When done right, nothing is more instantly recognizable and associable as a catchy sound bite. Once upon a time, instantly recognizable jingles were the backbone of the advertising industry. Today, audio clips are a little more pervasive, considering our seeming dependence on electronic devices. Receive a phone call? Catchy tune. Get an email? Catchy sound bite. Turn on just about any modern electronic device? Memorable tune. We’re living in a world where companies and devices need to differentiate themselves from the competition as much as possible, and an instantly recognizable sound bite is a three-to-ten second mean to that end. So, come with us as we check out some of the most instantly recognizable, brand differentiating, nostalgia inducing sound bites in tech.

1. Windows 95

Microsoft had big plans for the follow-up to their incredibly successful Windows 3.1 operating system Windows 95. There would be much that separated this OS from its predecessor, namely the adoption of a desktop-based graphical user interface, that would move Windows toward what those of us pampered to live in this hyperion age as a modern operating system. To go along with this bold move, Microsoft wanted to capture their user’s attention with a startup chime that would herald this new experience.

To that end, they approached composer Brian Eno to come up with a tiny tune that would play each time the system started up. Eno was the right man for the job, having begun experimenting in ambient and electronic music over a decade previously, releasing such musical touchstones as Music for Airports. In contrast to the sprawling space albums allowed him, Microsoft challenged Eno to fit an entire musical experience into just 3.25 seconds. Eno has been quoted as saying that at the time he was “bereft of ideas” for his own work, and leapt at the opportunity for musical problem-solving. Eno says:

I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel.

In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I’d finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.

With that incredible story, this humble little piece certainly takes on new meaning. On a close listening, there are layers of depth to it, and a surprising, longing pulse at the end of the piece. Take another listen, see what you think.

2. PlayStation 1, 2, 3

Just like computer operating systems, video game consoles need a quick, instantly identifiable startup sound bite. One could easily argue that the gaming console needs that instantly recognizable startup sound more than a computer, because a video game console is, for the most part, a dedicated unit with the sole purpose of delivering entertainment, whereas a computer is used for a variety of reasons, some of which aren’t particularly fun. Because of their dedication to entertainment value, video game consoles can employ the power of Pavlovian conditioning to great positive effect: Hear the chime, and a fun game is about to happen. Just about every video game console to have a splash screen has employed a startup chime, but few — if any — are more instantly recognizable than Sony’s startup chimes for each of their PlayStation consoles, nor any more symbolic of the gaming industry during the console’s time period.

The original PlayStation’s chime tells the tale of a burgeoning gaming industry, adopting a tone that is aiming to be futuristic, though in practice is somewhat low quality, which is exactly what was happening with the industry during the PlayStation’s time. Video games were breaking out, seeing the release of first installments in venerable franchies that are still wildly popular today, employing boxy graphics and clunky controls that seem awful now, but at the time were seen as revolutionary. The PlayStation 2′s startup noise is much cleaner than the original PlayStation’s chime, and is much more aggressive, as anyone who had the television accidentally turned up to a high volume as they turned their PS2 on will remember. The aggressive tone perfectly symbolizes the PS2′s era — an era that many would come to feel was the golden age of gaming, being bombarded by fantastic games on a relatively nonstop basis for around four years straight, spread across the PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Finally, the PlayStation 3′s startup chime tones down the aggression, opting for a classy — some would say pretentious — dulcet tone. The tone signifies the gaming industry’s growth into maturity — not necessarily maturity in the content of games, but the maturity in the understanding of the medium and its delivery methods, as well as the growth into gaming consoles becoming more of an entertainment hub rather than simply a dedicated games machine.

The PlayStations’ startup noises aren’t the only gaming machines with chimes that hold insight into their era, but they’re certainly a great representation of exactly how much a quick sound bite can matter.

3. Intel

Created for the “Intel Inside” program, which was created by Dennis Carter, the Intel jingle is one of the most conservative-but-effective jingles in computer industry. A mere five notes, three of which are the same (D♭ D♭ G♭ D♭ A♭), the tune is familiar to almost everyone everywhere and manages to evoke “computer” in a way that is uncanny. Although some of that might have to do with our own personal connections to it, the jingle was supposed to sound computery. When Walter Werzowa was commissioned to create the jingle, he was told that it needed to be about 3 seconds long and use “tones that evoked innovation, trouble-shooting skills and the inside of a computer, while also sounding corporate and inviting.” A tall order for 3 seconds. It took Werzowa 10 days to come up with and record the 5 note jingle. He used a bunch of marimba and xylophone because he thought they sounded corporate. Pretty weird when you think about it.

