TinyURL & Friendfeed Troubles

Plenty of us use TinyURL everyday, but I don’t think i’ve seen someone talk about it. This website basically takes a link and shortens it for websites/comments that have a word limit count like Twitter, or YouTube. I love TinyURL so much becuase of this since I can link to my blog thourgh Twitter to [...]

AT&T announces international iPhone plans

Section: iPhone + Communications, Carriers, iPhone

For those of you who’s life isn’t necessarily contained within the borders of the US, and who want to take full advantage of the new iPhone 3G, read on. 

AT&T has officially announced international plans for the iPhone 3G, intended to accompany the existing 20 and 50MB International options. The old plans cost $25 and $60 per month, respectively. The new plans, with 100MB and 200MB options, cover data costs in almost 70 countries, including the biggies such as Canada, France, Mexico, China, India, Germany and Japan. If you are interested in the 100MB option, it will set you back $120 per month, whereas the 200MB option weighs in at an even $200. 

As usual, to make sure that unknowing iPhone 3G users are not slammed with huge and unexpected bills, Apple makes sure to remind users to turn off data roaming on an iPhone, use Wi-Fi whenever possible, and shut off any automatic e-mail checks to minimize data overages unbeknownst to the user.

Via MacNN

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Fake Follow Is Stupid

Fake Follow is the social media equivalent of being at a party, running into someone you sort of know, having empty conversation with them before awkwardly being offered their phone number. You write the number down on paper because you intentionally left the phone in the car, and dump your pockets later. Friends shouldn’t let friends [...]

I am Enterprise Crew in the new Star Trek movie

Yeah, really. No kidding. We shot back in February, but I kept it quiet because Paramount wanted NO details to leak out while they were filming, so I waited till they were completely done to talk about it. Even now all I can really say is, I am in the film, and I am a blue [...]

Fallout 3 to be teased at PAX 2008

Section: News, Consoles, Xbox-360, PCs, Genres, FPS, Role-Playing, Conventions, PAX

Bethesda’s impressive upcoming title Fallout 3 is set to have quite the showing at PAX 2008 (held in Seattle this weekend, August 29-31, 2008). The game will be playable to the public for the first time ever, at Bethesda’s booth. The company is promising six kiosks (get there early!) and a number of devs on hand to guide players through the experience and answer questions.

That’s not all. The post-apocalyptic shooter/RPG will also have a lengthy demo Saturday afternoon in the main theater, just after the highlight session with Gabe and Tycho (The Penny arcade uber-celebrities themselves). The demo goes on at 2:30 pm.

Finally, Bethesda is sponsoring a post-apocalyptic movie night in honor of the game on Saturday, with two flicks chosen by Penny Arcade fans. As of this writing, 12 Monkeys and The Road Warrior were at the top of the heap.

Read [Platform Nation] Also Read [1up]

Full Story » | Written by Danielle Riendeau for Gamertell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Obama includes 2.9 million in his fave five

Section: News, Communications, Mobile

As our Doug Berger posted on earlier this month, presidential candidate Barack Obama offered to send you a text message with his VP choice.  You’d be among the first to know, as Obama was leaking this info to you first, instead of the talking heads over at CNN and the like.

So how many gave away their phone number? It is estimated 2.9 million parted ways with that morsel of data.  Shocked?  Astounded?  Me too.  And not just with Obama’s choice of running mates.

Nielsen Mobile makes this estimate and calls it the biggest mobile marketing campaign ever.  So far.

Since younger voters tend to skew toward the ranks of the non-voters, bringing this group to the table could prove huge come this December. Brian McConnell over at Gigom wrote up a thoughtful post on the far reaching effects of thinking outside the networks:

* Conduct non-intrusive surveys (e.g. are you registered to vote yet? what zip code are you in?)
* On a state-by-state basis, send reminder messages about the cutoff dates for voter registration and link to registration forms
* On a state-by-state basis, tell people to mail in their ballots to vote absentee
* Invite people to campaign events in their area code
* Remind people to get out and vote on Election Day (believe it or not, some people forget, although you'd need to be hiding in a cave to miss this one)
* Promote down-ballot candidates on a zipcode-by-zipcode basis

Personally, I think it is great the pols are finding ways to engage the voters.  Educated voters (on topics, not necessarily schooling) make informed choices and that has to be better than the alternative.

Read [gigaom]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

WAR Is Good, WoW Is Better - 8.26.2008

So, I got around to playing in the Preview Weekend. I didn't play much - no more than a total of 2.5 hours. I just didn't have the time. In that time, I did basic beginning level PvE, Public Quests, Scenario RvR, and extremely limited RvR (my computer couldn't handle it).

From what I experienced, I came to the conclusion that WAR is a really good game, but WoW is better. Everyone seems to want to compare the two games, so I will do so as well.

I realize that WAR is not yet complete - I mean, WAR is still in beta (okay, but yes, I guess it did go gold today) - and WoW is nearing it's 4th year anniversary. I didn't play for very long and even I was able to see that there is a lot missing in WAR. I know that WAR is not PvE centric, but I gotta tell ya, if Mythic doesn't add a few more PvE elements into the game, it simply won't be as successful as it could be. In my opinion, we are talking a possible 2 or 3 million subscribers if more solid PvE was introduced vs. 850,000 is the game stays the way it currently is.

The people that want a solely PvP MMO are deinitely the minority - and then there's the people that say they would love a solely PvP MMO before they go and finally play and run back to WoW like the carebears they are. It's just not realistic right now.

WAR at launch will NOT be AoC at launch. WAR is much more complete than AoC was at launch, but then again that's not saying a whole lot considering AoC is one of the least "complete" games I've ever seen at launch. The reality is that even after the months of delays, WAR is not as far along as it should be. I hate to go back to it, but maybe if Mythic had decided to push WAR back to 2009 we would not only have a more polished game with better PvE, but also the 4 capital cities and classes that were removed.

I'm not going to say that I completely regret pre-ordering the Collector's Edition just yet. I'm going to see what happens. I'll definitely subscribe for a month of WAR, and in that period I will make a decision - whether I will continue to play, or wait six months and come back. I really want WAR to be a sucess. Giving up after the first month of the game's release is not an option for me.

I'm not sure if I'm going to log into the open beta when Mythic opens that up on September 7th. We'll see what happens.

P.S. - The above picture is my rank 2 Warrior Priest exploring the zone. :D

-Matt Graham

The WotLK Crapematic - 8.21.2008

What crap. I mean, ya it looks pretty and sounds great, but Blizzard cinematics always do.

This is one of the most boring cinematics I've ever seen Blizzard put out. They should be embarrassed by it. We don't need to see Arthas in every minute of every Blizzard cinematic. We know his story, we don't need to hear it yet again. Where were new player abilities in the cinematic? Where were the Death Knights (besides Arthas of course)? Where was the catch phrase?

Where were there any varieties of races and classes? I only saw three things. Arthas/Lich King (wow, haven't seen that before), a Frost Wyrm (okay, so that was new and kinda cool), and a horde of generic Scourge soldiers (BORING).

I wanted to see a few Death Knight's fighting Nerubians in Azjol-Nerub as they make their way to Anub'arak. I wanted to see an Orc Warrior utilizing Titan's Grip. I wanted to see Tirion Fordring wielding the Ashbringer and leading a charge of Paladins into a demon infested area. etc.

It just seems to me that Blizzard looked at everything that we like in the cinematics and took it out.

My final grade? 4/10 King Terenas' monologue "saved" it from being a complete pile of crap.

-Matt Graham