App: High Noon
by Chris on 20 November 2011
https://www.happylatte.com/
A brilliantly crafted, addictive and original western style gunslinging game for iOS.
More like this
Odds and ends reviews
App: Whale Trail
App: EPL Addicts
From the podcast
Pros
The two key features we believe make this game really really work are.
1. The game mechanics have really been thought about, they suit the touch screen platform incredibly well.
Producers of the game Happylatte have done what very few game studios actually do, think how the user is going to play the game. A lot of games that are churned out by even some of the biggest studios are more of a technical achievement with stunning 3-D graphics, incredible frame rate or some other graphical gimmick.
Very few of these games make it past a novelty, when finally the companies realise that maybe a dual virtual stick multi button all action shooter doesn’t play so well when around 50% of the screen is covered up by the persons thumbs actually playing it.
High Noon has simple enough controls but also enough depth that you can become a skilled gunslinger and dispatch any inferior foes who haven’t put the hours in!
2. There are over 7 million users online playing this game right now! That is an awesome achievement and really enforces how well this game is doing.
But this success came from the fact that all of characters you fight in the game are all controlled by real people, which makes getting in that final headshot before your opponent all the more satisfying.
On top of these two key features are a whole host of elements to keep you playing for a long time.
The general store, western wear, gun shop, indian trading post and the barber shop will have you spending and saving masses amounts of gold as you upgrade and pimp out your outlaw.
The ‘freemium’ model used in High Noon is a great way to get people playing the full game for free, with the option to buy more credit in order to fight, buy and upgrade quicker than anyone else.
Cons
There are very few grumbles we have with High Noon as it really is a AAA game.
A few things we think could help improve the game
*The matchmaking system seems a little bit iffy with opponents either being to strong and higher level or very weak and just starting out.
*The occasional crash when in the middle of a shoot-out can really frustrate, especially after you sign back in you are informed that you ‘RAN AWAY’
*Some of the guns seem a little overpowered
Comments & social
Site: Spotalike
by Chris on 20 November 2011
http://www.spotalike.com/
Name a track and get a Spotify playlist in an instant!
More like this
Music reviews
Site: We Are Hunted
Site: Songkick
From the podcast
Pros
This is a great online utility which can rustle up a 50 track playlist in a matter of seconds. All you need to do is start by entering a track name, selecting it from the drop down and hitting the big red button.
Your playlist will then appear with a link to listen to it via Spotify.
Spotalike is a good for discovering new music even when starting with a track or artist you may know well.
Powered by Last.fm’s massive data base which has been growing since 2002 means the results are detailed and will throw up some artists you won’t hopefully be familiar with but will be closely related to the artist you started with.
A great tool for finding something new
Cons
It is limited to what you can find on Last fm and what Spotify actually has available in it’s library which means sometimes you will get the ‘cover’ version as the original artist e.g. Led Zeppelin isn’t to be found on Spotify.
Comments & social
Site: Fanroom
by Matt on 09 November 2011
http://fanroom.co.uk
Where will you watch the match? Find your ultimate venue to enjoy sport-watching.
More like this
Sport reviews
App: Livescore
Site: Footytube
From the podcast
Pros
Capacity crowd
A site that lists all the pubs, bars and other venues that play sport isn’t exactly ground-breaking. But it’s surprising how poorly it has been done up until now.
When I sat down with an old friend and decided to tackle this problem, we wanted to have a site that would tell you what games were showing in any given pub but we pretty quickly realised this kind of information would be a) really hard to get and b) pretty unreliable.
So instead we set about just chronicling every venue in London showing sport and which channels they have and open it up to ‘the community’ so it’s kind of a Sports Bars Wiki. Getting reviews and ratings from users made much more sense than the model used by most competitors: bars paying to be on there. This way we’re hoping to build a ‘Trip Advisor for sports pubs’.
Fanroom is where we’re at and we’re already the biggest listings site for sports bars in the UK with 500 venues. We’ve got a top ten that we’re very happy with and actually represents some genuinely nice places to watch sport - unlike many of the dives that come to mind for a lot of people.
There’s lots more info about our thinking over on the Fanroom blog but if you need to find somewhere playing the match, we’re the best option in town.
Cons
Behind closed doors
So the main flaw is it’s only sports bars in London at the moment but we’re aiming to roll out to more UK cities as soon as we can (and have conquered the capital).
We don’t actually have forthcoming sports fixtures on there yet, which would certainly be a nice complementary feature. We’ve had to accept that we can’t tell people what games will be on where because we can’t account for the whims of bar staff…
Some extra features like info about the team bias of a venue could be useful too and something we could surface from the reviews.
Comments & social
App: Whale Trail
by Chris on 20 October 2011
http://www.ustwo.co.uk
Design studio ustwo™'s latest creation
More like this
Odds and ends reviews
App: Colour Challenge
App: Audioboo
App: High Noon
Pros
Whale of a time
Design Studio ustwo™ have just launched their latest creation and first real serious game (which is not bad for a studio that doesn’t make games)
Whale Trail tells the story of Willow the Wale, who flies through the clouds collecting blubbles to keep him in the air, whilst avoiding the black clouds (a.k.a Thunder Bros).
Catch enough stars and FRENZY mode will activate giving Willow super speed and invincibility to smash through the evil clouds trying to stop his trail.
This description may sounds slightly kiddy and on the surface it may seem like that. But once you get into it, the gameplay takes over, and all of a sudden the clouds, rainbows and colours all make sense.
With one finger you control Willow, press anywhere to climb higher into the sky and release to drop down. (holding for around 1s will perform a loop da loop, which is great for stalling and planning your route)
Once you get a feel for the response of Willow the game really opens up as you progress through the 7 colourful worlds, with each level containing less blubbles which basically means you can make less mistakes.
The early stages are easy enough for anyone to pick up and play, and get real tough after the 4th/5th world. Which we think will keep everyone happy from the 1 year old with the magazine that wasn’t an iPad to the most hardcore high score hunter around.
Overall a beautiful, simple & down right addictive game perfect for a quick spin on the bus, or a long session when settled down at home.
Buy it here
Trailer here
Watch the awesome making of Whale Trail here
Cons
Whale a bit pale
For 69 english pence you get the full game, no ads or junk like that, but we were a little disappointed to find that there were no unlockable items, characters or game modes.
We think in app purchasing would work a treat here, to help those starting out, and the hardcore score whores who have put a good hour into a trail!
But this is v.1.0, and we have heard there will be regular updates in the near future, so who knows what will appear.
Comments & social
App: Wunderlist
by Matt on 10 August 2011
http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist/
A sexy-looking to-do list by those efficient Germans.
More like this
Odds and ends reviews
App: Rummble
Site: 43 Things
From the podcast
Pros
Ta-da!
Now I know there’s quite a few different to-do list apps out there and I’ll be honest and say I haven’t used any of them. So I don’t know what other hot features may exist on other competitors but I don’t think I really need to. Because we’re talking about a to-do list here. I’ve been making them for years on notepads and post-it notes. Realistically, that’s all it needs to compare to (writing ain’t broken yet). I just want something as simple as that, which can be with me wherever I go.
It’s really easy to add a task – check. It’s really easy to tick off or delete a task – check. You can put a date on a task and it notifies you – check. In various ways actually, from choosing the day within the app, to the notifier badge on the app to even being emailed by the app. Ticked off tasks stay in there – check. I always think this is actually very important, especially to give you the sense of achievement.
It’s glorious simplicity is complimented by a beautiful interface. Really elegantly done, from the subtle icons to the ability to change the background image, all the details are there. It feels like an app and more importantly it feels the same on every platform: the desktop app, the mobile app and the web app. Great consistent UX work.
Oh and it’s all free. You really are spoiling us.
Cons
To don’t
You can create multiple lists and share some with different people. And that works really well but it leads me to my only criticism: the ability to share lists suggests you really should be able to assign tasks to other users. But as far as I can see, this is missing. Add a simple implementation of this and I’m happy. It doesn’t have to be a complex, Basecamp-style application.
Actually one more thing: I’m not that keen on the logo/icon. What is it? A wooden box of paper with a star on top? Doesn’t shout list for me…
Comments & social
Site: Desert Island Discs
by Matt on 03 August 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs
The longest running music radio show now has a great website.
More like this
Music reviews
Site: TED
Site: Culture Critic
From the podcast
Pros
Buried treasure
The concept is legendary. The show is exemplary. It’s been an institution for decades. Now the website does it justice too.
If by some reason you don’t know what it’s all about, ask your parents. Or grandparents, it’s been around since 1942. Essentially it’s a show where people pick their favourite eight tracks whilst being gently interviewed about their (usually fascinating) lives. The secret is in the amazing guest list.
There is a mega archive here: all 2863 guests have a page with their choices listed and about 550 have audio (full programmes back to 1998 at the mo) with more on the way. This is exactly the kind of thing the BBC should be doing: exposing the incredible archive for all to enjoy. If this can be done for more amazing programming then talk about value for money on the license fee…
This website is a victory for simply and intuitively linking data together. It’s a lesson in how it should be done: give every guest it’s own destination and then allow exploration of the interesting links between them. Want to search by occupation? Want to find people by year? Want to see which other guests chose this artist? Even want to see who chose a similar luxury - yep you can even do that. This is the power of meta data in action.
I’ve spent hours with these on in the background while I work, it really is a treasure trove.
Cons
Stranded
You could argue about the omissions of your favourite personalities and it’s a shame not all the audio is there (it never will be as some of the tapes are long gone) but there’s plenty to be getting on with. In fact you should test yourself and listen to people you wouldn’t otherwise: they’re bound to be fascinating. Although I rinsed the comedians section pretty early on.
Allowing people to build on top of this would be ace too: Spotify playlists for each person anyone? Combine people together to choose your ultimate dinner party line-up maybe? Just think…
Comments & social
Site: Sound-boards
by Chris on 22 July 2011
http://www.soundboards.ws/
A crazy world of buttons and sounds
More like this
Web tools reviews
Site: Sporcle
Site: Gif Bin
From the podcast
Pros
A soundboard, for those who may have somehow never come across one online, is in most cases a webpage that contains a bunch of button that when clicked on play a short sound clip.
The clips are usually quotes, lines or sounds from TV shows, sitcoms, films and personalities. No one is safe.
There is not much else to say apart from it’s a great way to kill some time, or create an intro for your own podcast or something.
Here are out top 5 favourites:
1. Roy Walker (Catch Phrase)
2. David Brent ( The Office)
3. Ned Smanks (Nathan Barley)
4. Gareth Keenan ( The Office)
5. Alan Sugar ( The Apprentice)
So get clicking!
Cons
Visually this site could do with a bit more love and attention, but everything works fine.
A few of the ‘Soundboards’ are low quality which is a shame (The Apprentice) for example.
Comments & social
Site: Abeano
by Chris on 22 July 2011
http://www.abeano.com/
A new music blog, that's actually good!
More like this
Music reviews
Site: Get Some
Site: RCRD LBL
From the podcast
Pros
Abeano is a new music blog that was started in 2008 with the aim to bring the freshest and newest UK music to the people that want it. They have of course by now also branched out to include music from all over the World.
