Drink This Show

“Shake it up baby!”

We howl as we sing along to the new Beatles Rockband. The story mode of the game starts out in the Cavern Club with Twist and Shout. With each new venue, the music slowly progresses just as it did in real life. When you finish a song you earn pictures. There is a picture for getting three stars on a song and one for five stars, as well as one for finishing the entire venue. Once several pictures are earned, a rare video is unlocked of The Beatles doing whatever they do.

Instruments

The game includes Paul’s Hofner base, Ringo’s Ludwig drums, mic, and mic stand. The base is one of the most realistic video game controllers I have held. It has the length, the look, and the curves of a real Hofner base. When I started banging on the drums, they felt a little different, quieter, but different. After the first awkward song , I was getting the feel of the new drums and I was loving it. Unlike the first Rockband game, the base pedal in this one feels a lot sturdier. You might be saying, “What is so special about the microphone in this game?”. Well if you are just that far out of the loop, I’ll tell you. YOU CAN HAVE THREE PEOPLE SING AT THE SAME TIME! No! I did not stutter, you heard me right. It allows you to plug in three mics, all used with one controller. Anybody can sing any part they want. That way, certain people can be designated to sing different songs. The great thing about having the mic stand is that if you only have three people but want the have a full band, that one special person can sing and play an instrument at the same time!

Rating

I give it a 4 out of 5. It is a great game and The Beatles are amazing, but it won’t let you play other songs that you have downloaded for other Rockband games. You also can’t play songs you download on Beatles Rockband on other Rockband games.

Other than that, it is a definite buy.

Interesting Animation from Google Japan showing how Google Street really works. Check it out, and leave a comment telling us what you think!

There are tons of places to watch TV online legally and for free. Hulu gets much of the buzz, in part because it was the first really comprehensive offering with big corporate partners, but it’s hardly the only player out there. CBS-owned TV.com was recently redesigned and the site has been taking steps to become not just another place to watch TV, but a full-fledged social community.

Now the site is launching a new way to keep track of what shows you want to watch and even where you want to watch them, with its new TV.com WatchList feature. The WatchList is really easy to use — basically you just search or browse for shows and choose to add them to your list. From the list, you can see upcoming shows for the rest of the week (and when they will be airing locally on your regular TV), watch a preview of upcoming episodes if they are available, and go right to the show’s page, which will provide clips, full-length episodes, reviews from the community, etc.

You can even record a show from your WatchList on your TiVo by connecting your TiVo account with TV.com. That way, you can choose to record an individual episode or get a Season Pass on your TiVo right from TV.com.

Because TV.com uses Facebook Connect, you can see which of your friends are watch the shows you watch and have seen or are planning to see the upcoming episode. Soon, you can share that you are planning on watching a show using Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. TV.com isn’t trying to be the only place you visit to watch TV shows online, instead, they want the site to act as sort of a central manager, making it easy for you to watch shows online, on regular TV or on other sites like NBC.com. TV.com wants to be the TV Guide of the 21st century.

Only time will tell if these features will be enough to make TV.com more than just a dream domain name, but features like the WatchList and better social media integration are a great way at honing out a distinct niche in the vast space of TV portal sites.

What do you think about TV.com’s WatchList feature? How do you manage what shows you are going to watch (online or off)?

The Dropbox Blog has just released a wonderful post announcing the release of their free iPhone Application. It’s not intended as a standalone app, so if you don’t already have one the software will prompt you to create a free 2GB Dropbox account.

Once installed on your device, Dropbox for iPhone provides access to all your Dropbox files, allows you to view any file supported by your iPhone (including documents, photos, music, and video), uploads any photo or video you’ve taken on your device to your Dropbox account, and lets you save any file as a favorite for offline viewing.

Other features of the app include easy one-click sharing of your Dropbox files by email (a link to the file will be sent to the recipient), and a photo gallery view for easy browsing of images in your Dropbox account on your phone. You can also upload photos and video directly to your Dropbox, which when combined with Shared folders can quickly and easily share your media with friends and family.

