Own a Zune HD like Devin and I, the two hippest cats here at CrunchGear? Best to connect it to your PC right now so you can upgrade its firmware to version 4.3. Go, now!

Here’s comes another DJ Hero story. Activision called the game’s launch “successful” at a conference call yesterday, saying that the game represents a “first step toward diversifying beyond rock” and into other genres, like hip hop and electronic music. In other words, the game’s soft sales aren’t necessarily a cause for alarm (if you were ever concerned in the first place).

Famous rock band No Doubt has sued Activision over the use of its avatars in the game Guitar Hero 5. No Doubt says that the deal it signed with Activision only permitted the avatars to be used when playing No Doubt songs. The problem is that Activision has it set up that you can play any song in the game with the No Doubt avatars. That I’m even writing about this is rather depressing.

Yes, that’s a USB drive in the shape of an apple. It’s a limited edition doohickey that contains the entire remastered Beatles catalogue, the same one that was released on September 9. The 16GB drive comes out on December 8 here.

Well, well, well, look what we have here. A new study shows that people who download music illegally are more likely to buy music than their non-pirating counterparts. Why’s that? It turns out that people who are into downloading music are actually into music, whereas people who don’t download music aren’t necessarily fans of music in general.

Last week, Volkswagen “launched” the new 2010 GTI via an iPhone App. This week, famous rock band Alice in Chains launches its new album via an iPhone App. It comes out tomorrow, and includes the album itself, along with photos, news, videos, etc. Think of it as a bonus DVD, back in the early days of when the record labels were trying to figure out how to get people to buy CDs.

Yup, Miles Davis is about as far away from Lady Gaga as you can get. Monster Cable has yet another pair of headphones that are emblazoned with a famous musician’s name. And if you were here two sentences ago, you might have guessed that that artist is Miles Davis. You’re a good guesser!

If only there were some way to hook this up to D-Pad Hero, then the circle would be complete. As it is though, it’s merely a fully functional electric guitar made from a Nintendo Entertainment System. Wait a second, that’s totally awesome.

After weeks of speculation, the Eigenharp is live! This crazy instrument is part woodwind, part drum, and part piano. You can blow it, tap it, and stroke it to make music and it includes a case and strap. It costs $5,800 dollars and is customizable at the new product page.

Interestingly, they also released the Eigenharp Pico for about $500. It’s more like a recorder (a simple flute) and has 18 keys and one slider.

Philadelphites (Philadelphanaes? Philadelphonistas? Philadelphonzos?) – Philadelphians! You have your weekend all mapped out for you, assuming you’re a geek.

At this rate, you and your garage band could be starring in the next Rock Band-like game! (That’s actually not a bad idea. Some sort of service wherein you upload your band’s songs, and a little while later out pops a file that works in Rock Band and Guitar Hero.) Famous band U2 recently told USA Today that, sure, it would love to be in a video game of its own one day. It’s probably too late now, seeing as though, years from now, The Beatles: Rock Band will be viewed as the apex of these music games.

I was just watching the Colbert Report and on came the Mountain Goats aka John Darnielle, one of the best indie songwriters out there. The interesting part? The ColbertNation.com website is streaming his new album for 24 hours, a nice little window for the curious to visit and listen (and, if they’re horrible, horrible people, use a stream catcher to grab the music, but don’t do that.)

In short, in the Venn diagram of TV you have Colbert Report watchers and Mountain Goats listeners. Many of us exist, obviously, but the confluence of these two audiences into one tasty streaming opportunity is quite cool.

When is an update not an update? Today we learned that Eminem has reached a settlement with Apple over what he claims was the unauthorized use of his songs. Eminem said the record label has the right to the recordings, but not the right to turn around and sell said recordings to Apple.

The Compact Disc was quite a revolution when it came out. With a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and a 16 bit rate, CDs marked the shift to digital music. Unfortunately, it seems to have fallen from being the playback medium of choice. These days, people either buy vinyl records because “they sound better” (especially when played on your vintage hipster record player you bought from Urban Outfitters) or MP3s online for the convenience. And noone even thinks about cassette tapes anymore.

My favoritest guy who plays who I’ve met recently, Jack Conte, has put together a nice version of Single Ladies by Beyonce with Nataly Dawn. While he and Nataly don’t dress up in leotards and heels – they didn’t get a huge budget for this – they do involve a Polaroid camera and a bowl of Coco Puffs. Great fun all around.

Do you know who Lily Allen is? I sure as hell don’t, nor do I care to know who she is. I mean, I know who she is now: she’s some musician who is against piracy. Good for her, great. Years from now, Future People will erect a statue of her and put it in the middle of New York harbor in order to honor her bravery. It’s the least we can do, right? Yeah, well, it seems Lily Alen isn’t just brave, but she’s also monumentally hypocritical. Again, good for her, I don’t care.

Eminem has a problem with Apple, and it has nothing to do with the company railroading Google with respect to the FCC. Anyhow, Eminem claims Apple sold 93 of his songs on the iTunes Store without the proper distribution rights, and so he wants a couple of dollars he feels he is owed. It comes out to around $2.5 million that Apple improperly made off Eminem.