Gibson

Groupon starts selling goods, lawmakers seek FTC probe of Facebook, Nokia hands out more pink slips, and Amazon lights a fire under the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

I have a Gibson guitar. I have to tune it myself. It doesn't have onboard effects. I can't load third-party apps onto it. My guitar is so old-fashioned, it has a hole in the top for the sound to get out. In short, it's no Firebird X.

The limited-edition Firebird X launches on September 30 with a list of specs that reads more like a Dell computer than a guitar. It even has system requirements for Windows 7 and Mac OS X.

The guitar retains the classic look of a regular Firebird, but stuffs the innards with enough technology to make your poor roadie's head spin. This may be the geekiest guitar ever made.

The latest version of Gibson's RoboHead tuners takes care of pesky tuning chores for you. An onboard multiprocessor spews out sounds and effects. It has its own preamp and Bluetooth for connecting to its pedals.

Gibson declares that all this digital stuff won't affect the guitar's "tube mojo." If you have a tube amp, then you know exactly what that means.… Read more

The Zoom H1 Handy Portable Digital Recorder is exactly what the name claims. Measuring just 8x2x5 inches it's very portable, and this little thing records high-quality WAV files at 44.1- to 96-KHz sampling rates with 16-bit or 24-bit resolution.

If you're more interested in maximum recording time, it can also do MP3 files at 48Kbps to 320Kbps. The H1 records on microSD cards and comes with a 2GB card. Step up to a 32 GB microSD card and you'll get over 50 hours of recording time at 16-bit/44.1KHz.

I first wrote about Zoom products in late 2007, and came away really impressed with the company's H2 recorder's sound quality. The H1 doesn't replace the H2, but it's a more evolved design, and goes for just $99!

Connectivity is pretty basic; there's a 3.5mm mic input, a 3.5mm headphone output, and a USB 2.0 port. You can monitor the H1's sound over headphones, or in a pinch with the recorder's tiny built-in speaker. Zoom claims the single AA battery should last 10 hours, but I only got 5 or 6 hours.… Read more

Alec Baldwin, David O'Russell, Christian Bale are among the celebrities who have seen their reputations tarnished after recordings of them in fits of anger spread across the Web.

To that list, we can now add actor-director Mel Gibson.

RadarOnline.com has posted to its Web site what it says is a recording of Gibson, star of such films as "Braveheart," "Lethal Weapon," and "Signs," screaming and cursing at former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva during a recent phone conversation. Not surprisingly, the eight-minute clip has gone viral.

RadarOnline offers little in the way of details … Read more

I love advertising as much as the next content creator, but using sponsored iPhone apps always makes me feel a little bit like the Zune tattoo guy. That's true even when they're from a company whose products I admire, like Gibson guitars. (I'm the longtime and very satisfied owner of a Gibson L-4A.)

Nonetheless, the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar app, released today, offers considerable value for a free app. It's got a chromatic tuner for getting in tune, a metronome to help you stay on tempo, and chord charts for some basic open and barre … Read more

Legendary jazz guitarist Les Paul, known for his contributions to guitar design and recording technology, has died at the age of 94, according to a joint statement released by Gibson Guitar, the company that produced his iconic Gibson Les Paul guitar, and New York's Iridium jazz club, where he continued to play weekly gigs almost until the end of his life.

Paul's reputation as a guitarist and recording artist are overshadowed by his contributions to music technology. He pioneered many sound recording techniques still in use today, and was also instrumental in developing the modern solid-body electric guitar, … Read more

A California court has tossed out Gibson Guitar's patent infringement lawsuit against Guitar Hero maker Activision, saying Gibson's arguments "border on the frivolous."

The iconic guitar manufacturer filed suit in March 2008, charging that Guitar Hero's mock guitars infringed on a 1999 patent, U.S. Patent No. 5,990,405 (PDF).

That patent, also known as "The '405 Patent," covers "a system and method for generating and controlling a simulated musical concert experience." Specifically, it details a head-mounted display that includes stereo speakers and is worn while playing an instrument along … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--For the gathering of curious onlookers eager to see what a Sony OLED TV looks like on the inside, officials at the Embedded Systems Conference had some bad news: The airline (no, they didn't say which one) lost their stuff. Unfortunately, their stuff included that TV.

Instead, as a last-minute replacement, we got Gibson's Robot guitar, which was scheduled for the teardown treatment later this week. (See our earlier coverage of the Robot guitar here and video of it in action.)

David Carey, president of Protelligent, a company that specializes in taking apart electronics piece … Read more

The idea of a robotic guitar that tunes itself seemed like an interesting concept when it came out last year but, much to our surprise, it generated more than a bit of controversy. That's not necessarily a bad thing for Gibson, which will probably reap the benefits of more publicity for the release of its second model.

In addition to the automated functions of the original, the SG version of the Gibson Robot Guitar is distinguishable by one blindingly obvious feature: It's purple. Not just any purple, but metallic.

Engadget says the SG will be more widely available … Read more