Yes, there are tons of ‘music blogs’ about but Abeano stands out from the rest, with its clean simple design, minimal adverts, and most importantly great content.
You can listen, download and watch hundreds of carefully selected music video, exclusive mixes, or stream the latest track by up and coming artists.
The downloads are top quality, usually remixes which can often be rarer to get hold of in high quality.
The ‘What’s on the Abeano Stereo’ is a nice touch that is a great way for any newcomers to ease their way in if they are unfamiliar with the site.
To sum up a nice looking site with great content, give your ears a treat, they deserve it.
Cons
THE name! what does it mean, how do we say it!
A-Beano (like the magazine?)
Abe-ano
Ab-ean-o
Comments & social
Trend: Info-graphics
by Matt on 22 June 2011
The internet is awash with them (tech blogs in particular). Good or bad thing?
More like this
Web tools reviews
Site: Lego Instructions
Flickr Set: Design Archive
From the podcast
Pros
Firstly, it has to be said that I enjoy a good infographic as much as the next man. In fact I enjoy making them and do so for The Football Ramble (you can see them on my website).
I find it’s a really interesting challenge to visually represent sometimes complicated data and make it easier to understand. It’s like a meeting of science and art – or more accurately, maths and design. And it’s really hard to get right. So much so, that when you do crack it, you feel like you’ve created a little timeless nugget. People speaking different languages and with little understanding of the subject should be able to ‘get it’.
So I don’t think anyone gets it right all of the time. But those that have a good hit ratio and do interesting things include the New York Times (leaders in the field), David McCandless (great original approaches, very colourful) and Good (hit and miss but some epic ones). The Spanish newspaper Marca are awesome for sport stuff too.
So explore these and learn what great infographics are about - they should give you an understanding of tough content or tell a story visually. And if you’re anything like me, get you a bit excited.
Cons
But with all these great infographics that have appeared and got people excited, along come a whole host of imitators. People who see pretty colours and shapes with a bit of text on it and think that’s all there is to it. And so go mad creating absolutely massive jpgs. And I mean big – a quick google for internet history infographic in particular reveals this.
Here’s some more tech-related infographics that get all carried away: http://smashinghub.com/history-of-computers.htm, http://techpp.com/2010/08/21/history-of-the-internet-infographic/, http://mashable.com/2011/04/17/web-design-evolution/
See, all they’re doing is just putting tons of text on some shapes in a jpg and telling the story that way. Congratulations, you’ve just made your content massively impenetrable. There’s no reason not to do that with HMTL and CSS, making it more search-engine friendly, accessible and just generally easier to read and understand. Tom Morris writes a decent (if a bit extreme) rant on this in more detail.
None of these are taking datasets and helping you, the user, understand them. Or letting you explore the patterns at your own pace. They’re just telling you a linear story. Something text has been great at for years. Sadly they’re on the rise – not a day goes by without several cropping up on Twitter.
A true infographic is probably driven by data and so perhaps datagraphic is a better term for the real ones. A colleague of mine goes into more detail on this. But then that makes it sound a bit geeky and I’m happy to cash in on the new understanding and popularity of the infographic term to promote my work.
So a request: think before pointlessly turning your text into a pretty picture. Challenge yourself to actually tell the story visually or stop wasting everyone’s time.
Comments & social
Youtube: Alan Partridge
by Matt on 15 June 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucrpgmJxx0E
Alan's back but this time in bitesize chunks and with a sidekick.
More like this
Video and film reviews
Podcast: The Football Ramble
From the podcast
Pros
Cashback!
So Coogan’s revived his most popular (and possible his only genuinely funny) character, Sir Alan of Partridge, and put him on Youtube for some short episodes with the help of a lager brand. Why this is a great thing:
1. This could be a model for future comics or popular characters that TV isn’t so interested in: get a bit of sponsorship (the right sponsor who is prepared to give creative freedom); bypass the commissioners; go straight to the fans. This kind of thing is a great use of the web.
2. The setting of a digital radio station is spot-on for Partridge. Are there any other comedy characters we’ve been able to watch the career trajectory of quite like this? From a mainstream chat show to the smallest of niche radio stations, it’s a brilliant study in modern celebrity. And it understands the current media landscape with the webcam-style views and the memo/jingle in episode one is very apt: “sustaining and maintaining our core listenership, in an increasingly fragmented marketplace…”.
3. Tim Key. Filling the role of Sidekick Simon, Key is the perfect foil for Partridge and could genuinely be his sidekick for years to come. A lot of his comedy is in the subtle stuff: facial expressions, use of language etc. He knows how to wring laughs out of the smallest of lines. I’m already a massive fan of his but if you like him in this, you should definitely see him live, he’s unlike anyone else.
4. Finally, putting any character in a one set location is a great test of just how funny they are. Very few could pull this off. Arguably this is Coogan at his best.
Cons
You can’t!
The news that it is likely to get picked up by television is a mixed one for me. Having the show re-packaged into a six-episode TV series might just mean it loses something: this truly was designed to be watched online and is built around that concept. Also, like any protective fan, I like it more that less people know about it…
But then if it means they make another series from it then you certainly won’t hear me complaining. It’s genius stuff.
Comments & social
Site: Songkick
by Chris on 11 June 2011
http://www.songkick.com/
Track your favorite artists instantly
More like this
Music reviews
Site: We Are Hunted
Site: Mixcloud
Site: Spotalike
From the podcast
Pros
Songkick is a great way to keep up to date with bands, artists and venues that you want to keep track of.
The easiest way in is to let Songkick connect to your Facebook account which means you can swing right in without faffing about with user names and logins (which we are all getting sick of.)
Once you have connected you can feed Songkick with all the data it can eat via three easy portals, Pandora , Last.Fm or iTunes. This will save you the tedious task of entering in by hand the artists you want to track.
There is a handy calendar where you can get a quick overview of events that are on for the month, which is probably Songkick’s finest feature, and the main reason why you must get involved.
To sum up easily the best way yo stay on track with the the hell is going on (music wise) in your town or city.
There is a rather sexy mobile app that is free to download as well, grab that here.
Lovely stuff
Cons
With all the great stuff going on with Songkick we still think they could push the service a bit further, it would be great if there was a way to sync the events you are tracking with google cal for example (or any other desktop calendar).
Comments & social
Blog: Grain & Gram
by Chris on 09 May 2011
http://grainandgram.com/
The New Gentlemen's Journal
More like this
Subculture and fashion reviews
Triple Style Mags
Site: Fly 53
From the podcast
Pros
The New Gentleman’s Journal is how Grain&Gram best describe what this site is about. Think of jobs that your Dad or Granddad might have done many years ago, like working as a blacksmith, carpenter, craftsman, tailor or printmaker.
Grain&Gram is essentially a magazine that delivers a rare insight into the lives of a select few chaps who make a living with skills passed on through generations. Each ‘dusty gent’ has a feature length interview, some bloody nice photographs of themselves looking proper and working in a shed/studio of some kind way out in a blazing hot forest somewhere in the USA.
This really is a beautiful site, with a very simple and clean colour palette, great little touches with icons and type, and overall great content that has all been thought out to really capture the scene of each gent.
It is a great read if nothing else, as most of us (webgun included) are involved in the online workplace, whether it be web, media or digital, it’s just refreshing to take a peek at what some other guys are up to on the other side of the pond.
Cons
It’s all good until you get to the videos…they are a bit creepy, over-styled and somehow seems like American Apparel and Apple Mac are behind them, it looks too cool!
We would rather see some real-time videos with the guys taking us through what they do and some tips on how they do it.
Comments & social
Album: Patches by Beams
by Chris on 02 May 2011
http://beamsuk.bandcamp.com/album/patches
A review of the new album
More like this
Music reviews
Album: King Night by Salem
Pros
Patches by Beams
You will only give yourself a headache if you try and put the style of music Beams produces into a genre.
Patches is a wide but focused range of sounds, clicks, bleep and samples.
Tracks such as the opener ‘PKD’ and ‘Panamax’ are hazy, smokey jaunts into a warm and dreamlike place.
Beams also brings some snappy drum loops and fuzzy samples along with acoustic guitars, ghostly voices served in a lo-fi vessel.
There is no fat on this album just prime lean material, and is available on a pay what you want for the digital download here on relatively new music site bandcamp which we will be reviewing on the next podcast.
A real must for anyone who likes something a bit different to the run of the mill electronic music currently out there.
Cons
Give us more!
Comments & social
App: EPL Addicts
by Chris on 14 March 2011
http://itunes.apple.com/uk/app/epl-addicts/id417003984?mt=8
Free football goodness
More like this
Sport reviews
App: Livescore
Site: Football Filter
App: High Noon
Pros
So what’s the crack? EPL Addicts is a neat little application that will quench the thirst of even the biggest Premier League fans by serving up stats, opinions and news from any of the 20 top tier teams.
Of course there are other similar apps out there that will give you live scores or news about your team.
The clever bit with EPL Addicts is they have utilised online blogs, forums, fan sites and social networking sites to find the hidden gems amongst the garbage (also known as the internet)
So after you have selected which team/s to follow you get your main home screen displaying the current teams (scroll right if you have selected more than one) top stories, next match, last match, transfer rumours and injury list.
What brings this app together is the UI which is simple to use and looks clean with a great use of bold type within the navigation menus.
You might be surprised to find out that this app is from a young Swedish development company HelloSwe. The company itself is pretty new, but the 3 main guys behind it have a ton of experience in developing web products for large international companies.
The captain of HelloSwe Patrik Arnesson explains how the the ball began to roll…
“We were very tired of creating good ideas from the beginning but ending up with 1/10 of what we wanted to do because the customer had bad engineers and badly structured digital/marketing
departments.
Together we pitched a football site for a european gambling company. We were pretty confident that they would buy the product which made us start developing the site before we got a decision from the customer.”
There is also an accompanying website that has a more fleshed out and detailed experience which you would normally expect from the mobile app version.
That said this app is great for keeping up with the EPL on the go, and whilst you may think you only want the info for the number one love of your life (West Ham United), i’ve found it great for keeping track of relegation rivals, for those injury rumours which you pray go your way!
Cons
Being recently released on the 28th of Feb 2011 the app is obviously still version 1.0.
And so we thought we would throw up some suggestions for future releases.
*Tiny spelling mistake, in the next match preview section under missing players appear as ‘Injuried’ where I think it should be ‘Injured’. ( I have no idea what the Swedish for injured is so easy mistake)
*I feel the top stories text is way to small my guess is around 8px’s? should never be smaller than 10px, I’d much rather have a tad more scrolling to do and be able to clearly see the headlines. The size used in ‘missing players’ would be a good size to try and match.
*In the line-up section I actually tried to press the other teams name to switch between the two before I spotted the change team button (maybe it’s just me) but I think the people are used to and now expect large non-body text to behave as a button or link, especially as you have a visual aid (white text for selected team, 30-40% opacity for unselected team) if possible I would remove the change team button.
*The last point relies heavily on the development, programming side of things which I have no clue about (so please excuse if this is just not possible).
