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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We asked how you would change the Zune 3.0 software and Microsoft responded — by upgrading Texas Hold ‘Em. In addition to adding a multiplayer mode and some new single player difficulty levels to the venerable card game, the 3.1 update (out today) should find Zune Social easier to navigate, and a new “like minded listeners” feature lets you compare your music tastes to other users on the service. Additionally, the update promises an overall increase in stability and performance for the Zune PC app and the device firmware, including improved play count reporting and content synchronization. Rounding out this embarassment of riches, the new software packs in freebies of Checkers, Sudoku and Space Battle. What are you still doing here, Zuneophiles? Hit the read link!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Zune 3.1 update out today - now featuring Sudoku! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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18th November 2008: Toontrack Music has updated EZdrummer to v1.1.5. Fixed in version 1.1.5: The infamous VintageRock-BlackBeauty crash. Ability to recall saved files from Sonar track templates. Muted snares used in E…

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets, Home Entertainment

Now here’s an interesting combination. Sharp has decided to liberally splash its AQUOS labeling on an all new photo player, which pulls double duty as a photo printer and a photo, um, display-er. So far as we can tell, users can load up images via a variety of memory card slots, Bluetooth, Infrared and even the local network (HN-PP150 only), and from there, they can either print for showing to grandma or output the content through HDMI. For those who connect it to an AQUOS LCD TV, they can also utilize the music playback functionality that’s baked in. The non-DLNA-compatible HN-PP100 (pictured) will go for ¥20,000 ($207) starting December 5th in Japan, while the network-friendly HN-PP150 tacks on another ¥5,000 ($52) and ships in January 2009.

Sharp’s AQUOS photo player prints / displays images on your HDTV originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Anytime we hear the words “incompatible” and “music game” mixed into the same sentence, we typically can’t resist the onset of a bitter beer face. That being true, we can’t say we’re too terribly bummed about this one, particularly since we highly doubt Microsoft’s Lips will have the same following as Rock Band and / or Guitar Hero: World Tour. At any rate, you should probably know that the accelerometer-packin’ Lips microphone will not work with RB nor GH at launch, though creator Keiichi Yano of Inis did confess that compatibility was theoretically possible with future patches. ‘Course, we doubt anyone will spend time on said patches unless Lips moves like a billion copies this winter, but we suppose anything is possible with a snap of the fingers and a pinch of pixie dust.

[Via Joystiq]

Lips mic incompatible with Rock Band / Guitar Hero (at launch, anyway) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An ensemble of student computer scientists and musicians, the Stanford Laptop Orchestra uses 20 MacBook computers to compose and perform new music. “We tilt the notebook and use its built-in accelerometer to expressively control sound. We use the trackpad as a kind of violin bow,” explains Ge Wang, SLOrk’s founder. ”You can make some wild, diverse music with the MacBook.”

Tapulous has brought a new rhythm section to its highly popular Tap Tap Revenge. The first special edition of the music game — Nine Inch Nails Revenge ($4.99)— lets you tap and shake to the beats of 13 Nine Inch Nails tracks. Play solo or against a friend in head-to-head two-player mode.

Interviewing guitarist Dave Keuning prior to the release of The Killers’ new album, Ben Rogerson (musicradar.com) learned that “ the band’s hotly-anticipated third album Day Age was demoed in Apple’s Logic.” In fact, each member of the band “recorded demos separately in Logic, which allowed us to email our ideas to each other and to Stuart Price, the producer.”

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”WiiMusic2.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/WiiMusic2.jpg” width=”590″ height=”333″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”" //span/p pAs part of a series of core titles that include the wildly popular Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit, Nintendo was expecting big things from a href=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/07/21/wii_music_to_hit_stores_in_tim.html”Wii Music/a when it hit the shelves on October 20th. /p pSales figures so far do nothing to back up these ambitions as in the first 11 days just under 81,000 units were sold, according to raw NPD data./p p’Flop’ would be too harsh a term to use at this early stage, but when you consider that Wii Fit sold just under 688,000 units in a similar period earlier this year it must be causing concern in the Nintendo camp./pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2630bb8/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Wii Music Not Doing Too Well, Nintendo Crosses Fingerslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/11/17/wii_music_not_doing_too_well_n.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Wii Music Not Doing Too Well, Nintendo Crosses Fingerslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/11/17/wii_music_not_doing_too_well_n.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24192565886/u/197/f/9581/c/552/s/40045496/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24192565886/u/197/f/9581/c/552/s/40045496/a2.img” border=”0″//a

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”KeianFrame.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/KeianFrame.jpg” width=”360″ height=”448″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”" //span/p pWhen is a digital photo frame not a digital photo frame? When it’s a printer and MP3 player as well, that’s when./p pKeian’s Japan P71-A2-JP is a rather chunky looking device with a 7″ 480×234 resolution screen for showing off your snaps. If you see one you like you can print it out right away at up to 300dpi on 6×4″ paper. /p pbr / /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/25f1073/mf.gif’ border=’0′/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0′trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Keian Photo Frame Shows Pics, Prints Them Out, Plays Musiclink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/11/14/keian_photo_frame_shows_pics_p.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Keian Photo Frame Shows Pics, Prints Them Out, Plays Musiclink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/11/14/keian_photo_frame_shows_pics_p.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24192479412/u/197/f/9581/c/552/s/39784563/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24192479412/u/197/f/9581/c/552/s/39784563/a2.img” border=”0″//a

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Storage

After a flurry of leaks and announcements caught our attention last year, we’ve heard nary a peep from Toshiba about its multi-faceted device since. Suffice to say that’s it’s out in parts of Europe and countries with a penchant for the backward “R” and “N.” Great, but what is it and how well does it do what it does; that’s the convoluted question. Fortunately, IntoMobile went hands on with the USB memory stick / alarm clock with snooze / MP3 player / 7.2Mbps HSDPA USB modem / tri-band GSM cellphone and came away with the opinion that “the device is excellent.” It pulled a respectable 2.7Mbps off O2’s UK network and performed reasonably well as a “backup phone.” The 160MB of storage for MP3 / AAC music playback was disappointing but it served its purpose in a pinch. Still, that’s a lot of device for £140.

[Via IntoMobile]

Toshiba’s unusual G450 cellphone / MP3 player / HSDPA USB modem reviewed, liked originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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