Rome – As the browser war rages on (remember the brilliant Pac-Man collaboration with Internet Explorer 9 we reviewed a couple of weeks ago?), Google Chrome is giving a fantastic fight with ROME. This whimsical and fabulous film by Chris Milk -works only on Chrome, of course- is a “hardware-accelerated 3D graphics” built onto the Chrome browser and requires no download or install of any software. Don’t forget to move your mouse sideways while the film is playing.
This Google Chrome Experiment is a whimsical film with a beautiful soundtrack by Danger Mouse, who have a new album out called -you guesses it- Rome.
If you wish, you can add your own dreamy additions to this project by clicking ‘add to the dream’ and see how others have already contributed. ROME is an amazing collaborative adventure of creativity, 3D technology, great music and a powerful browser showing off for a good reason. Enjoy.
iCheckMovies – This movie-centric site invites users to create their movie checklist, keep track of the ones they’ve watched, and then lets them to brag about it to their friends. Seems a little ego goes a long way, and iCheckMovies certainly taps into that ‘acknowledge me’ syndrome that is increasingly present in social network interactions.
So what’s the point of iCheckMovies? Well, based on the check list you created and the movies you’ve liked, the site’s system better recommends movies to other users. Although I think I might be too old for iCheckMovies, it certainly offers a point of interest to the teens audience.
Here’s more on how iCheckMovies works:
The Most Awesomest Thing Ever – When such a ludicrous superlative is used for a site’s name I use extra caution and criticism. Could it be that TMATE truly encapsulates the best things ever? I doubted it, therefore I took the site for a test drive. The site offers the familiar slam between two cool ideas, actions or persons. Users pick their favorite which helps to determine each candidate’s overall score.
To be honest, the name does come across as a bit pretentious, but TMATE’s basic idea and entertainment factor make it a decent time waster. Here’s what it looks like:
Videolicious – This free app will make you a pro film creator, thanks to the app’s genius technology and fabulous interface. Videolicious takes your chosen videos, pics, music and voice narration you took with your iPhone, and creates “a finished video, edited and layered together like a professional video editor- automatically!”
How does Videolicious work? See the funky video below which explains it all. This app is free and available on the App Store. Enjoy!
MSNBC Powerwall – The media giant MSN has come up with a refreshing, upbeat approach to present and talk about the day’s news figures, whether related to politics, culture, entertainment or business -the ‘power players’ of the day’s events. With a strong emphasis on visually pleasing interface, the Powerwall offers dynamic pages which create an orderly image dance once a particular story is chosen, allowing for the desired news story to catch the page’s central space.
What Powerwall essentially offers is a sexy one-stop place that gathers the hottest stories from the entire network’s news programs and channels. The end result is impressive, and as previously mentioned, nice on the eyes as well. Looks promising for now. Here’s what TODAY’s story (on video) about William and Kate coming to America looks like.
Noisey – Making the good kind of noise, Noisey is here to expose promising new music artists from all over the world to the global community. As the site claims, “Noisey is a video-driven music discovery platform, documenting the most talented emerging musicians from around the world. Curated by VICE, the site showcases bands and music scenes from over 10 countries.”
As you will see, Noisey uses Intel and Dell technology to make this digital platform a state of the art stage for new and upcoming artists to show off their talent.
Nowness – This is a Weekly Blog winner for a good reason: it’s a sophisticated Web storyteller, meaning it offers a regularly updated dose of the coolest and most chic stories currently circulating the Web. Claiming to be “the digital leader in luxury storytelling,” Nowness is the creation of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which explains its posh appearance while its content is editorially independent.
Each story or post concerns the creative world (fashion, design, film, gastronomy), and is accompanied by large high-quality photos and videos. As the reader you are encouraged to vote for each post, by clicking ‘Love’ or ‘Don’t Love.’ I just adored Il Pellicano: Tuscan Paradise (see screenshot below), and I feel this is but one example of the semi-infinite wonder you will find here on Nowness.
BBC Earth: Life Is – The British Broadcast Company is famous for its nature documentary series and films, and we have all come to know Sir David Attenborough, the avid naturalist, acting as the engaging narrator of many of BBC’s nature productions. Now BBC Earth, with a huge repertoire of footage and content related to the natural environment and planet Earth, invites us all to explore our world like never before.
Explore nature in a totally new mesmerizing way, through images and videos of nature, filmed human stories, and see it all from the filmmakers’ point of view. To browse the vast world of content available on Life Is, click ‘search for more stuff’ which will bring you to this page (see below), where you can search by climate conditions, color, media type and more. Come and meet your planet right here on BBC Earth. You will be amazed!
Pica Pic – This digitalized collection of the old favorite handheld electronic games is a sweet piece of geek heaven on Earth. The execution of this project is phenomenal, and as you can tell from the screenshots below, the interface is amazing and conveys the “real” look and feel you never dreamed was possible. All that is left is to visit Pica Pic, select a game (there are numerous old favorites to choose from), and go back in time. Pica Pic is the creation of Hipopotam Studio.
Donkey Kong Jr. (Nintendo Game&Watch)
Miso – We’ve already discussed the emerging trend of expanding the social realm to TV entertainment when we reviewed QVIVO and InToNow app. Miso is yet another social network player attempting to push the TV-centric social sphere envelope by offering a Foursquare-like platform with some added perks. These include checking in, following friends and their favorite shows, posting statuses, comments and links, and Miso has even thrown in a notification feature to let you know when friends have signed in.
Once you sign up via Facebook and start contributing content to the Miso network (via check-ins, statuses, posts, etc.), you’ll see you start earning posts which yield badges later on. Miso is definitely the closest TV-based social network platform to Facebook I’ve seen so far, and you will notice the evident similarities between the two from the get-go. Miso seems like a promising endeavor, and I’m curious to know where it would be in a year from now. If you love TV shows and Facebook, give Miso a try. To learn more about this cool platform see the video below.
Miso is available as a Web app, but also as a mobile app (compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android).
Musictonic – Here’s a cool music consumption and discovery site based on videos. Musictonic allows you to “watch music videos and discover new artists, automatic continuous playback and other awesome stuff.”
Although I can’t declare Musictonic a game-changer, it is a cool place to visit to listen to your favorite artist, to discover related singers and bands using the right menu list, and to share each video on Facebook and Twitter. Each search prompts an automatic continuous play of the chosen artist’s videos, and you have the entire video list on the same page for your convenience. Here’s where my ‘David Bowie’ search took me:
MAN WEB TOP 10: DISCOVER IT. USE IT.Sometimes you just have to celebrate the common man. John Male loves his easy chair with easy access to his beer fridge and even easier access to the Plasma TV remote. John Male LOVES football. John Male doesn’t DO chick flicks. He DOES what he likes. John Male’s got 1 problem though… He can’t find any fresh, new sites online made just for him. And we’re writing this article to come to the rescue of frustrated men everywhere, with a really rather cool mix of man-focused websites that go beyond the GQ’s and Men’s Healths of the Web. Here’s our list of the Top 10 absolute best sites for men (nudity excluded)…
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