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Sprint poached Verizon's 'Can you hear me now?' guy
Geico has a Gecko, Progressive has Flo and Verizon... doesn't have the "can you hear me now?" guy any more. That's because actor Paul Marcarelli has been signed up by Sprint to be the new face of its brand, while mugging off his former employer. In the first of a series of commercials, the former Verizon guys says that his oft-repeated question is now irrelevant because "it's 2016 and every network is great." Sprint is using him to push the idea that its coverage is just one percent behind Big Red, so people shouldn't have to worry about coverage issues.
Radar turns your smartphone into a baseball speed detector
Want to know if your baseball team's pitching skills are up to snuff without carrying a dedicated (and frequently not-so-smart) speed detector? Scoutee might have something up your alley. It's crowdfunding a baseball radar peripheral that turns Android phones and iPhones into pitch speed detectors. Plunk the device in the right place (including on the back of your phone, if you like) and it'll tell you just how quick that fastball really was. You can not only add notes, but record video with a speed overlay -- you'll know whether or not that curveball was slow from the start.
Tunable app shows musicians what pitch-perfect means as they play (video)
Musicians who've had some degree of practice will know the lack of sophistication involved in getting an instrument in tune and on time: a light-up tuning box and a swinging metronome may be their only real resources. Affinity Blue knows that mobile apps allow better, and recently unveiled Tunable as a one-stop shop for more exacting performers. The Android and iOS release provides a live graph that shows where the sweet spot is for pitch, and how closely the music has followed along for the past few seconds -- a boon for brass players, vocalists and others who need to sustain a note for more than a moment. There's also a simple tone generator and a customizable metronome that's easily seen from a distance. While it's $1 to try Tunable, that might be a pittance for anyone who'd rather spend time mastering a riff than rehashing the basics.
Dev shares prototype footage of never-made Star Wars fighting game
Josh Tsui, current president of Robomodo and veteran game developer on titles like Mortal Kombat 4, Fight Night Round 3, and Tony Hawk Shred, has shared some video on Twitter of an old prototype for a Star Wars-based fighting game.The footage, which you can watch in full below, features Anakin Skywalker and Darth Maul going at it with lightsabers, hacking away and using the force for throws until one of them is able to skewer the other.As the description on the video says, the footage is fairly "repetitive," but it was simply designed to show off all of the potential moves a game like this could make. There was a presentation paired with the video as well, and Tsui says it was part of a pitch for a new game back when he was working at Studio Gigante in Chicago. We'd say his team might want to return to the idea for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, but perhaps it's better if the Jedi knights stay away from fighting games in general.
Highnote for iOS gives musicians tempo and key control over their music
Highnote allows you to slow down or speed up the tempo of songs in your iOS music library, without affecting the pitch or key. It also allows you to change the key without affecting the tempo. Any aspiring musician will need to spend hours practicing and honing their skills in order to master their instrument. Part of this practice requires playing with other musicians and learning and mimicking what they play and how they play it. And very often, this happens by playing along to a track or particular song again and again. However, sometimes what you're playing along to can be too fast for your current ability. Or perhaps you can't quite hear exactly what the musician is playing because he is playing it so quickly. Or perhaps you're not ready to play along in that particular key, but you could in another. That's where an app like Highnote is invaluable While there are other apps on the iOS App Store that offer similar features, Open Planet Software's Highnote offers a simple, clear and beautiful-looking interface that allows you to focus on practicing, without any distractions. Simply choose a track from your iOS music library, select the volume and adjust tempo and pitch on the fly. If you get lost, hit reset to restore the song to its original state. An additional, well-thought-out feature is built-in AirPlay functionality. Let's face it, you're more likely to practice while listening to the music through a powerful set of speakers than you are through your iPhone's speaker! Highnote makes AirPlay easy to turn on and off from within the app. If you're a musician, music student, teacher or indeed anyone that performs with music, Highnote is a brilliant way to slow things down (or change the key), so you can practice effectively. Highnote is available from the iOS App Store for US$2.99 now.
