Seven45 Studios talks Power Gig details, we go hands-on with its six string guitar peripheral

We’ll just come right out and say it: Guitar Hero and Rock Band should watch their back, ’cause there’s a better-than-decent chance that Power Gig will be all the rage this holiday season. Seven45 Studios is a heretofore unheard of upstart with roots in First Act, and unlike the vast majority of game developers, these guys actually have a direct hand in the production of the software and hardware associated with this package. They’ll be designing the Power Gig video game series (Rise of the SixString is only the first installment) as well as the guitars, drums and microphones in-house, and given the First Act roots, you know you’ll be getting instruments of higher quality than what’s on the market today. Oh, and yes, we didn’t misspeak when we pluralized “guitars” and mentioned those other two devices.

We had a sit down with the team today at GDC, and besides coming away impressed with the alpha build of the game and the prototype axes we saw, we also learned quite a bit more about their plans than what was revealed in this morning’s press release. Just to be exceptionally clear, Seven45 Studios will not only sell their upcoming title as a standalone product, but it will sell a “band bundle” that includes the game, a guitar (plus a strap, picks and an extra set of strings), a drum set and a microphone, the latter two of which are still very early in production and weren’t available for us to test. The beat matching setup that gamers have grown used to in Rock Band and Guitar Hero is still there, but most everything else is new; a “chording” addition will allow users to strum actual power chords that match the chords used in the song, giving newbies the ability to actually learn songs as they play the game if they want to. In other words, if users strum the same chords required to succeed in the game but through an amp, they’ll be playing the actual song; if you’d rather not learn, you need not have any clue how to play a guitar to enjoy the game. Speaking of which, the bundled guitar (along with extra guitars that are still being sorted in terms of size, material and color) doubles as a legitimate six string by simply depressing the dampening pad beneath the neck, and while it won’t match the crisp tone emitted from your Les Paul Custom, the prototype we heard here in San Francisco sounded just fine for a beginner’s instrument. We also learned that existing Rock Band and Guitar Hero guitars will work with the Power Gig titles, and Seven45’s guitars will work with existing music band games — not bad!

More after the break…

Continue reading Seven45 Studios talks Power Gig details, we go hands-on with its six string guitar peripheral

Seven45 Studios talks Power Gig details, we go hands-on with its six string guitar peripheral originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seven45 Studios ups the ante for music games, intros fully functional six string controller

We’ve seen “real” guitars made to “work” with existing music-band titles, and we’ve even seen MIDI guitars play nice with Rock Band, but we’ve yet to see a company design a game from the ground-up to work with a legitimate six string. Until now. Here at GDC, Seven45 Studios is making a name for itself by introducing Power Gig: Rise of the SixString (for PS3 and Xbox 360) along with a bona fide axe. The newfangled company is a sister firm to First Act — the same guys who made that guitar sold with your ’07 Jetta — and the instrument debuting here at the show uses proprietary technology “that can distinguish and recognize gamers’ input all along the guitar.” Better still, the instrument includes all of the innards necessary to make noise through an amp, so you could theoretically use this to rock out in real life as well. If you’re skeptical about the game’s ability to actually recognize complicated inputs, get a load of this: “Power Gig also introduces the option to switch on chording, or chord play; chording presents the added challenge of playing the game using chords that require specific finger placement on the strings.” The tandem is slated to go on sale this fall for an undisclosed amount, and we’ll be snagging some hands-on time with the game and guitar here in just a few hours — stay tuned!

Continue reading Seven45 Studios ups the ante for music games, intros fully functional six string controller

Seven45 Studios ups the ante for music games, intros fully functional six string controller originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Case-Mate’s Hug wireless iPhone charging solution shipping now for $100

Remember that wireless induction charger that we saw poking around at the CES iLounge Pavilion earlier this year? Seems that Case-Mate has finally given that little doohickey a name, a price and a ship date. The aptly-titled Hug (which consists of the Hug Case and Hug Pad) slips onto one’s iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS and allows Apple’s darling to get recharged by simply laying on the aforementioned platter. Of course, the case itself is distractingly bulky, and this whole thing relies on the same eCoupled technology that we’ve been seeing for years now — though, the fact that this pad will charge any other case that utilizes the same standard is worth noting. Is the ability to never need your dock connecting cable for rejuvenation purposes really worth the $99.99 asking price? We’re guessing not, but those that disagree can get their own shipped out this very moment.

Continue reading Case-Mate’s Hug wireless iPhone charging solution shipping now for $100

Case-Mate’s Hug wireless iPhone charging solution shipping now for $100 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SteelSeries Launches Gaming Equipment at CeBIT

steelseries_keyboard.jpg

Competitive gamers: SteelSeries has three new products debuting today at CeBIT that you’re going to want to know about. All are available for pre-order on Amazon.

The SteelSeries 7H headset is a luxurious over-ear model that travels well and offers two ear-cup choices, hear-through cloth, and noise dampening leather. The 50mm drivers in the ear-cups deliver a clean soundscape of high, low, and mid tones for everything from mood-setting sounds in MMO games to 3D positional alerts in FPS games. They’re available for pre-sale now at Amazon for $119.99.

If you prefer, you can pick up a USB version of the 7H headset, which offers 7.1 virtual surround sound and ensures the exact same sound and settings, no matter what computer you’re using. It’s available at Amazon for $149.99.

Finally, PC gamers will love the SteelSeries 6Gv2 keyboard (shown), which offers 18-karat gold-plated mechanical switches. Use it to get quicker reaction times and advanced key combinations for more actions per minute. Amazon has this one for $99.99.

