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VidZone to expand to new territories
With over a million videos downloaded, Europe's VidZone service has been an unprecedented success, something that even caught the service provider by surprise. "It was difficult to assess how well it would do," Louisa Jackson, director of marketing for VidZone, told GI.biz. "By both gaming and music industry standards it's been a phenomenal success."The service has been rapidly expanding, grabbing exclusives before other television and online venues, such as MTV and Yahoo. Most recently, the service announced it will be debuting new videos from Placebo.To expand upon its success, VidZone is planning to expand to other territories beyond Australia and a small handful of European countries. Jackson didn't reveal specifics, but did reiterate the company's support behind the platform. A free update in September will add many user-requested features like 16x9 support and improved search functionality.
TUAW at E3: Guitar Rock Tour 2 and DJ Mix Tour
While we really liked Gameloft's Castle of Magic at E3, these two music games in their lineup didn't impress nearly as much. Guitar Rock Tour 2 is a sequel to Guitar Rock Tour, and as you can tell from the picture at right, it's more or less a Guitar Hero knock-off: hit the notes as they pass the line at the bottom, and you'll hear whatever song you choose to play. At this point, gameplay on all of these games is more or less the same, so song selection makes the difference, and that's where Guitar Rock Tour 2 falls short: the game contains only four original tracks, and fifteen covers. While they do lay claim to tracks by Judas Priest, Panic at the Disco, Wolfmother, Placebo and Twisted Sister, Tapulous pretty much has the market covered in terms of getting great music playable on the iPhone, and we didn't see anything during our hands on that would attract us away from Tap Tap Revenge and its various forms.DJ Mix Tour is the other music game they showed us -- this one had a club feel and had you pressing notes on a turntable rather than guitar frets. There were some interesting choices in that game -- we saw some covers of Britney Spears club mixes, as well as Lady Gaga and Darude's famous Sandstorm tune, so if you're a die-hard techno fan, there might be some new tunes in there for you among the sixteen total songs. But again, Tap Tap Revenge is so polished after all their updates, and already has such a great selection of tunes that it's hard to recommend Gameloft's versions.Both will be available for $5.99 in the App Store sometime this month.
Airbus files patent for jetlag zapper
Airbus, that robot-friendly aeroplane company, has filed a patent for a device that generates "electromagnetic interaction in an airplane". No, this isn't some kind of revolutionary fly-by-magnets technology, it's actually a slightly oddball idea intended to solve the most common of airborne travel ailments: jetlag. The device, which in the event that it is ever put into service, will be integrated into passenger seats, supposedly has the capability to "prevent and reduce the occurrence of jetlag, reduce the danger of passengers suffering from thrombosis, and increase general well-being by promoting relaxation, sleep and stress reduction". Ever seen those stone magnets that people put around their wrists to "increase blood flow?" This device looks like it would operate the same away, but in an electromagnetic form. We won't question the validity of using magnets to keep people healthy, but we are puzzled at the logic behind introducing randomly fluctuating electromagnetic fields onto packed airplanes. Surely (don't call me Shirley!) the thought that this could potentially interfere with the pilot's ability to fly the plane crossed the minds of the researchers over at Airbus? Especially considering the common "please turn off your cellphones" announcement that pilots make at the beginning of every flight (FYI, cellphones emit electromagnetic fields). Maybe a wiser course of action would be to focus on cheaper in-flight Wi-Fi, keeping passengers' minds off the fact that they're floating round a tin can far above the world, resulting in less stress and therefore, by Airbus's own logic, reduced jetlag.
