Freeware World

Apple have made the jump into social networking in an unusual way. Ping is only accessible through the iTunes Store, and while Steve Jobs described it as being like Twitter and Facebook, it is in reality massively different, and in my opinion critically flawed.

Here’s what’s wrong with Ping:

Let’s start with the profile page. You can describe yourself, choose up to three musical genres you like, and add a photo. That’s it. No status updates! What’s bizarre and aggravating about that is how Katy Perry and Lady Gaga apparently can leave status updates, and have a Twitter like feed. ‘Normals’ like me can only comment on their updates. Users are second class citizens in Ping.

Ping’s next problem is that it’s such a closed system it feels claustrophobic, and this for me renders Ping utterly broken. Ping is only cares about what you’ve bought or might buy in the iTunes Store.

That’s all!

If you import a CD or MP3 you’ve bought elsewhere, Ping isn’t interested. Facebook and Twitter let me share what I want with my friends, and that’s why they work. Everything in Ping is about buying stuff in the Store.

I wouldn’t mind sharing my purchases and ratings with friends, but in a social network for music, there has to be more. I want to share what I’m listening to sometimes, as that’s more important than what I buy. Having Ping stuffed in the iTunes store and being so limited just make it look and feel like tragic marketing. I can like something in the store, but not in my library. Why not? Why can’t I choose what language Ping is in? Even clunky old MySpace lets you do that.

I love the iTunes library, I really do. As a music manager it’s unbeatable, but Ping is an absolutely terrible addition. I already have the Last.fm scrobbler, where I can share what I’m listening to, and on their site concerts and events can be created and shared by anyone. It’s a great system, and the community led, open atmosphere exposes everything that’s wrong about Ping. Ping feels led by marketers, not by its users.

Of course Apple want to make money, that’s fine. But while the high margin model works for their excellent hardware, successful social networks all have to feel free, and as if the users are number one. Apple shouldn’t let financial aims get in the way of what the community wants.

Ping is the first social network I’ve ever used that doesn’t feel social. Social networks don’t fit with the Apple ideology, because users need too much control, and control is something Steve Jobs doesn’t like to give away. With Apple, you do things their way, or not at all. For iPhones this is wonderful, but not social tools. Mark Zuckerberg certainly won’t be losing any sleep over Ping.

Gesture Search is an application for Android phones that lets you search for things like songs, contacts and applications by starting to write the name of the item on your screen. Being from Google Labs, this app is seriously cool.

To make Gesture Search an even easier, more natural app to use, you can open  it by just Double Flipping your cell phone.

Despite the video and animated demonstration in Gesture Search’s getting started guide, it took me a little while to master. In the end, I realized the key to the movement is keeping your device more or less upright - in other words, don’t hold it flat like you normally would.

Once the app is open, just begin to draw on the screen. At the moment it supports English (upper and lowercase and numbers) and you can write the characters in one movement or more - Gesture Search automatically realizes if you have finished. Once you write, a list of possibilities will appear. You can scroll down and tap as normal (Gesture Search can also detect the difference between scrolling and writing.). If you want to refine the search, just trace the second letter, and so on.

If you make a mistake, draw a short line to the left. If you want to start over, trace a line to the right. The Gesture Search configuration settings are also pretty helpful. You can decide whether you want to include contacts, music, applications and browser bookmarks in your searches, or if you want to leave some out. You can also configure the sensitivity of the Double Flip function and your writing speed, which makes Gesture Search a lot more comfortable to use.

I thought Gesture Search was really cool, as well as being a pretty accurate search tool. Whether or not I’m going to use it on a regular basis - in other words, as my main search method - remains to be seen. Either way, I’m keeping this app, so if you happen to see me waving my cell around like a madwoman, don’t worry - I’ll just be perfecting my Double Flip. Try Gesture Search for yourself here.

Geolocation has finally made it to Facebook. From now on, around 150 million Facebook users (those who access the social network via their phones) will be able to share their locations thanks to the new Facebook Places functionality. It’s not a new app, but a new feature in the latest version of the Facebook app for iPhone. And though it’s currently only available in the United States, we’ve already know some of its features.

Facebook Places will allow you to share the places you visit with your friends by checking in to them when you arrive. You can also add a couple of lines to your update to provide more information, and tag your friends along. Like Foursquare or Gowalla, if the place you just visited is not available in Facebook places, you can add it yourself. The “People here now” feature enables you to see who’s in that place, though this information is only visible for people who have checked in to the same place, and only for a limited period of time.