I think it would be nice if the stories from the blogs could be pulled into the app instead of just linking outwards to the page itself, this obviously breaks the user journey literally in the sense they might not have a sufficient internet connection to open the url and but even if they do it still interrupts the flow of the experience, a.k.a some people can’t wait!
On the whole a great app that any true football fan should pack, o and by the way did we mention it’s completely FREE!
Comments & social
Site: RCRD LBL
by Chris on 06 January 2011
http://www.rcrdlbl.com
The hottest free music downloads. Served daily.
More like this
Music reviews
App: Mflow
Site: Get Some
Site: Abeano
Pros
RCRD LBL
The Hottest Free Music Downloads. Served Daily (They said that)
RCRD LBL is a great daily dose of fresh tunes to be consumed where ever you are. They cover a wide range of music which I just call ‘Good Music’ by some bands/producers that you know and some you won’t.
Every track is FREE to download, yes free even though it’s 2011 and VAT has increased.
New tracks are available every day carefully selected by the fingers at RCRD LBL.
The look and feel is also great, it’s simple with plenty of room with no flashing ads, shitty banners or pointless pop-ups.
There are 4 simple ways to search, by artist, label, latest or whatever you bloody want to put in, the top 5 is a nice touch if you aren’t sure where to start.
RCRD LBL’s daily newsletter is one of very few I have actually found useful, letting you know new tracks for that day, which is a great way to stay updated without always refreshing or hanging around on the site before you know what’s new.
So there, free music doesn’t have to be stuck the front of a cool magazine to be worth checking out.
Cons
How can free quality music have any cons!
Comments & social
TV: Phoneshop
by Chris on 06 January 2011
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/phoneshop/4od
A look at E4's newish sitcom
More like this
Video and film reviews
Youtube: Red Letter Media
Pros
The trailer was bad, the concept was great, the first episode was disappointing but I ended up rather enjoying the first series of Phoneshop. I still think it could have been better than it was given such a perfect setting.
I bet you could walk into a phoneshop anywhere in the world and the experience would be 95% the same. It takes a certain kind of person to want to work in a phoneshop, and I’m not talking about work experience or jobs you get to fund travelling, uni and messy nights out.
The guys who start at 20 and are still in the same store 10 years later, with their technical beards, strong aftershave and love for technology (well mobile phones really, I’m surprised how many don’t know their way around a laptop or the internet.) they are the guys on the shop floor.
Then there is the store manager, he’s a bit older, wiser, fatter, less sharply dressed, probably divorced. Although he still will most certainly of made a cringeworthy attempt to roll back the years, usually by bleaching his hair or getting a diamond earring. Managing his store is all he’s got left, it’s his only real achievement if it can be classed as one, targets are his friends albeit friends he aims to smash.
Where are the women?
The last couple of paragraphs are just what I recall from my early teenage years, haunting phones shops for entertainment purposes like the seaside arcade but for the middle class urban child that I was, my point is I never remember there being any women working in the phoneshops, only the odd one as a customer perhaps.
Therefore this is one of my big gripes about Phoneshop, the main female character
Janine was unnecessary and just seemed to clog up the main flow of the show, particularly as her character was a recovering anorexic which leads to a fair few awkward scenes with Janine talking about how she officially died twice when she was younger etc, it just wasn’t funny or needed.
Cons
My other biggest problem with the Phoneshop lineup is the main character new guy Christopher, he’s ok most of the time it’s just when he springs into David Brent mode with gestures and the tone of voice more commonly seen in the smash hit sitcom The Office it just feels cheap and unoriginal.
The ‘new guy’ character could have been more of a lad, a young lad who couldn’t wait to get into the business, who would lap up the stories and style tips from the older cooler ‘floor guys’ who he idolised.
The last point where Phoneshop in my opinion falls down is the production, generally this script is great, it’s a well observed sitcom with great depth and detail such as the ‘we don’t run on the highstreet, we run the highstreet’ scene which is a personal highlight, but it just looks shit, there are too many scenes that wouldn’t be out of place from an episode of the Mighty Boosh.
I’m not saying it should be as serious and straight as ‘The Office’ but there are a few points where it seems as though the show doesn’t even take itself seriously, cheesy and unbelievable are words that come to mind and was surprised there wasn’t a laughter track (i’m sure it crossed the producers mind).
Maybe the original vision of the creator and writer Phil Bowker was twisted and deformed by the production team as corners were cut and satisfying all audiences became priorities over originality and quality.
Comments & social
Album: King Night by Salem
by Chris on 06 January 2011
http://boomkat.com/cds/338430-salem-king-night
A review of the debut album from Michigan's spooky trio Salem
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Music reviews
Album: Patches by Beams
Pros
Which House?
Witch House, Ghost House, Drag, Ethereal Wave and the disturbing yet accurate Rape Gaze are just some of the words used to describe the type of sound that pumps out of the SALEM factory, but don’t let this put you off debut album KING NIGHT which is possibly the album of 2010.
So what’s it like?
To get the most out of King Night it really is a big headphones on, lights out job, a Dark Side of the Moon for 2010 is perhaps the best way to put it. The opening track King Night wades in deep to the Salem sound, a dark droning take on the famous O Holy Night (Home Alone) which is accompanied by grubby drum patterns and a truck load of ghostly distortion, it really is a great piece of work as a banging album opener.
Other highlights include the confessional ‘Sick’ and my personal favourite ‘Trapdoor’ which is where we get the first glimpses of the slow and slurred rap style that Donoghue brings to the table, which works rather well extending the dream like feel of the album where tracks blur from one to the next with no real fenced off area’s, almost a free range approach where sounds can go where they want, and don’t always have to come back.
It really does feel like King Night was originally a crispy, clean cut record that on the way to the store got possessed and shifted into what is currently found in the case.
Many people over the years claim to have captured a picture or seen a ghost, but I feel Salem have captured the sound of a ghost, something not quite from the world we know.
If the Blair Witch was in a band it would be this one!
Cons
Bit of a Drag
Don’t get your hopes up on seeing a great live performance…
So what who cares? we don’t!
Comments & social
Site: Fly 53
by Chris on 06 July 2010
http://www.fly53.com/
Fly 53 got a new site don't they!
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Subculture and fashion reviews
Triple Style Mags
Site: Vice Style
Blog: Grain & Gram
From the podcast
Pros
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
Cons
Stinger
We are still a little confused as to why Fly seem to have three different logo’s on the site, but hey it’s a free world! Some of the sections on the online store suffer from multi style treatment for the promos, mixing up various styles of text on coloured/non-coloured backgrounds which just left some areas feeling a little inconsistent with the rest of the tightly styled site.
Like Matt suggested on the podcast, once a style/treatment has been decided it should be implemented throughout the site as a whole to give a coherent experience to the user.
Comments & social
Site: Get Some
by Chris on 06 July 2010
http://getsomeuk.com/
Gold mine for up and coming DJ's/Artists/Producers alike.
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Music reviews
Site: Mixcloud
Site: RCRD LBL
Site: Abeano
Pros
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.
Cons
Got Some Suggestions
Errrrr can we have some more please? We have run out of mixes to listen to :(
Now that the site is coming on is size and length, maybe it’s time to start thinking about a horizontal nav of some kind, to make the users journey easier when sifting through content.
Use mixcloud! it’s way better!(we reckon) looks sexier and provides a better platform to showcase different artists and of course promote GET SOME as a brand.
Comments & social
App: TV Catchup
by Matt on 21 June 2010
http://www.tvcatchup.com
Watch TV, without using a TV! Whatever next?
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Video and film reviews
App: Mflow
Site: VBS
From the podcast
Pros
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.
Cons
Square eyes
Apart from the niggling worry that this feels a bit too good to be true (seriously, how *are* they doing this?) the only negative I can think of is the name. And that’s only because when you enthuse about it and describe it to people they’ll invariably think it’s an iPlayer-like service. Because you’re not really ‘catching up’ are you?
But we’ll forgive them because this does one thing and does it really well.
Comments & social
Site: NEET Recordings
by Matt on 14 June 2010
neetrecordings.com MIA's record label website. And like her eclectic sound, it's visual chaos.
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Music reviews
From the podcast
Pros
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.
Cons
Broken record
It’s not a site you’re going to want to visit regularly. Cos it’s more or less unusable. Flying in the face of every UX rule in the book.
But there’s a certain appeal to breaking the rules. The web can support a few of these sites at any one time. So don’t get too many ideas, art kids. Because if everyone did it we’d all go insane.
Comments & social
App: Panini Virtual Stickers
by Matt on 14 June 2010
http://en.stickeralbum.fifa.com/
The future of football stickers! Just like you remember – except you can't touch them.
More like this
Sport reviews
Podcast: The Football Ramble
Site: Footytube
From the podcast
Pros
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.
Cons
Missed chance
Well it’s not really stickers is it? There’s no real sense of achievement and nothing to take home after you’ve completed it. And harder to beat kids up over. Maybe you could have a go at them on Facebook?
The biggest issue is you just have to wait for new stickers to arrive and you can only do it bit at a time. So you have to remember to keep logging back in to get it completed. Which is kinda realistic but not really a rival to more exciting online games.
It also makes the leader board kinda pointless. As you can’t cheat time.
Comments & social
App: Mflow
by Chris on 02 June 2010
mflow.com The social music store, Twitter meets Spotify?
More like this
Music reviews
Site: We Are Hunted
Site: Tune Checker
Site: thesixtyone
App: TV Catchup
From the podcast
Pros
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.
Cons
Flo Problem
We can see how on paper in the boardroom this must have looked like a great idea, combing the social mediums of twitter/facebook with steaming music, but feel they have missed a trick in finding a niche.
As for the ‘discovering new music’ angle, again we feel it is a little hollow, the music is usually good, but it’s all the mainstream stuff you’ve heard before or ‘Indie’ which is probably now the most mainstream genre of all. If mflow play their cards right it could become a massively popular platform.
We would love to see mflow take the mantle of myspace by giving unsigned bands/musicians a platform to promote and sell truly ‘new’ music. If it’s good it will be bought as it wouldn’t be available on Spotify/iTunes/Boomkat and needs to offer something exclusive to the user.
Perhaps the biggest flaw is that each track can only be listened to, in full, ONCE!
Now even the best tracks that become a smash hit usually take more than one play to grow on the listener, that said after you can listen to any 30 SECONDS of the track… which is rubbish.
There are some great ideas at mflow, but at the moment we are struggling to see the point with Spotify and iTunes covering all bases.
Who knows in 12 months time we might look very stupid when everyone is using mflow and Stephen Fry gets £100,000 from people buying his recommendations, and once mflow finds it’s niche we are sure it will be massive success, so sign up now!
Comments & social
App: Livescore
by Irish Dave on 28 May 2010
http://www.livescore.com
The first live score service on the Internet!
More like this
Sport reviews
App: Opera Mini
App: Depict
App: EPL Addicts
Site: Fanroom
Pros
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)
Cons
Could do with some form of personalisation
Alphabetical…so shit if you follow the Tunisian leagues
Comments & social
Site: Zimbio
by Chris on 25 May 2010
http://www.zimbio.com/
A new place to search for images.