Matias makes room for your smartphone on an otherwise vanilla keyboard

We can’t count the number of times that we’ve longed for our Insert, Home, Page Up, Delete, End and Page Down buttons to be replaced with an angled slab of plastic, but obviously we’re in a pretty small minority. Matias has just issued its USB 2.0 keyboard + smartphone stand, which essentially carves out a slice of keyboard real estate for your phone to sit, though no passthrough USB cable / iPhone dock connector is provided for charging. The purpose? To put all of your mobile apps right at your fingertips, because keeping said phone on your desk is just completely and utterly unacceptable. Oh, and did we mention that the layout itself is nothing special? If you see something we don’t, feel free to part with your $49.95 and smile while thinking “I told you so.”

Update: Documentation about the keyboard indicated that “custom keypad and trackpad apps” could be loaded on to “control your Mac,” which certainly makes this more appealing, but unfortunately details on that are scant.

Matias makes room for your smartphone on an otherwise vanilla keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Debuts Three Mice Under $30

microsoft-wireless-mobile-m.jpgThank you, Microsoft, for this unexpected deal. The little company from Redmond has introduced three mice that feature the company’s BlueTrack technology, and all three list for under $30. That’s the first time BlueTrack has been available at this price.

BlueTrack was introduced in September, 2008, and it lets the user mouse over any surface, including wood, glass, metal, and marble. As someone who’s tried it, yes, it really does work that well.

The three new mice:

  • The Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 ($29.95) has an ambidextrous design and rubber side grips. It will be available in April in Lock Ness Gray and Dragon Fruit Pink (shown).
  • The Wireless Mouse 2000 ($29.95) is a full-size mouse made for portable use. It has an ambidextrous design and rubber side grips, and will be available in March.
  • The Comfort Mouse 4500 ($24.95) is a wired mouse for people who don’t want to worry about changing batteries. Look for it in March in Sea Blue, Poppy Red, and Strawberry Pink.

Project Natal coming in October, says Jonathan Ross (video)

As unexpected sources of tech news go, UK television presenter Jonathan Ross is pretty high up there. But lo and behold, the man’s had a chance to spend some quality time with Microsoft’s Project Natal setup and while he’s not altogether impressed with the current state of it, his note on when it’s coming out is the one thing nobody has known for sure yet. “Got until October” may mean an October release, or it may imply they can work on it through October in time for an early November release (something we heard earlier), but altogether we find this both credible and logical considering the natural urge to try and get the latest gaming tech in well before the holidays. Need more convincing? Skip past the break to see the Wossmeister having a whale of a time with that balloon-blocking game that’s embarrassed many a journalist already.

Continue reading Project Natal coming in October, says Jonathan Ross (video)

Project Natal coming in October, says Jonathan Ross (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Buffalo Kokuyo reveals 4-port USB 3.0 hub, leaves you little choice but to upgrade

Oh c’mon, that 80-port USB 2.0 hub served you well, and frankly, it owes you nothing. With USB 3.0 upon us, it’s only a matter of time before every last external HDD, scanner and printer you own is cruising along the SuperSpeed highway, and while that’s obviously a gross exaggeration, we’ve always been one for proactiveness. If you’re worried about having the bandwidth to handle the next generation of USB, Japan’s own Buffalo Kokuyo has just the thing: a 4-port USB 3.0 hub. The BSH4A03U3 supports Windows and Mac platforms and promises to handle speeds up to 5Gbps, though the ¥8,000 ($89) asking price does feel a wee bit steep.

Buffalo Kokuyo reveals 4-port USB 3.0 hub, leaves you little choice but to upgrade originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hard Candy Cases Announces New Cases for the iPad

Hard Candy Cases - iPad

Apple’s iPad may not be out yet, but that’s not stopping a number of manufacturers from developing cases that will fit the tablet when it hits store shelves. Hard Candy Cases, a new company with some very attractive Macbook and netbook cases, announced its new line of iPad cases that will be available alongside the iPad when it hits Apple Store shelves in March. 
The new cases come in a variety of colors and flavors. The iPad Sleek Skin and the iPad Rubber Protect both feature a form-fitting rubberized protective case with a snap-on screen protection for travel, and are available for pre-order for $34.95 and $39.95 respectively. 
The iPad Bubble Sleeve, Hard Sleeve, and Hard Shell all feature Hard Candy’s signature bubble-style and polycarbonate design. The iPad Hard Shell has a translucent snap-on screen lid to protect the display, while the other two models are slide-in sleeves designed to protect your iPad while you travel. They’re also available for pre-order for $44.95 each.

Sony licenses ‘official’ PS3 external HDDs, doesn’t fully comprehend concept of interoperability

Hey there, why so glum? You’ve overfilled your PS3’s internal storage with mission-critical data and don’t have anywhere else to stash your incoming Best of Miley Cyrus compilation? Fear not, Sony’s got you covered with a pair of officially licensed external HDDs built by Buffalo. They look remarkably similar to standard issue USB portable drives — so much so in fact that one of them is a rebadged unit that Buffalo already retails in the US — but let’s not nitpick here. The two drives on offer come with a generous 500GB of storage and their prices aren’t too bad with the rebadge setting you back around $130 while the more stylish HD-AV500U2 above will cost around $168. You could of course ignore Sony, buy any drive you like and jack it into your PS3; it’s just that these aren’t too terrible as far as unnecessarily licensed peripherals go. Both drives will be hitting Japan in March to coincide with the Torne DVR adapter release.

Sony licenses ‘official’ PS3 external HDDs, doesn’t fully comprehend concept of interoperability originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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