Get IE8 Activities In Firefox
One of the new features in Internet Explorer 8 is Activities, which lets you contextually use the information on a page with other services, and because it uses some generally open formats, someone’s already adapted it for other browsers. This Firefox extension lets you practically seamlessly use Activities in Firefox, so check it out.
Microsoft’s Extreme Server Makeover Check out this video, spoofing Extreme Home Makeover for the IT world. It’s weird in places, but just watch it, k?
How To Tell If Your PC Supports Hibernation Milo explains how to use POWERCFG.exe to tell if your Windows Vista PC supports hibernation mode, as well as what other power modes your PC supports. It’s an extremely useful tip if you’re running into some power troubleshooting issues.
Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack Now Free
If you’re getting bored of playing Halo online, you’ll be pleased to know that one of its map packs is now free. The price has been dropped 100% on the “Heroic” map pack, giving you three new multiplayer maps for the sweet price of nothing. Enjoy.
Microsoft Releases Popfly Game Creator
Microsoft released a game creator that lets you use Popfly, their free mashup creation tool, to create Silverlight-based games that can run on webpages, Facebook, the Vista Sidebar, pretty much anywhere.
GTA IV Breaks UK Sales Record
Grand Theft Auto 4 sold 631,000 copies on launch day in the UK alone, beating San Andreas’ record from four years ago by over 100 thousand units. The Xbox 360 version beat the PS3 version by 101,000 copies sold, and 360 console sales were up 125%.
Download Free Update to Windows Desktop Search There’s a major update to the search infrastructure used in Windows Vista, and it’s being released as the Windows Search 4.0 Preview. It doesn’t just install on Vista, it works on Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Download the Vista SP1 32-bit version here.
Xbox 360 Coming To A Hospital Near You
Microsoft is talking about some Xbox 360 kiosks it will be sending to children’s hospitals, as part of a partnership with the Companions in Courage Foundation. The kiosks will be pre-loaded with Y-rated TV shows, G-rated movies, E and E10+ games, and be networked and have a connected headset and Live Vision camera.
Live Search News Launches Microsoft has launched Live Search News, a Techmeme style news site that covers all the usual topics, showing the stories getting the most traction. It’s a style that has worked very well for technology news, and seems to make for a very good overall news site at search.live.com/news
Spiral Vista Sidebar Gadget Check out this Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget; it displays a continuously moving spiral on your desktop. Click on it to cycle through six different types of spirals, letting your computer hypnotize you.
Xbox 360 Posts Another Profit
Microsoft has successfully turned the Xbox division into a profitable, healthy division, resulting in its first-ever profit in a quarter that did not feature the release of a Halo game or holiday shopping season. Its a proud achievement for the company, one that was more than half a decade coming, thanks to an 85% jump in revenue, resulting in an operating profit of $89 million.
Top Japan XNA Games
Check out these Japanese XNA games that won some sort of Spring 2008 best of XNA contest. They look pretty good.
Vista Feature Pack Released Microsoft has released the first “Feature Pack” for Windows Vista, adding some wireless features that, while nothing huge, could represent a growing series of feature packs that improve the operating system over the coming months and years. Feature Pack 1 adds support for Bluetooth 2.1 to Vista, as well as a Unified Pairing user interface and updates to Windows Connect Now. Get it here.
Download Windows Live for Windows Mobile
Microsoft has released a free download of the Windows Live for Windows Mobile 6 software that comes pre-loaded on some (but not all) Windows Mobile 6 phones. Pick up the download and get Push Hotmail, synchronized Live Contacts, a Live Search bar for the Home screen and one-click photo uploading to Live Spaces.
Microsoft Fastest To Deploy Patches
A Symantec report on malware discovered in the second half of last year shows that Microsoft was the fastest to respond to discovered software vulnerabilities. On average, Microsoft deployed patches within six days, compared to Apple, which took an average of 79 days, as well as faster than HP, Red Hat or Sun. There’s a lot detail in the article about the type of security vulnerabilities (most are caused by ActiveX), and let’s see how fast you can spot the Rent reference.
Turn Webslices into Vista Sidebar Gadgets
Webslices is a new feature in Internet Explorer 8, which allows you to add specifically selected portions of webpages to the menubar of IE, and have them automatically push updates to you. Sean Lyndersay has taken the Webslice out of the browser, and has designed a Vista Sidebar Gadget that lets you add any Webslice to your desktop. It works well, and Webslices as Gadgets are actually more useful than they are in the browser.
