Dork Adore » Google

Five things we love this week

Emma Cossey — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:37:20 +0000

This week, we’ve been bowled over by an adorable iPad app, geeked out on Google+, protected our gadgets with some quirky cases, got excited about a certain magical film and created our own infographics.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

This is possibly the loveliest app I’ve ever downloaded on my iPad. It’s an interactive ebook based on an award-winning short film, and follows Mr Morris Lessmore as he falls into a world of flying books. If you’re a fan of Pixar shorts, you’ll adore this. Download it now and you’ll have one more thing to distract the kids with when the summer holidays kick in.

Here’s a little peek at what it has to offer:

Google+
Half of team Dork are now on Google+, after Rebecca and Wez’s excellent post about it last weekend. I’m particularly excited about the option to share content within certain circles, even if it does leave me the paranoia that I’m going to either a) post all my personal information to the wrong people or b) turn schizophrenic.

Case Mate
Case Mate sent me some great cases this week for my iPhone and iPad, including this Monsta Case (£12.99, Amazon) for my iPhone. They also sent me a lightweight cover for my iPad (£37.99, Amazon), which doubles up as a stand for watching video/lazy surfing.

Harry Potter

Obviously. The world and their mum are off to see the final Harry Potter movie this weekend. I’m hugely excited about seeing it after reading Anna’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Dork Review. This has also led to us testing out the Kymera Magic Wand, which we’ll be reviewing for the blog next week.

Making our own Infographics

This week, we’ve wasted a fair amount of time making our own infographics. Visual.ly has the tools to help you make your own infographic based on your Twitter usage, and pit it against another user if you wish. In the future, you should be able to make your own infographics quite easily using the system too.

Here’s the Dork Adore infographic:

What things have you loved this week?

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Google+ What is it and is it any good?

Emma Cossey — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:57:50 +0000

Dork couple Rebecca Noakes and Wez Knowles have kindly put together an overview of Google+ for us.

We’ve had our invites to Google’s new social network, Google+, for around a week now, so we thought we’d go over a few of the new features introduced in Google+ and look at how it stacks up against the competition.

Circles

Circles are comparable to Facebook’s “Groups” and Twitter’s “Lists”.

They’re useful for organizing your news stream but are also extremely useful for sending your updates out to a predefined Circle of people — Family, for example — and keeping it private from everyone else.

You can add people to your Circles to see their updates but, like Twitter and unlike Facebook, they don’t have to reciprocate if they don’t wish to see your updates.

Adding people to your Circles is a simple, drag-and-drop affair with some nice animations (unlike most other Google products).

Hangout

Hangout’s are Google’s secret weapon for social networking domination: Group video chat for up to ten (yes, TEN) people at a time.

They couldn’t be easier to set up: you simply click the Hangout button in the sidebar, pick the Circle you wish to invite, then wait for it to fill up. Everyone in that Circle will then see a big blue button in their Stream inviting them to Hangout; one click later and they’re in.

A far cry from trying to explain to your mum how to download and set up Skype.

Video and audio quality isn’t quite on par with Skype, but with ten people chatting away, you’d start to struggle for bandwidth if it was much higher quality.

Another nice touch is that, depending on who is speaking (or speaking loudest) at any particular moment, it’ll switch out people from small thumbnails along the bottom of the screen to full-screen when speaking.

A fun feature worth mentioning is the ability to pick a YouTube video for your group to watch while chatting, we chose the Merengue Dog, obviously.

Google + Integration

Integration with other Google products is good, as you’d expect. In our opinion this is one of the biggest draws for people from Facebook and Twitter: you already do everything else through Google, so why not do your social networking too?

Google Talk integration is there, in the form of private chat. Latitude support is there (more on that later) and Picasa is there, providing photo organisation and sharing. We’re quite surprised at the lack of Google Reader integration at the moment — there’s no way to share interesting articles with your friends, for example (apart from by manually copy and pasting the link into an update — but Google+ is still in beta so there’s time before its public launch.

Android FTW

As you’d expect, Google+ launched with an Android app for “plussing” on the go. Reading your Stream, posting to your Circles and all the other features you’d expect are in there, but the app has a few of interesting features of its own.

First up is Huddle.

