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It's all about the music: tunes from Apple's keynote presentations
I hope this post gets filed in the "I knew I wasn't the only one!" mental filing cabinets of many. Because if it doesn't, then it makes me the only one who really looks forward to the music Apple uses in its keynotes. Whether it's a song that leads up to Steve Jobs' entrance on stage, or one used in software or hardware demos, there's no denying that music is very much a part of Apple's DNA. Heck, the company's namesake reflects Steve's love for the Beatles. Apple occasionally invites some of music's biggest names to perform at its events because, as Steve says, "it's all about the music." And this post is all about the music. It's all about the music that Apple has used in one way, shape, or form at its keynote events. Although by no means a definitive list, it's certainly a fair sample.
WoW Insider Show episode 91: The video show
We had our long-awaited video version of the podcast last weekend, and it was a hoot: Turpster and I dressed up and drank champagne together, Robin Torres showed how to inflate your Frostmourne, Lesley Smith came to us live from England, Duncor showed off his famous gigantic cowboy hat, and Patrick Beja showed that he can out-spiffy us any day. Unfortunately, because of the way we did things, we didn't end up getting a good recording of the whole thing -- you can see a few clips of the beginning over on Ustream, but they only have my camera (and the audio is rough -- I didn't realize it sounded that bad at the time). Dotorion also Frapsed a bit of the beginning, which should give you a little taste of the multi-camera mayhem.But in the end, it was pretty much a one-time thing you had to be there for live. Lightning in a bottle, if you will. The good news is that even if you didn't see the show, we've still got a treat for you: Turpster premiered a brand new video (put together by our good friend Ninthbatter) that we played at the end of the show, and that you can watch online right now. Turpster has also recently updated his own site, where you can find all the songs he's ever made, including our WoW Insider Song, and "Just Can't Wait," which is a song that he, I, and BigBearButt recorded a while ago before Wrath's release. So even though you don't have a new podcast to listen to today, you can tune in there.
Guitar Hero World Tour May DLC lineup detailed
A recent Activision presser revealed Guitar Hero World Tour's downloadable offerings for next month, and boy, is it one eclectic hodge-podge of on-rails music. One of the packs is free, too! We love free hodge-podges.May 7: Ferret/Metal Blade Track Pack (Free!) "Dez Moines" - The Devil Wears Prada "On Broken Glass" - Chimaira "Grave of Opportunity" - Unearth May 14: Pop Rock Track Pack (440 / $5.49) "So What" - Pink (160 / $2) "Stop and Stare" - OneRepublic (160 / $2) "Everything's Magic" - Angels and Airwaves (160 / $2) May 21: European Track Pack No. 5 (440 / $5.49) "Disconnected" - In Flames (160 / $2) "Oh Yeah!" - Housse de Racket (160 / $2) "Look Good In Leather" - Cody ChesnuTT (160 / $2) Like always, these tunes can't be downloaded in packs on the Wii -- each song must be downloaded separately for 200 Wii Points (except for the free ones, which are, of course, free). We've got videos for the first three posted after the jump!
TUAW Tip: Removing duplicate songs from iTunes
Have you ever been listening your iTunes library and wondered why a song played more than one time? Duplicate songs in your library can be very annoying, and waste precious space on your hard drive. In this TUAW Tip, I'm going to show you how to get rid of duplicates using a built-in feature in iTunes.In iTunes, click the "Music" category under the Library section from the selector on the left. You should now see all of the music items that are in your iTunes library. Now click File > Show Duplicates. Any duplicate songs that are in your library will show up, and you will be able to delete the ones that you don't want any longer. To hide the duplicate song list, click the "Show All" button at the bottom of the window (or click File > Show All). You can use this same method for Music, Videos, and TV Shows. It will also work in any playlist. Using the built-in iTunes feature is nice, but it can be very time consuming -- especially if you have thousands of songs, videos, or TV shows. In this case, you can use an application like iDupe (which costs $8US). iDupe gives you a ton of options for deleting duplicate songs in iTunes.Do you know another way to delete duplicate iTunes songs? Know of another application to delete duplicates? Tell us in the comments! Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and TUAW Tips sections!