How to pitch your indie game to Sony
"I'm sick of sitting through crap development pitches," Pete Smith, Sony XDev director of product development, told an audience of developers at GDC Europe last week. Smith handles all of the European studios looking to snag a publishing deal on Sony systems, and he helped games such as Heavy Rain and the Motorstorm series race into the public eye.Smith knows what he wants in a pitch, but just as importantly, he knows precisely what he doesn't want. He gave an overview of his approach to independent pitches, and then broke down a quick and dirty list of "do's" and "do not's." Read through Smith's pet peeves and praises below.
Twitter rumored to be pitching in-feed video shows to studios
Twitter has been making a giant push for expanded tweets from content providers. It's only a short logical leap from that to Twitter providing the content itself, and that's exactly what AdWeek claims may well happen. Its unconfirmed tipsters have the microblog taking a page from YouTube by pitching Hollywood movie and TV studios on "several" original shows that would live in followers' feeds, including the seemingly inescapable reality show. While Twitter wouldn't have someone in the director's chair, it might still play a role by letting viewers affect the show as it's happening -- and of course, running ads. Silence is the only official response to the rumor from Twitter so far; don't plan your viewing schedule just yet, but do brace yourself in case Twitter breaks out a Horse ebooks cameo to boost ratings in mid-season.
Pepsi's 'Sound of Football' project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video)
One one side of the field was a team of former pro soccer players. On the other, a squad of visually impaired amateurs. The two sides laced 'em up, stretched out their quads and went head to head in a scrimmage, though the matchup was a lot more even than you might expect. It's all part of something called the "Sound of Football" -- the latest experiment from the Pepsi Refresh Project. The idea was to level the playing field, so to speak, by forcing both teams to play a match using only their ears, and a pretty nifty tracking system. Created by Tracab, this system was comprised of 16 cameras covering the entire pitch (including two stereovision cameras placed at mid-field), and used jersey colors to distinguish the home team from the away team, and to identify the referees. This set up, which was deployed during the last World Cup, essentially tracked the position of each player in real-time. This information was then funneled into an iPhone attached to each player's headset, and converted into a surround-sound landscape, using an app created by a company called Society 46. Unique sounds were assigned to both the ball and the goal; turning your head in the direction of one goal would produce one sound, facing the ball would result in another. This allowed each player to get a better idea of his surroundings and of his spatial positioning, though, as many of the pros found out, it wasn't quite as easy as it looked. The designers of this system are now looking to use their technology in other, non-sports arenas, in the hopes of helping the blind and visually impaired "see" more of the world around them. Check out a pair of videos on the match and the technology behind it, after the break. [Thanks, Martin]
WIREDoo search engine gets running man stamp of approval (video)
MC Hammer already proved that you only need one hit record. But can you get by with just one search engine? Not if you believe his pitch to the Web 2.0 Summit this week, which promoted a "deep search" technology called WIREDoo. The rapper-approved tool emphasizes relationships rather than keywords, which yields very different results to Google's. Type in 90210, for instance, and instead of pages of links about the TV show, the pre-beta WIREDoo brings up stuff about the neighborhood -- schools, homes, the crime rate and other supposedly useful information. You'll find the full presentation after the break, but don't expect any nostalgic dance moves -- Hammer is serious about this, just like he was about those revolutionary tablets.
Wearable Coach prototype promises to help you find the perfect pitch
A gadget that helps with your running or cycling is one thing, but can a device also make you a better pitcher? Designer Sebastiaan Pijnappel thought so, and the so-called "Wearable Coach" prototype is his solution. The idea is a simple but ingenious one; the device plays musical notes that correspond to certain movements, strike just the right ones and you know you've gotten in the zone. What's more, while the device has only been tested with pitchers so far (with some successful results), it's not hard to see how it could also be applied to a whole range of other sports and activities. Head on past the break for a video. Update: Unlike Major League, this particular video is no longer available.
