Archive for: June 2, 2009

Whether you manage a brand or you're looking for an easy way to check your Twitter status without installing software on your computer, PeopleBrowsr can help. It's a Web-based Twitter client with a ton of features and multiple display modes designed to fit the type of user you are.

If you're a casual user just looking for an easy way to check your Twitter feed, you can use the Lite mode, but if you're a power user or someone managing a brand that has a huge presence across multiple social networks, the Business mode is for you. Each mode allows you to manage multiple accounts across multiple networks, such as Facebook and Seesmic, as well as Twitter.
  Although PeopleBrowsr is a Twitter client at its core, it does much more as a Web service that can hook into other social networks and services. If you're looking for a way to stay on top of not just your Twitter feed but also an RSS feed of comments to your blog, PeopleBrowsr allows you to do this. In addition to Twitter, the service also allows you to monitor updates to MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Flickr, and more. You can also easily update all of those services from one interface.

The service definitely works for the average Twitter user looking for a way to stay on top of  friends, replies, and direct messages without downloading or installing anything or relying on an external framework. PeopleBrowsr works entirely within your Web browser and doesn't ...

Not to be outdone by Microsoft's newly announced Project Natal, Ubisoft today introduced Your Shape, an exercise game that utilizes a new camera peripheral for the Nintendo Wii. The camera tracks players' movements without the aid of a Wiimote or other handheld controller.  The game offers vocal feedback and lets players target which part of the body they'd like to work out.

Your Shape is the latest in a recent spring of fitness games, including EA's Sports Active, first kicked off by the Wii Fit.  

Electronic Arts today announced that it was taking a shot at the world of Wii tennis, with the release of Grand Slam Tennis: "the deepest and richest tennis experience ever developed for the Wii," according to the company.

Grand Slam Tennis is compatible with the Nintendo console's new MotionPlus controller, features online social gaming integration, and offers 23 playable pros, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Pete Sampras, and Maria Sharapova.

Electronic Arts brought tennis legend Sampras on stage to help introduce (and demo) the new game. Check out a video of Sampras, after the jump.

Electronic Arts today, during its pre-E3 press conference, announced the latest addition to its ever-expanding line of sports franchise games: The company has struck a deal to bring the popular sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The first game to come out of the deal is being developed by Tiburon. It's set for release some time next year. Beyond that, the details of the game are rather scarce.

The big hit of Electronic Art's pre-E3 Press Conference, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the showcase of the latest Star Wars title, Old Republic. In honor of the new game, Bioware and Lucas Arts employees were joined on-stage by an army of light saber-wielding, robed Jedis.

According to the companies, the game is set to become the "first ever fully voiced MMORPG," and is "one of the largest voice-over projects, ever." All of the characters, no matter how major or minor, will be given a voice, a first for multi-player online gaming.

Check out the game's cinematic trailer, after the jump.

During its press pre-E3 press conference, Electronic Arts today announced the release of the Little Pet Shop Online, a virtual world based around the line of popular Hasbro toys. Entering the code that comes with the stuffed animal will create a virtual version of the character in the safe online world, where players can engage their real world friends.

The new online world is arriving this Fall at LPSO.com. Also arriving soon from EA are three new Littlest Pet Shop games for the Nintendo Wii and DS, including Littlest Pet Shop Country, Littlest Pet Shop City, and Littlest Pet Shop Beach.

Check out video of Littlest Pet Shop Online, after the jump.

In an industry fueled by sequels, it's nice to see the occasional inventive new title. Take Brutal Legend, the new title from EA and Double Fine Productions. The game stars Jack Black and a number of metal legends, including Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, Lita Ford, and Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister. From the demo, the game looks to be like something of a cross between Adult Swim's Metalocalypse and those goofy old Lucas Arts games from the mid-90s like Day of the Tentacle--which is to say that the thing looks really, really awesome.

Due out this fall for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Brutal Legend is a combat-based action fantasy game with a metal soundtrack. The plot is decidedly convoluted--here's a bit of it from the EA press release,

Led by Lars Halford alongside his sister Lita and the mysterious Ophelia, the human resistance is far from helpless. However, what they lack is someone to bring them all together; someone who can organize them and lead them into battle, what they need is a roadie. Under Eddie's command, this barbaric force of hot-rods, Marshall stacks, leather, and chrome will bring this ancient world into the age of Metal.

This one has cult hit written all over it. Check out video of Black talking up the game, after the jump.

Is consumption-based billing on the horizon for Time Warner Cable or not? Recent changes the company's terms of service (TOS) prompted a Washington-based interest group to call for a federal inquiry, but Time Warner denied any wrongdoing.

