Shiny Shiny

The Video Game BAFTAs: the winners and how we all feel about Alex Zane

Anna Leach — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:51:37 GMT

Celebs, fancy chocolates, PSP jokes - and videos of some hot gameplay the gaming BAFTAs was all you'd ever dream it to be. Walking away with the bronze mask that everyone had their eye on, was the Batman Arkham...

App Review: SYNC - the iphone app that lets you interact with music at gigs

Anna Leach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:25:33 GMT

Is it a publicity stunt? is it a completely new way to make music? or is it just lots of people waving their phones around at gigs and making annoying sounds? A Techno DJ has crafted a new kind...

Always find your phone again with Blackberry app Where's My Phone

Anna Leach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:37:55 GMT

Great app for Blackberry - Where's My Phone - has some cunning new ways of helping you find your lost mobile, wherever you may have left it. The app-makers explain: "Sending an email to your Blackberry triggers the application and...

Sky's will launch 3D channel with Man U v Chelsea on April 3rd

Anna Leach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:55:21 GMT

Are you lot into football? Well you're all in for a treat Saturday 3rd April. Sky will broadcast their first emission of their 3D channel then - showing the Chelsea v Man United Premier league game. Find a pub...

Would you like that in English? Google Translate now built into Chrome browser

Anna Leach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:39:14 GMT

If Google's blanket advertising campaigns for its web browser Chrome haven't bamboozled you into trying the browser - then perhaps this nifty translation feature will. Popping up a bar if Chrome senses you are viewing a page in another...

iPad rival - the HP Slate will sell for €400 (£359)

Anna Leach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:23:43 GMT

A Spanish paper has broken news of the price of HP's tablet computer, the HP Slate. The Slate - the big rival to Apple's iPad should be be selling for 400 euros or £359 for an entry level model....

Mafia man caught after using Facebook

Anna Leach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:19:53 GMT

Mafia bosses are never on Facebook in the big famous films, and it really seems that they should keep it that way. A Facebook session went a bit wrong for Mafia hitman Pasquale Manfredi after the Italian police used high...

5 Worst Facebook status Crimes of 2010

Anna Leach — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:04:04 GMT

Back in 2008, Shiny ed Susi Weaser wrote the controversial reference work: The ten worst Facebook status crimes. Two years and countless web innovations later we look at the new Facebook status crimes. We realise there are ups and downs...

How many apps is too many apps?

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:43:58 GMT

Some of us download apps like sugar-mad children let loose in a sweet store. iPhone users are particularly guilty - they have the biggest app store of any mobile platform and arguably the iPhone apps are the iPhone's selling...

Lightsaber Duel iPhone app lets you fight your friend with a lightsaber

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:19:35 GMT

So you can't have a lightsaber in real life because a) they don't exist, b) you might hurt someone - but neither reality nor the police can stop you owning the lightsaber duel app for iPhone. An exciting update...

App Review: NextBuses tells you when the next bus is

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:47:09 GMT

When is the next 36 bus? It's the sort of question that drives you crazy when you're waiting for it, and hardly anything can tell you the answer. Especially not the strange man in the corner of the bus shelter...

Playfish issue Cash Cards available in Sainsbury's: real money for game money

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:15:26 GMT

Paying money for virtual goods has always raised a few heckles in the media. The thought that people are spending hard-earned pennies on virtual strawberry seeds in Farmville or virtual pumpkins to decorate the kennels of virtual dogs in...

A sitcom based on Steve Job's life? Yup. But is there enough sex n drugs to make it interesting?

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:23:35 GMT

It's obviously Make-Something-Inspired-By-Steve-Jobs Week. After the horror of the mozzerella sculpture of Steve Jobs' head, some enterprising TV producer has pitched a TV sitcom based on the Apple CEO's life. At least this isn't yucky. The show which is...

Nokia X9 phone pictures and specs leaked from Chinese site

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:52:35 GMT

God knows quite how this got into the public domain, but pictures and specs claiming to be the new Nokia X9 are flitting around the interwebs. What we're seeing is a pretty hardcore smartphone running the Symbian 4.0 operating...

Lovefilm - now you can stream films onto your TV

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:35:55 GMT

Lovefilm the DVD rental service have just released a new service which will dramatically change how we watch films. Thanks to a partnership with Sony, it will let you watch films from their massive library of 67,000 titles on...

Nokia X9 phone pictures leaked from Chinese site

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:35:54 GMT

UGH of the Week: Steve Jobs' head made out of cheese

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:31:30 GMT

I am so sorry to inflict this on everyone before lunch, But the creation of this Mozzerella-based monstrosity must be noted. I'm sure it's an important stage in human evolution or something. A geeky cook blogger who loves Macs...

Facebook gets first soap opera: we're not terribly optimistic

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:15:40 GMT

Would you read a soap-opera on Facebook? Ndreams - digital games producers are betting that people will. They have created an interactive multimedia story and made it into a Facebook app, called the Spirit of Adventure. Part game, part...

The Age of social-networkers: how what age you are affects where you network

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:43:24 GMT

Is it any surprise that Bebo users are younger than the members of Linked-In? no, but Research into the ages of social network users by Pingdom popped up some interesting results. Contrary to what you might expect, the 35-45 age...

The Flat Vase that expands when you add water

Anna Leach — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:55:35 GMT

So, you want a vase but you just don't want to have it hanging around taking up space when you're not using it - well, how about the flat vase? It's not Waterford Crystal, it's not even glass, it's...

Self-Publishing Sites: Five of the Best compared

Anna Leach — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:01:16 GMT

Ten years ago, self-publishing was a bit embarassing, it was like you couldn't get a traditional publisher interested so you just lumped along to somewhere you knew they'd have you. But with a bit of perspective on the phenomenon,...

Top 20 blogs you must be following on Tumblr

oliverjones — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:46:41 GMT

Tumblr is going from strength to strength. They've abandoned their weird and useless Tumblarity thing, which made the whole blogging platform feel like a silly competition (it may only have been silly because I couldn't get a tumblarity past 9)....

HTC Desire - this season's it Android phone will come in silver too..

Anna Leach — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:46:40 GMT

HTC's Desire is perhaps the slickest Android out this season, but looks like HTC are sexing up this 3.7 inch AMOLED handset even more. Hold your breath geekistas, they're releasing it in silver. Breathe out. Yes, HTC are doing silver...

Shiny Poll: would you let an Online Bingo Club sponsor your wedding?

Anna Leach — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:53:45 GMT

Okay so this isn't strictly speaking a technology story but it does show brand advertising Going To The Next Level. An online Bingo company are offering £5000 to a couple in return for sponsoring their wedding. That means the...

The case for the fashion phone - why we don't all need iPhones

Anna Leach — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:50:46 GMT

In a comeback to our piece on the death of the girl phone, Lauren Bravo from ShinyStyle casts a critical eye over the smartphone market and explains why there's still a niche for the fashion phone and why an iPhone...