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Will WWDC break Twitter?
In the Venn diagram of users, the intersection of "Mac" and "Twitter" appears to be quite large. Why this is, I'm not sure, but it's true that many Mac users rely on the short-message broadcasting service for their day-to-day lives. There's some concern in both communities that the flood of new tweets about announcements at tomorrow's WWDC will break the back of the Twitter infrastructure. Their uptime has been mostly in the 90s this month, with some features still disabled for performance reasons. Do you think it will hold up? What will do you if Twitter grinds itself into metal shavings? A poll and results, plus more updates (!!) all after the jump.
Location-Aware Computing with iPhone
If the iPhone has done anything, it's brought prominence to location-based computing. Where you compute has become as important as what you compute. A few months back, I helped out a TUAW reader by building a location application called Findme. It automatically fed the iPhone's location to Twitter, providing an emergency fallback in case the iPhone was lost or stolen. How people started using Findme really took me by surprise. Read on to find out why.
MMO 2.0 and the next generation of online gaming
Geoff at MMOCrunch wrote an interesting piece on the 'next gen' in online gaming. Specifically, why there is no next gen. He comments on some of the recent successes in the MMO space, namely the subscription numbers of the Big Five MMO's and the smooth release of Age of Conan. He also hails EVE Online's break from typical MMO archetypes as a kind of successful deviance, but one that hasn't truly changed how we play. The forward momentum in the online gaming industry has brought a great deal of fanfare but little true innovation, Geoff asserts. Sure, some MMO's are successful, but it seems they're all a re-hash of what's been done before. A little more polish, a few more features... he laments the fact that "there seems to be very little that is truly pushing the genre towards the next step." He looks to how the web has changed, improved exponentially, while online gaming hasn't kept pace.
Delicious Library 2 beta on the streets
In a Memorial Day treat for users, Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster announced via a tweet earlier this evening that a beta of Delicious Library 2 is now available for download and purchase. We've been waiting eagerly for DL2 for quite a while now, along with everyone else.Interestingly, on first launch of the new beta you're presented with the dialog on the right. Apparently DL2's scrolling and display performance relies on fixes delivered in Mac OS X 10.5.3 -- that is, fixes you can't get yet in an OS build that hasn't shipped. Patience is a virtue, I suppose.Update: Wil Shipley replies below. The beta test is of the integrated store functionality in DL2; the software itself is not launched yet, so be cautious.
Status Screen Saver 1.0
Are you so addicted to RSS, Mail, and Twitterrific that you just can't stand when your screen saver launches? Status Screen Saver might just be the screen saver for you. The awesome thing about this screen saver is that is displays your current unread Mail count, unread NetNewsWire feeds, and even unread tweets from Twitterrific. You can select a screen saver that you have installed in the Status Screen Saver options.Even better, Status Screen Saver allows you to (with some AppleScripting) create your own "modules" which opens up unlimited possibilities to what can be shown in Status Screen Saver. So, if you use something other than the supported applications, you can (if the application is scriptable) make an AppleScript to give a number, then place it in the Screen Saver.saver/Contents/Resources/ directory. Overall, this is a really cool screen saver which can be expanded upon by the user. You can download this free (donations accepted) screen saver by visiting the developer's website.
SmallWorlds announces open beta
There must be something in the (virtual) air. If this year doesn't see everyone moving en masse to Flash-based, personal virtual worlds cum social spaces, then it certainly isn't for lack of trying. SmallWorlds joins Whirled and Metaplace as virtual worlds you can embed in your own blog, forum, home page or what have you. Need a place to watch "The Guild" with your friends between rousing games of Chinese Checkers? You got it. SmallWorlds can bring YouTubes, Twitters, Flickrs, games and more into your little isometric 3D corner of the web. Avatars are fully customizable, and so are their pets (!!!). SmallWorlds is going into open beta June 2 after eighteen months of development. They'll be letting the first thousand people who sign up for the beta in a week early. If you're at all interested in seeing what you can build with their tools and how many friends you can crowd into your little virtual cabana, why not visit their site and sign up for the beta?%Gallery-23361%
Blogo 1.1 emerges from Brainjuice
Attention all bloggers! The nerd bunnies at Brainjuice have just released Blogo 1.1, the latest take on their Mac OS X blogging tool. Blogo 1.1 now includes support for Drupal and Twitter in addition to WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, typo, and MovableType.The new Twitter support allows users to post tweets and direct messages from Blogo, and can even send a tweet whenever you post. Brainjuice has fixed some existing issues, as well as adding these new features: Support for raw image formats Integration with NetNewsWire and Safari Use of Growl for all user notifications New text formatting options (quotes, lists, aligned, justified) Custom cropping of thumbnails independently of the full-size images To give Blogo 1.1 a try, download a 21-day unlimited trial or purchase the app for $25.
