Dork Adore » Facebook

Kid Knowledge: HTML for Babies

Emma Cossey — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:00:59 +0000

So, this is weird.

You can now get an HTML guide for children to get them web-savvy before they’ve grown out of their cot. The 16-page book is full of colourful words surrounded by bright HTML tags.

Might not be a bad buy though if you’re pinning your hopes on your offspring becoming the next Zuckerberg.

Your can buy it from Amazon (US) for $8.99.

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Watch Doctor Who on Facebook! The Future Is Now!

Nick Bryan — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:20:56 +0000

Want to control time in a Time Lord fashion? That’s unlikely to happen in your lifetime, but you can now watch episodes of Doctor Who online on a whim with the new Doctor Who Video On Demand Facebook app, and only for a small fee!

Currently the app features one story from each of the first ten Doctors, though oddly Matt Smith only features in a recap of early series six – surely they could’ve shoved The Eleventh Hour up? Said recap is free to view, which lets you make sure their video player doesn’t crash your computer. It’d be quite annoying if you paid money for something you couldn’t watch.

And the actual cost is 15 Facebook credits per story, which translates to about a pound in English money and lets you “rent” your episodes for 48 hours. I was wary of the Facebook credit system, but it banged through quickly enough with my PayPal account.

No, it’s not a huge selection, and I can’t imagine of much interest to hardcore fans, who will have seen these quite well-known episodes before. But for those (like me) whose main experience of the Doctor is the 21st century series, it does let you sample each actor, and a quid for a couple hours of TV is reasonable enough. I’m currently watching City Of Death, starring Tom Baker and written by the amazing Douglas Adams under a pen name, and it’s a lot more fun than I expected.

So, yes, the Doctor Who Video On Demand app, does exactly what it says on the tin. With the current light scattering of material, it’s unlikely to be a lifechanging website, but there’s fun to be had out there.

More Doctor Who on Dork Adore | Doctor Who: Night Terrors – Dork Review

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App Reviews: StumbleUpon, Fruit Ninja, Wave Launcher, Katango, Walkit

Katie — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:19:00 +0000

This week, we’ve got iPhone, iPad and Android app reviews for your, courtesy of the wondrous team at Frackulous.

Here’s a quick over-view of what you can expect:

StumbleUpon for the iPad. A great way to suck up the precious hours of your life, the StumbleUpon app will give you instant access to pictures of animals doing adorable things. If you don’t already use the toolbar on your browser, we highly recommend it (unless you have a dissertation to finish). StumbleUpon at the App Store.
Wave Launcher gives you more control over how you use your Android. It’s a “must-have” app, according to Susi. Wave Launcher at the Android Market.
Katango is a super-complex and clever Facebook contacts service, that groups your friends, family and miscellaneous randoms into different Google+ style groups. Katango at the App Store.
The WalkIt app for the iPhone comes from the kindly people over at WalkIt, who have helped many of us to discover the efficiency of using legs for commuting with instead of tubes. WalkIt at the App Store.
Fruit Ninja is a classic game for your iPhone. Simple, but addictive. Fruit Ninja at the App Store.

Check out all the reviews overleaf:

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What if social media were a high school?

Emma Cossey — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:00:10 +0000

We’ve all got our favourite social media networks (Hi, I’m Emma and I’m a Twitteraholic). But what do our chosen sites say about us?

The lovely Sarah Drinkwater (check out her lovely vintage-inspired blog The Enchanted Hunters) recently tweeted this infographic from Geekologie depicting how a high school would look if it was made up of social media sites.

So, which student are you? (click to enlarge image)

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Facebook Places: Why I won’t be using it

Susi — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:00:43 +0000

People who blog, eh? And tweet? And check-in on Foursquare? Can we all say ‘Oversharers’? Except it seems we’re not. It looks like even the most over-share-y of internet lovers aren’t particularly embracing Facebook Places.

Could it be? Could the Daily Mail, and your mother, be wrong? Maybe we’re not a community willing to subject the whole wide world to banal updates about our lunch, unless our lunch involved tripping up in the street and being laughed at by the local yoof, or some other notable event (perhaps involving bird poo. Or Noel Fielding). Maybe we’re slightly more selective in what we share.

