Wii gamers rejoice! It was only a matter of time before it happened. EA has gone on record to say that the insanely popular Rock Band franchise is on its way to Nintendo’s great white console.

In a third-quarter financial conference call today, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello mentioned in passing that Rock Band is currently in development for the Nintendo Wii.

No release date or pricing was revealed, but I’d say we’ll see it this Fall, so EA can take full advantage of the 2008 holiday season. Stay tuned for more details.

[via IGN]

Looking for an easy way to copy songs and movies from one iPod to another? Then look no further. This compact device connects two iPods and lets you easily transfer tracks without any computer required.

The $99 miShare snaps between two iPods and will copy tracks with the press of a button. A single button press copies the last song or video played or a pre-selected photo folder. A longer press duplicates any files you’ve got stored in your current On-The-Go playlist, so you can easily copy multiple files. 

The device is perfect for moving non-DRMed tracks between the players, but can also copy iTunes DRM tracks with the caveat that you’ll need to authorize the device using iTunes once they’re copied.

Unfortunately, the miShare doesn’t currently work with the iPhone or iPod Touch, but should work fine with all other iPods with the standard 30-pin dock connector (Mini, Nano, 3G, 4G, Video (5G), and Classic (6G) models).

[via popgadget]

Can’t get enough Guitar Hero? Well now you can carry a miniature version of the game anywhere you go. The 7 ¾” X 3” guitar is small enough to easily carry around in your backpack, but the neck folds down so you can even fit it in your pocket.

Basic Fun’s pint-sized Guitar Hero Caribiner game offers up a variety of rock tunes from both Guitar Hero I and II, including Smoke on the Water, Rock this Town, Cherry Pie, Killer Queen, You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’, Miserlou, Heart Shaped Box, Message in a Bottle, Jessica, and Surrender. An LCD screen displays the notes required, and you simply tap on the color-coded buttons when you’re ready to jam. There’s even a miniature version of the all-important “whammy bar” so you can give your music some extra finesse.

The guys at Basic Fun worked closely with the game’s original developers at Activision and Red Octane to ensure the tiny game captures the spirit of the original.

Expect the pocket Guitar Hero Caribiner to hit major retailers such as Target, KB Toys and Toys ‘R’ Us by early March for just $14.99.

[via Chip Chick]

Now you’ll notice that I didn’t say you could PLAY Rock Band on your iPod. But if you’re willing to shell out some serious dough, you can now pick up the entire library of tracks from the hit game over in the Apple iTunes store.

There are currently 74 tracks available in the collection, and at 99 cents each, you’re looking at a whopping $73.26 to pick up the entire set. It’s the perfect way to memorize all the tunes while you’re riding the bus to work so you can defeat your online foes in a blaze of glory over the weekend.

Keep in mind that the iTunes track list isn’t an exact match for the game. For instance, tracks which are cover versions in the game are done by the original artist on iTunes (too bad they’re not that way in the game). There are a handful of other disparities too, but not enough to take away from the sheer awesomeness of the one-stop-shop library.

If you happen to have iTunes installed, you can check out the entire collection here.

[via X3F via TUAW]

One of the most popular computers from the 1980s, the Commodore 64, is having a minor renaissance as an electronic musical instrument. The C64’s audio chip is famous for producing an array of warm, familiar 8-bit beats and blips.

As a result, the trusty C64 has become a popular platform for “circuit bending”, which is hardware hackers’ terminology for taking old technology, applying circuit modifications to output audio or video effects that the original device wasn’t necessarily designed to produce.

Now you can own your own circuit bent C64, without any electronic know-how. The circuit bending wizards from Bighead Electronics have made this extremely limited edition pre-modded C64, appropriately called the Bent64. 

The system comes completely loaded Paul Slocum’s Cynthcart, a custom program which helps the heavily modded Commodore produce a wild cacophony of retro noise as you press keys on the keyboard

The Bent64 is a ready-to-go electronic musical instrument, capable of cranking out 3-note polyphonic analog sounds, applying effects with a “whammy” tuning knob, and even stereo support if you can wrangle a second sound chip and install it in the provided socket. The Bent64 can even output a psychedelic light show through a composite video output, so you’re ready to rave out of the box.