Twitter supposedly used to control house lights
We'll preface this by saying this whole thing could be one giant hoax, but it's most certainly within the realm of possibility. We're told it's a mixture of Insteon, SMS and Twitter, all of which are utilized in order to give one particular homeowner the ability to activate / turn off lights remotely by sending a specific message to the latter. If your interest is unquestionably piqued, click on through to check out the video -- 'tis a shame there's no how-to guide to be found.[Via Digital Tech News]
Twitterers on what makes an epic encounter
As you may have heard the other day, our Twitter account is up and running, and one of the most vocal participants so far has been our new Priest blogger, Matticus from World of Matticus. The other day, he posted a question on the Twitter account that he'd also asked people on his own blog: what makes an encounter epic?The answers are all pretty good (I've put them all behind the break -- thanks, Twitterers!). From what most people said, lore and story play a huge part in making a fight feel epic, and not just the story of the game, but the story of the guild playing as well -- when your guild almost wipes, and pulls off a great kill, that's an epic battle whether it's in Karazhan or in Sunwell Plateau. Challenge also helps -- people raid to be pushed to the edge of their endgame abilities, and when a well-tuned fight does that, it's one of the best experiences in the game.Great answers all -- hopefully we'll get to see more epic encounters than not in the Wrath of the Lich King (as Matticus points out, we don't need 40 or even 25 players to have a truly epic encounter with Arthas). And if you haven't started following our Twitter account (@WoWInsider) yet, please do, and stay tuned for more interesting and informal Twitter polls like this.
WoW Insider Twitter returns with updates from the whole team
Back during Blizzcon last year (it seems so long ago now, doesn't it?) we started up a WoW Insider Twitter account so you folks could get updates from right there on site as the event went down. After Blizzcon ended, though, we left the account to lay dormant for a while, and we didn't post any tweets in a few months. We're back, though -- if you're on Twitter, make sure to head over there and follow our feed.Twitter, if you're unaware, is a fun little messaging service, about halfway between email and instant messenger. From now on, our Twitter account (@WoWInsider, obviously) will feature not only periodic updates on posts we think worth tweeting about, but also little insights on what our writers are up to around the realms, whether it's grinding rep in Blade's Edge, raiding Black Temple with our guilds, or running an ICftB event.It's just another fun way to see what we're up to (especially for smaller, more personal things that don't really warrant a whole post). You can follow our feed on the Twitter link above, and soon, we should have Twitter updates posted here on our homepage as well. WoW Insider's Twitter is back -- if you're on Twitter, make sure to follow and keep an eye on what we're doing.
The Daily Grind: Do MMOs need more social networking services?
Web 2.0 is all about giving Joe User more choice, more of a voice, and more opportunities for interaction. User-created content is king, as witness the rise of such sites as YouTube. However, many MMOs are still closed systems -- you can't talk to your gTalk friends within World of Warcraft, you can't post to Twitter from Tabula Rasa, and you can't there's no Facebook integration with Everquest 2.But who cares? Chances are you're too busy playing to care about any of those things anyway. However, as these apps mature, and people find more ways to integrate them with everything else, it probably won't be too long before new MMOs will offer connectivity with them right out of the gate. Will this be a boon or a bother? Do you wish your favorite MMO already had this integration?
Flickr Find: Twitter in Mac OS X developer tools
An avid reader of TUAW, Chris Thomson, sent us a link to a Flickr picture (being the nosy people we are, we clicked the link). What we found surprised us -- a Twitter Quartz Composer composition was included as a part of the Mac OS X developer tools for Leopard. "Twitterverse," when tweaked right, can be used as an OS X screen saver and display all of your friends tweets in a graphical way. You can find this Quartz composition in the ~/Developer/Examples/Quartz Composer/Compositions/XML/The Twitterverse/The Twitterverse.qtz. If you want to add it as a screen saver, just drag it onto the preview in the "Screen Saver" part of the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane (in System Preferences.app). You can then add your username / password in the screen saver options.Thanks, Chris!
Hahlo 3: now out of beta
We at TUAW HQ definitely have an obsession with Twitter. We use Twitterrific for the Mac, and Hahlo for iPhone. Hahlo provides great features in a beautiful, usable user interface. A couple weeks ago we got a sneak peek at the beta of Hahlo 3 (titled "the Legendary Edition"), but now you can try it out for yourself. That's because Hahlo 3 was released to the public today. In addition to a completely revamped UI, the new version integrates full searching capabilities via Summize.To try out Hahlo 3 for yourself, just point Mobile Safari over to http://hahlo.com. It's free and easy to use. If you don't have an iPod touch or iPhone, you can get to Hahlo from any standards-compliant modern browser (Safari 3, Firefox, etc.).