By the by, I learned that the reason the Facebook Webslice doesn’t work is that it needs to be installed while you are running IE as an administrator. That’s really a broken feature, and needs to be fixed for final IE8 release, or developers need to design their Webslices to not work that way.
Free Ford Sync and April Fools Xbox Live Downloads
Two Ford Sync picture packs and a Ford Sync-related dashboard theme have been released free on Xbox Live in the U.S. These are kid-themed, so get ‘em for your kid (or yourself, if you’re cute enough). There are also some April Fools-related pics, available for a limited time.
Secret Confessions Vista Sidebar Gadget This Gadget lets you leave confessions anonymously for random others to read and to read confessions from other users. It has the annoying “feature” of reading the confession out loud with Vista’s text-to-speech system, and no way to turn it off, and the confessions thus far are mostly homophobic or racist, but it’s a great idea that could become something.
Ribbon Joining Windows 7 User Interface
The Office Ribbon, one of Microsoft biggest software design innovations of recent years, is getting promoted to Windows. The Office UI element will be built into the Windows 7 platform, available for all software developers to access and use in their applications. Quite the vote of confidence, but when you’ve got something good, you should spread it around. Read more about it at Long’s blog.
Xbox Does April Fools Joke Microsoft’s Xbox division sent out an email to all users, informing them of new products from Xbox. They included a wireless helmet, Xbox: The Board Game, a wood-paneled Xbox, and a weather-proof portable Xbox. Also for April Fools Day, Long Zheng “revealed” the lost Windows Vista sounds, uploaded as a collection of Windows 98 sound packs.
Windows Mobile 6.1 Official Launched
At CTIA, Microsoft officially showed off the long talked about Windows Mobile 6.1 update. It includes a new version of the mobile Internet Explorer browser, complete with support for Adobe Flash, Silverlight, H.264. There’s also a new Getting Started Center, the ability to handle more things from the home screen, better touch screen and small screen UI features and other updates.
Microsoft Videos Launching Microsoft has launched a beta preview of Microsoft Videos, a new Silverlight-powered video site that collects the many videos Microsoft creates. Whether you’re an IT pro or developers looking for technical videos, or a gamer looking for video game videos, or a consumer looking for videos about the latest software and Media Center stuff, it’s all there are running in glorious Silverlight.
40% Of Vista Crashes By Major Graphics Chips Proof is out that it is the graphics processor industry that is ruining computing. Data from Microsoft shows that 40% of crashes in Windows Vista were caused by graphics drivers from ATI and NVidia, with 75% of those NVidia’s fault. Since Vista was released, those two companies have been the most negligient in serving their customers with decent drivers, and everyone is suffering as a result. I wish Intel got serious about graphics, because ATI and NVidia have lost any goodwill they had with me an many other users.
Free Portal Song “Still Alive” for Rock Band
Tomorrow, Harmonix will begin giving away “Still Alive”, the end credits song from Valve’s hit game Portal. While tomorrow is April Fools’ day, the song isn’t worth buying for most gamers, and we already know it’s been formatted for the game, so the announcement should likely be legit. Xboxers, download your free song tomorrow (PS3 gamers have to wait a few weeks due to system upgrades) and thank the Rock Gaming Gods.
Here’s a video of the guy who wrote “Still Alive” playing the song in the game last month:
Clippy On The Simpsons
Clippy, the Microsoft Office paperclip, isn’t dead! He was on this recent episode of the Simpsons:
Microsoft May Counter Justin Long With Johnny Knoxville Rumors are that Microsoft is preparing an advertising campaign designed to combat Apple’s smarmy Get A Mac ads starring Justin Long and John Hodgman. In the ads, Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame would dos something incredibly stupid with his computer, like dropping and destroying his PC while performing a stunt, but is saved by Windows and automatic backups. If done smartly, the ads could work, especially by not being as condescending as Apple’s ads.
(via)
Live Contacts Sharing With Facebook, Bebo, Others
One scary part about signing up for a new social networking site is when it asks for your Hotmail/Gmail/AIM password in order to import your contacts. You can never be sure if you can trust that site with such valuable info, which is why it’s great that Microsoft is working to take the scary out.
