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RapidSolution Software has a cool add-on product for VoIP and online games called Scramby, which "scrambles" your voice to sound like Darth Vader, an evil warlock, an android, child, and many more voices. Scramby is a vocoder add-on for VoIP softphone clients, such as Skype. It can work with any VoIP softphone application or any Windows sound application for that matter.

Essentially, it allows users to use distortion effects to give their voices another sound or personality, and to add background noises and "fun-sounds" into the audio stream like a nuclear explosion or Terminator's "I'll be back".

According to RapidSolution Software, players of Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) and Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) usually communicate with each other using headsets and VoIP technology like Teamspeak. With Scramby, players are able to alter their voices to take on the voices of the characters their game figures represent. For example, a World of Warcraft or Dungeons & Dragons player could use Scramby's VST effects to become the powerful Ork, the little elf, the evil warlock or the terrifying barbarian warrior. Users can associate Scramby's various functions with keyboard shortcuts as desired to make them quickly and easily accessible during the game.

Utilizing numerous VST plug-ins delivered with Scramby, users are able to leverage over 30 speech and voice modification effects right out of the box. Scramby's professional effects provide users with a bottomless source of fun they can tap into during any online telephone conversation or gaming session. Scramby can in addition be extended with an unlimited number of VST plug-ins.

Scramby comes with 130 FUNsounds and 10 background noises that are ready-to-use. Additional FUNsounds and background noises can be imported as audio files. This allows users to add their own audio recordings, sounds, animal voices or film soundtrack snippets into the audio stream while telephoning or playing games. Users are able to configure custom effects with the Scramby voice-effect editor.

Scramby for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista is currently available online at the discounted launch price of US$17.90 / €14,90. Introduction into the retail channel is planned for the second half of 2007.

A free demo of the product is available for download at http://www.scramby.com.

Not to be outdone by the Xbox 360 online community, Sony is launching its own world for the PlayStation 3.

According to this report, it looks like PlayStation Home will take Second Life and sent it places that it has never been before.

(Hopefully those avatars will look more likelife -- sort of like NBA Live 07 instead of Backyard Basketball.)

The large scale beta is scheduled to live next month, with the "new world" launched later on in the  fall.

Will we all soon be living in virtual worlds?  Aren't some of us there already?

Holy Batman!

Yes indeed, it's too good to be true, but one of the classic computer hardware manufacturers has come back from the digital grave as the manufacturer of "high specification" gaming computers. 

Yes, we're talking about Commodore, which launched the best-selling personal computer of the late 20th century some 25 years ago. Commodore's C64 defined the early computer games experience for millions of people worldwide -- and the whole computer experience for that matter.

Her'es more on the C64 from the Computer History Museum (and thanks for photo): The C64 sold for $595, came with 64KB of RAM and featured impressive graphics. Thousands of software titles were released over the lifespan of the C64. By the time the C64 was discontinued in 1993, it had sold more than 22 million units and is recognized by the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest selling single computer model of all time.

The next-gen? It's all going to be revealed this month. Want more; click here.

At the Game Developers Conference 2007, Microsoft announced it will be launching a 512MB memory unit for the Xbox 360 -- eight times the orginal 64MB unit! It's also increasing the official size limit of Xbox LIVE Arcade games from 50MB to 150MB.

With 512MB, Xbox 360ers will now have greatly expanded storage capabilities for gaming on the go, enabling gamer profile and save game data to be stored and transported, as well as LIVE Arcade games and Xbox LIVE Marketplace content.

Not too surprising, but it also give 360ers the ability to download exclusive content from any of the 45,000 Xbox 360 kiosks accessible at retail outlets worldwide. (Ka-ching.)

The 512MB will be avaible next month (estimated retail: $49.99). The orig 64MB will then drop $10 in price $29.99.

For the early birds, a bonus -- the 512MB will be pre-loaded with the hit Xbox LIVE Arcade game Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved from Bizarre Creations Ltd., for a limited time.

Want more, click here.

Boy, Sony PS3 is really having a tough time! After the disastrous U.S. launch, PS3 users stealing and killing each other for the high-demand console, >$3000 prices on eBay at the U.S. launch, and the Wii and XBox 360 outselling the PS3 -- the PS3 continues its downward spiral. The grey market prices for PS3s has dropped dramatically and now Sony has caused a firestorm of controversy by announcing they are removing the Emotion Engine chip and using software emulation instead - to save $27 on each console. Sony is losing $241.35 for the 20GB model and $306.85 for the higher-end 60GB model.

By contrast, the XBox 360 loses about $75/console. So in an effort to save costs, Sony in a bone-head move has changed the hardware specs, giving more fuel for the XBox 360 and Wii fanboys, and all the other PS3-haters.

This brings me to this hilarious video clip hating on the Sony PS3 and loving on the XBox 360. Good stuff!

Closest we had to a gadget ad during the Super Bowl yesterday was the Coke ad that looks like the guys (and gals) at Grand Theft Auto did the spot.

(Click here for more on the many, many -- mostly forgettable -- ads.)

Will we ever return to the grand days when Apple could run its now famous 1984 spot during the Big Game and people would remember the commercial more than they would remember the game?

In fact, does anybody remember what product Apple was introducing with that ad?

Does anybody remember who won that Super Bowl (XVIII)?

While we all take great interest in Sony's foibles, let's talk PS3 problems at the retail sale level spelling trouble for gaming companies, according to this report.

Let's face it. The game manufacturers love to develop a game and then sell it on different platforms -- PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, etc. (you get the picture).

But if one of these gaming console pillars (in this case PS3) doesn't blast off out of the box, guess what? the titles developed for that platform sit gathering dust on retailers' shelves.

What 's this mean to me? Maybe those game developers have to raise their prices even more (even more!) to recoup some of that lost investment, lay off staff, etc. -- just like regular businesses have to do when times are tough.

On the other hand, they could lower prices to stimuate sales on more popular platforms, hoping that increased volume will offset a little less revenue per sale. (Is this economics or what?)

As in some many things, only time will tell ...

I blogged a bit yesterday about Second Life and now, for those who are interested, have found a very revealing report about how not to make money in that virtual world.

Actually, apparently many think there is money to be made, but not real money, virtual money, which, not surprisingly, is worth virtually nothing.

(Maybe IBM knows something we don't know -- maybe they put "Deep Blue" to work on unlocking the secret since chess is a bit slow nowt?

Best to hope for is a cool avatar or just to have some fun, like so many other online virtual worlds, Runescape for one ...

Microsoft Carbon for the XBox 360 is real. Microsoft Carbon is a rumored software add-on for the XBox 360 which would enable IPTV video playback. This, just after Slingbox also announced their IPTV offering called the SlingCatcher. Check out where I heard about it, which includes a video of Microsoft Carbon in action. "Now xbox lovers can enjoy episodes of their favorite television shows from the comfort of their wireless 360 controllers. They’ve added television into the menu in your dashboard."

Sweet!

When is it time to say bye-bye to RuneScape?

When you get hacked, everything is gone and all you have left is nothing much and you don't get a satisfactory answer about security issues -- that's when.

So all the chatter about this and about that all ultimately adds up to nothing ...