Regarding privacy, Facebook provides you with all the configuration settings you need to keep Places as public or private as you want. You can block friends from tagging you in their check-ins, disable your profile from appearing in the “People here now” list, control who sees the places you’ve visited and remove any Places check-in or tag at any moment - just like you do with photo tags.

Facebook Places doesn’t seem to have a badge system like Foursquare, but third-party apps will be able to use its data to build more enriching experiences about locations - think about trip planning, restaurant reviews and so on. Like I said before, Places is only available in the United States, but Facebook expects to roll it out to other countries very soon.

If, like myself, you enjoy a bit of Tumbling in your spare time, then you might be interested to hear that the official Tumblr Android app has been released today. The free app lets you quickly post text, photos, video, audio to the microblogging site directly from your device. Handily, Tumblr for Android lets you simultaneously post to Twitter, too.

You can also use it to follow other users’ posts. These are displayed, along with your own offerings, in a neat timeline in the dashboard. The app lets you like and reblog posts from other people that you’re following, although it won’t let you reblog from strangers, annoyingly.

Although it’s fairly attractive and easy to use, the official Android Tumblr client is far from perfect. There are a few glitches that need some attention, such as some bugs with uploading videos and linking to photos. But it shows plenty of promise and could eventually make a more attractive alternative to Twitter for Android users. Check out my full review for more.

The early build of Bunnies Of Fury 2 currently features neither Fury nor Bunnies, but is absolutely fantastic. You need the Unity plugin for your browser, then you’ll be left to your own devices in a 3D rainbow world of blocks. You have two weapons, toggled with the Q key, otherwise the controls are a pretty standard First Person mouse/keyboard setup. F1 puts the full controls on screen.

For a few seconds, you might not get Bunnies Of Fury 2. Press Q, and shoot down with the left mouse button, and you’ll quickly understand! This is abstract sandbox gameplay at its best - big, free and dramatic. It’s completely aimless, but excellent fun. You can either build your own constructions, or mine your own caves, or both. It’s very hard to know when to stop!

[via bytejacker]

One of the pending things in my life - besides the traditional “plant a tree, write a book and have a child” - is learning to code. I’m quite good at languages, but unfortunately I’m not as skilled when dealing with programming languages. I guess my brain is more artistically-oriented and it’s hard for me to reach the levels of analysis and abstraction required to code. But that doesn’t mean I won’t keep on trying!

Luckily there are thousands of coding resources on the web, from tutorials for newbies to online communities around specific programming languages. For the coding-challenged like me, there are also tools that help you create your own apps without requiring a single line of coding, like the Ovi App Wizard or the Android App Inventor. Following this line of simplified software to create apps, I found Mozilla’s Add-on Builder: an online coding tool that lets you create extensions for Firefox with the help of a few extra ready-made elements.

I must say I was very excited when I first saw this tool. I thought I would be able to create Firefox extensions just by dragging and dropping elements, like the Android App Inventor. Sadly it seems that the Add-on Builder does require some coding knowledge. Its main advantage is that you can use a bunch of APIs from the core library, check other people’s add-ons in search of inspiration or even make use of third-party libraries thanks to additional APIs.

But apart from that and a short tutorial, you’re pretty much on your own. After logging in with your Mozilla account (or signing up for one if you don’t have it yet), you’re redirected to an online editor where you can start typing code right away. This editor includes tools to manage  modules and libraries, and also lets you test your add-on at any time.

Though a bit disappointing for me - not Mozilla’s fault, I simply expected something easier - this handy Add-on Builder might be the encouragement you need to get you started in coding your own software.

Grooveshark, the amazing online music sharing service, has finally been approved by Apple and is now available to download from the AppStore. After allowing the release of apps such as Spotify, Rdio or Pandora, letting the last one of the gang in was only a question of time.

The best thing about the Grooveshark app is that you can test it for free during 30 days – even if you don’t have a VIP account. All you need is to log in to the service with your current Grooveshark account (or create one on the spot) and start enjoying mobile music streaming anywhere. After the trial period is over, having a VIP user will be a requisite to continue using the app.

Grooveshark works great on the iPhone. The app is neatly designed and really easy to use. The main screen is Grooveshark’s search engine, where you can start typing your favorite bands and songs right away. At the bottom you have buttons for Favorites, Playlists and Queue, all pretty self-explanatory. The currently playing song screen features a few playback controls, as well as buttons to mark the song as Favorite and turn the Grooveshark radio on or off.