They’ve signed partnerships with Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and LinkedIn, letting you securely invite Live contacts to be your friends, and invite your friends on those services to chat with you on Live Messenger. The only place you enter your Live ID password is a Live.com website, keeping your valuable info out of everyone else’s grubby hands.
Make Your Own PhotoZoom Collections with Silverlight Microsoft has launched a website that lets you take advantage of their hosting and technology, creating big photo collections that users can zoom in and out of as easily as a Google Map. Called PhotoZoom, it utilizes technology based on SeaDragon/Deep Zoom and PhotoSynth, runs in Silverlight and is hosted on Microsoft’s servers. You can try out a sample album here, or enjoy it embedded below:
Microsoft Produces Limited Edition GTA IV Xbox 360 Microsoft has released a very limited stock of Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox 360 Elite consoles, 500 to be exact, complete with a GTA IV design on the side panel and a briefcase full of peripherals. The consoles are individually numbered, so you know how limited of an edition it is, and the briefcase has wireless controller, ChatPad, headset, camera, remote, and charge kit.
Vista Service Pack 1 Released Microsoft has finalized the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, putting the major update to Vista in the hands of users. Some users are getting it pushed to them via Windows Update, and if you don’t have it yet, just go here to download the standalone 434 megabyte installer for 32-bit versions of Vista. This link will get you the 64-bit version.
If you aren’t getting Vista SP1 through Automatic Updates, and are not even getting it offered as an option, it is likely because your computer is failing a number of prerequisites. One of them is driver compatibility, and since Sigmatel audio drivers aren’t worth crap on Vista, practically anyone with one of those chips in their systems won’t get SP1 without installing it manually. Read more here.
Microsoft Launches AdCenter Community Microsoft has launched AdCenterCommunity.com, a website for its growing AdCenter advertiser base to to learn about ways to run better ad campaigns, with niche-specific blogs, user forums, and other community features. The community offers advice on the AdCenter API, Analytics, and represents an effort by Microsoft to distinguish itself from Google AdWords, which has notoriously poor communication with with its advertisers.
Mac Office 2008 Gets Updated Microsoft released a patch for Office 2008, fixing problems that could cause Office programs to crash or otherwise stop responding. It also improves security, keeps restricted users from having unauthorized access to Office program files, fixes a blank page printing problem, fixes font substitution issues, adds support for secondary displays, and many other fixes and improvements.
Microsoft’s List of Potential Yahoo Board Members
If Microsoft winds up completing its effort to buy Yahoo through a hostile takeover, they’ll need to nominate a full new board of directors. A part of that list has leaked out, naming four of the ten executives Microsoft may place on the board. They are:
Edward H. Meyer - former CEO, Grey Advertising
John Chapple - CEO, Nextel Partners
Tom Freston - former President, Viacom
Jaynie Studenmund - Former CEO of eHarmony
Yahoo is reportedly finally holding talks with Microsoft, having a meeting to let Microsoft explain its offer and put some of its vision forward. Even if Yahoo doesn’t want to give in and except Microsoft’s offer, the offer may be impossible to ignore, especially if Microsoft raises the amount it is willing to pay. With other potential buyers dropping out, it’s certainly something they should consider.
Virtual Earth Implemented in Flash
Like Windows Live Maps? Like the compatibility and ease of Flash applications? Then you’ll like that AFC Components has added the Virtual Earth API to its UMAP control. You can see Virtual Earth embedded right here:
Sony PS3 for $100 Off
If you are looking to go with a Sony PlayStation 3, you might be glad to know that the SonyStyle store is offering $100 off the purchase of a 40gb PS3 with a new Sony card, making it just $300. That’s a good enough deal even if you find Sony as evil as many do, just to get a good Blu-Ray player and a small number of decent exclusive games.
Xbox 360 Fanboy has an article about how developers are unhappy with the Xbox 360 Arcade (formerly the Core system) and its lack of hard drive. With the PS3 finally catching on, the fact that one console has a hard drive and one only sometimes does is annoying the hell out of them. Some developers like to use the hard drive as a cache, in order that their games run faster, though with the trade-off that games now install to your disk, just like freakin’ PC games.
There is definitely a disadvantage to having the Arcade around, especially if it’s discouraging developers (and you know how Microsoft bends over backwards for devs). I wonder if there’s a way for Microsoft to eliminate the Arcade, somehow allow developers to design all games to require a hard drive. The only way that could happen would require them to not just pull the Arcade from the market, but to also not cut off and screw Arcade owners, who have been buying the edition for over two years.
