I find it simply amazing how Guitar Hero became so mainstream so fast. Playing along with the music on an expensive peripheral has been around for years. We’ve had bongos, maracas, drums and of course dance pads. We’ve even had guitars. Konami introduced their Guitar Freaks games in back in 1998. This was mainly to cater to the Japanese crowds, whose lust for music based games is relentless. But, a few cabinets were released in the USA along with home versions for the PS1 (import only). So what was the problem? Blame it on the rock and roll. Or lack thereof. The Guitar Freaks series, and I’m only basing this on the first few revisions, featured largely unknown music. It was fun, but it got MORE fun when you started learning the songs.
Once Guitar Hero came out and promised that we can rock along with our favorite songs, we ate it up. I’m sure people panned it at first. Oh, no one will buy this, just a few hardcore gamers, and it will fade into the video game obscurity. Well, fast forward to today… I tell myself, i’m not going to buy it, I dont need another guitar or to spend another $100. Then I wake up and it’s on the cover of almost ALL the circulars in the Sunday paper. Target, Circuit City, etc. It’s launching on a Sunday for 4 systems with new guitars. Then I go to the mall for dinner and count no less than 5 people walking with their guitar boxes in hand! Amazing… So amazing in fact that they will soon introduce Rock Band, which will feature all the instruments to make your own fake band.

I ended up buying the PS2 stand alone version so I can use my existing guitars. I’ll miss the online play, but at least I can enjoy the new songs.

Just in case you didn’t catch this last week. Google has introduced IMAP support for Gmail. I’ve used IMAP for many years and I find it much easier to manage than POP email. The difference is that your folders (or in this case, tags) and messages are all stored at the server and you map yourself to the server. So, essentially, delete an email from your desktop client and it deletes from Gmails servers. Want to try another email client, just add the IMAP server and all your mail will come down. It makes life very easy for those on multiple computers, locations, and operating systems. It’s actually easier to explain IMAP than it is POP to some extent.

The only problem is they haven’t turned this on for everyone yet because I STILL don’t have it. To check if you do, go to your Gmail settings and instead of Forwarding and POP, it should say IMAP.

I was lucky enough to find a case for my centro this past weekend. Unfortunately it’s not available online, but at Target stores. There is a product locator that should tell you if it’s in stock.

Moda Casi at Target.com

And for my friends at TreoCentral, here are some close up pics. Way more pics than an $8 case deserves :)