23 February 2010 16:52
With new figures showing that 118 million people play FaceBook game Farmville every month, social gaming is clearly getting big. And now user-generated content is ready to boost its rise thanks to a competition called the Pet Society Movie Awards.
The Playfish game, also playable on FaceBook, has asked its users to recreate famous movie scenes using their virtual pet avatars. And it's proved to be a pretty popular lunchtime distraction, with over 13,000 entries so far.
Some leave a little to be desired – Avatar was perhaps a tad ambitious – but efforts like Casablanca (above) and show that its 21 million players are taking these awards seriously. And with Playfish cash up for grabs for the winning entries, some will have even more incentive to live in their animal-crazed world.
The closing date for entries is 28th February, so if you're interested head over to the
entry page quick to post your masterpiece.
10 February 2010 17:16
Muscling into our Googlemail accounts today, Google Buzz has flexed its virtual biceps to do battle with Twitter.
But is it really prepared for battle? Google undoubtedly has the bulk to barge over most foes, but even that's not a given - just ask Android, lying bloodied on the floor after the first few rounds against iPhone.
At first glance, Buzz doesn't look like a serious contender.
Logging into Googlemail this morning, I was faced with the Buzz logo under my inbox link. As the service has been rolling out gradually, it's been tough to find any contacts who're Buzz-ready – the day has been lonely, to say the least.
After connecting my Twitter account to it, I was hoping for things to pick up, with tweets piling into the Buzz feed. Sadly, the syncing doesn't seem to be up to scratch and a load of tweets suddenly arrived in one massive avalanche 3 hours after they were posted. Very useful.
So why would you use Buzz instead of Twitter?
Well, there's no limit to word count, but is that really a good thing? Frankly, I don't want to read essays through social networking; I want snippets.
There's also picture embedding, which is nice. But some Twitter clients offer that, and it'll probably become standard soon, surely. Video embedding? Not bothered.
Then there's its integration with Googlemail and your existing contacts. Er, that's not really selling it to me either.
If you're not already entrenched in Twitter and have fully embroiled yourself in the Google universe, you may think its a revolution. But for many of us, it's a clunky, over-complicated version of a service to which we're already addicted.
09 December 2009 20:28
Ever wondered just how big the internet is? Of course you have.
Thankfully the folks at
Online Education have pulled together some rather mindblowing stats about exactly what goes on on the internet on a day to day basis.
Think 700,000 new members adding themselves to Facebook, 210 billion sent emails and 900,000 blogger news articles, and you're on the right track.
Check it out below – it's pretty impressive.
Via:
Gizmodo
24 November 2009 15:15
Navmii, £20
www.navmii.com
Pity the poor makers of in-car GPS gizmos, for their days are surely numbered. It's getting harder to justify buying one as well as a smartphone.
Navmii is the latest turn-by-turn GPS app for Apple's iPhone and makes its entrance by undercutting even the superb CoPilot Live, launching at just under £20 for the UK and Ireland edition.
The main thing that Navmii lacks compared to the other iPhone apps is customisation. There's one voice, one day and one night map style, and you can't overlay points of interest (POI) onto the road ahead. Live traffic information is also missing, but at least it's regularly updated with the position of speed cameras.
The thing is, none of that really matters. The map may be locked in position, but it's supremely easy to follow with a pale background and highly contrasting route colours. And the voice sounds like its directing you through a call centre holding system, but it has proper text to speech.
It doesn't just tell which direction to turn but which number road you should be on too. That may not be invaluable, but it's certainly worth more than £20 if you're traversing the famed roundabouts of Swindon.
Navmii also has iPod controls built in and, whether by design or accident, having all the controls are on the left side of the screen make it perfect for UK drivers seated on the right. If it occasionally confuses a dog-leg bend with a roundabout, well, at least it's telling you the right direction to go around it.
The extra seven quid for Co-Pilot will get you a much more comprehensive POI list and details like local fuel prices, but it's hard to fault the slightly rough and ready approach of Navmii when it does so much for so little. At a quarter of the price of TomTom or Navigon's phone apps, the future of GPS clearly belongs to the little guys.
ProsLess than £20, complete UK & Ireland, text to speech road names
ConsNo map customisation, one voice, no 'live' services
20 November 2009 11:38
Don't quite get what Google Chrome OS is or need to explain it to someone? Google has released a video to lay it all out in simple terms.
When you've got your head around the basics, you can
get more info here
18 November 2009 17:22
If the recent spate of
mammoth sized burgers are anything to go by, it's all about doing things on a large scale. Firebox are clearly working on the same premise as it has just launched the Global Secret Santa project in an attempt to set the world record for the biggest secret santa in history.
