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Capo gives you play-along tempo controls for $39
Capo is a new app from the makers of TapeDeck, and it's the talk of the town amongst musicians -- it allows you to simply change the speed or pitch of any songs you happen to have laying around your computer, so that you can play or sing along with them at your own pace. We got a chance to try out the app just before release (though it's available for $39 right now), and while the UI is very impressive, the actual purpose of the app is too limited, in my opinion, to be worth it.Not that it does anything badly -- the speed and pitch manipulation are very impressive. While there's a little bit of clipping and distortion at the absolute extremes, that's to be expected when you're changing these attributes on the fly, and when you're not at the extremes, things sound really great here. The app is extremely responsive to the controls as well, which are very intuitive and well designed -- you can choose to quickly select various tempos or pitches on a meter, or drag the slider in between those to find exactly the point you want. And no matter how fast you move the slider, the music responds instantly without any noise or slowdown. If you want to change a song's pitch or speed in order to try to play along with it or give it a closer listen, Capo will let you do exactly that, in style.
How Rainbow Studios thought up Deadly Creatures
We like to think the pitch meeting for Deadly Creatures likely involved tossing spiders and scorpions onto the publisher's desk and watching people squirm until a contract was signed. And while this tactic might have worked, developer Rainbow Studios tells Gamasutra that THQ was "really receptive" to the idea, which interestingly owes its concept to a dream had by lead dev Jordan Itkowitz the night before. Deadly Creatures is something of an odd fit for a console that has earned its reputation for family-friendly diversions and dart-throwing contests. Still, Itkowitz notes that despite developing the game as a Wii-exclusive, the team "didn't want to dumb it down or kiddy it up too much." He admits, however, that avoiding making the game so violent that it turned away parents and youngsters was a "big challenge." After all, we wouldn't want casual players' sanguine Wii experience tainted with bug guts.
Motorola patents technology to clear up conference calls
For those of you trapped in a dreadful cubicle all day, you're probably more than familiar with the ever-popular conference calls that involve everyone and their mother-in-law trying to communicate at the same time. While the effectiveness of these chaotic gatherings are essentially nil, Motorola is hoping to clarify things, literally. The company has recently filed a patent to augment callers' voices so each individual sounds "distinctly different." The idea here is to use technology often found in recording studios, which adjusts the pitch of a singer's voice in order to disguise their inability sing on key, so to speak. Each caller would chat aimlessly for a few moments before getting down to the nitty gritty, so the Motorola magic could "determine a pitch contour for each individual voice signal," and if two or more folks sounded eerily similar, it would "shift [the voice] to one of approximately five semitones" in order to solve the confusion. Once the caller had the shift put on them, they'd blabber a moment more so the software could ensure the change was indeed effective -- and after all the voices have been given a tone of their own, you can supposedly identify your colleagues with ease. While this plan sounds admirable, and may solve a few embarrassing mixups while on the speakerphone, we just have to wonder which unlucky chaps would end up Alvin the Chipmunk and Bobby Baritone. [Via Textually]
Getting a game idea published
Over at the IGDA, there's some advice for a hobbyist game developer looking to pitch (and protect) a game design. Pitching a random idea for a game to a developer or publisher isn't easy, but there are some solid hints on how to get an idea towards reality: Come up with a demo Attend game industry events to make contacts Read up on the pitching process Pay attention to NDAs Indie game development competitions and pitching opportunities offer a lot of scope for an idea to become an actual game; accessible platforms like Flash and the Xbox Live Arcade add further ways it can happen. One thing's for sure, though -- you have to be serious and committed to make this process work.See also:Advice for wannabe game developersThe life of a lapsed game developer
PS3 pad loses DualShock name and vibration but picks up Wii-esque motion detection and wireless connectivity
In a shocking turn of events, the PS3 controller has gone from banamerang to wireless DualShock 3, except without the DualShock name and vibration.If you take a good look at the back of the new control pad (see the close-up above), you'll notice that the DualShock 2 brand name imprinted on the old controller has now been supplanted by a row of LED lights to show which input has been set, either wirelessly or via the wired USB recharge port. Sony's now the only name in-line for PS3 controllers either on the pad or in the press releases (see "the new PS3 controller").
