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News
Headlines
November
2002
Page
8
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Get
to Meet Nick Carter with PluggedIn!
back up
Source: Yahoo
News
By: Ben Berkowitz
LOS ANGELES - It's the impossible dream of enthusiastic
shower singers everywhere: Being able to belt out a song
without scaring the pets or small children.
Now, with help from a device just hitting store shelves
nationwide, that dream could become a reality.
With the microphone-shaped Karaoke TV Star, IVL Technologies
Ltd. -- a privately held Canadian company that has for the
last 20 years built equipment for adjusting voices during
professional music recording sessions -- has turned its
attention to the amateur Pavarotti wanna-be's of the world.
Expected to be available by Thanksgiving at outlets of
Wal-Mart Stores Inc the $69.99 device plugs into a
television and uses a number of patented technologies
developed by IVL to correct the pitch of even the worst
voices.
"Far too many artists use our technology," Ed
Pearson, executive vice president of sales and marketing for
IVL, told Reuters.
Karaoke, a Japanese word meaning "empty
orchestra," has developed a major following in American
homes among folks who love singing along to their favorite
songs and, through karaoke, can do so without the bother of
the original singer getting in the way.
The craze is also alive and well in Europe, where Hamleys,
Britain's most famous toy store, predicted recently that
karaoke machines would be among the top sellers for the
holiday season.
The IVL unit comes with 50 songs built in and has a total
capacity of 150. Via a speedy 12 megabit per second
universal serial connection to a PC, it can be updated with
any of about 1,000 downloadable songs, available for 99
cents each in groups of at least five.
In addition to correcting pitch, the unit can make a female
voice sound male and vice versa. It can also make the voice
so high-pitched it sounds like the singer has been inhaling
helium; or very deep, in the vein of soul singer Barry
White.
IVL is just the latest among many companies to tap the
karaoke market. There is even a publicly-traded karaoke
company, Florida-based Singing Machine Co, which reported
$33 million in sales for the September quarter.
It also said gross shipments in October exceeded a record
$31 million.
The company also makes branded karaoke machines for Viacom
Inc.'s MTV and Nickelodeon units.
Jakks Pacific Inc, a toy maker, recently launched a video
karaoke machine that allows people to make their own music
videos.
To promote the unit, the company is running a nationwide
contest, with the winner getting to meet Backstreet Boys
heartthrob Nick Carter.
A recent survey by Yahooligans, Yahoo Inc.'s Web guide for
kids, found that the Jakks machine was No. 5 on a top-10
list of the toys kids most wanted for the season.
The Canadian Toy Testing Council, a nonprofit group that has
evaluated toys since the 1950s, earlier this month named a
karaoke machine made by a division of Hasbro Inc. as a
"Best Bet" for the holidays
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Nick
Carter's Boat Takes First
back up
Source: Katrillion
Well Nick Carter's album may have sank, but his boat sure
didn't....
By: Ron Bishow
The pop star's race boat easily won the first of two races
in the Super Vee class of the Key West Offshore World
Championship Thursday, with the second and final heats of the
American Power Boat Association-sanctioned event set for
Saturday and Sunday.
Nick Carter Racing, which was driven by Lee Murray and Steve
Oropeza, averaged 90.57 mph around the 68.25-mile Key West
Harbor course, spurring Carter to jump into the water from the
dock of the Truman Annex Race Village after watching the race.
"Sure I jumped in," Carter said. "We won the
national championship this year and we'll win Saturday to
clinch the Worlds. It's been an incredible year for the team
and for our fans. We were really smoking today."
The already national champion Nick Carter Racing team will
attempt to clinch the world championship on Saturday.
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Nick
Carter's Little Sister Arrested
back up
Source: Katrillion
Don't mess with the Carter family!
By: Latoya Hunter
Nick Carter's 20-year-old sister Bobbie Jean was arrested
for fighting in the Florida Keys on Halloween night.
Here's what went down, according to police documents obtained
by Court TV Website thesmokinggun.com.
The drama began when 14-year-old Carter sibling Angel (Aaron's
twin) dissed a group of girls by greeting them: "Hey
whores!" BJ jumped in when an argument escalated,
allegedly punching a 15-year-old girl in the face and biting
another teen.
When police arrived on the scene, they handcuffed an agitated
BJ -- who allegedly had alcohol on her breath -- and put her
in the patrol car. Making her situation worse, cops say she
started banging her head on the car's Plexiglass divider.
She was charged with battery and the case has been forwarded
to local prosecutors.
This isn't the first time Bobbie Jean has landed in trouble
with the law. She was busted for marijuana possession earlier
this year.
Nick, who was arrested in January for refusing to leave the
scene of a nightclub brawl, has not commented on his sister's
legal trouble.
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