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Dude, did my controller just talk? (Wii delight #1)
In all the excitement and brouhaha over the Wii controller's motion sensing technology, another unique feature of the controller has been severely overlooked. The little speaker in each and every Wii remote is a tiny addition that goes a long way to making games more fun and engaging.Sure, the sound quality is horribly low-fidelity and the tinny effects occasionally crackle and pop with the effort of playing, but it's hard to describe the feeling of pure joy the first time you hit a virtual tennis ball and hear a satisfying *thwack* come from right where your racquet should be. Even non-integral sounds -- like Zelda's "you found a secret" chime or Excite Truck's five-star bonus noise -- feel a little more special when they come from your hand instead of the TV speakers. What's more, Nintendo has made it ridiculously easy to adjust the speaker volume by hitting the home button in the middle of any game, showing design savvy that has been lacking in some other areas.While it doesn't quite compare to a 7.1 Dolby surround sound setup, the extra aural dimension created by the Wii remote's speaker is a welcome addition that helps the Wii stand out against the crowd. Wii delightsPS3 delightsXbox 360 delights
Ten minute run-through with the Wii interface
Matt must have slept with Perrin or something, because IGN got their grubby mitts on a Wii debugging unit and a few games, to boot. On the latest IGN Weekly, Matt spends around ten minutes going through the Wii interface (mainly, the options menu) in detail. The menu seems to confirm the existence of one Wii code per system, as opposed to per game, which should make matchmaking at least slightly more convenient. He goes through Sound, Screen, Parental Controls, Sensitivity Options, and pretty much everything you'll see come November 19th. It's worth a watch, so check it out.
Goofy iPod Accessory: iSoundCap
I guess the $2 billion iPod accessory market is inspiring everyone to snag a piece of the pie, no matter how... unique their accessory concept might be. Behold: the iSoundCap, a 'breakthrough' way to carry your iPod nano or shuffle. As you can see from the diagram, this stylish cap comes with a pouch (that appears to be permanently mounted on the right side) that offers access to your nano or shuffle controls, along with two headphone wire spools (one for a spare) to help tackle all the slack.The creative cap sells for $29.95, and it comes in a variety of styles depending on model (including pink just for the ladies). If you pre-order before its ship date of 8/1506, iSoundCap is offering a 10% off coupon at their store.[via Engadget]
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TDK's Xa-40 2.1-channel speaker cube
Just like Kensington, Logitech and countless others before them, it's TDK's turn to roll-out some NXT-based flat panel speakers. The Xa-40 cuboid brings a 3.5-mm mini-jack for connecting your portable DAP and features 2 x 5W NXT panels and a 10W sub to get your wee-man thump on. Measuring in at 165 × 180 × 175-mm (6.5 x 7.1 x 6.9-inches) and 3.3-pounds, the Xa-40 is expected to pull about ¥6,000 on the open, Japanese market or right around $52 Stateside. So if you've got a thing for cubes, you'd best start saving for the August 21 drop date.[Via Impress]
Star Wars Kid revisited with MacBook
I'm finally done being in pain from laughter to post this hilarious revisit of the Star Wars Kid using that MacSaber app we found over the weekend. Great work, YouTube user mathowie.[via Waxy.org]
iTMS introduces "New Rock Revealed" weekly band explorations
The iTMS has introduced an intriguing new service called "New Rock Revealed", where one band's music will be dissected each week to find who their roots and inspirations were, as well as similar sounds you can find today. This first week looks at Pearl Jam's new album (which rocks, by the way), and lists its tracks in the middle of the chart. On the left side is a list of "Roots & Influences", where songs from bands that inspired Pearl Jam are listed, track by track, matching up to the Pearl Jam songs where their influences can be heard. On the right side is the "Similar Sounds" list of bands who clearly were inspired by Pearl Jam. Each of the two lists (Roots & Influences and Similar Sounds) are available as mixes ready for purchase, priced at just over $12 apiece. I would imagine that price will fluctuate, depending on the length of the album New Rock Revealed dissects each week.This is a really cool idea, though I wish the iTMS could produce some more information along the lines of truly exploring a band's roots. I'd love to be able to read a little more into what exactly inspired Pearl Jam; where they got their sound, how they started out as a band living out of their broken-down tour bus and eating stale bread three times a day until they got their big break. With that said, I'm excited to see the iTMS whipping out clever new services like this to get people more interested in music, where it came from and where it's going.
Next-gen Rez could happen in the future
Tetsuya Mizuguchi sat down for an interview with Eurogamer, and out came the skinny concerning a new generation of sound and visuals. I'm talking about Rez, of course. When specifically asked about a new iteration, he said, "I'm currently seriously considering it. It's always there."The unique original for PlayStation 2 was well received, so it only makes sense that an even better sequel for PS3 would garner even more acclaim. And let's not forget all the cool applications we could see with the new controller for a game like Rez. Just remember not to swallow your tongue or anything if you're susceptible to seizures.
Freeverse offers free automation plug-ins for Sound Studio 3
Freeverse has announced a free set of automation plug-ins for Sound Studio 3, their fantastic, easy-to-use audio editing application which we've blogged before. Dubbed "Monbots" (short for Monkey Bots), these are but the first three in what Freeverse promises to be a series of handy automation plug-ins and tools.The first monbot, Clean & Convert, is an audio scrubber for tidying up any misbehaving or noisy audio. The second, called Mastering Console, offers a set of tools and effects for (you guessed it) mastering audio, while Bookend Audio allows you to easily add intro and outro audio to a file or group of files. A fourth monbot, capable of stitching multiple pieces of audio together into one file, is aptly called Stitch and is listed as coming soon.It looks like the monbots are free, so all you need is a copy of Sound Studio 3 which sells for a mere $79.95.
Koss lip gloss earbuds
Awwww, ain't it so cute you just wanna puke? Koss is putting out a set of earbuds that is also a lip gloss compact. The Pop Gloss headphones will come in pink (of course), purple, blue and orange, with four "luxurious" lip gloss shades to choose from. According to Koss, these phones are perfect for "when sound is as important as appearance" because, you know (as Koss clearly does), appearance is usually what women are concerned with above all - functionality be damned! Then again, at $9.99 a pop, are we really gonna get a lot of sound quality out of these things, or are we just gonna have a really inconveniently messy carrying case for some cheap earbuds?
