http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/index/ Taking aim at the best of the internet through posting and podcasting web criticism en chrismaslin.design@gmail.com Copyright 2010 2010-07-06T21:27:34+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/fly_53/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/fly_53/#When:21:27:34Z Fly53.com Fly 53 got a new site don’t they! #ep18 Pretty Fly Urban style gurus Fly 53 unveiled a new look site a couple of months back, and kindly asked us to give it a review. So here it is… First thing to notice is the great amount of breathing space (golden juice) on the landing page. Big high res images cover the site from top to bottom which is easy on the eye. We like the functionality employed on the homepage as obviously having a lot of breathing space means sacrificing the amount of content above the fold, but Fly have made use of the large image space and instead of just a static image have taken full advantage and turned the space into a tidy carousel. They breakdown of content below the carousel is neat, although nearer the bottom of the page it does go a bit shouty, with various promos all vying for your attention. The PROPAGANDA section which is basically a ‘posh blog’ serves up all the best news from the world of FLY which keeps you up to date with new collections, competitions, happenings, music & general news. Well worth a looky. Now the main reason you might be visiting this site is to purchase some shiny new clothes, and therefore probably the most important part of the review. As we do enjoy a bit of online shopping, but only if the experience is top notch. And top notch it is, we did spot one or two tiny things that we will mention on the other side of the review, but for the most part the FLY online store is a great example of ‘how to do it proper’ Clean and clear titles at the top of the page so you know exactly what department you are in and a ‘mega zoom’ function for each product. You can literally see the fibres that make up each garment and the odd nipple if you look at the right products! Nice work Mr FLY Subculture and fashion 2010-07-06T21:27:34+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/get_some/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/get_some/#When:18:15:47Z getsomeuk.com Gold mine for up and coming DJ’s/Artists/Producers alike. #ep18 Got Some There is a massive pile of content to found within the site, from free downloads, remixes, videos and the odd picture gallery. The site is regularly updated (put’s us to shame a bit) so there is usually a fresh musical nugget waiting to get in you ear pipes. Leigh and co have kept the site really really simple, a we bloody love that, the number of times similar sites have way to much flying about, bulky flash players that take ages to load clogging up your online experience. They often embed music files in the page via Soundcloud (boo!) which means there is no faffing about with downloading etc and you can really jump right in. So what makes this different from the hundreds of ‘posh music blogs’ out there?  For one these lads are fucking on it! I like to think of myself as fairly into the London underground music scene, but boy do these guys find some gems that I would have never come across in 1 million years…o yeah and they aren’t bad DJ’s themselves either! They also organise and run GET SOME nights in and about the London area, which we are yet to attend after the bad timing of father’s day for the last one (sorry) we can’t wait to see how these chaps fair live. A great all-round package that is certainly not ordinary, and a great way to discover new music that isn’t just Jay-Z’s latest album or some Lady Gaga remix. This ones for true music heads. Music and film 2010-07-06T18:15:47+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/tv_catchup/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/tv_catchup/#When:18:13:05Z tvcatchup.com Watch TV, without using a TV! Whatever next? #ep18 Wide-eyed If you haven’t stumbled across this already, it’s an essential bookmark for your web-browsing collection. Well, if you’re in the UK. It doesn’t feature any fancy American channels or anything but they cost shedloads so you wouldn’t expect it to. Instead it’s just the Freeview set raring to go. There’s a lovely set of very clickable buttons to take you from one channel to the next. The TV Guide is simple and easy to scan (in fact it’s quite a useful page in its own right). And if you’ve got a decent wifi connection the thing runs pretty smoothly. That’s it, live TV right there in front of you. You have to sign up to use it but it’s a super-simple sign up form and then you’re straight into the action. There’s also a mobile version, which works as a simple web app and can even stream over 3G. Whilst this can be pretty hit and miss, there are times when I’ve had a gloriously clear picture even sat on a train. Music and film 2010-06-21T18:13:05+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/neet_recordings/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/neet_recordings/#When:19:36:59Z neetrecordings.com MIA’s record label website. And like her eclectic sound, it’s visual chaos. #ep17 New sounds It’s certainly different. MIA set this record label up. And when you find out she studied Fine Art at St Martins it kind of makes sense as you know she’s going to have a say in their look. Which is mental. Or as Pete said: “like the 90s version of the internet has just thrown up”. I think there’s something in this though. The idea that the site should represent the music and the underlying philosophy of the record label. Rather than just being corporate and bland. And in fact each artist’s page looks completely different and unique. The use of animated gifs (in the style of threeframes.net) is a wicked, almost-3D way of showing off your people too. Music and film 2010-06-14T19:36:59+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/virtual_stickers/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/virtual_stickers/#When:18:49:54Z en.stickeralbum.fifa.com The future of football stickers! Just like you remember – except you can’t touch them. #ep17 Hat-trick They’ve actually done this quite well. The ripping of the packets with the