Is Guitar Hero ruining creativity?
This week, we’ve got a guest post from Jenny Williams.
In recent years, it has become quite acceptable to find yourself at a party being challenged to perform your best SingStar song. Since 2005, with the release of Guitar Hero, play-along gaming has got bigger and bigger. We’ve been given SingStar, DJ Hero, Lips, Rock Revolution and even Easy Piano on the DS.
Meanwhile, the Mix Me In iPhone app by Fried Green Apps has reached the ‘New and Noteworthy’ section of Apple’s App Store. Musical technology has reached every corner of the gaming market.
But, as we’re busy being Guitar Heroes, Elton John on the DS piano, in the Beatles’ rock band and a DJ for Jay-Z, has play-along music gaming reached a dead end?
Avatar crushes lesser films with sheer numbers
Officially, James Cameron’s magnum opus Avatar is now the most successful film ever made. Having pulled in more than two billion dollars, the blue meanie crushed the previous residents of the chart, in a manner that runs a little contrary to its messages of love and cultural tolerance. But many reading this may question whether it’s a deserving... Read
Facebook undergoes yet another redesign…
I’m sure you’ve noticed – Facebook has had another redesign. I’m beginning to wonder if we need to stage a KatiePriceAKAJordan-style surgery intervention, such is the number of times things have been whitened, tightened, and moved a bit right(ened). But I’m not here to cast judgement (even though that is my FAVOURITE thing). After redesign... Read
Wireless routers are evil and should be stopped
It comes as no surprise that wireless routers came top of a recent survey to find the most confusing gadgets. The hours I’ve spent slowly losing my grip on sanity as I try in vain to get the wireless router to find its backside with both hands. It really doesn’t bear thinking about. To make matters worse, it’s very rarely my own wireless... Read
So, what’s the dork opinion on the iPad?
You want to know, don’t you? You want to know which way to jump. Should you join the ‘OMG the iPad is RUBBISH! And it sounds like a SANITARY TOWEL!’ group, or go for the ‘OMG Apple have done it AGAIN! They have created something so excellent I wasn’t even aware I needed one UNTIL NOW!’ folks? Truth is, I’m not sure. I’ve had a good... Read
The iPhone: crank calling made simple
I doubt there’s a single mobile phone owner out there who hasn’t been guilty of this modern malaise. It’s easily done, after all. But if you recently got yourself an iPhone, I’m prepared to stake a small sum that you’ve been making quite a habit of it of late. After all, crank calling and the iPhone go hand in hand. Not... Read
Dropbox: the find of 2009
Each year, you’re fate-bound to discover something life changing. It could be boys, it could be heather shimmer Rimmel lipstick, it could be JLS. For me, this year, it was Dropbox. I’m pretty sure that right now, if I was asked to choose between Daddy, chips and Dropbox, I would choose Dropbox (I would really miss chips, though). On the surface,... Read
Top events in December: Christmas and CES
It’s the end of December, and that means just one thing: the Consumer Electronics Show is nearly here. Oh, and Christmas. There’s no reason why you need be particularly bothered about either – last year CES was a load of companies sitting in a conference centre trying to reassure themselves that the recession wasn’t going to affect them,... Read
Why journalists should stop writing about Twitter
Twitter is never far from a journalist’s lips these days. If they’re not complaining about the threat of citizen journalism and the death of proper writing, they’re extolling Twitter’s virtues (or whining that they just don’t get what all the fuss is about). It’s not hard for me to work out why. After all, we can... Read
There should be an app for that
As winter draws in, it strikes me that I’m no better set up against the cold dark nights than I was this time last year. And that’s despite the launch of Spotify, the arrival of a new slimline PS3, and marked leaps being made in 3D TV technology in 2009. In short, technology doesn’t seem to have helped at all. But it should! I rely... Read