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Subculture and fashion reviews
Site: Gif Bin
From the podcast
Pros
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…
Cons
zimbi’no’
We could spend forever taking this site apart but we are not going to, it’s obviously not the best looker, or the easiest to navigate, or that interactive, or that inspiring, or original, but it does have nice pictures!
Comments & social
Site: Mixcloud
by Matt on 25 May 2010
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.
More like this
Music reviews
App: Audioboo
Site: Get Some
From the podcast
Pros
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?
Cons
Rain clouds
There’s only really two bugs/odd things - and they certainly aren’t showstoppers - that I can spot:
The episode page looks sweet and is styled really well. It’s just the player isn’t immediately obvious and looks like it could be part of the header. Then when you press play the audio appears in a new window, which is a bit of an odd behaviour.
You get to choose an image for your player if you embed it, which is cool but when you want the player at odd sizes it scales and crops the image weirdly (hence why we’ve gone for plain colours). Would be good to have a default player look.
Comments & social
Site: VBS
by Matt on 12 May 2010
http://www.vbs.tv
Vice's broadcasting arm and a home of brilliant video content. Watch it!
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Video and film reviews
Site: Viceland
Site: Vice Style
App: TV Catchup
Pros
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.
Cons
Vee-Bee-LESS
The online thing we could criticise is the decision to surround the video so it looks like it lives in a cool apartment. No need.
But otherwise shut up moaning and get watching.
Comments & social
Site: Flatspot
by Chris on 12 May 2010
flatspot.com A lovely looking site that offers up a spectacular variety of clobber. #ep16
More like this
Subculture and fashion reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Roll on
A lovely looking site that offers up a spectacular variety of clobber with a simple design and some great photography. It might sound obvious but when building an online shop it must be SIMPLE and EASY use. Yet so many online stores forget about this key point and go straight for vomit inducing flashy, pimpy, noisy crap that really is just masking the fact their site sells shit stuff.
But not here! Flatspot is easily one of our favourite online clothing stores, they keep it so so simple and clean which is becoming a forgotten art. High resolution, well cropped images of products, again obvious but it’s shocking how many ‘big’ sites can’t even get this right.
There is a great range of well known brands such as Carhartt, Nike SB & Stussy to smaller independent labels from around the world with our picks being Brixton & The Quiet Life which are worth a peek.
Nice!
(we def took some inspiration from this site for our own as it is a classic!)
Cons
Roll off
Only a couple of niggles, we found that new customers might struggle to browse smoothly as the drop down menus work great if you know what brand you are after, but for a first timer they might not know their ALIFE from their OBEY. Which we think could be improved with a solid filter system, ‘recommendations’, ‘most popular’, ‘staff picks’ & ‘people also bought this’ for the noobs and Mums to get them started.
Would be nice to see a wider side! As most people now have at least 17” plus screens. A couple of extra rows on the homepage perhaps?
Go on!!!
Comments & social
Site: Viceland
by Matt on 10 May 2010
viceland.com Viceland is the home on the web of Vice Magazine. #ep15
More like this
Subculture and fashion reviews
Site: VBS
From the podcast
Pros
DO
It is the magazine with some of the funniest and just plain best original content out there and this website showcases it all. And online it works brilliantly as a grab-bag of weird content that benefits from not being constrained by anything.
The great thing is they turn their eye to anything they think is funny or worth bringing to the world’s attention and now it is all here online for you to search and browse through.
Some highlights include Dos and Don’ts (LOL fashion disasters), Tidbits (weird stuff from around the world) and the new music reviews (all of which is great bitesize content almost built for web). They also have a photo blog, which charts debauched nights out. Also you get to see tits and i was in it once (with my hand on Andrew WK’s groin, see above).
Cons
DON’T
The homepage design isn’t the most inspired and it does lack a bit of breathing space before hitting you with all the content, so you don’t exactly know where to look first. Could maybe do with a slightly clearer hierarchy, although this is a minor point.
The content is more or less all available in the magazine, which is of course free, so if you come expecting a wealth of bonus content you might be left disappointed. But if you’ve read the whole mag cover-to-cover then you’re a bit of a geek.
Comments & social
App: Opera Mini
by Irish Dave on 09 May 2010
It's the first piece of browser competition to be introduced on the iPhone.
More like this
Web tools reviews
App: Depict
App: Livescore
Pros
Much quicker than Safari over Wifi/3G/Edge even GPRS.
Home screen showing favourite bookmarks.
Can save pages for reading offline.
Find in page (searching for specific text etc).
Choose image quality for quicker loading or disable all together.
Cons
Other apps will always default to safari when opening links etc.
Tabs don’t stay when you close the app and re-open it later.
Not quite as slick and fluid as Safari (whatever that means…)
Comments & social
App: Depict
by Irish Dave on 06 May 2010
It's Pictionary with your fingers!
More like this
Art and design reviews
App: Opera Mini
App: Livescore
From the podcast
Pros
Depict is a online multiplayer pictionary game that you can play with friends and strangers from around the world!
Multiplayer. Both local and with the world over Wifi/3G/even Edge.
Works with Openfeint to keep track of scores, achievements & friends.
The ability to rate opponents drawings adds that extra element of competition.
Cons
Not much of a single player.
Limited selection of items to draw. (surely remedied with an update though).
Comments & social
App: Audioboo
by Matt on 29 April 2010
http://www.audioboo.com
We take a look at the 'audio Twitter' web and iPhone apps.
More like this
Web tools reviews
Site: Mixcloud
App: Whale Trail
From the podcast
Pros
Audio woooo
This is actually a brilliant little tool. It took me a little while to get it and understand why putting your little messages out to the world through sound rather than text is any better…
... but then I went and did a little roadtrip around England and this turned out to be a great way to capture the places we visited. It instantly makes you a correspondent and is possibly a better way to remember a place and it’s atmosphere than photos. Especially when used in conjunction with the iPhone app and it’s brilliant internal mic.
The iPhone app itself is a simple affair that on the whole just works: hit record, take a photo, put in a couple of bits of info and upload. Then go again. It’s great.
The package you get online is very neat: each piece of audio is accompanied by an image; a map of the location it was recorded; some tags and a title and that really does build a nice little picture of your journey/broadcast. And it builds an RSS for you. Could even podcast off it… it’s simplicity means it’s a pretty flexible deal.
Cons
Audio poo
It would be good if the iPhone app had the ability to record and store more than one thing at a time. Just because there are times when you are out of signal for a while and can’t upload. Although this might threaten the simplicity of the thing, I reckon it would be a benefit.
Other than that, the only thing we had a problem with was the name. ‘Boo’ just sounds a bit lame, a bit kiddy and genuinely put us off looking into it for a while. Don’t let it do that for you.
Comments & social
Site: Vice Style
by Matt on 27 April 2010
vicestyle.com Vice have launched their own attack on the world of style/fashion blogs. #ep15
More like this
Subculture and fashion reviews
Site: VBS
Site: Fly 53
Pros
Styled up
So this site is Vice getting in on the action with a fashion blog. It looks cool enough with high quality images, like most of Vice’s stuff and there’s plenty of web-friendly bite-size content.
Cons
Dress down
It really is very simple: minimal content and almost no text. We don’t really get what it’s bringing to the party that the likes of Hype Beast doesn’t already do.
It feels more just a subsection of the main Viceland site, a grouping for all their fashion content. The Features page seems to promise bigger content but in reality is just photo galleries and the odd interview. The Stockists section is just a massive list of brands. Not particularly choice.
We don’t really get what’s going on here: it’s not up to Vice’s normal standards of original content. All a bit meh.
Comments & social
Site: Youtube (new look)
by Chris on 19 April 2010
youtube.com It's Newtube, a New look youtube! #ep15
More like this
Video and film reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Newtube
So what’s different? The first thing you will notice is the very stripped back approach to the visual design.
There is now a one giant advert at the top, which isn’t as bad as it sounds as with more space there is now a chance for flash based animations and generally bigger crisper images, instead of lots of different ads all screaming for you attention.
The youtube logo is smaller allowing titles to come up the page with everything else giving more content above the fold (nice!)
The homepage is now broken into different sections ‘spotlight’ which seems to pull in relevant news stories, currently featuring that pesky puffing volcano that seems to be troubling the airways around europe. Then you have ‘catch up on the latest tv’, which suggests it could be a prominent feature in the future with on demand tv ‘so hot right now’.
On the video page again the white and clean ‘googley’ look has been applied removing the star rating system which has been replaced by the facbook ‘like’ thumbs up thumbs down.
The user profile is one of the many sections on the page to have been zipped up to save space which we think is a good call, as previously the page was getting pretty messy. The button above the total views reveals a whole host of graphs and stats for those who love their data! (not as nerdy as it sounds, very interesting stuff have a look!)
Good work!
Cons
Noobtube
One of Matt’s concerns was youtube was loosing a bit of it’s identity/usability and it might not be long until Gootube is the new name on everyones lips….
Video thumbnails have all been reduced in size :( we never like to see images get smaller, but this is probably down to saving space and offering more ‘related’ videos per page
There is a strange little 3 x 3 ad grid, claiming money off stuff like Mcdonalds, Zara, Boots, etc which is probably more hassle than it’s worth and looks a bit well, tacky/desperate.
Comment space has been reduced tidying up the page nicely, but that does lend itself to creating a massive empty space below as the related videos on the RHS go all the way to the bottom, so if the video hasn’t had much action then the page looks unfinished.
Matt has not been so easy to convince but I’m pleased with the re-fresh as it was looking a bit myspace.
Comments & social
Site: Peter Jones
by Chris on 16 April 2010
http://www.peterjones.tv
He's a tall man and big in the digital media department if you know what we mean!
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Odds and ends reviews
Site: TED
From the podcast
Pros
PJ YO!
Now you may be familiar with this guy from the TV smash hit DRAGON’s DEN, but when he is not skidding about on shopping trolleys in a virtual supermarket what else is PJ up to? and more importantly what is his website like?
The first stop has to be the big one peterjones.tv and apart from the massive slightly scary splash image of PJ’s big face we think this a very well put together and thought out site with genuinely useful content!
There is absolutely tones of free info on how to set up your own business with in-depth features on how to ‘Make a business plan’ ‘Develop a great team’ ’ Be heard in the market’ to name a few.
Seriously brilliant stuff and all for free! yum yum
Aesthetically this site pretty much does everything right, with plenty of breathing space at the top, nice clear graphics, simple to navigate & a great UX experience. There is even a section of the site that provides a platform for any budding entrepreneurs to pitch and idea to big P himself by taking the Enterprise Challenge
If you are thinking about starting your own business or company then we strongly recommend take the time to explore this gold mine of ideas and advice.
Cons
PJ NO!
Ok so PJ clearly does a lot of good things in the online world, but no-one is perfect…
We found this not so pretty/useful/well made/good arm of the Peter Jones’ brand
blueshire.com yes that’s right a site totally dedicated to socks, mainly stripy socks made by Peter Jones and his other mates Burlington, Corgi & HJH Hall!
The imagery is ok (not sure how far you can take sock photography) but the rest of this site is awful and out of date. A tiny left hand nav, and barely a pixel of styling.
