My colleagues over at Wired's GearFactor uncovered some nifty music gear today. First, the MusicJam, which promises to turn your video-capable (5G or 5.5G) iPod into a compact karaoke machine. You can add effects to your voice, just like the stars do, with knobs for changing the Sustain and Rate (this must translate to Delay Length and Rate) of your voice. If you go all out and plug a guitar into the Music Jam as well, you get four knobs for controlling its sound too.
I remember something called the MP3i format that was kicking around a few years ago, which included a text field in its tags that was synced to the music so that it could display on your MP3 player's screen. This doesn't appear to do that (unless someone is making scrolling lyric videos for the iPod), so you're apparently on your own when it comes to remembering lyrics. Whatever you come up with on the spot, the Music Jam lets you record the output for posterity.
GearFactor also turned up a USB Guitar from Hammacher Schlemmer that connects directly to your computer via USB (a standard 1/4-inch output is also included). As far as I can tell, it functions as a standard USB audio device, meaning that it should work with any OS X or Windows XP audio software, although software is included.
On GearFactor
