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Skype gets shareable conversation links for easy invites
Need to invite someone to join a Skype session? Well, that task just got a lot easier. The video-chatting app added a new feature that lets you invite folks to join a conversation with a shareable link. All you have to do is nab the URL, send it to the person and they can click it to join. What's more, the invitee doesn't need a Skype account to do so. Clicking on a shared link can employ Skype on the web as a guest, but it'll still offer access to messaging and both video and voice calls. If you're familiar with sharing links to Dropbox or OneDrive files, you have an idea of how this works. It sounds like a simple addition, but it's sure to save time, and allow people who aren't using the app to easily participate as needed.
Skype Translator is rolling out to all desktop users
After a preview offered access to Skype's live translation tool on the desktop earlier this summer, the feature is rolling out to all users. If you're in need of a quick refresher, Skype Translator converts video calls in English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish and 50 messaging languages inside the Windows app. The company says that the software leverages machine learning, so it'll only get better as more people use it. In fact, folks who signed up for the preview have already pitched in there. When the tool arrives, you'll notice a new translator icon in Skype that'll let you know it's ready to go to work.
Quiptalk reveals what friends are saying before they say it
Quiptalk is a social networking app for communicating with friends in topical chat rooms. Its spotlight feature is live typing which shows other users your message as you type it, eliminating the need to wait for someone to tap "Send" before you get to see the message. Additionally, Quiptalk boasts that the app doesn't store any conversation history, so it's easy to hop on and send some private thoughts without having to clear the log later on. The iPhone app is free and demands iOS 7.1 or newer. Unlike many other chat rooms, Quiptalk is not interested in hooking you up to talk with strangers online. The upside is that the app is only useful for people you already know and have a desire to chat with. The downside, however, is that the app is only useful for people you already know and have a desire to chat with. No need to blink, I'll explain. Basically, while Quiptalk is great for connecting with friends in somewhat of an atypical fashion, it does require that your friends are actually using it. When I downloaded Quiptalk, no one in my contacts had the app already, so it suggested I send out some invites. If no fish latch on to your hook, the app is useless. As always with these types of app, the critical hassle is making that magical leap from being unknown to known. The beginning process was a bit confusing. I entered in a username to identify with, then I had to choose a name for my "quip," (read: chat room.) The example was "monsters" so I went with that. When I sent out the invitation for someone to join my quip, it only signs the person up for the app and didn't enter them in my room. I resent the invitation and once both parties already had accounts, it worked. Then I started typing to monitor if it was truly live. Unfortunately, the typing lagged significantly from my screen and the receiving end. When I typed one word it did appear almost instantly, but as I started to type at normal speed, it took over 10 seconds to appear on the other phone. That's not live in my book. Where Quiptalk does earn points is delivering on the promise to not store conversation history. In fact, as soon as everyone leaves a quip it asks you if you want to close the room, which makes sense unless you like talking to yourself. When you do this, it along with the messages within it vanish forever. The biggest problem with Quiptalk is just the lack of necessity. I don't see why anyone would really need or even want to read messages before they're sent. It's like asking someone in person what they're about to say before they say it. Furthermore, the requirement to create topics or at its core, group names, for the conversations just add to the perplexity. A neat idea in theory, Quiptalk falls short on the execution. It's free for iPhone in the App Store.
The Daily Grind: Are MMOs your main social interaction?
Maybe you work at home. Maybe you're not very social in person. Maybe you've got friends across the country or around the world and there's no way you can really gather in person on a regular basis. Maybe you're living somewhere far from the rest of your social circle. Maybe you're just more comfortable when you look like an elf. Whatever the case, for some people, logging into games like EverQuest II is the big social event of the evening. That's not to say that this is the main social outlet for everyone logging in. For every player whose social circle centers around goings-on in Guild Wars 2 there are a dozen who mostly play the game to do their own things. But what about you? Are MMOs your main social interaction over the course of an average day? Or are they just a small portion of your interpersonal dealings? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Shroud of the Avatar video gives six-month dev update
Buckle down to a half-hour video from Lord British himself taking you through the development progress of Shroud of the Avatar now that it's hit the six-month mark. Lord British begins by showing off Kingsport Village and talking about how housing is one of the big features and choices of the game. The video continues to another town where the devs fade player housing in and out to demonstrate how towns might be built up over the course of the game. The housing decoration system and the different types of dwellings were toured, including Germanic, Druidic, and Nordic dwellings. He also shows off the female avatar, crafting, and the "natural language conversation system." The latter allows players to type full sentences to NPCs, who will then parse the conversation for important keywords. We've got the full developer commentary video for you after the break.
