1. All of the notifications have been moved to the top left.

2. Search is far more important in this redesign.

3. Your profile picture and status appears on the homepage.

4. There’s a new border around the main content.

5. The ability to see your inbox from the homepage.

See for Yourself

Image courtesy of Mashable.com (click to enlarge)

As always, I expect there to be mass revolt in response to these changes. For the most part, they seem minor and also great improvements. While it might be nice to get a heads up (if these changes actually take place on a wider scale) I’m not going to cry myself to sleep because I want the old (what IS the old Facebook anymore, anyway?) site back.

Letout Outlet – Wall Electric Socket

Click to enlarge.

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More info.

Eko – Ecological and Economical Traffic Light Concept

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More info.

Cipher – Drinking Glass

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More info.

More of Damien’s Designs

Dose & Serve – Spaghetti Server with Doser

Twister – Fork with a Twist

USBee – Flash Disk Concept

Chigra – Amusing Tea Infuser

Mark – Night Light Bookmark

Leaning Towel – Papertowel Holder Reinvented

See them all HERE.

Have you ever wanted to have an app on your phone that told you about nearby deals and gave you points for going places? Would you like to be called the mayor of an establishment simply because you go there more than anyone else? Do you enjoy unlocking badges because you’ve accrued a certain number of points? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Foursquare may be for you.

In order to truly understand what Foursquare is all about, it’s probably best to check out their website.

As Foursquare Puts It:

Foursquare on your phone gives you & your friends new ways of exploring your city. Earn points & unlock badges for discovering new things.

Where Can You Use It?

These are the North American cities (as of November 29, 2009) where Foursquare is available:

North America: US: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Charlotte, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City (MO), Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New Haven, New York City, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Park City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, Tucson, Washington D.C.

Canada: Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver.

Mexico: Mexico City

If you’d like to add your city, go here.

Some Screenshots (Courtesy of Foursquare)

Check-Ins

Tips

Badges

Mayor

Until today, I had never even seen FarmVille in action. Sure, I had received all the Facebook notifications asking me to help my friends, but no part of me had any desire to do so. Then I read an article in TIME magazine called Zynga Harvests the Cyberfarmer, and decided to take a peek at this game so I could write about it. The article points out just how scammy and shady Zynga is (or at least was) with all kinds of outsourced offers that snag users into unknowingly shelling out cash.

I won’t criticize players of FarmVille, because I have friends who play it. I can see how the soothing guitar music would suck someone in (I have it playing in the background as I write this), but the game itself seems to just be a time-sucker and not even challenging. There are games out there that require strategy, problem-solving and cleverness. This does not appear to be one of those. As far as I can tell, it’s a simplistic game that depends on spreading the word to friends so that enough people will spend real money to buy farm money.

I understand that the SIMS-y/Second Life-y feel of FarmVille would be comforting to many people who enjoy the social aspect of the game. Hell, the game may even be a way to relieve some stress. According to the TIME article some people have gotten sucked into the darker aspects of the game

But because people who play free games on the Internet like the free part, Zynga needed a third income stream–product come-ons.

These offers are like ads, except that when you click on them, you’re agreeing to try and then buy a company’s service in exchange for game points. Sign up for a Netflix subscription, get two months free plus 100,000 points. Some players cancel as soon as they have the points. Other deals, like those that snagged Michelle, are shady. Michelle took a quiz that required her to enter her cell-phone number and a code. At some point during the exchange, there was supposed to be a notification that she was signing up for an SMS subscription at $9.99 a month. Michelle says she never saw it.

The article goes on to say that “for the moment, Zynga has removed all offers and says it’s going to vet each one before it appears”, but it still seems like the entire point of these games is to drain unsuspecting FauxFarmers out of real money. According to TIME:

There are two ways to move ahead in the game. One is to grind, as it’s known–plow, plant and harvest. Once you’ve grown, say, eggplant, you accumulate enough points to move up to a wider choice of crops. You invite friends to be your neighbors. You exchange gifts and help out, all of which let you accrue the capital you need to expand your farm, thus making it ever more remunerative.

But if you want to skip all that backbreaking plowing, er, clicking, or if you’ve run out of friends who faux-farm, you can buy farm cash and get what you want. These virtual goods are the products that social games are actually trying to hawk. People hand over real money for make-believe merchandise.

As you can see, I’m a friendless farmer, and that’s the way it will remain.

For anyone “lucky” enough to have tried Google Wave, you may recognize some of these complaints from users who were asked by Google to list some of their dislikes. Since the image is a little hard to read, I will list them from most common to least common (and may have some comments to add):

My friend/contacts don’t have accounts

I must say that it’s quite annoying to not have many contacts in Google Wave, but I’m not even sure that I would use it any more if I did. Without notifications, either instantly or via email, I just find it very inconvenient. Being a limited preview, it’s natural for early users to not have many friends using Wave.

