you have an HD radio such as this minimalist cherry wood and black mesh speaker tabletop model from Sony, you can essentially quadruple the amount of broadcasts – and the variety of music genres or talk-radio programs – that are normally available to you on a standard FM radio.

From SonyStyle.

Finally, a gift for the child who wants a puppy, a stereo and a robot for Christmas: The iDog Amp'd, quite possibly the strangest iPod accessory we've seen since the iCan't-keep-making-i-jokes-anymore.

It may look a little strange, but the $600 B&W Zeppelin sounds perfect and sets a new standard for acoustics and ergonomics in the all-in-one iPod dock category.

HYPE CHECK: BURTON SLEEPER HOODIE
.

What it is: Burton's Sleeper Hoodie is designed for the busy air traveler, but should be a big hit with everyone from bands who spend weeks at a time tour buses, to those of us who like to catch a nap on the bus on our way to work. Inside the neck rests an inflatable neck pillow; blow it up, and you've got immediate, built-in head support. (Much better than resting your head on the corner between the seat and the window, much less the person next to you.) It's also got hidden compartments for your MP3 player (lower left), passport (inner left), and even your earplugs (it comes with a pair). It even has thumb holes in the sleeve cuffs for those with cold hands, and zippers under the armpits (with mesh in between) for when you get all hot and bothered (like during the spaghetti scene of 'Lady and the Tramp'). There's more: a light shield pulls down to block out the glare of the sun-like reading lights your neighbor refuses to turn off (if not fully block out those fluorescents lining the cabin wall), and a headphone port for wiring your music inside the shirt. It feels like something to add to your essential travel arsenal -- and since it looks and feels like a regular hoodie when disengaged, you can even where it when you get wherever it is you're going. As long as it's not Tahiti.

Why it's different: Most sweatshirts don't do anything other than zip up. This one does about everything except cook you breakfast.

What it costs: $100

What we like: For those that travel long distances, this thing is a lifesaver. It's incredibly versatile and feature-packed, and this sort of combination of technology and fashion is long overdue. The ability to adjust your temperature actually works in practice -- finally avoid sweaty armpits during boarding, and the thumb holes really do keep your palms warm, no matter how high they decide to crank the AC. The whole thing just feels very well thought-out and designed.


What we don't like: Rather than the wrap-around style neck pillow that they sell in airports, the inflatable pillow in the neck is more of a log-shaped affair. It still works – even without anything to lean against, you can just rest your head on either of your shoulders – but the full wrap-around action would have been even better. Also, while the design is great if you're into big graphics (we love the line-art airplane), it's perhaps not the most subtle thing in the world – this thing might not fly with the over-50 business set (pun intended).

Does it live up to the hype? Yes. We love it. It's an incredibly useful piece of gear for those of us that take long trips (or perhaps lots of short ones, requiring sporadic naps), and feels like it will last many, many hours of airtime. It's a heavy-duty sweatshirt, and for $100, you can't really argue with the comfort and peace of mind it give you – even when sandwiched between two fatsos (loudly eating sandwiches) on your flight from LA to London.





Related Links:

Switched Reviews the Gibson Robotic Guitar
Is the Amazon Kindle Really the iPod of Books
Best Headphones for the Gym

The folks at I Am 8-Bit (you may remember them from such art shows as this one) and a design company called Couch (great name, eh?) have put their collective pixels together to create some nice Space Invader-inspired guitar straps, particularly for those of you with 'Rock Band' and/or 'Guitar Hero' gee-tars.

The vinyl strap comes in either blue or black, and will set you back $33, or approximately six tickets to see Tesla on its forthcoming reunion tour.

From Couch


Related Links:

• Slash talks Guitar Hero 3
• Biggest game publishing merger in history

Verizon Wireless recently released the FlipShot by Samsung, a snazzy new 3-megapixel (MP) camera phone with swivel 'technology.' The crisp 240x320 pixel phone display swivels 180 degrees to allow for different viewing angles and easy sharing of multimedia with friends. To activate the camera, you just open the clamshell halfway and swivel the display 90-degrees towards you and begin shooting (similar to the Nokia N93 camera phone). The pictures can be resized from the high-end of 2048x1536 to the low end of 160x120 for ease of sharing videos through text messages and MMS (multi-media messaging), or you can even print them wirelessly using PictBridge. Most phones coming out from Verizon these days support the EV-DO high speed data networkm, and the FlipShot is no exception. You can stream music and video from Verizon's V Cast Music and Video service or even quickly download songs that catch your fancy. You can then store your downloaded songs and video on up to 4 -gigabytes (GB) of memory via the MicroSD slot provided (card sold separately of course).