Every year hoards of people are selected at random to anonymously give presents to one another in the spirit of Christmas. In this instance, the receiver of your gift could be a cross dresser living in Manchester or a snake wrangler from Australia - who knows? Certainly not you.
So doing it on a global scale means you don't have to feel guilty about that bit of tat you bought Sheila from the office - you won't even know who received your gift - and you'll be helping Firebox set a new world record.
You choose from a selection of 18 gifts that range from a set of Classic Airfix Toy Solders to a packet of chocolate-covered ants. Next, just add a personalised message and have it sent to another random secret santa participant for just £9 of your hard earned cash. Following that, all you need to do is wait for yours to turn up.
Want in? Then
head on over to Firebox to get a piece of the global gift giving action. It's a nice way to say Happy Christmas to a stranger.
What do you think - does the prospect of setting a new world record excite you? Are you an annual secret Santa partaker? Whatever your allegience, be sure to tell us in the comments section below.
And make sure you keep an eye out for our stocking filler vidcasts over the next couple of weeks.
27 October 2009 13:56
Death. It's not the most comfortable of subjects, particularly when it comes to what to do with the social network profile of someone who's no longer with us.
Deleting it doesn't seem right - from experience, when someone dies, their Facebook page can become a place for friends and family to leave thoughts, memories and messages. But then it's also difficult to see them crop up in automated lists made by Facebook when it's none the wiser to what's gone on.
To solve this, Zuckerberg and co are giving the option to make people's profiles “memorialised”, which will include some sensitivity tweaks to make it easier on those friends and family of the person who's died.
Max Kelly wrote on the official Facebook blog: “When someone leaves us, they don't leave our memories or our social network.
"To reflect that reality, we created the idea of 'memorialized' profiles as a place where people can save and share their memories of those who've passed."
In order to get a profile memorialised, a friend or family member would have to contact Facebook, prove their identity and then inform them of the person's death, proved by a news story or obituary.
Once confirmed, the profile will then become private, and not locatable via the search. The account would become closed, so it could no longer be logged in to, and Facebook would work to remove sensitive information such as contact details and status updates.
They would also no longer show up in features of Facebook like the “Suggestions” sidebar, and no new friends would be allowed to view the page.
It all sounds well and good in theory, but it will have to be policed closely to ensure it is not abused by jilted lovers or bitter exes, as well as walls monitored to prevent any abuse from so-called "friends". Here’s hoping a sensitivity move by Facebook doesn’t come back and kick them in the teeth.
What do you think to the new move by Facebook? Let us know below.
20 October 2009 12:32
YouTube is proving it is more than just a video sharing site for videos of kids and cats doing stupid things, and wannabe popstars singing in to their camera in hope of being discovered.
Following on from the
big deal with Channel 4 that will see the channel's programme's available as an on demand service through the site, U2 have now announced its concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California on Sunday will be streamed live direct to the video sharing supersite.
The band's manager said that as the gig was already being filmed, it was "the perfect opportunity to extend the party beyond the stadium".
However, if you really want to catch U2's penultimate concert of the year, you'd better get stocked up on Red Bull - fans in the UK will have to stay up until 3.30am to catch the show.
You'll also be able to chat to other fans watching on the site via Twitter, and a "donate now" button will also be added to the stream for those wanted to donate to Bono's RED charity.
While YouTube has tried its hand at live performances before, this will also be the band's second streamed concert, offering their first 12 years ago in 1997 via Microsoft's MSN website.
So to all you U2 fans out there - will you be tuning in on Sunday? Let us know below.
Via:
BBC
22 September 2009 11:54
Want to make short clips using your photos and a tune you like but don't have the time or patience for Final Cut or even iMovie?
Stupeflix looks like a good solution for the lazy auteur. Sign-up and it'll let you fling up a set of your photos, choose effects to transition between them, add text to them and select a soundtrack from your music library.
Take a look at my quick experiment above using a clutch of photos from a night out in Kilburn (and in with my cats) with the added dramatic sound of The XX.
Try it out for yourself and link to your efforts in the comments below.
17 September 2009 16:59
Looking for a dose of the same kind of rudeness inflicted on Taylor Swift at the VMAs? Want your website to be compared unfavourably to the work of Beyonce Knowles? Just want some Kanye on your homepage? We've got the answer to all these problems –
Kanyelicio.us, instant rude Kanye West generator.
14 September 2009 10:22
It's a good start to the week for grown-up geeks and Maggie Philbin enthusiasts, as the Beeb has just put some absolutely choice clips from the
Tomorrow's World archive live.
