Unless you have been under a rock this month, you know the illustrious iPhone 4 will be heading to Verizon on February 10. This will be the first time, since the original release of the iPhone in 2007, that the phone has been made available on a CDMA carrier (Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA carriers in the U.S.) This will also be the first time that an iPhone will get 3G data speeds outside of AT&T, in the U.S. (T-Mobile users have been able to use unlocked iPhones, but unable to get 3G speeds).

There is a lot of rumbling that many people unhappy with AT&T’s service issues (that’s phone/data service, not customer service), will likely jump ship from AT&T for the greener grass of Verizon. If you are one of those people, there are a few major considerations you should be aware of before you make the big move.

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While doing a regular search of the Rock Band downloadable content page on Wikipedia, I noticed a new column titled “Add’l Rock Band 3 Features”. Upon sorting, I stumbled on a shocking bit of news. Most of the Pearl Jam DLC released between March and September 2009 has “Backing vocals”.

As a test, I fired up Rock Band 3 on Xbox 360 and confirmed, most Pearl Jam songs have 2-part harmonies. This is interesting news. Long before the release of Rock Band 3, Green Day: Rock Band, and The Beatles: Rock Band; the content authors at Harmonix were charting vocal harmonies for Pearl Jam’s Ten album (followed up by Backspacer).

This is a nice surprise for Rock Band vocalists, but what does it mean for conspiracy theorists? Since the charting was done relatively early in the Rock Band 2 life-cycle, which never had vocal harmony capabilities, there had to be a purpose for these harmonies.

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The latest news in the saga of Rock Band 3 hardware availability is now here.

Mad Catz, the company producing the official peripherals, has announced GameShark is now accepting pre-orders for the XBOX 360 MIDI PRO adapter, which is scheduled to ship January 20.

Xbox 360 MIDI PRO-Adapter Pre-Orders now OPEN – GameShark Store US

Exciting news! The US GameShark Store is now taking pre-orders on the Rock Band 3 MIDI Adapter for the Xbox 360:

http://store.gameshark.com/viewItem.asp?idProduct=4832&idCategory=323
Adapter orders will begin shipping out next Thursday, 1/20 from the US GameShark Store. Demand is expected to be high, so don’t miss out on your chance to order the MIDI Pro-Adapter.

For those who pre-ordered from other retail outlets, those locations are also expected to receive limited supply and hopefully begin shipments simultaneously. Needless to say, there still looks to be higher demand than availability. The eBay pricing of $100 for these $30-$40 adapters is a tell tale sign. Do not expect the supply to be available on store shelves for several more weeks, or longer.

UPDATE 1/24/2011: Mad Catz has updated their Rock Band forum post, stating all Amazon pre-orders will be filled this week.

Rock Band 3 players expecting to use their non-Rock Band keyboards and electronic drums in the game, are currently steaming at the fact the game has been out for more than two and a half months, and the adapter to allow this functionality still is not available. Fortunately, PlayStation 3 and Wii players were able to get their hands on them earlier this week at Best Buy and a couple online/brick-n-mortar retailers. Though, Xbox 360 players are still without (except for a handful of fortunate souls).

Mad Catz, the company producing the official peripherals has made a press announcement regarding the Xbox 360 version of this adapter, and it looks like positive news. I hope what they state is accurate, since Mad Catz had a very difficult time “under promising and over delivering” the hardware for Rock Band 3′s launch.

If what Mad Catz is now stating is accurate, Xbox 360 players should start seeing retail availability by the end of January. I sure hope 4,000 adapters is enough to meet immediate demand. I plan on getting two myself.

Read on for the Mad Catz press release. Read the rest of this entry »

My favorite online streaming music service is Slacker Radio. If you are unaware of Slacker, think of Pandora or Last.FM.  I believe the Slacker offering has the best user interface, a great selection of music, nice free (and relatively cheap paid) offerings, and was the first to offer on-device mobile applications with caching of music for offline use. I have my custom Rock Band Radio station over there too.

Today, at CES, the folks at Slacker announced the next generation of their web-based and mobile applications.  Most of it has been expected for a while, but good to see that they are pushing the marketing on it. Let’s get into the announcement.

This news comes to us from Hypebot and ZatzNotFunny who had a chance to interview folks at Slacker.

Premium Radio

This has been quietly announced on Slacker.com for many months.  This is a paid offering allowing users to select any song in the Slacker library on-demand for immediate listening.  I have heard that this paid offering will cost users a scary $9.99 per month, which is an extremely expensive cost in my opinion.  This new offering will compete immediately with Zune Pass, Rhapsody, Napster, and similar services.  It could also compete with iTunes and Amazon’s download services.

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Thanks to a failed test from our friends at Harmonix, we get early news of next weeks DLC. This is great news, in my opinion.  In fact, to me, this is the best music news from Rock Band I have heard since the announcement of Green Day Rock Band.
SIX PACK OF FAN FAVORITES FROM LINKIN PARK HEAD TOROCK BAND NEXT WEEK!

Cambridge, Mass. – Jan. 7, 2011– Harmonix today announced that Linkin Park will bring a six pack of songs to Rock Band, available beginning Jan. 11 in the Rock Band 3Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360^® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system and Wii^™.

Rock Band DLC Additions for Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 system and Wii
American rockers Linkin Park will drop some much-anticipated songs in the Rock Band 3Music Store next week. The band, formed in 1996 in California, has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and holds two Grammy® Awards.  Linkin Park is touring the United States beginning Jan. 20. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.linkinpark.com.

Linkin Park Pack 01 features “Crawling” and “In the End” from their 2000 debut album,Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond in 2005. From the band’s second album,Meteora, the pack features “Somewhere I Belong” and “Numb,” the biggest song of the year in 2003 on the Modern Rock charts. The pack also features “What I’ve Done,” from their third album, Minutes to Midnight, which topped the Billboard charts when it was released in 2007. And from their latest album, A Thousand Suns, which was released in September 2010, the pack features “Waiting for the End.”

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