4 million iTunes songs disappear, speculations abound
Last week, Apple's iTunes Store turned 5 years old. Now the blogosphere is buzzing with the fact that Apple said they had over "10 million" songs in their library, then later changed the page to say "6 million." That's a difference of 4 million songs unaccounted for. MacNN did the math and said that if they had 10 million songs, it would have accounted for a 66% increase in their catalog in only a month. MacNN has before and after pictures of the iTunes Store page showing the changes. So... typo? Or is Apple doing some weird shuffling of their library?[via MacNN]
Cheaper indie Rock Band DLC raised to standard price
Update: It's been brought to our attention that Harmonix originally announced that these songs would be available "for a limited time ... at a special holiday price of $0.99." Joystiq regrets the implication that the price increase was unannounced.Price-conscious and/or pretentious Rock Band fans were understandably giddy when Harmonix decided to release five downloadable indie tracks for the bargain price of 99 cents (or the equivalent number of Microsoft points) in late December. We hope those fans didn't procrastinate, though, because the price for all five tracks has been raised to the more conventional $1.99 as of yesterday.While there was no indication at the outset that the lower price would be in any way temporary, (see above update) The increase has been rumored for a couple of weeks now. When Harmonix announced the Rock Band DLC program they said individual track prices would range anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99, but they also stressed that the "vast majority" of tracks would hit the $1.99 sweet spot.Does this increase mean that future songs are less likely to be released at 99 cents? "I don't think that's necessarily what it means," said a spokesperson for MTV/Harmonix, though he added that future 99 cent releases would probably "be the same situation, with the discounted price for a limited time." We've asked for confirmation of the official policy on this score and will let you know if and when we hear back about it.[Thanks, Keith]
WoW Idol voting begins
WoW Radio (home of our illustrious podcast) has announced the finalists in their WoW Idol contest, and you can listen to and vote on them right now over on their web site. There are a ton of interesting choices, too, from Sevhnn's dance-hop flavored "MS Warrior Tribute," to Selserene and Rob Munsch's delicate classical turns on Azerothian themes.I have to say that I especially like Jeff Wichtowski's "Keep the Tank from Dying," just because it sounds so perfectly like one of those songs. But these are all good-- "Strength and Honor" from Liquidator and Threat sounds good (is that a Fort Minor sample at the end?), and "I Smile When I Gank" (by Daryl Brewer, who apparently won the last WoW Idol) is hilarious (love the backing vocals), and the Hyskelettes' "Heal!" is a great Beatles cover/parody.But only one can be the WoW Idol popular choice, and win some great prizes (WoW Radio has also added some new ones in-- I believe the winners are also going to get some Winter's Veil boxes from Upper Deck). So definitely run over there and get your vote in ASAP.
Exclusive Rock Band songs in Feb. OXM
The February issue of Official Xbox Magazine will have three "completely exclusive," albeit obscure songs for Rock Band. The disc contains Freezepop's Sprøde, Bang Camaro's Rock Rebellion and Count Zero's Shake (like our Rock Band weekly feature, we've placed videos of the songs after the break; though we're currently missing Shake).OXM Editor-in-Chief Francesca Reyes tells Joystiq, "You'll be able to download the songs from the disc onto your [hard drive] and they will remain there with or without the disc in the drive." Does this mean Harmonix could eventually offer retail expansion discs stuffed with songs? That idea is pure speculation, but we'd welcome it in lieu of a full-priced 'Rock Band 2.'
WoW Radio announces WoW Idol 2008
WoW Radio (home of our increasingly popular podcast) sends along a note that they've announced another round of WoW Idol, a contest to find the best WoW-related song their listeners can come up with. They're looking for both original work, and WoW parodies of popular songs, and the deadline is Friday the 18th of January. After that, the songs will be posted on their site (and played on air), and the finalists will be narrowed down to five winners, including three critics' choices, one popular choice, and a worst/most embarrassing winner. Sounds like a lot of fun (get it? "sounds"? ha!).And the prizes have notably improved from the last go-around-- you could win a signed poster, t-shirts, and everyone (including the worst winner) gets a BlizzCon beta key/murloc suit card. Hot! They're looking for songs 3-5 minutes long and related to World of Warcraft in some way-- send your submission to "wowidol AT wcradio dot com".Can't wait to hear the entries-- if any of them happen to be related to WoW Insider, we'll have to ask WoW Radio to let us play them on our podcast as well. If you plan to enter, good luck!
Rock Band Weekly: Bowie's 'queen bitch' has 'moonage daydreams' about 'heroes'
We're a little under pressure this week as David Bowie becomes the DLC content on XBLM and PSN for Rock Band. Why under pressure? Well, we're sure that the covers for Heroes and Queen Bitch are of the highest Harmonix quality, so we're having pre-stress in case Bowie has a The Romanics nutter and sues everyone because the covers are too good! We're gonna watch that man. This week's Rock Band DLC is:Bowie Pack - $5.50: Moonage Daydream ($2) Heroes ($2 *Cover*) Queen Bitch ($2 *Cover*) We're hoping everything willl be hunky dory with Bowie about these covers, but can he justifiably complain about anything being married to a goddess like Iman?