One way to make it right, would be to give all Core/Arcade owners a free hard drive. Considering the cost of a 20-gig laptop hard drive can run as little as $25-$35, even with 18 millions 360s sold, we’re talking a small hit. If 30% of all 360s have no hard drive (which is probably too high an assumption), the cost is certainly less than $200 million, probably a lot less, and worth its weight in developer goodwill.
Other options would include a huge price break for the existing drive, or a coupon for it for Arcade owners. Make it affordable enough, and abandoning it won’t seem as bad. The current hard drives are priced far too high anyway. With the rumor these days that the regular 360 is being upgraded to 60 gigabytes, the 20 gig drive should be cheap and in surplus enough for everyone to have one.
If you sign up for a year of Xbox Live Gold between now and March 25, you’ll get a free download of the Xbox Live game Catan, the console version of the classic tabletop game Settlers of Catan. It normally costs 800 Microsoft Points, or $10, so that’s a nice gift from Microsoft. I’ve got an Xbox Live 12-month subscription card in my drawer, and it looks like this is just the right time to activate it.
Settlers is a fun game, one I’ve played on several occasions with some buddies. Basically, you put together a board of different randomly arranged hexagonal tiles, each with a different land resource. You build roads and place settlements and cities, and must spend resources to get to build those things. On every turn, a roll of the dice determines what resource is produced, with players owning cities and settlements next to those resources earning some. The real fun of the game comes from trading and making deals with the other players, and the Xbox version features multiple unique AIs to make trading really interesting.
If you picked up Caracassonne when it was free and liked it, you’ll probably like Catan as well. They’re different games that appeal in very similar ways, and are each seperately completely worth playing. If you can’t get Catan for free, I still recommend buying it.
The HD format wars are over, and Sony’s Blu Ray won (if you haven’t heard from underneath that rock you apparently live under). As a result, Microsoft has announced it is ending support for the HD DVD player you could buy as an add-on for the Xbox 360, and the previously $200 player has been dropped to a close-out price of $50. Yep, $50 for a pretty good upscaling DVD player and six free movies.
If you like the movies, you’re basically paying a little over eight bucks for the disks and getting the proprietary player to watch them on for free. Which explains why there’s been a run on the little drive, leaving stock hard to come by on some online sites. Amazon’s out of the player at the moment, though a number of Amazon Marketplace merchants are selling it from $59.40, all the way up to $72.
The top five are Conquerator, a frantic real time war board game, like Risk except where your opponent is always making moves while you are trying to attack him; iSheep, where you play a dog herding sheep into a pen; Specimen, where you play a scientist armed with only some tweezers, attempting to ascertain the nature of various blob organisms; Hive, a real-time strategy game with bug coloniesyou have to coax into working for you; and Orblast, where you guide a marble through a maze and fight an enemy AI.
Realtime Worlds, makers of 2007’s surprise hit Crackdown, have revealed the next evolution coming from the developer. APB, short for All Points Bulletin, the call police put out when tracking a criminal, is the spiritual successor to Crackdown, but rather than being a real sequel or even sharing the same world, APB is an open-world Massive Multiplayer Online game, a sort of Grand Theft Auto meets World Of Warcraft meets Counter-Strike.
The game looks exciting, with incredible character customization, great criminals versus cops/player versus player missions, dynamic matchmaking, versatile moviemaking and a fun style. I’m looking forward to seeing this when it hits store shelves, whenever that is.
Microsoft made the sequel to mega-hit Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War official this week, announcing Gears of War 2 at the Game Developers Conference. Gears 2 is coming this November, and all that is known is some box art, a teaser trailer (embedded below), and that when two players attack each other with chainsaws, it’ll turn into a back-and-forth chainsaw brawl.
JellyCar is the first of the free new XNA games I played. One thing to note: While the games are free, they are limited to 16 days of play, but there is a way around it that I’ll talk about in a second.
JellyCar is hilariously fun. It uses a cartoon on drawing paper art style, featuring a car and some objects, all of which squish and move in funny ways. Your job is to drive the car to the target, and each level is a puzzle to figure out which mixture of speed, car flipping, car transforming (it can grow, but only temporarily) and use of the environmental objects will get you there.
The art style and the challenging gameplay make for a fun game. Replay value is limited to trying to beat your best time, but getting through the levels first is a unique and enjoyable experience. I’m surprised at how good this game is, and very happy I downloaded it.