Cinemassively: More Linden parodies
Apparently employees of Linden Lab are easy targets, because there are not one, but two parodies on the menu today! The first machinima comes from Crap Mariner, and it introduces us to his version of M Linden, who recently signed on as the new CEO of LL. In Crap's Second Life, he's a sassy little M shape with wandering eyes.The second spoof is another special episode of Bobby Lee Linden, everyone's favorite dimwitted, lovable redneck. This time, with the help of machinimator Code Tracer, he weighs in on the hiring of M Linden, as well as tips on using camera controls. Due to some adult content, we're just linking to the episode instead of embedding it. If you haven't experienced the madness yet, don't forget to add Secondlie on Twitter. With an average of over 50 tweets per day, the workdays will seem much shorter when you're laughing the entire time. Parodies have never been so good!If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
TUAW previews Hahlo 3: the Legendary Edition
John Gruber's (and my) favorite Twitter web app for the iPhone is about to get better -- if you've been on the Hahlo for iPhone homepage lately, you'll have seen that Dean Robinson is working on version 3 of Hahlo (titled, hilariously for us gamers, the Legendary Edition).TUAW got to take a look (along with all of the other beta users) at the new software, and here's a short preview running through what the new Hahlo will look like, as well as updates to the system, including a brand new Settings page, inline replies, hashtags and searching, and lots of other cool tweaks and updates.Our preview starts right after the jump.
Twinkle: location-aware Twittter client for iPhone
According to Installer, Twinkle from Gogo Apps is "Twitter plus Location." It's a Twitter client that adds photos and geolocation as well as clickable URLs and Follow / Stop Following control within the app. With it, you can find people twittering near you -- in fact it seems to be using my findme utility to power its location-awareness. And no, I have no financial interest in this thing -- I gave permission for them to use the utility so long as the app remains non-commercial. I logged in, entered my Twitter account info (yes, the account information is stored in clear text in ~mobile/Library/Preferences) and within seconds, it found tweets within 50 miles of my location. You can tweet directly from Twinkle. Tap the pencil button at the top-right corner (it's the one that for quite a while I mistook for a mis-shaped lower-case "i"). From there, you can enter your tweet, specify whether to tag with a location and optionally snap a photo. Twinkle offers a professionally designed interface and good ease of use. The only negative occurred after I mistyped my password. I ended up in an infinite loop of authentication errors and had to force-quit the application. %Gallery-21217%
Cinemassively: Public service announcements with "Bobby Lee Linden"
(Warning: The video above is brief and tame, but the videos linked to this creator do contain some adult language and subject matter.)After the initial hype of Second Life died down, there started to be an intense backlash in the way the media reported on it. However, the residents stayed strong defenders of the virtual world. That appears to have changed over the weekend, though, as evidenced by Secondlie and Bobby Lee Linden.Both accounts are humorous parodies of Linden Lab and their employees. Secondlie mysteriously materialized on Twitter on Thursday night, and has amassed an incredible 300 updates, spoofing notices about everything from JIRA to the Terms of Service. Then this morning, someone released a series of introductions, as well as a cheeky first episode, for a King of the Hill-esque show with a redneck "employee" of LL. Which parody do you like better?If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Native MobileTwitter for jailbroken iPhones
Many of have been waiting for a native iPhone twitter client for a long time. And while we wait for Craig Hockenberry's efforts to bear fruit, presumably in June, it's good to see MobileTwitter from Nicholas Pike which just recently showed up in the STE repository for Installer.app. While there are definitely some rough edges, it basically works as advertised and seems superior to the Mobile Safari based options. Having the button bar at the bottom, however, seems less than ideal as it's rather too easy to hit while typing an update. Nonetheless, MobileTwitter is worth checking out for the Twitter-obsessed, especially considering the improvements Nicholas has promised are coming.MobileTwitter is a free download (though much more easily done from Installer) and naturally requires a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.
Warhawk patch v1.3 coming tomorrow
If you're subscribed to Sony's Twitter feed you may have received a gentle "reminder" today sent directly to your mobile (sorry, cell phone) telling you that Warhawk's v1.3 patch will be arriving tomorrow. Reminder? This is the first we've heard of it. All we knew was that it would be arriving in "early April." We've had a look at a calendar today and that's now.Warhawk servers will be experiencing downtime between 10am and 4pm GMT (6am and 12pm EST) after which the patch will be made available to download. Why should you be interested? Don't tell us you've forgotten all the cool stuff v1.3 adds. Along with the two new melee weapons, there will be more vehicle paintjobs and insignias. Not to mention the bizarrely early Home launching feature. Bizarrely early? Or is it?
Wii Fanboy crashes the twitter party
So we heard this whole twitter thing is the bomb diggity and we had to just see for ourselves. And, since our overlords at Joystiq found the service to be quite useful during GDC, we figured we'd do our duty and hop on this bandwagon fashionably late. If you're a twitter user, we're at twitter.com/wiifanboy, so add us and keep track of our daily lives as we blog while chained to a radiator. We'll update you all on important news items, such as what we're eating for lunch. Oh, and we'll try and tell you some stuff about the Wii, too!Should twitter be your kind of thing, take advantage of our feed. If not, well then consider this another popular internet thing you're not a part of. You're such a rebel!
