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AOL Reader beta officially available for your RSS-perusing needs (hands-on)
Wondering how AOL's RSS client will rank as a Google Reader replacement? Today's the day we find out, as the doors to the AOL Reader beta have officially swung open. Feedly's been absorbing Google's castaways for weeks now, and Digg's only two days away from launching its own freemium RSS client -- but we couldn't resist getting an early taste of what our parent company (Disclaimer alert!) is cooking. Join us after the break for all the details about this latest entrant in the field of feed readers.
The Daily Grind: What do you like to see on MMO websites?
During my time with Massively and as a gamer, I've visited scads of official MMO websites. And I can say, incontrovertibly, that no two of them had the same features and focus. Some were extremely easy to navigate while others were almost indecipherable without the Staff of Ra to guide me. Some were more about flash while others were loaded with content. And some, to my never-ending dismay, still lack an RSS feed which I cannot fathom in this day and age. But enough about my journeys -- I want to hear about your own thoughts on MMO websites. What do you like to see when you visit one? Are the aesthetics important to you, or are you more concerned with specific features? Are these websites more for first-time visitors curious about the game or should they cater to players looking for news and updates about their favorite titles? For bonus points, provide a link below to (in your opinion) the best-designed MMO website! 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!
Berg's Little Printer churns out RSS feeds with a receipt and a smile
It's hard to think of a device more aptly named than BergCloud's Little Printer. It's little. It prints. It even smiles at you. And why wouldn't it? It's adorable. Equally notable is what it produces -- RSS feeds printed out on grocery store-style receipts. All you have to do is hook it up to your router, configure your RSS subscriptions from your smartphone and press a button to print them out. The Little Printer connects wirelessly to a small box that's plugged into your router. This box, in turn, interfaces with the Berg Cloud (also unveiled this week), providing constant updates and pulling down any web content you've selected. If, for instance, you want to print out Foursquare updates, you can use the app to add them to your queue and print them out for later reading. It's basically like InstaPaper... with more paper. BergCloud has already struck partnerships with ARUP, Foursquare, The Guardian, Nike and Google, though more are on the way. No word yet on pricing, but the device is slated to go up for pre-order sometime next year. Check it out in action, after the break. [Thanks, Dave]
Don't tell us where you're going, Nissan Leaf driver, we already know (video)
That cute little bugger above certainly looks innocent enough, but it might have been spreading some pretty detailed gossip behind your back. Leaf-driver Casey Halverson was playing around with the RSS reader in his Carwings system when he discovered that it wasn't just collecting feeds from RSS servers, it was also telling those servers his car's current location, speed, heading and even the destination he'd set in the sat nav. Strangely, Halverson's undercover tattletale appears to have halted its indiscretions after he posted the discovery on his blog, but we're surmising there's still hundreds of server logs up and down the country that prove it really happened, not to mention his video after the break. Cue Rockwell, fade to black.
TUAW Tip: Generate iTunes Store RSS feeds
iTunes obviously has a great deal of data about its sales; Apple is quite aware of the top sellers among its music, apps, movies and podcasts. That information is also available through RSS feeds. If you want to share that data on your website, or even if you just want it in your RSS reader, you can use the official iTunes RSS Generator to get the right feed. You can refine the RSS feed created by Country, Media Type, Feed Type, Size and whether to allow explicit content. The Media Types available include Music, Podcasts, Audiobooks, TV Shows, Music Videos, Movies, Mac Apps and Apps. There are obviously many options under each media type, so you should check it out and see what's available. Just punch in the criteria you want to follow, hit "Generate" and then hook up that feed to an RSS reader, and you'll be kept up to date on the latest changes in the iTunes stores.
Update to the Massively makeover
Hello, readers! It's been a few weeks since our massive Massively site overhaul landed, and our web gurus have been scurrying in the background fixing bugs and responding to your reports. Not all of the bugs have been vaporized just yet, but we'd like to update you on the status of some of the problems that most affect you. RSS -- Our most-reported problem over the last few weeks revolved around our RSS feeds. Many users reported a doubling-up of posts as the site spewed out two copies of every post. Others reported an inability to subscribe to specific categories and bloggers, and still others were finding that every RSS feed was producing copies of the podcast (great news for podcast fans, I guess!). Our techs currently report that all of our RSS feeds should be functioning now, but they note that many RSS readers do not well tolerate the kind of switcheroo we had to do. If you're still having problems, unsubscribe again from all of your Massively feeds and try resubbing one more time. I can tell you that I am using Google Reader and stopped having problems a few days ago. If you need to resub to specific feeds, this will help: for the writers, visit the individual pages on our team portal; for columns and features, hop over to our columns list; and for specific games, click on your chosen game in the games list for a category with a feed button. There's more behind the cut... follow along!