Think of it as BBM for Google+; group chats for a couple of friends of a whole Circle of friends. Good for organising meetings, it was great this weekend when organising a barbecue.

The application also supports Foursquare-style check-ins using Google Latitude.

The most impressive feature of the Android application, though, is Instant Upload. The application will scan your phone periodically for new photos and videos and upload them in the background to a private Google+ album for easy sharing later on. You simply take your photos, log on to the website, and your photos are ready and waiting to attach to your posts. I’m surprised Facebook never thought of this.

It’s worth noting that the application is currently available only on Android, but an iOS version has been submitted for approval by Apple.

The Google + Conclusion

Overall Google+ gets a big thumbs up from us.

It’s a well-designed, good looking, functional, easy-to-use social network that ties together the best bits of Twitter and Facebook with excellent integration with the Google services you already own. Google seems to have taken time to discover what people like and dislike about other social networking sites and has put together a really nice package. It is still in beta and only a week in we can see things changing and improving daily!

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The Google 2011 cushion

Tamsin Worrad — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:02:41 +0000

Every year since 2005, Brooklyn based design company ElastiCo has produced a cushion emblazoned with the top ten Google searches of that year.

In this digital age of transient trends, where celebrities are forgotten as soon as their 15 minutes of fame is up, the cushion is a permanent reminder of the things that the world was obsessing about and when.

As a web and popular culture fanatic, I find the idea of having a memorial of internet past on display in your living room a brilliantly original idea — imagine having the full set lined up on your sofa… although I’m not sure I’d want to be reminded of 2010′s obsession with Justin Beiber.

Beautifully silk screened and filled with down and feathers, the pillows cost $65 each and are available from their Etsy shop. Only one question remains: what on earth is a grooveshark?

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The best Pac-Man products

Emma Cossey — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:00:23 +0000

: Image by Elliot Li via Flickr

Remember a little earlier this year, when Google dedicated their Google Doodle to Pac-Man? That particular Google Doodle was so popular that a study by Rescue Time estimated that playing it led to five million hours of wasted work time.

It’s a testament to the ongoing popularity of the 80s game, which this year celebrated its 30th anniversary.

To celebrate Pac-Man hitting the big 3-0, here’s some of our favourite Pac-Man inspired products.

Moleskine Pac-Man Limited Edition Notebook

Over the years, I’ve lusted over many a Moleskine notebook. The classic notebooks are known for their timeless quality, so it was an excellent move to adopt the theme of the time-defying Namco® game.

There’s a number of styles available, including this black ruled notebook (Amazon, £10.78) featuring Pac-Man and Ghost, and a Volant Gift Set (Amazon, £22.09) of four soft back notebook designs in yellow, blue, fuchsia and red. Each book also comes with a set of exclusive Pac-Man stickers.

Pac-Man Apple MacBook Vinyl Sticker

We’re big fans of vinyl stickers here at Dork Adore, whether it’s wall decals or decorations for your gadgets (see Lauren’s post on customised skins). Heading to Etsy, I came across this chomping sticker, based around the famous Apple logo.

Etsy seller GoatGrinStudio is the genius behind this Pac-Man sticker (£4.50 + p&p), available in several colours.

Pac-Man Heat Changing Mug

Ok, it’s slightly tacky, but I love a bit of heat changing magic. So this Pac-Man Heat Changing Mug (Firebox, £5.99) is a pretty awesome idea. Especially if you’re struggling for a Secret Santa gift in a few months time.

The cold mug displays the classic Pac-Man maze. Add some heat and the yellow critter and his arch enemies will appear.

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Google Waves goodbye to real-time collaboration tool

Emma Cossey — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:58:55 +0000

Google has finally admitted defeat and ended the Google Wave project.

Its demise was announced on the official blog and lack of usage was blamed for the closure.

Originally, the concept was to create a Web application that allows realtime communication and collaboration. However, the resulting app was somewhat clunky and complicated to use.

Google still believes the product had some interesting elements, and will be pursuing them in further projects.

Not Waving but drowning

Google boss Eric Schmidt has told reporters “We celebrate our failures. This is a company where it is absolutely OK to try something that is very hard, have it not be successful, take the learning and apply it to something new.”

Why not pay your respects by watching this clever Pulp Fiction Google Wave demo.

Where do you think it went wrong for Google Wave?