JellyCar was known as JelloCar before Microsoft added it to Xbox Live (presumably changed to avoid copyright issues). You can download the XNA version of the game from the developer, Walaber. He’s made available the compiled game in both Windows and Xbox 360 versions, so if you have a Creators Club subscription, you can keep playing past the expiration date. If you don’t have an Xbox 360, download the game for Windows and enjoy this gem.
Microsoft dropped a bomb at the Game Developers Conference, announcing that it is extending support for its XNA video game programming language to its Zune media device. That means that XNA games (which are easy and mostly free to design and can run on Windows and the Xbox) will be also able to run on the portable music/video player, with developers only needing to code it once to run on all three platforms.
Microsoft’s Chris Satchell made the announcement at GDC, showing a demo of a new side scroller (or, technically, up scroller) space shooter called Zauri. The game is controlled using the touch-sensitive “squircle” pad on the Zune, an excellent gaming control for a small device. Take a look:
According to Engadget, while the second generation Zune (and its unique and well-suited for gaming control pad) is used in the demo, developers will be able to ship games for the first generation Zune, so long as they create a control scheme for that device.
Wireless multiplayer games, thanks to the Zune’s wifi, will absolutely be an option. You can play with any Zunes in your vicinity, with up to eight players per game. In-game music can be customized, selected from any music already on the Zune, except for DRM licensed music.
Games will be created using the next version of the framework, in XNA Games Studio 3.0, the first beta/preview of which will be out this April. Final release is currently targeted for the Fall. Games cannot be played cross-platform (i.e., Xbox users can’t play against Zune users), but game files will run on all three platforms. Games will not be shared wirelessly, though that may change.
Also coming: Xbox Live Community Games. The best XNA games will be made available on Xbox Live, with game sharing, rating, downloading and playing on your console, without the need to connect to a PC or have a Creators Club subscription. The first seven games are available right now as a special preview (and, presumably, to test the system). For now games are free, but Microsoft is considering revenue models so creators can make money, which will be announced before the holiday season.
To download the games, first go Marketplace, then Game Store, then All Games, then XNA Creators Club, then XNA Creators Club Game Launcher (not “XNA Game Launcher”). Download it, then go to the XNA Creators Club tab in Games Library to download games.
“JellyCar.” Created by Walaber from the United States, this game is about driving a squishy car through squishy worlds, trying to reach the exit.
“Little Gamers.” This is a 2-D high definition action side-scroller based on the famous Web comic “Little Gamers” created by Loïc Dansart, a 24-year-old software developer from Belgium.
“The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.” An intense 2-D action platform game created by James Silva from the United States, “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai” has a unique, highly stylized look and fast and fluid action.
“TriLinea.” This puzzle game created by Edison S. Prata Jr., Renato Pelizzari da Silva and Davi da Silva Prata from Brazil mixes fast-paced action with strategy.
“RocketBall.” Created by Tyler Wanlass, Patrick Murty and Todd Barrons of the United States, this neighborhood game of dodgeball explodes onto the street with fast-paced multiplayer action.
“ProximityHD.” This game, created by Brian Cable from the United States, takes the essence of strategy games — battles for control of territory and armies — and distills it down to a simple, easy-to-understand set of rules for casual players.
“Culture.” Created by independent game development company Hidden Path Entertainment from the United States, “Culture” contains challenging games and puzzles based on beautiful flowers.
Check out the games now. I will be, and will try to share my thoughts later.
So, Microsoft has turned the Zune into a serious gaming platform, throwing the full weight of its XNA efforts behind it. The current Zune, in many ways, is better than the iPod, and its games implementation is already more open, versatile, cheaper, and seemingly more fun than Apple’s. If the Zune can at least stand up to Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS, this move will be a valuable step forward in the fight against both Apple and the console companies.
No matter what, Microsoft has released the first convergent device, the first games player with a link to a serious music ecosystem and significant internal storage, as well as the first dedicated media player with a link to a games console. It covers missing pieces in everyone else’s lineup, and overall has a lot to offer users. Expect games to be a major selling point in the future.