Orange Libon adds picture messaging to iOS app
Libon is a messaging app backed by the European cell provider Orange that's making its way over to Android today, offering free calls, messaging and visual voicemail to smartphones on that side of the platform fence. But there's important news for us iOS users as well, as the app has also added free picture and audio messaging to our version, along with a push-to-talk feature. You can find the app for free on the App Store now. Orange makes money on this one using in-app purchases, which can add premium options like extra message storage, customization options or translations of your voicemails to text or to MP3 via email. These apps have gained a nice following with their free features. Libon, WhatsApp and others have created their own messaging ecosystems unrelated to what service you're using to power your phone. You'd think that with the iPhone so ubiquitous, Apple would have unified messaging as much as possible, and iMessage was their best try so far at doing just that. But these various services are still flourishing inside of the App Store itself.
Drama Mamas: The mystery behind guildchat silence
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Silence. It can be relaxing. It can be peaceful. And it can be heavy with the lack of replies after you say something. Just what does silence in guildchat mean? Dear Drama Mamas, I recently joined a guild that's been working hard on DS. I've only been on a few raid nights (maybe three guild runs). But I've got serious mic shyness. So I literally hadn't said a word yet. Nor have I told anyone I'm that shy. The others kept on chatting, friendly and all, and I just kind of hung around, pew-pewing, etc. like I'm supposed to. I rarely said anything in guild chat either and was just doing my own thing and showing up when I was supposed to. Needless to say, I did get a little lonely. But I just couldn't get over my shyness. Or the fact that the all-guy raid team (as far as I can judge from voices on vent) was intimidating me, unintentionally of course. But I think it's a good guild, I hope we just have to warm up to each other.
Google Talk to use SRI technology for stabilizing video chats, revive Chatroulette
Okay, so maybe it's not the only reason that Chatroulette is due for a revival, but it certainly won't hurt matters. SRI International has just announced that it'll be providing image stabilization software to take the jiggles from your future Google Talk videocalls. 'Course, you'll need an Android 3.0+ device in order to take advantage, but the general consensus here seems fairly positive. SRI's press release (embedded after the break) isn't exactly laced with details, but GigaOM is reporting that this could also improve battery life, but only the heaviest of video chatters are apt to notice the difference. Looks like distracting yourself just got a whole lot less distracting.
FaceTime works from a plane
Loyal TUAW reader Bill G. was kind enough to face chat with us this evening. What made this especially fun was that he was in flight over Arkansas at the time. On the way to Texas via American Airlines service, Bill was able to use FaceTime with the plane's in-flight WiFi service. It was a great connection given the circumstances. Video did flake out a little towards the end of our experiment (although audio continued just fine) and might have re-established itself if we had given it a little more time. All in all, just chalk this one up to the "wow, that's so cool!" list for the iPhone 4.
WoW Insider Show Episode 121: So long and thanks for all the Fah-jords
Our podcast reached the end of part one last weekend, as both Turpster and I announced that we'd be leaving the show. But we didn't let it become a sad affair -- Matthew Rossi and Chase Christian both joined us for some Warcraft discussion (including when it's ok to votekick someone, and lots of Battered Hilt discussion), and we finally were able to have one of our favorite guys stop by: Scott Johnson from The Instance podcast. It was a great show, and as usual, you can tune in at all of the links below. Thanks again for everything -- even though Turpster and I are moving on, the podcast will continue, so be sure to come back and see what they brew up for you. But it's been a heck of a ride these past two-plus years, and we've had measurable metric tons of laughs and fun together. Thanks so much for listening and chatting with us and all the emails and excitement. Enjoy the show, and don't forget to grab your sword and fight the Horde. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page: <cke:object width="290" height="24" type="" application="" x-shockwave="" -flash"="" data="http://o.aolcdn.com/os/ab/audio_player.swf"> <cke:param value="http://o.aolcdn.com/os/ab/audio_player.swf" name="movie"></cke:param> <cke:param value="soundFile=http://podcasts.aolcdn.com/wow/podcasts/12-21-09-wow-E121.mp3" name="FlashVars"></cke:param> <cke:param value="high" name="quality"></cke:param> <cke:param value="false" name="menu"></cke:param> <cke:param value="transparent" name="wmode"></cke:param></cke:object>
Patch 3.3 PTR: Target marking, the end of lowbie raids, and other UI tweaks
There are quite a few interesting UI tweaks in the latest build on the patch 3.3 PTR. First up, Blizzard seems to be making quite a few changes that aim at streamlining current frustrations: the Ignore list is set to 50 different entries (to match the Friends list), XP earned in a quest will show up in the rewards section on the quest log, and not only can any member of the raid now mark targets, but instant quest text is now turned on by default for all players. The last two changes are somewhat questionable -- cynics that we are here at WoW.com, we can see raiders in PuGs messing around with raid marks "for the lulz," which could be frustrating for raid leaders. Then again, it'll be much easier than the current situation of having to set up a marker as raid leader or assistant. Instant quest text, too, seems like a choice by Blizzard to step away from the immersiveness of having quest text write itself across the window, but then again, who doesn't have it set on instant already, and Blizzard has already admitted quests aren't that immersive anyway.There is another issue, though, that may be worth Blizzard's reconsideration before bringing all of these changes live.Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
WoW as a channel for news from Iran?