4. Sosumi

In 1991, Apple’s resident musician Jim Reekes had a problem. He painstakingly worked to create the iconic startup chime that’s still with the OS today, but a whole new suite of sounds needed to be developed for System 7. Unfortunately, part of the settlement between Apple Computers and Apple Records, the label of the Beatles, was that Apple computers could never foray into music in any way. When reviewing Reekes’ sounds, Apple’s lawyers objected to a noise he called “chime.” They said the name was too musical, and would need to be renamed before they would consider it for final release.

Reekes cheekily responded that “let it beep” would be appropriate, which appalled the lawyers. Reekes responded that Apple Records could bring litigation if they wanted, saying “so sue me!” In a flash of insight, he realized that this would be the new name for the sound. Giving it a homonym spelling “sosumi” and claiming it was Japanese, the lawyers acquiesced and the subversive sound was entered into the operating system. Twenty years later, it can still be found amongst the alert noises.

You can see Reekes recount the whole story in this video interview on the Dutch program One More Thing.

5. AOL Email

The iconic, oft-parodied, harbinger of the email age, the “You’ve Got Mail” sound bite from AOL, is perhaps one of the most important clips in the history of the Internet. Recorded by voice actor Elwood Edwards way back in 1989, the clip managed to help new Internet users get accustomed to the bizarre nature of the World Wide Web. “You’ve Got Mail” was comfortingly familiar to a lot of users who were still grappling with what “electronic mail” was and how it worked. While you won’t hear it often any more, it definitely carved out its place in Internet sound history and is arguable right up there with the anguished screams of a 56k modem.

One may feel a sound bite is just that, a quick piece of noise, but the above list should prove that a lot of meaning can be held within, and conveyed by, a short piece of well-composed sound. From insights into a certain time period, to creating a Pavlovian effect of instant joy or anticipation, recognizable pieces of noise are more important than the short amount of time it takes to listen to them would make them seem, and the tech industry understands that as much as — if not better than — anyone else.

This post is courtesy of our partnership with Intel, a company with one of the most instantly recognizable sound bites in technology, which happened to tug on Geekosystem’s nostalgia strings along with the rest of the above sound bites, and produced an effect most Pavlovian.

Join the conversation on Twitter with #IntelEmp.

Considering their track record with this kind of stuff, it’s good to see Sony being upfront about exactly what’s going on with them. Of course, it also looks really good in this case, because they seem to have taken care of it well and it totally isn’t their fault. The announcement stresses that Sony will reimburse any purchases that are confirmed to be unauthorized and also stresses the importance of using unique login-password pairings, gently suggesting “If your account was affected, it’s kind of your own fault.” It kind of is.

(via PlayStation Blog)

The original PlayStation Network hacking fiasco:

• Part 1: In Ur Network, Stealing Ur Account Info
• Part 2: The Partial Resurrection
• Part 3: The Return of the King, and also full functionality

Ever since the “It Only Does Everything” campaign, Sony has been pretty good at marketing. The character of Kevin Butler was one of the most amusing things ever to happen to video game marketing, but now Sony is traveling off of the comedic path and doing something a little more serious. With this new ad, part of the “Long Live Play” campaign, Sony has collected their current famous mascots and iconic characters from games that appear on their platforms, put them in a tavern, and has them praise “Michael,” a representation of the everyday gamer; essentially a representation of you.

The ad features a bunch of favorites, including Uncharted’s Nathan Drake recounting a story to Final Fantasy XIII’s Lightning (okay, maybe not everyone’s favorite characters), God of War’s Kratos, a chimera from Resistance, inFamous’ Cole MacGrath discussing Empire City’s ambivalence toward him, Metal Gear Solid’s Old Snake thankfully quoting everyone’s MGS meme line, Twisted Metal’s homicidal ice cream truck driver Sweet Tooth playing chess with LittleBigPlanet’s adorable Sackboy, and even Portal’s Chell for one second in the background (1:15 into the above video). A few other notable characters make a quick appearance. Not has Sony made it fun to watch an ad over and over again, trying to discern who makes an appearance, but they made iconic characters like Nathan Drake and Kratos honor you. Good work, Sony.

(via PlayStation Blog)

While the Kinect has been getting most of the love from the hack-minded gaming community — and Microsoft, smartly, is encouraging innovation by working on a Kinect SDK — it’s neat to see that Sony’s PlayStation Move hasn’t been totally left behind. pabr.org has used the Move to build what it calls a Copernitron, which plays on a keen understanding of physics to measure the Earth’s rotation.

