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Corkbin updated, lets you buy wine right from the app
Corkbin is probably my favorite app on the App Store that I don't actually use that much. I've wanted to learn more about wine for a long time. Corkbin, which lets you track and rate the wines you drink, seems like a great way to do that. Unfortunately, whenever I end up at the bar or restaurant, a beer always sounds more appetizing than trying a new wine. But that's my problem, not the app's. Corkbin does a great job of cataloging your wines, and it's about to do even better, with an update that partners with two other sites for cool new features. First off, Corkbin will now allow you to buy wine. They've hooked up with wine.com to send you from the app straight into a mobile shopping cart. That means if you try a new wine and love it, you can buy some for your home right away. There's also a connection to Sincerely.com, which will send a physical postcard straight from the app, so you can send a note or picture to anyone else who might be interested in what you're drinking. There are more features coming soon, such as the ability to rate your friends' wines and get push notifications when someone you're following tries a new vintage. Corkbin is a really impressive app for such a specific purpose. Now it's up to me, I guess, to actually try some new tastes next time I'm out and about.
Joel Bylos on building a better Secret World
If you were given the chance to build your very own world from scratch, how would you do it? What would you include? Would it be a world of beauty or dark dreamscapes? And would the inhabitants enjoy their stay or flee in terror? To the team at Funcom tasked with fashioning The Secret World's... world, this isn't a hypothetical question, but a practical one. In a new developer blog post, Lead Content Designer Joel Bylos returns to share a behind-the-scenes view of how a game world is made. Bylos says that there are four aspects to world-building: identifying purpose, research, building flow, and prototyping and production. Because The Secret World takes place on our planet in the here-and-now, the team has a reference point to begin, but layers a "secret history" on top of it. Bylos explains by saying, "This is the history of an area as only a member of The Secret World can experience it; the footprints of the secret societies and their past conflicts; the truth behind the local myths and legends; the echoes of ancient magic and forgotten rituals." Of course, it's one thing to design something what you think is interesting and fun -- it's another to see if it works out in practice. All of this planning on paper is just the first stage of getting it in the game, which Bylos promises will come in an upcoming post.
TUAW's Daily App: onTap
A little while back, I wrote about an app called Corkbin -- it helped you track and share the various wines that you tasted while out and about. A few commenters asked for something similar for beer, and onTap is exactly that. It's made by the same company, and it serves the same purpose. When trying out a brand new beer (or an old favorite), you can snap a picture of it with your iPhone, log it, and even share it across Facebook or Twitter. Just for fun, the app also has a dictionary of some beer terms, and you can also browse and view brews from around your area in order to see what people are drinking nearby. Just like Corkbin, it's a solid app, especially for those of us who enjoy a tasty beverage and trying some new variants from time to time. Plus, you know, it's completely free. It's a great app to help you get the most out of exploring your favorite beers around town.
Wings Over Atreia: The Carebear Reloaded
So I hit level 40 about three weeks ago and, in between bouts of boredom brought on by the grindiness that seems to increase exponentially with each level after 35, I thought it best to take a column and determine what to do next. With luck, a few of you learned readers might even have a suggestion for staving off my particular case of the Atreia blues. In the interests of full disclosure, there are still many things I absolutely adore about Aion, but the mid to high level grind is beginning to take its toll on my Sorcerer's will to progress. Higher level acquaintances have assured me that upon dinging 50, even more grind awaits in the form of gear sets and all manner of desirables walled off by that crazy Eastern-style treadmill. At the risk of stating the obvious, these were not the words of encouragement that I needed to hear in order to soldier on toward the finish line. Help a Daeva out after the jump.
Survey: Working on the go will be top iPad use case
A new survey by Sybase says that 2,443 of adults with a mobile phone, when polled, claim that their number one use case for an iPad would be working while out and about. 52.3% of those polled say they would work from a device like the iPad, 48.2% said they would use it to watch movies and television, and 35.4% said that they would use it to play games. Those are some interesting numbers -- we've already heard that a full third of potential iPad users would use it to read books (though of course for some people, reading books would be considered work), and we've even heard that 44% of the iPhone apps being tested so far are actually games. So basically, no one has any idea what we'll be doing with our iPads when we actually get them. No, my guess is that people suspect that they will use an iPad for working, but in practice, they'll use it more for what Apple expects them to use it for: games and consuming media. It could also be that "work" apps take longer to develop on the iPad, which would explain why we're seeing games made when most users believe they'll be working. But of course, we'll have to see -- it's possible that we may not know the main use for the iPad yet, as even Apple seems to be torn on what the real focus of the computer will be. [via AI]
All the World's a Stage: Getting started with roleplaying
All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.For a long time now I've wanted to write an introductory guide on how to get started as a roleplayer. After all, roleplaying is something a lot of people would like to try, but really don't know how to begin. The problem with getting started is that various misconceived assumptions may sometimes block us from trying and dampen our enthusiasm. In the particular case of roleplaying, these mistaken assumptions might be along the lines of: "Roleplaying is lying to people about who you are," and "roleplaying is something weird people do," and "roleplaying is a waste of time for noobs." To the contrary, we have seen in previous articles that roleplaying is actually an exploration of who you are, a way to understand and connect with other people, and, in fact, a variant on things perfectly normal people do all the time anyway. So now -- where to actually begin? Certainly there is no perfect way to begin as a roleplayer, so today I'll outline three basic steps, which you can try and see if they work for you. I would be particularly interested in feedback from people who try out this method as first time roleplayers: if you do try it and have a great time, please come back and tell us about it; or if you try and something doesn't work, come back and tell us what went wrong. It's been a long time since I was a beginning roleplayer, and though I'll do my best to plot a path into this hobby, I only got to be a beginner once! Perhaps other beginning roleplayers will also share their experiences below, and you can see which path suits you best.