It’s too slow

Can’t say I’ve really experienced the slowness, but I imagine to someone who’s trying to use it as an instant messenger that would be quite annoying.

Other, please specify

I wish it was an application, or at least behaved like Facebook Chat, in the sense that IT lets me know when I’ve received a response. Also, you can get Facebook chat through IM clients like Adium. Also, it feels like no matter where I click, I’ve begun a reply or new thread. So annoying.

It crashes too often and is buggy

Considering it’s still a preview, this is to be expected. Again, I haven’t experienced this.

I’d like read only waves so people can’t change my content

This drives me CRAZY! Although I can see the need for people to edit other peoples’ messages, it should be evident that someone else changed the content. Also, there should be a way to turn off the ability to do so.

I already have too many information sources to check

Yup. At some point we’re going to have to be content with using a few means of communication/socializing. It’s already out of control, and this only stands to make it more hectic. Let’s hope it eveolves into something WORTH using, in order to justify having yet another information source.

Scrolling up and down

Really? These people aren’t already accustomed to doing so, on websites and in emails?

Not enough features I want

Ditto. One of my first questions was “what does it do?”. Sure, it’s a preview, but let’s hope it becomes a little more exciting in the future.

Managing the amount of information that is in my Wave inbox

I also find this kind of annoying. It just doesn’t feel user-friendly.

No extensions, gadgets, robots that are relevant

I’m hoping this will change as further development takes place, but as of now there just isn’t much to do. Even the file uploading is disabled. Bleh.

Keeping up with the unread Wave messages

This is also pretty tiresome, to be honest. Sure, there’s the playback feature, but who wants to sit through all of that. It’s hard to know the actual order that things were written. The test waves that people create are one giant mess.

Live typing – don’t like how other people can see what I’m writing

I can see how this would create problems for many horrible typists, and second-thought-ers who don’t think before beginning to write. Other than that, I don’t see it as a huge fault. On the other hand, what benefit does it add?

My own typing displays too slowly

That may be a downside of showing your typing to others. I’d rather see what I’M typing rather than others’ as-they-type-it words.

Too hard to learn how to use it

Upon first glance it seems a little unclear what exactly a person is supposed to do. I’m a pretty geeky and computerly-proficient person, and even I wondered what the heck I was doing. There are videos that can help, but who really wants to do that? Especially if they have any of the above complaints.

Twilight Zone (the Original 50’s/60’s Version)

BONUS: The Outer Limits

So AT&T has struck back at Verizon’s coverage attack ads, by having Luke Wilson stand on a huge map and talk about all the areas where AT&T has coverage. It’s important to note that he says “coverage” and not “3G coverage”. I’m pretty sure he’s talking about places where a person can use their phone, but not at 3G speeds. I like Luke Wilson, but these commercials just rub me the wrong way. The fact that I am a Verizon customer has nothing to do with it, I swear.

The way I’ve seen them is as follows. This one airs:

then a couple of other commercials try to sell me stuff, and then the ad CONTINUES with this:

While I will admit that it’s kind of clever to have the conclusion after non-AT&T ads, it gets REALLY annoying when you see it numerous times in one night. This was the case during the CBS 2-hour comedy slot on Monday. I don’t know if AT&T assumes that people who watched the first hour weren’t tuning in for the second, but I personally got annoyed the second time around. Why? Because I knew precisely what was going to happen after the first ad cut off. Oh, Luke. You’re no Justin Long, and I would STILL be annoyed if I had to watch him in a similar ad.

New Ad

Now AT&T has a non-map-related ad with Luke Wilson, where he helps a Verizon customer multi-task. You see, AT&T allows its customers to talk on their phone and browse the web at the same time. That’s all fine and good, but who actually TALKS on their cell phones anymore? I honestly am rarely in a situation where I find myself on the phone and wanting to browse the web.

Apple Also Runs Multitasking Ads

To complete the 1-2 multi-tasking punch, Apple also has an ad that touts the iPhone’s ability to do voice and data simultaneously.

Too bad the iPhone can’t natively run multiple apps, like Pandora while web browsing or typing an email. That ability, I suspect, is far more useful to most users than being on a call and being able to change a reservation. But, in the end we all get better smartphones because of the competition we are seeing these days between Verizon/Droid and AT&T/Apple. When all phones and networks can do all things, what will we have to complain about?

I googled “lip-sync” and found this result, courtesy of someone’s tweet (that’s a Twitter message, if you didn’t know): “If performers want to push the envelope, why don’t they use their talent for once by not lip syncing and by connecting with the audience?” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Now I’ll elaborate…

During any given awards show (VMA’s, AMA’s, Grammies, etc) you’ll no doubt ask yourself “is he/she lip syncing?” as you watch live performances. In some cases it’s painfully obvious that the singer is doing everything but, as they bounce around without a single voice fluctuation or sounds of heavy breathing. In other instances, you have to strain your eyes to see whether the lips match the sounds you hear.