Daily iPad App: Extra Innings Mobile Instructor
Extra Innings Mobile Instructor is a training app to help you analyze a baseball swing or pitch. It records or imports video and provides you with a set of tools to mock-up the video as you critique the player's movement. You can also use the app to submit the video clip to an expert who'll professionally analyze your swing or pitch. To use the app you'll need a baseball swing recorded using an iOS device (iPhone, iPad 2) or imported from your video library. If you're a coach, you'll have ample opportunity to take video of your team. The video recording feature has a nice focus box that helps you line up the player to get the perfect shot for the analysis. Once the video clip has been added to the Extra Innings, it only takes a few clicks to send the video to EI for analysis by a baseball professional. Each analysis is available as an in-app purchase that costs $15. If you want to analyze the video yourself, you can launch the editing feature and mark up the video using a built-in set of tools. You can add shapes, draw freehand with a pencil tool, add text notes and even record audio. You can add these overlays to the entire video or apply them to specific sections. When you are done with your analysis, you can export the video and email it off to the recipient. The app supports folders so you organize your videos by player, team, and more. The Extra Innings app is a must have for any parent whose children play baseball or a coach of a team. It's great for little league all the way through high school. Colleges can also use it, but if you're playing at that level, you likely have high-speed cameras and other advanced tools for analysis. Extra Innings Mobile Instructor is available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or later. It's priced at a very reasonable $4.99.
Reserve Power: When inventor meets informercial, Part 2
Ross Rubin contributes Reserve Power, a column focused on personal perspectives and products. Last week's Reserve Power took you behind the scenes of technology and infomercials, and this week we're bringing it to its natural conclusion. Catch up by reading last week's installment here, and catch the rest just below.
Reserve Power: When inventor meets informercial, Part 1
Ross Rubin contributes Reserve Power, a column focused on personal perspectives and products. They come from across the country to a conference room at Telebrands, the Fairfield, NJ-based infomercial marketer that serves as the arbiter in the TV show Pitchmen. It was Inventors Day, an event that the company holds around the country about every six weeks. Those who submit the best ideas to inventorsday@telebrands.com are invited to present. At stake, the chance to design Telebrands' next hit product and become a millionaire. And all that stood between them and fortune was a convincing pitch to the judging panel (made up of CEO A.J. Khubani, his wife Poonam Khubani, and marketing advisor Don Braca) and a permanently installed five-foot long model of a PedEgg -- invented by the Telebrands CEO in '97 -- signed by company well-wishers.
NYC's last great arcade documented in 'Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair'
"Chinatown [Fair] was the last one, it had the best players, and this was like our last spot. So now hearing that this is closing, we gotta find another spot to migrate to," one defeated-sounding patron of Chinatown Fair exclaims in the short clip from Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair. The documentary intends to capture the iconic New York City arcade's last evening, and the ambitious project is being funded entirely by Kickstarter. Rumors surrounding Chinatown Fair's closing began in early February of this year. Though a brief glimmer of hope saw the owners renegotiating their lease, the 50+ year-old arcade eventually closed for good later that month. As of mid-day on Monday, the project has raised over $13K, with a goal of $20K (and another 22 days left). The film's production staff are also offering incentives for donation, with everything from a digital copy of the finished product and a credit in the film for just $10, to a "custom designed Chinatown Fair theme arcade cabinet" for pledges of $5,000 or more (One person already signed up! Madness!). Head past the break and see the full pitch video, as well as the premiere trailer.
Irrational releases the original BioShock pitch document
Every once in a while, our very plane of existence will be split into two by a major decision affecting the course of history, creating what scientists refer to as a "parallel universe." Less frequently, a window will open up which lets us catch a quick glimpse into the world of what might have been. Irrational Games threw open just such a window yesterday by releasing the pitch document for BioShock, which was planned to be a very different monster from the game we all know and love. Specifically, a sea monster. Some things in the document stayed true -- genetic modification was a major aspect of the pitch. Most of it ... well, let's just say we're glad things changed the way they did. We're not sure the story of Carlos Cuello, who must infiltrate a remote island run by cultists to rescue a wealthy heiress, would be quite so memorable. Also, those aforementioned genetic modifications give you traits of different sea creatures instead of regular ol' superpowers. Also, there was supposed to be multiplayer. Multiplayer! In BioShock! Have you ever heard of anything so preposterous?
