I love working in R&D, I love the fact that when you tell people what you do they get excited and all of a sudden they’re full of ideas that you just have to try out. I love the energy and the simple creative buzz you get off just playing with new things and new ideas. But every now and again, R&D goes bad, or rather the videos created by R&D departments go bad.
I give you, Songsmith from Microsoft Research.
Dork #2: Microsoft? So, it’s easy to use?
Yeah, tuneless boy, which is how come we never seem to see any useful shots of what looks like a ventilation grille of controls and drop-downs and sliders and scrolling icons and other GUI nonsense.
Also, what’s with the sitting in cafes and singing? Does Songsmith also magically filter out the sounds of everyone around you, laughing?
Still, if you have no musical talent of any kind, while somehow possessing the ability to extemporize in horribly awkward rhyming phrases, and it’s your heartfeltiest dream to sing truly banal songs that wouldn’t even get you into the X-Factor rejects pile, then I guess you’re part of the bizarre, fantasy market that this product was developed for.
You could even use it to write advertising jingles for your Microsoft Surface (also known as the world’s largest USB cable). They’ll probably be the best that anyone has ever heard, at least in their wing of the mental hospital.