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Posts Tagged ‘Tough Sell’

iiView Vpad enters today’s tablet fray with yesterday’s netbook specs

iiView Vpad enters today’s tablet fray with yesterday’s netbook specs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ArcherMind shows off ‘world’s first’ Android-based in-car nav system

One could argue that the Motorola Droid is in fact the first-ever Android-based in-car navigation solution, but we’re surmising that ArcherMind would disagree. Over at the Embedded Technology 2009 trade show in Yokohama, the outfit has demonstrated an Android-laden navigation system that could actually be inserted as a factory option; curiously enough, it looks an awful lot like the AutoLinQ initiative that hit our radar back in June. The outfit is reportedly shopping the system — which includes a 7-inch, 800 x 480 display — to a variety of Chinese automakers, and given that it can browse the web via WiFi or 3G, connect with music players and phones over Bluetooth and even play back audio files stored on the HDD or SD slot, we can’t imagine it being a tough sell.

ArcherMind shows off ‘world’s first’ Android-based in-car nav system originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rock Band out for $9.99 on the iPhone… but fails to thrill

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, Music

The good news is that EA has released Rock Band for the iPhone and iPod touch, and you can pick it up from the App Store right now. The bad news is that it seems like a pretty tough sell — despite the relatively high price tag (Tap Tap Revenge 3, a similar music game, is currently 99 cents and headed for free), there’s not much new here.

Sure, there is four-device Bluetooth multiplayer, and that’s something that Tapulous’ game has never had. But other than that, it seems like this is basically EA’s cash in on the tapping concept — the draw of Rock Band has been getting together with your friends and jamming out the hits on those fake instruments, and touching a button-less screen by yourself doesn’t have the same effect. Singing is included, but you’re still just tapping out notes for that — it seems like they missed a lot of potential fun there. And even some of the fun things from the console version like the drum fills for overdrive and the character avatars are missing here.

If you don’t like the 20 songs included with the game, you can download others at 50 cents (in two-song packs for a buck each), but most people probably shouldn’t even bother at that price — just stick with Tapulous’ game unless you really love Rock Band and its aesthetics (even then, I haven’t seen my much-beloved Harmonix mentioned anywhere with this port, so I doubt they’re even involved).

Even if you want to try this one, wait for the inevitable price drop — if the game really lived up to its name as the premiere music experience you’ll find on the consoles, it might be worth it, but all indications are, unfortunately, that it doesn’t.

TUAWRock Band out for $9.99 on the iPhone… but fails to thrill originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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