For instance.

If you make friends with me on Foursquare, I will only reciprocate if I know you. This is because, despite what the mainstream media thinks, I do have some degree of awareness that means I don’t actually want complete strangers knowing I’m three hours away from my robbable house. That’s not paranoia – that’s just fact.

But Facebook is another kettle of fishes. There are people on there, ‘Facebook friends’ if you will, who I haven’t seen since secondary school. For all I know, they are now petty criminals. They would probably love nothing more than knowing that I am at the National Portrait Gallery (I’m probably not – I’m probably at the Aberdeen Steakhouse opposite, but within range of, it) so they can rush round to my house and nick my Wii. Probably.

No one cares

But more importantly — I am aware that nobody cares. Facebook isn’t for sharing your daily lunch plans, it’s for sharing photos of you in various stages of drunkenness.

The people who get my Foursquare updates have gone out of their way to find out where I am. And I can only assume that’s because they’re curious people: I’m in contact with all of them and none of them has so far turned out to be a criminal.

What a rubbish media story, Internet Folk Aware That The Majority Of People Don’t Care. You can see why the subs took the red pen to it.

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Facebook: The Social Network movie trailer

Katie — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:00:34 +0000

If you haven’t seen it already, the latest teaser trailer for the Facebook movie, The Social Network, is now online.

If you use a Lost Boys-style cover of Creep by Radiohead and you flash up some dramatic looking scenes, I’m always going to be impressed. But despite that, it’s got plenty of potential to be a great film — murder, intrigue and geekery. OK, maybe not murder, but plenty of geekery.

The film is out in October in the US. It’s directed by David Fincher of Zodiac, Se7en and The Curios Case of Benjamin Button fame, with Jesse Eisenberg from Zombieland as Mark Zuckerberg. Surely a perfect piece of casting?

So, Revenge of the Nerds 2.0?

Check out the trailer overleaf.

The Social Network Movie official site

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South Park Facebook episode: All the funny bits

Katie — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:00:24 +0000

The Facebook episode of South Park was truly a wonder to behold. If you missed it (or if you want to re-live the magic), here’s a handy compilation of all the Facebook gags.

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Facebook undergoes yet another redesign…

Susi — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:50:48 +0000

I’m sure you’ve noticed – Facebook has had another redesign. I’m beginning to wonder if we need to stage a KatiePriceAKAJordan-style surgery intervention, such is the number of times things have been whitened, tightened, and moved a bit right(ened).

But I’m not here to cast judgement (even though that is my FAVOURITE thing). After redesign #431 I decided it wasn’t worth holding anything on the site dear, since in all likelihood, I’d find it relegated to a sub-sub-sub-menu the next time I logged on. But I’m in the minority in my blasé attitude.

It turns out, people really hate a Facebook redesign. More than Gordon Brown, more than snow, more than Snog, Marry, Avoid (BBC Three. Watch it.). I’ve seen fewer ‘Get Facebook to change the layout BACK!!!!’ groups than in previous times (presumably because people have realised Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t really give two social networky hoots) but there are plenty of status updates that are there to provide me with a snapshot of feelings.

Maybe it’s because we all think of it as ‘my site’ – when you’ve got all your friends there, it stores your photos and you use it to arrange your birthday party it’s easy to forget it actually belongs to someone else. And that someone wants to maximise the bits that make him money.

Maybe it’s because we (by which I mean I) hate change. I like to think I’m too busy to try and work out where the notifications sit now. Admittedly, that’s because I’ve wasted a whole day watching a snake eat a deer again and again and again (nature is MENTAL), but busy nonetheless. I thought it was fine before, and this just adds an added level of ‘wha…?’ to my Facebook experience.

Maybe it’s because it changes too often – it’s unsettling, not to mention the few days post-redesign, where everything’s inevitably a little bit buggy. There’s little communication from on high, contrary to a company like Google, who keep a regularly updated blog to inform users of changes.

My advice to anyone who is bothered by the redesign is to take a screengrab of the site as it is. Whilst you might hate it now, in three months’ time, this will be the version you’ll be begging Zuckerberg to return to when he decides to mix things up again. And watch out for Facebook nipping off behind your back to go and marry a cage fighter, somewhere in Vegas.

