Two years ago, Google gave Google Maps a temporary 8-bit facelift, remaking the map in the style of Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior as it was called in America) on the original NES in honor of April Fool’s Day. It seems they’ve still got games in the mind, because this year’s April Fool’s Day “prank” has scattered pokemon all over the world. Reports are claiming there are at least 150 pokemon to find, with Google promising that the first person to find all of them will be hired as a Pokemon Master. While I doubt that, there might be some reward for finding them all first, so download the app on your iOS or Android phone — you can’t find them on a computer — and get started on catching ’em all! Read more…
Everyone is celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary… even Google! The search engine’s latest Google Doodle is a retro-styled game that takes place in their header and lets you play as any of the various Doctors. You can click to move your character around the screen,solve simple puzzles, avoid Daleks, and collect all the letters of the Google logo (obviously). It’s nothing too complex, but like most Google Doodles, it’s a heartfelt and creative little diversion. Check it out on Google’s homepage, or if you’re looking at this page in the far future and have missed it, hope over to Google’s Doodle archive where it should be archived. Read more…
This article at Business Insider is typical of a new breed of backlash articles that bash the unreleased device: “I haven’t worn Glass. While I think it looks neat, I dont see a killer application that makes them worth it.”Read more…
Sometimes you’re laying in bed, relaxing, and think to yourself: I want a tour of the White House. But you can’t, because you’re in bed, and the White House isn’t very close at the moment. Kind of inconvenient, right? Why can’t you have the entire White House at your fingertips? Thankfully, Google has teamed up with the White House, the President, and the First Lady to create a virtual tour of the White House. Secret bunker rooms not included. Click here to try it out, or watch the video above to get a taste!
By now you’ve probably heard of Google’s fantastic April Fools joke: 8-bit Google Maps. They partnered with Square Enix to Dragon Quest-ify the entirety of Google Maps, and even produced a fake commercial for a cartridge version of the software. Given that this is Google, though, they hid tons of little items and cute references within the joke (like the adorable pixel art, seen above, found at the Google HQ). Don’t want to go hunting yourself? Hit the jump for a few cool easter eggs! Read more…
I had always assumed the most intense fanboys in the realm of tech were the Apple fanboys who would camp out on line to get the latest Steve Jobs goodie — well I was wrong! Upon playing with Google+ I’ve come across a growing legion of Android fanboys who are obsessed with the Android mascot. And shown here is the proof of this devotion — I present the Droid_Robot font created by Natsumi Kawashima. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 18, 2011 in Fandom, Tech
It’s funny I somehow assumed that the rock stars who had conquered Twitter would move onto Google+ and do the same exact thing — but that simply isn’t the case. From my small time playing with this new service I’ve noticed a few folks who are really going the extra mile to use the site to say something interesting and to really make their mark. This isn’t by any means a scientific or comprehensive list, but here are some of the more interesting folks I’ve come across on Google+ so far: Read more…
As an old time BBS user I tend to be cynical about every new site that comes along, but not only did Google+ impress me — but it passed the ultimate test: It just ate most of my weekend. On the surface the program seems like a slightly updated version of Facebook, but as you begin to explore and really live with the program you start to realize that it’s so much more than that. Read more…
In the 80s the Amiga was eons ahead of everyone else in the PC market: They had everything from the ability to play full color animations to multitasking. However this amazing platform just never took off. Why? Because the user base took advantage of the first generation of floppy disks and BBSs to pirate pretty much every last bit of software that was written for the platform. Because of this Microsoft never created a version of Word for the Amiga and WordPerfect lost a great deal of money thanks to cheap users. In fact the only winner that came away from the Amiga was the NewTek Video Toaster which was pretty much dongle protected due to the hardware aspect of the product. Read more…
I believe very strongly that Google has an unhealthy monopoly on the internet, so for the past week or so I’ve switched all of my browsers to use Bing as the default search engine. For the most part Microsoft has done an amazing job of going from nothing to something to create a great search engine in a short amount of time, however there are still a few things that they need to beat Google. Having been born with dyslexia one of the things I love about Google is that their spell checker is amazing — in fact often when using Microsoft Word I’ll pop out of the program when I can’t get the spelling of a more obscure word. And this is the very sort of feature that not only does Bing need badly, but something that should also be incorporated into the online version of Microsoft Office. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2010 in Fandom, Tech
La Carmina is one of my favorite subculture bloggers, so I was a bit upset to see that YouTube had censored one of her videos by claiming that it violated their community guidelines. But I’ll let you be the judge — shown below is her video. Now before you watch this clip I will warn you that there is some fetish footage at the end. However some of you may be a bit disappointed as the model in question is clothed (she’s wearing underwear), and that may be hard to see as the scene is shot in a low light situation: Read more…