A quick note on our RSS feeds and iTunes issues
If you haven't noticed, your intrepid WoW Insider team has been going through some ch-ch-ch-ch-changes lately. And sometimes, when you're undergoing such vital and overwhelming upgrades, certain pieces of the ship need a little more loving care than others. Right now, our goblin-engineered RSS feed and gnomish iTunes systems are getting overhauled and fixed up. Both services are being cranky, but the stalwart code slingers at Aol are working on fixes. In the meantime, just hang in there with us a tiny bit longer. It'll be OK soon enough, and we can all enjoy our shiny new WoW Insider. We'd like to thank those of you who have written us to make sure we know about the RSS feed, podcast and iTunes issues. Our community is a wonderful group of people whose feedback has helped us excel. We appreciate the time you took to write in. It shows you care, and we will keep trying to return the best content possible.
Anti-Aliased: I've got nothing to hide
So, it's late night on Wednesday night, I just got done watching Top Gear, and I need something to write about. Lucky for me that Blizzard has given me the perfect topic -- MMO privacy. Thanks to a new development in their World of Warcraft Armory program, privacy advocates are up in arms and I've got a topic to discuss. For all those of you who may be late to the game, Blizzard is adding RSS feeds to the Armory. Basically, the Armory will now report on the exact time you do an "Armory worthy" activity, such as boss kills, achievements, item pickups, and more. People can subscribe to your RSS feed, so then they know exactly when you do something in World of Warcraft. This has, of course, sent privacy advocates into a tailspin of anger. There's no opt-out button for the Armory, so your playing style in World of Warcraft is going to be exposed whether you like it or not. The topic has even spawned a 59+ page thread on the European forums! So what's my take on it? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here at Anti-Aliased, I've got nothing to hide.
WoW.com's RSS feed issues should be fixed now
A lot of you have noticed some issues with our RSS feed this afternoon (and a little bit last night) and trust me, we know that you know. Our inbox has been absolutely flooded! So to try and help the confusion (and slow the flood of e-mails), here's what happened: Our network (us, Joystiq, Massively, Engadget, etc) was hit with a few database problems over the last 24 hours. It's nothing to worry about, everything is fixed now and should be just fine. In the process of making things fine, our RSS feed was pinged with all sorts of 'new' information, causing the duplicates that a lot of you saw. Seven postings of the latest Around Azeroth? WTF? Yeah, sorry about that. We definitely keep an eye on our own RSS feed to make sure everything is going smoothly, so if it isn't, we'll know about it pretty quickly.Again, we're sorry about the spam to you guys using our RSS feed. To those of you that aren't using our RSS feed... why aren't you using it!? Google Reader is probably one of the most convenient things ever. You can find out about our various feed offerings over here.
Never wonder about Lord of the Rings server status again
Play Lord of the Rings Online? Yes? Good. Now, are you running Windows Vista? If you said yes again, then do we have a gadget for you.Galdorad over at the LotRO forums has found a pretty nice gadget for the Vista sidebar that checks in on the status of LotRO servers. He's made a few tweaks to the gadget to add some more functionality, but it's still a handy little gadget that can keep you apprised of the game's state.With it, you don't have to log into the patcher or leave it running, if you want to keep your system resources down. If you're interested, you can jump on the gadget download over at the forum post, which also shows you how to add the LotRO patcher news feed into your Vista RSS reader.And yes, we know you're going to complain about Vista in the comments. We're psychic, you know.[Via 2 High Road]
WoW Insider Show Episode 61: Filling the achievement tank
Here's episode number 61 of the WoW Insider Show, recorded last Saturday over on our Ustream page. On the show last week, we welcomed WoW Insider's Matthew Rossi back to the virtual airwaves, along with blogger Amanda Dean and our good friend Duncor of WoW Radio. And we talked a little more about achievements and which ones we liked the most, what was going on with all the zombie action, and of course since Rossi was around, we churned up some good discussion about what's up with Warriors, other tanks, and Shamans since the big Wrath patch.Lots of people have been asking questions about how to get the show, so after the break, I've included an exhaustive guide to how you can get our show nowadays. I apologize to everyone who's had problems so far -- obviously, with the switch from WoW Radio, we've had to deal with some tech roadblocks, but if you check after the break, you should find a way to listen to the show that fits what you want to do.Thanks for listening -- we'll be back as always next week![Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Or listen to Episode 61 right here:
How to get Wowhead tooltips in Google Reader
An ode: Wowhead tooltips, O how I heart thee! I wish...eth I wouldst to be able to carry thou aroundst in mine pockets. (Did people even have pockets back when they went around saying thee and thou? Mine coineth purse?) Anyway, the point is: we love Wowhead tooltips because all it takes is a mouse-hover to find out everything you want to know about an item mentioned on WoW Insider or other websites. And now that you've gone ahead and put WoW Insider on your Google Reader, you can take the next step to get the nifty little tooltips in to show up in your RSS feeds.Here's how:
How to put Massively on your web site and computer
Everyone these days either has a blog or a guild site that they post to regularly; and it's especially common amongst the greater MMORPG community. One of the neat features of most of these sites is that they allow you to subscribe to other blogs, like Massively. The software of these sites and tools can put up our headlines in easy to access places, so you and all your friends can stay up to date on the latest Massively news.Getting this setup might seem like a hard thing to do, but it's really not. In fact, with our guide, complete with pictures, you'll be able to get Massively's latest news on your site in no time! We give you step-by-step instructions for sites and software like Guild Portal, Guild Launch, Blogger.com, Word Press, vBulletin, Google Reader, Outlook, and more. We also tell you the info you need to get our news setup on any other site.Continue reading on for a complete list of guides we provide.