The FlipShot is also quite reasonably priced at $199 with a 2-year contract with Verizon Wireless, and is sure to be appreciated by creative types and amateur shutterbugs everywhere.

From BetaNews.com

Hype Check: Gibson Robot Guitar

On December 7, guitar enthusiasts around the nation will be able to get their callused hands on the Gibson Robot Guitar, a first-of-its-kind, self-tuning instrument packed with a computer and motorized tuners. This special edition Les Paul will initially only be available in limited quantities -- 10 guitars for each of 400 retailers across the nation.

What it does: The Robot Guitar has a built-in tuner, a CPU, and motorized tuners that turn to increase or decrease the pitch of each string individually until the whole guitar is in tune. The on board computer is also used to switch from standard tuning (EADGBe) to a host of alternate tunings and even set intonation.

What we like: The preset alternate tunings such as DADGAD and Open D (DADF#AD) are great for the forgetful and impatient. The Robot Guitar switches to alternate tunings much quicker than a person could, and the user can even change the presets for custom tunings, in case your playing style is less Son House and more Sonic Youth. And the intonation mode is a real cash saver. The computer guides you through adjusting the string saddles until you have perfect intonation, which guarantees pitch-perfect playing along the entire neck of the guitar. (With standard guitars, this adjustment is performed by a professional in a repair shop, which means parting ways with your instrument for a period of time and coughing up about $50 for the service.)

Then there is the paint job, a gorgeous coat of super glossy "silver burst" that goes from a subtle silver in the center to a beautiful, bright blue around the edges. This particular color was designed specifically for the Robot Guitar and is sadly not available on any other instrument from Gibson, but we hope thischanges soon. Most importantly, this ax maintains that classic Les Paul tone -- thick, buttery, and smooth. In fact, it sounds so good, it almost feels like cheating. Even a novice can sound like Jimmy Page with a Les Paul strapped on.

What we don't: There isn't much to dislike about this thing. The tuner occasionally had trouble picking out the last string or two when tuning, which slowed down the process, and if the guitar is just slightly out of tune, it's actually faster to adjust by hand in most cases. Our biggest worry with the device is the construction. The guitar feels solid enough, but pulling out and pushing back the tuning knobs for manual adjustment made us a little nervous. Repairing the guitar is also bound to be an expensive proposition should the tuner, computer, or motors fail. You won't be able to take this to your local music shop for repairs.

Does it live up to the hype: Surprisingly enough, yes. When we first heard about this thing we were skeptical -- a guitar that tunes itself comes off as a bit of an unnecessary novelty, but Gibson's newest innovation proved its usefulness to us. Not to mention that playing 'War Pigs' on any Les Paul is a wonderfully satisfying experience.

Price and where to get it: $2,499 at select Gibson retailers across the nation. You can find the nearest one here.

Related Links:

• Is the Amazon Kindle Really the iPod of Books?
• How to Get Rid of Killer Bacteria in Food
• Hype Check: Verizon VCAST Mobile TV

Slash is a busy guy. In fact, we're not sure he's had any down time since recording what may be the greatest debut album in the history of Rock 'n' Roll, the Guns n' Roses classic 'Appetite for Destruction.' After the disintegration of the band and the hijacking of the name by a corn-rowed Axl Rose and a band of impostors ( whose next album 'Chinese Democracy' should be out some time before Armageddon), Slash went on to form Slash's Snake Pit and play guitar on tracks for dozens of artists from Michael Jackson to Insane Clown Posse. And he just keeps adding to his repertoire. In addition to being the lead guitarist for Velvet Revolver, the top-hat-wearing axe slinger just co-authored a book (with Anthony Bozza) entitled 'Slash' and appeared as a boss character in 'Guitar Hero III.' The rock legend was kind enough to sit and talk with us a bit about the book, Guitar Hero, and of course whether he prefers PC or Mac.

Switched: So what made you decide to write a book now?

Slash: I put the book out to sort of set the record straight on a lot of the story having to do with why I quit Guns 'n' Roses, and the band reuniting, and a lot of other subjects having to do with that band. Basically that's what influenced my decision to write a book. Prior to that I had no interest in writing a book, even though people keep asking me. But after seeing all the attention that Guns 'n' Roses has garnered of late, all the misinformation that's available to people, and all of the other, you know, falsehoods that are going on about a lot of different things, I just figured probably the only way I'd be able to do myself and the story any justice is to write it myself.


So it was less a thing of nostalgia and more, almost cathartic?