Rock Band Weekly: Metallica, Police, Queens of the Stone Age and others
Welcome to our first edition of Rock Band Weekly, where we'll be posting the new DLC content for Rock Band on a (gasp!) weekly basis. Although almost every song and pack has been announced up until the end of the year, who wants to do all that searching into the ancient times to find answers? A friendly reminder never hurt anyone -- plus something like this will keep Harmonix honest on their weekly DLC statements.This week is Rock Band launch week and there's a slew of new content available for DLC. We're guessing it's standard ops for Xbox 360 to get the content on Wednesday and PS3 on Thursday. Find the list of songs and packs for this week after the break.
Radiohead ditches iTunes to keep album complete
Here's an interesting twist on the iTunes vs. record companies situation. Radiohead (disclaimer: I'm a Radiohead fan) is choosing not to sell their latest album on iTunes not because their record company is pressuring them out of the deal-- their record company is EMI, and they're more than willing to sell the record DRM free-- but because iTunes is forcing them to break up their album into songs that can be sold separately.Usually, I'm all for selling separate songs-- why should I pay for a whole album when I'm only going to listen to three or four songs? But when a request comes from the artist like this, it seems like a different ballgame. I'd like to buy Radiohead's album on iTunes, and if they want it complete, then that's the way I'd want to buy it. But because Apple has fought to keep songs separate, Radiohead isn't selling it with them at all. You might say that I wouldn't feel the same way about other artists, and you'd be right-- if Vanilla Ice required me to buy the entire To the Extreme just to listen to "Ice, Ice Baby," I'd decide it wasn't really worth it.But my personal tastes aside, the whole thing actually reminds me of Ed Burns talking about watching Godfather on the iPod-- the iTMS has fundamentally changed the way we purchase and consume media. The concept of "album" is losing meaning. For most iTunes purchasers, I'd imagine that's not a bad thing. But artists like Thom Yorke and Radiohead clearly aren't ready to see the album experience disappear, and they're willing to keep their music off of iTunes to fight it.[via MacBytes]
Possible bug with iPhone synching and external iTunes libraries
TUAW reader Jamie Phelps has possibly stumbled upon a nasty iPhone synching bug when keeping one's iTunes library on an external hard drive. While tips like our how-tos for setting up iTunes with external drives or even an AirPort Disk work pretty well even when synching iPods with them, Jamie found that his iPhone gets the brainwash treatment when he's away from the drive containing his external iTunes library. As the story goes, Jamie synched his iPhone with a few songs and playlists, made a couple new playlists and then synched again. Hitting the road, however, and getting away from his external iTunes library drive is when the bug rears its nasty head: plugging the iPhone in while on the go caused iTunes to wipe out the new playlists and songs from the second sync operation, basically reverting them to their state before the second sync. To verify, Jamie even got adventurous and tried this whole thing a second time, once again watching iTunes blow away changes from the previous iPhone sync when the external media library isn't mounted. This is the first time I've heard of iTunes handling this kind of setup in a poor way; for as long as I can remember, iTunes has been clever enough to realize what's happening and and would either not sync anything to an iPod when away from the library drive, or it would actually sync any media downloaded or imported while away (as we've mentioned before, you can use the Advanced > Consolidate Library command to move all this new media once reconnected with the library drive). Since we don't really have any evidence of Apple deliberately changing this behavior for their iPods or iPhones, it makes sense for this quirk to be classified as a bug that will hopefully be squashed with an inevitable iPhone software update. But what say you, TUAW readers? Anyone else get bit? Sound off.
