10 worthy apps for the MySpace user
Family Guy Picture Hunt: The Family Guy Picture Hunt might not be as useful as some of the other apps in this roundup, but it's extremely fun. Simply look at a picture from one of your favorite scenes from the television show Family Guy, and try to find the different areas on the picture that match the blocks to the right of the image. At first glance, it seems like a simple game, but you'll quickly realize that it's difficult and fun. The game is timed, so you can play with friends and see who is the superior searcher.Find the right photo chunks with Stewie's help.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETFamily Tree: Like its Facebook counterpart, Family Tree is a really great app. When you access it, the app lists all your MySpace friends and asks you to find family members. It then sends confirmation requests to make sure that they're really family members.Once complete, you can input your relationship to those people, and the app will create a family tree. The app's best feature is the option to see which people might be in your family. It does that by analyzing your friends list to see if there are any matches you might have missed. The app even has a family news feed, so you can be kept abreast of what's going on in each other's lives.Family Tree lets you connect with your loved ones.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETFlixster: If you're a film fan and you already love Flixster, the Flixster app for MySpace is for you. Just like the site (and its Facebook counterpart), the app allows you to rate movies, see what your Flixster friends are up to, and determine what movies you'd like based on your ratings. The app even lets you play games, take quizzes, and share your results with friends.Flixster lets you rate movies and take quizzes.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETGoMix:GoMix is a really neat app. It lets you pick from a few dozen tracks and listen to a song. You've probably never heard of most of the tracks, but they all have a nice beat.Once you pick the song you want to check out, GoMix lets you mix it any way you see fit. So if you want to ditch the vocals in one section of the song, go for it. If you don't like the way the guitar sounds and you want to get rid of it, you can.After you're done mixing the song, you can listen to your newly created track to see how you did at improving it. You can then share your mix with other MySpace users. GoMix lets you mix songs to fit your musical taste.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETiTwitter: iTwitter displays your Twitter updates on your MySpace profile. It's extremely customizable. You can pick how many tweets to display at a time, choose your username, font, and background colors, and you can even decide if you want to display your avatar. Once you figure out what you want, you'll find your fully customized iTwitter widget displayed in your profile.iTwitter gives you a variety of customization options.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETNews Merger: News Merger is a must-have for any news junkie on MySpace. When you access the app, you have the option of adding prominent news feeds to your profile, so you can always be kept abreast about what's going on in the world.Those feeds range from Reuters news to CNET News to the top 25 downloads on iTunes. You can even access major sports news from the leagues' respective Web sites. Once you pick the feeds you want to track, you can modify the design of your widget and place it on your MySpace profile.News Merger gives you your quick news fix.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETPicnik:Once you sign up for a Picnik account and add it to your profile, you can edit photos, create a collage, or make greeting cards. The Picnik app, like its Facebook counterpart, lets you open photos from a variety of sites, including Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, and Photobucket. You can also upload images from your desktop. The app's editing tools aren't as advanced as those in Photoshop, but they will do the trick when you need to quickly modify an image. The MySpace Picnik app is responsive, well-designed, and a fine alternative to most other image-editing tools.Picnik lets you edit photos quickly and easily.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETPlaylist: Playlist.com's MySpace app is worth trying out. You can search for practically any artist or song, and have access to videos of the tracks you pick.When you search for an artist (I searched for Bruce Springsteen), the site displays results matching your query.Those results might be Bruce Springsteen videos, but many are videos from folks on YouTube covering his songs. If you find a song you like, you can add it to your Playlist for viewing later. You can also share that playlist with friends.Playlist has some videos to choose from.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETYouTubePost: YouTubePost is a simple, lightweight app that makes it easy for you to access YouTube videos in MySpace. When you first access the app, you're brought to a list of the Recently Featured, Top Rated, and Most Viewed videos on YouTube.You can either click on one of those videos to view it or use the app's search field to query the site. In either case, accessing videos takes no time.When you click on a video, you'll view the clip in the app. YouTubePost is a must-have for any video lover on MySpace.YouTube Favorites helps you find your favorite YouTube videos.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNETMy top 31. Causes: There's something nice about helping others--and Causes delivers.2. Picnik: You can edit photos while you network with friends. It's a great app.3. News Merger: It's simple, it's convenient, it's a must-have.
