MC Hammer
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WIREDoo search engine gets running man stamp of approval (video)
MC Hammer already proved that you only need one hit record. But can you get by with just one search engine? Not if you believe his pitch to the Web 2.0 Summit this week, which promoted a "deep search" technology called WIREDoo. The rapper-approved tool emphasizes relationships rather than keywords, which yields very different results to Google's. Type in 90210, for instance, and instead of pages of links about the TV show, the pre-beta WIREDoo brings up stuff about the neighborhood -- schools, homes, the crime rate and other supposedly useful information. You'll find the full presentation after the break, but don't expect any nostalgic dance moves -- Hammer is serious about this, just like he was about those revolutionary tablets.
Radiohead releasing new downloadable album, MC Hammer releases new iPad single
You may remember, about four years ago, Radiohead raising a stink over the digital release of its album In Rainbows. The band decided to "sell" the album on its website, asking fans to pay whatever they wanted, while at the same time shunning Apple's iTunes service, claiming they wanted to sell the album rather than individual songs. Back then, Radiohead's statement was pretty amazing, if only because there weren't a lot of other digital channels besides Apple's store. Now, of course, there are a few more ways to buy your music online. Radiohead's gone iTunes anyway, and more artists have decided to sell music themselves. But Radiohead is back at it -- they've announced that a new album will be sold a little more traditionally, but at a US$9 download for an MP3 version, as well as physically starting at $48. I doubt it'll be quite as disruptive a model as In Rainbows was, but figured it was worth a mention. And speaking of releasing new music, MC Hammer released a brand new single on the Flipboard iPad app this month. You'll know Flipboard as a social aggregator, but apparently the company took a musical turn the other week when it premiered the brand new single "See Her Face" on the pages of its app alone. There's no word on how the release went over, but you can listen to the song itself, even if you don't have the iPad app, on Flipboard's site.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2.2 madness
The shining feature of patch 3.2.2 will be Onyxia's return, and of course, the already infamous Ony mount, but there are some profession changes coming too. As always, they can be found in the latest patch notes, although you'll have to scroll past the Brood Mother to find them. This week's Insider Trader will analyze these changes and tell you what they mean for you.
Touch Revolution's household Android devices coming this year -- it's Hammer time!
When a former Apple product engineer mixes up some Google-juice with MC Hammer you'd be surprised at what you get. If you guessed a range of household Android devices sporting 4.3- to 10-inch touchscreens, WiFi, and Ethernet connectivity well, that would be weird... but you'd be right. Mark Hamblin, the founder and CEO of Touch Revolution who claims to have worked on the iPhone and iPod touch, breaks down the Touch Revolution product family into three major categories: 1) home control to manage lights, security, heating and ventilation, 2) media control for the TV, stereo, and DVR programming, and 3) home-based smartphones like the NIMble we played with at CES. The first Touch Revolution modules will launch later this year inside a range of devices that can be hand-held, placed on a tabletop, or even embedded in a wall. While not naming names, Hamblin says that the hardware and software will be customized and sold by "companies with major brands" before the end of the year in the "US and elsewhere." As for Hammer, that's hard to say -- but we'd buy pretty much anything he'd like to officially endorse.
Because iFarting is serious business
We were just fine with letting this story dissipate right into the air like so many bad smells, as it's not exactly the most impressive thing to ever happen in the App Store. But in the interests of completionism, we'll bring it to you anyway. First, there were two apps that made fart noises, called Pull My Finger and iFart. Then, there was allegedly some inappropriate twittering (and shady iPhone reviewing -- we seriously doubt that tons of people want to give five stars to an app about MC Hammer), $50,000 of damages were requested, a "Social Media Expert" (read: "tool") got angry, and eventually a lawsuit was filed, and now every blog and website everywhere is posting that two apps about flatulence are suing each other. Like we said, not the story out of the App Store that we're most proud to report. But Apple did get mixed up in all of this early on -- Gizmodo reports that the Mothership was approached for a solution, and that it was decided to let the devs fight it out. Maybe if Apple had said early on that applications on the App Store had to do a little more than make fart noises (or that there was already enough farting going on in the store -- what do those other 29 apps have to do with any of this?), the iPhone wouldn't now be known as the premiere device for farting. But we suppose there's money to be had -- someone out there is buying either or both of these idiotic apps, and as a result, both of these guys are willing to go to court over software that reproduces the sound of passing gas in the hopes of getting even more money, despite the fact that you can simulate the same effect with the human armpit. Can we cut the lawsuits and get to producing some actual software for the platform, please?
MC Hammer says he's working on 'secret project' with Activision
Your grasp on reality is guaranteed to become progressively more tenuous as this proceeds, but try to hang on until we see how deep this rabbit hole goes, OK? First: MC Hammer is still working in some professional capacity. Second: MC Hammer is apparently a Twitter machine. We hope you're still with us, because here's the third thing: MC Hammer is apparently working on a secret project with Activision.More specifically, his Twitter said, "I got one day to recover, then it's LA to Activision to get a glance of a top secrete[sic] project." And then, a day later Hammer drops, "Activision was fantastic ... action!" We know nothing else about this at the moment, but you can bet your Hammerpants we're going to find out.Also, Hammer and Activision, if your "secrete" project was to turn what we thought of as our sanity into a nebulous half-nightmare from which only madness is given birth ... mission accomplished. [Via The Escapist]
WoW Moviewatch: So that's where that dance came from!
We've all seen the videos of different dances. We've had ones where they all dance together, ones where the original source is cited. We've even seen video of a guy dancing like a Night Elf Female. Now we have another dance movie. There's one thing about this one that sets it apart, however. This is the first one I've seen that does a really good job of putting the dances side-by-side with their inspirations. As Bowzerblack on the WoW LJ said: "I didn't know that about ogres!" All I can say is that I didn't either. And yes, I know it's the Boomkin dance too, but you don't see a lot of (completely-bare) topless Boomkins running about. Which, now that I think about it, is probably a good thing.Previously, on MovieWatch...[via the WoW LJ community]
