Skip to main content

Now you can chat with music legends from the comfort of your couch

Nile Rodgers: Waiting for your questions … Forever Holdings

A new kind of virtual experience could revolutionize how music stars and other famous folks interact with their fans.

Described by the U.K. startup behind it as “the world’s first voice-interactive digital portrait,” London-based Forever Holdings’ debut In the Room With experience lets you chat with music legend Nile Rodgers about his life and work — as if you were right there with him.

Recommended Videos

To make it happen, Rodgers recently spent time recording answers to 350 questions submitted by fans. After that, software designers built a program that uses voice recognition and machine learning algorithms to match Rodgers’ answers to the questions that you ask when you meet him online.

“Close to a real meeting”

”More than five hours of exclusive high-definition footage allows you to delve deep into the life and works of this remarkable man in a one-to-one encounter that is as close as possible to a real meeting,” the National Portrait Gallery, which also collaborated on the project, said on its website.

“Ask him about his unique contribution to the music industry such as how he worked with David Bowie on the classic Let’s Dance, his work as a legendary songwriter, or what it was like working with superstars like Diana Ross, Madonna, or Lady Gaga.” Or simply ask him if he’s one for eating breakfast.

Rodgers said he hopes the experience will help fans understand “more about my journey, my life in the music industry, and what I have been trying to say through my music,” adding, “It gives people I might never get to meet the opportunity to ask me questions and share thoughts in a completely new way. I love this because I believe that at the foundation of music are human connections and a human story that needs to be told.”

A bit like Siri

If you ask a question that wasn’t covered during the recording session, the American music star will let you know and suggest you ask about something else. And if you get star struck and your mind goes blank, the “suggestions” button can help you out.

The team says the software works a bit like Siri, and that just like any voice-activated software, it won’t always hear you right. It adds that besides entertainment, the platform could also be useful for other sectors such as education.

You can experience a free (though limited) version of the virtual interview with Nile Rodgers using several hand-picked questions at hereintheroom.com. An online pass to access the full content costs £20 (about $27), a portion of which will go to the National Portrait Gallery. The content will work on any device with a browser.

The team is also developing a 3D VR experience of the interview that it’s planning to make available soon.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
The Moto 360 and other older Wear OS watches can now download YouTube Music
Moto 360 watch face

Google is further expanding YouTube Music's availability on Wear OS to even more older watches. The company initially launched the app on Wear OS 3, with exclusivity to the Galaxy Watch 4, but rolled it out to a selection of older smartwatches powered by the Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform last month. A new report notes that smartwatches like the Moto 360 can now get it, too.

Google has confirmed the expanded selection, but the company did not share exactly which watches were eligible. Instead, Wear OS users are encouraged to check the Play Store and see if their device is eligible. As it has been seen on the Moto 360 and TAG Heuer Connected watches, 9to5Google speculates it could be rolling out to watches powered by the Snapdragon Wear 3100. This should encompass quite a few Wear OS watches, including the Fossil Gen 5, the Montblanc Summit, and the Suunto 7.

Read more
Your iPhone can now guide you to your lost AirPods Pro
AirPods Pro resting on an iPhone with open charging case nearby.

There's good news for folks who routinely misplace their AirPods: Thanks to iOS 15 and a firmware update that started rolling out on October 6, your iPhone can guide you to within a foot or so of your missing true wireless buds. The new capability is baked into Apple's Find My app and works with the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, but not Apple's regular AirPods.

In the past, if you wanted to locate your missing AirPods, your iPhone could certainly point you to their last known location, and even provide directions on a map. But when it came time to actually locating that errant earbud, all you could do was trigger the "play sound" feature and hope that they weren't buried so deeply in between the couch cushions that you wouldn't be able to hear them. Now, the Find My app can give you a radar-like interface that actually guides you toward your headphones using a three-level proximity indicator.

Read more
Your Philips Hue lights can now sync to the beat of your Spotify music
Philips Hue and Spotify

Smart lights have long been able to sync up with music, but it has always been through your phone's microphone. Philips Hue and Spotify have partnered to create what it calls the "first-ever deep lighting and music experience." The process works by linking the both your Philips Hue and Spotify accounts, and that's where the magic happens.

Philips Hue pulls the metadata from each song played on Spotify, regardless of what device you're playing it on. It then uses an advanced lighting script that causes the lights to shift not only to the beat, but also based on the genre and mood of the song. This means you won't run into the problem of a too-cheerful light show set to the dulcet tones of Helpless as you jam out to Hamilton for what you know is the 175th time.

Read more