Well, you know, cathartic in a way. I don't know how cathartic it was really, for myself, personally, but I think it'll put some people's minds at rest, especially people who are huge Guns 'n' Roses fans or who are fascinated by the phenomena that is Guns 'n' Roses.

It's coming out just on the heels of the release of 'Guitar Hero III,' which you star in. Is the timing accidental?

(Laughs) It's all accidental. I was working on the Velvet Revolver 'Libertad' record, when both these things... well, I started writing the book during the making of the record, and actually did the Guitar Hero thing a little bit prior to that. But they were all sort of done at the same time and they're all coming out at the same time.

So how did you get involved with 'Guitar Hero III?'

Activision [the game's publisher] came up with the idea to have somebody in the rock world represent the game and they chose me to be their rock legend guy, which I thought was really flattering. And I was really overwhelmed and excited about the prospect of doing it because I'm a huge fan of the game. So I met with them and we shot some ideas back and forth and we rolled with it and it came out great. I got to write some music for it, I put some guitar solos on it, and I got a caricature of myself in the game. It's way left-field for what I normally do, but at the same time it's very relevant, and I'm really honored to be on the box, so to speak.

That sort of answers our next question, which is how much involvement was there really in making the game? It sounds as though it was more than just "walk in to the studio, get some pictures taken for the model, and go home."

No, there were plenty t of hours spent outside my comfort zone to get this done properly. But, you know, it was an experience and it was fun as well.

Obviously, you've played the game, you said you enjoyed it. Did you find it tough to transition from playing the real guitar to playing Guitar Hero?

I'm not very good at it. I played it a little while ago this afternoon. And I played 'Guitar Hero 2' and I had a lot of time to sit with it and learn how to do it and I got pretty good at it until I beat the game. But I didn't beat it on expert -- I beat it on hard. And that took a lot of work. I think there's something innately awkward about being a guitar player trying to playing 'Guitar Hero.' I think you play it by ear more than you do so by sight, which is the way that normal people play it. There really is that correlation between your fingers and what you're looking at on screen, and I think for guitar players the way that you relate to it is really by ear and feel, which somehow doesn't make your fingers land at the right place at the right time.

So what are you planning on getting the wife and kids for the holidays, gadget- or tech-wise this year?

I've been so busy, and everybody on my side of the fence has been so busy, what with touring and all the other stuff that's going on right now. We haven't really gotten into Christmas. We just escaped Halloween with me traveling all over the place and what not. So we haven't really focused on Christmas yet.

Don't even bring that up, you're scaring the shit out of me.

(Laughs)

Is there any gadget that's got you excited that you really want to get your hands on?

I'm not a huge gadget guy. I just got a new BlackBerry, you know, and I'm happy with that. And I just got a new Xbox 360 not too long ago and we were looking at some new games the other day just to see what's out there. I got my new 'Guitar Hero' finally... I can't think of anything off the top of my head, outside of some recording gear that I'm really looking out for getting.

Does the aversion to technology and gadgets extend to the music? Are you a Pro Tools guy?

NO, no, I'm really simple, and I don't... I'm one of those people that if it's something you don't need, I can pretty much stay away from it. But as far as just toying around with technology for toying around's sake, I'm not like that. I'm basically all about the simplest approach possible. The fewer manuals I have to read, the better and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So I use a lot of pretty much old gear and what not. The only thing I do need for recording is something simple that's efficient, sounds good, can be taken on the road -- that's what I'm starting to shop for at this point. And something small that I can carry.

Is there anything that you carry with you, on tour or every day, like a BlackBerry or an iPod, that's just attached to you 24/7?

Well the BlackBerry, as much as I hate to admit it, is an appendage for sure. And as far as the iPod goes... you know...I have an iPod and its got 1000 some-odd, if not more, songs on it. But I find that I like to just have, like, a handful of good CDs and use those. I haven't really graduated to the iPod school of thinking (laughs). I think it's too much of a song selection for me to figure out what I want to listen to.


We often find that's true. You spend 15 minutes trying to decide what to listen to, and only five actually listening to anything.

Exactly... that's my take on that.


One last simple question. Mac or PC?

Um.. I have both.

I feel comfortable with both, I carry my Mac around and have a PC at home.

OK, so Mac Book? Mac Pro?

Mac Pro.... Oh wait, wait, wait. No, you know what, I take that back. It's a Mac Book. I almost got a Mac Pro, but I knew I wasn't gonna use it to its full potential. so...

Related Links:

• Mo Rocca Talks About Baring It All, Online
• Cyber Sunday WWE Diva Finalists Talk About Gadget Lust
• Emmy Rossum: Actor, Singer, Mac Addict