But that’s not the real stinker, ok fair enough a site that sells all kinds of socks could hold it’s own by being a specialist shop a bit like TIE RACK or something, but this site is brought down a notch or ten by also ‘hooking you up’ with other sweet products such as BOW TIES, BRACES, CUMBERBUNDS, CUFFLINKS and of course ST GEORGE ARMBANDS…
As Matt said: “is there anything more depressing than expressing your personality through novelty cufflinks?”
And I think Matt has a point, check out these monsters for yourself oooo mummy
Peter has always been our favourite Dragon, and is now our favourite Dragon who also does webstuff. Top stuff!
Comments & social
Site: Gif Bin
by Matt on 13 April 2010
http://www.gifbin.com
Look out! It's moving! It should be still but it's doing something crazy.
More like this
Web tools reviews
Site: Zimbio
Site: Sound-boards
From the podcast
Pros
Poetry in motion
We bloody love animated gifs (or as they may even sometimes be called, motion gifs). They’re a piece of web heritage that still can’t be beaten for instant gratification.
Remarkably nothing else has come along that can give you a little animation in spaces where you are supposed to put a still image - allowing a bit of web subversion. The true genius though lies in the simple repeating nature: like an endlessly looping joke punchline.
Gif Bin is the equivalent of an episode of You’ve Been Framed: a whole load of animated gifs for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes the easy laughs really are the best. Or sometimes the jokes can be a bit more canny. Either way, you can kill hours on this site.
Cons
Motion sickness
It’s not exactly an amazing looking website and they’re not doing anything particularly original here. You can rate and comment on each gif but the colour choices and background texture means these parts don’t exactly pop out.
And they’re not really pushing the boundaries of what an animated gif can be. We want to see more things like the elaborate story of WW2 in gamer-speak (possibly the best animated gif ever).
Comments & social
Youtube: Red Letter Media
by Chris on 11 April 2010
youtube.com/user/redlettermedia A multimedia content producing serial killer comedian film reviewer? Sounds fun! #ep14
More like this
Video and film reviews
TV: Phoneshop
From the podcast
Pros
Post received
Tom (from episode 10) put us onto this a while ago. Tom explained it was something we had to put time into and couldn’t review in a matter of minutes. Well guess what? Over the last couple of weeks we have both been blasting through as much of RedLetterMedia’s content as possible. So what the hell does this guy do? Simple, he deconstructs films (mainly the new Stars Wars films) and breaks them down to…well nothing. The Star Wars reviews of Episode 1 & the recently released Episode 2 are easily the most hilarious/sad/interesting by far.
But this isn’t what you might call a straight forward review of a film pointing out the funny bits and camera techniques used on that ‘bit with the jet-packs’ Red Letter Media has brought an extra angle to his review style by creating a character who goes by the name of Plinkett, think Buffalo Bill from silence of the Lambs.
This is what Matt had to say
“Watched the review of Phantom Menace. Brilliant, just the best use of youtube ever - 70min review! Such a great understanding of the film-making process and puts in words WHY it doesn’t work in ways that I never could before. Always knew there was a lot wrong but could only focus on a few bits. This is the most rational deconstruction of a film that means you can’t really do anything other than agree with him… probs Lucas does too!”
Cons
Mail Fail
Initially the voice is the biggest off-putting thing, but seriously, you get over it.
His website is odd though. Seems he is quite the multimedia guy and a content maker in his own right, it’s worth checking out his shorts such as ‘Oranges : Revenge of the Eggplant’ which again is a brilliant watch.
We can’t say more than just go check out his site/youtube channel and watch it, honestly you will be hooked after 10 mins.
Great stuff RLM keep it up!
Comments & social
Site: TED
by Matt on 31 March 2010
http://www.ted.com
Lots of videos of big ideas in the form of talks by famous, intelligent and interesting people.
More like this
Video and film reviews
Podcast: Carpool
Site: Peter Jones
Site: Desert Island Discs
From the podcast
Pros
Superted
It is a genuinely well thought out and executed site and a really good example of free content. It’s quite generous as you would usually have to pay £10-£20 for a talk of TED calibre.
It is well thought-out. The homepage is nicely visual and gives you lots of choices for how to find a video. They’re not just bunged up there. We’re also fans of the wireframe-y site design.
Also the ‘interactive transcript’ for a lot of the websites is a very clever tool and a real glimpse into the future of combining text and video more closely as you can jump to any point in the vid.
Forget university. Go to TED.com.
Cons
Spotty
We’re long-time admirers of this site and don’t have anything bad to say. There is nothing pretentious or trying to be really original just for the sake of it. Just tons of great content.
Comments & social
Site: Mclaren F1
by Chris on 18 March 2010
http://mclaren.com/formula1
A look at Mclaren's shiny new website, and by God it's shiny!
More like this
Sport reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Pole postition
This is by far the champion of F1 sites, and since the 2010 season started last weekend we thought we would see what how Mclaren handles on the web.
A lovely landing page with big, big imagery, which seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment and we can’t fault them as it has been incorporated well into the design of the site. The main image is of the upcoming GP location which is currently Australia and it looks stunning. We can’t wait to see how Silverstone will match up to the more exotic places in the world when the British GP takes place in July (not quite so sexy we imagine.)
Navigation is a breeze, although we are not quite sure about the hiding nav function but more on that later. All the info a F1 nerd could want is here, and the standout feature for us is the tab dedicated to each race which kicked off in Bahrain for those with there eyes & ears shut all weekend.
Again clean and clear imagery used to show off the exotic location, but the real gem is the commentary log which quite simply is a minute by minute account of the race banter between driver and technical team which we can see being a big feature for the hardcore fan.
It’s not really a criticism of the site but we did find the online shop hilarious!
As Matt put it quite well ‘the clothes look like the kind you get in M&S or Debenhams’ they reek of middle class, and are frankly swag…
Some of our favourite finds are the luxurious multimedia sock and the one size fit’s all crash helmet keyring and don’t forget the inspiring footwear range…just start here and have a browse yourself (not much good if you don’t like black!)
Good stuff Mclaren! just give the shoes a rest for now yeah?
Cons
Burn out
Now we are nitpicking a bit but there were a couple of issues that stood out for us, one being something mentioned earlier that the nav has an odd hiding mechanism which is a tad confusing and a bit unnecessary.
Of course we might be proved wrong because as the season goes on and more races are completed (we are assuming that) each location will get it’s own space in the nav thus by the close of the season the nav will be pretty deep. This could be some genius pre-emptive design or just a someone who wanted to get home early to play Battlefield Bad Company 2 we will have to wait and see!
We were not too keen on the interaction that anything you click pops up in a new separate window, again did someone want to knock off early to go get a pint or what? It just feels like a lot of time was spent getting the index pages all nice and then they just bunged in the rest of the content. Come on Mclaren….
Comments & social
Site: thesixtyone
by Matt on 17 March 2010
thesixtyone.com It's a musical adventure through all sorts of bands and genres right in your browser. #ep13
More like this
Music reviews
Site: We Are Hunted
App: Mflow
From the podcast
Pros
Adventure in music
The whole idea of this is pretty great and brings something new to the many music streaming sites that are cropping up out there. You arrive, music plays and your whole browser is taken up with a great big image of the band and all sorts of odd controls.
You don’t really know what you’re going to get next and this adds to the exploratory nature. It’s a site that rewards exploration and spending time on it. Quite literally: there are actual rewards to be had for doing tasks on there in the Quests section.
A detail that I really like is the song title and track time countdown in the header title field. Great use of this space, especially when you’re on a different site and just want to see it on a tab in the background.
Most importantly there is tons of good music on here. And not an ad in sight. Get in.
Cons
Bum note
Some odd things happen on this site, with panels and boxes sliding in and out and tweets and images popping up in the middle of the page/screen. Whilst fun to start with, this can get a bit frustrating.
Each song page/screen is only as good as the photo they have of the artist and this can really vary.
The labeling is odd and really takes some understanding: top, hot, posted, cc, moods, open mic, revive. I’m still not sure what half of these are.
Comments & social
Site: We Are Hunted
by Matt on 09 March 2010
wearehunted.com It's like a radio station of lots of new and exciting music, culled from around the web. #ep12
More like this
Music reviews
Site: thesixtyone
App: Mflow
From the podcast
Pros
It’s another site that gets good design, which automatically makes us want to look at it. Essentially the concept is this: it searches the web for the most blogged (or tweeted) about tracks and puts them in its top 99.
The layout is simple and smooth with eleven 3x3 grids that you can scroll through easily and select any track to play. And you get to listen to all this great stuff for free in any order without any adverts. Not quite sure how they’re doing it but it’s ace.
There’s also a page on each artist you can read up on and find further links. I use it as a radio station for discovering new music in much the same way as last fm but stripped back and way less hassle.
Cons
It doesn’t quite work in that it calls this emerging music but there are a fair few tracks on there I can tell you aren’t new at all. Still, they are good.
And yes it is another streaming site which to be fair it isn’t doing anything that other sites aren’t doing already. I guess it just seduced me with its looks and nicely cropped images.
Comments & social
Site: Footytube
by Matt on 02 March 2010
footytube.com View highlights and videos from football games around the world. It might be somewhat dubious but then it is free. #ep12
More like this
Sport reviews
App: Panini Virtual Stickers
Site: Fanroom
From the podcast
Pros
Wayne Rooney
I’ve been using footytube for a few years as a reliable place to go find the latest football highlights. And whilst it used to just be a standard blog it has now grown into a mighty engine covering football from around the globe.
Cleverly, it calls itself a search engine and has a disclaimer to say that it doesn’t host any of the content (cos that would be illegal right?) but when you dress your video pages up to look like Youtube, the lines do get blurred somewhat. Yep there’s related videos; most watched; dumb user comments; rate-this-video; user channels etc etc.
Credit to them for creating some features of their own though. Some of which work better than others. The ones I like: exploded pie charts showing how users have rated the game from Awesome to Rubbish (haha) and the fact they pull in related forum posts and stories about that team. Tons of further journeys you can go on.
Cons
John Terry
So the features I’m not so sure about? Mostly it revolves around the clutter whacked on the page in the name of social media. The sign-in bit at the top (to be fair you can do a lot as just a Guest, which must have been key to their success) and the Facebook chat bar. Why do sites use this? It’s a notoriously shit IM even on Facebook itself.
Also the home and team pages feature strips of images along the top, which are certainly nice to add a bit of colour but they’re not really content as they don’t lead to videos. Potentially confusing to users as it’s titled ‘Today at Footytube’. The homepage is packed with tons of little modules and even full blog posts - possibly better off living somewhere else.
But don’t get me wrong, this site is a hugley impressive beast. Let’s just hope they continue to circumnavigate the copyright issues for a while longer.
Comments & social
Site: How To Be A Retronaut
by Matt on 28 February 2010
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com
A glorious visual treat for all things old
More like this
Art and design reviews
Site: Book Cover Archive
Site: Lomography
From the podcast
Pros
Golden oldies
It’s only really a simple Wordpress blog but the content is king here and the content this guy has assembled is excellent. Old adverts and packaging; amazing colour photography of the past; maps and illustrations too.
As a bonus, the design of the blog is a good one, striking a bold design through monochrome big type on a white background. There’s also some nice big press-able buttons in the right hand column.