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15 of the best iGoogle gadgets for bloggers

Emma Cossey — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:00:45 +0000

If you’re a heavy user of Google services like Gmail, the Calender and Google Docs, it makes sense to have everything collected together in one place.

iGoogle does this by acting as a homepage and a base to access all your services whilst also having some useful widgets and gadgets to hand. You can pimp it up with your own backgrounds and styles too.

As a blogger, I find it particularly useful for keeping track of my RSS feed, my Remember The Milk list, checking the thesaurus and keeping up with the latest news. Which reduces my procrastination by 37% (probably).

To get an iGoogle page, simply click on the iGoogle link in the top right hand corner of your Google search page and you can start building it, using your Gmail sign in if you have one.

Once you’ve got your iGoogle page you can start moving things around and adding those all important gadgets!

Here are a few suggestions, which are particularly useful for bloggers.

The Basics
Gmail – Quick access to your emails with an easy overview box.
Google Reader – A simple viewer for all your blog feeds on your front page. It’s also worth knowing that you can add your RSS feeds into their own gadget on the iGoogle page, which is particularly good if you want to keep particular feeds separate.
Google Calender – A mini-version of your Google Calender, with quick event adding function.
Google Documents – Displays your most recent documents and allows you to open them directly from the gadget. You can also add a Google Documents gadget within your Gmail inbox for easy integration.
Google News – Regularly updated with the latest news with relevant tabs. BBC, Sky and CNN all have alternative gadgets.
Hotmail – If you use Hotmail as well as Gmail, this can be a big time-saver. You can also view, reply and delete from this gadget.

Work
Remember the Milk – One of the best To Do lists available. Lets you tick off, postpone or edit any upcoming tasks. If you’re signed up for the alerts you’ll also get a round up of today’s To Do list in your inbox every morning.

Blogger – Publish straight to your blog page from the front page.

Digg – For anyone that uses social bookmarking, this is essential. Also check out Reddit‘s gadget.

ExactFactor search engine position checker – Clever gadget that allows you to check the website rankings for any three keywords across the three big search engines.

SEOBook – Tool that allows you to check everything from the Google Trends and Traffic, to keyword checking and PPC.

Just for Fun
BBC Good Food Recipes – Not sure what to have for dinner tonight? Turn to this little gadget for a bit of inspiration.

Tetris – Horribly addictive retro game. Wave goodbye to your productivity with this one.
YouTube – Pretty self-explanatory, a gadget with all the latest YouTube videos. It’ll even make recommendations once you’ve used it a few times.

So that’s a few of my suggestions. Do you have any interesting or useful iGoogle gadgets to recommend?

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Make your own Google Android Doll

Emma Cossey — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:38:26 +0000

With Google Android phones set to become the big talking point of 2010, it only seems natural for a crafty geek to have recreated the Android logo in cuddly form.

The creator has even kindly thought to include a pouch to keep your Google phone safe.

Recombu have created the video below to give you a step by step guide to create the Android Doll, which we’ve embedded below for your ease and convenience.

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The best gadgets at CES 2010

Susi — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:52:32 +0000

So, CES has drawn to a close, and the UK tech contingent is heading home. Or at least we would be, if something that looks suspiciously like The Day After Tomorrow hadn’t been happening in our absence…

CES this year has been… fine. It’s been slightly more interesting, in terms of launches, than last year, but not as good as when Philips launched all those diamond encrusted USB sticks. I’d rate it a 6.5 out of ten.

You might have been wading through the liveblogs, the analysis and the constant updates, but more likely, you were sledging. So, for you sledgers, here’s a round-up of what you missed:

Nexus One
Woo hoo! It is the Google phone! Except it’s not really – it’s an HTC phone. And there have already been loads of HTC Android phones. But wait! Google are revolutionising the phone market by offering it SIM free! Which is only new and exciting if you’re American, and are used to buying phones with SIMs locked inside. So, it’s a new Android phone. But at least it’s a good looking one. It’s running Android 2.1, has a 5-megapixel camera, snapdragon AKA superfast processor, 4GB MicroSD card which can be expanded to 32GB. I’m sold.