Normally, this wouldn't rate too high for us -- lots of people have ideas about how to use World of Warcraft, and many of them never actually come about. But then again, this is in the Wall Street Journal of all places, so we'll give it a look. If you're on Twitter, you've probably heard about what's going on in Iran right now -- there was an election, the "official" results given were judged as rigged by many involved, and the government seems to be cracking down on both news media and citizen journalism, as well as protesting citizens, to very sad results. How does World of Warcraft fit in to all of this? Andrew Lavallee of the WSJ's Digits blog points to this report by Craig Labovitz, which talks about how Internet traffic has been filtered out of the country around the election. At the very end of his analysis, Labovitz points out that channels for videogames, including both Xbox Live and World of Warcraft, have shown very little government manipulation. That suggests that if the government in Iran does continue to shut down certain channels, citizens there might be forced to spread the news through any virtual route they can, including possibly Azeroth.This is obviously all just analysis and speculation so far -- while there clearly (from those charts) has been interference in the media, no one (as far as we know) has yet had to resort to chatting in World of Warcraft to get their message out, and though what's happening in Iran is made up of some very serious (and seriously unfortunate) situations, the fervor online about using brand new channels like Twitter to share real-time news is often overstated. Personally, I believe that even if Twitter didn't exist, this information would find another way to get out. Still, the interesting thing to take away here is that even our "silly" video games today are actually media on a global level.Thanks, Cedars!
WoW Insider Show live this afternoon on Ustream
Our podcast is back yet again this afternoon, and it's sure to be a good one. Turpster and I will welcome our bloggers Lesley Smith and Robin Torres on to talk about the biggest news in WoW from the last week: we'll touch on the new Druid forms and what we all think of those, 3.1.3 and how it's worked out so far, players with amazing achievements in game (like the level 1-80 no deaths guy, and Ensidia's big finish), and scams you might want to look out for ingame. And if we have time, we'll talk about one of the stranger stories to come out of the WoW community lately. The show begins over on the our Ustream page at June 6, 2009 3:30 PM EDT var date_span = document.getElementById("date"); var date = new Date(date_span.innerHTML); var monthname=new Array("Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug", "Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"); var weekday=new Array("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday", "Friday","Saturday"); var year = date.getFullYear(); var day_of_month = date.getDate(); var month = monthname[date.getMonth()]; var day = weekday[date.getDay()]; var hour = date.getHours(); if (hour > 11) { if (hour > 12) {hour -= 12} am_pm = "PM"; } else { am_pm = "AM"; } var minute = date.getMinutes(); if (minute < 10) { minute = "0"+minute; } date_string = day + ", " + month + " " + day_of_month; date_string += " at " + hour + ":" + minute + " " + am_pm; offset = -date.getTimezoneOffset()/60; if (offset >= 0) { offset = "+"+offset; } date_string += " in your time zone (GMT"+offset+")"; date_span.innerHTML = (date_string); , or you can jump after the break to see an embedded feed. We'll also answer your email, which you can send to us at theshow@wow.com, and as usual we'll be chatting live both during and after the show. Should be a lot of fun -- we'll see you this afternoon!
Talkcast live tonight at 10pm ET
Our fearless co-lead Dave Caolo will be aboard the USS Talkcast this evening with me, and we'll be talking turkey -- cooking them, chasing them down, plucking them, and how to get the most stuffing in there. Oh wait, wait? Thanksgiving is over? Oh well then I guess we'll just be talking Mac and iPhone news as usual.On the menu: Black Friday and the deals we may or may not have been suckered into, new releases from Boxee (read the interview yet?) and uTorrent for the Mac, and since we've got to get our requisite iPhone talk in there, we'll hit on the Linux install, and the tough subject of App Store pricing. Join us, won't you? Do so on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; or you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then! Recording support for the TUAW Talkcast provided by Ecamm Network's CallRecorder for Skype.
The Creamy GUI Center: Communications
Each week Matthew Porter contributes The Creamy GUI Center, a column aimed at helping you enhance your WoW experience by offering an in depth guide to addons, macros and other tools we use to play WoW, along with commentary on issues that affect how we all play.Let's face it, WoW without chatting to your party, guild, or friends would be pretty boring. One of the major reasons we log in sometimes is to see what everyone's up to. So when you stop and think about it, that little chat box is a cornerstone to the user interface. We spend a good chunk of the time when logged in looking at it. We might as well try to make it as functionally and aesthetically pleasing as we can. This week we'll look at addons that spruce up our chat box and help us communicate better. We'll also check out addons that help keep track of our whispers to other players, and addons that grab our attention when there's activity in the chat window. Let's get to it!