Wii Music (Remix) ft. ROBOTOBOTS
We wander the Fanboy office's halls humming the catchy melodies we've picked up from the Wii's different channels, unintentionally mimicking the lives of our own Mii caricatures. There's something delightful about these minute-long loops that stay stuck in our heads like an attractive girl we saw in passing.Electro-experimental group ROBOTOBOTS chopped up the music tracks and added its own flavor to the interface themes. The resulting three songs -- Breaking Points, Revolve Around Planets, and Built to Diistroy -- are just as fetching as the original tunes, albeit more complex and not as light-hearted. We wouldn't mind listening to these reinterpreted tracks in place of Nintendo's pieces, were it possible. [Via Nintendogal]
Helio Music launches
Helio today becomes the latest carrier to enter the lucrative fray of mobile music sales, rolling out its "Helio Music" platform to a customer base revealed to rock a monthly ARPU (average revenue per user) in excess of $100 -- not a bad target demographic, if we do say so ourselves. The scrappy MVNO, which expects that very target demographic to hit 100,000 subscribers some time in Q2 after launching last May, will offer music downloads direct to user's handsets for $1.99 a pop -- or, more intriguingly, to desktops via a PC client available this spring for 99 cents, at which point the songs can be loaded back to the handset via USB at no additional charge. Helio is promising an unusually user-friendly interface and a far wider selection than other carriers have managed to offer thus far, signing on Universal, Warner, Sony BMG, and EMI to bring "thousands of well-known artists" to Drifts across the land. Speaking of the Drift, it'll be the first device to support Helio Music; no word on whether Helio's older handsets will be supported in the future, but with the Drift's stereo Bluetooth support, we're thinking it's the way to rock anyway. Follow the break for Helio's press release.
Play custom songs on hacked Guitar Hero II
Ever wanted to play your favorite song in Guitar Hero II? I don't mean tapping away at your keyboard on some competent PC clone, I mean actually strumming along to your favorite rock anthem on your TV with your favorite Guitar Hero controller. Apparently it's possible with a DVD burner, a modded PS2, and a handful of hacking programs as outlined on the ScoreHero.com forums. The 12-step process requires that you to handle some pretty complicated file juggling, but the end results are impressive. Keep reading for a couple of examples of some custom songs inserted into everyone's favorite Guitar game.
Princeton students get free tunes that won't play on iPods
Princeton has made a deal with Virginia-based Ruckus to provide free music to all their undergraduate students. Ruckus, which has licensed 1.5 million tracks from various music labels, provides unlimited access to their library apparently in exchange for advertising to a captive audience. Unfortunately, this deal leaves Mac and iPod users in the cold. The Plays4Sure DRM only works on Windows and a limited number of players. Princeton students will have to pony up a little extra money and a compatible player to have access to the Ruckus-to-go feature if they want to take their tunes off their PC and onto their player. On the bright side, if you can call it that, the Zune doesn't do Plays4Sure either.
iTunes: Tuesday Freebies
It's Tuesday and it's time for another installment of the iTunes Tuesday Freebies. Every week I scour the iTunes stores, looking for the best free offerings around the world. Here are the freebies I found for you this week. US Music US: Silent Night by Sarah McLachlanNow we generally try to turn the spotlight over to new artists for our Single of the Week, but we're feeling the spirit of the season this month. Check back here each week to get a free holiday track from an established artist. Here, Sarah McLachlan turns "Silent Night" into the warm, ethereal majestic snapshot of devotion that we've always known this song to be. US: Christmas Reindeer by the KnifeIf you tend to tire of the traditional holiday music fare, then the Knife have the cure to all of your Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis-related ills. The Swedish electro-art-pop duo deliver us "Christmas Reindeer" - a pulsating clang of a tune dedicated to Santa's most trusted animals. Enjoy! US: Anacona by La SistaThis reggaetonera steps up to the microphone in a big way on "Anacaona," a remake of a song originally recorded by Cheo Feliciano. La Sista's own roots (she's of African and Puerto Rican descent) come through on this blazing tune, which booms with a heavy, buzzing bass line and Sista's own bold, dancehall-tinged rhymes.
WoW Moviewatch: Skullcrusher Mountain
Skullcrusher Mountain is a terrifically catchy song by the always fabulous Jonathan Coulton, and someone named Mike Smith Booth, a program manager at Adobe, made this lovely WoW video to it. I can't help but feel a little sorry for the gnome, even if he did kidnap the girl in the first place. I now find myself wondering if I can convince my guild to call Blackrock Mountain "Skullcrusher Mountain" instead. One quibble, though: that looked like Eviscerate at the end, but how would she have built up combo points? Ah well. I probably shouldn't argue with a movie that actually bothered to construct a half-monkey, half-pony monster just to please us.
Widget Watch: iPodage song calculator
Remember that iPod storage calculator iLounge released? It seems Christian Chladek, maker of such other widgets as the Morse Code Translator, was inspired to provide an iPod calculator in widget form. iPodage allows you to pick your iPod model and adjust all the vital settings to do some quick and dirty math on just how many tunes you can cram into your pocket for the road. For bonus points, the widget can even shrink out of your way should you need to reclaim some Dashboard space.iPodage is donationware and available from Christian's site.