I was never given a warning, so I was upset to suddenly try and log into my YouTube account to see that it had been deactivated. Of course I have my theories: I used the account to post many clips for this blog featuring everything from movie trailers to Japanese commercials. So I suspect that the copyright gods might not have been on my side. Although in the past when that was the case YouTube would do anything from yanking the video, to removing the soundtrack to keeping the video and inserting ads. Of course this is just a guess, I was never sent an email so I don’t know. Read more…
In the wake of the Flash is doomed movement I’ve noticed quite a few Microsoft developers who are rooting for Silverlight. Silverlight has two amazing advantages going for it: Firstly Microsoft loves their developers more so than any other company that I’ve ever seen — and then add to that it will become a key tool for making apps for Windows mobile devices. But there’s one major catch to this which is that smart mobile is now dominated by Apple and Google, and that there’s a good chance that they won’t let Silverlight onto their platform. Read more…
While I haven’t played with it yet the screenshots I’m seeing of the Windows Phone 7 look great. I’m an Apple fanboy at heart but it’s a wonderful surprise to see that Microsoft didn’t just do an iPhone clone. This isn’t enough to make me switch from my iPhone, however it is enough to make me have second thoughts about switching to Android and it also convinces me now more than ever that Palm won’t live to see the end of the year. From what I’ve read the Windows team has been working on this for 18 months and they decided to focus on the app side of the phone which is their core strength: Read more…
Kevin Rose is famous for Digg, which has lost a bit of steam to Google when it comes to breaking news. However any illusions one might have had that Rose was on a siesta can’t be dispelled when you watch his take on why Google integrated Buzz into Gmail. To sum up Rose has the following interesting insights: Read more…
When everyone started talking about the cloud my first thought was “isn’t this a throw back to mainframe computers from a pre-PC era when dumb terminals always needed to dial in?” So I was blown away to watch this video of Vint Cerf (who has been credited as the father of the Internet) suddenly mention mainframe time-sharing in the middle of a chat on cloud-to-cloud operability. It’s also interesting to hear that Cerf feels that it will take about five years for real standards to occur that allow one cloud to share data with another. By the way it’s interesting to note that Google now employs Cerf which is quite a coup. Read more…
I’ve seen tons of iPod themed goodies on Etsy but as far as I can tell Google has beaten Apple to the punch in the urban toys market with this set of Android Mini Collectibles Series 01. Frankly the thing that find heart warming about the Android logo is that it’s so darn cute which makes it an ideal collectable, and mind you that this is something that Tux the penguin logo for Linux could never pull off (it was the far body and eyes that made it look so doofy). This set was designed by the artist Andrew Bell and there are a dozen different designs each of which stands at three inches tall and features a rotating head: Read more…
On paper it was a good week for Palm — they announced at CES that they’ve struck a deal with Verizon and the next day their stock price ticked up. However the whims of the stock market can be a poor predictor of how a company does in the long run and can miss the big picture. Frankly the company that owned this week was Google with the announcement of the Nexus One: And that spells the death knell of Palm. Read more…
A little bit over a year ago I purchased my iPhone — I was slightly late to the party so just a little bit after getting my first generation phone, Apple rolled out the next version. For the most part it was a speed bump so I didn’t resent AT&T for the two year contract lock in at that point. However by the end of 2009 still being stuck on the Edge network was wearing a bit thin for yours truly, but I still hadn’t entered “the hate club”. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 10, 2009 in Animation, Tech
I’ve got to say that when Google wants to they can be very creative, even doing things that are more interesting than Apple. This video is an example of this: It’s a stop motion animation to promote their Chrome operating system and it’s fun to look at even if you don’t care about the technology. Read more…
This beautiful video was done by the London office of Google — it does an amazing job of showing off the last 11 years of Google. Two things are striking to me about this video: First the quality of the animation is great, I don’t associate beautiful art direction with the stripped down geeky look of Google. Second it’s shocking to see that Google really has defined the net for the last few years, things they only introduced a few years ago like maps are found everywhere. Although you look at other aspects of the company like Blogger and see that they don’t always hit the mark over time. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 15, 2009 in Animation, Tech
The stop motion animated spots above and below are for Google Japan and I’m just blown away by the quality of craftsmanship and creativity shown here. The spots are explaining how Google street maps will help ensure privacy by blurring out people’s faces and the like. In my humble opinion Google should tap the creative team behind these ads to enliven their branding in the United States which is a tad too dull for such an innovative company. Read more…
Recently I’ve seen tech fanboys Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington raging at Apple for having the nerve to not let Google put Google Voice into the Apple app store. Frankly not only should Apple have every right to do this — but they should be doing this. The reason? Not only is Google their direct competition, but the reality is that they’re the only company in this environment that you could call a true monopoly.Read more…
Kevin Rose is famous for Digg, which has lost a bit of steam to Google when it comes to breaking news. However any illusions one might have had that Rose was on a siesta can’t be dispelled when you watch his take on why Google integrated Buzz into Gmail. To sum up Rose has the following interesting insights: 
The stop motion animated spots above and below are for Google Japan and I’m just blown away by the quality of craftsmanship and creativity shown here. The spots are explaining how Google street maps will 