If you already use Dropbox on the desktop you’ll appreciate its automatic sync features, but because of potential space limitations the iPhone app thankfully doesn’t actively sync your entire Dropbox collection. But it does support automatic downloads to your phone, and “favoriting” a Dropbox file will set it up to auto-sync. When a new version of the file is available on Dropbox, you’ll be notified in the iPhone app and prompted to sync.

We’ve been checking out the new app and have been impressed with its ease of use. The ability to connect natively on the go to a service we already find indispensable adds a lot of value. Are you a Dropbox user? If you have an iPhone, have you had a chance to check out the app yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

This video walks through the Courier interface, and provides an overview of the interface and Courier’s features, and more of how you would actually use it if you are not a designer. The interface has more of a Microsoft feel (fonts and titles bars) and less of the entirely handwritten journal aesthetic: a smart agenda, more defined folder system, universal search and multi-page web browsing.

The heart of Courier appears to what’s called the “infinite journal,” which is what it sounds like: A journal/scrapbook that is endless, bound only by storage constraints (presumably). Hopefully they will call it something less awkward. The journal can actually be published online, and it’s shown to be downloadable in three formats: a Courier file, Powerpoint or PDF.

The hinge between the screens is still used as a pocket to “tuck” items you want to move from one page to another. It also revolves almost exclusively around using the pen for input: In 4 minutes of video, there’s not a virtual keyboard in sight. Fingers are used just to navigate, through flicks, swipes and pinches.

It also begins to bring into focus Courier’s priorities, and possible limitations: Other than the brief glimpse at the library and the web browser, there is basically nothing about viewing content, like watching movies, reading books, or listening to music. Courier appears to be all about creating and writing with a pen, which is vastly different from what everybody expects out of the Apple tablet.

Quote

Were no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do i
A full commitments what Im thinking of
You wouldnt get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how Im feeling
Gotta make you understand

* never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Weve know each other for so long
Your hearts been aching
But youre too shy to say it
Inside we both know whats been going on
We know the game and were gonna play it

And if you ask me how Im feeling
Dont tell me youre too blind to see

(* repeat)

Give you up. give you up
Give you up, give you up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give, give you up
Never gonna give
Never gonna give, five you up

I just wanna tell you how Im feeling
Gotta make you understand

I got inspired to do the 20Q thing from watching this video. It took 28 questions before it guessed John Green. Obviously I don’t know him as good as Hank so that may be why it took so long. You can tell what I don’t know by looking at the questions below that I apparently got wrong. I’m sorry John but I guess your fans think you are fat.

You won, but 20Q guessed it eventually

Play Again

You are John Green.
Are you an actor? You said Sometimes, 20Q was taught by other players that the answer is No.
Are you a recurring character? You said Probably, 20Q was taught by other players that the answer is No.
Are you involved in politics? You said Sometimes, 20Q was taught by other players that the answer is No.
Are you a news reporter? You said Sometimes, 20Q was taught by other players that the answer is No.
Are you skinny? You said Yes, 20Q was taught by other players that the answer is No.
Are you a relatively young actor? You said Yes, 20Q was taught by other players that the answer is No.
Contradictions Detected
The opinions of the 20Q A.I. are its own, and are based on the input of players. 20Q’s answers reflect common knowledge. If you feel that 20Q is in error, the only way to correct it is to play again!

They found these unidentified life forms in a sewer in North Carolina.(Creepy) They look like brains that have just grown and latched onto the walls.

I believe that it is a bunch of bacteria that has grown together with poop and other stuff(female bi-products) to form the organism. It could really be anything. But I have no idea what it could be. I really hope they do testing to figure out what it is. :<

gdgt, a gadget podcast, has recently released their social gadget database to the public. What is this service about? Check out the video below.

I have had a chance to test it out and add a few of my gadgets to my lists. All of the features seem to work very well, and the idea behind it is great! Being able to discuss, review, and add your gadgets not currently in the database will add a lot of new content to the gadget world. This will also help you make the decision if you want that shiny new tech toy you’ve had you’re eyes on!

Be sure to check it out at gdgt.com!