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Facebook 'Flicks' last slightly longer than a nanosecond
Facebook has just launched something new, and it's not a product you'll be able to buy or a feature we'll all be able to enjoy. It's a unit of time called "Flicks," which is 1/705600000 of a second. That's slightly longer than a nanosecond, but still much too short to become a part of every day life. Flicks was never conceptualized to be a time unit you'll see on a watch anyway -- nobody will ever say "it's 859,900 flicks until midnight." It was created for films, video games and other types of visual media.
The Perfect Ten: Movies for the MMO fan
You love movies? Sure, who doesn't? I certainly do; I've been reviewing them with friends since 1997. I'm always fascinated by how many out-of-the-way gems there are that go overlooked by the mainstream audience, and I love how films tie into our daily experiences in unexpected ways. MMOs haven't quite gotten popular enough to spawn their own sub-genre of films, apart from the odd fan project or the long-rumored World of Warcraft flick. That doesn't mean that we're lacking good movie role models for our hobby, however. I think that there are plenty of films that are perfectly suited for the MMO fan, even if they've never been thought of as such. So here are 10 films that speak to us as gamers. To make things interesting, I excluded any movie that shares the same IP as an MMO. Read this list and let me know what you would pick!
Virgin Mobile Canada getting Samsung Galaxy 5, Bold 9780, and more this quarter?
If only Virgin Mobile were this cool in the States, right? The company shares little more than a name with its American doppelganger, but the fact remains that Sprint's subsidiary could probably learn a thing or two from its buddy to the north (Samsung Intercept notably excepted). MobileSyrup says that the Android-powered Galaxy 5 (not to be confused with the much higher-end "S" line) with a 2.8-inch display will be hitting on November 12 for free on contract, while the still-unannounced Bold 9780 -- specifically identified as a "refresh" here, presumably to the 9700 -- is in the cards for CAD $149 ($147). There are also low-end LG Sway and Flick feature phones that you'll be able to hook up for free... but now that the Galaxy 5 promises to bring the era of free Android into the fold, it'll be interesting to see if manufacturers can keep these dumbphone offerings compelling enough to stick around.
New Mitsubishi 3D DLPs arrive for 2010, is this the mysterious StreamTV?
Sure most other manufacturers are new to this 3DTV thing but Mitsubishi is already on its fourth generation, announcing the new 638, 738 and 838 series DLP TVs. New for the 2010 lineup, and possibly giving some insight to those weird HDTVs that appeared on Amazon yesterday is "StreamTV" interactive media which appears to be a new (post Wal-mart acquisition?) branding for the VUDU Apps service we spotted during CES with Pandora, Flickr, Picasa and others built in. If that sounds like a little too much then don't worry, it's not in the base 638 series televisions while the 738 models add StreamTV, an optional WiFi N adapter and video calibration options, and the top of the line 838 models offer Mitsubishi's 16 speaker built-in iSP surround sound tech along with a few other minor adjustments as upgrades. We're still waiting to find out when these ship (probably in the next month or so), but one thing that never changes is projection's ability to go big for less money than its flat-panel competitors, ranging from $1,199 for the 60-inch WD-60638 to $4,499 for the 82-inch WD-8238 (don't forget to add in the price of a special checkerboard compatible 3D Blu-ray player or an adapter to make everything work.) Check after the break for a full breakdown, we'll let you know once more info is available -- or if some $6k autostereoscopic options pop up on the horizon. %Gallery-90047%
Win three games from Freeverse
If you wind up finding a shiny new iPhone, iPod touch or appropriate gift card in the holiday containment vessel of your particular cultural persuasion, Freeverse and TUAW want to hook you up with some games for said device. Freeverse is giving a promo code for Flick Fishing, Flick Bowling and Moto Chaser to one lucky entrant. Just enter us a comment below telling us the game you wish was in the App Store -- who knows, it might just happen. But we're guessing it won't, because we have no control over wish fulfillment. This is a giveaway for those 3 Freeverse games. You could just as well type "noonan" into the entry form and be entered for the giveaway. But we prefer wishes. Rules below, and good luck! Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment telling us what game you wish were available on the iTunes App Store. The comment must be left before December 29, 11:59PM Eastern Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: Three promo codes for 3 iPhone games (Flick Fishing, Flick Bowling, Moto Chaser) not to exceed $15 in value. Click Here for complete Official Rules.
CSS trick mimics sideways-flicking behavior in MobileSafari
Ajaxian has posted a ridiculously simple way to enable web apps to mimic the iPhone's side-to-side flicking behavior using custom CSS supported by MobileSafari. If you're creating a web app specifically for iPhone and iPod touch users, you can get a similar feel to a native application with MobileSafari. MobileSafari includes some CSS 3 support, including advanced DOM selectors and support for animations and transitions. Chances are, other browsers will have limited support for CSS 3 draft standards, and whatever you write probably will only work in MobileSafari and Safari 3 on the desktop. The test application in this movie shows how it tracks finger movements across the screen, and performs actions based on the distance "swiped." Very nifty. [Via Cameron.io.]
Video: iSwish puts the iPhone UI on any Windows Mobile phone
While you can argue that Windows Mobile is feature-for-feature and spec-for-spec superior to OS X on the iPhone, Apple's mobile UI is certainly more fun to use. So if you're running WinMo with a hankerin' for rubber band-like scrolling, jiggly icons, screen flicking, SummerBoard themes, and even simulated multi-touch pinching of photos then you're in luck. Flick Software Research is set to release its iSwish interface and iZoom pinch software in beta come "early May." Hey Flick, here's a hint: Dell Axim != sexy demo hardware... or maybe that's the point. See the action after the break.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Freeverse working on Flick Sports for iPhone
Freeverse wrote today to tip us off about this webpage that describes their new Flick games for iPhone; the games are going to be written using the iPhone SDK as soon as soon can be. These games will use the iPhone's accelerometer to create Wii-like interaction for baseball, motosports, bowling and so forth. The page shows a number of mockups of the games in progress, and Freeverse's PR folk assure us the games are going to be released as soon as possible. There's more details of the games in action over at Freeverse's site. Let the games begin!
Video: Wowwee's RoboPanda
If the RoboQuad and RoboBoa didn't scare you enough, now we've got a video of the scariest Robo-animal of them all... the RoboPanda. The fun lil' cutesy robot sounded like it had the potential to go iRobot / Matrix / [insert favorite robots take over world scenario here] when the bot asked, "Have you ever been attacked by a panda?" It really did say that, but if you could avoid the obvious welcoming of our robot panda overlords, we'd appreciate it. [MP4] Download the video