The menu on the top is a really good way of making use of the categories functionality in Wordpress. Otherwise in many blogs it gets forgotten and mixed in with the tags.
Cons
Time trials
It’s built for wider monitors, which makes sense when much of the content is lovely big images. But it the page layout broke on my old 1024 x 726 display, which did spoil the experience.
Some of the views of the posts after clicking on a category seem to show source code. Whoops…
Finally, the term ‘retronaut’: both a pro and a con because the word is an ace one and I think you don’t need to have it spelled out to ‘get’ the blog but instead he offers a convoluted explanation about going back in time.
Comments & social
Site: 43 Things
by Matt on 17 February 2010
43things.com The worlds largest goal-setting community, apparently. Its like a big social to-do list. So what are you doing next?
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Odds and ends reviews
App: Wunderlist
Pros
Have you ever had an absolutely brilliant idea, which you go and tell everyone about and everyone agrees is brilliant? They are telling you that yes, you must make this happen, because they can’t believe it hasn’t been done already? Then someone points out that it has and it’s called 43 Things?
Well, its one way to discover a website. So I’ll be reviewing it from the point of view of how I would have done it. In fact, scarily, it is almost exactly how I’d planned it (in my head):
It’s like Twitter in that the first thing you see is a box asking what you want to do next. You can enter things and start building your list without having to login. You can like (or cheer) other peoples goals. It can work out which goals are the same despite spelling differences etc. You can build a whole community around the thing.
And so much more. Its all here. And it’s probably better than I would have been able to do.
Cons
The name isn’t great. I can imagine a lot of people (who are after a ‘to-do list’ site) thinking, “that’s a bit specific”.
It doesn’t really have much in the way of visual style. The only thing it reminds me of is Yahoo answers. So a little bit old school. It could be given a bit more web 2.0 visual loving or at least a style of its own.
There is a nice idea around getting people to explain how they achieved something but most of the entries I’ve read are pretty wanky and of no use to anyone. Good idea, coulda been executed better to prevent the waffle.
And they are totally missing a trick in that it could make a great dating site.
Comments & social
Site: Lomography
by Chris on 16 February 2010
http://www.lomography.com
Analogue cameras with a lovely digital case.
More like this
Art and design reviews
Site: How To Be A Retronaut
From the podcast
Pros
The Big Picture
For those who don’t know Lomography is the commerical trademark of Lomographische AG, an Austrian company who produce and distribute a wide range of analogue photography based goods around the world. Yay!
This site is absolutely massive, there are plenty of different models of camera from the more serious Medium format HOLGA to fun 8 lense OKTOMAT hybrids. The main point here is to have be creative, tell a story like they used to before big-flash-multi-taking-digital-cams showed up giving everything about as much atmosphere as a room full of people wearing denim.
A big plus for this site is how they display the different cameras each has it’s own mini-site with tips & tricks, history of and gallery sections to give you a real idea of what you can get out the different models of LOMO.
We love the overall clean and simply styling used where they let the products speak for themselves, and the photographing community show what can be achieved with an old russian camera and some coloured bits of plastic.
Cons
Red-Eye
Not much to gripe about, but we advise if you have only ever taken digital pictures in your life this might be a bit of an uphill battle! As much as they like to think the whole plastic camera thing is a cheap and fun way to photography, prepare to part with some of your hard earned cash…
This is on my wishlist just check out some of the magnificent things that can be done with this beast
Comments & social
Site: Flavors
by Matt on 10 February 2010
flavors.me A site that allows you, humble user, to quickly create your own webpage aggregating your content from around the web. #ep12
More like this
Odds and ends reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Gourmet
I’m a fan of this site. Basically because it is what I was trying to achieve with my own website before this thing came along. All you do is pick which of your accounts you want to plug in (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin etc etc) and it rather elegantly pulls in the feeds.
Then you simply style it up. It’s gloriously easy to do and the little floating Flash interface is rather lovely. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to do it in less than five minutes. But then you take a look at the directory and see what other people have been up to and before you know it, a few hours of tweaking have gone past in the search for the ultimate composition. Ah well…
If you want to have a stab yourself, go to the site and use the invite code ‘heat’.
Cons
Greasy spoon
There is a slight irritation that bugs me as an ‘Original English’ speaker in having to use an American spelling in the URL but I think this is kind of cancelled out by being able to get in early and nab a short username for my account (score!).
And otherwise for a site calling itself Flavors, it’s ironic that it doesn’t seem to support Delicious. But I think there might be a way around that. In fact I’m just off to tweak some more and find out…
Comments & social
Site: Covert Candy
by Chris on 09 February 2010
covertcandy.co.uk Clothes for free! Them's the rules.
More like this
Subculture and fashion reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Can I get a re-ee-design?
The guys at CC have a new and rather fresh site, that all looks pleasant on the eye. LOOK HERE
Essentially it’s a swap shop for unwanted/unworn/unloved :( clothes that get a second shot at life and a chance to escape the loft before facing eternity as a greasy rag in your Dad’s shed. When you land on the page you are greeted by some friendly graphics that introduce you to how the site works in 4 easy steps. Covert Candy has already grown tremendously in the 10 or so months it has been open, and now even has it’s own Vintage Store filled with retro goodies. In fact they now have a video to explain how it all works on Vimeo listen and learn!
The vintage store has had a big overhaul on a visual and interactive level, making it much sexier to look at whilst showing off the clothes to their full potential. Nice use of condensed type and skinny lines, and some tip top photography give the site an extra level of class.
We think CC is growing up quickly and has lost some of the puppy fat it had when it was a young’un.
Keep it up!
Cons
Boiled Sweets
This site still needs your support and old clothes!
Sign up now if you haven’t you BERKS!
Comments & social
Site: Da Font
by Chris on 09 February 2010
dafont.com A site, that funnily enough is a great place to search for free fonts to spice up your life/design.
More like this
Art and design reviews
Site: fivesecondtest
Pros
Da Bomb
It’s a pretty straight forward site as they go, the home page is nice and clean (a part from a triptych of ads mainly about mouths & teeth) where straight away you get to search through the tons of free fonts that have been generously uploaded by the public.
The font library is broken down into categories to save time when searching. We don’t know if it’s just us but the better font categories seem to be in the center of the page with the more ‘wacky/useless’ fonts pushed to both ends of the search shelf.
Each font is clearly labelled whether it’s for mac, PC or both and what the terms of using each font are (usually free for personal) so don’t go setting up a Kebab shop using OLD LONDON by Dieter Steffman as your new company typeface for 2 million flyers.
There are a few nice features to the site, such as being able to preview each typeface. So you can see if Wang’s Hardware Store looks eye catching in a lovely cartoon font before you hit download.
Cons
Da Shite
The font library has got to the point now where it is rather large and can get quite laborious sifting through page after page of Curly fonts and we would like to see a more in depth search function in place to help sort the sweet from the sheeet.
Whether this is achieved by more options in the search or more tags associated with each font there are a number of ways to do it. Something similar to how i-Tunes search works would be a good starting place, so a user could search by artist / family / date / popularity for example to cut down the time spent searching.
A more interactive element could make it more of a buzzing site, with user ratings, amount of downloads, where the font has been used etc. Instead of useless comments like ’ woooooooowowowow cool beans’ or ‘this sucks’
Comments & social
Site: It’s Nice That
by Matt on 07 February 2010
itsnicethat.com A blog/website showcasing the best in creative stuff that turns up online.
More like this
Art and design reviews
Pros
Niiiiiiiiice
Most designers will probably already know a bit about this wonderful blog, that often seems to be ahead of the game when finding the best new design/photography/illustration etc out there. So if you don’t, get on it.
They’ve innovated and added new features as they’ve grown and now sell a lovingly printed bi-annual publication. Not to mention adding Tom Gauld illustrations, which automatically makes anything about 23% better. Great big bag of win.
Cons
And that
They’re too good these guys. If only we could be as prolific as them…
Comments & social
Site: The Big Picture
by Matt on 07 February 2010
boston.com/bigpicture/ Lots of brilliant, big images from the news. Regularly updated with great content.
More like this
Art and design reviews
Pros
Panoramic view
This blog probably lays claim to being the greatest image blog on the web. Courtesy of the Boston Globe, it supplies lovely massive, beautifully shot photos of the news of the day.
For a ‘best of’ their yearly review is also well worth checking out. If it isn’t in your bookmarks, it should be.
Cons
Disposable
I can’t fault this. Bloody love it.
Comments & social
Site: Lego Instructions
by Matt on 07 February 2010
peeron.com/scans/themes/2 Tons and tons of old Lego (a.k.a. the best toy in the world ever) instructions for you to browse.
More like this
Odds and ends reviews
Trend: Info-graphics
Pros
Super models
Perhaps you still have loads of old Lego hanging around without any instructions. Or maybe you’re looking to make a dollar or two on eBay. Either way this site has done an admirable job collecting together tons of Lego instructions going back to the 70s.
Not much to look at but use the search box and you should be able to find that old set of yours.
Cons
Broken bricks
Yeah, it’s just a load of scans and yeah, this site really isn’t very well designed or clever but we figured most people worth their salt at one point in their childhood had a love of Lego…
Comments & social
Site: fivesecondtest
by Matt on 07 February 2010
http://fivesecondtest.com
Review the look or clickability of websites with simple five second long tests.
More like this
Web tools reviews
Site: Da Font
Pros
Pass
Great little idea for a site this. On-the-fly-rapid user testing for seeing what people’s initial thoughts are about your site (memory test) or which button they would click first (click test).You can either take tests or set them if you have a website design that you want to get in front of people.
It is a nifty little way of encouraging sites to incorporate real user-feedback into the design process.
Cons
Fail
Though whilst dead useful bear in mind it’s not to be replaced with a full user test, which can expose a lot more usability issues. Also the site can sometimes throw up the same (or similar) designs test after test, probably due to overkeen users wanting to get their designs out there…
Comments & social
Site: Favicon Generator
by Matt on 07 February 2010
html-kit.com/favicon/ If you're going to look like a serious website you have to have a favicon! Make one here!
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Web tools reviews
Pros
Fave it
Don’t underestimate the importance of a good favicon. That little 16x16 pixel indicator on a tab is a branding space to let users know which site is yours.
It can be a bit of a faff to make one yourself (with the file extension .ico) but there’s a few sites out there that offer the ability to create a favicon and apparently this one was the first.
Cons
Delete
We can vouch that it certainly works quickly and easily but blimey it’s not a looker. Would it kill them to make it look a but easier on the eye?
Comments & social
Flickr Set: Web Design Patterns
by Matt on 07 February 2010
flickr.com/photos/factoryjoe/collections/72157600001823120/ A handy research/inspiration set for web designers.
More like this
Web tools reviews
App: Colour Challenge
From the podcast
Pros
A really useful Flickr collection. This one is for web/interaction designers. The user factoryjoe has uploaded loads of examples of pieces of interaction from around the web, so you can (in his words): “reuse, recycle, but don’t reinvent the wheel unless necessary.”
Cons
There’s just so much content in there, especially when you look at the tags. Which is obviously brilliant but the vocab he uses to tag the images can sometimes make it hard to find what you’re after.
