Consumer electronics manufacturer Vivo Products has announced a couple of changes in their corporate lineup today. Bernard Stolar has been appointed to Chairman of the Board and Kelli Richards assumes the role of VP Business Development&Content Partnerships.

Vivo currently boasts three products including a Jillian Michaels Flash Drive, Gene Simmons Axe, and the Vivo Video player. The famous Axe guitar from the legendary front man of KISS, Gene Simmons is forever immortalized in plastic by Vivo for use in Rock Band and Guitar Hero games on the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 consoles. Jillian Michaels has her likeness on 2gb flash drives that are a compliment her Fitness Ultimatum Nintendo Wii game. The Vivo Video is touted as "the ultimate all-in-one mp3 and mp4 player".
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Power Chord Academy, the nation's leading summer camp for amateur musician training, is excited to announce the addition of two new Summer programs!

GameROCKERS is an exclusive 3-day cutting edge game-musician program for the new age of musicians who play Guitar Hero or Rock Band. iROCKER is a 1-day version of the GameROCKERS program.
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A 14-year old teenager from Texas broke the world record for Guitar Hero III. Danny Johnson completed 'Through the Fire and Flames' for 99% which gave him a score of 973954 points, 75000 points more than the previous record. A video of him playing and an interview can be viewed after the jump.
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To celebrate the launch of the second annual Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition, the nation's best Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock player visited New York City for a mesmerizing record-breaking shred session.
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Uber sexy movie starlet Megan Fox has been snapped playing Guitar Hero, apparently in someone's house. Foxy Miss Fox, star of Hope and Faith and the Transformers movie, could probably have charged the world for promoting the game, but it's nice to know that she's keen enough a gamer not to let dollar signs cloud her vision. ... » Read More

Oasis lead guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher has his knickers all up in a bunch about Guitar Hero, scoffing at the idea of the game and exclaiming that "playing a guitar is not a f**king videogame."

"Don't look back in anger." Yeah, right. Oasis lead dude Noel Gallagher, who, ironically enough, penned that song which was featured prominently in Rock Band, has looked back at what he sees in the music gaming landscape, and well, he's kinda angry. "When I meet kids I always say to them that playing a guitar is not a f**king videogame, there is no level to get to," he said. "You'll never master it and you'll never complete the game."
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Thatgamingsite writes: "Forbes Writer, Peter C. Beller has responded to criticisms made after calling music game 'Rockband' a shameless knockoff in comparison to Guitar Hero. Althought it looks like he's sticking to his guns on this one."
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Today Fender and Little Kids Rock, a non-profit music education organization, announced that an informal survey they conducted in November 2008 revealed that music games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" actually do inspire students to play real instruments. The survey polled 812 music instructors and said that enrollment in music programs has increased in the past year.
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Kotaku writes: "Like regular sized Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitar controllers, but far, far daintier, the USB ready Riff Rocker adds hand cramping as an extra difficulty modifier to your rhythm gaming.

While the lil' device has been available commercially for a few months now, it has been so at some of the more, let's say, unproven retailers. But we got a chance to go claw-hand on with it at CES this weekend. It works, but only with the open source Frets On Fire for Windows and Linux."
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Speaking during a CES keynote in Las Vegas on Friday, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith said that over the holidays, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock became the first single game ever to surpass $1 billion in sales. The game launched in the fall of 2007.

The news comes about a year after Activision announced that the overall franchise had broke $1 billion in sales across all titles from the series' 2005 launch to that point in time.
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PS3-Sense writes "German shops are selling something we never saw, its underwear themed in the PlayStation 3 controller or Guitar Hero." Pictures after the jump!
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MVC Reports "Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose has slammed Activision and its Guitar Hero series for using his band's songs without permission."
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Activision gives gamers the chance to download songs from bands they've probably never heard of.

Who needs No Doubt and the Foo Fighters when you've got Sportfreunde Stiller and BB Brunes? Never heard of them? Neither have I, but apparently Activision has and is set to introduce them to Guitar Hero: World Tour fans with the release of two new downloadable song packs.

The packs, imaginatively titled the "European Track Packs," are available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii and feature artists from Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands playing hits from their native countries, largely in their native languages.
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That Gaming Site Writes: "I play real Guitar and Guitar Hero.

Being a fan of both, I've been subject to numerous arguments over and over about how playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band is a waste of time and that 'nerds' should try picking up a real instrument and do something productive for a change. It was in this week's edition of NME (a British Indie Music Publication) that brought me this comment, in an article that........"
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MCV: The Guardian sticks up for gaming following attack from music mag NME
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...Gene Simmons has a lot to say about it.

"I never do anything half way. My AXE controller is the closest thing you can have to being onstage in KISS. I created and designed the Gene Simmons AXE bass guitar and I can't wait for the fans to experience it for themselves," said Gene Simmons. "The Gene Simmons AXE guitar is such a recognizable symbol - people have been asking for a gaming replica ever since Guitar Hero was first introduced."
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dailygamesnews.com - Gene Simmons and the Interactive Game Group have come together to offer gamers the chance to play their very own 'Axe Guitar' in Guitar Hero, or Rock Band.
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Guitar Hero kicking your butt after one too many beers? Maybe it's time to automate your gameplay - with a robot guitar god, the Cythbot.

The Cythbot combines a camera with a vision processing system and pneumatic fingers to create a robot that can play the popular Guitar Hero videogame by itself.
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MCV: 'Rock Star' combo blame rhythm action titles for lack of new US bands
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After making their entry in a Guitar Hero set list with When You Were Young on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, multi-platinum alternative rockers The Killers are playing a downloadable encore in Activision Publishing, Inc.'s Guitar Hero World Tour, the company announced today...
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