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The Morning After: Monday, April 24th 2017
Welcome to a fresh new week at Engadget. Over the weekend, you may have missed Uber's latest sketchy tale, a rallying call for truth and science, and a love letter to the Galaxy S8 from a once-Samsung hater.
It takes a village: The rise of virtual pop star Hatsune Miku
The crowd waves neon green glow sticks in the air. The performer they came to see is loading on a screen. After a kaleidoscopic burst of magic dust, Hatsune Miku, one of Japan's preeminent pop stars, appears on stage. As she breaks into a song-and-dance routine, her long aqua-colored pigtails brush her ankles. The thunderous roar inside New York's Hammerstein Ballroom is for an artist who doesn't exist. She's a computer-generated virtual singer projected on a screen.
Virtual pop star Hatsune Miku will tour North America in 2016
Hatsune Miku may have started out as the humble Mascot for a music production software suite, but today she's a bonafide pop star -- and she's about to embark on her first multi-state US tour. Yes, it's a little weird if you think about it too much, but it's happening: starting in April, Miku Expo will be touring Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Toronto and New York, with other possible cities to be revealed later.
Watch this: J-pop hologram singer performs on David Letterman
Hatsune Miku, also known to some people as Miku Hatsune, is already a sensation in her native Japan. But now she's taking her vocal talents to other parts of the world, including none other than the US. The virtual pop start appeared last night on the Late Show with David Letterman, where she performed her single "Sharing the World" in full hologram form. While the J-pop singer is well known in The Land of the Rising Sun, it's interesting that Hatsune's character, created by software developer Cryptone Future Media, is now showing up in mainstream media programs Stateside -- especially one as big as Letterman's late-night show. You can check out the performance in the video after the break.
Sony and NTT DoCoMo announce limited edition Hatsune Miku-themed Xperia A
NTT DoCoMo has a heritage of exclusively signing up fictional personalities to hawk its handsets and following the likes of Evangelion, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and One Piece, it's the turn of not-actually-real pop idol Hatsune Miku. She'll be emblazoned on DoCoMo's Xperia A, on a limited run of 39,000 handsets. Vocaloid's poster girl offers a turquoise theme to the hardware, with a hair decal on the back. While there's no specific word yet on software-based tweaks, a website explaining the collaboration is inviting suggestions for logos, ringtone and wallpaper. The phone will launch in Japan only this September, so we advise overseas Miku fans to get straight to work on that visa application.
Sony unveils Crystal White PlayStation Vita, limited digital diva edition
Remember that line-up of colorful consoles we eyed back at TGS? One of eight of those mock-ups is about to become a reality, at least in Japan. On June 28th, color conscious gamers will be able to pick up a WiFi or 3G Crystal White PlayStation Vita for ¥24,980 and ¥29,980, respectively (that's about $312 and $375 if you're counting in greenbacks). If the absence of color is a bit too bland for you, a limited edition Hatsune Miku handheld will hit shelves two months later, commanding a ¥10,000 ($125) premium for the privilege of plastering Sega's digital diva on your Vita's rear touch panel. On the plus side, Vocoloid's poster girl packs a 4GB memory card and a copy of Next Hatsune Miku: Project Diva to offset the limited edition's larger sticker price. No word yet when or if these Vita variants will hit the western world, but we'll let you now if we hear anything. Until then? Try to satiate yourself with the video after the break.
Kenwood's still making Media Kegs, announces bilingual MG-G608 for the Japanese market
We've been covering Kenwood's Media Kegs since the dawn of Engadget, and though we haven't seen one in awhile, there's no question this line of MP3 players is still alive and kicking. The company just debuted the MG-G608 for the Japanese market with a bilingual UI, stereo Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, and one neon chassis. Otherwise, you might find its specs -- namely, a small 2-inch display, lack of video playback, and a modest 8GB of storage -- a bit ho-hum. To be fair, it does support microSD cards as large as 16GB, though even then, you might prefer 32GB, depending on how expansive your Hatsune Miku collection is. Japanese and English speakers alike can pick one up in Japan next month for ¥15,000 ($183).
