Why I’m quitting Google Plus
Google+ was fun while it lasted, but it contains a fatal flaw that I simply can’t ignore. Because no one in any of my circles can, either.
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Angry Birds everywhere
It seems that Rovio’s fowl flinging game is aiming to be completely ubiquitous this year. The smash hit that took the iPhone by storm has since been ported to Android and a board game will be appearing soon on Windows Phone 7, Xbox LIVE arcade, and Nintendo’s Wii and 3DS. Beyond that, they are launching a Facebook version of the game in the coming weeks as well. The Finnish company has even announced a somewhat bizare deal with deal with Microsoft for Bing to be the ‘official decision engine‘ for…
Read MoreUbisoft crossover fever: Assassins Creed, CSI and Pets to have Facebook components
Do you like console gaming, but somehow find yourself wasting too much time on Facebook, making you fell guilty for not using your beatiful next gen console to its fullest potential? Depending on how you look at it, maybe Ubisoft is going to give you a reason to fire up the console more often, or maybe they’re just going to suck you all the way into the black (and blue – so much blue) pit that is Fb. At a press conference in San Francisco, they’ve announced that they’ll be…
Read MoreBuzz Words Approaching: “Game Layer”
By now, we’re used to letting Facebook and Twitter capture our social lives on the web – building a “social layer” on top of the real world. At TEDxBoston, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the “game layer,” a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce. Ten thoughts, questions, comments and micro-rants about what Chief Ninja Priebatsch is presenting here…
Read MoreGateway launches new LT32 and LT22 Netbooks in Canada
Gateway, the sister company of the world’s number 2 PC maker Acer, has just announced two new netbooks, the LT32 & LT22. Both these machines sport single-core AMD Neo processors, which are more powerful but more power hungry than the Intel Atom CPU’s found in most netbooks. This additional horsepower, with the addition of ATI Radeon 4225 graphics and an HDMI port, allow these ‘Premium Netbooks’ to server as portable HD entertainment centres – they both should have no problem outputting 720p video to any HDTV (however we can’t comfortably…
Read MoreGateway refreshes NV5 line for social networking mavens
Along with the announcement of the ID Series notebooks, Gateway has updated their NV5 series laptops, and they’re aiming for those who like their social networking to be a single touch away. All NV5 laptops will sport a 15.6 inch 1366×768 LED backlit screen, and will come in a variety of AMD CPU and memory configurations up to 4GB (all expandable to 8GB), with pricing starting at $499.99 The interesting new feature is a new social networking button that calls up… an integrated “social networking” button that allows customers to…
Read MoreThe Social Network – trailer
We don’t post a lot of movie trailers here, but the first full length trailer for David Fincher’s “The Social Network”, about the rise of Facebook, is certainly worth it, just from a craftsmanship point of view. The choice of a choral version of “Creep” by Radiohead is brilliant. It also helps that the script (from the novel by Ben Mezrich) is written by the master of behind-the-scenes walking – talking character dramas, Aaron Sorkin.
Read MoreWho needs privacy? Not Facebook and Google.
Something’s gotta give…
Read MoreIf Mario Was Designed in 2010
If Mario was first designed in 2010, he’d probably have to adopt some of our modern trends… Game designer Zack Hiwiller recently posted on his blog a series of screenshots of what Super Mario Bros. would be like if it was made today. His observations are spot on but, obviously, from the note he added, there are other game designers who might feel a bit ‘uncomfortable’ looking at his post: While this post is meant to be humorous, it isn’t meant to be humorous at the expense of my fellow…
Read MoreKin: Microsoft aims at mobile sociability
After Microsoft unveiled its Project Pink as Kin there was a lot of speculation as to what it really meant, given the major noise Microsoft has been making about its other phone strategy, Windows Phone 7. The Kin phones and service are clearly targeted at a teen demographic, in the same way that Gossip Girl targets the teen demographic by portraying a lifestyle 99.9% of their audience will never achieve… you know… aspirational. The snide remarks aside, after taking a look at what Kin has to offer, and the pedigree…
Read MoreFacebook Bows To Canadian Privacy Commish
Just over a month ago, we talked about Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart’s ruling that the ubiquitous Facebook was indeed violating Canadian privacy laws, including making personal information available to 3rd party Facebook application developers. Well, during a press conference today, Ms. Stoddart has announced that Facebook has indeed agreed to all the changes… “This is an extremely important change,” said Ms. Stoddart. “I would like to thank Facebook for its co-operation throughout this investigation.” Facebook will provide new notifications for users, additions to its privacy policy, and technical changes…
Read MoreFacebook Violates Canadian Privacy Law
Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has found that social web giant Facebook violates a number of Canadian privacy laws. Facebook has about 12 million Canadian users alone, so the privacy concerns affect a large swath of the population. One of the most egregious concerns is that when a user decides to delete their Facebook account, their personal data remains on the site, and is still accessible by 3rd party applications. An overarching concern was that, although Facebook provides information about its privacy practices, it is often confusing or incomplete. For…
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