Hasta La Gadget!

Since Crypton Future Media first released their vocal synthesiser application and its associated anime character way back in 2006, Hatsune Miku has become an iconic figure in both otaku and mainstream pop culture. If collaborations with Family Mart, Google Chrome, Dominos, and Louis Vuitton, numerous live concerts and even an “opera” performance are anything to go by, it seems as if interest in Hatsune Miku is still going strong.

Tokyo City View in Roppongi is featuring a pop up Hatsune Miku Cafe that celebrates both the character and the fan-created songs and videos that made her famous.

Operating under the theme ‘Hatsune Miku with LOVE’, the space features a mini exhibition of famous illustrations, screenings of Vocaloid Cinema Party, as well as a life-sized model of the Vocaloid star herself. One corner of the cafe also has an video and audio archive of Hatsune Miku-related media for both customers and passer-bys to access.

The cafe also features a huge wall full of teal and white heart-shaped sticky notes that previous customers have written messages and drawn pictures on.

Next door, there is a special gift shop stocked with Hatsune Miku merchandise.

Of course the cafe also offers a thoroughly themed menu, complete with Hatsune Miku-shaped rice and curry, leek soba, and an assortment of vividly coloured drinks named after songs that were composed with Vocaloid software by fans.

While Vocaloid started out as a production tool that pieced together sounds to create a realistic “singing” voice, having Hatsune Miku associated with the software created a character that viewers could associate with and use to create a variety of complementary media, from 3D animated music videos to illustrations.

Cross-promotion and marketing of products and animated characters across a different range of services and media platforms in Japan is nothing new, but the cultural impact that Hatsune Miku has had because of the involvement of fan-created content is an interesting development. Without the creative input of fans and their creation of songs, videos and illustrations, Hatsune Miku would arguably not have been as big an icon as she is now, nor would the character have generated the same amount of economic value for the Vocaloid franchise.

How corporations and marketing expertise is adapting to a changing media environment where audiences have the ability to both create their own content as well as share it with others almost as easily as major content producers is something that will be interesting to consider in the future. One thing is for sure, there will probably be many more collaborations to come – we definitely aren’t the only ones who can’t get enough of Hatsune Miku!

In mere days, the ESA will host the 18th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, a multimillion-dollar event that serves as a soapbox for industry leaders, game developers and peripheral manufacturers as well as a focal point for video game enthusiasts. The show is a driving force for the industry, dictating Christmas lists in early June and establishing what products will live, die and fade from the public mind. Retailers eye consumer reactions to help them finalize their holiday orders and fans devour coverage of the event as if it was manna from heaven. Since the show’s 1995 launch, video games have grown from a niche category to a central facet of modern entertainment — finding their own place in the music industry, our national museums and even organizations like the Boy Scouts of America. No other event celebrates and glorifies the industry so thoroughly.

Yes, it’s a trade show at heart — as well as the industry’s best hype machine — but it’s also a very prominent part of gaming fandom. Following the news, scrutinizing announcements and arguing over who “won” the show is almost an annual tradition. Amid all of the event’s excitement, it’s easy to forget its strange origins. The industry’s biggest spectacle wasn’t born from a rational need to create a unifying trade show, but instead from a federally imposed stalemate in the console wars of the 1990s.

Filed under: Misc, Gaming, Sony, Nintendo

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As part of its Napster (and Napster International) acquisition from a while back, Rhapsody promised it would spread the music service across more places worldwide, with one of the many focuses being to have a stronger presence in Europe. Well, staying true to its word, Rhapsody’s announcing today that it’s bringing the ripened Napster to more countries in The Old Continent, such as France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and more. For those Euro folks interested, the Napster membership is set to cost €9.95 per month, which includes, among other things, offline features and unlimited streaming of over 20 million tunes on both desktop and mobile apps. But, hey, if you’d rather see how it stacks up against similar services first, then maybe you oughta take up Rhapsody on its 30-day free trial offer at the source link below.

Psst… you’ll find the full list of new countries where Napster’s now available in the PR past the jump.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Internet

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Source: Napster

Currently up for $50,000 in funding on Kickstarter, the Wheelharp delivers the sounds of a chamber string orchestra via a keyboard and a full chromatic set of real strings. Oh, and it’s pretty much the most striking instrument we’ve ever seen. Developed by Los Angeles-based Antiquity Music, the device reacts to a user’s press of the keys by moving a corresponding string to a rotating wheel with an edge that bows the string. The instrument gives the player plenty of controls; the right pedal controls wheel speed, while the left mans the strings’ damper system.

Though an early version was demoed at NAMM this year, the Wheelharp is currently in R&D mode, and Antiquity plans to put much of the Kickstarter money toward researching the optimal string selection. Hit up the source link to hear the instrument in action. Just don’t get too excited; the instrument will retail for a cool $12,500 — or a slightly more palatable $10,000 through the crowdfunding site.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Alt

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Via: Laughing Squid

Source: The Wheelharp (Kickstarter)

Today in a much more official manner than we’ve been experiencing thus far, Google Music has been announced to be coming to iOS. It’s been announced by Google’s Android head Sundar Pichai just this morning at the D11 conference where he’s also dropped the bomb: the HTC One Google Edition. So as Android gets a gift of that silver hardware with Nexus innards, iOS gains Google Music, Google Music All Access, and a rather significant competitor to iTunes.

It should be surprising to you to see Google Music being sent to iOS, readers. It wasn’t long ago that it appeared that Google Music was made for Android only – allowing Android users to hold this experience as their own while Apple did the same with iTunes. But here it is – official and coming in “about a month” according to Pichai.

At the moment it’s not clear exactly what kind of user interface will be presented in this iOS access to Google Music. While Pichai was clear that their teams were “working like crazy” to bring All Access to iOS, the Google Play store’s ability to sell music to iOS users was not exactly confirmed.

It wouldn’t be unfounded at this point, on the other hand, as Pichai was also clear about their goals to keep their services “universally accessible.” When asked when the Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 apps would be coming, Pichai essentially said that they’d have to wait until they had enough users to constitute development.

“We want to reach as many people as possible. For platforms that don’t have that many users at scale, we have great HTML5 apps. If they get more users, we will make apps.” – Sundar Pichai

Sound alright to you Windows users? The comments above were also in response to BlackBerry as much as Windows Phone – when will there be enough of a user base to bring Google back to BlackBerry?

SOURCE: AllThingsD

Google Play Music headed to iOS is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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