How to get started with Google Music
How to get started with Google Music
Finally out of beta, you no longer need an invite to use the free Google Music service. For now, it's available to anyone in the U.S. with a Google account.Two new features that weren't available in the beta are Google+ sharing and a music store in the Android Market. If you want to try the music service du jour, here's how to get started with Google Music:Using Google Music on your computerUploading music: To upload your own music to Google Music, you need to install the Music Manager (Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X 10.5+, and Linux).Go to Google Music and log in using your Google account.Click the Music Manager download link and install it.Start Music Manager and log in with your Google account, then select the location ofyour music collection to begin uploading your music.To stop uploading, sign out of Music Manager.Screenshot by Ed RheeYou can store up to 20,000 songs from your own collection to Google Music.MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, and FLAC file formats are supported.Keep in mind, however, that AAC, OGG, and FLAC files will be transcoded to 320kbps MP3 files.Playing music: You can listen to Google Music from Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE7+.Just log in to Google Music and navigate your library on the left and click on the songs or albums you want on the right.Player controls are located on a strip at the bottom of the page.Screenshot by Ed RheePurchased music will be stored in Google Music, but won't count towards the 20,000-song limit.You can also use Music Manager to download your purchased music, which will be in 320kbps MP3 format.Sharing music: You can share music you've purchased to your Google+ circles. Just click on the triangular menu button from the song title and select "share song."The people you share with will get one free full play of the song or album.Screenshot by Ed RheeUsing Google Music on your mobile devicePlaying music: To listen to Google Music on your Android device (2.2+), download the Google Music app from the Android Market.To make songs available offline, click on the triangular menu button in the corner of the album or track title and check the "available offline" box.Screenshot by Ed RheeTo select multiple artists or albums for offline listening, tap the menu button of your Android device, then select "Make available offline."A column of boxes will appear to the right of the artist or album.Select which ones you want to listen to offline, then tap the check mark in the lower left-hand corner.Screenshot by Ed RheeYou can also change your library view in landscape mode by touching the name of the current view.It defaults to "recent," which displays album covers in a carousel view.Screenshot by Ed RheeiOS 4.0+ devices can access Google Music by pointing the browser to music.google.com. Sharon Vaknin has more on how to use Google Music with iOS devices.Buying music: Once your Android device gets the update to Android Market, you'll be able to purchase music by clicking on the "buy" or "free" button next to a song or album. Again, you'll need a Google Wallet account with a payment method entered.Sharing music: The option to share music from your Android device will also be available with the update to Android Market and presumably, the Google Music app. You'll see a new playlist called "free and purchased" that you'll be able to share from.That's it. What do you think? Are you going to use Google Music over iTunes or Amazon Cloud Player?Or do you prefer subscription-based services like Spotify and Rdio?
Finally out of beta, you no longer need an invite to use the free Google Music service. For now, it's available to anyone in the U.S. with a Google account.Two new features that weren't available in the beta are Google+ sharing and a music store in the Android Market. If you want to try the music service du jour, here's how to get started with Google Music:Using Google Music on your computerUploading music: To upload your own music to Google Music, you need to install the Music Manager (Windows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X 10.5+, and Linux).Go to Google Music and log in using your Google account.Click the Music Manager download link and install it.Start Music Manager and log in with your Google account, then select the location ofyour music collection to begin uploading your music.To stop uploading, sign out of Music Manager.Screenshot by Ed RheeYou can store up to 20,000 songs from your own collection to Google Music.MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, and FLAC file formats are supported.Keep in mind, however, that AAC, OGG, and FLAC files will be transcoded to 320kbps MP3 files.Playing music: You can listen to Google Music from Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE7+.Just log in to Google Music and navigate your library on the left and click on the songs or albums you want on the right.Player controls are located on a strip at the bottom of the page.Screenshot by Ed RheePurchased music will be stored in Google Music, but won't count towards the 20,000-song limit.You can also use Music Manager to download your purchased music, which will be in 320kbps MP3 format.Sharing music: You can share music you've purchased to your Google+ circles. Just click on the triangular menu button from the song title and select "share song."The people you share with will get one free full play of the song or album.Screenshot by Ed RheeUsing Google Music on your mobile devicePlaying music: To listen to Google Music on your Android device (2.2+), download the Google Music app from the Android Market.To make songs available offline, click on the triangular menu button in the corner of the album or track title and check the "available offline" box.Screenshot by Ed RheeTo select multiple artists or albums for offline listening, tap the menu button of your Android device, then select "Make available offline."A column of boxes will appear to the right of the artist or album.Select which ones you want to listen to offline, then tap the check mark in the lower left-hand corner.Screenshot by Ed RheeYou can also change your library view in landscape mode by touching the name of the current view.It defaults to "recent," which displays album covers in a carousel view.Screenshot by Ed RheeiOS 4.0+ devices can access Google Music by pointing the browser to music.google.com. Sharon Vaknin has more on how to use Google Music with iOS devices.Buying music: Once your Android device gets the update to Android Market, you'll be able to purchase music by clicking on the "buy" or "free" button next to a song or album. Again, you'll need a Google Wallet account with a payment method entered.Sharing music: The option to share music from your Android device will also be available with the update to Android Market and presumably, the Google Music app. You'll see a new playlist called "free and purchased" that you'll be able to share from.That's it. What do you think? Are you going to use Google Music over iTunes or Amazon Cloud Player?Or do you prefer subscription-based services like Spotify and Rdio?