The cable company recently updated its TOS to say that it was at liberty to reduce the speed of its high-speed Internet service in cases of overuse, and that Time Warner had the right to monitor bandwidth usage.

Time Warner Cable has "the right to monitor my bandwidth usage patterns to facilitate the provision of the [high-speed digital] service and to ensure my compliance with the Terms of Use and to efficiently manage their networks and their provision of services," according to the revamped TOS.

Amidst backlash from customers, interest groups, and Congress, the cable company in April unexpectedly scrapped plans for broadband bandwidth caps. Time Warner said it would shut down ongoing tests in Texas, North Carolina, and New York while it conducted a consumer education campaign to more adequately inform customers about its plans.

The updated TOS prompted concern from interest group Public Knowledge and stopthecap.com, an anti-cap Web site that has been following the issue.

"Since the terms and conditions have now fundamentally changed, new customers must now agree to these new terms, allowing the company to force you into any metered billing scheme even if your current level of service doesn't provide for that," stopthecap.com wrote on its blog. "Formerly, price protection contracts would protect you from being forced into such plans until your contract expired."

Public Knowledge agreed. "The new TOS carves out for Time Warner the right to use any ...

The Apple iPhone seems to find a new niche market every day. With the new ColorSnap app from Sherwin-Williams, that mix now includes house painters. The app works with the iPhone's built-in camera to match the shades in any scene with one of 1,500 Sherwin-Williams paint colors. It can then save the color for later retrieval when picking out paints for a project.
 
While it's doubtful that the iPhone will wind up as a standard painting accessory, right next to the overalls and rollers, the app certainly appeals to those DIYers who want exactly that shade of red. It can also map RGB values, a feature that could prove useful in designing magazines and Web pages as well as houses.
 
The free app is available from the iTunes App Store as well as from Sherwin-Williams' Web site.

[via design-milk]

Post by Esten Hurtle

The spirit of Woodstock goes online today, as Woodstock Ventures and Sony Music join to launch Woodstock.com. More than just a nostalgia stop, the site combines social networking, concert information, and personal reminiscences.

Music fans will find information on more than 130,000 events at launch, and can buy tickets, visit artist forums, and connect with other fans. They can even rate concerts and post photos afterward.

Concert-goers who attended one of the three Woodstock shows (1969, 1994, or 1999) can share their experiences. The site has its own wiki, WikiStock, where readers can contribute to an ongoing encyclopedia of all things Woodstock.

In keeping with '60s (and millennium) activism, Woodstock.com will also host discussions on social and environmental issues. Visitors can meet on a virtual village green to talk about the environment.

While there's no 40th anniversary show, this site should keep Woodstock-lovers entertained until the next one rolls around.

eMusic, the online independent music store, has been around for over a decade, but they've never had a major label distribution deal--until now. Sony Music Entertainment has agreed to make its entire back catalog of material--anything older than two years old, and including artists like Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen--available to eMusic's 400,000 subscribers, according to the New York Times.

The tracks will remain in eMusic's trademark DRM-free MP3 format, but eMusic will raise prices slightly and reduce the number of downloads per month for some of its plans as part of the deal. eMusic's usual monthly plans, such as $11.99 for 30 tracks, mean that buyers get new songs for just 40 cents each (or even less). But the plans themselves are restrictive, with no full album discounts, and the free trial period is a misnomer and could charge your credit card within minutes of signing up if you're not careful, as I found in my recent review.

This latest move could serve to broaden eMusic's subscriber base somewhat, depending on the price increases. But eMusic stll needs to offer an a la carte plan to compete with iTunes, Napster, Lala, and other cutting edge services, now that all of them have also removed DRM and improved MP3 sound quality to match or exceed what eMusic has offered for years--and who also offer millions of major label tracks to boot.

Google will begin offering electronic versions of mass-market books by the end of the year, according to a published report.

The move would put Google into competition with Amazon as one of the leading vendors of electronic books, a trend Google has flirted with in the past, according to The New York Times.
 
It's not known how many books Google would choose to sell or be able to sell under the new plan. Google already supplies about 1.5 million public-domain books to consumers , which can be read in a browser or mobile phone. So far, Google has not indicated any plans to offer a dedicated e-book reader, although an e-reader application or function could almost certainly be built into its mobile operating system, Android.

Google's new push would be different than its book-scanning initiative, known as Google Print, which has attracted the ire of publishers concerned about copyright infringement.

Google will reserve the right to alter "exorbitant" pricing dictated by the publishers, according to the Times. The paper noted that many of Amazon's $9.99 e-books are sold at a loss.