Strange New World: Tech Picks of the Week

July 25, 2008 — -- This week's picks mark the debut of a guitar legend in the video game arena, yet another mystery coming out of Apple and some cool "calculators" we found online. Yeah, we know there isn't really a theme here, but work with us, the summer is slow for tech stuff. Here, now, are our picks of the week.

This week, in a move that will certainly have moms and dads joining their children at their videogame consoles, Activision announced that Jimi Hendrix will be featured in the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour game. He will appear as a playable character and two of his songs, "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary," will ship with the game. There will also be downloadable content coming later.

This is actually pretty big news because Hendrix's estate has been notoriously difficult to deal with. This news follows the release of the Aerosmith-filled "Guitar Hero 3." What's with all the classic rock? We're hoping for some downloadable content from Grand Funk Railroad next.

During their earnings call this past week, Apple announced that a mystery product transition will drop its gross margin from 34.8 percent in the spring quarter to just 31.5 percent in the July-to-September window in which the update takes place, ultimately settling at about 30 percent during fiscal 2009. What could they be working on?

The time frame looks like there will be a big announcement at MacWorld. Some analysts believe there is no new product, and that this is a ploy to protect against future earnings problems. We tend to agree with them. Aren't their products mapped out years in advance? What major product could they rush through this quickly?

Here's a neat little trend on the Web: There are all sorts of calculators for various things. They range from a carbon calculator for those who want to know their carbon footprint to pages that calculate the value of a savings bond. Here's one that calculates how much money you would save from the proposed federal gas tax reduction.