Oh yeah, it’s still fully functional as a standard C64 with the flip of a switch before you boot up. So you’d better brush up on your Commodore BASIC.

[eBay Auction Page]

 quotationweb

I don’t know what’s in the water this week, but I seem to have a serious music theme going on here. Do you like to play piano? Got an iPhone? Well, if you happen to have jailbroken yours, you can now turn it into a musical instrument.

iPhone developer Mister Aardvark has just released iAno, a true multi-touch piano simulator for the iPhone.

The simulator offers a complete four-octave keyboard (you jump around the keyboard using the arrows at the top of the screen), with polyphonic sound allowing up to five keys to be played simultaneously. its loaded with real piano samples, making it sound just like the real deal.

Aardvark plans on adding additional features such as a complete 88-key keyboard, switchable sample sets, recording and playback, as well as support for loading .MID tracks and playing them back.

[Installing iAno via QJ.NET]

So what happens when you take the system sounds from Windows XP and Windows 98 and carefully arrange them in a music sequencer? Something pretty unexpected, I’d say. This is truly a case where the whole is definitely greater than the some of its parts.

UK electronic music hacker Robbi-985 managed to take the usually annoying system sounds, painstakingly sequence them with ModPlug Tracker and turn them into a composition that’s actually not half bad.

While it’s certainly no Beethoven’s 9th, it is pretty amazing that he managed to get all those sounds to work so well together.

I can hardly wait for the Vista version to come out.

[via Cynical-C via Neatorama]

 quotationweb

The latest pocket gaming system isn’t from Nintendo or Sony, but from an upstart little Korean outfit called MyRacer. Their new MF101 portable looks like another media player on the surface, but under the hood, it’s a pocket-sized arcade system.

  Sure, it’ll play music and video files in a variety of formats, but the MyRacer will also play a number of Adobe Flash-based games such as those from Korea’s Play4U or Com2uS catalog. It’s not clear to me if it’ll play just any Flash file, or just Flash Lite applications.

Clearly designed with gaming in mind, the system has a pair of directional controls, as well as shoulder buttons. It’s got a cool Flash-based user interface, providing quick access to your media and games. The system has a 320×240 resolution 2.4-inch color LCD screen, and comes with 1GB of on-board memory (expandable via an SD slot).

If you want to get your hands on one of these compact players, you’ll have to see if you can get one exported from a Korean retailer such as GSestore or Knox for 99,000 KRW (appx. $104 USD).

While I don’t think these are officially sanctioned by LEGO, these whimsical MP3 players bear a striking resemblance to the colorful interlocking plastic blocks.

Homade’s LEGO-esque media players cleverly conceal their controls into the raised dots on the surface of each block. The players come in a variety of bold primary colors, and like their snap-together doppelgangers, are made primarily from plastic. 

Each one comes with a built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery that should give you about 6 hours of play time, and from what I can tell, you’ll have to provide your own microSD card for storage (2GB max). At $46 a pop, they are a bit expensive for players with no included memory.

Already have an iPod? Then you might want to pick up Homade’s LEGO-like iPod stereo dock, which conceals its speakers under the bumpy block surface. The iPod dock runs about $40 bucks.

 If you’re just an absolute LEGO block fanatic (and don’t mind that they’re not really LEGOs) you can find the whole collection all over at Homeloo.

Already sick of playing the piano on your iPhone? Maybe it’s time to hit the drums.

Developer MooTheCow has created this homebrew drum machine application called “Drummer” that runs on the iPhone or iPod Touch. 

Drummer can play up to 15 unique audio samples (one on each finger touch pad), and takes advantage of multi-touch capabilities, so you can play up to five sounds at once. You can even let your MP3s play in the background and provide your own accompaniment. There are pre-installed Rock, Dance, Electro and two Jazz sound sets, but can be easily updated with your own sound samples.

The application is currently in private Beta, so you won’t be able to get your hands on a copy for your jailbroken iPhone quite yet. In the mean time, you can read more over on MooCowMusic.