American McGee's Little Red Riding Hood looks pretty Grimm
click here for full version Legendary game developer American McGee has posted concept for the Little Red Riding Hood game he's planning to pitch to publishers at GDC 2010 next week -- and wow, Little Red has never looked quite so badass. The art, put together by a few artists at the Spicy Horse Games studio, features a white-haired little girl embedding an axe (almost bigger than she is) in a demonic wolf's skull. McGee probably has a pitch of his own all set up, but we look at a pic like that and can't help but think, "My, what complicated weapon combos you must have." All the better to get published with, we suppose. We'll be at GDC en masse next week, so we'll do our best to corner Mr. McGee and see if he willing to tell us any more about this not-simply-fractured-but-actually-mauled fairytale. If this is what the little girl looks like, just wait until we see the Hunter. [via GSW]
Count The beats: Training your ear with RelativePitch
Relative pitch, let alone perfect pitch (some people are born with it, everyone else has to learn!) is an invaluable skill required when it comes to playing an instrument and understanding the music you are hearing. Thankfully, Easy Ear Training has developed a nifty little app to help you along with all your pitch training needs. The idea is to learn how to hear the difference between two musical notes in a given key / octave, and be able to identify what that difference is, based on the root note. This is otherwise known as an interval: the space between two notes. For example, a minor 3rd, or a perfect 5th (think the Star Wars theme tune!). For a great description of what an interval is, click here. I also came across this iTunes U video lesson by Shawn "Thunder" Wallace [iTunes Link] describing the difference between perfect pitch, relative pitch and something that Shawn calls true pitch. Very interesting! This may sound rather complicated, but really you don't need to know any of the theory when it comes to using the Relative Pitch app. At its simplest, it will help you to hear with more detail what it is that you're listening too Relative Pitch [iTunes Link] consists of two main modes: training and testing. When you open the app, you kick off with the first lesson (of which there are 14) in the training mode. Once the first lesson is complete, a corresponding test is unlocked to examine what you have learned. On passing that test the next lesson is unlocked, and so forth. Relative Pitch will teach you to distinguish ascending, descending and harmonic intervals across four octaves. With in-app volume control, in-depth customization of the training mode, and even being able to choose the root note of the octave you want to train from, you'll make strides. Whether you are a seasoned musician or a complete beginner, Relative Pitch will have you listening with a sharpened ear and a greater appreciation of the music you love. The Relative Pitch app costs £4.99, but there is a lite free version of the app here [iTunes Link] so you can try it out. Also, keep an eye out for the revamped Easy Ear Training website launching in the coming weeks.