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The best free apps for your BlackBerry

Katie — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:43:19 +0000

It’s time to supe up your BlackBerry with the best free apps and software available. Here’s our must-have apps list…

I was wittering away on Twitter the other day about my thrilling night of BlackBerry app downloadage and a few people made enquiries about which apps I recommended.

Rather than politely answer their tweets, I thought I’d save my response for an article on Dork Adore. That way, there’s a slim chance it might do well in Google search results and I might stand to gain a few pence in ad revenue.

Before you start composing letters of complaint to your MP, not everything here is an “app”. But if you’ve just got yourself a new BlackBerry and you want to supe it up, here’s what I would do.

Opera Mini

The browser on my BlackBerry is OK, but Opera Mini is much better. It looks nicer, it’s faster and it has excellent shortcuts that make browsing on a BB much faster.

I’m currently testing Opera Mini 5 and it’s making me all confuddled. But version 4.2 works like a treat.

Opera Mini Site
Opera Mini Mobile Site

Facebook App

I hardly go on Facebook any more, but the BlackBerry app is handy for letting me know if I’ve missed a message from someone.

The latest version syncs up with your calendar and contacts, flashing up the latest profile photo of your friends when they call and reminding you that it’s someone you once met at a party’s birthday.

Facebook app website
Facebook app Mobile site

Google Maps

The maps on your BB are rubbish. Delete them and install Google Maps. That way you can find your way (even without GPS on your phone) and can get Street View and all the good bits of Google Maps on your phone.

Watch this brainwashing video. It worked on me:

Google Maps site
Google Maps Mobile Site

Twitterberry

The latest version is a vast improvement on the old one. You can now actually retweet people and view people’s user profiles. It’s like a modern day miracle.

Just make sure you delete the cache every once in a while or it starts to get pissy.

TwitterBerry site
TwitterBerry Mobile site

Google Sync

My Outlook’s connected to my Google Calendar. My Google Calendar’s connected to my BlackBerry. The only time I do a manual sync with my PC is when I want to update my contacts. I tried using Google to synchronise contacts and it just kept making duplicate entries until I lost the will to live. It’s a bug. Presumably, it will be fixed at some point, but I haven’t had the energy to try again for a while.

Optional Extra: Google Mobile App

This is OK, but I don’t use mine much. Handy for getting your reader, Gmail and other Google goodness all in one place.

Google Mobile App Site
Google Mobile App Mobile Site

MobiPocket Reader

I don’t use this eBook reader very often now I don’t commute into London every day. But for a while there it was handy for reading Little Dorrit when I wanted to know what was going to happen in next week’s episode on TV.

MobiPocket Website
MobiPocket Mobile site

iSkoot

Skype isn’t yet available for my BlackBerry, but iSkoot will fill in for the time being.

I don’t use it as much as I used to when I needed to IM colleagues: it sucks up battery life and spends a lot of time trying to connect. Some days it works beautifully and other days it can’t find its backside with both hands.

iSkoot website

BlackBerry App World

The easiest way to download this is to access BlackBerry Help (usually in the “Downloads” folder) and follow the big link on the home page.

I found it a bit buggy on my 8900, but it’s working fine on my 8520.

App World Website

And the rest (on App World):

Buzz Me: Makes your BlackBerry vibrate and ring at the same time.

Sudoku Lite: Great for train journeys.

Quick Pull Pro: Used to be free, but now costs £2.15, this app performs a hard reset to regain memory so you don’t have to remove your battery. It has lots of clever scheduling options (eg you can set it to reset at specific times or when memory starts running low). It’s handy for keeping your BB running smoothly.

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Dork Adore » Facebook

Kid Knowledge: HTML for Babies

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Watch Doctor Who on Facebook! The Future Is Now!

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App Reviews: StumbleUpon, Fruit Ninja, Wave Launcher, Katango, Walkit

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What if social media were a high school?

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Facebook Places: Why I won’t be using it

For instance.

No one cares

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Facebook: The Social Network movie trailer

So, Revenge of the Nerds 2.0?

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South Park Facebook episode: All the funny bits

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Facebook undergoes yet another redesign…

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The best free apps for your BlackBerry

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