HowStuffWorks
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Google Play Music finally gets into the podcasting game
For the plethora of musical choices offered on Google Play Music, one genre has been noticeably absent: podcasts. Not anymore! Google announced today on its Official Android Blog that the streaming service will soon offer a variety of popular podcasts including Nerdist, Earwolf, How Stuff Works and StarTalk Radio, to name just a few. A proper consumer-side service appears to still be a few months away so, for now, Google's created a portal for US-based podcasters to begin uploading their personal content.
Daily iPad App: HowStuffWorks for iPad
If you love learning the details that explain how things work, then the HowStuffWorks app for the iPad is perfect for you. The app takes the best of the How Stuff Works website and packages it into a convenient, tablet-friendly format. It's chock full of content and features and will keep you engaged for hours on end. The app launches to the main screen which provides a preview of content. Included on this page are select articles, quizzes, and podcasts from the How Stuff Works website. A few informative and inspirational quotes are thrown in for good measure. Tapping on the book icon in the top right toolbar takes you to the reading library. All the posts are organized by category which includes everything from animals to money to tech and science. Each article is as full-featured as the website version and often includes an image gallery and links to other similar content in this category. You can also tweet, Facebook, favorite, print or email an article that you enjoy. The ability to change the font size and jump from one part of an article to another easily from the menu bar is another handy feature. Besides written content, the app lets you listen to podcasts and read quick posts from the hosts of each show. The shows include Tech Stuff, Car Stuff, and Stuff You Should You Know among others. Just like the articles, you can share these resources on Twitter or Facebook as well as favorite them. And the podcasts support Airplay so you can stream the media to your home theatre system. Lastly, you have a quiz section that tests your knowledge of scientific topics. Each quiz logs your score and sends it to the iOS Game Center. If you get an answer wrong, the app will explain the correct answer which is a nice touch some developers forget to add. The HowStuffWorks app is a perfect addition for those curious about the world around them. It's not a quick read, but is a perfect reference for those times when you have 20 minutes or so to digest an article. The HowStuffWorks for the iPad is available for free, but it does include small banner ads at the bottom which some may find annoying. You can download the app using this iTunes link and check it out for yourself. %Gallery-129979%
How WoW works
Are you looking to pick up a new MMO but not sure which one to try? Or perhaps you're one of those people that simply doesn't get all the hullabaloo surrounding World of Warcraft. If you happen to be just this type of person, then Howstuffworks has the article for you. "How World of Warcraft Works" looks into the game from an outsider's perspective, and gives a brilliant overview of nearly every aspect of the game. From player base to the guts behind the game, the article goes over the parts of the WoW phenomenon, including several references to our beloved NickYee of the Daedalus Project and his demographic research on WoW players. Granted a lot of the information may be basic, but I found that even as an avid WoW fan I learned some things I didn't know, or had at least temporarily forgotten. And really, it's great to see so much information about the game condensed into its simplest form.