Comments & social
Flickr Set: Design Archive
by Matt on 07 February 2010
flickr.com/photos/20745656@N00/sets/ A handy research/inspiration set for print designers.
More like this
Art and design reviews
Site: Book Cover Archive
Trend: Info-graphics
From the podcast
Pros
This fella has handily used his Flickr account to upload graphic design research for all to access and use. Includes work from famous designers and from countries around the world. Dead helpful.
Cons
Some of the categories are a bit lacking in content. So if you know of any other sets that do similar to this, let us know…
Comments & social
App: Colour Challenge
by Matt on 07 February 2010
http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77
A fun little game you can play to find out just how good your colour vision is by rearranging little squares...
More like this
Art and design reviews
Flickr Set: Web Design Patterns
App: Whale Trail
Pros
Bright
Every argued amongst your designer friends about who has the best eyes? Well you can actually test your colour vision ability and get a score for it, thus settling the debate once and for all. Or it will help you discover if you’re colour blind…
Cons
Dark
Where’s the leaderboard? Or the option to somehow show-off your score. This is a true source of pride for designers (or so we hear…)
Comments & social
Site: Icon Finder
by Matt on 07 February 2010
iconfinder.net A search engine for those really little graphics that are so necessary in the web 2.0 world.
More like this
Web tools reviews
Pros
Iconic
Ever done that thing where you really quickly need a graphic or logo but then get bogged down by Google image searching for it? Yep, we’ve all been there. Worry no more about that because Icon Finder is a search engine just for web icons and the like.
What gives it the big advantage over more conventional image searching isn’t just that the icon you’re looking for is likely to be there and properly made but you can download as a high quality .png or a favicon friendly .ico file. Ace.
Cons
Too minor
In terms of functionality it does exactly what you need of it. They could probably add more results though and some of the search terms you throw in give back only the tiniest of images. But when they’re being supplied copyright-free, you can’t be too picky. Hopefully it will only improve.
Comments & social
App: Pixlr Editor
by Matt on 07 February 2010
pixlr.com/editor A free Photoshop-lite that enables you to edit images on the fly within your browser. #ep08
More like this
Web tools reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Picture perfect
Yeah, that’s right, these guys have gone and created a streamlined version of Photoshop (Elements if you like…) that works in your browser. For. Free.
Not quite sure how they’ve got away with ripping off Adobe’s UI and menus but it’s bloody impressive that they have and all the key functions are here. For a bit of light web-image-manipulation-on-the-go, this is just the thing!
Cons
Touch-up
How can you complain about this? Unless you’re Adobe…
Comments & social
Site: Book Cover Archive
by Matt on 07 February 2010
http://bookcoverarchive.com/
Quite literally an archive of loads of lovely book covers. One for you lovers of print.
More like this
Art and design reviews
Flickr Set: Design Archive
Site: How To Be A Retronaut
Pros
Covered
A truly great resource for designers this. Really cleanly and semantically made site, a bit like Flickr for book cover designs.
Each book cover has a URL with lots of associated labels and information about it which you can use to browse the collection by: author, designer, typeface etc.
It’s also an elegantly simple site with a nice clean homepage and really useful footer - how often can you say that?
Cons
Torn
There are a few features missing, such as the ability to browse by tags for more abstract qualities of the design but the little to-do list at the bottom shows you they want to add this to the site anyway! Great idea.
Comments & social
App: Nike True City
by Matt on 29 January 2010
Nike and Vice have got together to create a free guide to six cities, updated regularly by people in the know. It's another place reviewing idea and we've a review of the iPhone app. Find it in the App store.
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Odds and ends reviews
App: Rummble
Site: Unlike
Pros
Home run
As you might expect, it really is a well-made app. Great visual design and a slick interface make it easy to find the information. My favourite bit is they’ve created a cool little icon set (shown in the image), which categorizes places nice and clearly. On top of that they’ve got some lovely, full-screen images in there.
It’s also impressive just how smoothly it integrates with Google Maps and how easily you can view websites within the app.
The major advantage of this over other similar apps (of which we’re starting to see several) is the fact you can browse lots of the content without needing an account. Only when you want to add content of your own do you need to sign up. Great idea.
And it’s worth noting, that despite it being a Nike app, you aren’t bombarded by adverts or given weird Nike-related suggestions. Good work.
Cons
Run out
We’ve only looked at the London one but it seems there’s kind of a catch-22 problem at the heart of this. At the moment there isn’t much content, which means some of the categories are a bit empty but the idea of it being top-class content supplied by in-the-know insiders is a great one. The key to this working is going to be working out how to keep the quality high.
But it’s a great start. The only problem now is knowing which of these place-review apps to go for!
Comments & social
Site: Sporcle
by Chris on 25 January 2010
sporcle.com Fancy learning while you waste time? Pretty much the ultimate quiz site out there! #ep10
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Odds and ends reviews
Site: Sound-boards
From the podcast
Pros
Quizzers With Attitude
Whilst this site will definitely not win any prizes in a beauty contest, the core idea of this site is brilliant and very, very, very addictive. Sporcle is a gateway to knowledge or stupidity depending how you look at it, with a library of thousands if not millions of trivia based quizzes.
Once you have found your way about the site it’s quite straight forward (you have to ignore the rather large ads which this month seem to be about getting the whitest teeth possible) you can search for a quiz in the mini google search bar or if you have no imagination then you can choose from 16 genres on the left hand side or look at the top 20.
Once you have selected a quiz it’s time to hit the start button and it’s a race against time to fill in the answers to the quiz. They are a lot harder when the pressure is on and you will be surprised at the answers you miss, and is a great drinking game (wrong answer drinks!)
Cons
Quiz Off!
Like we briefly mentioned before this is one unloved site, and we assume has been left in the same clothes since the day it was born way back in 2007. The UX of the site could also do with a big refresh which we think would really take Sporcle to a new level and make it a more complete site.
Go on Sporcle get a new suit and tie!
Comments & social
App: Hootsuite
by Matt on 24 January 2010
hootsuite.com It's a dashboard-style free web app for managing your social media accounts within a browser. No downloads. Dead easy.
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Web tools reviews
Pros
Owl aboard!
I’ve recently found myself recommending this handy little tool to all Twitter users and having converted so many new fans I figured I should probably write about it here.
It’s a dashboard enabling to see your timeline, @ replies, DMs etc in one glance and thus is initially most useful for people who have more than one Twitter account but you can also hook your Facebook (and Linked In) account to it. You choose what you want to send to which account on an update by update basis. Thus solving the problem of people who spray their tweets all over your Facebook feed as well.
Other dead handy functions are a built-in URL shortener (they’re all the rage); the ability to view stats on all the links you post; and the fact you can customise the layout to include things like tracking of searches. And you barely have to log in as it remembers and just loads up easily in your browser. Unlike something as heavy as Tweet Deck.
Oh and you can still retweet the old way! If you care about that kind of thing…
Cons
Fluffed
There’s not a lot to complain about here but the choice to have searches, user profiles and timelines all appear in pop-ups is a bit annoying. Especially when a users timeline appears as another window on top.
It could have been neater to click on a user and have them appear as another tab. This would also allow space for their ‘following’ and ‘followers’ lists to appear, which for now you have to login to the standard web Twitter to see.
Also, the Facebook tab could do with columns for your profile and notifications. But hopefully these things are coming as they seem to keep iterating and improving.
Comments & social
Site: Free Photo Printing
by Matt on 21 January 2010
freephotoprinting.net It's a website that tracks down all the free photo print offers available on the web so you never need pay for photo printing again. Or at least you should be able to get 500-odd free pics...
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Art and design reviews
Pros
Photoshoot
Like all good ideas, this is simple. The homepage presents you with the offers, you click through to redeem them and then register with the respective site (be they Truprint, Tesco or even Aldi - who knew?). So that’s all your photo albums filled for a while. It seems to be updated pretty regularly, which is good to know.
This site also supplies you with offers for getting cards, gifts, books and posters printed from your digital snappy snaps. A neat little bonus. It all seems to just work. Just what the web was built for: saving you money.
Cons
Snapped
It is in need of a bit of design loving. Currently it looks very templated and quite beige. The banner looks like a stock blog one and the typeface is cheesey as hell.
When we were emailed this site, I had no idea this was such an industry but a Google search throws up a couple of competitors who are a bit ahead in the visuals race. However the competitors don’t give you the bonus of offers on cards, books, gifts and posters. So in terms of functionality this one wins. Which probably matters more.
Also a word of caution: only have a blog if you’re going to update it. This site has another example of an unloved blog. Sad face :(.
Comments & social
Podcast: The Football Ramble
by Matt on 15 January 2010
thefootballramble.com Hoooooo! It’s a podcast about football (obviously) but a good one that doesn’t feature an abundance of journalists. It’s for all us mugs who think of ourselves as genuine fans of the game.
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Sport reviews
App: Panini Virtual Stickers
Youtube: Alan Partridge
Pros
Hat trick!
This is more or less our favourite podcast here in WebGun world and since discovering it towards the end of the 08/09 season, we’ve not missed an episode. In fact it was one of the factors that encouraged us to venture into podcasting (the new rock and roll) after hearing what great results can come from a fairly simple setup.
So it’s four guys talking about football but they’ve rather geniusly managed to pitch themselves above the ramblings of guys down the pub and just below the predictable waffle of TV pundits. And they’re knowledgeable too: not just covering the English game as they have a genuine interest in football from around the globe. Also if you’re around your mid-twenties you’ll get all the references and won’t have to pretend to agree that Dixie Dean was the greatest goalscorer this country has had (we all know it was Andy Cole).
They’ve got their show structure down: it’s news and topical stuff first before emails and funny stories. Not groundbreaking but usually guarantees you several real life LOLs. They read out my email once, so that’s the high high standards we’re talking here. The show wraps up with the Dean Windass Hall Of Fame (DWHOF) where they pay tribute to a figure (or figures, or trophy or match even – it’s pretty loose) involved in the beautiful game. Watch out, because in this bit you might just learn something too.
So yeah, talking about football, having fun and learning? Whoa!
Cons
Disallowed goal
We’d be nitpicking if we were to criticize because this is a podcast of a consistently high standard. But we’ll have a go…
There’s only one area that we can see room for improvement: the DWHOF part of the show can go on a bit and follows the same formulaic (wikipedia fueled) timeline style – might be nice just to focus in on key events that made them great and discuss that. So very occasionally we turn off before the end. But this only stands out because the rest of the show is such a ruddy laugh.
There’s an easy way for them to remedy this though: put some kind of bonus item (you know, like 2 Good 2 Bad - joke) at the climax and we’ll stay hooked like an air raid warden to the Home Service during the Blitz.
Oh and a word of warning: if you ever meet them in real life they will keep attempting to give you a look-a-like nickname until one sticks… seriously they don’t give up.
Comments & social
Site: Compare My Radio
by Matt on 11 January 2010
comparemyradio.com Keeping track of the playout information from the UK's radio stations, enabling you to pick the radio station that suits you. #ep09
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Music reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Sounds good
Great idea for a site this: simple but something that just works. The idea is obviously that you compare radio stations to find your perfect match. So for example you may come from another country/planet; want to try a new station; are bored of Lady Gaga; aren’t sure if you can commit to actually moving the dial or just love statistics.