How to put Massively on your WordPress blog
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put Massively on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index. Note that the images in the guide are for illustration only and you can replace all references to WoW Insider with Massively. About WordPress WordPress is a fancy blogging site that has a lot of features. In fact, I think it has more features than Google's blogger.com. However, it's not as easy to use, nor does it flow as well as blogger.com does. Nonetheless, it's a really great site and is pretty popular. Getting Massively on your wordpress.com site isn't hard at all. How to syndicate Massively on your wordpress.com blog 1. Open up the Dashboard of your wordpress.com blog. This is where you create posts and edit your blog site. 2. Click on the top "Presentation" tab, and then click on the "Widgets" tab right bellow that. You want to see the screen pictured above.3. Scroll down until you see the "RSS 1" widget. Left click and hold on the widget rectangle.
How to put Massively on your PHP enabled website
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put Massively on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index.About PHP and RSS PHP is a very fun programming language. Just like most MMOs, it is easy to learn, and difficult to master. The idea behind PHP is that you enter a script, located within your webpage, and the server processes the script as it send the webpage to your visitor's web browser. PHP and things like it literally power the web – everything from Massively, to Google, to Amazon. For more information on PHP, I highly recommend O'Reilly's book Learning PHP. How to get syndicate Massively using Magpie RSS The easiest RSS syndication addon for PHP I've found is Magpie RSS. It's quite simple to use, and can easily integrate itself into existing page architecture. A sample Magpie script that would syndicate Massively would look like this: require_once 'rss_fetch.inc'; $url = ' http://massively.joystiq.com/rss.xml; $rss = fetch_rss($url); echo "Site: ", $rss->channel['title'], "<br>"; foreach ($rss->items as $item ) { $title = $item[title]; $url = $item[link]; echo "<a href=$url>$title</a></li><br>"; } Of course, the above is just a rough template and doesn't include any formatting or bulleting or anything like that. Where other sites and tools listed above will provide you with lots of bells and whistles off the bat, PHP is bare bones – you have to make everything from scratch. Luckily there's a lot of great information out there and most of the work has already been done. However, that work is beyond the scope of this guide.If you want the Massively feed for a particular game, you'll find the rss feed url next to the name of the game in the side bar of our site. Copy and paste that url into the script.
How to get Massively on your RSS software
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put Massively on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index. Note that the images in the guide are for illustration only and you can replace all references to WoW Insider with Massively.About a generic RSS feed With all of our previous guides, we've basically setup the site using the RSS address for Massively. Getting this address, or any other site's address, is pretty easy – but often not understood. The old adage "If you teach a man to fish, he can eat for his life," comes into play here. If you can get the RSS address for Massively, then you can get it for any page and use the other guides to syndicate any other site. How to get Massively's RSS Feed Address 1. Go to http://massively.joystiq.com/ 2. Click on the little orange RSS icon in the address bar. 3. You'll be taken the RSS feed, and you'll see that the address in the address bar has changed. For Massively, this happens to be http://massively.joystiq.com/rss.xml . Each site will different. Just copy this address – this is the RSS feed address. 4. Use this address in any program or website that can accept it! Massively, or any other site, can easily be syndicated like this.If you want the Massively feed for a particular game, you'll find the category of the game in the side bar of our site. Click on that and copy & paste the url of that category into your RSS reader.
