Autopia – Another immaculate blog from Wired Magazine, Autopia invites us to tap into the innovative world of all things motorized, both contemporary and futuristic. Get the latest news on vehicle safety, electric cars, crazy DIY projects and other mean machine updates. As we’ve already noted in our blog when we reviewed This Day in Tech, Wired Magazine employs a team of genius writers who produce top notch content, whatever the articles’ themes may be. I truly enjoyed reading Autopia’s posts despite lacking even the slightest inclination to the world of vehicles and transportation. My favorite posts include The DUU Is a Two-Lighter Motorcycle Monster, High Octane, High Art from Mini and Mitsubishi’s Too-Cute EV is a Hall of Famer. Start your engines!
Mental Floss – Forget about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire or Jeopardy, those are long gone and archaic. If you’re into new wave quizzes and think your neurons fire faster in your brain than they do in others’, stop by Mental Floss. Although the magazine version is absolutely terrific, the blog is just as rewarding. Start your day with the blog’s Morning Cup of Links and discover new cool websites, or feel free to dive right into the daily quizzes and trivia. Mental Floss is a place “where knowledge junkies get their fix” but welcomes less knowledgeable users just the same. Check out this What’s the Difference spot to see just one example of the Mental Floss effect.
Classic Cinema Online – When I think about classic black-and-white movies, the American Movie Classics channel (AMC) comes to mind. It’s important to have an inviting platform where your favorite old time movies go center stage. Although it does a great job, what AMC lacks is instant viewing of full features on their website. The Classics Cinema Online website offers what AMC fails to deliver; your very own private viewing of classic movies from the 40s to the late 70s, categorized by genres.
Despite the unique concept of the website, I feel it has two major downsides. The first is the rather limited collection of movies – it didn’t include renowned classics such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, or Casablanca. Perhaps this is due to copyright issues. The second is poor video quality of many of the films I browsed on the site. At any rate, check out This Man Can’t Die from 1967 to understand and appreciate the greatness of Classic Cinema Online.
Spreeder – There are no advantages to eating faster, one should slow down and take the time to properly chew and consequently, digest the food. However, speed in other activities can be a blessing. Reading faster for example can seriously improve your life – just think about the amount of information you read on a daily basis. According to an article written by David Aylwin, “People now spend an average of 6 hours a day reading at work – 6 years ago it was about 4.” That’s quite a bit, and it doesn’t take into account magazines, newspapers and books we consume before or after working hours.
If you are interested in reading faster, Spreeder is an excellent starting point. What is it exactly? “Spreeder is an online speed reading utility to help train you to read faster. It does this by flashing words at a rapid rate.” I suggest you begin with the tutorial and then take it out for a test run. My personal recommendation would be using a song’s text, because that way you will not only learn to read faster, but you will achieve higher retention of the song’s meaning and ideas. I tried this service with Jay-Z’s new song, Empire State of Mind. Click here for the lyrics. Since I love this song so much, I provided the video below for your enjoyment.
Unique Daily – A couple of months ago we launched our new blogs page, and also created a personal Mini Faves user page celebrating the best of each blog faveline. In addition, we contacted the featured blogs and asked them to suggest their best picks in each respective category. Nahum Dam, creator of Oddee.com – listed on the Off Beat Mini Faves page – responded with his suggestion of UniqueDaily. That’s how we learned of this super cool blog. We love interacting with our users and creators of featured sites on All My Faves; we love to hear your thoughts and what sites rock your boat. Rest assured, we thoroughly examine each and every recommendation, and if we feel it’s worth a spot we feature it. So what are you waiting for? Contact us with your suggestions.
Back to UniqueDaily, this is a blog offering a different kind of entertainment. You will find here “unique content found on the wacky internets” – or in other words, articles, photos and videos of obscure and unconventional things. This is quite different than the kind of entertainment one will find on EW.com. Below are two of my favorite posts.
Forever’s Not So Long – Written and directed by Shawn Morrison, and produced by Garret Murray, Forever’s Not So Long is a compelling movie on human compassion and love in the bigger picture kind of way. I’m not going to tell you what happens in the movie, it’s a story you will have to discover for yourself. This is a most striking, poignant creation worth your time. It won numerous prestigious awards such as the Grand Jury Prize (1 Reel) in the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival, Audience Choice award in the 2009 Film Festival (DC Shorts) and many others. Check it out and hit play. You’ll be glad you did.
