Posts by Jay 28

Ubisoft reveals rock game with REAL guitars

Keyboards much easier

Unfortuantely it's always been a lot easier to do things like that with a keyboard than a guitar.

The keyboard is digital and the notes are switches (not withstanding aftertouch et al but that's still just digital info as far as MIDI is concerned) so it's easy to caputure that information and use it to trigger actions.

Guitars however are a whole different boiling vessel of aquatic creatures. They way they sound and play are affected by a great many factors - not just what note you're playing but whether you're playing chords; using harmonics; tapping; sliding; pouring lighter fuel and setting fire to... etc

With a MIDI hexaphonic pickup you can at least pick up which string is being played and isolate the tone on that string (to an extent, although modern ones are getting very good). I'd venture this is how the "Rock Band Pro Guitar" works.

Without a MIDI pickup you're relying purely on the line signal from the jack which is purely analogue. If you're playing a single note it can work out what that note is (that would be how tuners work) - say a C - but it can't tell you WHICH C it's playing as with the guitar the same note (in the same octave) appears in several places on the fretboard and you won't know from the line output which one is being held down.

That's before you get into chord voicings, fingerings, harmonics and alternate tunings.

I'd be very interested to see how well this technology works (and how much it actually attempts to do - i.e. is it just going to tell you if you're playing the right tonality or somehow try to work out if you're correctly playing the right fret/chord fingering) though. Could, if it's good, lead to some really nice inovations in the "real" guitar world... or it could just be a gimic.

We'll see :)

--

... and jack sockets on guitars aren't like SCART. They are all compatible by nature :)

Though whilst ...

... this might get some more people interested in learning a real instrument instead of whinning away with autotune on x-factor, it won't necessarily be a good teaching aid (though I'd reserve judgement until there are more details - it could turn out to be very clever at note tracking/chords and the other analogue guitar techniques).

Somehow I doubt it's going to pick up on sloppy technique though that'd ultimately hold a lot of people back and then put them off playing.

Combine with some funky hand/finger kinect (or similar) tracking though and you may have something useful.

Not saying it wouldn't be fun though for real guitarists to play though :)

Ofcom: T-Mobile probe? Er, not really

Years to build good reputation...

...seconds to destroy it.

If they've backed down (under cover of "oh, no no no, that's what we meant all along... we just, um, misspoke...") then that's welcome news for us existing customers.

However, to my mind the damage is done. Once my contract is up I'll be gone from T-mobile never to return. Somehow doubt I'm going to be the only one.

T'orange... welcome to the black list

Just hope they don't try to sneak this in again along the way (and remember to actually give 30 days notice...) until my term is up.

Shifting goalposts?

I note on which.co.uk it has now been rumoured that they'll delay the change until 1st March to be able to give 30 days notice...

Http://conversation.Which.co.uk/technology/tmobile-data-allowance-slashed

it's not just the what, it's the how

Taking a step back I can understand to some extent the theory of changing limits / limiting by content type...

However..

a) We should pay if we want an allowance? I thought I was already doing that on my contract (like buying a car and driving for a while only to be told that an engine isn't a "core service" [hey, I could always 'Flintstone' it right?] and now I should pay extra for one...)

b) If this was for new or renewal customers it wouldn't be good but at least then you have the facts and option not to sign. Doing this in the middle of a contract is just unacceptable - why not offer a "downgrade" (to a cheaper package?) instead? Oh wait, that wouldn't make as much money.

c) They're doing this without the notice they themselves stipulate in the t&cs.

d) they're still advertising and selling on old limits misleading customers (bait and switch)

If they really *have* to reduce limits there are many better ways of doing it... but of course the customer doesn't matter...

Ads watchdog bows to iPhone's might

Cutting pasta?

Personally I find it more annoying with the adverts that overtly suggest that the iPhone is the first device ever to have the amazingly innovative "Cut and Paste" feature...

... like no other phone or device has ever had that and, of course, it's an Apple innovation.

Closer to the truth would be "Hey, it's our third phone iteration and we've finally got around to implementing a basic feature that everyone else already has!".

Yeah, it looks like it does it in a neat and useful way but c'mon Apple, it's taken you three phones to get around to world's most fundamental text processing feature...

Average UK broadband just over half advertised speed

Money back?

The odd small slow down is understandable due to contention etc, but in most cases customers are NEVER getting the full advertised rate.

So then, if you're only getting say an average of 70% advertised speed, why don't you get a 30% discount on your bill?

For any other commodity, if I were to order 100 units, and the supplier could only give me 80, I wouldn't be expecting to pay for the 20 that I'm not getting!