Loaded: I'm with the band Video
Loaded: I'm with the band Video Transcript
>> Facebook would like you to come to terms with your gender. Google becomes a TV Studio and we get to see Aerosmith at the launch of their new Guitar Hero game. It's Monday, June 30, I'm Natali Del Conti and it's time to get Loaded. ^M00:00:12 [ Music ] ^M00:00:14
>> If you're unsure about your gender, Facebook would really like you to figure it out. The site is gonna start asking users to specify whether they are male or female if they haven't already. That's because Facebook doesn't like using gender-neutral pronouns, so instead of Natali changed their profile picture, it will now be able to note Natali changed her profile picture. Transgender users or other people with unclear lines of gender will have the option of removing the gender category from their profile all together. Google is getting into the TV production business. The company has teamed up with Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the Family Guy to launch a web-only mini-series. It will be called Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy and will launch online in September. Google will distribute the series using its AdSense program, so instead of finding an advertisement on any given webpage, you'll find a clip of the show. This is unorthodox because you'll basically have to wait to watch an episode until it's advertised to you. So I'm curious whether the series can actually build an ongoing plot or if it will just be a collection of independent silliness. What's your guess. Write in at loaded@cnet.com. Aerosmith is the first band to have its own version of Guitar Hero named after them. The Loaded crew went to the launch party last Friday night where the band was there, but they didn't perform. They mostly just pose for pictures like this. See for yourself. ^M00:01:31 [ Music ] ^M00:01:44
>> Guitar Hero Aerosmith was such a great project for us, but a lot of work went into it. To actually animate them and bring them to life was very complicated. We actually had to bring the whole band into our studio for two whole weeks. Get them to put the motion capture suits on. And then from there we actually have to translate that electronically into the video game.
>> When you see Joe Perry, you know, jamming on the guitar, that's actually him playing from the motion capture. Yes, so it's all very authentic. Guitar Hero 4 will be called Guitar World Tour. We'll have drums, as well as microphones and guitars and you know, it's gonna come with a great new feature we call Music Studio, which is people will be able to go in, use our drums and our guitars and record their own tacks and then you can upload them, so that millions of people around the world can download them and play them in Guitar Hero. ^M00:02:31 [ Music ] ^M00:02:37
>> What's it like seeing your self animated?
>> It's the most craziest thing ever. It's incredible, an awesome feeling, I feel like I'm the sixth man by Aerosmith, but it's scary too because everybody is like you're at TMZ that will look at with the classes and the goal and the movie -- it was crazy. ^M00:02:54 [ Music ] ^M00:02:57
>> The game launched on Sunday and it costs $49.99. Chrysler is adding 3G wireless routers to its fleet of cars in September. The router is an optional upgrade, but it's really expensive. The router alone is $449, then you have to pay between $30 and $50 for installation, plus the monthly subscription is another $29. The ISP is a company called UConnect. I'm not really sure this is necessary for short trips when most phones have 3G now anyway, but I guess it could be useful for long road trips if you wanna work on your laptop as a passenger of course, not a driver. Rhapsody wants to take on iTunes. The company will soon offer music downloads in MP3 format that will work with your iPod. Rhapsody currently focuses on a subscription service that allows unlimited song streaming for a monthly fee, but Vice-President Neil Smith said that limiting the service to just streams has also limited the company's audience. You'll also be able to use Rhapsody with your Verizon V-Cast Music service. No word yet on whether they'll charge by the song or bundle download into a monthly subscription. If they roll it into the monthly fee, that is a definite competitive advantage over the other online music stores. Google recently released the Google Media Server, which turns any Windows PC into a device that can stream media files to other devices. It uses a universal plug-and-play connection to send your movies or music to another device like a PlayStation or an Xbox. This is an intriguing little side project for Google. Could it be that they wanna dabble in competing with the Apple TV. It will be interesting to see where they go with this one. NBC's plan for streaming the Beijing Olympics are a little disappointing. The network has been promoting its online coverage of the game claiming to have 2200 hours of coverage plan, but now we're finding out that NBC will not stream live any events that are also broadcast on TV. And the events broadcast on TV are the ones you really wanna see anyway, like gymnastics. This may not be the complete online coverage we were looking for, but it is a lot like their strategy with Hulu. You can't get episodes of hit shows online until the day after they air, so it's a chance to reason that the games would be streamed on a similar model. Apple is starting to migrate to the MobileMe system already. .mac subscribers can now migrate their email address from username@mac.com to username@me.com. Emails will still arrive in your .mac inbox. Apple intends to migrate all of their emails services to .me, but you'll be able to keep your .mac email address if you want to. Last week Virgin Mobile USA announced that it will pay $39 million for Helio, the mobile carrier. There has been speculation that this would happen and now it's confirmed that Helio will add its 170,000 post-paid customers to Virgin's 5.1 million prepaid customer-based. Looks like Virgin got a sweet deal here. SK Telecom and EarthLink, the original founders of Helio initially invested 440 million US dollars in the company. Canadians are not as excited about the new iPhone as we are. That's because Rogers, the company that will carry the iPhone in Canada has a pretty atrocious rate plan to go with the service. It costs 75 Canadian Dollars per month, comes with a mandatory 3-year contract, 100 text messages, 300 weekday minutes and a 750 meg cap on 3G usage. This makes AT&T's plan look like a bargain. But our neighbors up North are pretty peaceful people, so they're protesting in an organized fashion with an online petition to Steve Jobs. You can read the petition and even sign it yourself at RruinediPhone.com. Those are all your headlines for today, but I will be back tomorrow with more. Thanks for watching. I'm Natali Del Conti with CNET TV and you've just been Loaded. ^M00:06:28 [ Music ]
Facebook wants you to come to terms with your gender. Canadians are protesting the iPhone rate plan from Rogers Communications. Plus, the Loaded crew heads to the Hard Rock Cafe to see Aerosmith at the launch of its Guitar Hero game.