Reports are out lately that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is failing at a rate of 16%; that is, more than one out of every seven consoles dies and never returns. Microsoft denies the 16% rate (and the authenticity of the entire report), though almost anyone whose ever owned a console has had one or more die on them (I’ve seen three die in two homes). Either way, it’s important to understand, as this video shows, that the defects are not Microsoft’s fault:
I had the feeling it was Krusty’s fault. Nothing fails more consistently than a Krappy Krusty product. Great episode, too, a classic early Simpsons (”Kamp Krusty”).
The Xbox Live Video Marketplace has added Lost, the hit ABC TV series about a group of plane crash survivors stranded on an island. Starting now, you can download any episode from season 1, 2, and 3, either in standard definition for 160 Microsoft Points ($2) or high definition for 240 MSPoints ($3). Saladhats did the math, and a season of the high def episodes is actually cheaper on Xbox Live than on Bluray, by about $24.
Not only can you download the old episodes, but you can pick up the new episodes, including last night’s season four premiere, as soon as they air on TV, and for the same price. If you missed last night’s episode (like I did), three bucks to see it in HD isn’t bad. In fact, I’m going to watch it right now. No spoilers in the comments for at least two hours!
Also being added to Xbox Live are other ABC shows, Disney Channel shows, and movies from a number of studios.
Other TV shows coming to Marketplace this week are Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. Essentially the big guns from ABC, and new episodes will be available within 24 hours of airing on TV. The Disney deal also extends to shows like Hannah Montana and High School Musical. Tell yourself it’s for your kid, but I can just tell you want to rock out to some teenage singing and dancing.
Lastly we’ll be seeing new content from the just signed on movie studios Lionsgate, Warner Bros, Paramount, New Line and MGM. The documentary King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters is set to hit Marketplace later this month. Other titles you can look forward to are The Usual Suspects, 3:10 To Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and others.
The most played games on Xbox Live that were released for the Xbox 360:
2007 Top Xbox 360 Titles (UU’s)
1
Halo 3
2
Gears of War
3
Call of Duty 4
4
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
5
Call Of Duty 3
6
Crackdown
7
Oblivion
8
Guitar Hero II
9
Forza Motorsport 2
10
Lost Planet
The most played games on Xbox Live that were released for the original Xbox (and are still being played thanks to backwards compatibility on the Xbox 360):
2007 Top Original Xbox Titles (UU’s)
1
Halo 2
2
Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3
Counter-Strike
4
Battlefield 2: MC
5
Doom 3
6
Forza Motorsport
7
Madden NFL 07
8
Conker: Live Reloaded
9
Call of Duty 3
10
Rainbow Six 3
And the top played Xbox Live Arcade games (not including free trial games):
2007 Top Xbox LIVE Arcade Titles (Sales)
1
TMNT 1989 Arcade
2
Worms
3
Castlevania: SOTN
4
UNO
5
Bomberman LIVE
6
3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures
7
Sonic The Hedgehog
8
Pinball FX
9
Geometry Wars Evolved
10
Texas Hold 'em
Interesting how many games are on both the Xbox and Xbox 360 lists, with the newer edition of the game appearing on the newer list. Call of Duty 3 even appears on both lists (in addition to Call of Duty 4 on the 360 list)!
While you’ve been able to purchase Rock Band since November (assuming you could find it in stock), buying standalone instruments for the game has been impossible, given that Harmonix hadn’t released them yet. Due to a shortage in producing enough hardware for the game, the only way to get the instruments was in the $170 game bundle, unfortunate for anyone who wanted to get a second guitar or extra drums.
We all knew these instruments were coming eventually, and eventually is finally almost here. February 12 is the date you will finally be able to pick up at least one of the instruments, and its about damn time. The release schedule:
February 12 - Drum set - buy a set of drums to replace the one you “lost” when, in a drunken rage, the drums went flying out your bedroom window after missing but a single note. The drum set will cost $80.
April 1 - Wireless Stratocaster guitar - pick up not only a second guitar, but the first-ever wireless guitar for Rock Band that works with the Xbox 360. Relegate the bundled guitar to bass guitar status, and use the wonderful new wireless version for your main game play. This guitar-of-joy will only cost $60, a price anyone could love.
Those links are for the Xbox 360 peripherals. If you need PS3 versions (they cost the same price, and also work with the PS2 edition), here’s the PS3 wireless guitar and the PS3 drum set.
An update on the Rock Band referral goal: $110 earned from 11 bundles of Rock Band and Guitar Hero sold so far. A few more bundles, maybe some of these peripherals, and I could finally be playing Rock Band.
Check out 
