Chatter
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Fisher-Price made a working Chatter telephone for adults
Fisher-Price has launched a working Chatter phone for adults.
Reader UI of the Week: Crazy Castbars
I really wanted to make a special, seasonal, Winter Veil UI, but alas I ran out of time. Next year, maybe! If you made a special Winter Veil or other seasonal UI to pretty up your screen over the festive period, do send it in, I'd love to see it! Instead, we've got Palanorma's paladin UI, which he sent in in response to last week's column. He said in his email that it reminded him of his, and I can definitely see why. Palanorma included two screenshots, one not casting, and one casting. If you want to send in your UI, drop an email to olivia@wowinsider.com. Do let me know what addons you're using, and if you have any thoughts on elements of your UI that you're particularly proud of or unhappy with, do put that information in, too. Also, someone suggested a while back that we should run a UI surgery, where you send in a UI that you're unhappy with, and the community and I have a bash at fixing it for you. If that sounds like fun, or like it might help you, send in your UI!
Addon Spotlight: 6 addons you shouldn't play without
It would make a very sad paladin to think that anyone was playing WoW without these addons installed. Sure, some of you are purists -- but if you are, then maybe this column isn't for you! I love these addons, and I want to share. Do note that this is six addons I couldn't play without. Your opinions may differ; these are mine. None of these are for specific gameplay situations so much as more just for general quality of life in WoW. I'd love to see their features included in the standard UI by Blizzard, but until then, I'll carry on using them. You could give them a try too if you felt like it! Addon Control Panel Download Addon Control Panel: WoWInterface, WoWAce, Curse This nifty addon is top of the list. Why is it top of the list? Because as the name suggests, it's an addon that allows you to control your other addons! It's all very meta. Seriously, though, if you're into addons like me, this is the one addon you should never be without. It allows you, by way of a simple screen, to switch on and off addons and modules of addons at will, without logging out of the game. I honestly don't know why this hasn't been included in the Blizzard interface as standard yet. Addon Control Panel proves it's possible, and it is just such a huge quality of life improvement for anyone who uses addons -- and that's most people.
Addon Spotlight: Work harder with GnomeWorks
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, GnomeWorks is to trade skills what fire was to cavemen. These past few weeks have been very good in the old email box for suggestions for addons to be featured on Addon Spotlight, so keep those recommendations coming. In the next few weeks, I've got a recommendation spotlight planned as well as a grab bag. Also, there is an idea kicking around in my head about a "my first addon" spotlight, where new addon developers pitch their addon and we talk about it constructively. What do you guys think? Today's Addon Spotlight is one of those "long time coming" pieces; people were utterly shocked over the fact that I had not talked about GnomeWorks before. Well, there is a good reason for that -- GnomeWorks is still in its alpha development stage. As far as profession windows go, prior to Cataclysm, an addon of this type was almost required. The sorting features and customization options on the default profession window was lackluster at best.
Addon Spotlight: My Top 5 addons
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, Mat's Top 5 addons are pretty much what you would expect them to be. There's a kind of magic about "top" lists. For one, they give you a humble look inside of the author's mind, a taste of what he or she values and holds as tent poles of the subject matter at hand. For two, I just like Top 5 lists. A confession -- this is my first "top" list. I've never had to choose 5 things and put them into a list format. So, while my banana bread bakes, I will attempt to whittle down my favorite addons into a convenient list and describe the aspects of what makes each of these addons great, from their purpose to their execution. So, here we go -- my top 5 addons.
AddOn Spotlight: Chataclysm
AddOn Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. We'll look at everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your AddOns folder will never be the same! This week, Fontwing and his Fontflight of the Chatbox destroy Azeroth as we know it in the Chataclysm. In my humble opinion, the chat addon is probably the most important addon ever created for World of Warcraft. ... Hey, what are you doing? Whoa, all right, calm down -- put down the pitchforks, damage meter enthusiasts. I'll explain. Chat is arguably the most important aspect of a massively multiplayer online game. It fosters communication and community and provides a basic level of interaction to players with other players and the game itself. I remember the days of Ultima Online where you couldn't even send messages back and forth to people in tells. Chat has come a long way in MMOs, so it seems only fitting that chat interfaces evolve with the medium. This week, I will be talking about my two favorite chat addons, Prat and Chatter, and giving some cool, helpful tips to get the most out of your chatting experience in WoW. Saddle up, because you're about to experience ... the Chataclysm.
Reader UI of the Week: Mar's UI
Each week WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@wow.com. As promised, this week is non-widescreen addon/UI week! Often requested and often put to the side, I receive a lot of e-mail from readers about configuring user interfaces for non-widescreen resolutions and smaller monitors. The secret is that there really is no difference between configuring for a widescreen or non-widescreen monitor -- it's all about knowing how things fit together. On this week's Reader UI of the Week, we are going to take a look at Mar's UI. Mar has asked for some pointers on getting her interface right, so let's see if we can help out and, at the same time, give some awesome design pointers on configuring a user interface with less space.
Reader UI of the Week: Nirayá's UI
Each week WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@wow.com. This week on Reader UI of the Week, you, my adoring fanbase, get to indulge my minimalist side for one more week before I get to some quirky user interfaces. Nirayá of Proudmoore sent in this fantastic mage user interface that blew my mind, so I thought I would share. Sweet Baby Titans, is that ONE action bar? Let's find out.
Reader UI of the Week: Your Addon/UI Columnist
Each week WoW.com will bring you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@wow.com. As the new addon and user interface columnist, I've been given the task of not only finding and informing the WoW.com community about new, useful and awesome addons, but also the unique job of taking a look at the community's user interfaces and highlighting some of the awesome creativity and innovations that the community can share. I want this column to be very reader oriented - let's go on this amazing addon journey together!