Panasonic 3D TV
Like it or not (I don’t) the age of 3D is upon us. Naysayers have been hushed as manufacturers have launched actual available to the common man 3D TVs this year, and the best of the bunch seem to be coming from Panasonic. They’re so into the third dimension, they’ve even launched a 3D camcorder. Just imagine the nightmarish scenes your younger brother could produce armed with a teenage imagination and a 3D camcorder.

Lenovo U1 (above)
This is mental – it’s half laptop, half tablet but it’s 100% brills. Whilst the screen resides in the case, it works as your average notebook, but you can unclip it from the casing, at which point it becomes a tablet. When it’s a notebook, it runs Windows 7, when it’s a tablet it uses Lenovo’s Skylight OS and has 16GB of flash memory. There’s also wifi, 3G, speakers and a webcam in the tablet, so unless you’re after a keyboard, it’ll be tempting to dump the casing all together. Although for $999, that’s some expensive discarding.

Polaroid PIC1000
Polaroid are back, and this time, with added Gaga! Yes, Lady Gaga is apparently now a creative director of the company, complete with her own business cards. No word on whether she’s the driving force behind this latest launch, which takes Polaroid back to its roots with a new instant photo camera. It’s totally retro-tastic in its design, and at £60, might make a cool alternative to your bells and whistles digital camera. [Photo via Pocket Lint]

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Top 5 Twitter desktop applications

Emma Cossey — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:00:46 +0000

I know, I know! Katie has already encouraged us to stop writing about Twitter.

This doesn’t count though, as I’m purely speaking to those of us who have already fallen under the grip of the Twitter addiction. Those of us who need a desktop application to ensure we’re getting the most out of it without it taking over our lives.

There are dozens of Twitter desktop applications available, but here are a few of my favourites.

Tweetdeck

Tweetdeck is the application I tend to rely on the most when it comes to tweeting. The simple interface, access to both my twitter accounts and Facebook accounts in one system, and the integrated Twitpic, URL shortening client and translation options are all pluses to the application.

It can be a bit of a drain on your system though, so it’s only suitable for heavy users.

Digsby

Digsby is a multi-purpose desktop tool for keeping up with your social networking sites, e-mails and instant messaging.

Sitting pretty in your task bar, Digsby notifies you every time you receive an e-mail and allows you to quickly view your tweets and Facebook activities with one click on the icon. You can even compose an e-mail straight from the app.

Seesmic

I think it was Katie who suggested this to me a while back, and you can access it on a variety of mediums including the web, desktop and your mobile. It’s similar to Tweetdeck in look and functionality, although the tabbed feature for dealing with multiple accounts if much more user-friendly on Seesmic.

Plus you can access the new lists function, which looks to replace the old #followfriday trend.

Betwittered

Strictly speaking, this is a an iGoogle application rather than a desktop one, but it’s worth mentioning for its simplicity and ease of implementation.

Once added to your iGoogle page, you can check your current tweets, replies and direct messages in under a minute.

Useful if a desktop application tends to only increase your Twitter addiction, but not so useful for anything more advanced then checking in and sending the odd tweet.

Echofon

Echofone is an add-on that sits at the bottom of your Firefox browser, quietly counting the number of tweets since you last checked. Double-click on the icon and you can view the tweets,

I like the way I can surf whilst keeping an eye on my tweets with this, rather than switching between my browser and my desktop application.

These are just the applications I’ve tried and loved. What are your favourite desktop applications for Twitter?

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Dork Review: Motorola DEXT Android phone

Emma Cossey — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:00:14 +0000

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Dork Adore » Google

Five things we love this week

More stories like this

Google+ What is it and is it any good?

Circles

Hangout

Google + Integration

Android FTW

The Google + Conclusion

More stories like this

The Google 2011 cushion

More stories like this

The best Pac-Man products

To celebrate Pac-Man hitting the big 3-0, here’s some of our favourite Pac-Man inspired products.

Moleskine Pac-Man Limited Edition Notebook

Pac-Man Apple MacBook Vinyl Sticker

Pac-Man Heat Changing Mug

More stories like this

Google Waves goodbye to real-time collaboration tool

Not Waving but drowning

More stories like this

15 of the best iGoogle gadgets for bloggers

More stories like this

Make your own Google Android Doll

More stories like this

The best gadgets at CES 2010

More stories like this

Top 5 Twitter desktop applications

More stories like this

Dork Review: Motorola DEXT Android phone

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