Alan Moore sparks Electricomics create-your-own digital comics app
Alan Moore sparks Electricomics create-your-own digital comics app
As Amazon gives away a free digital comic every day, legendary writer Alan Moore has flipped the switch on Electricomics, a new open source app for showcasing and creating new strips.The scribe behind "Watchmen" and "From Hell" has now thrown the might of his not-inconsiderable beard behind Electricomics, which will feature new work from established writers and artists and offer an open source toolkit for aspiring digital comic creators."With Electricomics," says Moore, "we are hoping to address the possibilities of comic strips in this exciting new medium, in a way that they have never been addressed before."A still from the movie-accompanying Watchmen comic.Warner Bros."Rather than simply transferring comic narrative from the page to the screen," Moore explains, "we intend to craft stories expressly devised to test the storytelling limits of this unprecedented technology. To this end we are assembling teams of the most cutting-edge creators in the industry and then allowing them input into the technical processes in order to create a new capacity for telling comic book stories."Built by developers Ocasta Studios and bankrolled by the Digital Research & Development fund for the Arts, Electricomics will feature new work by four-colour figureheads such as Garth Ennis, Nicola Scott, Jose Villarrubia, Colleen Doran, and Moore himself, revisiting the legendary strip "Little Nemo" in the new 1930s-set "Big Nemo."Free comicsTo get an idea of what digital comics are like, comic app Comixology -- recently bought by Amazon for an undisclosed sum -- is giving away 20 free digital comics on a daily basis. Comixology is also giving away a free funny book every day until 14 June.Comic reliefDC digital comics and ComiXology iPad appDC Comics New 52 for iPad reviewAmazon snaps up digital comics retailer Comixologyâ€&lsqauo;Comixology cuts Apple, Google out of digital-comics kickbackComiXology launches indie self-publishing platformCrave meets Watchmen creator Dave GibbonsComixology became the most popular app for downloading comics to your iPhone, iPad, or Android device by paying for them through iTunes or Google Play. That meant paying Apple and Google a cut for being the middleman between you and your comics. Comixology's new owner Amazon is having none of that: before you could say "Holy ruining things for readers, Batman!" Amazon yanked the in-app purchase option. Readers must now buy comics separately and sync them to devices from the cloud.The free comic giveaways are presumably designed to sweeten the pill of the extra faffing about required to read Comixology. Things started well, the first available title being part one of Batman tale "The Black Mirror" in "Detective Comics" issue 871. But -- of course there's a but -- you can only download the day's comic, so you have to go back every day or you've missed out.Today's title is "My Little Pony: Pony Tales Vol. 1", so it could be a good day to introduce the young'uns in your life to digital comics.Comixology also contains a number of free comics available every day, typically first issues and samples to give you a taste. The free comics feature characters from Superman and Captain America via Planetary and Scott Pilgrim to the Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
As Amazon gives away a free digital comic every day, legendary writer Alan Moore has flipped the switch on Electricomics, a new open source app for showcasing and creating new strips.The scribe behind "Watchmen" and "From Hell" has now thrown the might of his not-inconsiderable beard behind Electricomics, which will feature new work from established writers and artists and offer an open source toolkit for aspiring digital comic creators."With Electricomics," says Moore, "we are hoping to address the possibilities of comic strips in this exciting new medium, in a way that they have never been addressed before."A still from the movie-accompanying Watchmen comic.Warner Bros."Rather than simply transferring comic narrative from the page to the screen," Moore explains, "we intend to craft stories expressly devised to test the storytelling limits of this unprecedented technology. To this end we are assembling teams of the most cutting-edge creators in the industry and then allowing them input into the technical processes in order to create a new capacity for telling comic book stories."Built by developers Ocasta Studios and bankrolled by the Digital Research & Development fund for the Arts, Electricomics will feature new work by four-colour figureheads such as Garth Ennis, Nicola Scott, Jose Villarrubia, Colleen Doran, and Moore himself, revisiting the legendary strip "Little Nemo" in the new 1930s-set "Big Nemo."Free comicsTo get an idea of what digital comics are like, comic app Comixology -- recently bought by Amazon for an undisclosed sum -- is giving away 20 free digital comics on a daily basis. Comixology is also giving away a free funny book every day until 14 June.Comic reliefDC digital comics and ComiXology iPad appDC Comics New 52 for iPad reviewAmazon snaps up digital comics retailer Comixologyâ€&lsqauo;Comixology cuts Apple, Google out of digital-comics kickbackComiXology launches indie self-publishing platformCrave meets Watchmen creator Dave GibbonsComixology became the most popular app for downloading comics to your iPhone, iPad, or Android device by paying for them through iTunes or Google Play. That meant paying Apple and Google a cut for being the middleman between you and your comics. Comixology's new owner Amazon is having none of that: before you could say "Holy ruining things for readers, Batman!" Amazon yanked the in-app purchase option. Readers must now buy comics separately and sync them to devices from the cloud.The free comic giveaways are presumably designed to sweeten the pill of the extra faffing about required to read Comixology. Things started well, the first available title being part one of Batman tale "The Black Mirror" in "Detective Comics" issue 871. But -- of course there's a but -- you can only download the day's comic, so you have to go back every day or you've missed out.Today's title is "My Little Pony: Pony Tales Vol. 1", so it could be a good day to introduce the young'uns in your life to digital comics.Comixology also contains a number of free comics available every day, typically first issues and samples to give you a taste. The free comics feature characters from Superman and Captain America via Planetary and Scott Pilgrim to the Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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