How to put Massively on your Guild Launch website
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put Massively on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index. Note that the images in the guide are for illustration only and you can replace all references to WoW Insider with Massively.About Guild Launch Guild Launch is a popular site that hosts guild's websites. It's popular because it has advanced forums, integrated wikis for each guild, easy administration, and lots of space for file storage. It's also not to hard to use, and the free version is pretty good. How to syndicate Massively on your Guild Launch website 1. Log in as an administrator. 2. In the Site Admin area of your sidebar on the left of the webpage, click "Sidebar Widgets". For me, it's the last option. 3. Choose a widget, in this case an "RSS Feed" widget. You can also specify where you want the widget to go. 4. Click the "Add Widget" button. 5. You'll now see that you've added an RSS Feed to your site's layout. Click the little pencil in the RSS Feed box. 6. Fill in the settings as you see above. 7. Click the "Submit" button. 8. You'll see now that the settings reflect the changes you've made, and you're ready to go! You've just added Massively to your Guild Launch site!If you want the Massively feed for a particular game, you'll find the rss feed url next to the name of the game in the side bar of our site.
How to put Massively on your Blogger.com blog
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put Massively on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index. Note that the images in the guide are for illustration only and you can replace all references to WoW Insider with Massively.About blogger.com This site is owned and operated by Google, and has a lot of popular features. It's very popular and easy to use. You can be rest assured that while the site looks, and is, easy to use, there is still a lot of power with it, just like anything else the folks over at Google produce. How to syndicate Massively on your blogger.com blog Log on to your blogger.com blog and head over to the Dashboard. This is where you write your posts. Click on the Layout tab. It's located right under the name of your blog, in the upper left hand corner of the webpage. While in the Layout tab, click on the "Add a Page Element" rectangle in the middle of the webpage. A window called "Choose a New Page Element" will come up. Scroll down until you see the Feed element and click the big blue "Add To Blog" button. Enter the RSS feed URL as seen in the above screenshot. It's http://massively.joystiq.com/rss.xml Click the orange "Continue" button. Title the feed, and choose the options you want. You can see what the feed will look like on your site in the preview box. Click the orange "Save Changes" button. You will be returned to the Layout tab of your Dashboard. You can see that Massively is now listed in your side page elements. Click the orange "Save" button. You're done! You've now added a Massively feed to your blogger.com site! If you want the Massively feed for a particular game, you'll find the rss feed url next to the name of the game in the side bar of our site.
How to put Massively on your vBulletin Board forum
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put Massively on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index. Note that the images in the guide are for illustration only and you can replace all references to WoW Insider with Massively.About vBulletin Board vBulletin Board is a very advanced piece of software that has to be installed on a website. It uses backend technology to make a very nice forum website. Ask your web provider if they have a vBulletin Board system setup for you already. If not, you might have to go through installing it and setting up the basic functionality. While this process is not too hard, it is beyond the scope of this guide. However, once everything is all setup, getting Massively syndicated on your vBulletin Board site is easy. How to syndicate Massively on your vBulletin Board website 1. Log in as an administrator. 2. Scroll down the left side administrator tools until you see "RSS Feeds". Expand that topic, and select "Add New RSS Feed". 3. Fill in the information as shown above, and select the options that fit your needs. 4. Scroll down and click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. 5. That's it. You're now syndicating Massively on your vBulletin Board site! Give it five to ten minutes to grab the news from Massively, and you'll soon see it on your site's forums.If you want the Massively feed for a particular game, you'll find the rss feed url next to the name of the game in the side bar of our site
How to put Massively in your MS Outlook feeds
In an ongoing series of articles we'll show you how to put Massively on your own blog, guild website, personal website, or even on your computer's desktop. For a complete list of the software that's covered, check out our guide's index. Note that the images in the guide are for illustration only and you can replace all references to WoW Insider with Massively.About Microsoft Outlook Outlook is a staple of many businesses. While the program itself does have its problems, no one can deny its overwhelming acceptance in the work place. Because of this, people often spend hours a day in Outlook – answering emails, scheduling with the calendar, and managing contacts. One of the features that Microsoft has included in Outlook is an ability to subscribe to RSS news feeds. By adding Massively to your Outlook news feeds, you can conspicuously stay abreast of MMO news while at work. How to add Massively to Microsoft Outlook 1. Open up Microsoft Outlook 2. Right click the "RSS Feeds" item located on the Folders bar on the left hand side of the screen. 3. Select "Add a New RSS Feed..." 4. This will open up the "New RSS Feed" window. Enter WoW Insider's RSS feed address, which as pictured above, is http://massively.joystiq.com/rss.xml . 5. Click the "Add" button. 6. Outlook will likely ask if you want to add the feed, and ask if you trust WoW Insider. Click the "Yes" button. 7. You're done! Massively posts will appear just like other emails will in the preview pane of Outlook. This is great for work environments!If you want the Massively feed for a particular game, you'll find the rss feed url next to the name of the game in the side bar of our site