This fantastic popular science programme fuelled more than one generation's obsession with all things tech – and was a firm favourite in my household.
And now you can relive its glorious heyday, where "
experimental cordless mobile phones" sounded utterly sci-fi, "
home computer terminals" were just as pie in the sky – and where jumpsuits were fashionable the first time around (thanks Maggie – I blame you in part for their current renaissance)
19 August 2009 16:37
In some of the least shocking news of the year, the press is full of reports that…get this…
Oasis's Liam and Noel Gallagher don't like each other. In fact, they haven't spoken in months.
But more interestingly, for one of the most Luddite the brothers have become surprisingly tech savvy.
Noel Gallager's become a prolific blogger while his lairy little brother
Liam has taken his battle with Noel to Twitter.
Though Liam's shown himself to be forward thinking by embracing Twitter, he could do with a few pointers. Here's 5 tips for him on how to win his Twitter feud.
1 Keep the true bitterness to direct messages If your Twitter feed is unlocked, anyone can read it. Think carefully about what you're willing to broadcast publicly. If you must use Twitter to further your feud, restrict truly vitriolic sentiments to direct messages.
Direct Messages will be kept between you and your nemesis. To write a direct message either press the DM button in your Twitter client or stick a "d" at the front of your message.
2 Don't send barrages of tweets Sending a stream of tweets about why you hate your brother's idiotic eyebrows or propensity to use Union Jack guitars might make you feel better but it'll irritate your followers. Keep your messages brief and break them up with other interesting content. Maybe tell us about your new fashion label or what it's like to be married to an All Saint. Average, we'd guess.
3 Include other sympathetic tweeters in @replies If you know there are other people who agree with your opinion of your nemesis and their antics, get them involved. Strength in numbers works on Twitter too.
4 Make sure your message is clear Avoid @liamgallagher's bizarre approach to arguments. If you don't make your issues with your enemy clear, people won't understand why they should be on your side. Liam's tweets are just confusing – "Just seen photos of the fool on the bill, outside some kebab house". Twitter is a window into your world, keep it clear! Maybe mention the fact that your sibling hasn't written a truly great song since The Masterplan and that he has terrible form when it comes to picking wives and naming kids…oh…on second thoughts people in glass houses and all that.
5 Know when to end the feud or take it to the real world At some point you're going to have to face up to your rival in real life. For most people this will be in the office or in the local pub. In the case of Liam, this is likely to be on stage at a huge festival. Just have a big scrap and have done with it. You'll give Gordon Smart in The Sun something else to write about besides his abiding love for Kasabian.
Fancy reading something more interesting on Twitter? Follow
@StuffTV for all the best news and features from this fair site.
12 August 2009 15:53
Long before the term "staycation" was coined by someone utterly throttleable, my typical childhood holiday would involve a static caravan in Morecambe or sometimes as a special treat I'd get to sample the smorgasboard of 80s light entertainment options of Butlin's or Pontin's.
Oh, to have had WiFi available in those days. Or indeed a PC. Or any technology more evolved than a home-made slingshot and a bright yellow Walkman.
Fortunately for today's youth blighted with a holiday in Blighty, BT Openzone has just announced that it will be laying on WiFi access at 77 Camping and Caravanning Sites, three Pontin's sites and –wait for it – Coastfield's Leisure Sites in Skegness.
And judging by this "summer's" weather, this is a Very Good Thing.
So you can batten down the hatches and surf the web instead of surfing ice-cold seas,or indulge in some Scrabulous (or as it's now known, Lexulous) instead of the now woefully outmoded actual Scrabble while the rain batters your corrugated iron holiday hut.
Or why not listen to Spotify instead of sampling Pontin's current roster of "80’s legends Bananarama and Toyah Wilcox along with other star studded talent, including Cutting Crew, Go West, Odyssey and many more"? Or simply watch your
Death Clock rather than endure sqeaky sanity-sapper Joe Pasquale, another 2009 attraction at the big P.
Anyway, thanks BT for making it easier to escape from Skegness and straight into cyberspace...
Filed under: WiFi, BT Openzone
07 August 2009 14:05
Check out the first hands-on with the Google Wave for iPhone web app. Just like Google Latitude, it's not an app to download from the iTunes App Store but accessed via Safari.
The lucky folks at Engadget were shown the Google Wave for iPhone app at Google's San Francisco headquarters where all of its functions were working. However, in the video above (filmed later) a number of bugs have found their way into the app.
The faults with the Google Wave app aren't really surprising as this version is just an early developers-only release. We're impressed anyway.
