Guitar Hero: World Tour Features a Music Studio

Guitar Hero: World Tour will feature a new music studio that lets you create, edit, and share your own songs. It'll even have an online community where you can download and rate other songs from other users.

iPhone Applications

A few weeks ago, I stood in line at the Apple Store here in Chandler, Arizona to get my new iPhone 3G. It took about 2 hours to get my white 16-GB phone.

I've been downloading a bunch of free apps. My favorites so far are Pandora Radio (which, apparently, is on the verge of shutting down), Showtimes, UrbanSpoon, Simplify Media, and Aurora Feint.

• Pandora Radio - Free, streaming Internet radio. This app allows you to create your own radio station based on your personal tastes
• Showtimes - This app finds your locations and shows you nearby movie theaters with movie showtimes
• UrbanSpoon - This app randomly selects a nearby restaurant based on a few parameters that you can lock in. If your work lunch group is anything like mine, you can never agree on a lunch spot. Now, we just let my iPhone decide.
• Simplify Media - This app allows you to stream music from your iTunes library on your PC or Mac to your iPhone. Yep, you no longer need to sync all of your music to the Flash memory on your iPhone; Stream it instead.
• Aurora Feint - This game is a memory hog and has occasionally crashed on me. Yet, somehow, the RPG element has me hooked. I'm addicted to leveling up and buying new challenges.

Nope, no MPLAB IDE for iPhone yet.

IGN Reviews Guitar Hero World Tour's New Gear

Game site IGN reviewed the new hardware for Activision's upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour video game.

The Guitar
World Tour introduces a new guitar controller that is even more feature-laden than past designs. Before you get in a huff about just buying the Les Paul or X-plorer models from past Guitar Hero games, know that Activision has told us these will still work in World Tour. They just won't have access to all of the new stuff the added features bring to the table. That being said, you're going to want the new axe.

Apparently, there's a new music creator feature that is pretty impressive. I can't wait to check it out when the game releases this fall.

Microchip Technology Announces MiWi Peer-to-Peer Wireless Protocol Stack

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP), a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced the MiWi(TM) Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Wireless Protocol Stack, which is based upon the IEEE 802.15.4(TM) specification. Available as a free download from Microchip's new online Wireless Design Center at www.microchip.com/wireless, the small-footprint, proprietary stack complements the new MRF24J40MA 2.4 GHz FCC-certified transceiver module and is targeted for low-cost, low-power applications, such as sensors, remote control, lighting and metering.

Read the full press release here.

EDN's Q&A with Microchip's CEO Steve Sanghi

Electronic Business recently spoke with Steve Sanghi, president, CEO, and chairman of Microchip Technology Inc, on the economy’s impact on the microcontroller market, the company’s entrance into 32-bit MCUs, and why it still banks on 8- and 16-bit MCUs as a sustainable sales opportunity.

Read the article here.

iPhone 3G is finally official, starts at $199, available July 11th

Apple finally took the wraps off its 3G iPhone. Thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware. I'm sure you can find more info all over the inter webs, but in case you haven't, check out Engadget's coverage.