Jordan Mechner pitched Sands of Time film with game-derived trailer
Prince of Persia series creator Jordan Mechner came up with a pretty ingenious way of making sure that the upcoming film adaptation of his beloved action-platforming franchise wouldn't diverge wildly from the source material. After the jump you'll find a trailer which Mechner himself cut together in order to pitch the film to Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney -- a trailer composed exclusively of clips from his well-received game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. On his personal blog, Mechner pointed out a number of elements sparsely used in the aforementioned trailer: Time travel, sand monsters, clairvoyant visions -- basically any supernatural plot devices which were apparently cut from the pitch he presented to the studio. Without these aspects, we wonder exactly what the film will focus on. Had they been stripped from the game, it would have been approximately four minutes long. [Via Big Download]
Count the beats: Tuning and more with Guitar Toolkit for iPhone / iPod touch
Any musician worth his/her credit knows that accurate tuning is a given. It's a crucial starting point to playing any instrument at home, on the job, in the studio, or on the road, and an embarrassment when it isn't. Some time ago I was doing an unplugged acoustic gig when my regular stomp box tuner broke down mid-rehearsal. I was in desperate need of a reliable tuner, without a music store in sight. Roll on Agile Partners Guitar Toolkit [iTunes link] for the iPhone/iPod Touch at £5.99I had heard about various tuner apps on the App Store, but I was reluctant to try any of them. I could not believe that a tuner on my phone would provide the same accurate and reliable tuning that my current (expensive) tuners could. However, I was desperate, so I took the plunge.Utilizing the iPhone's built in microphone (or the iPod Touch with a microphone headset), Guitar Toolkit's chromatic tuner performed just like using any other quality tuner. It was simple, effective and to my delight, it got the job done. After the gig, upon further inspection, I soon realized that there was much more than just a common guitar tuner in this app. Guitar Toolkit comprises a chromatic tuner, a metronome, a chord section, and a scale section too (practice your scales!!).The chromatic tuner can be used to tune a variety of stringed instruments. By changing the 'mode' selector on the tuner, from standard 6-string EADGBE guitar tuning to 'all notes' tuning, you'll be able to tune almost any musical instrument. Or, you can preselect a particular stringed instrument, from a custom list, for that instruments specific tuning arrangement (guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin, etcetera). If you're feeling creative, why not come up with your own custom tuning arrangement and input it into the tuner for later reference, or choose one from the alternate guitar tuning selection. DADGAD anyone? For advanced tuning, you can alter the standard reference pitch from 440.0 Hz to whatever you'd like (some orchestras play at varying reference pitches). I've used it to tune a violin perfectly, and for all you bass players Guitar Toolkit, using the iPhone's microphone, picks up those low notes as well. There are a few noticeable nice touches here and there. On the tuner, there is the option to alter the display to a 'high contrast mode' for tuning in low ambient light conditions. Also, when the app is open, the power saving/auto-lock features of the iPhone are disabled so the tuner remains usable until you're finished.Short of being able to plug an instrument line directly in, I can't find a fault with the the Guitar Toolkit tuner.
3G S application that Apple forgot to mention: dog whistle
Update: The plot thickens: the phone also emits the noise just after recording video, and for a much longer period of time. An Apple discussion thread about the noise is here.Are dogs unusually attentive to, or angry at, your new iPhone 3G S? The folks over at Boy Genius Report have an inkling as to what might be causing it: when a iPhone 3G S user sends a text message or locks the screen, the phone's speaker (the grille on the bottom left-hand side of the device) emits a high pitched sound for approximately three seconds. Many users corroborate the presence of the sound in the comments of the article. This is an unusual response to these interactions, and further investigation has not yielded any other function that triggers the sound. To activate the sound with a lock, the phone must first be fully unlocked (waking the phone and putting it back to sleep will not trigger the sound). The phone does not emit the tone when the sound is switched off; likewise, when the volume is low, the sound is barely audible, if at all. To my 22-year old ears the sound is soft even with the volume all the way up, but noticeable once I became aware of it (and now a bit annoying). Boy Genius Report estimates the sound to be in the 15 kHz range (here's a clip of a similar sound for reference), well within the iPhone's listed range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Your personal experience with the sound may vary, as higher pitched sounds become harder to hear as you age. Some users report hearing it loud and clear, while others must hold the speaker right up to their ear to hear it; some don't hear it at all. For this reason, it's hard to say whether the sound is endemic to the phone or an anomaly only occurring in certain devices. A call to Apple's tech support revealed they had no previous knowledge of this issue. They directed me to do a hard reset (holding down the Home button + the Sleep button for ten seconds) but the sound remained. The representative speculated it was a hardware issue, and recommended I take the phone to my nearest Apple Store to get a replacement. Until then, if a rabid dog attacks me, all I have to do to confuse it is unlock and relock my iPhone (or, send a text message). Can any of you hear this sound too?
