social
Games
Onyx Online Could Turn iPhones Into Nifty Social Gaming Devices
12:00AM Jack Loftus | Onyx Online, for the iPhone, is kind of like Xbox Live. Sort of. The ambitious service is the brainchild of Trism developer Steve Demeter, who hopes to add a slew of “social media” features to iPhone games, like leaderboards, achievements, forums, and the like. There’s even a pissing contest feature, wherein Onyx-enabled games will allow players to view each other’s profiles, scores, challenge friends, and see what games people are playing. Like we said, just add a headset and some 15-year-old boys screaming “your gay” and you have Xbox Live (and no, there’s no typo there— even when they scream it, they use the wrong spelling, just like in the forums). More »
Online
Cucku Social Backup Stores Your Data With Your Friend, Your Friend’s Data With You
5:20AM Jason Chen | Remember the concept of “porn buddy” as introduced on the UK show Coupling? You exchange keys with your most trusted friend, so in the event that you die an unexpected death, he (or she) would come over and take away all your porn so your family won’t find it when going through your stuff. This backup service Cucku is similar to that, except instead of taking away your porn when you die, your porn buddy keeps it safe for you while you’re still alive. Which is probably even better. More »
Online
Internet Dating: The Wedding Cake
12:15AM Mark Wilson | Mmmm. The self-promotional social lies of one couple manifested in cream and sugar. The hearted ethernet cord and Starbucks cups are particularly charming touches. But it would have been best if the groom had fessed up to his second family in Guam. [MAKE] More »
Entertainment
Internet Party 2: The MySpace Intervention
1:55AM Mark Wilson | The original Internet Party was a pretty funny video, but I’d say that the sequel is even tighter in its execution. Watch your favourite websites—almost scarily apt in their personification—tell MySpace that it’s time to stop. The actress playing IMDB is especially brilliant. More »
Design
Jive is Hardware-Based System to Get Grandpa Social-Networking
1:00AM Gizmodo US Edition | I thought silver-surfers were one of the fastest rising ‘netted sectors of society, but designer Ben Arent thinks there are technophobic grandparents who could do with a helping hand. His Jive system integrates hardware-based social networking gizmos with a simple router to make everything a bit simpler. The idea is that instead of using a mouse, you simply slot in a physical key to the “Betty” unit and it’ll do the online status updating automatically for you. More »
Software
Zune 2.5 Update Brings TV Shows, More Social Networking, Improved Software Features
1:28PM Jason Chen | The Zune 2.5 Spring update launches tomorrow, and with it comes purchasable TV shows and even more social networking functions. The big part is more tightly-integrated social stuff—like being able to see your friends’ Zune cards inside of the Zune software instead of heading to your browser—the upside of which is automatically getting the full tracks that your friends have recently listened to if you’re a Zune Pass subscriber. This takes up about 100 megs per friend card. There’s also improvement in the player itself, like the return of auto playlists and the introduction of gapless playback. Wee! More »
Gadgets
Olinda Radio Lets You Hear What Your Friends Are Listening to
11:37PM Gizmodo US Edition | Ever wondered what stations your friends are listening to just at the same moment as you spin the dial on your own radio? Well, that’s where Olinda comes in: a working prototype commissioned by the BBC, it’s got a plug-in module that lights up when your friends are online. A simple push of the corresponding button, and via Wi-Fi and the BBC’s “playing now” service you get to listen along with your pal. There’re other innovations too, including a double-tuning dial that lets you switch to stations alphabetically or just choose among your favourites. And because the design is modular it allows for expansion with other widget-like plug-in units. More »
Games
Sony’s PlayStation Home Expands Beta This Summer, Goes Open Beta Autumn 2008
4:01PM Jason Chen | PlayStation Home, the long-awaited PlayStation 3 social networking app, is finally going to see open beta starting Autumn 2008. Before that, if you’re one of the few lucky users chosen by Sony, you’ll be able to participate in the closed beta expanding some time in Summer 2008. No other real features have been announced lately, but if it’s still kept all the details announced back at GDC 2007, there’s going to be customisable avatars, modifiable living and common spaces, accomplishment galleries and lots of branding/third-party products. It’s basically a Second Life that doesn’t suck, and isn’t full of (as many) weirdos. More »
Gadgets
Mobile Phone-controlled Jukeboxes Bring New Meaning to Drunk Dialling
9:40AM Adrian Covert | Touch Tunes and LocaModa are linking up 30,000 Jukeboxes that can be controlled via mobile phone, meaning you don’t have to drunkenly stumble through hoards of people at a bar just to get some decent tunes. The juke boxes are all linked to media servers, that have the ability to export data into social networks such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. More »
Gadgets