Each station gets a variety gauge - a percentage score of just how different the output is - and unique tracks - the total number of different individual tunes played over a month. These are expressed through nice simple venn diagrams and charts. Thus giving you argument settlers as to which is best station, i.e. Capital FM has a variety of only 3% and plays a mere 230-odd different tracks over 30 days. Meaning you can back up what you’ve always suspected: it’s a bit repetitive.
You can also view each artist’s page to see which of their tracks get most played and in turn where those tracks get played. Makes sense? Have a play…
Cons
Turn it down
You can get a bit stuck in a never-ending loop, jumping from station to artist to track and then back to station again. Told you it was simple. The journeys don’t go much beyond that.
And whilst simplicity is good they could do so much more with the data, in a similar style to the way the BBC /music site works: aggregating info from Wikipedia and MusicBrainz on the artists. Perhaps more external links to go explore some more. Or dare I say it, a chance to buy the track? Maybe that’s over-commercialising things…
And this may just be me but there doesn’t seem to be that many stations. What happened to the digital radio revolution? I’m sure there are more than that in the UK… could be amazing if they brought in satellite, internet and pirate radio.
Comments & social
Site: Culture Critic
by Matt on 07 January 2010
culturecritic.co.uk This site aggregates reviews on films, music, theatre, DVDs, books and exhibitions from the British press. So now there's no excuse to not see the best stuff out there!
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Music reviews
Site: Desert Island Discs
Pros
Must see
This site is kind of interesting to cover because we’ve already reviewed a site that does the same job in America: Metacritic. However for some reason we seem to prefer this.
Probably because we’re wooed by good design and simple interfaces that don’t over-complicate. Also it has a wicked right hand menu across every page giving quick access to lots of content. And we tend to agree with the review scores (thus making us as subjective as the next guy).
Cons
Don’t see
They carry listings for things that are coming soon, which is a good idea but most of the pages are pretty empty. Thus making them a bit pointless. If we’re looking at detail: the tabbed nav needs some work and the page numbers are a bit teeny small.
Comments & social
Site: Warp
by Chris on 03 January 2010
warp.net This site apart from looking ruddy lovely, houses some of the best records, films & events you could ever see/hear/maybe even smell?
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Music reviews
Pros
Warp’s so good?
For those who don’t know Warp records was started back in 89 in Sheffield, UK and had a pretty good knack for finding some of the most enduring artists in electronic music and have gone to become more than a record label branching out into films and events.
Most notably the work of two of our favourite directors can be found here, the brilliantly insane CHRIS MORRIS (On the Hour, Nathan Barley, My Wrongs) & the beautifully gritty SHANE MEADOWS who’s take on storytelling and filmmaking is something that we would love to see more directors/filmmakers/actors/anyone take on board and think about when producing a film.
Cons
Warp’s bad?
As much as we love the design on this site (we really do!), which was done by these guys universaleverything it might date quickly, but right now its hotttttttttt! er… that’s about it. No other faults.
Comments & social
Triple Style Mags
by Chris on 03 January 2010
hypebeast.com / slamxhype.com / thedailystreet.co.uk A triple pack of fashion & culture magazine/websites (magasite/webzine if you prefer) that are a must check on a daily basis.
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Subculture and fashion reviews
Site: Fly 53
Blog: Grain & Gram
Pros
Fash-on
From the obvious what new and wacky Nike dunks will be released next month to the more obscure collaborations such as the Ambush x Zippo Lighters or the David Beckham & James Bond adidas Originals. But there is more to these sites than just clothing and footwear porn, a lot of useful infomation about exhibitions, pop-up stores, events & artist profiles.
So in summary a lot of good stuff to be found on these sites, a very up-to-date way of keeping ontop of all things COOL, if cool is still a cool word to use…
Cons
Fash-off
After all these sites are just polished blogs and therefore it does require a fair amount of scrolling through page after to page to see whats new, which can get a bit tiresome. Unless of course, you know specifically you are looking for.
Comments & social
App: Spectra News
by Matt on 03 January 2010
msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/components/spectra/index.html This is a pretty craaaazy new way of viewing the news through a spinning, kind-of-3D, visual interface. A news re-imagining if you will.
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Odds and ends reviews
Pros
Newsworthy
You select the news you’re interested in and it falls into the viewing area to be read when something takes your fancy.
There’s also a completely ridiculous webcam mode where you can show colours to your camera and those coloured news stories appear and an audio mode too (where you it reacts to what you ask for). It makes the news fun!
Cons
Bad news
Innovation and new ideas are to always be applauded but we’re not convinced this really enhances the news-reading experience. Not sure many people will be swapping this for their preferred news site on a daily basis.
Comments & social
Site: Unlike
by Matt on 03 January 2010
unlike.net It's a travel guide for all you young and funky people. Yeah! Everyone loves to travel to the coolest cities in the world.
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Odds and ends reviews
App: Nike True City
App: Rummble
From the podcast
Pros
It looks pretty sweet with good attention to detail. Has lots of cool features, like being able to download business cards for places profiled; the ability to create and share tours; plenty of categories and you don’t have to login to access it (always appreciated).
Cons
The reviews are short and there’s nothing in the way of real user feedback – thus I reckon it would probably be best to use in conjunction with another site.
Comments & social
Podcast: Carpool
by Matt on 31 December 2009
llewtube.com Carpool is a weekly video cast with various interesting people, often celebrities of some form, hosted on the website of actor/presenter Robert Llewelyn.
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Odds and ends reviews
Site: TED
Pros
It has a brilliantly simple premise of Robert interviewing his guests whilst driving them somewhere they want to go. The guests themselves are chosen for being in someway fascinating, from celebs to authors and entrepreneurs. Thus it actually fits the bill as being funny and educating! Also there is a nice closeness for the fans of the show as you can get your questions in via Twitter.
It seems to be financed by Toyota as the action often takes place in a Prius and there is a fair bit of chat about this and electric cars etc. But it isn’t preachy and is more like tech-heads chatting about any other new kind of technology.
Cons
Can’t really find anything wrong with the content but does it even need to be in video format? It can get a bit frustrating watching it when for the most part nothing really happens (especially as you can’t put your iPod screen to sleep for videos and still get the sound). Surely it would work great as an audio cast, perhaps alongside the video version?
Comments & social
Site: Metacritic
by Matt on 31 December 2009
metacritic.com A site that gathers together all of the reviews of films/games/music from the media to create an overall (meta) score.
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Music reviews
From the podcast
Pros
This is a great idea and a really well-put-together site with lots of findable content. It throws up a big list of current releases in the left-hand column and plenty of suggestions for further journeys around the site.
It is a very convenient way of getting a large number of reviews of a film you want to see (for example) in one place.
Cons
It’s quite American-centric with most of the publications it takes opinions from coming from that part of the world.
It seems to be pretty good with recent releases but older stuff tends to deliver some strange results (a Fast and Furious sequel getting more than Fear and Loathing?). Whilst it has a user-score for each release, it is the critical score that dominates and we tended to find ourselves agreeing more with wholly user-generated sites like IMDB when looking at less fresh content.
Comments & social
Site: Grime Daily
by Chris on 29 December 2009
grimedaily.com It's a site for people wanting to get down with the exciting world of the UK grime scene! #ep07
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Subculture and fashion reviews
From the podcast
Pros
Well street
We’ll be honest this so called ‘website’ hasn’t got that much going for it… but one thing it does have is plenty of vidyooos (street spelling) and seems to cater for the well… is illiterate to strong? The only text on the site is on the actual advert banners!
But forget all that for now, this site has some real comedy gems. Let us introduce to you a lovely chap called TEMPA T don’t be put off by his urban street name he really seems like a nice guy…
This brilliant interview/day-in-the-life documentary really is something special.
Cons
Clean your act up
Like we mentioned before this really scrapes the barrel on calling itself a ‘website’ and in reality is just a slightly polished myspace turd with massive adverts and highly photoshopped ’street/grime’ imagery.
It even has to translate it’s own adverts as the typeface chosen for the main advert is just soooooo street it’s not even legible (looks like bumgle, bungle, uncle?) hence a lovely sans serif font spelling it out it plain old English.
Comments & social
Site: Football Filter
by Matt on 29 December 2009
footballfilter.com This is a great little aggregator of a site, pulling together a mass of football resources from around the web (with a slight English bias, which is nice!) into one filterable page.
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Sport reviews
App: EPL Addicts
From the podcast
Pros
Hat trick
The design is simple but elegant with clear use of a grid: a great example of practical type design on the web. Also the bank of podcasts you can listen to within the click of a play button is a nifty feature that makes you feel like some kind of media mogul.
The wide variety of sites linked to is good to see, even including a whole section on WAGs! And big respect for not needing a new login to be able to sign up.
Cons
Own goal
Being able to filter by time is a good idea but the timeline device used to do it isn’t very intuitive. Would be better if it was a big timeline across the screen, clearly marked by days or hours. Displaying photos is a nice touch but it is a bit fiddly to be able to link through to where they are hosted (Flickr) so you can get the originals.
Comments & social
Site: Tune Checker
by Matt on 25 December 2009
tunechecker.com Battling the ‘evil empire’ of iTunes, TV’s Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert fame has released a price comparison site for music downloads. #ep08
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Music reviews
App: Mflow
From the podcast
Pros
Ch-ch-check it out
This is certainly a good idea and the site is simple enough, doing the job with minimum of fuss, whilst trying to make it look like the menus on an iPod. It then links you to the seller. And that’s about it.
Cons
Out of tune
As is evident with MoneySavingExpert, design has never been high on the priority list for this crew and whilst the idea of an iPod menu is nice, it’s pretty crudely done. And the less said about the early 90s logo and banner the better.
Oddly the site is only really one page too. But the real problem is the fact this is a crusade against the expensive iTunes, only in most cases to be sending more people to the much more evil giant of Tesco.
Comments & social
App: Rummble
by Matt on 25 December 2009
rummble.com This is something we’ve been after for quite some time: an app that enables you to store details of a place against its location on a map. #ep09
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Odds and ends reviews
App: Nike True City
Site: Unlike
App: Wunderlist
From the podcast
Pros
X marks the spot
Obviously the cool thing about being able to store information about a place is then being able to recall those details later – preferably when you’re in the area. Thus it becomes your virtual memory for places you visit – particularly good when you live in a city with tons of pubs.
Been using it for a while and it is dead easy to input info, as you can put in as much or as little as you want (free text, tags, URLs, images etc). It will also then throw up other places it thinks you like – yet to work out how good this feature is but we do intend to make use of it.
Cons
A bit lost
Of course it has an iPhone app, which is key for unlocking places when you’re on the move but the location/Google Maps stuff is much better on the desktop app – where it doesn’t seem to have a limit of how much of a map you can view and there aren’t update/refresh issues for seeing stuff you’ve just inputted.
It links with all sorts of social media, which is a great idea for adding another layer of recommendations to the site but it doesn’t need to keep reminding you to ‘connect with Facebook’. Minor quibbles though.
Agree or not? Give us your opinion. Or don't (no-one will make you).