9/9/09 Apple Event
Apple just announced a rock and roll-themed event in San Francisco on September 9th, 2009. This is the same 9/9/09 that sees the release of The Beatles: Rock Band and the remastered stereo and mono Beatles discography boxed sets. Is there anyone out there who will bet against the Beatles’ music finally turning up on iTunes?
image © Engadget/Apple
Other things I expect to see at the event:
- new iPod Touch with camera, microphone, increased storage and lower price
- new iTunes with social networking features, Blu-Ray support and—please god—iPhone app organization
- enhanced digital album art (“Cocktail“)
- Steve Jobs
I will bet against seeing the Mac tablet/”iPad” a week from Wednesday. Anyone want to take my money?
Rock Band DLC 9/1
More Rock Band DLC awesomeness on tap for next Tuesday:
- Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
- The Jam – “A Town Called Malice”
- The Jam – “Going Underground”
- Oasis – “Supersonic” (Live)
- Rage Against the Machine – “Guerilla Radio”
- Talking Heads – “And She Was”
- Talking Heads – “Crosseyed & Painless”
- Talking Heads – “Girlfriend is Better”
- Talking Heads – “Once in a Lifetime”
- Talking Heads – “Take Me to the River”
image © Bryan Stratton
Video Game Cupcake Roundup
I’m pretty sure that these have been around the internets for a while, but they’re new to me. Courtesy of Boing Boing:
- image © Boing Boing/Omar
Pac-Man cake with cupcake ghosts
image © Boing Boing/knightPhlight
Legend of Zelda’s Link executed in cupcake pixel-art
image © Boing Boing/Hello Naomi
Retro-gamer cupcakes OM NOM NOM NOM
(Thanks to Sara for discovering these.)
Google Zombie Map
This might be the best use of Google Maps ever: a map that shows the real-world locations of all of the appearances, deaths, events and locations from Robert Kirkman‘s excellent comic book series, The Walking Dead. Click on the icons in the left navigation bar to jump to their locations on the map, plus scanned panels from the comic.
If you haven’t read the comic, what are you waiting for? The AMC series based on the comic might be as little as 18 months away. You’ve spent the last two and a half years pretending that you were hip enough to start watching Mad Men from the first episode and living in fear that someone will discover that you devoured both seasons on DVD within the last six months. Don’t miss your chance to get in on the ground floor with this one.
image © Bryan Stratton/Google Maps/Robert Kirkman/some guy named "Jason"
(Thanks to Darren for bringing this to my attention.)
Augmenting Reality
The newest version of the Yelp app for the iPhone (released yesterday) has a nifty Easter Egg that we weren’t supposed to get until the iPhone 3.1 OS upgrade. From the Yelp home screen, shake the phone three times to enable a feature called “Monocle,” which triggers an augmented reality feature, overlaying the iPhone’s camera view with a real-time HUD indicating businesses that are reviewed on Yelp.
image © Bryan Stratton
I tried it this morning while walking to the Little Red Bike Cafe in North Portland. At a distance, it worked pretty well, but as I got closer to my destination, the accuracy decreased. In the screenshot above, Darcy’s actually is pretty much right across the street from me, but Taco Bell is behind me, and the Little Red Bike Cafe is to my left.
I’m sure that’s just an issue with the calibration and the fact that the iPhone 3.0 OS isn’t fully equipped to handle augmented reality apps at this point. But for a secret feature that’s still in beta, it’s frickin’ cool, and it’s definitely got me looking forward to seeing what creative uses app developers come up with for the finished API.
Kurt Cobain: Guitar Hero
Much as I love my music games, this just seems so wrong. Courtney Love, Dave Grohl: I furrow my brow in your direction.
image © Activision
Console Price Cut Roundup
The worst-kept secret in gaming has just been confirmed: The Xbox 360 is getting a long-anticipated price cut as of this Friday. The no-hard-drive Arcade version remains at $200, but the 120 GB Elite (with HDMI output) drops $100, from $400 to $300. The Pro, which sports a 60 GB HD and component A/V, goes from $300 to $250, but as soon as the existing stock is depleted, that model is being phased out.
image © Engadget
This, of course, is in response to the recently-released PS3 Slim, the skinny, $300 version of Sony’s Blu-Ray player. Rumor has it that it also plays games. I’m afraid Sony has an uphill climb ahead of them if they truly want to compete with the 360, but at least they’ve now got a decent ad campaign, instead of something designed to confuse and horrify you.
image © Engadget
The Nintendo Wii has remained at $249 since its launch, and as of April of this year, Nintendo was still denying that any price cuts were imminent. But with the X360 Pro dropping to the Wii’s price point and the full-featured PS3 Slim and X360 SKUs moving into the Wii’s neighborhood, it’s hard to believe that we won’t see a $50 price cut before the holiday season begins in earnest.
Overcompensating
Overcompensating is the best webcomic in America. Are you reading it? Why not?
image © Jeffrey Rowland
Bat-Hell Has Frozen Over
Reviewers are going nuts for Batman: Arkham Asylum, saying that it’s one of the best third-person action-adventure games ever. Glad to see that after more than two decades of trying and about 20 different attempts, Bats finally got himself into a quality video game.
So there you go, kids. If you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything that you want in life—provided that you’re phenomenally wealthy, in peak physical condition and one of the smartest people on the planet.
image © GameSpot
iPhone Face Collection
Just a quickie update today, as I delve deep into the guts of my latest book. Today’s Gizmodo has reposted all of the iPhone “face” wallpapers for your downloading pleasure. There’s also a nifty accompanying article recounting the origin of iPhone smiley face dude. Nineteen classic little bits of clever techie art, and free to anyone who wants ‘em. Can’t say fairer than that.
image © Gizmodo
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