Are Artists Lazy and/or Talentless or Do We Expect Perfection?

It’s easy to lay the blame on artists, saying they’re too lazy to actually sing or that they don’t have the talent to perform their own songs in a live performance. While I definitely think that music artists should give their audiences live singing, considering they make a healthy living from their music, I understand the pressure of delivering studio-quality vocals. As music consumers and fans, we have come to expect that humans should be capable of jumping around, hyping up an audience of thousands and remembering intricate choreography, all while maintaining perfect tempo and pitch. So when an artist uses a backing track t enhance their own vocals, or outright lip syncs, is that a reflection of them or of us?

The Ashlee Simpson Debacle (2004)

You might remember this bit of nonsense from Saturday Night Live 5 years ago. Sorry about the ending of this video, but there aren’t many clips of this on YouTube. Someone made sure to eliminate the damning evidence, it seems. Incidentally, when you type in “Ashlee Simpson” into the search, the lip sync result is the third most popular. Ouch!

I came across this great discussion between an MSNBC host and a “music recording expert”, which is where I got some of the ideas for this piece.

Who Lip Syncs, Anyway?

It’s not only the Ashlee Simpsons and Britney Spears’ of the world that lip sync. Here are some other (quite respected) artists who have been suspected (or confirmed) of syncing lips:

• Janet Jackson
• Rihanna
• Shakira

But wait, they dance in their routines. So clearly that must excuse it right? Well…

As best I can tell, there IS a backing track used but P!nk sings most of this song as she’s ON A TRAPEZE! It’s called being a talented singer and being committed to your craft. Like her music or not, you can’t deny that puts the work in. And I thought she’d be a one-hit wonder.

There you go…

She’s not most girls…

You know when you’re watching TV and that commercial comes on that features a jingle that subsequently gets stuck in your head? If not, you’re lucky. There are three companies that currently hold the Top 3 spots in the jingle-specific part of my brain. Two are for American companies and one for a Canadian one, so that means that few people will relate to all three. Here they are:

1. Living Spaces

Wait until the end to hear the part that really sticks.

2. El Pollo Loco

Although this is a fake commercial (and a pretty good one), the ending features the catchy-as-heck-jingle part.

3. Harvey’s

This one wins, seeing as how I wouldn’t have seen it in about 6 months and it STILL creeped into my head. Harvey’s DOES make my hamburger a beautiful thing.

Shazam makes an app (available on iPhone, Nokia, Android and BlackBerry) that identifies songs by listening to 15-seconds-or-so snippets, and it’s SHA-MAZING! I tested it on the Google Droid in 4 different instances and it worked every time! How does it work? According to Slate:

The company has a library of more than 8 million songs, and it has devised a technique to break down each track into a simple numeric signature—a code that is unique to each track. “The main thing here is creating a ‘fingerprint’ of each performance,” says Andrew Fisher, Shazam’s CEO. When you hold your phone up to a song you’d like to ID, Shazam turns your clip into a signature using the same method. Then it’s just a matter of pattern-matching—Shazam searches its library for the code it created from your clip; when it finds that bit, it knows it’s found your song.

You may think to yourself that although this is awesome, you just wouldn’t use it. I thought the same, but it’s actually got some practical uses. Here are the songs Shazam identified, and what the source of the song was.

Inside Ross (Dress for Less) Store

James Morrison – Undiscovered

As my wife and I were walking around the store, we heard a song playing over the speakers on the ceiling. You know the type: round, white, small holes in it. It wasn’t playing loudly, and there was tons of typical bargain-store background noise. And Shazam got it!

From the TV in Our Apartment

Phoenix – 1901
(as Featured in Cadillac SRX Commercial)

Although I very easily could have found out which song this was by Googling it, I never bothered to. You know how it goes, right? You see the commercial and you wonder aloud what freakin’ song that is, but you don’t take steps to find out. Shazam! Even over the narrator’s voice, it identified this song.

From the TV in Our Apartment

Nina Simone – Sinnerman
(as Featured in HTC Commercial)

This commercial’s song is so repetitive, and it gets stuck in my head every time it comes on. And yet again I had not made the effort to find out who the artist was. Once again, over the commercial’s narrator, Shazam did its thing! Another unknown song identified in 20 seconds.

From the TV in Our Apartment

Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind

It’s hard NOT to know this song and its artists, as it’s played everywhere. But as a test, we challenged Shazam to identify the song as performed on the American Music Awards. Now, to be fair, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys BOTH sound very close to album quality in this LIVE performance (take that Janet Jackson and Shakira!) so it’s not that surprising. I’m still impressed.