By design the PlayStation Move can track motion, including rotations. Physics says that MEMS gyros must measure rotation, not with respect to the ground, but with respect to an inertial frame of reference (i.e. the distant stars). Therefore the PS Move senses Earth’s rotation, right ?

Yes, but it is optimized for rates of rotation that are suitable for gaming applications (up to about 500 RPM). This is 500 RPM. About 800,000x Earth’s rotation rate.

The gyros have excellent dynamic range (16 bits). Yet Earth’s rotation is only 1/20th of their resolution and 1/100th of RMS noise.

But we can average as many samples as needed to reduce the noise, right ? No, because MEMS gyros suffer from “bias drift”, i.e. slow variations of their DC offset. And this is a good thing: if the PS Move gyros were too accurate, ITAR might classify them as missile components. This is why we can’t have nice motion tracking.

Now introducing the turntable. The turntable modulates the fraction of Earth’s rotation that the gyro senses. Then we demodulate in software and the DC offset is removed by narrowband filtering. This technique is called “homodyning”. It relates to “heterodyning” in radio receivers. The turntable shifts the signal of interest to a region of the spectrum where the noise can be filtered more easily.

We are not done yet: Gyro measurements happen to be influenced by magnetic fields. The two black rings are Helmholtz coils. They counteract Earth’s magnetic field. Each 40 cm diameter coil is 10 turns of copper wire in 25 mm flexible conduit.

Coils off: Note that we have aligned the coil axis with the local geomagnetic field. Coils enabled (450 mA): The compass now spins freely, which confirms that the field is significantly reduced.

One more thing: The turntable must be perfectly aligned (±0.02°) with the horizontal plane and with the gyro axis. Such accuracies can be achieved with laboratory-grade micrometric positioners. Or you can stack strips of paper.

(via Joystiq)

The rumored PlayStation phone is real after all, and Engadget has the prototype pictures to prove it. Aside from the PlayStation-inspired triangle, square, circle, and X buttons, the main connection this Sony Ericsson-made smartphone will have to the beloved console line will be “a custom Sony Marketplace which will allow you to purchase and download games designed for the new platform.” For more phone-like needs, it’ll be built on Android; Engadget surmises that it’ll be Android 3.0, a.k.a. Gingerbread.

The PlayStation phone’s specs: A 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 chip, 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and support for microSD cards, with a screen “in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches.” No word on a release date, but it’ll likely be in 2011.

More pics at Engadget.

Update: The Escapist thinks it could be a fake:

Both Sony Ericsson and Sony Computer Entertainment have refused to comment on the existence of a PlayStation Phone, saying that they do not comment on speculation or rumor. The images of the phone are now thought to be faked however, thanks to certain irregularities in the device’s interface.

Engadget is sticking by their story, however. No word on what those “irregularities” are, btw.

Real Dragon*Con Missed Connections (Creative Loafing)

Film Industry Hiring Software Firms to DDoS Filesharers? (Sydney Morning Herald)

A Dozen Facts About Lost In Space (Neatorama)

Blizzard Accedentally Implements Draconian StarCraft 2 DRM, Promises Patch (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

Best Unfounded Rumor We’ve Heard All Week: Dr. Strange by Pixar (ScreenRant)

PlayStation Fans Infographic(Joystiq)

Robo Copolean On A Unicorn (You Heard Me!) (Fashionably Geek)

(pic by avid, via Geeks Are Sexy)

Following the one-two punch of Microsoft and Nintendo‘s seriously impressive video game conferences, Sony was under intense pressure to show us…well, something. What was once the gamer’s console is now trying to appeal to a greater audience, a point hammered in when Sony’s fictional Vice President of (Fill in the Blank) Kevin Butler told hardcore PlayStation gamers not to “hate” on the casual gamers like your girlfriend or mother. I’m sorry, I love my mom to death, but I would prefer the bulk of games not be determined by her.

Some gamer veterans (including this guy) have been shaking their heads at the general marketing trend of gimmicky 3D and motion games. So what does Playstation have in features and upcoming games that can excite a crowd with sky-high expectations? Check out the good and the bad, after the jump.

3D gaming

• Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment Kazuo Hirai announced that PSN will be rolling out 3D games for download starting today. By March 2011, 20 3D titles will be available.

• 35 million Playstation units are being updated with firmware that is 3D compatible. In conjunction, Sony is also releasing the Bravia 3D TV, which is now available for preorder.