movement of your mouse is a lovely little touch. And the idea of doing swaps with other users is another good addition. Of course there’s all the teams from the world cup there (though luckily you just have to complete the first team rather than the whole squad). There’s badges to unlock. Clicking on the flags will jump you to that team’s page although you can do page-turns one at a time if you get particular joy out of that. One lovely feature (on top of the player’s qualifying stats) is that you can see their old stickers and hair cuts from previous world cups. Someone has a sense of humour. Sport 2010-06-14T18:49:54+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/mflow/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/mflow/#When:21:20:45Z mflow.com The social music store, Twitter meets Spotify? #ep17 Flo Ridaaaaa mflow is the new kid on the streaming music block. So what’s the deal? In a strange way to start, the idea is to follow your friends by adding them to your profile. You then receive tracks that your pals rate which are ‘flowed’ to your profile for you to give a spin. If you like the flowed track, the idea is to purchase which will give 20% of the profit to the recommender/mate. Anything you ‘flow’ which is downloaded by a friend will in turn give you a slice of the pie. There is a handy video that tells all you need to know here. Sounds great doesn’t it? We gave mflow a test drive over at the Webgun Towers where we were unconvinced to say the least. Sure everything looks great, shiny buttons a plenty, glossy images all the interaction design works well but is pretty much just a re-skinned Spotify with the general layout almost identical. Much like with the problems of Google Wave it only comes to life when you have a bunch of mates using the application… and suffers from the ‘no-one is using it so I won’t bother’ and therefore it’s hard to really see mflow at it’s full potential. mflow feels very empty when you first arrive and they try to get around this by automatically subscribing you to there own selection of labels and celebs, such as Island records, NME, Ninja Tune & Zane Lowe, which we like. Music and film 2010-06-02T21:20:45+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/livescore/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/livescore/#When:15:37:43Z The first live score service on the Internet, powered by livescore.com since 1998, the no.1 ranked football (soccer) website globally. #ep15 Superquick on limited data connections Clean, simple design Wealth of leagues all on scrollable page Full season history (results/scorers) Auto refresh Football/Hockey/Basketball/Tennis (could be a bad thing actually) Sport 2010-05-28T15:37:43+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/zimbio/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/zimbio/#When:21:49:43Z zimbio.com A new place to search for images. #ep16 zimbi’yo’ Right this isn’t a review as such but more of site you should check out if you are a fellow designer or just love images.  Zimbio is a massive online gossip/celeb magazine that apparently has ’ OVER 20 MILLION READERS A MONTH’  which seems a little optimistic. Aside form the usual gossip mag guff this site has a very useful picture archive that covers entertainment, style, sports & current events. Think google images x10 and all taken by semi-pro/ pro photographers. Like we mention on episode 16, this a great tool if you want decent stock images, just look how many images there are of ex-premier league glassman Jimmy Bullard of Hull City fame. So whether you need pictures of Peter Andre’s at his latest fragrance signing or Agyness Deyn in Primerose Hill it’s all here to be found. Other fun sections worth checking out are LOOKBOOKS which links you to the ‘stylebistro’ which is possibly the silliest name ever, and the GAMES section is a great way to kill time ‘who would win in a celebrity boxing match’ see what we mean… Subculture and fashion 2010-05-25T21:49:43+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/mixcloud/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/mixcloud/#When:21:44:29Z mixcloud.com A site that collects together lots of independent podcasts, radio shows and DJ mixes for you to discover. And gives you the tools to get involved yourself #ep16 No clouds in the sky It looks ace, some really nice type-led design – never have tracklistings looked so appealing. If you want an alternative take on the music scene, here is a great place to find mixes (and podcasts) put together from all sorts of genres by anyone. There’s also plenty of meta data around each mix to make browsing around nice and easy. Uploading is a joy. They’ve really thought about the upload form by not making it a traditional form with lots of dull fields. And you can fill out the details as the file uploads in the background. Handy. And there seems to be no limit on the amount you can upload. They allow you to take away the embeddable media player and put it on your site. Which in itself looks ace (as you can see from our own use of it!) and is dead easy to code with. It could well be the youtube of audio. It really could. And even if it isn’t, it’s all free, which is bloody brilliant. So what are you waiting for? Music and film 2010-05-25T21:44:29+00:00 http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/vbs/ http://www.webgun.net/index.php/site/vbs/#When:17:04:28Z vbs.tv Vice’s broadcasting arm and a home of brilliant video content. Watch it! #ep15 Vee-Bee-YES This is the real gem in the Vice online crown. There is some truly great stuff here and they go about creating content that other people in mainstream media won’t do/can’t do. A prime example is CNN taking their brilliant Guide to North Korea. The content on the whole consists of interviews with interesting characters (from Chomsky to Gilliam) and documentaries looking into subcultures you wouldn’t otherwise see. It’s like an awesome Youtube. As well as the aforementioned North Korea, their travel piece on Liberia is an incredible look at this unreported world. There’s a little bit of Western world attitude (but what do you expect from Vice?) but Shane Smith (the founder) is a great guide and they capture some hectic footage. Music and film 2010-05-12T17:04:28+00:00