If you haven’t yet got the hang of what augmented reality might mean for the way we interact with entertainment, check out Amusity. It’s a prototype for a new user interface allowing users to explore songs and music videos, metadata like artist / album / genre plus other related information such as popularity.
Amusity is based around a table onto which images and menu items (resembling stars and galaxies floating around in space) are projected. Information is sent back to the computer not with a mouse but with physical objects such as a disc or a rectangle. By moving the various real-world items around, the digital universe is affected.
In fact it’s not a million miles away from the Reactable – winner of the first Music Ally Midem Labs showcase in 2008, and demonstrated here at Sonar in Barcelona.
Apple unveiled its hotly-anticipated tablet device tonight in San Francisco. It’s called iPad, will start at $499, and ships to consumers in 60 days’ time.
The device has a 9.7-inch touchscreen, is 0.5 inches thick and runs what looks like a modified version of the iPhone operating system. In fact, it’s best thought of as an oversized iPhone or iPod touch.
The iPad will run almost all existing iPhone apps out of the box, although developers will also be able to modify their apps to suit the device’s larger screen. It accesses iTunes in the same way as iPhone does to buy music, and syncs with a computer via USB to transfer media and apps across.
The sharp decline in music game sales continues: new stats from analyst Wedbush Morgan claim that Activision made $55 million from its music franchises DJ Hero, Guitar Hero and Band Hero in November – down 65% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, it claims Rock Band sales were $31 million that month – down 59% from November 2008.
“Sales of music genre games have suffered mightily in 2009, with sales through November totalling $620 million, compared to $1.19 billion in the same period a year ago,” says analyst Michael Pachter. “The $570 million decline in year-over-year music sales is responsible for two thirds of the overall decline in software sales thus far in 2009.”
There’ll be a bump in December as people buy games as presents – with retailers already discounting the Beatles and DJ Hero titles. Meanwhile, GamesIndustry.biz quotes Microsoft’s David Dennis as saying downloadable content for music games continues to sell well.
Marvellous time-waster of the day for us is Nudge, an electronic music creation widget launched by Hobnox. You choose from eight different sounds, and draw a pattern on the grid of squares to make music.
It’s a bit like that Tenori-On instrument that Little Boots uses, except free and online. Best of all, you can email your creations to friends, or embed them in websites. Have a listen to our tune above (click the Play button at the bottom right), then have a go yourself!
And hats off to the Indie Music Tech blog for spotting it.
Microsoft’s Zune HD device finally went on sale yesterday, and a Zune software update brought some new music features with it. There’s a Smart DJ mode to automatically create music mixes from users’ collections – similar to Apple’s new Genius Mix option – and a Quickplay option to quickly find the albums most recently played. However, Microsoft has axed the feature by which Zune users can “squirt” music tracks to each other. Meanwhile, Microsoft has confirmed that apps and games will be coming to Zune later this year.
Forget Dr Dre and his branded headphones. Now Lady Gaga has got in on the act, albeit through a deal with Monster, the same company responsible for Dre’s earcans.
They’re launching Heartbeats by Lady Gaga, which promise to “deliver all the music the artist intended you to hear, with an incredible sonic clarity, pounding bass, and all the power demanded by today’s music”.
Which is nice. But not as good as the actual publicity quote from Gaga herself, which is worth reproducing in full:
“In the deepest hour of the night, I confess to myself three things; I would die if I was forbidden to write, forbidden to love, or forbidden to fashion. Heartbeats embody the trinity of my human-being, with one additional vow: that SOUND matters. Wear heartbeats, love each other, and celebrate the art and lifestyle of music.”
Forget the long-rumoured Apple iTablet: Nokia has unveiled its first netbook computer today. It’s called the Nokia Booklet 3G, and will go toe-to-toe with Asus’ Eee PC and its many imitators when it’s released in the coming months. Oh, and music is quite an important part of it.
The device is a standard netbook, weighing 1.25kg and with a ten-inch screen. It’s powered by an Intel Atom processor, and will offer a choice of HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, A-GPS for mapping and other location-based services, and promises up to 12 hours of battery life.
But the interesting thing from Music Ally’s perspective is the way the Booklet 3G ties in with Nokia’s Ovi services. The Nokia Music Store is specifically mentioned in the launch announcement, so users of the new device should be able to download songs over the air. Of course, it also leaves the way open for a Comes With Music edition of the netbook if Nokia deems it appealing.
Nokia’s EVP of devices Kai Oistamo is promising that the Booklet 3G will “make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal”. The devil may be in the detail – which will be revealed at the Nokia World conference next week.
Apple’s next-gen iPod touch will likely be unveiled on Wednesday 9 September at an event in San Francisco, according to respected tech site All Things Digital.
Citing sources close to Apple, it suggests new iPods and the next version of the iTunes software will be unveiled – with the latter including the much-talked-about social features. We wonder if this will also see the unveiling of the rumoured Cocktail interactive digital album format.
However, the sources apparently emphatically deny that the rumoured Apple tablet will debut at the event. We still wouldn’t rule out a ”one more thing” moment though, especially if CEO Steve Jobs is in charge. Talking of whom, the Sunday Times ran a long profile of Jobs this weekend, which it claims Apple tried to spike. It’s worth a read.
He’s still got love for the streets, and now he’s got love for Hewlett Packard. Dr Dre, the hip hop producer behind NWA and Eminem, has teamed up with computer maker HP in what record executive and Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine has described as a bid to “fix the entire chain”.
According to Piper Jaffrey senior analyst Gene Munster, an Asian component supplier has received orders from Apple for a touch-screen device (”Wrap”) that is larger than an iPod but smaller than a laptop. He believes the order will be fulfilled later this year. Munster has long prophesised about an imminent (more…)
He’s still got love for the streets, and now he’s got love for Hewlett Packard. Dr Dre, the hip hop producer behind NWA and Eminem, has teamed up with computer maker HP in what record executive and Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine has described as a bid to “fix the entire chain”.