The Queue: Guest introduction
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.On the last edition of The Queue, I requested that readers write me an intro for this thing, and I would pick my favorite of the bunch to use to introduce the column. So here we go, an intro from Teregwynn:"Each end every day, except those days when he doesn't, Alex Ziebart takes time out of his busy schedule to sift through your annoying, and often repetitive, questions to find those worthy of answers. Once selected, he conjures answers for these questions which baffle the minds of mere mortals, endowing them with a level of insight which they could not, but for having read earlier editions of this very column, have ever imagined."Search asked..."I have recently started on getting Loremaster and find it quite frustrating that I don't know how many quests I have accomplished in each area. Is there any way to see how much I have already done in an area and how much left still to do? Maybe some sort of clever addon that has eluded my search."
Preview of the new minimap mod SexyMap
The mod I'm about to talk about isn't some essential combat mod. It doesn't vastly change how you play the game. It won't help you in the arena or in raid dungeons, or even RP. What will it do? It will make your minimap look totally sweet.From one of the original authors of Omen and the maker of Chatter (among other things) comes the simply (and appropriately) named SexyMap. Using spell effects already in the game files (I believe the default uses Hand of Freedom as the outside ring and Hand of Salvation on the inside), SexyMap makes your map look... sexy. It's difficult to see just how awesome it is from pictures, but I don't have video handy, unfortunately. What you can't see there is the two rings are animated, one moving clockwise and the other counter-clockwise.
Interview with Antiarc, author of Omen
Even if you don't use Omen, it's likely you've seen it or heard about it here on WoW Insider, in WoW itself, or somewhere else in the WoW community. Patch 2.4 and the redesign of WoW's combat log called for a complete rebuild of many mods, and Omen was far and away the highest in demand.There were certainly some issues with Omen the day 2.4 launched, but the one man army behind the mod worked endlessly to get the addon in working order, while somehow making time for a chat mod, too. I think it's fair to say we know a thing or two about the mods, but what about the modder behind them?Luckily for all of you, Antiarc(aka Adrine) is open to bribes(not really) so I've managed to sucker him into answering a few questions for us, many of which are taken from you, the readers! We'll go through a series of three categories. The Man, in which we delve into Antiarc's personal and professional life. The Mods, wherein we ask a few questions about his experiences in mod-writing. The Miscellaneous, where we ask Antiarc random questions that hold no bearing on absolutely anything! Hooray! Read on!
Upcoming interview with the author of Omen
We've talked about Omen(a lot) and now we've talked about Chatter, but what else does the author of these mods have planned?That's what we're going to try and find out in an interview with Antiarc, which will be coming soon to WoW Insider! Here's the special part, though: I'll be taking many of the questions from you, the readers. If there's something you want to ask the author of one of the most widely used mods in WoW, just submit it in a comment at the bottom of this post.I'll comb through them and pick out the best questions to present to Antiarc in addition to my own questions, and we'll see what he has to say. Have you ever been curious about the modding community or the development process of Omen? Want to know a little about the man behind the mod? This is your chance!
Chatter changes your chat for the cheddar! Er, better
Prat has been a fan favorite as far as chat mods go for quite awhile now, with the ability to change just about whatever you want with your chat frame plus some added features like item links in custom channels.Now, from the author of Omen comes Chatter. Built with the intent of making a chat mod with less bloat and is lighter on overall system resources, it manages to do that quite well. All I ever used in Prat was the module to allow links in custom channels, so I decided to give Chatter a try. The switch over wouldn't be too hard, right? Just turn off all of the modules I don't want, leave item links on.I was pleasantly surprised with how easily Chatter was configured. I had decent looking, functional chat windows ready to go in about ten minutes. I'll fully admit that most other chat mods probably shouldn't take me much longer than that, but things that drastically alter my UI are my kryptonite. I think that says something about how simple this mod is to configure.
DS Daily: Let's chat
No, really, let's talk about whatever you want. It's Sunday, and for those of us in the U.S., it's a holiday weekend, so it's a good time to relax and discuss ... whatever. Like online petitions, for instance -- we get a lot of those. Do you guys believe they can ever do any good? We don't have to be serious, either. Doing much gaming this weekend, or spending the time outside? Anyone else getting tired of the heat and feel the urge to just stay in side and raise that brain age? Or, if you're in the mood to make requests, let us know what we're not talking about enough.
Study: Wii winning the online buzz battle
Ah, buzz, that unquantifiable aura of cool that can make or break a product launch. Wait, did I just say unquantifiable? I'm sorry, it's apparently highly quantifiable, as proven by a New Media Strategies report that finds online opinions of the Wii to be much more favorable than those of the PS3.According to a MediaLife interview with New Media Strategies VP Sam Huxley, the Arlington, Va., market research firm "monitored 10,000 online conversations," and found a surprisingly hostile reaction to Sony's well-hyped system. Conversations about the PS3 broke 27 percent positive and 38 percent negative, according to the report, while Wii conversations were scored 49 percent positive and only 18 percent negative (the remaining conversations were rated "neutral").Huxley cites availability and pricing issues as being responsible for most of the negative reaction to the PS3, and says the system was also hurt by not launching with any familiar franchises. In contrast, Huxley said the Wii received a lot of positive buzz for its new control method and Zelda, though some faulted the system for being hard to get used to. Despite the all the PS3 negativity, though, "the volume of discussion on PS3 is about double of that of Wii," Huxley said.The study's methodology is not discussed in the interview, and there is likely some subjectivity in the evaluation of the online conversations. It should also be noted that internet chatter is not necessarily indicative of opinions for the public at large. Still, it seems that all-important buzz balance might be tilting in Nintendo's favor at this early phase in the console wars.Previously: USA Today on favorable Wii buzz, early holiday winners