How to hold a scientific conference in Azeroth
John Bohannon has been writing for Science magazine as "The Gonzo Scientist," and his most recent writeup, on a real scientific conference held in the World of Warcraft, is a great read. We reported that the event was happening back in May, and now Bohannon's put together a really honest report (from how the conference was funded to the reasons why it was chosen to be Horde-only) on what its like for these scientists researching virtual worlds to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak, and actually hold a conference ingame.They had to deal with everything from conversation direction (they appointed one person to get whispers on any questions for speakers, though, as anyone who's ever been to a mass ingame event will tell you, you can't really keep people from yelling and screaming) to mobs in the Barrens. And it sounds like they did get something done -- besides the panels, which were only slightly frustrated by griefers, they took expeditions throughout the world, and did do a little thinking about how different meeting in RL and meeting in a virtual existence is.Very good read. The end of the article has a link to a PDF book about the conference, but it's hidden behind Science's membership wall. Still, Bohannon writes clearly and fairly about the game, and it's fun to think of a bunch of scientists actually trying to navigate a virtual world while doing their own research.
Reminder: WoW Insider Show episode 11 live tomorrow afternoon
This show goes all the way to 11, and you can be there with us live tomorrow. Turpster and I (and a few other folks from WoW Insider and WoW Radio) will go live on WoW Radio at 3:30pm EST tomorrow afternoon for episode number 11 on the WoW Insider show.On this week's episode, odds are that we'll chat about World of Warcraft-- what's that? Oh, you want specifics? Patch 2.3 is the topic of the week-- everyone wants to know what's changing, how to deal with the changes, and why changes aren't happening (that last part is for you, Shamans). Also, after basically discovering that it's cheaper to buy the cards than the packs to get the loot cards, you might imagine that I have some interesting opinions on that, and you'd be right.So come check us out tomorrow afternoon at WoW Radio and on irc at irc.wowirc.com in #wowradio. See you then.
Zipit reveals Z2 Wireless Messenger for IM addicts
It's been quite some time since we've heard from Zipit, but the company is hitting back with a second version of its trendy Wireless Messenger. The Z2 doesn't deviate too far from the original's design, but the keyboard left a lot to be desired during our limited playtime. As expected, this handheld unit works on any WiFi network and supports AOL, Yahoo and MSN IM platforms so users can carry on multiple conversations. Furthermore, you'll find an integrated music player (dubbed MyTunez) that can play back files stored on your miniSD card or tunes streamed from the 'net, and the MyPhotoz feature lets you view photo slideshows, too. For those interested, it'll be available next month for $149.99, and if you hadn't already noticed, a host of hands-on photos are waiting below.%Gallery-7836%
Breakfast topic: Whoops MT
"Hey guys, anyone want to run SL?""Sorry, can't, about to log.""Sure, what classes you have?""Just me and the tank right now.""I'll go, invite me.""And that's when I had to whip it out, right in front of everyone.""... what?""WTF?""Whoops MT sorry.""wow."What's the craziest mistell you've ever heard?
Dude, can you get on Teamspeak?
I can't remember the first time I was invited on Teamspeak (some people use Ventrilo as well-- I've got both free programs installed on my PC, just in case) for an instance-- for some reason, I'm thinking it wasn't until I got invited to a raid at level 60, but considering the way that things are now, I'm really surprised it wasn't earlier. Maybe it's just because almost every instance I run is with guildies, but TS is basically a requirement for grouping-- a requirement that most of us are happy to comply with, but a requirement nonetheless.Yakov isn't so compliant-- he says Vent is a crutch, and the fact that every group he enters asks him to "jump on Vent" is rubbing him the wrong way. He says a simple 5 man run doesn't call for using Vent, and that he'd rather listen to his music then his guildies chatting it up on Teamspeak.I disagree-- not only is it more fun to chat with people on Vent (I tend to know the guildies I've talked to on TS better than the others), but it's just plain helpful, whether the instance is hard or not. If you're disappointed that your guild isn't asking you to come on more instance runs with them, and you haven't downloaded Vent or TS yet, that's probably why.Of course, like all things, Vent can go horribly wrong. You can be annoyed by your guildies' voices (I'll just say that some people's accents are a little offputting and leave it at that), or like Yakov, you can rather listen to music then random guild gossip. But especially if you're a player just getting to the endgame where there's a lot to learn, jumping on Vent is one of the best things you can do to make sure you know what's going on when. It's not a difficulty thing, although coordinating a pull on TS is much easier than typing strat in the chat channel. It's more of a communication thing-- the more and the faster comm there is, the better you'll all be.