There are many interesting features in Grooveshark, such as being able to make a song available when you’re offline and having a link to buy a specific song directly from iTunes. All of these contribute to make Grooveshark a serious competitor to other similar apps, at a more competitive price (just $3/month for a VIP account) and without the territorial restrictions of Spotify or Pandora, for example. On the downside, Grooveshark doesn’t support multitasking yet, but apparently they’re working on implementing it really soon.

The only question left is then which of all mobile streaming music apps has the best catalog. For me, this is just a question of each user’s musical taste. Mine’s pretty standard, so I’ll probably be happy with Grooveshark. Other people with more refined taste, or who like not so popular bands, will prefer apps with a more extensive catalog. In any case, with Grooveshark being free for 30 days, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t download it and give it a go!

Google Books may be a good source for ebooks, but the browser window is definitely not the best interface to read them. It’s uncomfortable, requires a lot of mouse scrolling and includes distracting elements such as links and ads. Luckily you can now use an alternative tool to read Google ebooks: it’s called GooReader and lets you search, browse and read Google ebooks in a much nicer, more comfortable way.

GooReader reminds a me lot of iBooks,  mainly due to its wooden bookshelf background and the way books are displayed - shaped as ‘real’ books, with covers and bookmarks. You can use GooReader to search Google Books by title, author or Google Book_ID. Results are shown on the bookshelf like real-life books, with color-coded bookmarks: green means you can read the whole book, yellow grants a partial preview and red means the book is not available to read.

To start reading a book in GooReader, just double click the cover. The book will open in separate window, with browsing controls at the bottom. You can maximize the screen, browse through pages (with a nice animation effect), access the book’s table of contents and zoom in and out the text. Note that zooming in a lot may ruin text readability - depending on the quality of Google scans.

GooReader also includes the option to save books as PDF for offline reading, but this functionality is only available in the paid version. The app also lacks the option to add personal bookmarks and create lists with books, but with a bit of luck we’ll be seeing these and other improvements in future versions.

This morning I logged in to my Gmail account, like I do everyday, but I noticed something different. Yeah, Gmail’s interface has been slightly redesigned to make it a bit friendlier and easier to use.

The first thing that caught my eye is that now Mail, Contacts and Tasks have been separated from the rest of links on the left sidebar, and moved upwards. The Compose mail function is now a button, rather than just a text link that was sometimes hard to find.  Also, the different options to select messages (All, None, Read, Unread, Starred and Unstarred) are now neatly organized in a drop-down men, besides the Archive button.

But the main changes are found in Contacts, where the Google team have added a bunch of new features. You can now use in Contacts the same keyboard shortcuts that work for Mail, sort contacts by last name (you’ll find the option under the More Actions menu) and create and edit contacts more easily thanks to the Undo and Automatic saving functions.

Each contact has a complete entry with support for custom labels, which makes it possible to use various phones, addresses or emails under the same contact, but also create any other field you may need.

Contacts are now easier to manage and organize. The Merge contacts option under the More actions menu lets you merge two or more selected contacts, while the Find and merge duplicates option automatically creates a list of possible contacts to merge for you.

In The Curfew, a Flash game from UK TV’s Channel 4, you’ll find out about British life in 2027, when anti-terror laws have become so strict there are curfews for everyone, and citizens win points for being ‘good’.

Using lots of live video, it looks pretty good, and even though it’s in beta, there are only a few bugs. Your nameless character is on the run after curfew, carrying some information that could harm the government you apparently hate. In The Curfew, your task is to find someone who you can trust to look after that information for you.

It’s a kind of point and click adventure. As such, it doesn’t really require skill, but you do need to think about your actions. To find someone you can trust, they’ll have to trust you, and you gain their trust by asking them the right kind of questions. There are four main stories, and during these you have to gain the trust of the people talking to you.

Designed to make you think about liberties, law and society, The Curfew has pretty high aims. It’s difficult to make an educational game that’s not patronizing or simply boring, but I think this does a good job of being neither. The depressing image it presents of the future is believable, although I was surprised to see that fashion seems to stop in 2010!

What The Curfew does require is time, as you can’t rush through. Some people might find this frustrating, but it does offer three save game slots, which is really unusual for a browser game. Overall I enjoyed playing this, and I recommend having a go at it instead of watching a TV show sometime. The only thing I really disliked was the inclusion of a fake “The Call Of Grand Theft Duty 13″ game in the story, which felt unnatural and too obvious!

You can only play one episode at a time, and have to return a week later to continue, which is a strange nod to TV shows! Check out The Curfew.