• Some games that will be getting the 3D makeover: Mortal Kombat, Gran Turismo, Sly and Motorstorm. Shaun White, Tron, and NBA 2K11 are among the third-parties supporting 3D. The Fight, Tumble, and MLB The Show will be 3D and support Move.

Playstation Move

• With 1:1 movement, the Move motion controller provides the challenge and precision that hardcore gamers desire. There is an extreme emphasis on the word “realism.” Move aside, Wii.

• At the same time, the Sony presentation also kept reiterating the fact that Move has buttons, distinguishing themselves from Microsoft’s controller-less Kinect. That said, it will still require moving one’s whole body, and not just one’s hands. Sony claims it will give the player a total sense of immersion not previously experienced with any motion controller.

• Since the unveiling at GDC, there were 40 partners working on Move products.

• Examples of Move in action: With Move, the game Sorcery lets you control a wand-wielding wizard that can cast magic, all Harry Potter-like. The game will be released Spring 2011. Also, the new Tiger Woods game showed that “power matters” in your swing–and no, you will not be using the Move controller for that.

• Move will be available in America on September 19, and in Europe on September 15. For those who already own the PlayStation Eye, you can buy the wand for $50. The eye, controller and Sports Champions can be purchased in a $99 bundle. The Move PS3 bundle is $400, and the games’ retail price are $40.

PSP

• 70 games are coming to the PSP, including the augmented reality game InviZimals and Valkyria Chronicles.

• The PSP Go is used in some of the games’ promotions, which suggests we’ll continue to see the system in the months to come.

Playstation Plus

• For free online stuff, you now have to pay a subscription package…huh? Exclusive features, early demos, beta invites, full games, themes, mini-games and discounts in the PlayStation store for $50 bucks a year, or $18 every three months. The crowd was highly displeased with this announcement. Playstation Plus will be instated later this month.

Games of note

• Killzone 3: Gorilla Games’ newest Killzone entry was designed with 3D in mind. They demoed very gory, realistic gameplay which they claim will do for 3D games what Avatar did for 3D films. It will be fully compatible with the Move controller at launch. Available worldwide on February 2011.

• Heroes on the Move: An action-adventure crossover game which features Ratchet, Jak, Sly Cooper, and Daxter…together. Wired describes the game as “Sony’s Smash Bros.”

• Little Big Planet 2: Building on greatly from the original, LBP 2 will include NPCs and movie-making tools. With all new game types such as top-down shooting, real-time strategy, and rhythm-action games, the possibilities are promising.

• Portal 2: Sort of anti-climactic, in my opinion, that Portal 2′s “surprise” was its inclusion for Playstation. Nonetheless, the crowd was more than excited to see Gabe Newell from Valve grace the stage. Bah, I was hoping to hear something related more to the content itself. See our earlier post for details.

• Twisted Metal: Coming to Playstation in 2011, the game features faction battles between clowns and dolls in destructive vehicles. We think this will be the next Giant Enemy Crab game: Here, you must destroy the enemy faction’s giant statue to win.

In sum

Some of the games looked gripping, to be sure, but without any hardware upgrade or any real wow-factor game demonstrations other than perhaps Little Big Planet 2, Killzone 3 and Twisted Metal, Sony’s presentation left much to be desired. Luckily, because the PS3 already had powerful processing power, a large hard drive, inbuilt wi-fi, and slim design means it’ll probably survive this setback. We’ll wait for the Move to see whether it really lives up to the hype. But for now, mark us down as 2011 Sony skeptics.

(via Game Life; title image via Playstation Blog)

Microsoft has announced that their showstopping pre-E-3 Project Natal-related event will be “a spectacular live performance imagined by Cirque du Soleil.”

Uh, okay.  It’s also said that this pre-show is a “technology free” event, which is the most homey word for “seriously, no pictures, videos, leaks, texting, twittering, or – you know what?  We’re just setting off an EMP five minutes before curtain up,” I’ve heard in a while.

We fully understand if you know what Natal is, but don’t know what Cirque du Soleil is, or vice versa, or if you have no idea what either of them are.  Allow us to explain why this is weird.

Project Natal is Microsoft’s foray into the realm of motion sensing, a method of game input that Nintendo moved into with the Wii.  Sony is stepping up to Nintendo’s standard with it’s candy-looking Move controller for the Playstation, and Microsoft is coming in third with Natal.  From what we’ve seen, Natal is a camera that, uh, looks at you and figures out where you are and how you’re moving.  No wiggly sticks or glowing orbs required.  Audiences are understandably skeptical.

Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian theater company that celebrates the acrobatic and circus arts, with its fair share of contortionists, stuntmen, acrobats, jugglers, and clowns.  It’s shows are performed in various made up languages, to strange and unsettling music, with dark and adult themes woven through.

So, uh, yeah.  I guess the performers do move a lot.  I could see this being really impressive if Natal actually lives up to the hype and captures performer movement in real time, but I suspect that Cirque du Soleil will simply be the sort of fancy backdrop that gets games journalists in a receptive mood to see your product.

In either case, I’d like to remind Microsoft that most gamers are not this flexible.

(via Eurogamer.)

Sony has finally revealed the name and form of its new motion controller for the PlayStation, the PlayStation Move.  Like Nintendo‘s Wiimote and Nun-chuck, it also has an off-hand peripheral with a joystick.  Unlike the Nun-chuck, there is no cord, and, unlike the Wiimote, the Move has…

Please pay attention, Nintendo.

Rechargeable batteries.

According to Sony, the Move has better motion tracking than the Wii.  Oddly enough, each controller (both mainhand and offhand) count as a “controller” for the PS3′s 4 controller cap.  This means that only two people will be able to play with both hands at a time.  For a group of three or four, players will only be able to use the main hand controller.

The PS Move also requires the Playstation Eye.  While the Wii uses infrared to detect the location of Wiimotes, the Playstation apparently uses the visible spectrum of light.

This also explains another odd feature:

The colors, Duke, the colors. Apparently, the bulb at the end of the Move is not made of a colored material.  Rather, it is sort of pearly and transparent.  Three LEDs inside theoretically allow it to be any color in the spectrum, and it uses its connection with your Playstation’s Eye to tell which colors would be most vibrant and easy to “see” based on the color content of the room.

Joystiq has a gallery of numerous close pictures of the Move, which you can check out here.

Information via Eurogamer, Topless Robot, Joystiq, and Kotaku.

Last year’s The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition had the same gameplay as the original, but that gameplay was packaged with updated character art and painted backgrounds in a widescreen resolution.  In addition to visual polish, it also featured an updated score and voice acting (which was beyond the game’s capability in the original 1990 release), a new user interface, and a 3-tiered tip system.  If there were aspects of the new version that players didn’t like, they had the ability to switch seamlessly between the original game and the special edition at any point in gameplay with a single keystroke.

Kotaku’s mysterious sources say that Monkey Island 2: The Special Edition is now in the works, based on the sequel to the original Monkey Island. 

We’ve heard from sources that the game is due to be announced very soon, perhaps even next week at the Game Developer’s Conference, and that like the first game’s special edition, will contain all-new graphics and audio.

If Kotaku is right, the game will be available for Xbox, PC, iPhone, and Playstation.

Via Kotaku.

Yesterday, many PS3 owners were frozen out of online — and offline — games due to a glitch that knocked down online hub PlayStation Network. Sony told PS3 owners not to turn on their consoles in the mean time. Curiously, the glitch only seemed to be affecting owners of the old, ‘fat’ PS3s.

PlayStation Network is back up now, fortunately, and Sony has confirmed what some on the Internet were speculating yesterday: the glitch was due to a Y2K-like calendar bug that made fat PS3s ‘think’ 2010 was a leap year.

From PlayStation’s official blog:

We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year. Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally.

If the time displayed on the XMB is still incorrect, users are able to adjust time settings manually or via the internet. If we have new information, we will update you through the PlayStation.Blog or PlayStation.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

So someone at Sony corporate thought it would be a good idea to create a reality show based on the mini-industry of game testing for the Playstation. The good parts — Hal Sparks! — and the bad parts — a bunch of sallow Sony executives in open-collared shirts! — are in the new trailer below.

The show, which premieres February 18 on the Playstation network (and no, you can’t get that from your local cable provider), features a posse of semi-photogenic(?) gamers competing to become the next Playstation game tester.

The contestants seem to be black-box rather than white-box testers, so their discussions of games will likely lean towards “I think this game needs more rocket launchers” rather than “I think this space partitioning algorithm is causing clipping problems.” But still! We’ll be watching this even if only because Sony, ever hungry for marketing force multipliers, will inevitably use it to reveal previews of upcoming games.

We might as well go ahead and ask the question that will be zipping about the gaming blogosphere upon its premiere: Is Meredith Molinari the next Felicia Day?

Trailer below, SFW.