Machinarium – If I had to describe Machinarium in one word, it would be an impossible task; I can think of so many superlatives for it, so here you go: this game is awesome, fascinating, incredible, intriguing, exciting, marvelous, prodigious, shocking, stunning, surprising, unbelievable, wonderful. Is it really that good? The answer is, without a doubt, YES. Start with the demo, it will give you at least 15 minutes of breathtaking enjoyment. Below are some pictures that will give you an idea of what’s to come. By the way, this is a clickable game, meaning you need to click, click, click to get to the next stage. Enjoy!
Bubble Guinea Pigs – Please forgive my next statement, but this is such a stupid game. However stupid it may be, it is also so much fun and addicting. The plot is as follows: the animals have been stolen from the zoo. Only the Guinea Pigs remain. Help them rescue the animals using Snakes, Bubble Gum, and Bossa Nova! For daily updates of cool new games, join our facebook AllMyGames page.
Locker Blogger – If rubbing against pro athletes is what rocks your sporty boat, you might want to nail that VIP pass for your next sport event and try to get a personal autograph and a quick small talk with your personal hero. But I bet that back stage pass, however expensive, won’t get you into your favorite NBA, NFL, MLB or any other sports team’s locker room. LockerBlogger opens the doors to that sweaty change room, and invites the entire sports community to take part in a new innovative social platform; it’s a one-stop place where athletes, coaches and fans can all come together and schmooze all they want.
I seriously believe LockerBlogger is going to be huge, and the recent news post on the site’s launch – published by TechCrunch – is surely one of many other media praises to come. What exactly does LockerBlogger offer? They wish “to become the ultimate hub for the global sports community to celebrate pro and amateur achievement, access expert coaching education and skills development, and plug in to active conversations about the pastimes they love. Creating connections is the name of our game.” Explore the wonderful world of sports marketing and social interaction by browsing the site’s Lockers, Groups, Blogs, Channels, and more. To get an idea of what LockerBlogger is about, check out NFL Pro Larry Johnson’s Locker. See the harmonious marriage of social networking and sports in sweet action!
SceneIt – Movie quizzes and film trivia have been around forever, and they all do a great job in making us relish in self-satisfaction when we get that ‘what did Brett and his friends in Pulp Fiction have for breakfast’ question right (click here for the answer). But what if such quiz sites offered more, much more than the usual Q&A form? SceneIt does just that and a whole lot more.
Create your own avatar, dress him or her as you like and answer your way to various upgrades and increased Glitz amounts (the site’s currency). Earn enough of it, and become a recognized Top Player. If you’re dead set on securing more ‘Bling’ – all the user stuff that isn’t free and screams ‘luxury’ – you can buy it. Work your way up from a mere Waiter to an acclaimed Star, Screenwriter or Director, see what others have accomplish and show off your film wits while climbing the Hollywood ladder. Answer away…
Dornob – Appreciating top quality design is never a difficult task, but finding it online in copious amounts certainly is. A year ago we reviewed WebUrbanist in our blog, praising its terrific content and concepts. Well, the very same creator who brought us WebUrbanist also throws Dornob our way and rightly so. Kurt Kohlstedt, also Founder and Creative Director of WebEcoist, Gajitz.com and Misnamed Media, invites us via Dornob to explore the forefront of architectural, interior, furniture, furnishing and fixture designs – all updated on a daily basis. Add the awe-inspiring photos and superb content, and you end up with one exquisite design blog. Some of my favorite posts include Bathroom Designs: Pictures, Ideas, Interiors & Inspiration, Historic Preservation + Urban Landscape Design = and Flat-Pack Furniture: Eco-Friendly Cardboard Chair Designs.
Tripwolf – What makes a good travel website stand out from the rest? High resolution photos? Informative and engaging content? Or maybe including geographic locations outside the Western mainstream? All of the factors above would, no doubt, make one hell of an online travel guide, and there is a fair number of such sites available on the Web (check out our Travel page for a variety of these). Nevertheless, there is one particular travel site that is truly unique and innovative: Tripwolf. It’s one of those sites which makes the whole much greater than the sum of its parts.
Why is it so special? Because Tripwolf “combines travel tips from professional travel writers with a vast collection of travel information, experiences and reviews from a worldwide community of thousands of travelers like you.” Isn’t that great? You get the best of both worlds: feedback from professional savvy travelers, and from regular people’s travel choices worldwide. To test Tripwolf’s service, I explored their take on Barcelona, which I visited last year. Well before our trip, my girlfriend and I researched the city’s attractions, and we got a general idea of which places we should visit.
As is the case with many first time tourists in Barcelona (however well-informed they may be), very soon we realized we couldn’t possibly visit all the sites on our check list. We had to skip Parc Guell for example, which was a bit of a disappointment. If we were to consult Tripwolf prior to our visit to Barcelona, we would have learned that the very same Parc was voted as the top Barcelona attraction by travelers…