The app lets you access you contacts, your waves (collections of content) and their creations too. Waves are synced between the phone version and the desktop implementation of Google Wave.
Engadget says its first look at the Google Wave for iPhone app gave them a sneak peak at slideshows, picture galleries and how Youtube embeds work in the service.
Google Wave is still set to launch by September 30 and the iPhone app will appear at the same time.
Find out all you need to know about
Google Wave in our complete guide.
(via
Engadget)
06 August 2009 18:22
In between beavering away on the usual excellent Stuff fare, the entire team has been debating their favourites from the recently announced Guitar Hero 5 playlist.
Are we all secret Santana fans? Are we hungry for Hungry Like the Wolf? Or are we mad for Mellencamp?
The answer to all these questions is thankfully no, but if you do want to see what we'd choose first off, check out our
Stuff.tv Guitar Hero 5 Spotify playlist of our faves from the up and coming game.
Have we missed any of your favourites? Let us know below...
- 3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
- A Perfect Circle - "Judith"
- AFI - "Medicate"
- Arctic Monkeys - "Brianstorm"
- Attack! Attack! UK - "You and Me"
- Band Of Horses - "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands"
- Beastie Boys - "Gratitude"
- Beck - "Gamma Ray"
- Billy Idol - "Dancing with Myself"
- Billy Squier - "Lonely is the Night"
- Blink-182 - "The Rock Show"
- Blur - "Song 2"
- Bob Dylan - "All Along the Watchtower"
- Bon Jovi - "You Give Love A Bad Name"
- Brand New - "Sowing Season"
- Bush - "Comedown"
- Children Of Bodom - "Done With Everything, Die For Nothing"
- Coldplay - "In My Place"
- Darker My Love - "Blue Day"
- Darkest Hour - "Demon(s)"
- David Bowie - "Fame"
- Deep Purple - "Woman From Tokyo ('99 Remix)"
- Dire Straits - "Sultans of Swing"
- Duran Duran - "Hungry Like The Wolf"
- Eagles Of Death Metal - "Wannabe in L.A."
- Elliott Smith - "L.A."
- Elton John - "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting"
- Face To Face - "Disconnected"
- Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"
- Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."
- Gov't Mule - "Streamline Woman"
- Grand Funk Railroad - "We're an American Band"
- Iggy Pop - "Lust For Life"
- Iron Maiden - "2 Minutes to Midnight"
- Jeff Beck - "Scatterbrain"
- Jimmy Eat World - "Bleed American"
- John Mellencamp - "Hurts So Good"
- Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire"
- Kaiser Chiefs - "Never Miss a Beat"
- King Crimson - "21st Century Schizoid Man"
- Kings Of Leon - "Sex on Fire"
- Kiss - "Shout it Out Loud"
- Love and Rockets - "Mirror People"
- Megadeth - "Sweating Bullets"
- Mötley Crüe - "Looks That Kill"
- Muse - "Plug in Baby"
- My Morning Jacket - "One Big Holiday"
- Nirvana - "Lithium"
- Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
- No Doubt - "Ex-Girlfriend"
- Peter Frampton - "Do You Feel Like We Do (Live)"
- Public Enemy Featuring Zakk Wylde - "Bring the Noise 20xx"
- Queen & David Bowie - "Under Pressure"
- Queens Of The Stone Age - "Make it With Chu"
- Rammstein - "Du Hast"
- Rose Hill Drive - "Sneak Out"
- Rush - "The Spirit of Radio (Live, 2008)"
- Santana - "No One To Depend On (Live)"
- Scars On Broadway - "They Say"
- Screaming Trees - "Nearly Lost You"
- Smashing Pumpkins - "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
- Sonic Youth - "Incinerate"
- Spacehog - "In the Meantime"
- Stevie Wonder - "Superstition"
- Sublime - "What I Got"
- Sunny Day Real Estate - "Seven"
- T. Rex - "20th Century Boy"
- The Bronx - "Six Days a Week"
- The Derek Trucks Band - "Younk Funk"
- The Duke Spirit - "Send a Little Love Token"
- The Killers - "All the Pretty Faces"
- The Police - "So Lonely"
- The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"
- The Rolling Stones - "Sympathy for the Devil"
- The Sword - "Maiden, Mother & Crone"
- The White Stripes - "Blue Orchid"
- Thin Lizzy - "Jailbreak"
- Thrice - "Deadbolt"
- Tom Petty - "Runnin' Down a Dream"
- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "American Girl"
- TV On The Radio - "Wolf Like Me"
- Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk"
- Weezer - "Why Bother?"
- Wild Cherry - "Play That Funky Music"
- Wolfmother - "Back Round"
