Hasta La Gadget!

For the PC version of Call of Duty: Ghosts, it would appear that Infinity Ward has had enough of the hacking nonsense that’s been running rampant for weeks. To make … Continue reading

Even if you’re not an XKCD fan, I’m sure some of you have seen Randall Munroe’s irreverent Map of Online Communities. Martin Vargic – who makes maps in his pastime – was inspired by that webcomic strip and decided to make his own map of the Internet.

The Independent spoke with Martin and found out that the amateur cartographer drew the map in Photoshop by hand, aping the style of old National Geographic maps. Like Randall, Martin isn’t actually planning on mapping the entire Internet or even the entire World Wide Web, just the most popular sites as determined by website analytics company Alexa. Martin also told The Independent that he split the websites into the western Old World and the eastern New World.

Aside from the map itself, Martin also added related stats and other trivia on the edges of his illustration.

Travel to deviantART’s shores to see a high-resolution version of the map. Martin admits that it’s far from the final version and will be updated and polished. But if you want, you can order a print of the map from Zazzle; the price will vary depending on the size of the print.

[via The Independent]

The email systems at Yahoo have been hacked this week and Yahoo has issued a warning to the public on how to make due with the situation. Starting with a … Continue reading

A new online service called Greeting Games lets you attach a mini-game to a digital greeting card. The hilarious thing about the service? The recipient has to beat the game before he can read your message. Which means you can send Greeting Games to both loved ones and sworn enemies.

The mini-games involve the usual suspects, including match 3, Sudoku, word hunting, mahjong as well as Fruit Ninja clones, just given a different coating. The games are playable over any fairly modern device, including tablets and smartphones.

According to Polygon, aside from the prize message you’ll also be able to “add in-game messages as well as set the difficulty level, customize any attached messages within the card’s email and link their Facebook profile picture to the card.”

Greeting Games is free to use until the end of January. After that you’ll either have to pay an as yet undisclosed amount per card or sign up for a subscription to get discounts and other bonus features, such as “the option to send the same Greeting Game to several people.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a hit, but I think it would be much better if the games were intentionally silly, easy to beat and ripped off game titles and aesthetics for more laughs. Like, there could be a Card of Greeting: Birth Ops 2. As it is I’d rather send an actual game to my loved ones.

[via Polygon]

One of the things that cost online retailers the most money are returns. Sellers like Amazon and others need easy return policies to entice customers to shop online. The problem … Continue reading