The Pitch: It's web karaoke with access to 5,300 songs online, complete with YouTube-esque song recording and sharing.

The Price: A $40 kit includes 2 mics and a base unit (free with a year's subscription to 5,000 songs) and $10/month for the service. There's an optional free service, supported by ads, with 300 or so songs.

The Verdict: The service is in many ways fantastic, but a limited music library and some service hiccups make it slightly less than we'd hope for $10/month.

Essentially you plug in a USB audio mixer along with one or two mics, go to a website and select the song you'd like to sing. It streams music (in full midi karaoke fashion) with an optional (covered) vocal track to back you up. Press record and your clip is encoded in Flash video (and if you have a webcam, it's of you). You can embed these clips on webpages, email them to friends or keep them to yourself.
But while the microphone hardware seemed to be of a decent quality, my preview audio of my own voice was modulated and delayed. When I played back a recording (which won't be pasted here since I'd prefer to avoid the public flogging), I found that while the audio was clear, I was evidently singing too fast.

Still, even if you don't want to record, it's just an annoyance to deal with realtime delay and voice compression.

Plus, you need to click the microphone button every time a song plays to enable it. Otherwise, you are singing to yourself. Isn't this karaoke? Don't you think the software could make the base assumption that, sure, you might want to sing into that mic you bought? Designers, ask me to turn the mic off, not on.

There's also a pretty crap music selection. I know, 5,300 songs sounds like a lot, but a few quick searches reveal that the pool of songs is only about shin deep. You can tell a library is pretty small when every search result turns up "Elton John" as a suggested alternative. And then there's this little problem, as illustrated during a recent conversation with Jason Chen.
No John Mayer, but there's lots of R Kelly. So if you like being peed on during karaoke parties, you're all set.

This review got pretty critical, but it's only because, at the end of the day, I really liked The Ultimate Karaoke Experience Kit. Its basic problems are in implementation, not design. Sharing works really well, strange interface kinks can be ironed out, and its music catalog can grow. Hopefully we're looking at a gen one service that only gets better. And really, for about the price of Karaoke Revolution, it's not the biggest risk to try it out for a month. [Karaoke Channel Online]


Decent Web Interface

Recording/Sharing Is Easy

Poor Track Selection

Vocal Preview Problems Are Worrisome

Karaoke Joysound Wii, a new game by Hudson, comes packaged with the "Not Noisy Kara OK!" peripheral—essentially a USB microphone with one of those female pee funnels on top. It's all available for import if you've got about $35.

But while the "Not Noisy Kara OK!" can be rinsed with soap and water for friends to share, nothing can wash away the dirty, guilty feelings you have the morning after you wake from a karaoke binge. There are stains on your life that even bleach cannot erase. [JTT via Kotaku]

I know I've been clamoring for an amateur low-budget musical from Microsoft, because why should Phil's Discount Used Lawn Furniture of Blueball, Pennsylvania have a monopoly on my involuntary physical cringes? But here's the bigger question: why did they use a MacBook Pro as the demo machine? Did they think I wouldn't recognize it if the Apple logo was artfully and subtly hidden with a giant stupid flower sticker? Did nobody around the office have a spare HP or Dell that that poor exploited little girl could squawk into?

Other stray observances: the software is sort of interesting, in that it matches up a sung melody with appropriate chords, but every song sounds like the bouncy, instantly infuriating demo song from those My First Keyboards by Casio. And while I am, for the ten millionth time, a Windows-only user, even I had to laugh at the line, "Microsoft, huh? So, it's pretty easy to use?"

But I do love the idea that to combat a difficult writer's block, a musician would flip on Songsmith, crank up the dial labeled "Jazzy", and instantly feel a burst of creativity as Microsoft writes him the exact same song as it wrote for the Glow-in-the-Dark Towel ad. Well done, Microsoft. [Microsoft]

The AP reports that this Malaysian man was punched and stabbed because he refused to share the microphone and was hogging the stage. Of all the things to make a stand over, your right to belt out a Pussycat Dolls tune is not one of the ones we recommend. This has been a Giz Tech Tip. [Boston]

According to Caroline Schneider, assistant airport manager for customer service:

"During the holidays, we have a lot of our novice travelers," she said. "We thought while they are waiting, they can just sing a song."

Oh no no no...not cool. Karaoke can only make things worse. In fact, a man was recently killed in Malaysia because he was hogging the mic. And, naturally, poor singing and frustrated travelers can only lead to more violence. Do you want that on your conscience Bush International Airport? Do ya'? I thought not. [Metro]

On the other hand, we do have to commend whoever was in charge of that karaoke setup. It was pretty damn flawless, and we doubt anybody would have known about it if the show's musical designer hadn't said anything. There's also the question of why the little girl that was actually on stage was allowed to give interviews as if she actually sang it?

Mr Chen said she might not have known that the words she was singing could not be heard. She had, in fact, only known she was going to perform at all 15 minutes beforehand.

[Telegraph via Yahoo Sports]

Rosita gives good reasons on her own but for me, TuneWiki is just perfect for drunk nights in the bar, when everyone wants to sing for some reason and nobody knows the exact lyrics to a song. Or maybe it's just me. Whatever. In any case, if you enjoy music and singing or reading lyrics as you listen to songs, TuneWiki is a must. [TuneWiki - Video review music by Goldfrapp]

Should I apologize for the picture at the top? Probably... [iSing]

There's a DMB receiver with Picture-in-Picture capability so you can watch TV, a media player that supports all sorts of formats and, while there's no HDD, there's an SD memory slot and USB host. Add photo album, several games and something called a Car Diary for you to keep an eye on various vehicle-related things (no, I don't care either).

And Karaoke. Yes, people, that little microphone icon you see on the screen lets you belt out versions of whatever song keeps the pedal to the metal in your car. Karaoke. What a GENIUS idea. If anyone from iNavi is reading this, then the G1 needs to go global. Send one over to me at Giz and I'll spend my summer test-driving it in a stolen car.

iNavi G1 from Korea does karaoke [NaviGadget]

The K7 is billed as a pocket Karaoke machine, since its TV out can make an instant party anywhere with a television and a fifth of tequila. But for the shy, its 1, 2 and 4GB sizes still playback MP3s and video, and an FM radio serves as backup for when you are too lazy to replace the Def Leppard album that was fun when you loaded it, but now is just grating.

Also, the K7 is not a phone. Hit the jump for some more pretty shots.

– Mark Wilson

K7 [akihabara news]

If this feature indeed works the way they describe, this could be the best phone ever. If not, it's just another phone with a 2-megapixel camera that's available only in China. – Jason Chen

PhoneDaily [via Mobile Mentalism]

If you're not looking for even 15 minutes of fame, there's also karaoke software included. Too bad it's not waterproof—it would be a perfect shower karaoke machine for our aqua-crooning editor. – Charlie White

Product Page [Cerventis LLC, via Slash Gear]

Santa, please make me a waterproof karaoke machine, with built in shampoo and soap holder. With an LCD, and wifi that can stream (heh) new tracks down from some buying service. And the microphones should have pitch change, so I can sing both the Diana Ross and Lionel Richie parts of Endless Love. And it should have some sort of digital filter that makes gurgling noises sound like Pavarotti.

Extra points for making a showerhead that doubles as a microphone. –Brian Lam

[You can get that mic sponge here]
All Giz Wants [Gizmodo]
If Wishes Were Horses [NYTimes]
All Giz Wants [Gizmodo]